Six o’clock in the latter half of the hour. The small interval in time where daylight bridges with the night sky. The murky glow of stars briefly in the canvas of an orange overcast sky.

A constant recurrence in our day to day. A beautiful recurrence in our day to day.

Be honest though, who even still pauses what they’re doing to look up at the sky anymore? Yeah, that’s right.

If one were to only stop and marvel at the beauty that encapsulated our daily lives, perhaps serenity would find its way more into our burning, yearning souls.

Too bad six o’clock was when my favorite show started broadcasting. Sorry, Mother Earth, maybe I’ll appreciate your all-natural, 100% organic beauty some other time, yeah? Raincheck me.

Perhaps this was some sort of karmic justice, yeah that’s it. A form of divine retribution for my blissful willful ignorance. I mean, why else would I be subjugated to be a prisoner to Ria’s despair-ridden whims?

Forced to sit by the dining room table, given no alternatives but to stare begrudgingly into those conniving crimson eyes of mischief reincarnated, as she twirled herself a forkful of carbonara, brazenly provocative, her stare ever so alluring.

See, I expected a pop quiz on the dos and don’ts of dating 101. Push aside the living room couch, come roll in the chalkboard, and open your textbooks to page 394.

Wouldn’t have really minded if she did that instead. Sure, I’d moan and whine - put back the couch you freaking chicken - but a back to school lesson would have really been so much more straightforward than what she had planned here.

What’s a makeshift dinner date going to accomplish? Sure your pasta’s delicious, didn’t even know you could make some… point, though? Where’s the point?

“More… water… Sir?”

A pitcher of glass slowly slithered into peripheral view and with it appeared the pale, razor-sharp nails holding it still in its grasp.

The question of life is a wonder that would always elude mankind. Screw that, my greatest ponder was why the hell did Ria decide to make Adalia play the part of a waitress?

Look at her just standing there staring at me eat goddamn spicy meatballs - it’s creepy as shit, dude!

“I’m… I’m good, Adalia,” I said, widely smiling, while inside, very much dying. “Maybe later.”

“Okay...”

Adalia and her little pitcher of water retreated a single step back from the dinner table, standing so perfectly still that she was practically invisible to the naked eye… or so I wished.

I can still see you, Adalia. You’re not as hidden in the darkness as you think can you please stop staring at me so intensely, you’re freaking me the hell out.

“Master?” From across the table came a sensual gentle voice. “Is the meal not to your liking? I’ve noticed you barely touched yours.”

Ria looked at me with concern in her eyes, the ethereal glow of flames that shrouded her exuded so much warmth and welcome just then- I could almost forget how deceitful it really all was.

“Mmm-hmmm,” I straighten my lips, glancing slightly to a pitcher-holding figure to the right of me. “I wonder why that is?”

“Pay no mind to others, my dear Master, for tonight is a night dedicated to us two, and us two only. It needn’t be ruined and wasted by simple trivialities. I implore you, enjoy yourself, yes?”

Don’t even know how to respond to that. So I turned to the only person in the vicinity that would actually speak some sense.

“Adalia, waitressing… you having fun?”

“It’s… a favor,” muttered the misty-eyed server. “Ria… told me…”

Suddenly there was a clatter at the table, two hands slamming onto wood, and a sickly sweet smoldering expression smiled in my direction.

“Mistress Ria,” She paused to smile. “The benevolent wonderful Ria, decided it best to make due to the deeds she’s owed by one Adalia The Matriarch for careless negligence resulting in the multiple deaths that Ria, in her heartbreaking misfortune, had to undergo.”

Fancy talk was not my kind of talk. Took a few moments of blinking and staring before I could sort out and unravel what the hell was even said.

Again, I preferred the rational and the normal, so I turned once more to the pitcher-lady for clarity.

“So because you killed her when you frenzied, you’re doing what she tells you to do to make up for it?”

Adalia’s movements were always slow and sluggish, but that one, she vigorously nodded her head for.

“Eat… Sir…” She said. “Your food is… getting cold…”

Someone must have spiked my drink with crazy juice or something. Everything that was happening played out like a very lucid, very bizarre dream after a night’s worth of drinking minus the passing out part.

