It was only when they got to the entrance of the nearest station after an uneventful streetcar ride when Squall reciprocated the eye contact he'd long felt boring into the side of his skull.

"What…address did you give her?"

"Just the name of the bar I went to when I met up with my research friend for the first time. Potions & Brews, if you must know." Rinoa answered matter-of-factly, only letting her amusement show at the very last word. "Though the fact that curiosity actually got the better of you when it doesn't really matter is very telling."

"What's there to tell?"

"Well, if you're going to get that cake for that party and drop it off, caring where I told her shouldn't matter in theory. Or at least in the theory where I didn't get the chance to open the e-doc and assumed the party thing might have been a polite way to excuse yourself."

"It was more of a lie to spare you from the onslaught of a Selphie armed with the wrong idea." he clarified. "The display back there was only a fraction of her powers. Her asking me to accompany you might even be a trap to lull us into a false sense of security."

Rinoa raised a brow. "You make it seem like she's a fire-breathing dragon with a hoard of sweets but I don't think she's that bad. A little loud, yes, but not bad."

"You following through on your excuse says otherwise."

This earned him an eye roll and a poke square in the chest. And it actually hurt a little.

"Loud is the enemy of vaguely pretending to be productive. It does not mean bad, ok?"

"Ok." he conceded while opening the closest door.

Rinoa walked past him but only took a few steps down the stairs before stopping and looking up at him. When he followed suit, she resumed her descent. Once they reached the bottom of the stairwell and in the ticketing area for the trains, she stopped again and looked to her right where he was.

"You…didn't write nonsense in the doc, right?"

"I didn't."

"Did…you want to go to the place you wrote down then? Just so we don't risk having a third Chocobo Tire hanging around Potions & Brew?"

If it weren't for the far-too-familiar sight of the pristine, pink-tiled P7 subway ticketing area keeping him tethered to reality, this conversation would have felt foreign enough to push it into fever-dream territory. He shouldn't have been complaining since this was going exceedingly-well, especially given the Selphie-shaped wrench in his plans, but…it was still jarring to succeed this easily when even Quistis had made a joke at his expense regarding his lack of social graces. Mostly because it made him wonder how some of his co-workers might have taken advantage if even he of all people could curry favour with her.

"I wrote down two places because I didn't know what would be more convenient. One is closer to Potions & Brew and the other is around here so there probably isn't any benefit for evasion, unfortunately." he explained, breaking free from his internal monologue. "Since your writing time was cut short, would a laptop café work?"

"Laptop café?" she parroted, "You mean a cafe with wifi and outlets?"

"Wifi and outlets are usually standard everywhere - this is a bit more specialized." he began to elaborate. "Laptop cafés have charging surfaces built into their tables – some have designated quiet zones or soundproof booths if you want to get work done. Aside from a regular menu, most sell laptop and phone accessories."

"Sounds good but, not gonna lie, it's kinda bothering me that I didn't even know such a thing existed until now." Rinoa said, scratching the side of her head. "Are these usually hole-in-the-wall type places? I just find it really weird that I didn't even stumble across something like this before."

"You could have visited a few and not realized it." he said. "No laptop café calls themselves that – it's just an informal term for the cafes that attract a high concentration of laptop users."

"So it's basically kind of like how we call certain restaurants a hole-in-the-wall because of their qualities."

"More or less."

"Selphie wasn't kidding when she said you were straightforward as people – even your slang names are on the nose." she said, shaking her head a little. "I'd ask what kinds of nicknames and terms of endearment people use around here but something tells me that's not really a thing period."

"It's no different than Galbadia in that respect." he said, noticing a few people give them dirty looks in passing for being minor, easily-passable obstructions out of the corner of his eye. "Regardless, we shouldn't stand around like this. The café I had in mind is about three stops from here."

"-Oh, right." Rinoa concurred, opening up her bag and plunging a hand in it. "Just…give me a moment to fish out my pass again."

