"It's kickin' in yeah
It's kickin' in yeah
It's kickin' in yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"
—"It's Kickin' In" from The Spine by They Might Be Giants
For the first time in his life as a pokémon, Max felt under-dressed. He very often found himself the only one in a room wearing anything, so it was strange to find himself in a restaurant, surrounded by pokémon in tuxedo tops. The place didn't have a dress-code, in fact most of the scant few patrons had less than he did, but he still felt out of place while waiting for Eleos.
They'd decided to have a date. Max had decided when, so Eleos got to decide where. It must've thought picking a human themed restaurant would make Max feel more at home. Instead, it felt slightly off enough to leave him on edge with an eerie feeling in the back of his neck.
Despite it all, Max was excited, which made him extremely anxious while he waited in the restaurant's vestibule. He'd taken off his scarf to refold and crease it three times already, and he was about to go for his fourth when he saw a flash of orange through a window out of the corner of his eye. Eleos was about thirty seconds late, if the clock on the wall was right, but Max didn't even notice.
This was his problem free day. No catastrophes. Just fun. Whatever happened, this day was going to go smoothly.
A bell above the door sang, and in came Eleos. It wore a bowtie on its naked neck, and that had to be the cutest thing Max had ever seen. When its eyes met his, it walked over to kneel in front of him and grabbed his right paw to kiss it. "Love, forgive my delay," it said while sparks danced down Max's cheeks. "I did not anticipate you to be so punctual, and so I thought it best to arrive at the speed of time to take the pressure off you."
"Eleos, please stand up," Max whispered. When it did, he went on. "It's all right. That clock's fast, anyway." Before Eleos could challenge that claim, Max turned to the second set of doors and tugged Eleos through. The hawlucha standing behind the host stand had a very professional smile that told Max she'd seen everything.
"Good morning," she said with a light bow. Max crushed Eleos's paw before it tried to one-up the bow and slightly bowed his head as an example. It got the message, but still bowed its head noticeably deeper than Max. Hawlucha peered down at her notebook for a moment, then looked back up at them. "You must be Eleos and Max, yes?" she asked.
Max perked up a bit at that; he hadn't expected Eleos to call ahead. The place wasn't even full, so did they really need a reservation? "Yes, I'm Max," he said.
"Wonderful," Hawlucha said. She hopped out from behind the podium with two menus in her wing and flaunted a spin before waving them on to follow. "I'll lead you two to your table, then. Please, follow me." She walked forward with a showy perk in her step that made Max smile. It was like she couldn't help herself, even with the tux-top covering up her plumage.
She led them over to a set of two beautifully crafted stools and one of the shorter tables in the restaurant. Even despite that, Max had to hop to get up on the stool, which felt kind of ridiculous. Sure, pikachu were small, but there were shorter pokémon, right?
Eleos suddenly shoved Max's stool closer to the table and made the vertically challenged mouse yelp, "Pi!"
In an unprecedented show of professionalism, Hawlucha perfectly stifled a chuckle and didn't even give Max a glance as she placed a menu on each side of the table. "Your server will be with you shortly," she said.
"Thanks," Max squeaked, several embarrassed sparks spewing from her cheeks to give their thanks as well. He focused a moment to stop them while Eleos made its way over to its stool. Now that the moment had passed, he wanted to laugh at it. It was a bit funny, and Eleos was just trying to do the right thing, but he still had too much residual embarrassment holding him back.
"Perhaps I could have done that with a gentler touch," Eleos said. "Sorry for that."
"It's fine," Max said with a genuine smile. "I just didn't expect you to do that, but yeah, gentler." To his surprise, he actually did manage to chuckle. Flubs weren't the end of the world, and they wouldn't be the end of a good date, either.
The same hawlucha from moments ago apparated next to them and said, "Hello, I'm Hana." Max barely avoided slamming his knees into the table from surprise. "I'll be your server. Would you like anything to drink?"
"Oh—hi! Um, sure, just," Max stammered out. At least he managed to keep his cheeks from sparking. "One moment." He ran his eyes through the menu to find whatever drink jumped out at him. Luckily, it only had a front and back, and he already found the drinks on the bottom. "The honeycrisp crush sounds good." It was also the first drink on the menu named after an apple.
