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It had been a long day for Avery Hughes, and when he stumbled tiredly into his apartment sometime around five in the evening he knew he wasn't up to making anything. There weren't any leftovers in his fridge he could heat up, nor any microwavable pizzas, so it seemed like he was getting takeout again.

Atleast there was a nice Chinese place close-by.

About ten minutes later, the brunette parked his car in what seemed to be the only parking space left on the entire block. Luckily it was close to the restaurant, so Avery didn't have to walk very far. As he strode to the entrance, he paused for a moment, recognizing a man sitting on one of the benches outside.

"Doctor Swann?"

Avery nodded to himself, he thought it had been his doctor. His vision was slightly impaired, as he hadn't bothered to wear his contacts because he knew the menu by now.

"Yeah, I live close to this place so I come here pretty often," He paused before sheepishly adding, "I'm not big on cooking. The only things I can make are ramen noodles and oatmeal."

Shrugging his zip-up off, he tied it around his waist. It really was a nice evening, and he had thought it would be colder.

Avery paused for a moment, noticing Peter hadn't ordered yet, "Hey, do you mind if I sit with you? This place is pretty crowded tonight."

Smiling gratefully, Avery sat beside the older man. He wouldn't have to wait in a horrible line, he had a seat, and he had a person with whom he could actually have a good conversation with.

Well, atleast he thought so, granted he didn't really know his doctor too well beyond the doctor-patient relationship.

But that had proved interesting though, and not trying. Even though he had to constantly deal with them, Avery often didn't like his doctors. But he really did like Peter, he was a generally nice guy.

"No maids to cook for you Doctor?" His sarcasm had more than a hint of teasing, and had only been in jest, but shortly after making it Avery felt stupid for doing so. Sure, doctors were often pretty well off, but Avery really didn't know a lot about Peter and it could've been some soft spot. Perhaps he had lost his money in an illicit affair with a previous housemaid, or some mafia dealings...

The menu which had been extended to him quickly snapped him out of his farfetched Doctor-Swann-mysterious-past theories. Avery waved it off and rested on more polite conversation, "I'm fine. I come here enough to know what I want, but thanks."

Truthfully, Peter's comment had fooled Avery.

When the grin appeared on his face, Avery almost smacked himself on the forehead for falling for it. On the other hand, it made him feel much more comfortable, knowing Peter was fine with his joking, and he could feel the corners of his own mouth quirking into a silly grin.

"Is that concern over your privacy, or do you just have something to hide Doctor?" came the jocular reply. Avery wasn't sure why, but apparently his imagination was just taking over his rational thought today. He stiffled a yawn, and realized it was probably just because he was tired.

Avery laughed at Peter's sock comment -one that had been delivered fast enough that his overactive imagination didn't really have enough time to come up with more mystery-theories surrounding the doctor, regarding the more serious statement he had made.

Had it even been serious..? Avery put the thought off -he was enjoying himself and didn't want to ruin the mood by asking about it. His day had been crummy and this little accidental rendez-vous certainly was making it better. Best to keep it that way.

Instead, he continued in the vein their conversation seemed to have taken, "Bunnies? You? I had pinned you for more of a teddy bear sort of guy." He shook his head in mock disbelief, but stopped shortly to ask a question.

"Did you order your food already? Usually they're pretty quick about it here..." he glanced towards the opened doors, into the restaurant.

A short nod of affirmation was given to Peter, assuring him that Avery would take the warning against the teddy bears to heart.

The conversation certainly had gotten a tad bizarre, but it was definately one he would remember. Plus, it wasn't about Avery's health, which most of their previous ones had been focused on, so he was greatful. It was always nice finding out a person you knew really was a human, not some robot that looked and acted like one.

Not that the doctor has ever struck him as the robot type, but he had only seemed to exist at the hospital in his mind. Now he had proof that it wasn't the case.

"Well, you can't go wrong with Chinese food. Unless you're horribly allergic. Or have issues with MSG." But, of course, that was inconsequential so he continued without so much as a slight pause, "I'm going for the Szechuan chicken myself."

((Ignore my inability to spell chinese foods. Aaand shall they have a waitress type? I know it's a take-out place, but some do have them.))

(( I don't really care either way. I guess I'll do her, though feel free to make her do stuff if you wish. Co-controlled! XD))

He craned his neck to look inside again, also noticing the waitress,"That sounds fine with me."

Eating on the bench probably would be a little awkward, especially if Peter was as bad at using chopsticks as Avery was. Sure, he ate a disgusting amount of Chinese food, but he just never got a hold of how to use the foreign implements.

He stood up from the bench and snagged the nearest table, luckily most of the people swarming the restaurant seemed to be leaving with their take-out, but Avery wasn't going to take chances with losing an empty table to someone else who might be scouting for an empty one.

Noticing the movement outside, the waitress Peter had spotted headed for the door to outside.