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Jack grinned and said, "Good luck," for Otto's benefit, waving him off. Once they were alone, he tugged Peyton closer and entwined their arms with familiar ease, that grin turning into a smirk. "Smooth, perhaps. I prefer 'carefully planned', but thank you all the same~"

< < Almost obsessively so. > >

Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

It was around that time that his phone went off. Plucking it from his pants pocket, he skimmed the message and sighed. "Seems one of my friends needs me to make a delivery before his wife does. How's about you accompany on a quick visit before the show?"

The show being the little confrontation he had just orchestrated.

Not broken? How had she managed to misinterpret so much at once? Mimsy still found it difficult to believe that she hadn't done something wrong, but he was smiling, and this did seem more typical. The guilt slowly began to fade, with the exception of a small influx when she noticed the Dwight's escape, because she could not ever seem to do anything other than make his life disturbingly awkward.

Her lack of understanding for all of this was causing her to be very close to experiencing some sort of emotional whiplash, but she was less inclined to linger on every tiny thing that didn't make sense to her when she no longer felt as if she'd doomed everyone. Still, she couldn't let it go entirely, so she compiled a list of questions for Clerise as she listened and stared. Mainly at their hands.

That rose a question in itself, but it was too extensive to be just one single item among the others; she temporarily put the first set aside and diverged into a new list. It was different than the one before it, less itemized and more a flow chart with only one path. Clerise had warned her against doing that, but bad habits were hard to break.

If only she had, she might have been able to calm down and enjoy the evening like a normal, rational person. Instead, she arrived at a conclusive result that sounded a little too crazy and unbelievable to be true, and made the astoundingly brilliant choice to vocalize it.

"Did I need to come to the ball dressed like this to ensure that I would conceive a child as soon as possible? Is that also the reason why you are holding my hand? But...that would mean..." Her fingers tensed up, nails pressing into the back of his hand. "Was, um...was that the subject of importance that you did not adequately address? I-I...is it...does it occur tonight?"

She stared up at him with eyes full of wonder, amazed that he had somehow discovered that information.

Robert had almost been worried that her long silence meant she was disinterested, but he had no time to fret - all of the children returned to Robert's care, at the worst time possible. They were all staring at him, with eyes just a little too round and faces just a little too covered in sugary crumbs thanks a lot Allan. He put his finger to his lips, and each of them mimicked the action, though most of them giggled as they did so. He gestured for them to return to the seats he'd originally put them in, and his head gestured at Mimsy as if to say Do Not Disturb. But they didn't need him to tell them this, because Mimsy was in a world of her own, and the expressions she made as she worked things out in her head were keeping children from getting anywhere near her. Somehow, they just knew.

Ramona slid back into her seat behind Robert, and slapped Bailey on the back when it looked like he was about to start talking. They had to be good, for like, a minute.

And then the minute was over, as Mimsy started to speak. Her voice was quiet, but it was enough to send the children off on their own tangents, chattering and searching for the crayons that had been left behind.

Robert took in every word that she said, one at a time, and tried to focus really hard on what she was saying to him - but she'd thrown the word conceive in too early, and he'd locked up in despair. His hand jerked back as soon as she mentioned it. "Nonononono oh no Mimsy I am not trying to - oh my God I am so sorry, this is all my fault, just - listen - no conceiving right now, okay. Okay."

He took in a deep, long breath, because he needed it.

"I'm not trying to score with you. I mean. Maybe in the future but - OH my GOD I can't believe I just - listen, really, all I was trying to do was get up the nerve to ask you out. Okay. That's it. Or even one dance. I swear, I mean, I swear I wasn't trying to get you to.." His breathing rattled in defeat.

".. if you wanna leave I will completely understand."

Robert slumped, filled with self-loathing for all of a minute, before something broke inside of him. Something that reminded him that he could do anything, if he put his mind to it. Even if he failed, it was worth a try. And he was failing, pretty hard.. so it was time to go down with the ship. He pumped himself back up, closed his eyes, and blurted it all out at once.

"Mimsy, would you wanna go on a date sometime? With me, I mean. Like dating date. Thing." Iceberg, straight ahead.

He almost didn't notice the familiar face until she'd ruined his game of almost-jenga by proving everything he knew to be a lie.