Hana nodded and raised her wing to catch a notebook that flew from thin air. "A bit earlier than I'd order that, but all right. That bottle should be fresh, too, I believe," she said. She looked over to Eleos while writing that order down. "And you?"
"Cranberry juice, please," Eleos answered.
Max wanted to ask her what she meant about the fresh bottle, but Hana had already put the notebook back into the ether she'd pulled it out from—was this a magic act? "I'll have those out for you, soon," she said. "Let me know if you need anything. You may not see me, but I'm never far."
Before Max could thank her, she was gone. They hadn't even gotten their drinks yet, and it was already the most baffling restaurant visit he could possibly imagine. He couldn't remember a more baffling one, either, though it only had Thro-Yo to contend with. He chuckled with a shake of his head. It might be the strangest restaurant he'd been to in either life so far, but hell if it wasn't fun.
Date, this was a date. He dragged himself out of his thoughts and looked over at Eleos. It was sitting eerily still, and that little bow tie had somehow stayed perfectly straight. "Where did you even get that?" he asked.
Eleos suddenly stirred as if he'd just woken it up. "The tie?" it asked; Max nodded. "I merely looked at what those running this establishment wore." Even with its blank expression, Max could see the flicker of pride in its expression. "Do you like it?"
"It's cute," Max said with a smile. That only answered how it found out about bow ties, but it was just small talk, after all. Max took a moment to really look around the restaurant. Every table had intricate designs of swirling flowers and vines wrapped around them with the seats they paired with matching as best they could. The smaller tables like theirs had stools, but those any bigger had proper chairs.
This wasn't a kid's table, was it?
"This place is beautiful, Eleos," Max said. One of the other humans that crash landed on this world must've shared the culture. That was his best guess, at least, and he still wasn't going to think about the archaeology side of things. "In a restaurant with so much class," he hummed. "If we'd stop laughing we could almost pass."
"I'm overjoyed that you like the venue, darling," Eleos said. It had a pretty decent soft smile, much more subtle than its usual expressions. Practice, maybe?
Max reached across the table to offer his paw, and Eleos hastily reciprocated. "You did wonderful, lucky charm," he said. Its paw writhed unnaturally in Max's paw for a moment, and Max made a mental note of that. Another one he could add to the list of nicknames that drove it crazy. It was the least he could do since it hadn't once referred to his weight in a pet name since yesterday.
"Here you go," Hana said. Again, she caught Max completely off guard, but at least he didn't nearly jump out of his own fur this time. She placed a tall cup of cranberry juice on Eleos's side, then reached into her jacket to pull out Max's monstrous cup.
It twisted and swirled in and around itself with what looked like branches and vines matching the tables and chairs. One particular vine that doubled as a straw snaked out of the top, then swirled all the way to the bottom. The top curved out wider than a wine glass, and it took Max a moment to realize it was supposed to be the tree of life. Did she carry that in her jacket?! How?!
"Have you two decided on what to order yet?" Hana asked.
Max was too infatuated with this abomination of a glass to answer, so Eleos said, "We would like a bit more time, thank you."
"Not a problem," Hana said. Some flourishes in her exit flashed in Max's periphery, but he couldn't make them out.
It almost had to be fake, an illusion, and yet, Max could feel it when he grabbed it. He looked over to Eleos's drink. It was a normal cup. A normal, clear cup of cranberry juice. He must have ordered some special kind of drink without noticing.
Eleos squeezed his paw to dispel the trance. "Artistry of the glass aside, how does it taste?" it asked, not bothering to hide the hints of a chuckle. "And don't neglect the menu for much longer, either."
"Right, right," Max mumbled, shaking himself the rest of the way out of his confusion. With the magic tricks, the outfits, the incredible designs on every piece of furniture, he started to wonder if this was a lot more than a restaurant. Were they all like this, or was this just what they thought a human restaurant was like? He needed to check the prices on the menu.
The items, as well, needed his attention, which he just remembered. He reluctantly released Eleos's paw to hold the menu and sip from his drink at the same time. That turned into little more than a symbolic gesture, though, since he couldn't pay attention to anything but the drink once he'd had a taste.
