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Azar swung open the doors for the Sea Dragon’s fangs. He looked back to let Teal Tale move past him and in first. She had been quite, well she was quite much of the time so perhaps this was normal? Still it felt awkward as she kept looking at him but when he looked at her with a smile she would look down or away. He was pretty sure he could see a blush under her bangs, but it was hard to tell with craning his neck to the side to really look. Finding a booth for them she slipped in and sat down. It was a Chinese style restaurant that offered a buffet option that he loved to take advantage of. His tail gave a chitter knowing what was coming. That was the nice thing about House Eleganza it had a lot of shops and was just far enough out of town proper that it was overlooked often if you were the kind that got stuck with the idea of staying in the city. He noticed Teal watching his tail. “ah sorry about that. Just excited the food is pretty nice and while it’s a buffet they change out the food often so it’s always fresh, unlike some places that just sit for hours.” She nodded. “Hey Teal Tale are you ok?”
“Yes, no. I’m not sure.” Teal had spent the whole shift tying herself up in knots over this… date? Yes it was indeed a date. “I’m not used to being asked out. I’m blunt, I always speak what’s on my mind. I have been told before that my advances even just compliments are unwelcome.” It was the truth. Shadowed Flower and her family were very clear that Teal complimenting Shadowed and telling the earth pony how skilled or beautiful she was unwelcome, unwanted. It didn’t mean she hated them or that they hated her after all they were just protecting their family as Royal Indigo had specifically hunted down Teal Tale as she was headed to pack after the Spring Market debacle to make sure she knew they hadn’t meant to be cold to here but they were ‘in their own head’. It was fine as they were just protecting family. All she had asked was for Royal to tell Shadowed how amazing she was and help her see her talent, with that single request Teal had left the town and only written back to her sister. “So this situation is new to me and I am felling like floundering.” She looked at the ghoulie bat not certain if her words had really come across as they were looking at her with a smile but the expression on their face made them look like a moron.
“Ah so you are new to the dating world then. That uncomfortable feeling is pretty normal. It can be like butterflies or like getting dumped in cold water spun around and shot into the sky only to spin around dizzy enough that you want to throw up.” He flagged down the waiter. “Two for the buffet please.” With that clear he got up and gestured with a wing. “I find walking around a bit helps. Let’s snag some food things and that should give you something to focus on rather than the situation. If you relax a bit I am sure you will feel better.” Azar was a bit surprised that Teal Tale didn’t have more experience and couldn’t just see she was nervous. It was adorable. He wanted to know more of her story to see what had really made her this way. He bet it was goodness of a story. He trotted around the buffet table and grabbed a decent plate of food. He was not one to be shy and if his date was going to judge him on it so be it. Just having fun and being himself was far more important. Teal was quite still while she got her plate. Azar paid it little mind letting her work out what she wanted. He had the feeling when she found her hooves she would be just fine.
Sitting back down Teal looked over her plate she had gotten as many sour dishes as she could as she liked sour things. She had even seen lemons available to squeeze over meat and she had just grabbed several slices to munch on by themselves as she liked the flavor. Azar had been right. Walking had helped a bit. Was she just nervous? Perhaps this was how others had felt when she had complimented them? She did not like the floundering feeling one bit. “Thank you.” She looked at Azar’s surprised face. “Your advice was helpful even if the imagery was weird and mentioning emesis in a restaurant is poor placement. I think you are very kind. Yes I am new to the dating world. I don’t like not knowing things or being able to do things.” Trying some of the food she had gotten at the buffet she was surprised. “This is very good.” Azar was right this place was not somewhere she had been before and was pleasantly surprised.
“Sorry about the imagery. It’s just the best explanation I could think of.” He feed his tail some food and knew he would have to be careful how many plates to get as both he and his tail would eat too much before realizing in a place like this. “and it’s fine not to be used to something you haven’t done too much of. Before you mentioned being from Drizzle Town. If it’s somewhere you like or even are glad to have left it might be easier to talk about that. Like me. I’m from just outside the prisim palace area. It’s breathtaking and nice but not really where I wanted to live. Bouncing around for a while I ended up helping Razzleberry Tea with their shop and it’s where I find I want to be. I run deliveries and get to travel a lot which I love but I have a place to come back to which matters to me.” It was a simple explanation of his life but it was true none the less. Razz had always looked out for him which he was grateful for after losing several jobs because he couldn’t stand doing them.
