[FEB-24] A Perfectly Fine Date Night

Raven sat in his car for a moment, trying to keep a smile on his face. Okay, this…okay. He could do this. It’s just a date with Ophelia! That wouldn’t be hard. At all. Today had been perfectly fine. 

Oh, who was he kidding-today had been fucking TERRIBLE so far. There had been an accident with one of the trucks that shipped merchandise across the country, and nobody had given him the details. It had happened DAYS ago, nobody had even TRIED to count up the crabs that had been rounded up or ran off-or worse, destroyed-and it was a fucking MESS. 

If it wasn’t for the fact that he literally couldn’t join a different management, he would’ve fired every single mignyan. And he made that very clear to all of them. 

He sighed, before opening the door and climbing out. On top of that bullshit, he had to go on a stupid fake date with Ophelia just for publicity. They’d only gotten back together last month after their fake divorce, and she had insisted that they needed to do something publicly. Which, the place it made a reservation for had nice food, but Raven didn’t know how much of Ophelia’s company he could take. 

Finally, he made it to the entrance and threw open the door. The host visibly jumped at his entrance, before staring at him for a moment. “Hello, uh…table for-1?” they asked cautiously.

Raven raised an eyebrow. People usually gave it weird looks, but they never looked outright freaked out. Still, he pressed on, flashing a smile and showing off his fangs. “Haiii! I’m on a date with someone, and she’s already here. Ophelia Love. Geometric tattoos, dyed green hair. You can’t miss her!!!” Just as the host was about to reply, Raven added in an overly sappy voice, “She’s SOOO cute too…” 

The host nodded awkwardly, before saying, “She’s-just over there,” and pointing at a table. That was high up. And right in the center of the restaurant. 

Of course she chose there. 

Raven wandered over and hoisted himself up on the chair. Ophelia had already ordered a glass of wine, holding it between her fingers and swirling it around, and she had very glittery makeup on. Honestly, she was very pretty-the colorful geometric marks only highlighted her appearance, and Raven liked the more punk outfits she sometimes wore. If she wasn’t so vapid (and didn’t hate his Mignyan identity), then maybe they could’ve actually dated. Or something. 

“HIIII!!!” she squealed, cutting off Raven’s train of thought. Despite her wide smile and excited tone, it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She actually looked tired, which was a rarity. “It’s so good to see you!!”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s great to see you too,” he replied. He tried to sound excited, but it was-difficult. “How’re you doing, babe?” 

Ophelia let out a dramatic groan. “Terrible. I…” Her dramatic facade dropped slightly, as her voice lowered to a whisper. “Conduit stuff.” 

All Raven did was nod awkwardly. It still thought the whole conduit thing was stupid, but-it couldn’t say that to Ophelia. “Oh no! That sucks.” His concern was almost believable. 

She shook her head and tried to smile. “It’s fine, though. My bosses just can’t see how GREAT I’m doing!!!” 

Raven nodded again. “I’m sure you’re doing wonderful, babe,” it said, reaching a hand out and grabbing her hand that was left resting on the table.

“What about you? How’s…” Ophelia trailed off suddenly, staring down at-something. But Raven absolutely took the opportunity to complain. 

“Ugh, also terrible. There was an issue with…shipping, like a week ago. And nobody told me!! So I’ve been dealing with that all day, and-”

He suddenly got cut off. “Uh, sweetie…” Despite the stupid pet name, Ophelia actually sounded worried. She was staring right above his head-where his ears were. Oh, God.

“What??” 

“The-your ears. Aren’t…” She glanced around, before leaning in and whispering (loudly), “They look-creepy.” 

Oh, shit. SHIT. It’d been so worried in the car that it forgot to put up its disguise before walking in. No WONDER the waitstaff had been looking at him weird.

Without even correcting Ophelia (although it was slightly irritated she called it “creepy” instead of saying he wasn’t disguised), he quickly got up and rushed to the bathroom. He glanced in the mirror, and-FUCK. The pupils in his ears constricted in fear, before they quickly got covered in fur. 

He stared at the mirror for a moment longer. Shit. Okay, if-if anyone had taken pictures or filmed him, it could say-it was wearing different ears and tail. Prototypes, that weren’t meant to be shown to the public yet. Fuck. Yeah. Maybe that’d work.

Nobody had taken any photos of him from what he saw, but…fuck, paparazzi-and even fans-could be sneaky. God, of course he had to go on this STUPID date and potentially get

After a few more deep breaths, he walked back out to where Ophelia was sitting and got back into his chair. God. 

To her credit, Ophelia did look worried. Genuinely. “…Are you alright, honey?” she cautiously asked. “I-I don’t think…anybody saw. Probably.” 

But, just before he could respond, a waiter with blonde hair and dark green eyes suddenly appeared next to their table. “Hi! Welcome, what can I get for you two today?” She glanced at Ophelia before looking to Raven, and her eyes lit up. “I’m sorry, are you-Raven Xyer? I think that’s how you say it-my girlfriend’s a huge fan of yours!!” 

Raven simply blinked. After a moment of trying to process what she said, he replied with a somewhat nervous smile, “Yeah, I-I am. Want an autograph?”