. . .
"To live with the conscious knowledge of the shadow of uncertainty, with the knowledge that disaster or tragedy could strike at any time; to be afraid and to know and acknowledge your fear, and still to live creatively and with unstinting love: that is to live with grace."
—Peter Abrahams
. . .
They did end up in Shibuya, of all places.
The shoppe was nice, cozy, if not, a bit too.... cutesy for William's tastes (why is everything so pink?!) ... but Alastor was right, their ice cream was totally worth it, enough for William to ignore the life-sized plushies that seemed to watch them eat from every corner with their ridiculously large and black, beady eyes. He shuddered, ugh. He hates teddy bears.
That, and he really had enjoyed mocking Winters for practically standing out against the shoppe's pastel pink aesthetic background, no thanks to her all-black outfit.
Some of the customers there even mistook her for being a cosplayer or a model of some sort, asking to take a picture of her and her sword from time to time, much to her apparent confusion and annoyance (because unlike William, Winters is not into anime; the uncultured idiot) and their amusement because they thought she was just being 'in-character' or something.
It's really her fault for looking so edgy.
"You looked like you're attending a funeral with all that black, sis," he had told her as much, ignoring Alastor who was nudging him reproachfully, trying to hide his snickers.
At the moment, they are all busy eating each of their respective ice creams; William has ordered a large cup of peanut-butter flavored ice cream, topped with macadamia nuts, and drizzled with coffee syrup while Alastor was enjoying his classic, strawberry ice cream topped with a generous amount of sprinkles.
Meanwhile, Winters was busy poking or nibbling at her cake every now and then, sometimes half-heartedly stabbing his wandering hand towards it.
William juts his lower lip out, "Win... I want..."
"You have your own."
"But you're not even eating it!"
"No."
"Winters—"
"William."
Alastor was definitely laughing at him, that traitor.
William swears he's not sulking, definitely not as he stares longingly at her plate. Ever the dark chocolate enthusiast, Winters had gotten her usual flavor. And she wouldn't even share! "You know... they have a matcha-flavored ice cream cake too, can I...?" he wheedles after a moment of silence.
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'?!"
"No means no. You already have an ice cream," she mutters, her eyes not even straying from the crowd outside. From what William can tell, there wasn't many people outside of the shoppe, most likely because of the time of the day... and it really didn't help that the place was kind of a well-hidden gem.
He tries not to scoff.
And they called him paranoid...
Alastor must have sensed something was bothering her because he suddenly stopped demolishing his ice cream, a look of concern on his face, "But Winters... you love ice cream..."