After some concerted effort sucking it up the intricate straw, the wonderful sweetness he'd expect from a honeycrisp blessed his mouth and washed over his tongue in a divine wave. It almost tasted like simple apple juice at first, but the first swallow left behind the delightful crispness of a freshly picked apple. It left his mouth simultaneously juiced and dry, and both worked together to demand an immediate other sip.
This time, since he was prepared for the flood of sweetness, he could better taste the underlying notes of tang that truly made an apple shine. It was almost sour, but no, that wasn't quite right, either. He thought he recognized the flavor—it was incredibly familiar, in fact—but he couldn't place it beyond its undeniable apple origins. The swirl of flavors was so intense he could swear it stung going down.
Max's ears and tail shot up as if lightning had struck, and he squeaked out a very pleased, "Chhaaaaaaa!" That managed to snap him out of it, though the slip bothered him a lot less than he expected. Not that he had the time to consider that, though, since he had a menu to peruse.
He scanned it over on autopilot and saw mostly what he'd expect from a menu. Intricate berry arrangements, salads, various styles of sauced noodles, a beef section, a chicken section, fish, and of course a dessert menu on the back.
Max stopped for a second. This restaurant had another surprise, then, and it made his stomach turn. Where the hell were they getting those meats from? He knew he'd never seen a single normal animal since he got to this place. Despite that, this restaurant had some way of sourcing meat from animals that he was pretty sure didn't exist anymore. Prime cuts, too!
"Max?" Eleos whispered. It gently reached over to tap Max's paw. "What do you fear?"
"Scared?" Max chuckled. "Me? No, I just—" He slammed his mouth shut so fast he nearly bit his tongue. This was his good day. It was fine. He wasn't worried, just a little queasy.
Eleos kept a sharp gaze on him. Deception wasn't really an option since it was eating his emotions, literally tasting his fear. It knew better, and Max knew that. He'd just hoped that it would play along and let him move on. Its unchanged gaze made him certain it wouldn't.
So, after steadying his breath, he whispered, "Okay, fine." He looked down at the menu again. T-Bone, sausages, ribs, chicken fried. They even knew how humans prepared the stuff. "M-meat. Why is meat on the menu?" He looked it over more to make sure that his eyes hadn't deceived him (as well as one other pressing concern). "Where did they get it? A-am I—do they… pikachu?" At least that one was the same in pika-speak.
"The meat, dear?" Eleos asked. It toned down its confusion for his sake, but it clearly didn't understand the question. "Its source is the same as any other dish they offer." Max's head fell to the side in confusion, and Eleos responded with a lighthearted chuckle. "Surely you don't need me to explain agriculture, do you?"
"This isn't funny!" Max hissed. There was no way to avoid slipping at this point. The best he could do was whisper. "I haven't seen a single goddamn chicken since I've gotten here. What is this, torchic meat? Tauros?"
Eleos sat perfectly still. Max knew it wasn't a real charmander, but it was still unsettling to see how completely motionless it could be. Most living creatures breathe, sway, something, but it could turn into a complete statue on a dime. Max just hoped it would finish thinking soon.
"You are asking me where the meat comes from?" Eleos finally asked. Max nodded. It slightly bowed its head. "Forgive me. It escaped me that humans harvested such sustenance from living creatures." Max blinked. "Their genetics were derived from fossilized remains of creatures that used to walk the Earth. By synthesizing that with existing plants and plant-based pokémon, they created crops that could grow the parts good for food."
Max stared at it in abject confusion and awe. Not only had fossils come up again despite his best attempts to avoid them, but that had to be the most insane technology he'd heard of existing in this world. What other kinds of scientific advancements were there?
"Your species is omnivorous," Eleos went on. "If you wished, you could have a taste of what once was familiar."
This was dangerously close to too much for him to handle already. Max grabbed his drink and took a big gulp right from the top, then wiped the residue off his lips with his arm. "Maybe some other time," he squeaked. It was too much for him to believe they were really made from plants yet. The thought of eating what used to be someone turned his stomach too much for now.
He tried to look back into the menu, but his eyes rolled off the page. That was all so much. Eleos didn't know fat was an insult, but it gave him a scientific paper on command? "How do you know all that?" he asked.
