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The day had been so normal, so average, that even the thought of being a senshi had been far from her mind. To any normal teen, the day might have seemed mundane and dull, but Bell was positively energetic and wide-eyed, all smiles, but that was nothing to complain about. She had a lot to be happy about. The shopping had gone well, and a far less emo Xavier was with her. No, not a single complaint to be had.

Now it was getting towards noon. The sky was a lovely warm darkening rainbow of color, and the hot air was beginning to cool as they made the trek towards the cafe - Bell's treat, as if she hadn't spent enough today. Of course, she had offered to buy Xavier some things as well, and well, all in all this day hadn't been about the money, about about being normal.

The memory of the coffee youma ceased to come to the forefront of her mind as they entered. As far as Bell was concerned, it could stay that way. Because this day was meant to me completely normal. Normal, normal. Has that been said enough yet? It might have been a bit obsessive, but it was desperately needed. Bell had been making good on that desperate need for the better part of the month. Sure, it probably wasn't good to be shirking her duties as a senshi, but then again, it wasn't like she asked for the job in the first place.

Taking a seat once inside, Bell let out a whistful, happy, sigh, proceeded by a smile that reached her eyes.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

This place still remained Bell's favorite cafe, despite prior Youma incidents, and the scars maintained from said incidents. After all, where else could do you that felt so home-y and get not only coffee, tea, pastries, and cake, but even - if one was there during the designated time - soups, salads, sandwiches, and pastas. It was perhaps what made the place expensive, but it was soooo worth it.
Bell had taken to coming here after her self defense class three times a week, though luckily for her bank account it was during the odd hours between meal serving, so she usually had to be content with a frappuchino and pastry. However this time Bell had carefully calculated their shopping time to end at the beginning of the dinner hours. Bell's justification being that if she couldn't cook a decent dinner for Xavier, she'd do the next best thing and buy one. Bonus points for it being a place some some actual significance to them. She wasn't sure if their first time here had counted really as a date, since they weren't technically together then, but all the same...

Bell reached across the table and flicked a bit of mis-placed hair out of Xavier's face. Bell hadn't questioned the new glasses. She just figured it'd been a simple case of, 'ohei, eye doctors appointment, awshit you mean I need a new prescription? SIGH.' Nope, she didn't need to know about any roof top shenanigans with librarians who turn in to knights. So long as he was all in one piece, Bell was fine. She had complemented them though. Of course, he could have gotten the dorkiest of the dorky and she would have still complimented.

If that was supposed to be some tease laced through the words of an absolutely hiddeous song that Bell had the great fortune not to hear yet, than it was missed. Instead, Bell gave a slight shrug.
"A better question would be what ISN'T good to eat here. In which case, I haven't found anything. Yet."

Of course, one could expect that Bell had never touched one of their salads before. The girl just wasn't in to rabbit food, cooked or otherwise.

"I guess it depends on if you want something light, or something more substantial. Of course cake could go either way," Bell teased. Desert did not a good dinner make. Although that, too, was on the agenda. There was a strawberry banana cake with whipped topping with her name on it later, after all. But that would have to come after the fettuccine breadbowl.



On the note of scars, Bell surprisingly lacked that many herself. In fact, the one she had came from that dented suit of armor there on the far wall. The long line down the center of her back, along her spine from the lowest portion of her back to just the bottom of her shoulder blades wasn't something she noticed, though she took care to keep it hidden - something that had helped her in her prom dress decision.
The biggest senshi related problem she'd retained was that shoulder injury from Elysion. Despite surgery, it just wasn't something that healed, and it was a pain that had to be lived with. Some days were easier than others. still, Bell wasn't complaining. She was alive, that was enough. She was sure there were some who came out much worse.

Bell simply gave a light giggle, "Anything is better than me trying to cook."

True that. Bell baked, that was it. So thank goodness for microwavable stuff, and meals things from the freezer section that could be thrown in the oven. Bell simply wasn't good at paying attention to things on the stove. Something she could walk away from until a timer beeped was just so much more convenient.

When the time hit the dinner hour, which was in truth, more like the next four hours, the waiter staff finally seemed to roll on out from the back, and Bell waved one over, gave her order, then the waiter turned to Xavier for his. It was a quick and streamlined process that the older folk who made up this part of staff seemed to have down. It just took a bit of speaking up. Bell had more of a fondness for them than she did kids. And like with kids, it had to do wit theatre. The old people that came to the theatre to watch the shows were always so nice.

Bell glanced around, "Yeah. When I was in theatre there were times I wanted to get whoever decorated this place to lend their skills to the set. It's really like stepping back in time...save for the lights and the food." A soft chuckle followed. Thank goodness she didn't know just what kind of view he'd happened to have received before. That amount of blushing would certainly be embarrassing.

Bell missed acting, but she was excited for her theatre classes. Trying to balance out general education classes with the education and theatre classes was proving to be fun, and Bell more than once shoved it aside when things got too confusing. Certain classes only ran in the fall, just like certain ones only ran in the spring, and then there were certain ones that had to be taken in specific order, and time overlaps galore~ She felt a little in over her head sometimes. Still, the excitement was there.

Beneath the table Bell playfully tapped a foot against his, "So, working on figuring out DCU stuff yet?"

"Lucky," foot tap, "I'm having to prioritize what I can do when, and hope I can get things in the right time slot. Some of them have work labs that meet on totally different days and time than the class does, so I can't schedule a class for that time slot of that say, which means my progress getting through all my required courses is going to be epic slow..." She rested her chin in her palm with a sigh.

"But, y'know, I suppose it's worth it. If anything, maybe it'll keep me from overloading on classes and burning out."

Because knowing Bell, she would totally dive in to stuff and create more work than she could handle. Anyway, soon enough, their food and drinks were being brought out. Probably evidence that not everything here was entirely made from scratch, but it was the taste that mattered.

Bell grinned while raising a fork to her own pasta, "Told you so~"

The bread bowl happened to be, at the moment, one of the best inventions ever, next to the chicken alfredo inside it. The layer of cheese on top helped matters too.

After a moment of eating, Bell spoke again, "So, I sent Ainsley to summer camp. I figure she'll make more friends there than hanging around at home." Bell didn't have the patience to set up play dates. In fact she could hardly fill the role of big sister. To say there was an awkwardness there would have been an understatement. All in all it was no doubt to the younger siblings advantage to go to camp.
Of course all this translated to a more round about way of saying, 'so when you're not working we can hang out without having to worry about the kid sister hanging around too.'

At least camp was one thing Bell could do for the kid that she'd never gotten to do. Bell wasn't about to walk down the path of envy, though. Nor was she going to force her little sister to do all the things she hadn't gotten to do. In the end Bell had mostly been thinking it would get Ainsley away from the city - the epicenter of war.

"Yeah, it's kinda boring in our neighborhood if you're a kid. And I figured poor Cora needed a break," Bell grinned. Ah, the feline babysitter. Oh, if Bell knew that Cora knew Ainsley was also a senshi, oooooh, that kitty would be on kibble for weeks. Thankfully the older sister was completely clueless.