For a moment Iluak's training failed him and he wondered if his heart should have been beating that fast. Then it stopped when Mei said he looked "nice".
What escaped the healer's mouth didn't sound so much a sentence as a random assortment of letters being verbalized by someone missing their tongue.
"...What I mean is...thank you. You look very pretty." That seemed inadequate enough to almost seem an insult. "Beautiful even."

The sound of trumpet scales being practiced kept Iluak from staring too long at Mei. He was afraid of how long he would do that had nothing been there to distract him. With a heavy sigh Iluak led Mei behind the clinic where a blue curtain sectioned off a section of concrete. A woman in a red gown pulled a cord and exposed one table between two candelabras beneath a string if multicolored lanterns. A good washing and incense burning in the corner went a long way toward ridding the empty lot of it's usual scent.
Iluak still wasn't sure if a restaurant wouldn't have been better.

While Tsubaki put on her red blindfold and took up her trumpet Iluak did as he was instructed and pulled out Mei-zhen's chair for her. He ignored the other bit of advice he received about taking credit for the whole thing.
It wasn't until the healer sat down that he noticed how different the empty lot behind his clinic looked now. It was cheerful and romantic and colorful...but that may have just been due to Mei's presence.
"I'm glad you could come."

Signals had been worked out beforehand between the healer and the equalist. Iluak gave one to start playing before he said something stupid.
Tsubaki Ito's rendition of The Hour of Love began as a technical recreation but ended in true jazz fashion as an improvisation as the trumpet player had not learned the entire song. It was the other reason she decided to chi block him before the date.

"This seemed a little more special than just going to a Narook's...but if you want to go somewhere else, that's fine. Really fine."
He hated how nervous and self-conscious he was.

ILUAK'S CLINIC

For a few seconds the noises that came out of Iluak’s mouth were unrecognizable as far as actual words went, but really in the wake of her strangled awkward noise the night before it seemed pretty normal to her. When he worked through whatever was caught in his throat, he thanked her and returned the sentiment.

Mei felt her cheeks heat up and she grinned to hope to cover it up, “Thank you.” Say something else, something meaningful. “I love the colors. They really suit you.”

Well, honestly she wasn’t sure if there were colors that weren’t suited for him and after running into him without a shirt the night before the thought that it didn’t matter either way sat in the middle of her mind, cross legged and resolute. That was definitely not something to bring up. And oh, she felt her face get even hotter, quick concentrate on something else…like the musical scales being played somewhere nearby.

Iluak mercifully led Mei into the back of the clinic, away from her out of control thought process to a beautifully set up area. The usual smells of the city streets had been erased, replace with a pleasant and somehow comforting scent of incense. A table was set up in front of them, complete with two candelabras while overhead many tiny multicolored lanterns lit up the back alley in a cornucopia of soft and gorgeous colors. The effect was soft, serene, and beautiful. Iluak had taken a place that anyone wouldn’t give a second look at, a back alley where you were more likely to run into an unsavory type down on his luck than a garden or a piece of art and turned it into a sight to behold. And that was really the heart of things, wasn’t it? No matter how terrible Republic City could seem--and Mei was not blind that it could be, the city worked in its own way despite how much she wished it didn’t--there were still people who could take the most downtrodden, the most unremarkable of places and make them warm and inviting.

“This is…amazing,” she said in a hushed voice, as Iluak guided her to a chair, and pulled it out for her. Her eyes glowed in the multicolored light of the alley as she continued to take in everything, an awed smile growing across her face. When Iluak took his seat he spoke again, glad that she could come.

Right now Mei couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

“Thank you for inviting me. This is…wow.” No that wasn’t an articulate thing to say, but the proper words weren’t exactly coming to her. It would have to suffice.

A blindfolded woman in a red dress, who was the obvious source of the earlier horn music, began to play her trumpet and Mei immediately recognized the piece; it was her favorite song and how did they know? She bit her lower lip and softly hummed the beginning of the song along with the musician until the song trailed into an unrecognizable place. Mei grinned from ear to ear, trying to keep up with this new version.

“You want to go?” Her grin faltered and she looked at Iluak, eyes wide. “I mean, we could but…this is…you put so much work into it and it shows! And listen,” she motioned towards the musician and smiled for a moment, “it’s my favorite song and she’s even doing a new version I haven’t heard before! I’d rather stay, this is…kind of perfect.”

That was better. That was honest and more to the point.

