((time skip!!)

[glitterpaws]

The Gardens was the type of resturaunt built for special moments in someone's life. It was for first dates, proposals, wedding anniversaries, wedding receptions ... pretty much, if it had to do with love in some form, the Gardens was there to frame the moment in delicious food, overpriced wine, and a waitstaff full of Fairest.

In retrospect, it could be a little awkward bringing Lucia here. Rowan reflected on this as they waited for a table, both of them slightly under-dressed for the occasions that the Gardens was designed for. No doubt there would be others from their freehold here; it was owned by one of the foremost Spring courtiers, and he hired Fairest or mortals that could easily be Fairest for a reason. Bringing someone from the Autumn Court was sure to merit some comment, for all that he knew one of the chefs was from Autumn as well and they had a Winter Court courtier lurking about in the back.

"Excuse me?" Rowan's attention was drawn away from the ivy, delicate and brilliant green despite the season, and to the Fairest waitress. She was one of the Telluric, he remembered, with a round face that brought to mind the moon and eyes that looked like the night sky. "Your table is ready. This way, please."

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[junelight]

As soon as they pulled up to the restaurant, Lucia frowned before shaking her head. Of course Rowan would bring them to a place like this. Pretty and sparkling and full of Fairest.

Sighing, she refrained from complaining like she said she would although she wished he had told her just how fancy the restaurant they'd go to so maybe she'd be a little less under-dressed. Sticking out like a sore but pale thumb bothered her, especially in a place that screamed Spring Court.

As soon as they were seated and the waitress left them alone, she couldn't keep the complaint at bay and said reproachfully, "You could have told me to be a little more fancy."

[glitterpaws]

Rowan glanced up from the drinks menu, one finger already trailing down the various options. "You look fine. There isn't actually a dress code for this place." He didn't bother to deny anyone would notice; people of the Spring Court always noticed. Lucia was lucky that noticing was bound to be the worst she got of it. Rowan made some effort to look nice, with a nice sweater and slacks, but it was a difficult balance act to look nice and to not look like he was on a date with a member of the Autumn Court. He knew one of the two was going to get a comment, and in this case he'd much rather deal with commentary on his clothes instead of his bed mates.

He felt his ears flick in nervousness, and he tried to will them into submission.

"See anything interesting? They just got a new chef and word is that her food is unconventional but worth it."

[junelight]

"I think it's implied, though." Most fancy restaurants didn't say you couldn't enter without dressing up, but they expected it. Lucia held her tongue before saying more, though. If Rowan would reassure her that she looked fine, there was more to be nervous about.

Scanning the menu, she shrugged. "We could just get the weirdest things to try it out. I don't mind." If they were already standing out, they might as well go all the way. She tried not to shift in her seat due to discomfort and made up her mind that she was going to need a lot of alcohol to get through this evening. Beer was too weak, wine was also probably too weak, but would this place even have anything with tequila in it?

[glitterpaws]

"Well, we could," he said, ignoring the conversation on the implied dress code, "but I already decided I wanted steak. And." He paused as he flipped back to the drinks menu after verifying that there was still steak and it was still expensive and it better be worth it or he was going to be highly disappointed. "A White Russian." To start with.

"Have you been up to anything interesting lately? Any new discoveries?"

[junelight]

"And you won't change your mind? Stubborn." Lucia shook her head, flipping back and forth between the entrees and drinks. "I'll be experimental for the both of us. Some... possibly French-like thing. Something I can't pronounce." And super expensive. Everything on the menu was expensive. Whatever, Rowan was the one who chose the place. She wasn't going to feel guilty. "I hope their margaritas are strong." Super strong.

Laughing, she said, "I don't know if your interesting and my interesting are the same. Maybe I'll share with you after you've spent too much money on me." And maybe when they were somewhere more private.

[glitterpaws]

It was super expensive. However, Rowan could see himself coming here fairly often, even if he turned down the job offer. There was something incredibly appealing to surrounding oneself with beauty.

Which no doubt led him both to his passion in gardening and joining the Spring Court.

"Perhaps not, but I would like to listen to it. No doubt dinner will fulfill the requirements." He reached out to touch the edges of the flowers, cunningly decorated in a vase in the middle of table. "They've offered me a job here as one of the gardeners."

