[FIN] Misunderstandings

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah, just today," she affirmed with a short nod of her head as she set the napkin back on the table right her right hand. "Since I found him he's mostly been sleeping and eating, I guess it takes a while to recover from starving like that," the brunette half-stated and half-suggested, as if she wasn't entirely sure just how long it took, "but yeah, he does look a lot better now than he did when I found him. And no," Sera shook her head, "it didn't give us any trouble, even though it looked like it wanted to."

Down on the floor, Isabella snorted.

"Um..." Seraphine's brows furrowed as Taavi went on an awkward tangent in an awkward manner, which only made her feel more awkward. Just then the waiter returned with food in tow - thankfully, Sera couldn't help but think - and set down a plate of pasta, a bowl of soup, a bowl of salad, and a couple spare plates before departing once more. Grateful for the interruption, Sera carefully pushed the bowl of soup over to Jacques who gingerly took it in his paws. While he leaned down to set it on the floor for Isaac, the brunette took one of the spare plates and scooped a small bit of salad onto it. "Um," she repeated eloquently, feeling awkward as hell as she picked up her fork to poke at her bits of salad, "you can if you want to? I don't really need anything... I mean, this whole time helping him I wasn't really expecting to get anything for it, so..." So why was he offering - and a tiny little figure, at that? It seemed an odd thing for one to offer, to her.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, good, I'm glad you were all okay," Taavi said, still radiating embarrassment. Maybe it had been a stupid thing to offer, she seemed confused more than anything else. Man that food smelled amazing, ugh!

"Um." Taavi snapped a piece off the breadstick he was working on and nibbled at the new smaller piece as he tried to decide what to say other than 'um'. "I'd like to. If it's not weird." She seemed kind of less awful now they were actually having a conversation albeit a really awkward conversation, he wasn't expecting to end up great buddies with her or anything but he was glad that she wasn't rude and pushy all the time.

Taavi shrugged and gave an awkward smile. "I guess I just thought it might be a nice gesture? Um. But I don't want to clutter up your life with stuff you don't want."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Um, sure?" Sera said again, still not sure why he was offering to make her a... tiny figurine. "If you want to?" With that said, the brunette started eating her salad, if only to give herself an excuse to stop talking for the moment. Little figurines weren't generally on the list of gifts she received often. To be fair, she didn't really have such a list at all because gifts weren't exactly frequent like they used to be, but still.  

[TawnyAngel]

Well, no going back now! "Well, um, I will then," Taavi said with slightly uncertain brightness. Of course that would mean he'd need to meet up with her again or get an address or something to post it to.... Maybe that wasn't so bad, Abel might want to thank her personally for taking care of his friend. "Err. So... do you have a pokejournal or something I could link to? I mean for letting you know when it's done and, also, it occurred to me that Abel might want to send you a message or something too."

Having finished his glass of water Taavi refilled it, took another sip, and then took another breadstick. He avoided looking at Sera's food; salad! When was the last time he'd had fresh salad? He really needed to find some time to get out of the city and go foraging, there'd be a lot of stuff growing this time of year but it was so hard to find the energy to do much of anything outside working for money and training with his pokemon to work off stress and keep them in shape. If he just had a bit of money he could set up a business around that sort of thing, maybe; taking people out of the city camping, teaching them how to make shelters and forage and teaching them about the habits of wild pokemon.... It was pointless to even think about that though because he didn't have any money, and if he got any Alyssa would take.

But you know what? Whatever. She hadn't been able to keep Isaac captive, whatever else she was she wasn't all powerful. There had to be a way out of their situation, didn't there?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

As this was his - what? Third breadstick? Sera finished off her bit of salad and pushed the bowl in his direction, both so he could take some and to clear up some space for her plate of pasta. "You can have some salad if you want," she added almost as an afterthought, in case he didn't get the hint. She was beginning to suspect either his lunch had been small or it had been a while ago - maybe both.