"…You know you don't need to do that, right?"

She stopped her rummaging to look up at him. "What do you mean?"

He pointed to her bag. "The internal readers built into the gate can read multi-day passes as you walk through even if they're in a bag - the green reader on the front of the gate is mostly for pay-per-use cards."

Rinoa took out her hand and quickly zipped the bag up, her expression stuck somewhere in between embarrassment and astonishment.

"The green reader can be used to check the expiry date on multi-day passes." he found himself pre-emptively explaining. "Truthfully speaking, people wouldn't be likely to notice your actions unless if you were blocking the gate. All the cards look the same at a glance anyway."

"Glad to know my secret was safe until you came along." she joshed, her expression taking on a more cheerful look.

While he wasn't surprised that he'd made a correct assumption regarding the root of her pained look, it did make him wonder when and where she was using the subway not to notice people walk through without tapping their cards on the reader — pay-per-use cards were more common with those who didn't use the subway enough to breakeven and the poor who couldn't afford the upfront cost.

But considering she turned around and started walking towards the gates, he figured it was best to chip away at this minor mystery later lest he wanted to earn more scorn from the passersby.

The walk down to the platform was short but from the moment they sat on one of the platform's benches, a chill in the air set into Squall's bones without the rush of incoming train to explain it away. Ever so discreetly, he scanned the area. Nothing. Just a handful of people minding their business with either their earphones in and/or their face perusing the contents of a screen. Looking up at the nearby monitor hanging from the ceiling told him the next train was due in 2 minutes, free from any delays. Good. He was just imagining things.

Now he just needed to imagine conversation topics because remaining silent with a quasi-stranger on what she probably construed as a date was probably not a good idea unless he was an in-character mime and she accepted that he wouldn't be speaking.

…It was probably a good thing the lab hadn't invented a way to read employees' thoughts. That he was aware of yet, anyway. Nevertheless, it was probably an even better thing that she couldn't read his thoughts either.

"So…what's the name of this place we're going to?"

He turned his head before answering. "Oracle's Oasis."

Rinoa let out a small snicker. "And here I thought you guys were totally unimaginative with your names here." she ribbed.

"As much as I want to say otherwise, I can't argue. Not when the café's original name was 'Café Painted in Black and Green' and many people didn't realize it was a satirical name. Or because the name change was the result of a cease and desist order from a different café with the same name."

"Ha, ha, very funny."

"I wasn't joking."

After a hard blink, she shot him a skeptical look.

"You're pulling my leg."

"I'm completely serious." he responded. "I can pull it up on my phone when we resurface and I get reception again."

Rinoa shook her head. "I'll only be convinced that this isn't some kind of long con if you take me there in person." When the faint rumblings of the oncoming train approaching incited Squall to get up, she followed suit and waltzed directly in front of him. Now standing on her tip toes, she lightheartedly taunted, "…Ready to admit that you're fibbing?"

He shook his head. "I'm not lying. But it's not far from Potions & Brew and possible interloper territory. And the only decent thing about it is the name."

"Excuses, excuses. I'm sure there won't be 'interlopers.' Plus I never said we had to stay there, just that I wanted to see it."

He shrugged. "Fair enough. Feel free to change your mind if you decide to believe me before P4 station."

"Don't worry, I won't."

The cacophony of metal screeching interrupted the mock-standoff and Squall was more than willing to leave it at that, if only to lend a little mystery to the imagination as he began his approach towards the train.

-—-

While the first two westbound stops en route to their destination were technically spent in silence, Rinoa kept on shooting him various looks that spoke volumes – mostly ones that could be charitably-described as attempts to channel a hardboiled cop who's trying to intimidate a tight-lipped criminal in custody. A handful of seconds before their former destination's stop, he cast her a knowing look back at her. She shook her head.

"Nope. I'm determined to see this through." she told him, gripping her laptop bag tighter against her body for good measure.

