"No worries. Yeah, JSMN has come here as a group before, and I've taken Jade here solo a couple times. Jade, along with Blake of RWBY, are the biggest seafood-lovers on our teams, and so they always check out seafood places."

"I'll keep that in mind. It would be nice to get to know the team better... If you'd like to tell me about some of your adventures I wouldn't mind."

She hums. "Any particular flavor of adventure you'd like?"

"Something light, if you've got it. I know you've got a pretty dense past but for right now I want to emphasize the softer side."

She tilts her head and hums thoughtfully. "Okay, I've got a couple. Most of these were things we did for free, just trying to make things better around Mantle, rather than the actually paying jobs. One time, old Mrs. Soot — she insisted we call her Grandma Soot, lived a few blocks away from the warehouse, gave us home-baked food sometimes — came to us and let us know her cat had gotten stuck in a tree. When we went out to look, the tree was three stories tall and the cat was at the top. Jade just kicked off and flew up, and the cat must've figured she was the biggest non-Grimm bird it'd seen and pounced her. When she landed, it was gnawing on her wrist. And that's why Jade swore off non-Faunus cats."

Lilian laughs. "Getting cats out of trees, huh? Clearly you've always been destined for heroic exploits." 

She giggles and shrugs. "I never could turn people down when they were in need. Another time, a little boy fell in one of the rivers. In winter. We just lucked out and happened to be in the area. I ran ahead while Neo dropped a conjured obstacle to slow his progress down the river, then just stripped down to my bra and a pair of shorts and dove into the water. Fuck it was cold. But Neo slowed the kid down enough that I was able to grab him, and then I grabbed something on the shore with my whip and reeled us in."

At this point a waitress arrives with sake, two small cups, and an enormous plate of gyoza with dipping sauce.

"Wow. That's quite the story." 

And then Lily is quite distracted by the gyoza. "... Oooh," she says. "I love these things. Mind if I start?"

"Go right ahead!"

She busies herself with pouring them each a cup of sake, and then grabs a dumpling for herself.

Lily takes three dumplings and places them on her side plate, eats one, then takes her cup of sake in hand. 

"Here goes," she says. 

She raises hers toward Lilian in a brief toast. "To new beginnings."

"To new beginnings."

She takes a sip and lets it linger on her palate.

Sable does the same. The sake is quite warm, very smooth, and has an almost-sweet taste to it. The impression is very light and almost-creamy, except for all the ways it's not actually creamy or a dairy product at all. It's comparatively pleasant, as alcohols go.

Huh.

The alcohol is something she's definitely going to need to get used to, but it's eminently drinkable. 

She swallows. 

"That's actually pretty decent. I'm definitely not used to the taste of alcohol, but I could get used to that."

She nods and smiles. "Sake's probably my favorite of the category, but I don't drink very often. Stick to celebrations, that sort of thing."

She piles a few dumplings onto a side plate as well and digs in. They're quite good.

"I can see why you like it. I've heard grape wines can be quite astringent." 

And she'll continue to work on her gyoza. The pile diminishes a bit as she takes another set of three.

Sable does the same, slowly working through hers and then refilling her plate, sticking just a helping behind Lilian so her date can absolutely get as many as she'd like. "They really can be. It's nice, when you're used to it, but it's probably more of an adjustment than sake is."

Aw. 

Sable's so giving. 

She stops with a handful of gyoza left. "I'd like to save room for the special, so feel free to take what's left. Or we can box it for later."

She steals one more, then nods and giggles.

"We can box it. Maybe even share with the other girls, if you want."

She has another sip of sake.

Lilian takes another sip of sake, savouring it on her tongue. It's still a little harsh, but it's new and she's doing it with Sable. 

She smiles a little, looking across the table at her date. It's just... nice to be with her.

Sable grins warmly back. It really is. "Let's see, any other stories that aren't just slamming the SDC's legbreakers against the pavement until they stop? Hmm... Oh! Neo and Roman have a ridiculous game. He's a master thief and all, but every time we see him, Neo steals his hat. The very first time was the best, though, because he came to visit us at the warehouse just a few days after we'd first met him, and he didn't realize it was gone until he was leaving. He was utterly gobsmacked that this tiny girl had managed to get one over on him."

"Heh. That is a ridiculous game. You should buy an identical hat to his and give it to Neo so she can fake him out with it."

She giggles. "It gets better. So the next day, he comes back, and there's that black bowler sitting right atop his head. Neo is stunned. Absolutely shocked."

"And they've just been trading it back and forth ever since, huh?"

She shakes her head and grins. "She runs back to where she'd stashed it, and there it still is. She comes back out and stares, stunned, between the bowler on his head and the one in her hands, for a few minutes. He utterly refuses to acknowledge that the previous bowler even exists. And then she scowls and nods. And now she's got a box full of the things, and we have absolutely no fucking clue where he keeps getting more."