"Yeah I do actually," she replied as she began portioning out a bit of her pasta onto a spare plate, then set it in front of Anya. Once done, she poked at the rest of her lunch with her fork in her right hand, her left still resting on her lap. "I can write it down for you after or something." With that said, she twirled a bit of pasta onto her fork and took a bite of it. Okay, things weren't quite as awkward as they had been so far - not quite. Close though.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh! Um, thanks." Taavi smiled again and shrugged. "I feel kind of silly just sitting here right? And salad is always good." Especially when you hadn't had it in months. After eating a couple of leaves, not too many, don't look too keen, Taavi nodded. "And, um, yeah that would be great thank you; later, obviously." When she was done eating.... Eating one-handed. Why hadn't he noticed before? Well, he had been pretty distracted he guessed, by being pissed off the first time they met and by Isaac just now. What had happened to her? Was it - whatever 'it' was - something she'd been born with or had she had some kind of accident or illness? He couldn't help being curious but, again, no way he was asking; that would be seriously invasive.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"It feels weird if I'm the only one eating," she repeated. Plus he did seem a bit hungry, so she was willing to bet his lunch was small and/or he'd eaten it a while ago. If she were in his place, she'd start picking at things eventually, too. "Plus there's no way I'm gonna eat all the breadsticks and all the salad and all the pasta all by myself, so," Sera shrugged again and waved at the salad bowl with her fork, "have at."

At that point the brunette opted to focus on eating her lunch rather than talking - they'd be there all day if she kept pausing to respond - so she fell silent as she ate. After a few bites she speared a meatball with her fork and offered it to her Zoroark, and when he leaned in to bite it off, she moved it away with a frown. "Use your claws, doofus," she said in mildly exasperated tones - he knew better and she knew he knew better - but he merely grinned widely at her and made a noise in the back of his throat. He complied anyway, and carefully removed the offered meatball before tossing it into his mouth while Sera continued eating.

At one point Isabella grunted quietly, and Isaac made a sleepy noise in response; yes he had soup left he should finish, but he wanted to sleep instead... But he obliged the dark-type and worked on finishing his soup anyway. Once he had, he curled up between her paws and promptly fell asleep. He nearly disappeared under her mane when she laid her head back down over him.

Eventually Seraphine finished eating her meal - Anya had finished her small plate of pasta a while earlier, though Sera had given her a few more bits of hers - the waiter returned with the bill, and the brunette handed him her card in exchange. He departed with it and a quiet word of thanks, and in the minute or two he was gone Sera poked at her pasta a bit more to finish it up. The waiter returned with her card and a slip to sign before he departed again, and Sera picked up the pen to sign it. Taavi's curiosity would be sated by the paper refusing to stay in place while she tried to write on it, so with a vague look of annoyance she pulled it closer so she could set her left arm over it to hold it down. Her sleeve covered the end of her short arm and then some, the excess fabric hanging down from it before folding underneath her arm when she set it down on the table.

Once she'd signed it, she set it aside for the waiter to pick up once they'd left and then grabbed one of the spare slips - she only bothered to keep maybe half of her receipts, and this would not be one of them - and held that one down too so she could start writing a string of numbers as well as her name on the back of it. She flipped the pen up and over her thumb once she'd finished writing in order to pick up the paper, which she promptly offered to Taavi. "Here's my number," she explained, "so you can text me about the thing, or whatever." He'd mentioned his friend Abel - Isaac's trainer - possibly wanting to thank her too or something, so it'd probably just be simpler to give Taavi her number. If he wanted to, he could pass it along to his friend, or maybe he wouldn't. He probably would.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ha, well, I've been told in the past I'm a bottomless pit for food," Taavi said with an awkward little laugh and another brief flash of a smile. Maybe he could take some of the breadsticks with him for Abel... That would probably be too weird and, c'mon, Abel wasn't exactly going to be broken up about not getting a share of breadsticks given what he was going to come home to. Heeeee!

He couldn't help but grin a little, both at the thought of Abel's expression and at the interaction between Sera and her Zoroark friend; it reminded him a little of his dad with Guise.... He guessed he'd misjudged her when they first met, she obviously had a lot of affection for the pokemon with her and they for her too; it was a nice thing to be wrong about.

Eventually the meal was finished; Taavi had eaten up the leftover salad and most of the breadsticks, but not all of them because that might have seemed a bit too much. He couldn't help but notice Sera's arm as she signed the slip but, after the moment of noticing while she was busy putting down her signature, he avoided looking; he couldn't imagine she'd like to be stared at.

"Thank you, I will," Taavi smiled, accepting the slip of paper with her number on it and fetching his wallet out of its pouch on his belt to put it away safely.

