She wanted to come up with something charming to say about the ball or the time or literally anything, but her mind wasn't quite conjuring it the way she wanted to. She wasn't sure how to be charming after the weird tone of their last conversation, and their last letters, and the fight they'd had before the Santa Antonina rescue. She could have conjured sad or petulant or snarky if she wanted to, but she didn't want to be any of those things — she just wanted to be Zelda and Alfred, and that wasn't what they felt like now.

"Oh, yeah," Zelda said, glancing over at the tables. Maybe she should try to get another drink on their way? Hm. The bar wasn't on the way, so she would have to hope this was enough — especially because she didn't drink liquor often, and did drink faster when she was nervous, which she very much was now. She took a sip of her drink. "Lead the way."

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