[SpringsSong]

Zelaen watched Benji carefully as he rose to his feet, hoping that there wouldn't be a repeat of what had happened when he first stood up when they'd begun talking.  Once it was clear that Benji was sure that there wouldn't be a repeat, he'd grabbed his hand and began to tug him towards the other side of the park--something that took Zelaen by surprise, but he did not make any moves to reclaim his hand from the other.

"Ooh, mint chip does sound good," Zelaen said.  "I usually prefer cookies-n-cream myself, but mint chip's good, too."

When Benji started to whistle, Zel was content to listen.  While he could carry a tune decently well, and would often hum sometimes without noticing, Zelaen was definitely not a good whistler.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

They reached the truck pretty quickly. For all of his health issues, when his body was behaving, Benji could move pretty fast. Thankfully, there weren't that many people in line, and they were the next ones to be served. The menu was extensive, quite honestly. There was everything from plain 'ol vanilla, to something called a 'Tropical Fruit Blast' and a 'Double-dark Heaven'. The prices weren't that bad, either.

A kindly-looking woman peered out of the truck, and smiled at Benji. "Ah, little Benji. Where is Luminare today? Are you by yourself?"

The kuhna's grip on Zel's hand tightened. Apparently what she was asking upset him - but outwardly, he just smiled, and shook his head. "No ma'am. I have my friend Zelaen with me! Do you still have Mint-chip?" he asked, although there was an edge to his voice. Just a bit.

Observation must not have been this woman's strong suit. She smiled back at him, and looked behind her. "Of course, dear. Would you like that in a Single Cup, a Quad-Cup, a Cone, a Super Sundae, a Shake, or a Double-Deluxe Sundae? You get two flavors if you get the Super Sundae, and three if you get the Double-Deluxe."

Benji thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Go ahead and give me the Double-Deluxe this time. Annnd...." he studied the menu for a moment. "Give me Very Vanilla, and... Super Cocoa Peanutbutter with that Mint-Chip."

The woman smiled, and nodded. "Alright. And for your friend?"

"Ummm... Whatever he wants." He backed up to let Zel order... but still hadn't let go of his hand. The woman noticed that, at least, and she put on a very wide smile.

"Would you like to make that a Double-Deluxe Sweetheart Sundae, Benji?"

Immediately, Benji flushed bright red, and dropped Zel's hand, although rather reluctantly. "Ummm... n-no. That's okay. Um... just... whatever he wants."

[SpringsSong]

Zelaen hadn't known what to expect, walking into a place hand-in-hand with another young man, but when the woman behind the counter asked if Benji had wanted to make his order a Double-Deluxe Sweetheart Sundae, he felt color flood into his cheeks as he stammered slightly.  When Benji let go of his hand, it took him a few moments to recollect his own thoughts before he spoke.

"I'll, um... I'll have a Super Sundae with the cookies-n-cream and the mint chip, please," he said, the color in his face starting to return to normal.  He rubbed the back of his neck more than once, trying to calm his own nerves slightly as he shifted.  MAN, I must look ridiculous, he thought to himself as he looked down at his shoes, the tiles of the floor... anything that could hold his focus for a few seconds while he gathered his thoughts.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Benji paid for the ice cream with his card, and the lady disappeared to make the two sundaes. While she was doing that, the humanform kuhna leaned close toward Zel's ear, and whispered into it.

"I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize what it might look like... you're not mad, right?" he asked, noticing the other patrons had gone about their business, and not really noticed. Even so, his heart was still pounding, and he was pretty sure Zel's was too.

The woman returned to the counter after a couple of minutes, and handed Benji a large plastic bowl filled with ice cream of three different flavors, and topped with chopped nuts, hot fudge, hot caramel, strawberry sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry. There were two chocolate-chip cookies jammed into the ice cream on either side, and over the top of the whole thing, there were candy sprinkles. Thankfully it was large, and a bowl. This amount of food would not have fit on a plate. Zel's wasn't quite as large, but still had a substantial amount of ice cream, chopped nuts, hot fudge, hot caramel, whipped cream, a cherry, and one giant chocolate-chip cookie, still warm from the oven.

