Hassan twines their fingers together, and he pulls Edovard toward the door that leads out to the main corridor. “There’s a nice restaurant here,” the quiet man tells Edovard.
We all follow the two out into the main corridor with Hassan leading us to a restaurant across the promenade from the coffee place.
“This is where you want to eat?” Darcy questions skeptically.
Hassan barely glances at him, striding to the Yunkin at the host’s stand.
Santanos watches Hassan answer the host’s questions with a curious expression. “This is not the restaurant I would have chosen,” he murmurs softly.
Gregory snorts. “He likes the sushi here.”
The host beckons us to follow, leading us to a large round table that easily accommodates the seven of us with room to spare. After a moment, a different Yunkin, who looks like an ant with rapidly fluttering wings, appears at the head of our table with a skip in their step. They have a tiara on their head around their antenna, but their mouth noises actually translate for me.I can still hear the clicking that makes up their language, but the clicks sound like they’re part of the person’s accent in English.
“Welcome to” —the server clicks out the name of the restaurant, and it’s sort of weird that it doesn’t translate to English, considering the rest of the sentence does. “Is this your first time joining us?” they ask, handing out menus.
“I’m new,” Edovard says, holding up his hand.
I mirror him with a wave of my own. “Me too.”
Bellamy also raises his hand.
“Well, we’re so glad you chose us for your dining experience today. Do your friends want to surprise you, or would you like me to explain how our menu and ordering work?”
“Oh, I think it’d be fun to surprise the newbies,” Darcy drawls sardonically.
Hassan frowns, peering at Darcy for a long moment. “I think we need separate tables.”
The server perks up. “Oh, are we going to have two tables today?”
“I’m not sure we have enough room for two tables,” Darcy points out.
The restaurant isn’t busy at all. We’re the only people here since it’s the middle of the night according to the clock on the wall, which tells us the time on the space station and in various places around the galaxy, including Earth’s UTC.
“All of our tables expand with a sleeve insert if needed,” the server assures us.
“Then by all means,” my boyfriend says, waving to the table. “Whatever Hassan wants.”
Hassan sits back, placing one arm around Edovard and one around Santanos. “If it’s Bellamy, we only need one table.”
Bellamy sits up, shaking his head. “I don’t know what y’all are talking about, but I do not volunteer. Surprises aren’t my thing.”
“I like surprises,” I tell everyone. “What do you need me to do?”
Darcy raises his hand to stop the server’s next words. “Wait. Let me give this some thought.” We all pause for about five seconds, and then he says, “No, it won’t work with Elijah because of his leg. This was Hassan’s idea, so I think he should do it.”
Santanos smiles, looking up at the man with his arm draped over his shoulder. “I don’t mind sharing.”
Hassan narrows his eyes briefly as he moves to get up, but Gregory jumps to his feet first. “I’ll do it,” he announces with a grumpy frown. Aww, look at him volunteering because his boyfriend likes the sushi here. What a nice guy.
“Excellent,” the server chirps, clapping their antenna together. “If you will mark on the menu which rolls you’re ordering, we will prepare your table.”
With agreement from the rest of us, the server and Gregory walk away.
34
Between the six of us left at the table, we order fifteen different sushi/sashimi types plus some kind of dessert that Santanos insists we try. The menu is expansive and includes items from multiple planets, though we only order off the Earth menu to avoid finding out if we have allergies to non-Earth foods. Santanos also orders five different appetizers because Edovard thought he might like to try them.
The apps come within a few minutes, and Edovard graciously shares with the rest of us, smiling happily when Santanos builds him a plate of food before giving the rest of us permission to partake. It’s adorable how they are together.
