"L..." I eventually resigned myself to the surprise double date, "Let's just sit down together then."

Seeing as this was, well, a surprise arrangement for everyone involved, the waiter seemed a bit taken aback by this sudden turn of events before hastily and professionally hiding his emotions behind a friendly smile. He handed us our menus before giving us some time to read through our options.

"So..." Issei quietly adjacent to me, "How are... things?"

"Ugh, this was a bad idea after all..." Cecily looked like she was about ready to jump from her seat any second now, "Lune, I think there's still time to move over to our table."

"No, let's not inconvenience the staff here any more than we already did." I shook my head, "Still, despite living together, we never really got a chance to talk like this before."

"What are you talking about?" Issei tilted his head, "We talk every day."

"Yeah, about the house." I smiled, "Come on, back when we were living with Marina, you hardly ever talk about anything other than wanting to nab yourself a girlfriend, and now that you finally got one, you're as quiet as a rock!"

Hearing me express my interest in their relationship, the couple glanced at each other before awkwardly and shyly looking away. Heh, guess they're still in their honeymoon phase. Seeing the sly jokester Issei suddenly get all bashful like this is a sight to behold, so I'm gonna try and make the most out of this situation! Obviously, I won't go embarrassing them... too hard.

"W-Well, y'know..." He tried dodging the question, "B-But hey, look who's talking! You keep your love life behind an ironclad defense! You're telling me you suddenly revived for no reason at all, and both you and Cecily just decide to continue on as if nothing ever happened?"

"Yeah, I felt like prying into it too hard will only spell trouble, plus I just really wanna reconnect with my family more than anything." I replied, "Besides, what's there to talk about between Cecily and me at this point? We haven't even-"

Noticing a light kick to the side of my shin, I was stopped dead in my tracks as a slightly angered and Red cheeked Cecily coughed to signal me to shut up. Whoa there, Lune, you almost just revealed some pretty personal and embarrassing stuff there. Don't go ruining your first date in three years, man! Get a grip!

"Ahem, as for me..." Cecily continued from where I left off, "I wouldn't say that I particularly agree with Lune, but if it's his goal to be a good father to Cene and a good husband to me, I'd say I'm content with that for now."

"Heh, you don't gotta worry about that one." Issei won a world record for the most poorly timed joke as he spoke, "This husband here is so nice, he married twice!"

"........"

"Issei..." Othelia looked like she wanted to die right then and there.

"A-Ah, w-what I meant was!" He tried desperately to correct the situation, "H-Him and Marina made a really good couple! Err, I meant... Ah, geez..."

"Right, I never really asked because it always made me feel insecure, but..." Cecily then turned to me before asking the one question I feared she'd ask the most, "Just how exactly was your previous marriage?"

"C-Can we talk about this later when we're alone?" I said with a weak smile mere moments after I shot Issei the deadliest glare I had in me, "Don't wanna spoil the mood here, right? Besides, talking about failed marriages in front of a new couple isn't a smart idea."

"But from what Ed told me, that marriage could hardly be considered a failure, though?" She tilted her head, her empty stare making my heart ache from the guilt, "In fact, wasn't she pregnant at the time of her death?"

"Oh, geez..." Issei looked down for a second, "Now that we're actually reminiscing about her, it's only making me sadder knowing your guys' kid went with her. Sorry for bringing this up."

"Now you notice..." I smiled with melancholy, "But yeah, I guess it'd be rude to call our marriage a failure in that regard. Looking back though, we were going way too fast. I don't want anyone to take what I'm about to say the wrong way, but I'm kind of relieved we didn't have those two back then."

"Someone's being truthful all of a sudden." Cecily smirked, "Have you no shame, talking about your previous happy marriage in front of your current wife?"

"Hey now, you asked." I smiled back, "It's like I said before - It's all in the past, and there's no turning back the clock. I consider it an experience just like any other and besides, I have you, Cene and Nelly to take care of now. I feel like this is something we needed to address sooner or later anyways."

"Oh." Cecily looked stunned as Othelia continued to masterfully steer the conversation towards a lighter topic.

"Hey, but if your wife was pregnant at the time..." She asked me, "Did you perhaps think of any baby names?"

"Oh!" I recalled, "Yeah, now that you mention it, we did think of some."

"Well, go on then." Issei smirked as he gave a light jab, "Though given your naming conventions, I can already imagine how funny they were."

"Cecily, you don't mind me talking about this?" I wanted to make sure.

"Yeah..." She shook off all prior worries as she gave me the Green light, "I'm interested as well, so please tell us."

"Right. In that case..." I explained, "Licht Grimheart was supposed to be the name of the kid if he turned out to be a boy."

"Licht... Ah, so you named the island after him." Issei finally connected the dots, "That's a cool name. I think it means something in German, which brings me to my next conclusion - There's no way you thought of it on your own."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Haha, yeah." I laughed a bit, "I actually got some help from the lawyer that helped me buy the island."

