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It was one of Mace's absolute favorite Chinese restaurants. Their you tiao was the best, and the clientele was hilarious - he loved listening to them talk. Also you could pretty much seat yourself and just pay for the food off the carts that came along - that was always a plus. He liked that kind of restaurant, because then he could try to sit near whoever seemed the most interesting. Also no one protested if he changed seats so long as he took his plate, teacup, and bowl of congee with him.

"Hm..." he murmured to himself. He had no idea here to seat himself this morning - there were only a few groups of people chatting as they did their yum cha, and the families never said anything interesting until dinnertime - dinnertime was the time for announcements. Mornings were for dates. Morning dates were always cool. His eyes slid around the restaurant, looking for a couple...or just a person by him or herself.

He didn't expect to see any familiar faces here, anyway.

It was fate. Mason's eyes were drawn to it immediately - the gorgeous blendy blue-green-blue of Lucy's long, beauuutiful hair was definitely noticeable, even in a crowd like this. And she was sitting alone. Mason twirled (yes, I know) over to her table and sat himself down next to her - she was looking incredibly, adorably confused. "Lucy, my veeery favorite cellist! I didn't expect to run into you here." He grinned. "Are you on a daaate?"

She was looking around rather agitatedly - yess, perhaps that was why she hadn't yet ordered anything. Yet. She wanted to wait for her date! (admittedly he and Lucy had not really talked much more than a few conversations - he had no idea that she had no idea what to do.)

And there was his beloved congee cart! He waved frantically at it. "Century egg, please," he said. "And, uh, can you give me extra, er - " He paused, and spoke the next word with a change in tone. "Yóutiáo?" He was not very skilled in Chinese (the only foreign language he could really speak was French, and bits and pieces of food names in other languages!), but that one word was ingrained into his memory. It was even fun to say. Also they tasted good.

"So what's your favorite type of dim sum?" He asked, turning to the girl next to him (her date would probably be arriving soon but Mason knew how to make a discreet retreat and so was not bothered by this. Besides he was going to watch the date anyway!)

"Well, details are details," Mason grinned. She was the only cellist he knew but that could be remedied anyway. He propped his elbow on the table and placed his head on it, cocking his head at Lucy. "Nope~ Do you want me to be on one? Because we could totally make this a date." That would be funny actually. He'd never really dated anyone that wasn't involved in the thespian community before. (Orchestra roles were cool but they weren't really acting - so technically Lucy did not fit into this category.) Actually Lucy would probably slap him for that or something.

On a reflex he glanced around for her cello case. Well, it could be out of sight... Narrowing his eyes, Mason moved just out of arm range. It would be too obvious if he tried to avoid something as big as the case - sadly. He ripped a you tiao in half lengthwise, sticking one part of it in his congee and beginning to rip pieces eagerly from the other and stick them in his mouth.

"It's a cool place," Mason commented. "I mean - yeah, I make my way here about once a month - is that often?" It was definitely the restaurant he frequented the most, at least. "I like people-watching here. The food is good and it's easy because you can pretty much sit wherever there's a chair available. No one prevents you from eavesdropping."

Mason was a very shameless person.

"Very funny, Lucy," he frowned, waggling his finger at her (waggling his finger was, strangely enough, fun). "It is better than getting whacked with a cello case though." Mason grinned at the girl - man did he ever remember that day. That case had hurt - and he still hadn't bought himself one. (He didn't know why he was waiting so long, either)

The real reason that Mason never actually had her practice Romeo and Juliet with him was not that he was adhering to his promise (which he was technically keeping anyway, so she couldn't fault him for that!) but actually that the first and only production of that play that he'd acted in - well, Lady Capulet was a really, really boring part. It was even worse than the filler servant characters in the beginning - at least they got a fight scene! And the thumb-biting and the innuendo was classic.

Mason grinned. "I did!" Lucy ought to know his preference for plays like this by now. "I tried for King Charles - I don't have dreadlocks but I can always wear a wig; that's why I keep my hair short anyway."

"And you?" Mason asked. He was a big believer in turning the questions to the other person in the conversation - not that he actually ever succeeded in this endeavor, since Mason liked talking about himself a lot.

"Well I didn't know you'd use it on me!" Mason argued in his defense.

He dunked another chunk of his youtiao into the congee, and chewed on it before commenting. "Why didn't you get me to come with you? I definitely would've wanted to see that." The blond cocked his head at the girl. "And then we could've auditioned together." There weren't many others that Mason would rather audition with, even if Lucy wasn't much of an actress - Evie and Trace were the only other ones, and Trace had been unlikely to accept and he'd been pretty sure that Evie had chased after him anyway.

"Well - apparently something went wrong with the scripts, so it's a little more improv, but it's fun, hey?" Mason paused. He hadn't wanted to say this earlier, but it was true, so - "I'm the understudy for King Charles and Sir Blackglass."