The engineer busied herself with trying to figure out the exact point in their evening when things had started going wrong. Part of her thought that it was when she first received the letter from the princess. Another process considered the possibility that it was upon Ryu's arrival. Another possibility…
"I was just thinking, Momo…" Ryu's voice interrupted.
As always, Momo zeroed in on dialogue that involved any variation of the word 'thought'. She hustled slightly to catch up with him. "What?"
Ryu scratched the back of his neck, another habit he had picked up from Rei. "I'd have to talk to Nina to be sure, but I think that Wyndia is opening a new trade route."
"What makes you say that?" Momo asked, still amazed at how quickly he had recovered from the incident.
"Well, building an extra area for the outdoor café would cost money. So would putting a roof over the main restaurant. Millie would almost have to be certain that she'd get more business if she'd do something like that."
Momo nodded her head. "I see. She would likely hesitate before investing any sizable amount of resources without some guarantee of a profitable return."
"Yeah. What you said," Ryu gestured at her, barely restraining a smile.
She lowered her eyebrows at him as her ears twitched. "Are you going to start teasing me now?"
"No!" A look of dismay crossed Ryu's face. Then he lowered his eyes "Well, maybe I am teasing you a little. I'm sorry. I can't understand you when you talk like that. I don't mean to make fun of you, I just…I guess… it makes me kinda uncomfortable." He stopped and caught Momo's eyes when she did as well. "I wish I could understand…" he started, then changed tracks. "It must be tough being so smart when you have to explain everything to everyone around you." He blinked. "And now I think I understand why you and Rei don't get along."
Momo's eyes widened. She couldn't believe that someone actually understood her, even a little bit. She then experienced a rare sinking feeling. "Ryu, did… did anyone on the team think that I was looking down my proverbial nose at them?"
"Looking…down…?" His eyes narrowed…and then widened. "Oh! Well, I don't think so." He grinned sheepishly at her. "Not that I would have been able to tell at the time, anyway."
"I hope not," she said, her eyes downcast as she adjusted her spectacles, more out of habit than necessity. "I considered all of you my friends, even the man-c-" She quickly cut herself off. "Even Rei, I mean."
Ryu said nothing, but internally he released the breath that he had been holding for a very long time.
"Well, here we are," Ryu said, somewhat lamely, as they reached the door to Momo's workshop.
The awkwardness that followed may or may not have been on Nina's list, but it was present nonetheless.
"I had a good time, all things considered," Momo ears twitched slightly.
"You want to do this again tomorrow?" Ryu offered. "Hopefully without the drunks?"
The melody of Momo's rarely-heard laugh tickled Ryu's ears. "Sure. Without the drunks."
"Great. See you tomorrow." Ryu started to walk away, and then stopped abruptly. "Oh! I almost forgot!"
Momo stopped herself halfway through the doorway to turn toward him. "What is it?"
Ryu pulled a too-familiar piece of paper from his coat, an impish grin on his face. "This was too easy, so we're probably doing something wrong."
Momo instinctively began searching for possible outcomes to a date before realizing that she was out of her league. She smirked at the page. "Probably. What does Dame Nina say we should do to embarrass ourselves further?"
"Let's see…" Ryu scanned the page. "Here we go, the section titled 'At the Door'…"
Momo watched his expression as he read.
"Hey, we had an awkward moment without being told to!" Ryu shared a smile as he glanced at her over the page.
"Oooo! What's next?" Momo said, feigning excitement.
"According to this, we can do one or more of the following: Shake hands, hug or…" Ryu's eyes widened.
"Or what? Let me see that." She took the paper from him and found the section. "Shake hands, hug, or…KISS?!? She must be kidding!"
A quiet admission stunned her to silence. "Actually, I was hoping it would say that…"
"Huh?" Momo dropped the paper in surprise as she suddenly found herself in Ryu's arms, his eyes looking deeply into her widened ones. Fear mixed with anticipation tingled in her stomach. "Ryu, what are you doing?"
Ryu gently pushed her up against the wall so he could free a hand to brush a lock of hair from her face. "Something that I've wanted to do for a very long time." He leaned in closer, if that were possible, so that their lips nearly—
Momo bolted upright in her bed, eyes wide, hand over her racing heart, and breathing heavily. "That's not what happened!" she shouted at the wall across from her. "That didn't happen!!"
She slid out of bed onto unsteady legs and made her way over to the sink. She let the water warm, and then started rubbing it on her face, as though to wash the dream away. "Didn't happen like that…" she mumbled between rubs, starting to calm down.
When she finished, she dried her face and glared at herself in the mirror hung above the sink. "Okay, Momo, think. He did see you to the door. You did have an awkward moment." She thought for another moment. "Right. We did agree to a dinner tomorrow. He did consult the list. You did take the sheet from him. We did forget to listen to music. But he did not kiss you!" She stamped her foot with each word for added emphasis.
She sat down at her desk and opened the book she had been studying. "Did not…" She closed the book when she realized that she had turned several pages without actually reading. "Did not," she harrumphed before returning to bed, barely noticing an odd tingling in her stomach.
Top-top-top-top-top-top-top-
Rei couldn't take it anymore. His friend had been pacing in the other room for the last fifteen minutes, and it was starting to drive the Woren crazy.
Finally he gave up, sliding out of bed and into the main room. "What's eatin' you? I've never seen you like this before."
Ryu stopped pacing and faced his friend. "I don't know. One minute I'm ready to sleep, the next minute something's bugging me. It's like something at the back of my head."
"Mind," Rei corrected, crossing his arms. "Maybe it was the guy at the restaur-" Rei stopped himself to watch as Ryu's shoulders dropped slightly. "Everything better now?"
Ryu looked at the floor and sighed heavily. "Yeah. Weird. Like something was suddenly lifted off my shoulders."
Rei sniffed. "Well, now that that's done, can I go to sleep now?"
Ryu smiled as he shook his head. "Good night, Rei. Sorry to bother you."
"Mmmm-hmmm." Rei was already halfway back to his room.