Color flushed Val's cheeks, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that it wasn't due to the alcohol. "Oh my god, are you blushing?" the man teased, leaning into the table and extracting his hand to gently poke at the girl's side. "You're fucking blushing," the man chuckled, a huge shit-eating grin plastered across his face, relentless in his prodding.
Of course, Ari had plenty of time to be embarrassed too. "A clown's reject sister...? Pffft!" The man rolled his eyes as he brought his glass up to his lips, hiding his embarrassment behind the action. "Ari, that's absolutely adorable~"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up," the man said as he set the glass back down, half-empty.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I promise I'm not making fun of you, really," Val giggled.
The man shook his head, eyes falling to his feet as he did so. "Nah, it's okay," he chuckled as his eyes rose again to meet hers. "She always got a big kick outta it to, so," the man shrugged, "I don't mind too much. It made her happy. Oh, I think that's our food," Ari said, looking over as their server returned holding a tray, laden with a number of dishes.
"Alright, here we go," the woman said as she began to set down each of the dishes, listing what they were again. "And, I think that's everything. Can I get you guys anything else to drink? A refill?"
"Uh, yeah, actually could we get a bottle of that tengumai stuff? It was really good," Ari said.
"Sure thing, I'll be back with that in a second."
The server left again to go get their bottle while Ari looked over all the food. "Oh man, this looks great," he said as he picked up one of the meat skewers and set it down on his plate. "You never mentioned if you're gonna take me up on that challenge, by the way," the man then said, casting a gaze over in Valeria direction as he grabbed his napkin. "Up for it, or are you chicken?"
@Luthien