Eleos' smile flared a hair wider. "Well, in my infancy, I drew from the energies of collegiate pokémon," it explained with a note of pride. "There are few locations with such concentrations of misery as those of learning." The way it recounted the time, Max could almost believe it had attended those places itself.
"That sounds familiar," Max chuckled. If he could remember anything about being a human, he had a feeling the two worlds would be a lot more similar than he expected.
"Yes, what wonderful places they were," Eleos reminisced. Its blank eyes almost looked nostalgic.
The sight made Max smile as he pulled his drink closer once again to look over the menu. The sight of the 'meat' section still made his fur stand on end, so he flipped over to the other side. Out of sight, out of mind. Luckily, the place had a wide selection to choose from, so he wasn't stuck eating a potential nightmare. A few items caught his eye, but his drink ran out before he could decide.
He held it up and stared at the empty monster of a glass. It had to be half the size of his head. Now, it was gone.
"Okay, calm down. If you keep drinking like that, I'm going to have to cut you off," Hana said. She'd teleported next to the table once again and was now staring worriedly at Max. The sudden appearance didn't even make Max flinch this time, so he must've been getting used to it.
"Cut me off?" Max asked with one ear raised. "What, like in traffic?" Sure, he'd had probably more than he really intended, but did they really limit how much you could drink? And why did it matter how fast he drank it? It was a good drink! He didn't do anything wrong by enjoying it, so why—
"Look, tipsy is fine, but this is a restaurant, not a bar," Hana said.
Max's furrowed brow went lax. His eyes popped open in realization. "That was alcohol?" he asked.
Hana suddenly looked as surprised as him. "You couldn't taste it?" she balked. "That's a pretty strong cocktail."
Max stared at the table with vacant eyes as he thought back to the flavor. It explained the burn, at least, though he was a bit mortified he barely noticed it. When had he desensitized himself to that? "I'd like to switch to coffee, if that's all right," he said with sparks of embarrassment bouncing down his cheeks. That explained why Hana hadn't scared him this time. He didn't like the pit forming in his stomach at the thought he'd gotten even a little drunk. It felt like an old, forgotten terror.
"That's no issue at all," Hana said with a bit of concern. Max forced a weak smile that he knew she didn't buy, but she at least respected his wishes enough to pull her notebook out of thin air and move on. She made a note (the coffee, Max assumed), then looked back up at the two of them. "Is everyone ready to order?"
Max looked over at Eleos to check as it did the same. They both nodded in unison, then Eleos turned to order first. "Yes, I would like the 'fish sticks,' please," it said.
Hana glanced up with a quirked brow to ask, "Off the kid's menu?" It nodded, so she silently wrote it down, then turned to Max.
"I'd like the pistachio and acorn squash with fries," he said. Luckily the entrees all came with sides, though the items weren't priced so high that he couldn't have ordered the side anyway if he wanted. It was a lot cheaper than he'd expect, actually.
"Is that all?" Hana asked.
Eleos hummed in thought. "Ah, what appetizer on offer would you say is the most elegant?" it asked.
Hana shared a glance with Max to ask for help, but he was about as confused as she was. "I like the mozzarella sticks, does that sound good?" she asked.
"Wonderful," Eleos said.
Hana nodded with near perfectly hidden relief. Max doubted he could've noticed without his awareness. She had a truly impressive amount of professionalism on offer. "Well, I'll put those orders in for you two right away," she said.
"Thank you so much," Max said, holding up his menu for her. When she grabbed it, he gave her an apologetic smile that she chuckled away.
"Of course," Hana said. She grabbed both menus one moment, then vanished the next.
Max let out a breath of relief now that she'd left, but he didn't let himself linger on all his concerns. They were only little hiccups in an otherwise wonderful date. He really was having a good time, too, and he found it easier and easier to let go of his concerns. It didn't take him long to figure out why, though he felt a lot more sober than he'd expect.
Which was concerning.
"My precious darling," Eleos said.
Max shook his head and looked over to it. "'Sup?" he asked. Eleos looked back at him and waited. "'Sup, babe?"