"You'll really befriend anyone, huh..." Cecily smiled warmly, "Then, what about if it was a girl?"

"You didn't happen to buy any other islands we haven't heard of?" Othelia joined in on the pokes and jabs.

"Heh, no. In truth, we never could think of a proper girl name." I recalled with a nostalgic expression on my face, "Marina was never good at coming up with names, so anything she thought of, I would immediately have to counter or shoot down."

"Oh, I remember her being pretty bad with names too." Issei reminisced, "Well, I guess there's nothing we could do about it."

"Actually, I was planning on asking for your advice back then." I revealed, "By then, you already left, so I wanted to send you a letter about it."

"Oh?" His eyebrows shot up, "Well, heh, what can I say? I'm flattered..."

"......."

"I-If you don't mind..." He sheepishly suggested, "Want me to think of something now? If anything, you could add it onto her grave when you go visit her one day."

"Oh, now that's an idea." I nodded, "Please do. Oh, but if I may, I'd like the name to contain "Mi" in it. It's one of the rare things we actually agreed on."

"Mi?" Cecily asked, "Why that of all things?"

"Ah, she had this pet theory of hers that a kid with Mi anywhere in their name was gonna grow up to be blessed." I explained, "I think it's an old tradition from her country or something like that. She also said she was named Marina because of that as well."

"A child that'll grow up to be blessed, huh..." Issei thought for a moment before snapping his fingers, "Miko, the Blessed Child!"

"Eh?" All three of us tilted our heads at him, "Is this a name from your country?"

"Yeah, it's got everything you need, actually." He chuckled, "Derived from "Mi", meaning "God" or "To Be Blessed" and "ko", meaning "Child". It's a very nice name back in Japan."

"Heh, would you look at that..." I hid away my sorrow with a weak smile, "Well then, I'll be sure to remember that for future reference."

"Mhm." Cecily nodded along before doing a double-take, "H-Huh!? You... You want another kid?"

"Ah, well, it's a bit early to be thinking that, but this past week with Cene really did put into perspective how much I've missed out on his childhood." I scratched my cheek bashfully, "In other words, I guess what I'm trying to say is... I'd like another child with you, that is, if you'll have me."

"A-Ah, this is..." She noticed me gripping her hand as the young couple seated across from us were all but freaking out at this sudden proposal, "W-We'll talk about that later! For now, try and at least get on Cene's good side!"

"A-Ah, yeah! Only if you want another one as well!" I added before raising my hand up in the air, "Waiter, we're ready to order, so hurry goddammit!"

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"Haaah, that turned out to be more pleasant than I expected!" I patted my full tum a bit as I put my fork down, "We started off a bit rough at the beginning, but hearing about how you two met really sweetened the food up."

"Yeah, well, I guess you could say that's the least we could give you after what you guys had to say..." Issei still felt kind of apologetic, "Sorry again for ruining your date, guys. I should've thought before I spoke, but instead I made things super awkward for everyone."

"Hey now, we said it's okay." Cecily too calmed him down, "Though I do agree you've made yourself infamous for saying some poorly-timed jokes every once in a while, I can't say this talk wasn't productive. If anything, Lune and I got yet another issue off our chests, so be proud of that much."

"I agree, if anything, I'd rather say we should be the ones apologizing for intruding on your guys' solo date." I smiled, "Sorry for that, Othelia."

"Don't mind, don't mind." She chuckled, "I enjoyed getting to know you two better. Maybe next time we could invite Anna and Edward too, that'd really make it a night out."

"A-Ah, I second that, but..." Issei added, "Maybe we should add a solo date or two in between, ha-ha..."

Laughing at his little comedic retort, we all ended the night on a high note. Getting up to pay for the food, Issei and I held a secret lowkey rock paper scissors match to determine which man was gonna be the gentleman that paid for the entire bill. Thankfully, my scissors cut up his feeble piece of paper without even breaking a sweat, so he had to begrudgingly bust out his wallet this time. As Cecily and I were getting ready to leave, the squirming couple had actually told us they had plans to continue their evening date elsewhere. Yeah, "elsewhere"... Like for example a spare hotel room, perhaps? Sigh, must be nice, being so young... Wait a second, we're all the same age.

"Then, we'll let you two lovebirds take it from here." We waved at them as I opened the door for Cecily, "Oh! Sorry sir, I didn't see you... there."

"Cecily...?" The king and queen of Cardina looked at us with a surprised and furrowed glare.

Ah crap. What impeccably horrible timing. I got so caught up in the house project and taking care of Cene that I forgot to tell these two I revived. In hindsight, he's my best man, so I really shouldn't have forgotten, whoops. Geez, they definitely look stunned. I'm so dead...

"A-Ah, Adam-!" I went to explain myself.

"I see." He shook his head before putting his hand out for me, "Well, it has been some time since his passing. I understand you wish to meet new partners, that is completely within reason. Apologies for the startle, sir. I am Adam Grys, king of Cardina, and this is my wife Elaine."

...Eh?