[junelight]

"Congrats!" It came out more like a whisper, but she smiled genuinely. While she had only taken a cursory look before, noting who was here more than just how pretty the restaurant was, she made a closer examination of all the decorations. "It seems like a perfect place for you. Are you going to take it?"

It was so... pretty and dazzling. How much could she stand it to visit him at work?

[glitterpaws]

"I'm deciding." He glanced around, but it looked like their hostess had put them far away from any other guests. Even so, Rowan made sure to lower his voice so only Lucia could hear him. "Queen Amaryllis would not allow me to leave as one of her gardeners, so I would have to balance both positions."

The drawbacks were losing free time in spring and summer and trying to balance the needs of the Spring Court Queen and her demands, to the benefits of more money, more knowledge on botany, having something to do during the autumn and winter months that wasn't watering plants in the nursery, and being surrounded by beauty.

"Although," he added, drawing himself out of thought and back into the conversation, "I don't think I'd stay if the food was terrible."

[junelight]

"Well, aren't you a special one," said Lucia. "More time around plants or more free time? What do you like more?" If she were in Rowan's shoes, she'd just stick with Queen Amaryllis. Would it be worth it to stretch yourself so thin?

Snapping her menu shut, she asked, "Let's find out!" As if on cue, the waitress came by. She made her order by pointing at the menu. Like she would attempt butchering French in front of a Fairest.

[glitterpaws]

Rowan ordered as well, though he had no need to point because both steak and White Russian were easy enough to pronounce.

"That's why I'm debating it. Is there anything I could learn here that I couldn't learn at my other job? I wouldn't even interact with customers, so it wouldn't even come with the benefit of any sort of unique connections." Mortal flowers were nice. They were safe.

He liked safety. But he also liked knowing, and mortal flowers and mortal botany was not what he wanted to know. What he wanted to know ... was knowledge of Hedge botany currently hoarded by the Autumn Court, who did not like to share with their own people. They most definitely did not want to share with a house cat associated with the Spring Court.

It was an issue.

[junelight]

"No, but you could get your name out there, if you wanted." She didn't know if Rowan even wanted to try to mingle among more humans or not. Lucia shrugged. "These flowers probably won't hurt you as much, if you wanted a rest."

She leaned back in her chair before hunching over again. Really, people could learn to stare less or a little more discretely. "Are you leaning more one way than the other?"

[glitterpaws]

"Working two jobs isn't much of a rest." Rowan took a sip of his water than grimaced in sudden realization of something he should have realized two weeks ago when they made him the offer. "Especially when Her Grace decides he is trying to usurp her fame with the prettiest garden and she starts a feud. Then who is caught in the middle of the whole thing?"

A talented courtier could find, if not balance, definitely find opportunity.

Rowan ...

Was not that person.

"If I wasn't leaning one way before, I am definitely leaning one way now."

[junelight]

Lucia raised her eyebrows. "Someone thinks highly of himself." Surely, the Spring Court Queen had more than just one gardener, if she wanted all the beauty and splendor a garden could have.

"Maybe some of your worries are founded but also maybe some of your worries is paranoia speaking." She drew circles on the condensation on water glass. "But if you're that worried, just stick to one." She shrugged. What could it hurt if he didn't take this new job?

[glitterpaws]

"It has nothing to do with thinking highly of myself. It has everything to do with being considered the man on the inside for both of them at once and being taken advantage of as a well placed tool to destroy the other side. It is not enough to work on the beauty of their own garden if there is anything remotely like it." He took another sip of water, eyebrows furrowed and his ears flat against his head. Offering him a job had a certain cold logic to it now that it hadn't had before.

It did make the decision easier. It would have been nice to sit and bask in the beauty of the resturaunt without paying his soul for it, but it was not enough to get involved in the direct middle of that sort of war.

[junelight]

"Uh-huh." Well, that did make sense, but... "I think you might be a little overdramatic right now." Lucia had no doubts that either side would probably want to use him as a pawn of some sort, but how much could he destroy by being a gardener? Sure, they could ask him to do actions of subterfuge, but they had to know that that obviously wasn't his forte. ... Right?

"So just don't take the job. Problem solved."

[glitterpaws]

"Problem is solved. Thank you." Rowan toasted her with his water glass, hoping that their alcohol would be arriving within a minute. "You manage to always keep things in perspective, though rarely on purpose." It was difficult to not end that with a 'love', but he was still (semi) aware that there were people watching and that just would add sparks, no matter how much he meant it.