Eleos nodded with a smile, making Max chuckle. "Forgive me for not disclosing this earlier, but I wished to surprise you," it said, smile growing wider as it reached behind its back. "Fret not about reciprocation for now. I merely wanted to get you a special gift."
Max's paws went to his heart on their own as it pulled a tiny box out and placed it on the table. "Aww, Eleos," he cooed. "You shouldn't have." He felt a smile stretching his lips to their limits. Once Eleos set it down, Max almost lunged for the gift. Luckily, he had just enough restraint to stay grounded. Mostly. The small, red, felt box didn't have much weight to it. Based on the hinge on the back, though, Max thought he knew what it was.
He poked a claw between the lid and the base to pop it open. Inside rested a gleaming purple ring held by a slit in the pillow within. "It's beautiful," Max whispered. He felt his heart swelling in his chest the longer he looked at it. All his excitement started pumping through his veins to the point that his paws started to shake. He used all his focus to be gentle as he plucked it out of the pillow to try it on.
The ring didn't fit on any of his 'fingers'. It was far too large. He had no idea how he hadn't noticed while it was in the box, though the excitement probably had a lot to do with that. Eleos had to have thought of that when getting it, though, right?
"Ah, it's not that kind of ring," Eleos chuckled. It pushed away from the table and walked over to Max's side. Max dropped the ring in its outstretched paw. "Allow me."
Excitement overcame Max's better sense. He eagerly watched it hold the ring between two claws and twist, one section of the ring drawing in on itself. "Hold still," Eleos said, grabbing his left ear. Before he could ask why, it stabbed a needle through the end of it. His eyes shot open in horror and pain. All he could do was clench his jaw shut to keep from screaming.
A bit of blood started trickling down his ear. "D-do you need a napkin?" he whispered.
Eleos paused a moment, but then shook its head. "I've a better solution," it said. Placing the earring on the table, it dragged the needle through the new hole in his ear and pinched it. White flames engulfed the left of Max's vision, and the horrible, stabbing pain in his ear got substantially worse. Pure white subsumed the other half of his vision. It was on fire.
The combination of shock and agony knocked him out almost instantly. If he wanted to do anything to save his ear, he couldn't. Its lingering inferno of pain hummed in the background of his unconscious, but it couldn't wake him up. Then, water splashed over his face.
Max shot up with a paw to his throat and his fur completely soaked. Water dripped off his sopping wet form as he heaved out lungfuls of air. None of it had gone down his throat, but the instinct ran on its own. The need to cough up nonexistent water drowning him faded just in time for his nose to pick up the noxious stench of burnt flesh and fur. He threw his paw over his nose and winced.
"Max—it's Max, right?" someone asked. Even while she shook him by the shoulders with her face right in front of him, it took him a moment to realize it was Hana. "Come on, stay with us. Are you all right?"
A fog of delirium still hung over Max's mind. He tried to process what she was saying, but that horrible odor was too much. "I think…," he mumbled, barely thinking at all. "My food—something smells burnt. Can I get another one?" Based on Hana's wide-eyed bewilderment, that wasn't an answer she wanted. In return, he got an answer he didn't want once the burning at the end of his left ear registered again.
Max nodded with some concerted effort. "Ah," he said. The last minute groggily returned to him. "So I'm what's burned." If the end of his ear hurt, at least, that meant he still had most of it, right?
"What happened? Hey, look at me, look at me, okay?" Hana sputtered out. She filled basically the entirety of his vision, so it's not like he really had a choice. "Here, someone else will go get a doctor, but we're right here. You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay. Do you remember what happened?"
Max took a deep breath in. More of the stench flooded his nostrils, but it was already fading away. Steeling himself, he said, "No need, that's fine." With another breath, he sat perfectly upright and forced a smile. "Just a slightly botched piercing, but I'm okay." Hana stared at him with wide open eyes. He started to roll forward and stand up, his soaked scarf plopping against his chest. She offered a bit of resistance but stopped before he fell back down.
His soaked hindpaws squished against the floor as more water dripped down to them. He hobbled his way up and onto the stool by using the table to pull himself up. Hopefully the water wouldn't ruin the varnish. He scanned the table. First, he saw the coffee Hana must've just brought over, and then, he saw the earring.
