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Shuffling her notes into a neat and tidy stack, Nenet looks up at the sound of a familiar voice, a slow smile curling over her lips at the sight of Zev. "Hey," she greets in turn. "They were mostly interested in the influence of Solrock and Lunetone migrations and how they influence the tides," she asserts, a playful wink offered.
[break][break]
"Mostly."
[break][break]
She stashes the rest of her papers into an unassuming briefcase and snaps the locks closed. With a little nod to herself she then announces, "Let's get lunch."
[break][break]
It isn't a question of asking Zev where they are going, so much as Nenet leads them through the museum to a rather whimsical food stall selling pokemon-themed dishes - she orders the Gyarados dragon rolls. Fishing through her purse for her wallet to pay, Nenet asks conversationally, "How's the bar?"

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Zev imagined that children could find anything fascinating, even knowledge as commonplace as Solrock and Lunatone migrations. Still, his smile widened at Nenet's wink. "I imagine it takes a lot to keep so many kids occupied. I can't even imagine having to deal with one."[break][break]

He grimaced, clearly expressing his views on children in general, then laughed.[break][break]

His opinions on lunch, however, were far more positive. Zev accompanied Nenet to the food stall, and after a moment's perusal of the menu, ordered a Snorlax sandwich. The bread had been cut into the shape of the Pokémon, deli meats and other fillings packed between them.[break][break]

"The bar's been crazy lately," he admitted as he waited for his turn to pay. "We've been getting a lot of new contracts lately thanks to the exposure from Splashfest. But somehow, we're still struggling without the imports."[break][break]

With every month that passed, the dome was making it harder and harder for the restaurant and bar industry to survive. Hoenn had only so many local resources for the wealth of businesses across all its cities.[break][break]

"What about the space center? Anything new about the meteoroid?" he asked Nenet, knowing she preferred to talk about her work than listen to him talk about his.

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BY GUNSMILE

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With a little wave of her hand, Nenet assures Zev with, "Not really. Give them some colourful pictures and something hands-on to play with and they're usually pretty invested. We keep a model here that lets them move the Pokémon around and the water levels react to the positioning." She chuckles, the sound mirthful and low. "Usually we're breaking up fights more than anything."
[break][break]
Setting her tray down as they take a seat, her head tilts as she listens to Zev. "It's a good job getting dunked for publicity then," she teases lowly. As she speaks, she pulls out the set of balsa wood chopsticks provided and snaps them apart.
[break][break]
Her lips then purse thoughtfully, her gaze flicking towards the window, and thus the dome beyond. "Well," she murmurs, the lull before the storm. Pouring out a bit of soy sauce onto a dish, she launches into an entirely too invested, technically detailed explanation about velocity, trajectory, and acceleration with what she likely considers deeply interesting tidbits such as colour output, size, and comparisons between the meteoroid and Minior she studies.
[break][break]
It is either a vastly engaging or vastly dry one-sided discussion, depending on your point of view. By the time she has finished, three sheets of paper have been pulled from her briefcase to illustrate her points, each laden with mathematical equations, graphs, and illustrated figures.

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Zev believed her about the children, but that didn't make him any more inclined to deal with them. Their rowdiness and disgusting behavior were exactly why he had opened a bar instead of a restaurant. While children could set foot inside his establishment, he refused to interact with them — as customers or not.[break][break]

When Nenet launched into a highly technical explanation of her latest work, Zev attempted to follow it as best as he could. However, the jargon left him confused. Even when she started drawing diagrams on paper, he could barely understand what he was looking at.[break][break]

Before long, he had pulled out his phone, distracted by the buzz of a new notification. Glancing at the screen, he saw it was about a contract he'd taken the day before.[break][break]

Not a bar contract, though. A hit for a client.[break][break]

"Sorry, one sec, gotta read this email," Zev said to Nenet, his tone heavy with apology. His thumbs swiped at the phone's screen to read the message.

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BY GUNSMILE

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Taking absent bites of her sushi as she continues to scrawl out equations, Nenet's eyes narrow subtly all of a sudden. She pages between her work, beginning to compare one set of equations to another before pulling out an fresh sheet of paper to continue on her current train of thought.
[break][break]
Somewhere, quite distant to her attention, she hears the buzz of an email; it isn't hers as it doesn't set off her near-Pavlovian response to check her phone.
[break][break]
"Hmm? It's fine," Nenet mumbles, her hand absently waving towards Zev as if to dismiss the idea of her being upset. She taps her chopsticks against her last piece of sushi as she writes out an entirely new equation, a pleased hum sounding from her throat at this apparent line of thinking.

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So busy was Nenet in her work through the equations, she may not have noticed the way Zev looked up at her from his phone when she said it's fine. For the briefest moment, the civilian's mask he wore fell away. He contemplated her with a curious gaze, blue eyes bright with sudden interest.[break][break]

Then the mask restored itself as he looked back down to read the email. It contained updates for an assassination. The target had changed his schedule, so Zev had to kill him tonight, not tomorrow. In order to get to the location on time, he had to leave that minute if he wanted time to prepare.[break][break]

A well-practiced frown pulled at his lips, and he shot Nenet a look of apology. "Hey… Sorry to do this, but I have to go. Something came up with a contract for the bar, and I have to go sort it out. Will you be okay?"[break][break]

Zev fully expected her to be upset. Most women would be if their dates had to make an unexpected departure in the middle of an outing. At least they'd managed to eat some lunch.

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BY GUNSMILE

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Nenet does not answer until she has finished her present line of thinking, and what could pass for an uncomfortable silence of a good 10 seconds fills the air before she finally looks up. She blinks once, glancing from his mostly empty to plate, to his phone, and then finally seems to parse the words he's spoken.
[break][break]
"Oh," she murmurs. Then, seeming a touch relieved of all things, "More than, good luck with the contract." She tacks on, just barely refraining from going back to her equations, "Let's try again sometime."
[break][break]
Whether lunch or something else is rather ambiguous, but she nonetheless flashes Zev a warm smile and then ducks her head back down to continue rapidly explaining the steps in the impending test she intends to run with a telescope.

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Nenet's delayed reaction caught Zev so off guard that he stared a moment longer. He didn't miss the relief that touched her features, either. Perhaps the night at Mt. Pyre had not been a one-off circumstance. Maybe she really didn't care.[break][break]

Well, that was fine. More than fine, actually.[break][break]

"Definitely. I'll text you tonight," Zev said, returning her warm smile. Then he gathered his plate to put it near a trash bin and headed out.[break][break]

That night, as he removed the knife from the body of the man he had murdered, he considered making good on his promise to text Nenet. He checked his watch. It wasn't too late yet.[break][break]

After cleaning up the knife and sending the photo evidence to his client, Zev pulled out his civilian phone and shot her a quick text.[break][break]

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BY GUNSMILE

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Nenet gives a nod at Zev's promise to text her, and then promptly places him out of her mind. It's some hours later, the staff in the food court eyeing her somewhat suspiciously, before she finally gathers up all of her scratch paper. Tidying it into a neat pile, her next stop is the Observatory, during which she re-attunes her observation equipment for the new calculations and sets them on their way.
[break][break]
She's standing in the kitchen finishing off her dinner over the sink when her phone buzzes. Rinsing her hands and then getting herself a glass of water, she sips at her drink while unlocking her phone. Her eyebrow arches, suddenly remembering Zev promised to text later in the evening, and then a playful smile touches her lips.
[break][break]
Checking the current time - not too late, really - she replies with the following:
[break][break]

[break][break]
Nenet places her glass in the kitchen sink before sauntering off to unlock the front door.

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