Style Quest: Diner on the Edge

        Varick walked happily towards the Guild Hall dressed in a black backless knee-length a-line dress with split sides. Each step caused the dress to sparkle in the setting sun. Tonight, the mahogany Clydesdale was taking his boyfriend, Raine, to a fancy restaurant on Airdin. Getting on the waitlist for a table took a month, and then getting a night to eat took another three weeks. This night was going to be special! Raine eagerly awaited Varick’s arrival at the rendezvous point, dressed in a fitted black tuxedo with a red tie. 

    “This suit fits perfectly,” the snow leopard exclaimed as the horse ran in for a hug. Varick pulled Raine into an extra-long hug. Somehow, the blue and green spotted feline always smelled incredibly sweet and felt so soft.

    “I made it. Of course, it’s a perfect fit,” Varick laughed as he let go of the slightly taller feline. “Let’s get going before we’re late and they give our table away.” Despite recent events, the blonde horse opened up to love again. Raine had been more than patient with taking things slow. Tonight might be the night Varick confesses his feelings for his boyfriend. 

The warm thought filled the tailor’s mind as they walked through the guild and into the portal room. As they stepped through the portal, something felt off. Instead, the standard linear travel from point to point, Varick and Raine found themselves flung sideways and all around until they reached the other end. 

Dizzy and confused, the two stepped out of the portal as it snapped shut behind them. Smells of greasy food and burnt coffee fill the air around the couple. A booth full of people sat in front of Varick at a dirty, cheap-looking table, eating food that looked questionable as to its eatability. The horse and snow leopard quickly moved away from the table to figure out where they had ended up instead of Airdin. 

“Table for two then,” a tired-looking elf woman in a cheap polyester red and yellow uniform asked with a yawn. She smelled of tobacco smoke and stale coffee as she showed Raine and Varick to a booth. “Tonight’s special is the chicken fried porkchop. I’ll give you a minute to look over the menus.”

“Var-Var, I feel overdressed for this whole realm,” Raine stated while he sat and looked through the windows that wrapped around most of the building. There was nothing but space with the occasional twinkle of starlight outside the building. Varick carefully sat down at the sticky, poorly maintained table. The food on the laminated menus looked foreign and unfamiliar to both of them.

“Might as well try something here since there is no way we are getting our table now,” Varick sighed, disappointed. He felt as if this portal fiasco ruined his perfect night. This diner was not the proper ambiance for those all too important words. 

When the waitress returned, the horse ordered the chicken Caesar salad with a lemonade. Raine decided to have the special with a peanut butter shake and a slice of every available pie. Overdressed and hungry, the couple ate all the food the elf woman served. Varick thought his dinner was just okay, but Raine was enjoying the sheer amount of coma-inducing sugar he ate. 

“I know this place wasn’t what either of us was expecting tonight, but it was interesting,” Raine smiled as he wiped his face with a questionable cloth napkin. “Mind if I sketch you, Var-Var, and some people while we wait for the portal to open?”

“Anything for you, love,” the Clydesdale answered without thinking. He caught what he said, but it was too late. It was out there in the open.

“Love,” the snow leopard asked as the word hit them.

“I love you,” Varick stated with intent and feeling this time. He leaned across the table and pulled his boyfriend in for a deep, loving kiss. 

“I love you too,” Raine responded as the kiss broke.

They spent several hours in the diner at the edge of nothing, posing and drawing everything and everyone there. When the portal finally opened again, they returned to Varick’s Guild room for some clothes on soft cuddles.