Well, no sense in all of that effort going to waste. He plucked it off the table and stuck the exposed needle through the new hole in his ear, then screwed the recessed part back out. It looked like a perfect circle, he imagined. A few flakes of char sprinkled off when he let go.
This was his good day. Nothing was going to go wrong. Problem free. No catastrophes. Whatever happened, this was going to go smoothly.
Max turned back to Hana with an apologetic smile. "Sorry for the scare," he said. "Thank you so much for the help, but really, I'm fine." He kept his smile going strong even when she glanced up at the sopping wet mouse's ear. This date was going great. Date, right. He started looking around for Eleos. "Hey, have you seen my date?"
Eleos suddenly rose from the floor and into a sitting position. Its arms and legs remained completely still in the motion, making it look like more of an animatronic than a living creature. The blast must have taken out all of its energy again. Hana did a lot more to help than she even knew, though Max felt bad that she must've been so terrified. He hoped Eleos was making it easier on her, at the very least. She deserved a good tip.
Assuming they tipped in that world. If not, Max figured she could get one anyway.
Luckily, it seemed Eleos's 'snack' was having just the effect Max hoped for. Hana definitely looked shocked, but she seemed more confused than scared as she watched Eleos stiffly amble over to its stool and take a seat. She turned between it and Max a few times, then shook her head.
"If you're sure," she said. She picked up the bucket she must've used to douse Max. "Let us know if you need anything." Despite it all, she still managed to vanish without a trace.
Max nodded at the air she left behind then turned to face Eleos with a wide smile stitched on his mouth. Even though its expression remained entirely blank, Max felt its emotions in how intently it watched him. A bit of worry managed to worm its way into his eyes, but he kept his smile on.
"Well?" he asked. "How does it look on me?"
Eleos kept its eyes on him. It stared for an agonizing amount of time. It glanced up at the ear a few times, but very clearly didn't want to look at it. Guilt, probably, since it didn't seem to mind the disgusting if ripping its own heart out of its chest was any indication. The gears of thought turned behind its eyes until they finally fell, and it shrunk in on itself. "I am insufficiently capable of a relationship, aren't I?" it admitted.
His facade shattered all at once; Max slapped his sodden arms onto the table and let his forehead drop onto them. "You're trying," he muffled. Water dripped off his muzzle into a puddle beneath his nose. It felt like he'd just hopped out of the spring after a particularly strenuous swimming lesson with Cori. A chill started surrounding him.
Eleos reached a paw over to poke a claw into his arm. "Perhaps I am not the best match for you," it said.
Max dragged his head out of his arms and grabbed its paw in both of his own. "Eleos, no," he said, shaking his head. "I'm having a good time, I mean it!" He smiled, pleading while squeezing its paw. "The gift was sweet, okay?"
Eleos stared at him; his ear still felt like it was on fire.
Max's resolve didn't falter for a moment. "Yeah, okay, that hurt," he admitted, wincing at an involuntary twitch in his ear. "Hurts." Eleos kept staring at him. "But it was still a really sweet gift." He held its paw tighter. "This place is beautiful, you look adorable, the staff is fun, and the gift was wonderful." His eyes were already wet, hiding the budding tears well.
"It doesn't have to be a perfect romance to be worth it, all right?" Max begged, voice cracking at every turn. Despite the tears, though, his smile was pure, genuine and full.
Eleos's lack of any expression remained, though. Its only motions were minor, barely noticeable quakes in its paw. "You have yet to see what I've done," it said. A pit in his stomach Max had wanted to ignore made itself undeniably known. "All that you've said moves me deeply, but I fear you are only able to say it all by ignoring these consequences."
Max deflated. He let his paws drop to the table, but he held tight to Eleos. The dread he didn't want to face finally caught up to him. Still, he refused to let go just yet. "Is it bad?" he mumbled. "How noticeable is it?"
Eleos looked up at it with the same intense gaze, and its paw writhed a little in Max's hold. "It is not missing much of its length. The black fur helps to hide the true extent of the burns," it said. "The tip no longer comes to a point, however, and instead comes to two sharp points followed by a few more below. Perhaps no one would notice it at a glance, though the earring does serve to draw attention to it."