"Just making sure."

As the train slowed and the speaker announced the stop, Squall looked through the window opposite of them, towards the white-and-pink checkerboard tiles of this station platform. Normally, he would have been irritated at the unnecessary detour but the extra time afforded by this was more than welcome right now.

It would be around fifteen minutes before they'd reach the end of the subway line where they'd be getting off, ten minutes tops for the before they'd inevitably circle back to P1 station, another fifteen getting back to P4 and about five minutes before they'd end up at Oracle's Oasis, assuming no delays. Even if some of it was used up actively not trying to come across like a mute, a fraction of forty-five minutes to devise a plan in the loosest sense of the word was nothing to scoff at.

When the train started moving, Squall's gaze drifted from the window opposite them to glance at the current crop of posters lining the subway car's walls. Most of them were for nothing special – mostly ads for real estate agents, dating websites and computer repair shops — but he couldn't help but stare at an ad featuring a middle-aged woman with short dark brown hair wearing a light pink blazer and black skirt. He hadn't even bothered to even read the text; it was noteworthy solely because the woman's forced smile and blank-eyed stare screamed 'I eat children for breakfast' and left him oddly transfixed much in the way watching a slow motion car crash would.

"I find it very hard to believe that not even Esthar is not immune to the cult of Suzie McClure."

He heard Rinoa's remark and yet he still could not peel his eyes away. Squall was still unconvinced that no children would be eaten if he so much as blinked.

"For what reason?"

"Well… pretty much everything you've said in your mom's coffee shop is a reason." she prefaced, waving a hand in front of him to break the spell and his concentration. He reluctantly abandoned his post to look at Rinoa. "Let's just say that the overall bare bones info on that ad has nothing to do with the poster's size. She's a self-help maven from Deling City proper who goes on about, 'living your authentic, true-you self' and about a bajillion other mumbo-jumbo buzzwords. I only know this because her syndicated radio station program airs all the time on every station at home so the jargon and jingles are seared into my brain for life. It makes me wish that selective brain bleach was a thing. By the way, do they have that here?"

"No…?"

Squall hadn't meant for the confidence of his simple no to dilute into a last-second question but a familiar glint of ruby-red circular glasses demanded his attention as a girl otherwise dressed in black between her choker, oversized hoodie and nearly-obscured mini skirt sat herself down in one of the seats opposite them and right underneath the ad. While her hood was drawn down enough to make it harder to determine her hair colour, Squall found himself internally groaning. Rinoa either hadn't noticed the weird inflection or was kind enough to overlook it as she replied.

"Weird. You'd think they would with all the technology, labs and absence of Galbadian politics around here."

"They're the reason they don't." he countered in a matter-of-fact-like tone to sell the nonsense. As he turned to face Rinoa, their bespectacled bystander's gaze followed from what he could see out of the corner of his eye surely enough. Then an idea struck him. "Bleach is too much of a rose-coloured glasses approach."

Rinoa furrowed her brows. "I'm…not quite following. What's so rose-coloured glasses-ish about brain bleach?"

Squall counted to three as he looked away to feign contemplation before answering the question. "I suppose…that beat around the bush a little too much. The point is, what I meant was that there's a Grendel in Mesmerize's clothing a stone's throw away."

While she was looking at him, she was also not looking at him for the better part of a minute. Unlike him, wheels were actually turning in her head to consider his words.

"I think...I get what you're saying now." she said, the slow cadence of the words and cogs gradually picking up speed. "…So it's like you'd need to immediately jump ship for it to go off without a hitch?"

"More or less."

"Roger."

"…I don't know who Roger is." he deadpanned.

"Oh whoops. When I said Roger, I didn't mean a person. It's just a short saying that means 'I understand what you're saying.'"

Squall decided to not comment on how his joke flew over her head, figuring it was better for appearances this way. They needed to be focused in a few minutes' time and the last thing he needed was to stockpile the ammunition that was inevitably going to be used against himself later or to lose track of time with more back-and-forth bantering.