Amazing? Wow? Perfect?
These were not words Iluak had planned on being uttered. He assumed that after a few minutes the words "tedious" and "unbearably obnoxious" would have found their way into the conversation soon followed by excuses for Mei-zhen to leave.
It was so difficult to react to Iluak ignored it altogether. He had a first aid kit underneath the table in case of an attempted suicide attempt by his date to escape his company but that wasn't nearly as nerve-shattering as compliments.
A series of grunts and mumbles were the closest the healer could come to words of gratitude.
"No, I'm really not much for crowds and such. I'm as boring as can be without being clinically dead. I work. I drink. Sometimes I even sleep."
Once verbalized Iluak's life seemed even more like a prequel to suicide than usual.


Iluak looked around nervously. Realistically, nothing should occur. Gang activity was virtually non-existent in the immediate area, the clinic was visibly closed and he doubted that he was lucky enough for there to be a large enough accident nearby to supply him with wounded distractions.

Even the gibberish that tended to come out in Mei's presence was stuck behind a wall of awe when he looked at the woman across the small table.
"Really pretty."
A look like he had mistakenly taken a drink from the wrong bottle appeared on his face. He almost wished he had drunk from a bottle of bitter medicine rather than repeat his blunt idiocy.
"I mean...are things set with the detective agency yet?"
The healer purposely bit the inside of his cheek to keep that question to be followed by any cutting remarks. Most career choices tended to provoke eye-rolling and sarcasm, but most of all ones involving the criminal element.

The healer in the blue and white changshan once more looked around as it drowning but this time was saved by a bottle and two cheap glass tumblers being placed on the table by the trumpet player in the red gown. Iluak wished that he had treated someone who could have paid him in nice stemware.
Tsubaki looked at Mei and then shot a glare at Iluak. He didn't need to have worked out a code to tell that she was warning him about drinking too much.

The champagne was the most expensive thing Iluak had spent last night's money on. He had no idea what went well with seaweed noodles. He heard that the drink was supposed to match the food but the only green drinks he knew were not exactly romantic dinner drinks.
It was white and when it came to clothes white went with everything as far as Iuak was concerned.

Once Mei had finished speaking Iluak heard the most terrifying sound ever. The opening tune to "But Not For Me". That was his cue. He could have sworn that his beads of sweat were vomiting from nerves.
"W-would you like to dance. I-I mean, I can't but, you know, it's a nice song." He lied. It was a horrible, horrible song. It meant he had to dance and humiliate himself but he had agreed to obey his orders.

ILUAK'S CLINIC

Iluak grunted and mumbled before recounting his life using the fewest words possible. For a man whose life revolved around one of the noblest pursuits Mei could think of, with an attitude about wealth that was not only refreshing in this city but downright precious, he loved to speak of it as if it were nothing. Less than nothing. Something to be bored about.

“It’s much more involved than that,” Mei-zhen replied, “your work is of the utmost value.” She paused for a second before adding with a concerned smile, “Though, you don’t really sleep enough. Not for the kind of hard work you put in.”

His focus shifted and he looked around the alley, though the expression on his face was difficult to discern. It could have been worry, perhaps undue concern about the décor, or apprehension. In truth of the two of them Mei was the dull one; a waitress with aspirations to help people. Her desire to heal was her outstanding trait, along with her love for her family. When it came to a recount of their days, there was no contest who led the more important one--

“Really pretty,” Iluak said, looking at Mei from across the table with a distant but warm expression.

She nodded. “You did a great job with all of this, really.”

Instead of further agreement, Iluak looked sick. For a brief moment Mei wondered if it was left over ailments from the night before and would have asked but he spoke again, asking about their burgeoning detective agency. She swallowed her concern and nodded. “Almost. Ling got all of our papers and permits worked out today. We’re officially sanctioned now.” A bright grin reappeared on her face as the optimistic prospects unfolded in her mind. “We’ll be able to help the people the police are unable to. I mean, let’s face it, as good a job as they do, they aren’t able to be everywhere at once. Some people just…slip under their notice. Those people need someone to turn to.”

The uncertain expression once again crossed Iluak’s face and now Mei was really wondering if she was doing something wrong but was interrupted by the red dressed trumpet player stepping up and placing glasses and a bottle of…well, it looked like champagne. It looked expensive, then again all champagne looked expensive to her.

Behind her the music once again started, a lovely song that seemed to be filling Iluak with soul crushing terror.

"W-would you like to dance. I-I mean, I can't but, you know, it's a nice song."

Dance. Now it was Mei’s turn to look as if she were about to be ill. She had never tried, never thought about, dancing in the least bit. It was an unknown to her, a obvious potential embarrassment for a woman who went through life mostly without it. Like Iluak, she had no understanding of the moves, where your feet went, how fast you were supposed to move, and the idea of bumbling into him terrified her.

Mei opened and closed her mouth several times, unable to pick words that could convey the fluctuating emotions. “I…would! But I…don’t know how. I never learned. I’m sorry. Do you still want to?”