"Enjoy boys!" the lady called, turning to serve the next customer as Benji accepted his dessert dish, and retreated to one of the tables set up out here, snagging two spoons off the edge of the counter, and handing one to Zel.

"So... Yeah. That happened." Benji said with a nervous little laugh as he started to dig into his ice cream. "I guess she's not used to seeing me without one of the others... She made assumptions."

[SpringsSong]

As the woman went about prepping the sundaes, Zel jumped slightly when Benji whispered in his ear.  He didn't even know why he was jumpy at the moment, but after a few moments, he seemed to have calmed down and looked back over to Benji, offering a sympathetic smile.

"Why would I be mad?" he asked.  Sure, his heart had jut barely started to return to a normal rate, but it was, at least, no longer pounding so loudly in his ears that he was certain that Benji--or even the other patrons--could hear it, too.

When the sundaes were brought out, Zelaen quickly grabbed his and joined Benji at the table that he'd gone to, taking the spoon that he offered and digging into his own ice cream.  He listened as the other humanform Kuhna spoke and gave a nervous chuckle, and after a moment, he nodded slightly.

"So, you usually come here with others from your home?" he asked.  He hadn't missed that the woman behind the counter had called Benji by name, where he had simply been his friend--not that he minded in the least.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"Yeah... Luminare takes me here sometimes when he needs to make a call or something, and needs me out of his hair for ten minutes." He sighed, and licked his lips. The ice-cream was magnificent. "So... umm... What do you want to do next? We could stay in the park... there's a lot of great places to just kick back and relax... or maybe you want to play something? There's an arcade nearby, and I'm really good at some of the games."

He dug his spoon deep into the ice cream, and grinned a bit. "There's also that shopping place I told you about. I was going to go there for a while with Dejar anyway and get some new games... and the book store to get a new notebook. But there's a pet-store over there too... and a giant fountain... and a swim-shop. Do you... like to swim, Zel?"

Under the table, he was shuffling his feet back and forth, not entirely sure what else to say. He didn't want Zel to leave or go away just now, because as much as he liked being away from Dejar's constant watch, he also didn't like really being all alone. Besides, Zel was kind of cute. Maybe he'd write a song about him later on.

"Ummm... Also wanted to ask you. What do you do for a living and stuff? I know you said you take care of your sister, but... like... what do you do all day? And what are your hobbies and things?"

It sounded sort of strange and desperate to him when he said it, but he really was curious about what the other did. He didn't know many more people than doctors, artists, and the occasion worker-of-ill-repute, so any other job prospects sort of intrigued him. He hoped to get a job himself one day, but Luminare kept saying he didn't have to be in such a hurry to be independent.

[SpringsSong]

Zelaen nodded as Benji spoke, taking a bite out of the cookie before returning to the ice cream.  The cookie was delicious, and it went so well with the ice cream and all of the toppings.  When Benji asked him what he wanted to do next, he thought for several minutes before answering.

"Well, the arcade certainly sounds like a lot of fun," he said after swallowing a mouthful of ice cream.  "There's a few games that I'm good at, but I don't really get to go to arcades that often."

When he mentioned the other shopping, Zelaen nodded.  "I remember you mentioning the bookstore.  That would be fun," he said, pausing to think for a few minutes before he answered Benji's next question.  "Do I... like to swim?  Well, I like it all right, but I'm not the greatest of swimmers, sadly," he said, lowering his head sheepishly.

His own feet were swinging back and forth absentmindedly as he ate his ice cream, but he was certainly in no hurry.  When Benji asked him what he did, aside from taking care of his sister, he offered a smile.

