Comedic Tragedy (Seiji)

[Tiamat]

“This is Ristorante Torrioni. I’ve had a few dinners here in the past. It’s a lovely little place,” She replied as she climbed out of the car. Tiamat locked the doors and stepped around the front of the vehicle to head into the building in front of them. “It’s also, a short distance from my apartment,” she added with a playful wink to Seiji. She approached him and wrapped her arms around one of his. She then gently guided him into the restaurant.

The restaurant was certainly busy. People moved back and forth as trays of various meals were delivered across Mahogany floors. The scents of well made food permeated the air around them. Hushed conversations intermingled into a cacophany of unintelligible sounds. Few people paid much attention to the couple standing at the front, but those who did, wore genuine confusion on their faces as they watched them.

The hostess, a young, petite red haired girl, smiled brightly at them. “Table for two,” She asked. Tiamat nodded to her, “Yes, please.”


The woman grabbed two menus and escorted them to a booth off to the side. Tiamat slid into one side and opened the menu to find what she wanted. She quietly tapped her fingers as she looked at the booklet. The hostess nodded her head slightly at them “Cossette will be your server tonight, I hope you have a good evening.” With that, she left to go help others, leaving Tiamat and Seiji alone in the booth.

[Seiji (DELETED 6165)]

“Oh,” Seiji answered simply, admiring the restruant as she named and explained. Her secondary comment flew over his head, but the sudden proximity did not. At her touch Seiji started in surprise and glanced over, blinking in a sort of bewildered and embarrassed manner, allowing her to lead him inside in a clumsy fashion. His neck warmed up to the back of his ears at her light implication, and it took a great deal of focus he didn’t have to avoid knocking into half the passing servers. Though stares were few, the puzzled patrons studious glances were enough to set Seiji’s anxiety off. He kept his eyes on his shoes, suddenly feeling uncomfortably outcast in the lavish setting, dressed in his usual, shabby coat.

It came as a great relief when the pair finally found their seats, Seiji doing so with a great deal more difficulty than the graced Tia. The minute he picked up his menu he dropped it again, and in an effort to catch it before it hit the table succeeded in knocking it to the floor. With a mumbled apology he leaned over to get it. Realizing this position was anything but polite he tried to sit up abruptly again, resulting in a rather rough bump as his head met the bottom of the table, accompanied by a small yelp.

Finally, thoroughly embarrassed and visibly shamed, he reemerged, clutching his menu like his life depended on it. He used it as a rather successful sort of camouflage, nearly attempting to bury himself with the stiff board of white.

[Tiamat]

Tiamat gently bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing at Seiji’s failings with the menu. The table shook when he bumped his head against the wood. She merely shook her head as he hid himself behind the booklet.

“Are you going to be okay Seiji? That sounded like a really hard hit.” She lowered his menu and gently ran her fingers across his cheek. She needed to appear somewhat concerned so she smiled at him.

Their waitress, a tall thin brunette approached the table and spoke up. “Hello, I’m Cosette, your server. Can I start you off with some drinks?,” she asked, her pen tapping idly against her paper pad.

Tiamat smiled at the woman and nodded. “I’ll have a glass of Donna Fugata to start with, and can we get a serving of Nervetti and Bruschetta for our antipesto?”

“Of course miss, and for you sir?” The girl turned and looked at Seiji expectantly.

[Seiji (DELETED 6165)]

Seiji lowered the menu, and then nearly dropped it again as she touched his cheek. Her skin was cool to the touch, even cooler against his heated cheeks. Heavily flushed, his eyes locked on the table and refused to lift, his lips hardly moving as he mumbled something along the lines of his well-being being... well. Saved by the server, he thought originally, until he watched the back and forth interaction of Italian. Feeling even more lost, he stared at his menu awkwardly. "U-uh.. I'll have the uh.. Le.. Legarin?" "Ligurian Seafood Stew?" the waitress corrected, adding to Seiji's embarrassment. "Yeah.. and uh.. um.. water.. thanks..."

Seiji had to fight to resist the urge to face-palm against the table as the woman took their menu's. So far he was making a terrible mess of things, but at least Tia seemed somewhat amused by his antics.

[Tiamat]

“You know Seiji, you need to learn to relax a little bit,” she told him as she laced her fingers together on the table. “It’ll certainly help with things later tonight,” she mumbled. as she watched him stumble through his order. She shook her head slightly as he stared at the table. She reached across and lightly placed her hand on top of the young man’s hand.