[junelight]

Lucia laughed softly, raising her glass in return. "Is that a backhanded compliment or a backhanded insult? I never know with you. Here's to you not being stupid?"

When their alcohol came, she smiled. She wanted to dull some of her awareness even if she knew she should probably stay aware. "Not a bad margarita," she commented after taking a not at all classy swig of it. It did its job; she felt comforted by the warm burn of alcohol.

[glitterpaws]

"What's the fun in knowing either way?" He took a sip of his drink with a small grin. "Take it how you want to take it."

"Hopefully the food will be better than not bad." It would be a tragedy if, after all the pomp and circumstance of the restaurant, the food was sub-par. Rowan didn't think it would be, because he knew his people and his Court and perfectionism was common, if under-reported.

He swirled his drink thoughtfully. He did have some other things to ask, though they were better discussed in private. Starting a conversation with so I've heard there is a moving mountain tomb full of knowledge that should be wandering in the area soon would flag them as insane by the mortals.

He sighed and took another sip, putting the little tidbit of overheard knowledge in the back of his head until they were in private again.

[junelight]

"Intent matters!" she replied, pursing her lips in mock irritation. "I have to know whether I should be a little or more than a little fake annoyed at you. It's super important."

Laughing, she drank from her margarita. "You'd have to pay either way, not sorry to say! But I'm sure they have to justify their prices somehow?" A restaurant had to stay in business somehow, right? They had to be able to afford their extravagant decorations and plants in some way.

She raised her eyebrows. "You look like you want to say something. Is it silly or a complaint?" She grinned.

[glitterpaws]

"You mean there are two modes? You seem to default to the side of being more than a little fake annoyed at me when given a choice." Rowan took another sip of his drink and let the taste of it settle on his tongue for a few moments before swallowing. "Intent is what it is."

"Of course you're not sorry to say it." His ears flicked in the air, but he wasn't truly annoyed. "I'm not too worried. My drink is quite good."

He raised an eyebrow at her and took another sip of his drink. "It is nothing." That'd annoy her more than an actual answer. She'd find out soon.

[junelight]

"There are more than two modes! Maybe you're just not observant enough to tell?" She shrugged. "Not my fault. And you just keep on avoiding answering." It didn't really matter to her either way, but she had to point it out.

Lucia shook her head. "The bartender and the cook aren't the same person." She paused before adding, "Or at least, I hope this place could afford two different people for the job."

She scrunched her nose. "Which means it's stupid, I bet."

[glitterpaws]

"There is no fun in just the telling. You have to work for it! You say you got the brainpower." Stupid debate was stupid, but Rowan did enjoy them so.

Rowan wrinkled his nose at her. "Any business that bothers to find the best gardeners it can for the setting will go way out of their way to find the best in food. 'Tis only logical."

"Nothing I say or think is silly, thank you very much."

[junelight]

"And why do I have to waste brainpower on this?" She gave him an unimpressed look. "Do I look like a mindreader to you?" Sadly but fortunately, that wasn't an ability she had.

"Riiight," she drawled. "And you say you aren't thinking too highly of yourself. Uh-huh." Did Rowan tend to his ego like he tended to his plants? Lucia wondered sometimes. Just sometimes.

Lucia's laughter came out in sharp bark before it abruptly quieted into something soft and hoarse. "You're going to make me choke on my drink, d--" Oh, nope. Not in this kind of public area. "You'll kill me by laughter. I see through your plan!"

[glitterpaws]

"My life is difficult enough without you being a mind-reader on top of it."

He raised a haughty eyebrow at her laughter, and his ears turned out in mock-irritation. "Just because you're too unwilling to waste your ~precious brain space~ to see it doesn't mean the rest of the world isn't immune to my brilliance." Rowan caught the beginnings of dear, and was thankful she was quick enough to catch it.

[junelight]

"And my life is difficult enough without knowing all your thoughts," she replied.

Lucia shook her head slowly. "Oh, you wish! You may be good, but I wouldn't call you brilliant." She knocked back some more of her drink. "Maybe if you could make better drinks than this place, I'll call you brilliant."

(TIME SKIP DINNER WAS GOOD ROWAN LOST A LOT OF MONEY, ETC.?)