"Well, my other half-sister, Lori, is a musician.  I usually clean up the recordings she makes--you know, cut back the static in the background, do my best to remove a rogue cough in the dead space where the recording itself has started, but the music hasn't--or even after the music's ended, but the recording's still going.  I also transcribe some of the things she plays, although that's definitely harder," he said, laughing.  "Hobbies?  Well, I enjoy listening to music a lot.  I also take recordings and mess with the sounds slightly to create new versions of a song--but most of them never get off of my computer."

Setting the spoon down for a moment, he then asked, "How about you?  What hobbies do you have, aside from writing and drawing?  What kind of a job would you like to have?"

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"Me?" Benji laughed a little. "With my health issues, Luminare says I'll never be able to hold a job." He stabbed his ice cream a little more forcefully. "I am so sick, apparently, nobody would hire me. But... if I could hold a job at all, it would be...." his eyes started to look a bit dreamy, and he nibbling on the ice cream, spoon resting in his mouth as he thought - or imagined. "A rock star. An honest-to-goodness rock star. A singer, obviously. Singer, song-writer, member of my own band." He sighed, and put the spoon back in the ice cream, leaning his head on both hands, with a far-off look in his eyes. "I would love that. Singing on stage, writing my own songs, so that everyone would be able to hear them..."

He snapped out of his daydream, and ate another bite of the sundae, using his spoon to get a good bit of ice cream on one of the cookies before sticking it in his mouth. The expression on his face was one of sheer bliss. Yes, these cookies were good. Still warm and gooey. And the ice cream was delectable too. Must have made the pipe-dream daydreams a little easier to take.

"What about you? What would you do, if you could do anything? What would you be if you could be anything?" Sticking the spoon in his mouth again, he looked across at Zel. "I know, my dream's pretty silly, but... tell me yours?"

[SpringsSong]

"What would I do, if I could do anything I wanted..." Zelaen echoed, thinking for a few moments as he bit into his cookie again, keeping it separate from the ice cream.  He didn't mind the two together, but with how warm and gooey the cookie was, he didn't want it to melt the ice cream any faster than it was already melting.

"I've always loved music.  Might've had something to do with my half-sister always performing this or that on her guitar, or my half-brother having a gift for the piano," he said.  "I can sing halfway-decently--or, at least, I've been told I can carry a tune better than most--but I love the more technical side of things.  You know, making sure a song's properly balanced for a recording--or even for a live show!  You can't have the vocals being drowned out by the drummer, now, can you?" he asked.

Indeed, that was true--whatever it was that Dalidor did to bring in money, it not only provided care for Rosilla, but a nice, acoustic guitar for his other half-sister, a magnificent piano for his half-brother, and... whatever it was his sister had found her passion in; when she wasn't rushing to Rosilla's side, she was almost always holed up in her room, it had allowed him to get some of the better gear that professionals in recording studios used.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"That sort of thing sounds pretty cool." Benji said, grinning. "I could never get the hang of all those buttons, knobs, and dials. I did try once, though. There's a recording studio on the grounds of the castle. It was set up a long time ago, but nobody uses it." He shrugged, and stabbed into his ice cream again, most of his attention clearly on the one across from him.

"If I could get you into that studio... do you think you could teach me what everything does? I would love to learn. Maybe I could sing a song while I'm in there, and you could... I dunno... remix it or something! Or... maybe we could sing together?" he asked, blushing a bit, and looked away from the other with a sort of shuffling of his feet, although they didn't quite reach the ground on these bar-stool type seats.

"Umm... if you wanted to, I could probably get someone to come in and play. We've got a bunch of unused instruments, and I know at least a few people in the castle have some musical talent. I could definitely pull some strings, and... and get you a band to work with for the afternoon. Something like that, maybe?"

Stabbing his ice cream again, he looked up at Zel again, hopefully. "Maybe you could stay for dinner, too. Like a sleepover or something?"