And so the exchange concluded with her words right then and there, only picking up when Rinoa used the automated announcement for the next stop as a cue to confusingly-inform Squall via a soft whisper that 'IFORGOTABOUTTHECAKE' — all in one word and one breath. This was then followed with her unceremoniously and clumsily dragging him out of the subway car, leaving a split second to spare before the throngs of people started filtering their way into the train and made further attempts to exit the train severely delayed if not impossible.

Not wanting to make any assumptions about that statement, Squall held out a hand for her to take as he walked in the direction of the subway exit. Once she took it with her free hand, he upped the pace to a brisk speed walk.

"Was the rose-coloured code words related to our interloper?" she asked as they made their way to a nearby escalator and started walking up the side of it.

"Yeah."

"Weird. I didn't see her."

"You wouldn't have." he began to explain. "Stone's throw was the only distance-related idiom I could think of off the top of my head."

Squall left it at that. It was probably for the better that she didn't know Selphie was the one dressed up in that over the top outfit across from them if she didn't notice already - that outfit already invited far too many questions in and of itself, never mind in a situation like this. Even he was still baffled to this day why she used it so frequently to disguise herself with it when all it did was make her stand out even more.

"I figured. Still find it weird she didn't go and order that sandwich like she said she would. Is she's really that nosy?"

"Sometimes. Her being on the train might be a coincidence though. The reason why she came to the café in the first place was to avoid someone else."

"Awkward situation type deal or something serious?"

"Awkward situation."

"You know, there is something terribly ironic about all of us avoiding awkward situations is begetting more avoiding of awkward situations. It's like a nesting doll of awkward."

As he reached the end of the escalator, Squall stepped off of it and walked to the side of the landing and out of the way so those travelling upward wouldn't be blocked. When Rinoa did the same, he scanned the people still on the escalator below them for the glean of ruby red glasses anywhere. Once he was confident that they were in the clear, he pulled out his phone.

"I have an idea to end the cycle." he told her, swiping his phone a few times to bring up the map function. Silently, he verified the hours of operation of the place he had in mind.

"Oh? Are we going to a quiet zone?" she asked, Squall feeling a hand touch his shoulder as Rinoa peered over his shoulder.

"No but this is probably the next best thing. What I was thinking was the kind of establishment that only takes a few customers at any given period of time."

"That wasn't vague at all." she wryly responded. "Just like the name of this place you're looking up. Cold Rain sounds like a wet t-shirt contest waiting to happen. Come to think of it, does Esthar even get rain? There hasn't been a single rainy day since I got here, now that I think of it."

Times like these, he was glad that Oracle's Oasis was not the only place in the heart of the city with an odd, esoteric name that didn't hint at what type of store or business it was.

"I'm going to continue to be vague and say that any explanation I could give won't do it justice." he told her. "What I propose is that we go to this place, which is a five minute walk to the station. The signs on the window will explain what this store is. If you're interested, we can go in. If not, it's probably a fifteen minute walk from Oracle's Oasis."

"I'm intrigued enough so I'll play. Also, since you were unfortunately right about the interloping, can you indulge me and pull up that other café on your phone?"

"I can but I'd advise you not to look at the images of it."

He tapped his phone a few times and raised it to where he presumed was right in front of her. The hand that was on his shoulder moved away to disobey what he'd just said to poke the browser button to see the images. She then withdrew it in order to bury her head into his skin.

"Told you not to do it."

He could feel the rumble of her groan heat up his shoulder blade with the resulting hot air.

"…I'm glad for Selphie's meddling. SO GLAD. Never mind Suzie McClure's jingles, that store front mural is now seared into my brain forever and ever. Is it seriously decorated with neon green…man parts?"

"Yes."

"Is this place we're going to the opposite of that?"

"Yes."

"Thank Carbuncle."