Max kept careful control over his breath during the entire description, whimpering slightly now that he knew it was more than some charred fur. At least he had some portion of the black at the end of his ear remaining. Based on the inferno that flashed, he'd almost expected to lose it entirely.
The description was morbid, but it really didn't compare to the worst he'd imagined. No matter how bad it was, it couldn't be worse than his imagination. His mind knew exactly how to scare him, and it did the job as spectacularly well as it took to it. Some of this wasn't going to heal—he knew that now for sure. Both for Eleos' sake and his own, he needed to bite the bullet and face the music.
He pulled one Paw away from Eleos' to gently tug his ear forward; the grizzly images in his mind all faded at the sight (though the few flakes that crumbled off tied his stomach into knots). Eleos had done a good job preparing him.
Max collapsed to the table again and sighed, "Oh thank God." Most of it was still there. Noticeable if someone looked, definitely, but it was still mostly the correct shape. It was a morbid comfort to have most of an ear, but he still felt a wash of relief. "I thought I was just feeling phantom pain." His head shook on its own. "It's still there." As more water dripped to the puddle under his nose, he smiled. "It's still there."
The low hustle and bustle of the restaurant picked up a bit while they both remained silent. Max raised his newly charred ear (with a light wince) just to listen. It could hear. It could still hear. After a moment, though, he bashfully flicked it back down—, "PI!"—and it stung in protest at the sudden movement.
"Max," Eleos whispered. Max barely tilted his head enough to pull his eyes out from behind his arms and looked at it. "Know that you cannot deceive me. As easily as this body breathes, I can feel the misery you hide." It stared down at him in challenge, and he raised his brow. "As you wish." It closed its eyes a moment to focus, and they opened a second later. It sat in silent thought. Max felt its paw flicker slightly.
"Oh," Eleos said. "You were not attempting to deceive." It remained still with its paw in Max's. All of the presence it had tried to impose over Max blew away in a light draft.
When its eyes shifted down and to the side, Max started to chuckle. He sat up and picked its paw off the table to let it rest in his. "I still love you," he said. Its paw started writhing in his hold as it struggled to maintain its form. "Besides," his own eyes looked away as well, "it's not like I haven't hurt you before."
The lighthearted chuckles that he'd managed deflated under that weight. Max gently placed its paw back down and turned to the coffee Hana brought. Taking a whiff, it definitely smelled like coffee, though definitely not his roast.
He paused a moment, realizing he had a preferred roast, but he had no idea what it was. All he knew was it wasn't the one in front of him.
The cup had some sugar cubes around it and a cute, little cream boat on the side. He dumped all the sugar in at once and started pouring the cream in a circular motion to try and get it stirring. A spoon would help, did he have one? He looked around and found it right next to the coffee mug. He needed this coffee more than he thought.
"You are an enigma to me," Eleos said, shaking its head. Max glanced up to watch while carefully bringing his coffee up to sip. "I have mutilated you. How can this not bother you?"
Max shrugged, though his ears and tail fell, betraying his true feelings. Placing the mug down, he wiped his mouth and admitted, "It does." Thanks to the cream and sugar, it was a very tolerable cup of coffee. The roast wasn't bad, just not his preference. Apparently. "I don't know." He tried to bring the mug up for another sip, but he didn't have the strength.
His eyes fell into the milky brown. He held the mug up off the table, so all of his idle movement transferred to the drink. The coffee rumbled with the shakes he couldn't still, though he couldn't tell if that was fear or the alcohol. He shook his head and set it down.
"I still want to try, okay?" he asked, eyes still trained on the coffee. Whatever emotions roiled around in his chest, he felt a strong sense of hope at the helm. Their food hadn't even come yet. This could still be a good date. They still had a chance. He looked up with a bashful but firm smile. "Can we just see how the rest of the date goes and decide from there?"
Eleos watched in eerie stillness a moment as it thought. Before long, though, it relented and nodded. "I suppose I only remain in this land because of your grace," it said with a soft smile. "Once more I am in your debt. Let us see how this date plays out."
So, they did; it was a wonderful time.