Eating pasta with a Phoenix pretending to be an Elf to get you ready for a date with said Elf, while a terrifying creature of the night played wingman to yourself, holding up pitchers and offering replenishments.

Nice to know that the batshit insane wasn’t just exclusive to the imagination.

Still, if they both think this might be beneficial in the long run, who am I to reject their helping hand?

I shoved a big clump of noodles into my mouth and chewed.

“Very good,” nodded Ria, her eyes glittering with approval.

It was getting harder to refrain from rolling my eyes at the absurdity of it all. I had half a mind to simply get up and adios outta there. I’ve dealt with and seen enough already ten minutes into this ‘date’ of hers, don’t think another ten would really do much anyway.

At least, that’s what five-minutes-ago me would have said, the me now opted to instead keep to his own at the dinner table, gulping his food down with a chug of cold water.

If she wants a dinner date, she’ll get a dinner date alright.

“You’re not eating your broccoli,” whispered I, without glancing away from my own plate.

The sound of her fork scraping against the plate immediately stopped.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your less pasta and more greens at this point,” I continued casually. “Why aren’t you eating your vegetables?”

Ria frowned, bemusement slowly filling her eyes, before speaking again. “Ah, well… Master, as you are already well aware, I absolutely abhor the taste of broccoli. Growing up, I found - “

“No, no, no… Ash,” I glanced upwards, leaning my tone heavily onto the name. “Didn’t you used to eat anything I give you? Pretty sure you weren’t even all that picky with your food. Or at least, that’s what the Ash I knew was like.”

It was her turn now to blink and stare. Seconds spent in silence before she finally realized what I was trying to do here.

Ria’s smile was warm, yet the twinkle in her eyes challenged the one in my own.

“Oh, was that really the case before?” She asked with controlled politeness.

I simply shrugged my shoulders.

“Very well…”

Following those words, Ria stabbed the head of a large piece that laid slump at the very center of her meal, aggression flushing with every flourish and twirl of her arm as she raised it, bit into it, and chewed it whole in front of my very eyes.

Watching her try and hold back the disgust and revulsion on her face from surfacing without also bursting into laughter myself was harder than I thought.

But I pulled through it, and amazingly enough, so did she.

“You’re going to eat the rest too, right Ash?” I asked, feigning ignorance. “You still got a good amount left on your plate there.”

I saw Ria’s smile give a twitch, to which she immediately blinked away and hid by taking a sip from her glass.

“Why, of course, I am,” She muttered so confidently while also staring down at her meal with uncertainty. “It is… what - who I am, after all.”

Okay, there I couldn’t suppress my smile from showing any longer.

How many times did I play right into your hands, Ria? How many times did you always get the last laugh?

Well, now you’re in mine, now I’m laughing.

You wanna pretend this is a date, you wanna pretend to be Ash? Well, you’re gonna have to act and do exactly as she would otherwise how are you to ever convince me, right?

“Yes, you’re you Ash, and you do everything that Ash would do, because you’re you, hmm?”

Do your best, Ria. I mean - Ash.

Date night has only just begun.

Now, I don't expect you to last long given how much you keep fidgeting about as you struggled to put another one into your quivering lips, but I do expect you to at least acknowledge the fact that try as you might, replicating Ash's mannerisms was really not your thing.

Or maybe it is, prove me wrong - shove that green thing in your mouth. Ash wouldn't have even hesitated for a second, so why were you?

Reaching for another sip of water, Ria? Second time in a row? You really should get a move on, Adalia can only pour so much.

Seriously she was like a spoiled brat that won't eat her veggies. How do you get to live to however old she was without getting accustomed to consuming the healthy stuff?

Strange indeed.

"Um… may I be excused?"

So that's your limit then, three minutes before breaking into a plea. I expected longer, very disappointed.

"What's wrong, Ash?" I asked, munching into some greens of my own. "Not to your liking?"