“So you said you got separated from your family. What happened there,” she questioned as her head tilted slightly. This could be something useful to her. Something to make his decision for...death and “rebirth” more appealing to him. “Have you tried to find them yet?” As she waited for him to answer, Cossette returned with their order. She set the bowl of soup down in front of Seiji and the plates containing the other foods in between the pair.

“Here you go, are you ready to order your main course?” Her smile kind of annoyed Tiamat. The dark haired woman had plenty of practice pretending to be nice when she needed to be.So she merely smiled back and placed her own order.

“No thank you Cossette. I’ll just be having this. I don’t know about my date of course,” she stated with a sight emphasis on the word ‘date.’ She a took a slow sip from her drink. as she stared at the woman, who stood there looking to Seiji for his order.

[Seiji (DELETED 6165)]

Relax? Seiji was desperately trying to do just that, but every implicating word or suggestive touch set his nerves on fire. It took a great deal of focus to remember to keep breathing when she covered his hand with her own, and only her question saved him from a possible seizure. He took his time answering, mostly because it was hard to focus on remembering the answer. Nerves were not helping him tonight. They rarely did. Regardless, he toyed with his napkin as he spoke, using his free hand to do so. As much as the physical contact jarred him, it was also oddly comforting. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this close to someone, in this manner. Long overdue, his sister would have teased him. She was always too knowledgeable on mature subjects than he was comfortable with.

“There was a.. A storm awhile ago.. A really bad one. My family and I were visiting when it hit, and we got separated.” He took a slow breath. The memories he’d avoided touching on were there just under the surface, the screams and terror fresh and painful as a new wound. He’d tried so hard not to scratch at it, and here Tia invited him to dig right in until it bled. Still, he tried his best to appease her curiosity, even if it hurt him to do so. “We were at the hotel. My sister and I went down for a snack, and she wanted to go out to see the rain. She loved- ..” he coughed, correcting himself. “-loves the rain. The storm hit it’s peak while we were out. I-.. When we came back the hotel was on fire. A gas tank or something, I uh.. I don’t know the details.. My sister ran in and then something exploded. They.. They never found the body though. Not hers.” He made a small noise in his throat and turned his head. He couldn’t think about it. He couldn’t deal with the memories, even after all the time that had passed. The hand underneath Tia’s shook slightly, and he was deeply relieved when their meals arrived. It saved him from thinking, from remembering, from hoping.

Forcing a smile to his face, he leaped on a change of topic. Main course? He was briefly surprised. It was his first time in a restaurant with more than just ‘food’ and ‘dessert’, and he shook his head lightly, taking a small bite. Unfortunately he hadn’t realized exactly what he’d ordered, and what made it worse was Tia’s choice in words. ‘Date’ hit him the same time as an explosion of spice on his tongue, and he jerked with shock. The spoon went halfway down his throat before it was flung onto the table, followed by a string of hacking and gagging. Face red and eyes streaming with tears, he tried to grab for the glass of water, only to knock it over on it’s side. He fumbled and yanked the almost empty glass of water up again, downing the tiny bit that still remained inside the glass. His other hand snagged the napkin, which he began to cough into several times, followed by something akin to a whimper. Had he been paying more attention to the menu earlier, he wouldn’t have ordered something spicy, knowing his taste buds could not tolerate anything of that level. Even pepper was something he was on the fence about, let alone the piece of hell he’d just tried to consume, only to have it consume him instead.

[Tiamat]

She watched as his entire demeanor changed at the memories of the loss of his family. The memories clearly still hurt him. She felt a twinge of sympathy for the poor boy. She found herself digging out the memories of her own life. Well, a life prior to this one. Her husband’s murder. The wars. The death of of her children, most of whom were killed in combat. Her two youngest however, they were not part of that war. The were beheaded, right before her eyes.

She gave his hand a gentle squeeze as he regaled his story. Her other hand reached for one of the bruschetta she had ordered. It had just about reached her mouth when Seiji began having his coughing fit. Water flooded the table and cascaded down onto her lap. Her food was soaked, her dress was wet, and her companion was hacking his lungs out from a single sip of soup.

She slid from the booth and turned to the waitress. “Can you get him a second glass of water please?”

The woman darted off to find a pitcher as Tiamat walked past Seiji towards the restrooms. “I’m going to get dried off.” She leaned in pressing her lips to his earlobe, “Don’t die, while I’m gone. I have a ‘present’ for you to unwrap later.” She lightly blew air across the edge of his ear while using her power of Inspire on him. With that she vanished into the women’s room to get dried off.

