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Interesting. Toby was like a tomato again, and it was quite amazing for Izzy, who simply grinned and jotted down the order before getting up and giving it to the kitchen. Maybe, just maybe, he was a little more cheerful than when the other boy first came in. Free food was always a good reason to smile.

“Oh, hey, so....” He came back to the table, his own, personal macrame project in his hands. Toby seemed to be doing just fine on his own, so there was no reason why he couldn’t work on his much fancier and intricate piece he planned on giving to some random person after all. “You said something about your mom having a show? What’s she do? And what about your dad?”

“Huh... So both of them are kinda into music, in their own way. That’s pretty cool. You know, before my mom and dad decided they were gonna make this a crafting place, they were toying around with it being a music based place. Like those really fancy smancy places that have random people come in and play? But mom hates bad sounds and the idea of someone coming in and belting out tunes sounding like a** turned her away from the idea real fast.” And it was really for the best. The worst thing he could imagine was him and his siblings being set up with their own instruments and made to sing... He shuddered at the thought.

“So what, does that mean you like to croon out toons too? Play an instrument or something?”

“God, don’t bring those places up. It’s like they hire the worst person they could find, pay them in their fancy brand coffee, and them sound like nails on a chalk board! They don’t seem to understand that life music just wasn’t meant for loud, echo-y stores, but what ever. I hear if you past five or six, they aren’t around anymore, so that’s a plus.” By now he was weaving away at his little macrame piece, line after line coming together quickly, as if he had done it hundreds of times before.

“You can play, but can you play ‘well’? I think I wouldn’t mind being serenaded by you one of these days. If it’s good, maybe you could even come here and play for a tea or two.” Izzy left out a snort laugh at the idea. “No, better not. I can just imagine my mom and her slipper coming out here to whap you good!”

“Look! You’re doing it again!” This time, Izzy reached across the table and poked Toby’s cheek a few times. “What, embarrassed by a little bow wobbling? Dude, I bet you’re just fine on the violin. It’s not like you gotta dress up in this weird getup and entertain strangers for a living.”

Not that Izzy thought he’d always be doing this sort of thing. He had dreams too! Dreams of college... maybe. Dreams of releasing bugs in the school again! Things much bigger than just serving tea and teaching people how to make fancy trinkets.

“Don’t you have practice at school sometimes? If you promise not to tell anyone about seeing me here like this, I’ll come by one of these days, how about that?”

Izzy’s ears became just a little red at the giggle. Who giggled like that?! And while blushing like a beet? It was suspicious.

Too Suspicious.

“Come on Toby, Spit it out! Wait a minute.... WAIT A MINUTE!” A fake look of shock and horror came on his face, and he pressed a hand over his chest, as if insulted. “Don’t tell me you like this sort of getup. All frilly and .... And... obedient looking! Geesh, and here I thought you were a good boy!”

He couldn’t keep up the snarky, overly exaggerated expression for long, after all, his name was called from the kitchen, and he had to get up.

“Pull yourself together, Mr. Yates, before you get caught sneaking at the girls here, and my mom really comes at you with her shoe.” Izzy grinned, then stuck his tongue out before heading to the kitchen for a moment, and took his sweet time too.

He took a little longer than he meant trying to get back to his table. It seemed like his mom was really watching him and Toby together, half to make sure Izzy wasn’t slacking off, and half delighted to see her youngest son having a friend who seemed like the decent sort for once.

She talked him up good, asking her son if he had his number, if they were friends at school, what Toby wanted to be when he got older, to the point that Izzy was beyond flustered and red by the time he got back to the table, and half slammed the tray down between them.

“Ugh... Well, whatever, here, eat your damned food and hurry up and go before my mom comes over here.”

“No not... Well, kinda?” Izzy shrugged, looking behind himself again to find his mom still making a grinning face at him and giving him a thumbs up. He frowned, and then turned back around. “She’s just being nosy. Like ‘oh, mijo, he seems like such a nice boy! You should be nice to him! Give him some more snacks and see if he’ll come back! You need a good boy like him, don’t you?”

He didn’t see at all what she was getting at. He didn’t need any friends like Toby! Yeah, he was a good kid, but good kids were boring! Not like his old friends at Hillsworth who knew how to have a good time!

Sometimes with fire, sometimes without. But fun either way.

“She put one of her concha’s on here too.” Along with the sandwich, the hand meat pie, and the hot cocoa, there was a hand-sized pastry, covered in lines of pink dusted sugar. “I think it’s a bribe. I bet she heard what you said about music. She said you were cute too, so I told her maybe she should put YOU in one of these outfits, since you kept saying it was cute. But she just rolled her eyes, like I was stupid or something!” Izzy picked up the pie and took a big bite out of it, clearly irritated and forgetting he was supposed to be working.

“Whatever...”