Ria closed her eyes and when she next fluttered them open, gone was that flimsy Elf-shaped mask, her frowning lips heaving away a long sigh. "I get it, I get it. You don't wanna play pretend - fine. I'll stop Ash-ing. Just don't kill me over it, please? I'm about to keel over, and I rather not have you see that and go losing respect over me, so I may seriously be excused, please?"

My chair made a screech as I leaned against it in a victory slump, spreading my arms wide, and smiling the smile she always used against me.

"Keel away," I said, reveling away at her expense with much satisfaction.

Ria, glaring, scurried away from the table in a hurry, bashing into random pieces of furniture on her way to the bathroom. The distant slamming of a door echoed back to me a mission well-accomplished, the retching and the flushing of water afterward got me feeling a little guilty admittedly - but overall though, I got no regrets.

The lone silent bystander to it all stood and watched from afar, her expression a vapid mixture of vagueness and ambiguity. Can never tell what this vampire is thinking until she actually comes out and says it.

And judging by the way on how she slowly turned my way, it seems she was about to anyway.

"Phoenixes are mostly… carnivorous… in nature..."

Ahh, a reprimand. The ever so subtle slighted tone tinging her words… it sounded like Adalia wasn't much of a fan of bullying chickens. I guess she was under the impression that I was unaware of phoenixes and their tendency to turn their noses away at the slightest glance of anything resembling a plant, and it wouldn't be far-fetched of her to think that… but here's the thing -

"I know, Adalia," I told her. "I know."

Saw a phoenix in Asteria. Got an option to feed a phoenix in Asteria. All I had were herbs. Mistakes were the mother of learning. Had to go back to town to find a healer for all the burns I've acquired.

Ria came back to the dining room table, scrounging the remaining remnants of her shattered pride, and marched back to her seat all dignified-like.

"A girl tries to have a little fun…" She huffed at me, slamming her elbows to the table.

"If you can't eat them, why make them?"

"Was trying to be authentic," She explained, retiring her detective hat by the wayside. "The restaurant I had in mind serves these vile ghastly things. Didn't want to, didn't have to, but I did - all for your sake… and you dare use my own weapons against me… Ooo, boy, guess that's my bad for thinking you kind, isn't it?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Well played then," She clapped her hands with a stare ever stoic. "But you know, the lesson here was that you're supposed to be talking to me like how you would with the Elf, this wasn't supposed to be an opportunity for you to get a 1-up over me."

"Lesson was flawed from the start, anyhow," I said, twirling another roll of pasta around my fork. "If you can't eat your veggies, how are you supposed to be Ash?"

Didn't hear a retort, didn't get an answer… for the first time ever, Ria kept mute, forced to swallow the bitter taste of defeat. Quite literally. Seeing her pout and chew in silence was like the cherry on top for me.

"Chin up, love detective," I said. "You'll get 'em next time."

Though it was a victory all well and good, the feeling of triumph was rather short-lived. This final lesson of hers didn't exactly come to fruition, and even if it did, it was just eating - romanticize all she wants, dinner was still dinner, can't do much with that.

Adalia as well didn't bother keeping up the facade for any longer. The pitcher laid on the table, and she laid on the couch, staring up into the ceiling and entering a world of her own until it came the time for feeding. The atmosphere overall was a strange feeling.

The chilly draft from the A/C unit flickering away at the candle burning bright which enveloped the vicinity in a warm, soft glow. Dinner date this was not, but admittedly, it was not far off.

Tomorrow I'll be with Ash - real Ash, not fake. Tonight, however, just for now… Ria was the one sitting across from me.

Maybe… perhaps...?

"Don't even think about it," suddenly spoke out her voice, a pair of crimson eyes gazing at me with a dubious expression.

Mind reading was the last thing I expected to get from a phoenix. I leaned back in my seat, mildly surprised.

"Think about what?"

"That look in your eyes," She said, "I don't like that look. It's telling me you're up to no good again. You're going to try and twist this around, aren't you?"

"Nooo…"

"Well, too bad," She stood up from the table, her fork and spoon clattering onto an empty plate. "This is dinner, not a date. Said it yourself."

"A few questions, at least?" I asked, losing to my curiosity once more. "I know jack all about you."

