Following Kyoya's climactic duel with the Virtue of Hope, their first shot at some well-deserved downtime has revealed itself. An afternoon lunch break arrives, with Altaire's eldest Princess, the young Miss Solitaire Albion. He'd eat dirt in the face of his foster family to have denied such an opportunity...

And now, with the thought of the summoned Demon slowly receding onto his proverbial backburner, the task ahead of him was to survive being 'interrogated' by the Adventurer-Princess—All while keeping calm in the face of someone even Lyric found off-putting. Piece of cake.

Levvy set about preparing the table. With swift, practiced motions, she struck a large match she'd hidden away in her sleeve to light the grill's tinder. While their host continued in preparation, the trio took their seats, Kyoya and Lyric across from Solitaire.

Even though he knew it wasn't all too common for servers to sit with customers, he at least took enough care to leave a little room for an extra seat.

The Seraph, albeit a bit antsy, seemed to be doing well enough to squash her insecurities about this meeting. After stopping herself from speaking once, she followed through.

"I never thought about how many times I've eaten here, but I've never been to the top floor... It's like a totally different place."

Levvy raised a brow at that. She looked at the Seraph while setting a few long strips of lean, white fish fillets along the metal. After retrieving several small containers of spices from a box under the table, she addressed Lyric's statement while seasoning the food.

"It's too loud downstairs, so I always work my shifts up top. Not many come up here by choice, but that's not a complaint—it just means I'll be getting paid to make an appearance..."

Levvy shook her head with a slight frown. "...I'm not getting caught dead singing shanties, that's for damn sure."

Just the thought of something so nerve-wrackingly embarrassing made Kyoya speak on impulse.

"You and me both."

Not quite realizing he'd talked, it took a response from the chef to bring him back to the conversation.

"Right, and who're you?" she asked—more to Lyric and Solitaire than him. "I've at least heard of Lyric, but he's new, and there's no way he's just some nobody—not if he's rolling with you two."

The Seraph slid in to patch up the bits and pieces of his shattered self esteem. She put a deceptively brutal hand on his shoulder in mock-sympathy.

"This is Kyoya Miskrit, known alternatively as Blue, Miscreant, or Muskrat, if you're feeling spunky. Mind the comments about his looks, though; he's a little self-conscious—"

Kyoya gave an under-the-table elbow to her ribs. That maneuver effectively put a swift end to her attempt at establishing a step up from the get-go.

"Well, you heard her, but I'm Kyoya..." He introduced himself, then animed the best counterfeit smile he could manage at the Seraph. "...and, like you figured earlier, that's Lyric, my partner."

Finally through clutching her stomach, Lyric's attempted retort was cut back by Solitaire beginning to speak.

"I'm sure you can see that they've developed quite the dynamic... but, make no mistake, it's warranted. If Ryder hasn't explained the situation to you already, sufficient evidence has been found pointing to Lyric harboring some relation to the Hope."

At Solitare's pause, Levvy brought herself to a hard stop; the yellow in her eyes that Kyoya once found ghoulish now grew more thunderstruck.

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"Did I hear you wrong?"

"Not in the slightest."

Their host maintained herself. Her disbelief was slowly being overrun by intrigue.

"Well? Go on."

"Along with that, there seems to be a glaring possibility that her partner may be the supporting force we've been looking for to take our investigation into full swing... Although we've yet to reach a conclusion, the current information we have wouldn't completely deny it."

Levvy continued her work in setting the table. Tried as she might, even someone as oblivious as Kyoya could tell it still shook her up.

Lyric soon took hold of the conversation.

"With how things have been stacking up, I can't say there's ever been a better time for the stars to align and make everything happen all over again. I'd seriously love to say it's all just coincidence, and I'd thought that—up until he and I shared a vision in the Archive. He gets the freaky migraines like you do, too."

The boards beneath Solitaire's seat shrieked in response to the princess's sudden jump. Such intensity about her being was new for all in attendance.

"You had a vision in the Archive!?"

Kyoya's thoughts shot back to the event in question.

It was a short while after the trio had arrived in Altaire, following another of the boy's skirmishes with hostile memory loss. What they'd seen on the mural still felt foreign, but he'd never tried especially hard to connect it with anything—the headaches made certain of that.

"Yeah, after we got here, Lyric told me about wanting to read up on something and asked if I'd tag along. This was a bit before we really knew anything about each other, so I doubt there was any thought of connections until after we saw whatever we did."

Voicing her still-apparent confusion, Solitaire followed up the Seraph's statement.

"You explain it as though you can't remember yourself... I'm assuming the greater majority of it is still a tad murky."

"Spot on."

Sizzling oils and tenderized meat brought everyone's attention to the grill, where Levvy continued her work by letting embers dance around their bounty. She raised a brow at their pause, once again frowning slightly.

"What, don't you know it's rude to stare? Keep telling your story."

Her shift in attitude, albeit unexpected, struck Kyoya as odd. He tossed around the idea of it being a bad move, but pursuit of the dilemma seemed necessary.

"Is it really okay if we talk about this here? It seems like—"

Levvy stopped again, this time cutting him off in the process. Those yellow eyes regained their harrowing gaunt, looming over them once more.

"Listen, bright-eyes: everybody's got their favorite subjects—this just doesn't happen to be one of mine. I didn't come into work today to hear about fairy tales, but as your faithful server—"

Kyoya's eyes narrowed, just shy of a frown.

"Hey, I'd watch your mouth."

Silence quickly hung overhead.

Meeting her stare was difficult, no doubt. However, the ensuing clash of blue and yellow heaved away any indecision and made way for his competitor's urge.

Levvy set her utensils aside and slung off her apron, walking around to their side of the table.

"And why might that be, hotshot? Unless I must've misheard..."

"Dude, it's not that serious—" Lyric whispered. She jabbed his elbow under the table, but he was in too deep now.

Against the Seraph's slight attempt to reel him back, Kyoya slid his chair out and stood to the occasion. It seemed to have taken a moment for Levvy to recognize their height leveling out, but she paid it no more.

"I just can't say we came to get laughed at, y'know?"

The Mariner rolled up her sleeve and cocked back her arm, but stopped when Solitaire made a remark.

"I'd refrain from that, Miss Asan."

"I'm not one to take advice, gal. Lemme' just teach him some manners!"

The punch was thrown, but rather than any party being knocked out cold, a blistering heat emanated from the Miscreant in particular. The impact that slammed into Kyoya was enough to spark burns into the wood behind his heels, but he stood ground nonetheless.

He'd blocked the attack cleanly at the forearm, now standing firm against the table's edge.

Lyric finally stopped holding her breath as the Mariner pulled her fist back.

"...So you're really not just bark," Levvy concluded.

"Hey, you said it, not me... but when's my turn?"

She sent him a teasing smirk.

"You'd swing at a lady?"

"You'd be surprised," warned the Seraph.