Okay but now what. Were they done here? He guessed so. After a moment of hesitation Taavi nudged Swift awake and, once the Vulpix had stretched and jumped to the floor, he got to his feet. "Um, so, thank you again," he said after a moment, still feeling kind of awkward but a lot less than he had earlier at least. "I'll let you know how Isaac's getting on? If you'd like."

Once Isaac had woken up and come out from under the table he could pick him up and head back to Abel's place, would Abel already be there? He had no idea, he kind of wanted to text and find out but decided against it; he might still be stuck with her.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Taavi was correct; Sera did not, in fact, like to be stared at, and had she noticed him doing so she would've immediately used one of several snarky comments - if not more than one.

She simply shrugged at his thanks - both of them - and then said, "Sure, that'd probably be good." As if to double-check this, the brunette glanced between her pokemon to gauge their responses while she stood up. Anya's was obviously positive, she ignored Jacques's and she interpreted Isabella's gruff reply as positive as well - it certainly wasn't negative, at any rate - so Sera turned back to Taavi, "Yeah, sounds good." She fell silent for a few moments after that so she could polish off the rest of her drink, during which Isaac woke up and engaged in a quiet, albeit slightly sleepy conversation with Isabella, and once Sera finished she set her glass down again. "So do you drive, or do you walk?" Driving would probably be best since Isaac could just curl up on a seat, but walking wasn't that bad really, since Taavi could simply carry him back - it'd just take a bit longer.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Great, I will then," Taavi confirmed with a nod.

A sleepy voice from under the table made him lean back a bit in order to underneath with a little smile; Isaac was up, talking to the Absol. "I walk," he continued, now looking at Sera again. "It's a nice day for it though! And I'm used to walking around with a huge backpack and on rough ground, it's all good." If Valour spotted them he guessed technically they could fly but even heading into the start of summer it was cold up in the air; it would be better for Isaac to take a bit longer but stay warm.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Mm," Sera responded simply, leaning her weight onto one foot now that she was standing. She usually walked most places too, when she didn't ride Luna; even though she could drive, it was a little bit of a hassle to do so one-handed. Not that that meant she couldn't do it, of course. "I normally walk too, though sometimes I ride my Rapidash around," she decided to add after a moment, her gaze drifting down to her Absol and Isaac, "and it is a good day for walking. I wouldn't have brought him outside today if it weren't."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Um, right, of course," Taavi nodded again, agreeing with Sera's sentiment about not bringing him out if the weather was bad.

"Well, ready when you are then Isaac?" Taavi continue, peering under the table again with another smile. "No rush though, I've got the rest of the day!" Not that he thought the Espeon would take that long but the offer was there if he wanted to talk a bit more, he'd been living with these other pokemon for a few weeks after all so they probably wanted to say goodbye properly.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The brunette glanced down at the pair of pokemon as Taavi spoke to one of them, and so she made a shooing motion with her hand. "Let's go outside though, come on," she said, watching as both Anya and Jacques slipped out of the booth and onto the floor, "maybe we'll end up walking in the same direction or something anyway." Not that she knew if they would or not, but it was always awkward when that happened; say good-bye, turn to leave, find out person is walking the same path as you for another ten minutes.

At her prompting, her pokemon turned and headed towards the front of the restaurant; Jacques reached the door first and held it open for the lot of them to step back out into the sunshine.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yeah, could be," Taavi agreed, following along outside, shadowed by Swift.

The sun was warm on his face as he stepped into the open and, lingering headache not withstanding, Taavi couldn't help but feel happy and hopeful. Finding Isaac was a sign he was sure of it, there were better things to come. Still smiling faintly, and reaching up absently to touch his symbol of Arceus pendant though the material of his shirt, Taavi waited for the pokemon to finish their conversation.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once outside, Sera stopped bothering trying to come up with small talk and instead pulled out her phone to check it a bit while she waited for Isaac to finish.

Eventually he did, and after saying good-bye to her pokemon he headbutted her leg, so she bent down to scratch him behind the ears fondly. "Make sure to eat enough," she reminded him whether or not he needed such a reminder, "and to get plenty of rest until you're better."

"Eon," the psychic-type responded.

"Good. All right," the brunette said as she straightened up and looked to Taavi again, feeling a bit awkward again as she lifted her hand in a parting wave, "I guess I'll hear from you sometime?" Her various pokemon looked from Sera to Taavi, watching him expectantly as the humans said their good-byes.

A figure in an alley nearby also watched the good-byes with interest.