Who: Seifer and Lulu What: Lunch Where: The Balamb Hotel When: Sunday afternoon Warnings: TBD
Balamb was packed, though that wasn't particularly surprising considering the event that was taking place in the center of town. All of town, really. It was hard to find a corner that wasn't somehow celebrating, and the near-constant smell of food had been driving him insane for two days. It had lingered overnight, long-after the vendors and restaurants had closed down, the scent drifting past the main docks to the private ones further away from the harbor, right to his little houseboat. He'd probably dreamed or fried dough and pie and candy apples, but he couldn't quite recall.
Most of the food places in town were packed, as expected, and the hotel was no different despite the fact that the annual festivities didn't normally bring in much in the way of outside interest. This one was for the locals, especially with the beaches closed for the season, giving tourists even less reason to make the trek all the way to the area. Seifer was more than fine with it. Less outsiders meant less chance of running into trouble. It was always the new ones, looking to pick a fight with the infamous Knight, but the old ones had already seemingly forgotten who the hell that even was. He was Seifer Almasy, co-owner of The Mod Shop, Monster Control Dispatch volunteer, and Balambian. That was enough for them.
Walking through the front door of the hotel, and turning into the restaurant brought an onslaught of familiar faces, a few of which greeted him on his way in. Catching the eye of the hostess as she showed another group of patrons to a booth, he gestured to the empty table with the small "reserved" sign resting on it. Recognizing him, she smiled and nodded across the distance, and Seifer headed for it, removing his coat on the way. He was stopped twice on the journey, for two different groups of locals who were eager to greet and share input on the holiday.
"You gotta try the grilled squid at the cart by the docks, Seifer."
"Oh, you should go see those pumpkins, kid!"
Anywhere but Balamb and the interruptions might have been met with a defensive retort or the simple act of ignoring them. Anywhere but Balamb. Even when he sat down he was pulled into a conversation by the table next to him, the owners of Balamb Outfitters, asking him if he'd had the chance to partake of the events that day. He didn't want to admit it, but he'd only been up for a couple hours, the product of an Archer marathon with Quistis the night before. He might have even attempted to stretch the evening out longer, were it not for his plans with Lulu. He wasn't going to complain. He didn't get to see her often, and he imagined she didn't get out too much.
Not since then.
If the simple act of inviting her out and eating good food was going to help, he'd gladly do it.