Junior snorted, shook his head, seemed to relax a bit, as if the insulting banter was less of a problem for him than everyone trying to make nice all the time.<br/><br/>"Whatever."<br/><br/>Dale simply beamed.<br/><br/>"Oh, honey, it's<em>so</em>sweet of you to consider that! No, I'm pretty sure she'll be fine. It isn't like we're going to discuss a future job or anything. And in any case, I'm afraid she has good reason to keep away from Patterson's Finest."<br/><br/>"Uh, actually..." Junior cleared his throat. "Might have a job. It's a bit...not our usual, and it won't pay too well, but..."<br/><br/>Anya ignored all this, reading over the menu with wide eyes and slowly moving lips as she translated the menu to herself. Further conversation had to wait for the server to take their orders and depart, shaking his head, after Anya ordered in...whatever Cordonian was, it was close enough to Italian to confuse the lad and she finally just pointed to the item on the menu. But turned out to be a Mediterranean vegetarian pasta dish and a strawberry Italian soda with sweet cream.<br/><br/>This also made Junior sit up and pay much closer attention to her.<br/><br/>"Right. Cordonian. Should have guessed.  Which Duchy, kiddo?  Valtoria?"<br/><br/>That word certainly got Anya's attention, and made her blush and sigh, but she shook her head.<br/><br/>"<em>Lythikino</em>."<br/><br/>"Yeah, okay. Makes sense." He followed this up by giving Skye a funny look. "I'll explain later. Food first, depressing moments in someone else's history later."