Wilde Dinner [Darcy, Christmas Dance]

After having waited alongside Darcy for a while, welcoming the other attendants, Ariel finally managed to drag Darcy to a small, round table. There were room for more people, but Ariel imagined they'd understand that she wanted to eat with her sister alone for a while. So they sat down and Ariel looked at the menu. "How in Merlin's beard does this work?" Ariel asked curiously.

She was starving, but the stuff on the menu were hard to choose from. She bit her lip. "I do love Bearnaise," she mumbled, "But I also love pepper sauce... Hm, and would I like entrecote or hamburger?" She looked to Darcy, wanting her to decide for her, because it didn't much matter to Ariel: food was food, and she'd love it anyways. "Wait! Is there fries with the entrecote?" she then asked, studying the menu. Apparently you could choose what type of potato you wanted.

As she thought about it, her eyes were glued to Darcy, trying to weigh the pros and cons. And then she frowned. "Did I tell you that dress is awesome?" she asked curiously, beaming at her sister. If she ever found someone to love as much as she loved her sister, she reckoned she'd be pretty darned lucky.

Darcy followed Ariel over to a small round table and sat down beside her. She grinned as Ariel studied the menu, wondering how it worked. "You just say the thing you want out loud, and it will appear on your plate," Darcy explained. She looked at the menu herself and saw that they had indeed added a shrimp-thing for appetizers. She smiled and read her order out loud, and a second later, she had a small plate with fried shrimps in garlic oil.

Darcy laughed as Ariel presented her indecisive self, as was usual when they went to eat on restaurants and other places where Ariel had to choose what she wanted. "I'd go with the entrecote, because the chips are amazing," she said, "And the house-elves really knows how to prepare meat." Darcy had, on numerous accounts, eaten at the kitchen when she was too late for dinner, or simply wanted to eat something later in the evening. And it had often been steak.

As was usual when people complimented your clothes, Darcy looked down at her dress and grinned at Ariel. "Thanks. I bought it at Regents Street. You should come with me there once," Darcy suggested sweetly, really already knowing the answer; Ariel wasn't the person who spent loads of time trying on dresses, but one never knew. Everything could change with age, and Ariel did like balls, so maybe Darcy could always get lucky if she continued asking the same question.

"Your own dress is cute, though. Where did you buy it?" Darcy asked, thinking it looked a bit familiar. Perhaps Ariel had worn it before at some point? She took a shrimp and popped it into her mouth. It was absolutely delicious. Bad breath or not, nothing could stop Darcy from loving this recipe.