“it’s not wrong, just poorly placed.” She started to nibble on a lemon while whaching him feed his tail partly fascinated. She wondered if Azar could taste what he fed his tail or if it was a separate senation. She would look it up in a book latter. Listening to his story she decided to tell her own. “Well as you know I was born in Drizzle Town. My sister Delicate Trinket runs a glass shop. It’s one of my favorite places in all of the world.” Her voice was soft and gentle speaking of Delicate Trinket’s glass shop. She could see the artworks in the shop without having to try. “The glass catches any light and it just glows with an inner light that doesn’t look like it came from the sunlight. It makes the glass look like it’s alive inside the longer you look and you expect it to move any moment. Dancing ponies with wings so delicate you could swear you can see the feathers grain, Dragons so imposing they seem to bear down into your soul. It’s more magical then words can ever say.” She changed topics thinking she was gushing to much over his sisters skills. “Delicate has always taken care of me and helped me if I ever had a bad day or needed anything. She always understood me more than anything else.” She felt tears start to play at the corners of her eyes. Blinking them away she cleared her throat. “ Anyway. There is also a fruit stand that should also be visited. Cherry and Mango’s fruit stand. They always have fresh fruit and it’s wonderful at good prices.” She started to remember the Spring festival and the pain that Cherry had when he gave up his glamour to help Deli.
Was she crying? Ah hell. Grabbing a napkin he held it out to her and then got a second one and dipped a straw in water capping it off he lifted it and let the water rush out onto the second napkin making an impromptu cleaning cool cloth for under her eyes just in case she was wearing makeup. “Here you go this is nice and cool and might feel better on your cheeks.” His tail ever oblivious kept right on eating. “It sounds like you might be a little homesick. Still it’s great you love your hometown so much. I don’t have too much attachment to a place but just a few people. If I was gone from them without visiting every so often I think I might feel lonely looking back.” He tapped his hooves on the table thinking it over. He was reckless at times so why not? it was a good idea. As small voice in the back of his head that sounded like Razzleberry was calling him a moron. “You know I think Razzleberry Tea wanted me to take some sampler’s out to farther out places like Drizzle Town to help spread out his market so you wanna come along?”
“You are asking me to just leave my job and travel with essentially a stranger to my home town that I can’t even really describe in detail without breaking down in tears.” Teal was wiping under eyes but her tongue was working just fine as was her brain. “You realize how foolish that sounds right? That is the kind of set up that leads to those ‘murdered at a tragic age’ headlines and stories. ” She noticed Azar must have considered it as they just grinned at her like a fool. Still she was here having gone on a date with him which was just as risky as she hadn’t spoken with Dea as to where she was going as she herself hadn’t known before the date. She took a breath. “I will be headed back home for a small visit in a week for a short trip back home. I wouldn’t mind company.” It would give her time to talk to Dea about it and pack and send her sister a message. This was not really planned but perhaps Azar was right and she needed to visit home a bit more often.
Well this date was going well. Not only had he made her homesick and brought her to tears, but he had given her the idea he was a total moron. Ah well he was offered a trip with her which would give him more time to talk to her and perhaps learn more about her. “A week it is. I’ll let Razz know I’ll take some time off to take some samples out to Drizzletown. And don’t worry, isn’t traveling with others a good way to prevent those kinds of headlines?” He grinned at her watching her look down and focus more on her food. He really did like her. She was an honest pony. “I’m looking forward to seeing your sister’s glass work. It sounds like I will need to bring extra bits to pick some souvenirs up. And of course try out that fruit stand you were telling me about. We can visit a few more stores here if you want. They even have a book store called The Page Turner. You can check out the local competition. ” He widened his eyes with each word of the name trying to make it sound ominous. Really it was pretty nice thought the shop owner was strange with their love of incenses but whatever made them happy right? He was just going to take it nice and slow since it was clear trying anything fast might scare Teal into having a heart attack

moved to BS