[Seiji (DELETED 6165)]

Seiji tried to whimper out an apology, but his mouth burned like fire with every move. As if he wasn’t warm enough, he suddenly felt the light touch of flesh closer than he was comfortable with. The warm breath of air over his ear and jaw made him stiffen with surprise, and his neck betrayed a heavy flush right up to his ears. He visibly shivered as her breath carried a hint of power he was too untrained to detect. A small noise muffled by the napkin was his only reply.

As she left him to his own devices, he took the offered glass of water with an incoherent noise, downing it and a second desperately. While he waited for Tia to return, he stared down at the table, wondering. It was unusual to be in such a situation. He’d only known her on a few occasions, but then again some people were so forward he supposed. Had his sister been about, she probably would have prodded him to stop over-thinking it and start flirting back. The memory of her made him laugh ever so softly, and unwound some of the anxiety in his chest.

The waitress brought by a new dish for Tia to replace her soaked one, as well as a bit of creamy pasta at Seiji’s request. At least this dish wasn’t spicy, the woman pointed out, much to his embarrassment. Aside from a small, noncommittal noise, he made no response and focused on pile a bit of pasta on the offered bread. He inwardly hoped Tia wasn’t too upset about the incident. She hadn’t seemed so, at least. He sighed, covering his mouth with the napkin. What had he gotten himself into?

His eyes trailed to the door, almost as if tempted to make a break for it, but he knew he’d be way too strung up by guilt if he did such a cruel thing. It wasn’t even that he didn’t like Tia. He liked her more than he should have. It didn’t mean he was exactly comfortable with it, though, and things were progressing so quickly it was hard for him to keep up emotionally. Then again, Tia seemed to be doing most of the leading in this situation. Maybe that was for the best.

Maybe he’d even get to see the cobra she’d shown a picture to him of once before. That was a thought worth hanging on to, and far less embarrassing than the other not-so-subtle promises she’d made so far.

[Tiamat]

She locked the door behind her as she entered the small restroom. She didn’t need anyone walking in and seeing the dessicated corpse in the mirror. She looked into the glass and sighed. The half exposed jaw, the scraps of flesh hanging from her cheekbones. The black soulless holes where her eyes would be still unnerved Tiamat. She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly before turning the water on and slipping her hands under the cascade.

She pressed her wet hands to her face. She shook her head slowly as she worked through her memories. She had to shake her past off, at least for the night. She had to regain her focus. She pulled out a handful of paper towels. She began wiping the water from her face, arms, and dress. The damage wasn’t bad. Thankfully he only knocked his water across the table. Had it been the soup, things would certainly have been worse.

He’s probably sitting there contemplating an escape route, she thought. She glanced up at the small clock perched on the wall and frowned slightly. She’d been in here longer than she had planned. “Well, if he’s still there...then the game continues. I might have to dial things back, just a tad. “

She left the restroom and made her way back to the booth. She saw Seiji sitting there quietly eating a bowl of pasta rather than his spicy bowl of soup. She allowed her fingertips to brush across his shoulder as she past and slipped into the booth. She absently moved a piece of bread along the plate as she watched him. “Well,” she started, “it looks like you find a better option to the soup. When you’re ready to head out, let me know. The night is still young after all.”

[Seiji (DELETED 6165)]

Seiji almost didn’t jump this time, as her fingers brushed the thin two layers of cloth that covered his flesh. Almost. Her words left his ears numb, and the pasta tasted as good as sand in his mouth, and twice as difficult to swallow. Somehow he managed, with some aid from the remains of his replaced drink, and awkwardly studied the tabletop. Practically every guy hoped for at least half of a night like this, even with all his mistakes. A forgiving, beautiful date, a good meal, and a promise of a better night. Seiji wasn’t so sure. Not that he was complaining, of course, but there was always something in moments like these that felt.. Not right. His sister would have said something about seizing the day. His mother would have cautioned against a moment that was too good to be true.

Unfortunate that neither were here to do so.

Had he been more attentive, he might have asked if Tia herself planned to eat. The thought did cross his mind, but it was quickly crushed under the weight of his own awkwardness. Just thinking about it reminded him of his little mishap with the water. No doubt she’d lost her appetite, and was giving him a second chance out of only pity. Some guys would have lapped up the pity date. Seiji just sagged hopelessly under it.

It took a few moments for him to unstick his throat enough to speak. “I...I’m ready whenever you are,” he answered a little more formally then he’d meant to, very carefully sliding the plate aside. A part of him wanted to apologize for being a lousy date. Instead he fished out a bit of money in an effort to at least cover part of the bill. At least clerical work combined with a minimal diet paid well.