[SpringsSong]

Zelaen's head tilted ever so slightly, and then, his eyes widened at the prospect that Benji was presenting to him.  To say that the thought thrilled him would be an understatement.

"Th-that would be awesome!" Zelaen finally said, setting his spoon down for just a moment.  "I mean, there's still some things that I'm learning about when it comes to the knobs and dials, but I could definitely teach you what I know--"

By now, he'd picked up the spoon again and was in the process of getting a combination of both mint chip and cookies-and-cream.  It was almost in his mouth when Benji had mentioned that he could pull some strings and likely get a band together for the afternoon, and then extended his invitation for him to stay for dinner--or maybe even the night, from how it sounded.  His mouth closed around the spoon quickly--something he instantly regretted, because it was a much larger spoonful than he'd intended to take.

"Ah, sh--crud, brain freeze," Zelaen said, catching himself before he swore.  After a few moments (and a bite of the cookie, as well as pressing his tongue to the roof of his mouth), he said, "That sounds like a plan."

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"Careful with that brain-freeze! Here..." Benji put down his spoon, and reached over to Zel, depressing the skin between his thumb and forefinger with his own thumb and forefinger, pressing down. "It's a trick Luminare taught me. If you press here, it gets rid of all kinds of headaches - or at least lessens them. Something to do with distracting the brain? I don't know. I just know it works."

He suddenly became keenly aware of the fact that he was touching Zel's hand... and dropped it like a hotcake, going a fetching shade of red right up to his ears. "Uh... it'll... it'll work if you do it... too." he stammered, jamming his spoon into the last of his ice-cream, and licking at it quietly. "A..about that getting you into the studio thing, umm... I... well..." He bit his lip. "I could do it as soon as this afternoon. I just need to call the castle. Which means telling Dejar where I am... I'll get in trouble, but they'll let you come home with me."

Looking down at his feet through the glass table, he shuffled them a bit, sighing. "I probably shouldn't have run away from him. I just.... I was so tired of... of everything, you know? Of being treated like I was a little kid still."

[SpringsSong]

Zelaen un-plastered his tongue from the roof of his mouth when Benji reached out and pressed down on the skin between his thumb and forefinger.  "Well, I can kinda see how that would work," he said.  "It... since it hurts a little bit, it sends a signal to the brain that's all like, 'Hey, this hurts!' and the brain focuses on that instead--at least for a little bit.  Or something like that, anyways," he said, shifting slightly in his seat.

When Benji said that he could probably get him into the studio as soon as that afternoon, Zelaen nodded.  "Hopefully you don't get in too much trouble..." he said in a quiet voice.  He didn't know what it was like to be treated like a kid, per se, but he could imagine that it wasn't fun.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

"It wouldn't be any fun if I didn't get into some trouble." Benji said, with a bit of a laugh. "Don't worry. Dejar is nice enough. And Luminare might even be understanding if I've caught him in the right mood." He dug some ice-cream up again, and licked at it on the spoon in thought. "You might have to pretend to be something else for a while. Like a paramedic or something. I'm more likely to be able to get you into the door of the castle if he thinks you're part of the medical profession and looking out for me. We can tell him the actual reason once you're inside and stuff."

Yawning a bit, he ate some more ice-cream, and looked up at the sky. "When did it get so dark? It's like... one o'clock or something. I wonder if this means it's gonna rain..."

[SpringsSong]

"Pretend I'm part of the medical profession, hm?" Zelaen echoed, murmuring thoughtfully for a moment before he nodded.  "I think I could manage that for a little while, at least.  I have helped with my half-sister's care before, even if what she has isn't even in the same realm as what you have," he said.

When Benji said that it wouldn't be any fun if he didn't get in a little trouble, Zelaen couldn't help but laugh.  "I suppose that there's some truth to that statement," he said, recalling the trouble that he and his sister would get themselves into.  After a few minutes, however, he shook his head and said, "Well, you should probably give... Dejar, you said?--a call and let him know that you're all right and all."