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"See? Nothing you don't still have without your handy, dandy little pen!" Bell said with a smile as they finally reached the cafe, which had a very rustic Olde English feel. A sign above the large wooden and stain glass door read "Celtic Cafe."

Stopping in front of the door, Bell turned to him and said sweetly, somewhat pleading, "Let me do this for you, protect you," The then pulled open the large wooden door of the cafe, "I care too much to let anything happen to you." There. No deception, no dirty tricks of persuasion. Bell could put the Guardian Cats to shame on their little motto; 'protect and serve.'

Bell won! With a bright smile she held the door open and entered behind him. Social norms and politeness be damned. After all, how many guys had female body guards?
"I won't. Trust me, the biggest problem will be remembering whose is whose. I mean, they look almost alike in color."

Bell chose a table. She had assured him prior to this that Bell would pay. After all, this wasn't exactly the cheapest Cafe in town, but it had medieval charm, and she was pretty sure these tables were real wood, as well as the floors and rafters, from which hung tapestries and other nick knacks. There was even a fireplace going on one side of the room, and some couches from which several people were reading.
On the table was already set out two place-mat style menus.

"So, what do you think of this place?"


Meanwhile in the kitchen, some poor worker was pretty sure who saw something move from within the coffee bean barrel and...hand't there been more beans in it a little while ago?

On the menu, the coffee and other drinks had a lot of interesting names, like "Thor's Hammer." Luckily beneath the name was a more simple explanation. Something Bell thought would probably catch his eye was their wide array of sweets. Unless he'd totally been turned off of sweets after that cake Youma...which Bell could also see.

"I'm glad you like it. Usually they have bands and stuff that play at night but...it had been a while since I've been able to come here at night. ...A little over a year actually." bell would have to make note to take a night off every once in a while to see what new talent had cropped up.

It was hard for her to believe that she'd been a Senshi for over a year now. She sure didn't feel like she'd gotten anywhere in that time. She was still figuring things out. A lot of them were probably still like that though. Bell had learned not to worry too much about it. That was why she was in the Basterds! For information! And because Tallulah had saved her life that night when Tisiphone was about to steal her star seed....

It was still something that haunted her...Serandite and Tisiphone,...but Bell kept smiling. Memories could be dealt with later. Right now she was here, in one of her favorite places, with the most enjoyable company she'd had in...forever.

The question was, would they get to enjoy their coffee before whatever lurked in the kitchen created a scene?

Bell giggled, "Anything you want." because, of course, Bell could say that. Not because she liked to flaunt her money - quite the contrary - but that she knew how to save it and stretch it, so she wasn't worried. That, and she'd probably spare little expense on Xavier. Others might find themselves hard pressed to get such generosity from Bell, unless it was like, their birthday or Christmas, or something like that.
And to think, if not for that epic battle, if not for his injury, such connection with Bell probably would have taken a bit longer to form. Amazing what a simple scare could do - the epiphanies it could evoke.

Bell already knew what she wanted. She checked the menu to make sure they still had it. Ah yes, it was there!
Essentially it was a mocha frappe with whipped cream and caramel, but she could never pronounce the name of the god it was named after, and a strawberry cream pastry.

With the orders placed, and the Youma slowly brewing in the kitchen - literally - they were left with silence. Small talk had been exhausted during Bell's visits, and now Bell was left looking down at the wood grain in the table.

"I'm sorry if I'm worrying too much, or being in any way overbearing." Bell felt it necessary to apologize for her uncharacteristic ferocity. She then tried on a bright smile and looked up from her table-top examination with a light blush she admitted, "I guess I've just never got close enough to anyone before. It's a little foreign to me." The unspoken went something like 'feel free to let me know my boundaries and tell me to back the heck off.

Once the Cafe was done brewing its Youma, though, he'd probably be somewhat thankful for this new development in Bell.

Bell knew pride. You didn't last long in the theatre if you carried too much of it. It was perhaps why Bell was so humble. It was definitely why she had problems making any close connections with people. You couldn't afford to. After all, you never really got to know them. You got to know them playing a character, and then after that, they were gone, possibly till the next production, possibly forever. And there was a lot of back stabbing that goes on between friends in the theatre, and jealousy. So Bell....had never really bothered.

Bell wasn't even sure how she viewed Tallulah - teammate, friend, or someone she merely owed a life debt to? Bell had never really...hung out. With anyone.

Now that she had, she was protective, fearful, and didn't want to lose it. A fierceness within the demure girl had come to light. "You shouldn't beat yourself up. Look at it this way - you're not the one who failboated and got some of your fellow team mates stuck in a coffin." Bell wasn't sure what senshi had done THAT, but damn.... "And there were much more seasoned senshi there that didn't do near as much to help as you did."

Bell wasn't really sure she did much good herself. Being the senshi of fortitude, and yet not having a good foundation was....well, not very conducive. Simply, Bellatrix's only grounded alignment was with the Basterds. From there, the rest was up in the air - should I do this, should I help them what would be the better action~

Xavier's admission made her blush deepen, and Bell hardly noticed the waiter placing their order on the table, "We're in...much the same boat then." She finally said, looking at him with that peaceful smile.

Bell nodded emphatically, "Sounds good to me. " Bell started to say something else when a shriek was heard from the kitchen. Bell then closed her eyes and let out a sigh, looking in that direction. "Really? Right here? Right now?"
She didn't doubt that it was a Youma for a second. She could feel it now, and the monstrous shrill of 'CAFFEINE CAFFEINE!' was kind of a dead give away. She took a sip of her frappe, then looked to Xavier - "Sit there, eat your cake, I'm going to go take care of business."

And with that, Bell quite purposefully STRUTTED to the back of the cafe and into the clearly labeled restroom was. Emerging from there was Bellatrix.

Upon hearing the shrieks most of the customers had become alarmed. By now, though, one could see the monster as it was literally attacking the coffee machines along the back wall of the register area. It was a very lithe, dark, shadowy creature, and it seemed to grow in size and speed as it consumed more coffee. Did that, perhaps, make it a cannibal?

"Not here, Youma!" Bellatrix said, "Not now."

Not only was it disrupting her cafe - Bellatrix happened to have a very possessive trait - but it was disrupting her time.

The Youma turned to look at Bellatrix, its coffee-filled belly sloshing side to side as it moved. it then shrilled, 'CAFFIENE CAFFIENE!' and lunged towards Bellatrix.