Lunch date

Leo set down his glass of water as he saw Raine returning from the backroom. His finger had once more begun to tap methodically away on the table without his realizing. He was down to the last half of his third glass of water, and he smiled to see that Raine was bringing two more. He wasn't sure if it was meant to be one for him and one fore her, but he didn't much mind either way.

"And I am now officially on break," Raine announced ashe she sat down, placing the glasses on the table. She slid one over to Leo, who quickly downed the last half of the previous glass. He could feel his throat finally starting to settle down. It had been much more sore earlier, far too dried out by the day's work, and he had been steadily working away at cooling and refreshing it ever since Raine had come to take his order.

"Thanks for letting me take this lunch break with you," Raine continued, making a note in the back of her head that his finger was once again tapping away. She wondered why it was that he did that. Before it had seemed as though he were acting impatient, but he seemed much more relaxed now, so it seemed unrelated. "I know it was kind of a strange request."

Leo shook his head and waved her off. "It's not often you strike off with someone you've just met," he replied. His voice was still deep, but it was much smoother now. "Besides, it's nice to have the company every once in a while. I don't often get to sit down and just talk with people."

Raine leaned forward onto the table, resting her chin on her fist as she looked at him. It was hard for her to deny the cuteness that Katherine had been teasing her about while she was putting his order in. "You keep talking like you don't have any friends or something," she said. "Are you some kind of loner or something? You don't really seem like the type."

Leo shook his head as he sat back in his own chair. "It's not that I'm a loner," he explained. "It's just that the whole throat thing? It's not really uncommon for me. Usually I don't get around to being able to fully fix it like this until late in the day, and it's not exactly comfortable to talk like that, you know?"

"Why is your throat always so dry?"

Leo smiled and pointed at her. Raine blinked, confused, not understanding what he was getting at. "Your necklace," Leo said. Raine felt a very slight blush form on her face, and she tried to push it down. Yes, the necklace. Of course. For a second she had thought... No, the necklace. Of course. "Would you mind telling me where you got it? It looks very familiar to me,"

Raine felt her hand go to her necklace, and gently scooped it up to look down at it. She had had it for so long, she didn't really remember where she had picked it up. Out shopping with her friends at one point? She shook her head as if to say that she just couldn't remember before looking back up at him. "Why does it look familiar to you?"

"It looks like something I made once," Leo explained. "I made a few in my spare time, before I really got into my work, and I know that one or two started getting around. I didn't expect to ever see one in the wild."

Raine was taken aback. "You... made?"

Leo nodded. "I'm a blacksmith. Mostly make recreations of historical pieces, or horseshoes, or replacement blades for machinery. That kind of stuff. But every once in a while, when I have free time, I do a little bit of silversmithing."

Suddenly a lot of things about Leo were starting to make sense to Raine. The way he dressed. The muscles. The sore throat. The tapping of his fingers. The muscles. A blacksmith. Yeah, that made a lot of sense. "And... you think this might be one of the necklaces you made?"

Leo smiled. "Might be. Hard to tell, it's been so long. But I do still have one at home. If I compared them, I could probably tell."

Raine felt a smile spreading across her face. "Wow. To think I could be talking to the person who made my necklace right now."

Leo chuckled. "I guess you could say fate brought us together today."

Raine had to fight down another blush. "Yeah. I guess so."