Ria couldn't even be bothered to entertain the thought, she scampered off, plate and cup along with, onwards to the direction of the kitchen sink.

"And you're better off for it, I'm telling you," was all she had to offer. "Don't think too much, finish your food, I'll clean up. You go rest - big day tomorrow, after all."

Now she was being deliberately cooperative and considerate. It was a good way of shutting down the subject, and she was absolutely utilizing it to its fullest. Barely even scraped off the last scraps on my plate, before she came swooping down and swiping it away from me.

No words, just action after action with no room for interjections. I don't know man, but I get the feeling she doesn't wanna talk about it. Might be just me, though, I dunno.

"Fine," I muttered, resignedly myself to simple ignorance once more. "I'll drop it for now."

Was getting sleepy anyway. Might as well strike at the opportunity while I still have it. To rest, I go, but not before addressing one more thing.

"I'll be in my room, Adalia," I called out from the tippy-top of the stairs. "Hungry, come see me, alright?"

Adalia grunted… or did she moan? Not sure, but it sure sounded like a 'yes' to me, good enough.

The floorboards of the second-floor hallway were greeted by my lumbering, heavy steps. Exhaustion was an easy, logical explanation for it, but the actual cause was a far more insidious being wreaking havoc in the creases of my head.

Today was a day spent overthinking much. Part of my brain was dedicated to my parents, another piece on Ash, an intrigued portion focused on Ria, then suddenly Amanda came waltzing in throwing a wrench in things…. mentally, I was running on fumes, my brain cells were working overtime to keep me up and about just for long enough to reach my bedroom door without collapsing outright.

Five feet away from the doorknob, brain cells ready to clock out on a job well done.

Then my eyes went looking, my body went turning, and my legs went walking in the total opposite direction.

My battered mind howled at me 'Why?!', and all I could say for my defense was that Ash's bedroom door was slightly ajar.

Unsurprisingly, a little detour proved no daunting task anymore for that little voice in my head.

Haven't seen her all day… what has she been up to?

Unabated curiosity spurred me onwards to that little slit in the doorway, cautiously I let my eyes peek through into her room expecting to see her hunched over by the desk, a controller in her hands… hearing the sounds of swords clashing, monsters growling like I always have these past few days.

I didn't. Nothing greeted my ears, nothing came to view except for the sound and sight of a silent night. The laptop was on the table, as it always was, but closed instead of open, lying there folded with Ash nowhere near in sight.

Confusion was a natural reaction to have, but then I poked a little bit further, and all was made clear, and bright… and very… breathtaking.

All four corners of her room had something to occupy the empty space.

One had the closet, one became a study place, the other had a beside drawer facing it… the last one had a glossy, extravagant standing mirror, and in that corner, surrounded among a pile of worn clothes, was the same shopping bag from the clothing store.

That cardinal rule Ria mentioned… what was it again? You can't see the wedding dress until it was on the bride.

Well, that rule technically wasn't broken.

I saw the dress, but it was already on the bride. A pure diamond white sundress, fitted to perfection across her pale supple skin, its curls and edges adhering graciously to every twirl and spin she made, her reflection replicating her every move, the glow of emerald eyes scrutinizing every nook and cranny for imperfections but ultimately finding none.

Not to my eyes, anyway.

The snowy white of her hair flowing and blending well to the whites of her dress. It was all impeccable.

Ash thought differently, however, her expression still muddled, still troubled - clearly she thought something was missing, that one piece needed to achieve the perfect look.

What was it?

She looked on and on, tilting to every angle, swaying to every side, what was missing?

So simple yet so far out of thought.

Just smile, Ash. Smile. That's all you needed to do, and you'll finally find what your missing.

In more ways than one.

I retreated back to my room, collapsing onto the bed with another thought in mind.

Those piles of clothes sprawled around her feet… her fretting over every loose strand of hair, every furl in the dress… this date wasn't that big of a deal, that's what I keep telling myself.

Yet to her, it was much more than that. Everything that was asked of her, she'll pour her all into it. Including this.

Perhaps I should too.

Tomorrow… I'll get you that smile tomorrow. I swear on it.