"How did you do that?" he asked in a complicated series of hand gestures that included pantomiming how it blew his mind. All while she was pouring herself a glass of wine.

"What, this? This can't be the date," he responded, smiling awkwardly over his shoulder. He might have been more startled by how intimately close she was if it wasn't the normal manner he found himself greeted by her. "I distinctly remember our date was last week, in Paris, when I bought that dress for you. And those shoes." He took a short breath through his nose. "Not this perfume though."

Solia shook her head jovially at Melvin. "Nah, Film is cheap. It's the frames they get ya. Ten bucks for plastic and glass no bigger than a keychain. It's ridiculous. But hey, better than my uh.. reading choices." She scowled. "If a kid can't handle a harlequin cover then I got news you kid isn't read for fine art either." Israfel began cackling at the comparison.

".....Admittedly the covers are a case of trying to hard, so are some of the those baroque paintings. Credit were credit is due."

She hummed loudly, taking time to begin setting her little science kit away. "Yes and no. For short periods of time I am fine with kids. An hour or more and I'll send them to the movies or something. As for dating-" She grinned, "-I prefer the notion that if a man wants me he'll come to me. Or fate. Fate is a.. comforting notion. But while I enjoy others romances... ehhhh.." She slumped.

"I want the D like any woman, but not the other things that come with. Too complicated." She perked up, looking around. "You wanna dance though? Spending the night lamenting over offspring and my lack of game is just sad, even by my standards."

"Grossssss," said the freckled kid who had also sat down upon Robert's statement about the dating which probably even involved things like the kissing. They were only quiet because Allan had promised them more chocolate and Pokemon cards, even though they didn't actually know what a Pokemon card was.

Allan pressed a firm hand on the kid's head to shush him and then grinned ear to ear at Noah and Corbin. "You grown ninja-tachi are behaving yourselves right? Training starts tomorrow at 6 in the morning, no excuses, not even for genin ninjas."

Robert gave the kid a dirty look, but Allan was shushing him, which was a delightful surprise. It was also HORRIFICALLY EMBARRASSING because that meant Allan was there, listening to this conversation.. this conversation..

He wanted to die.

Ramona shifted in her seat, until she was closer to Allan, and leaned in to whisper a really important secret. "Hey.." She breathed out. "I wanna be a gremlin ninja too." Because who wouldn't? That sounded pretty irresistable.

Robert's mouth opened up into a soft 'o' shape, as a realization dawned on him. Initially, he'd been worried that Mimsy thought he was pushing too hard. But her question sounded real simple to him, and he finally understood what kind of woman she was. Mimsy didn't even want to go out on a date with a guy, unless she thought he was potentially in it for the long haul. Surely there were lots of girls like that - picky to the point of assurance. Mimsy didn't date for fun? Well, Robert didn't either. He just wasn't expecting to have to detail out his extended life plan to a woman after asking her out on a date, just yet.

But hey. He was flexible.

"Oh.. kay. Well, sure. I could try to answer that. So, what's the ideal result of a date? To have fun, and enjoy yourself, I guess. But, okay, I know that's not enough for some girls, and that's not an issue. I mean, I'm fine with committed relationships. I've never.. been in one.. but I'm sure I'd do good at it if I tried! I guess, what happens after a date.. OH. You want another date." He started to plot out how things worked. "And you get to know one another. Likes, dislikes, you find out if you like each other. You find out if you enjoy spending time with them. And then you do. And lots of time passes, and eventually you fall in love. Then you start thinking about things like living together, and getting married, and having little MONSTERS LIKE THIS ONE-"

Right before he'd said it, he reached back behind him and snatched his daughter from her perch where she was leaning in on Allan, and held her upside down in his arms. She squealed helplessly, flailing as she hung there. "And then you FEED THEM TO THE COOKIE MONSTER OMNOMNOMNONM-" He faked eating her arm, and she squealed even more, though the look on her face clearly indicated she loved every minute of it.

Very seriously, without breaking into too much of a smile, Allan took off his ninja headband and handed it over to Ramona. "I hereby declare you official ninjutsu master of Konohagakure village. May you protect all the other ninjas well."

A couple of the other kids looked jealously on, and some of them stared at Robert, hoping to get something just as important sounding as well.