He couldn’t help but smile not because he was glad that the other man was frustrated with Italian but because there was something endearing about the way he acted. Jun had never been a normal man and the things that people turned away from he liked to embrace. Even if their outer exterior looked like Neo’s and even if he acted a bit standoffish he was still attracted to the man.
“I think it’s ‘olio’. It means oil.” He had already turned in his menu so he couldn’t check to make sure. “I haven’t heard of the word ‘oglio.’” though his Italian was horrendous so he could be wrong. He had been to Italy for school when he was in University but his Italian had never been good and after all these years the only things he remembered were how to order food and some random words.
Jun looks out the window as Neo orders his food, turning to look at him he realizes that the waitress had left. He might seem a bit rude but he wasn’t trying to be. He just couldn’t help but get distracted especially right now as he sat next to the window. People passed by in a hurry and he couldn’t help his curiosity. What was that man in a hurry to get to? Were the couples holding hands as happy as they looked? People were very interesting things and he wanted to understand all of them. What made them tick, yet everyone was different. The man across from him, he turned his head to look at him, was unlike anyone he had ever met and he liked it. He was absolutely fascinated by him but, there was always a but, would he eventually get tired of him. At this moment he doubted it.
Perhaps this time the other would get tired of him.
He was a very simple man with simple needs; at least that was what he liked to think. He did things when he wanted to, acted the way he wanted to because well why not?
“Mhm…” Breaking from his thoughts, he gave him a small smile. “I’m not great with alcohol so I usually stick with wine. If I am having a really bad day I go straight for the vodka though.” He had only gotten really drunk about four or five times all for perfectly good reasons, at least at the time they were.
Looking out the window again he looked up at the sky, “No, not really. Planets fascinate me…galaxies and stars. Everything about the sky is interesting to me but I have never actually thought about it. He felt himself go a bit red as he remembered, “Don’t laugh but I think the name of the constellation is ‘Lepus.’ It’s just very cute and I also like ‘Canis Major,’ but perhaps that’s just me liking animals.” He laughed as he thanked the waitress as she dropped off their drinks.
“What about you? What is your favorite constellation?” Jun had assumed since he asked the question that he liked the sky since usually people didn’t ask that.
Not very good with alcohol? Neo’s lips twitch into an amused smile at the idea of an inebriated Jun almost immediately after that point is raised. Now he’s sorely tempted to get him drunk, but that’d be a little cruel, and he wants the guy to like him at least a little bit. The almost sadistic amusement turns into genuine intrigue, however, when Jun begins to speak about the heavenly bodies Neo’s so quietly interested by. He doesn’t laugh, just like the artist across him doesn’t want him to, but he has to remember this as well.
“There’s nothing wrong with liking animals,” he rounds off, just as he takes his iced tea from Sayaka and gives her a quiet thanks. Neo expects the question that the other man shoots off, so he’s not so thrown off, and he has an answer ready a split-second after he asks. “Orion. Well–” He makes a brief waving gesture with his hand. “–the belt’s my favourite part of him, if we’re going for specificity, but Orion in his entirety is a good enough answer.”
He takes a large sip out of his drink, easily reducing it to only half the original amount. His index finger traces the rim of the glass interestedly, his gaze shifting from the liquid to the man across from him.
“Pretty as the constellation is—and awesome as it is, what with it being made mostly of blue, superhot stars—it’s more out of respect for the guy that I like Orion than some aesthetic reason.” Neo’s expression softens the slightest bit, like he’s recalling some fond memory, but the experience in itself is fragmented and faded in his head, awash with faint crackles of transmission static. He can remember a fond brush of his fingers over pages, and the fact that the words had been written in a calligraphy style of the older times of history, but he can’t remember where, or why, or how. All he can really recall in vivid detail are the feelings, and boy were they feelings.
He’d been happy, then. He can remember that with a startling sort of clarity. The simple, unexplainable happiness is the only thing that remains of that little touch against paper aside from the brief image itself. At some point, however, he can remember being sad immediately after… thoughtful, pensive. For some reason, the story can build itself in his head with each tiny detail intact; it plays in the theatre of his mind like he’d seen it unfold before his very eyes. Neo smiles a bit before ducking his head in a manner that’s more down to earth than anything else he’s done so far, and the expression of his face holds a human type of warmth.
“It’s a good story,” he says, and the silent confidence with which the statement is reinforced makes it sound like it can’t be anything but the truth. “I don’t know if you’re interested in any of that stuff, though, so I’ll hold myself back.
“If you had the chance, though,” Neo begins; his pose returns to that nonchalant, easy stance as his elbow touches the surface of the tablecloth, “would you want to navigate those stars?”
His hand shifts to find purchase on his cheek, azure hues glittering with unspoken interest, and he pays attention to the way the faded candlelight adds colour to the planes of Jun’s face and the lines of his cheekbones. “Have you ever wanted to disappear, mon cherí?”