Ichigo eyes the hotel lobby as he crosses it, trying to figure out where to hole up that James will be comfortable in; the other man doesn’t like crowds or crowded areas, and it’s pretty obvious that places like this are also pushing the man’s comfort—

(Not that Ichigo blames the guy.)

(This place is even a bit much for him.)

—which really doesn’t leave many places in the hotel itself.

“Want to go catch dinner somewhere?” Ichigo finds himself asking as they near the hotel’s entrance. “Monster of the week decided to show up before lunch, and we spent a couple hours playing hide’n’seek with the bastard before we finally dealt with it, so I haven’t had a chance to eat much,” he offers as an excuse before James can do more than slant a glance his way. He’s pretty sure the man won’t take an offer like that the wrong way — Ichigo’s only met the guy twice before now, he has no interest in ‘friendly hangout’ being mistaken for ‘potential date’ — but better safe than sorry.

(And besides, framing it as something Ichigo would like keeps James from feeling like the change of venue is purely because of him.)

James doesn’t take longer than a step or two before he huffs and asks, “That obvious, huh?”

(Not that it works.)

(Ah well.)

Ichigo shrugs. “Maybe. But I wasn’t lying, either,” he says as he turns towards the door and keeps walking. “I saw what was laid out on those tables back there, and frankly? Not interested.” Finger-foods and rich-folk fancy nibbles? No thanks.

He’s starving, and no amount of weird tasting ‘treats’ are going to fix that.

James has the audacity to snicker at him, and Ichigo scowls back at the man, forgetting for a moment that they aren’t really friends yet, except—

James just snorts in response and says, “Come on then, before you wither away t’nothing,” in the driest, most deadpan tone of voice ever, and Ichigo can’t help but bark a laugh and relax.

Yeah, this might be exactly what he needs after the frustration of the day.

“Got any suggestions?” Ichigo asks as he shoves the door open and steps out into the evening air; it isn’t late enough for much of anything to be closed yet, but this also isn’t his usual city. In fact, the only reason he and the others managed to show up at all is because Hat’n’Clogs pulled some strings and got a Senkaimon directed towards the area.

“Nope,” James answers, tone unrepentant. “Guess we just wander til we find something?”

Ichigo casts an exasperated look at James and then pointedly pulls out his phone and unlocks it. “Or we can do a search,” he says as he brings up the map and starts to type. “You know, like people who don’t want to be lost in a completely unfamiliar place.”

“Ain’t that supposed to be the fun of it, though?” James snarks back. “Thought that was all the rage or something.”

“I will be enraged if I don’t get something substantial to eat in the next half hour,” Ichigo declares as he scrolls through the results, looking for something that isn’t ‘rich person show-off zone’ or ‘crowded family restaurant’. Not that there are many options that he can see: some chain burger joints, a few cafes that are still open, some random places that he can’t really tell what they are…

Nothing really sounds good, though.

Ugh.

He really just wants to curl up at home with some of Yuzu’s cooking, but he’s definitely not getting that tonight. Not unless he ditches everyone else and opens a Senkaimon himself, but James is still alive and Hat’n’Clogs isn’t around to provide a conversion array for the guy, so… that idea is definitely out.

Pity, he bets James would love Yuzu’s cooking.

“Anything interestin’?” James ask as they keep walking away from the hotel.

“Not really.” Ichigo scowls at his phone and expands the search area a bit, hoping to find something interesting. “Why does finding a place have to be so difficult.”

James chuckles a bit and reaches out to nudge his shoulder, turning him down a different street instead of letting him keep walking straight across an intersection. “Maybe you’re just overthinkin’ it.”

“Or maybe this city should get better taste in food,” Ichigo snarks right back, then sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I’m a bit—”

“You’ve had a stressful day, you’re hungry, and you aren’t anywhere familiar. I think a bit’a snip is warranted,” James tells him. “Pick a spot, we can check it out, and if it don’t look good we can leave and try somewhere else. How’s that sound?”

“Like something Tatsuki or Uryuu’d say,” Ichigo admits with a wry smile, then glances back at his phone, scrolls through the list again, and picks something at (almost) random. “Emerald Oak… well, I guess I’ve seen worse names for a restaurant. It’s just a few blocks away.”

“Lead the way,” James tells him, apparently content to go along with whatever Ichigo picked, at least for the moment. Whether that will change when they actually get there is a different thing, but then again, that’s exactly what James had said they should do. Pick a place, check it out, move on if they didn’t like it.

It doesn’t take them long to walk there, especially given how quiet the sidewalks are, with barely anyone else walking around. The roads are another story, but that doesn’t matter since all the crosswalks are guarded by lights. It’s a bit odd how few people are out but it is dinner time, so maybe everyone is either eating or heading home.

Or maybe Ichigo just really doesn’t understand how foreign countries work. Either or.

The restaurant is relatively busy when they reach it, with plenty of people sitting at tables and waiters bustling about, and Ichigo pauses at the door and glances at James in question, wondering if this is too much for the man.

“Just request somewhere near a wall,” James mutters, tucking his hands in his pockets and ducking his chin towards his chest, making himself look oddly small despite his size.

Ichigo hesitates a moment longer, on the verge of saying ‘let’s go somewhere else’, only to huff when James gives him a narrow-eyed look. “Fine, but you get uncomfortable, we leave,” Ichigo promises as he pulls the door open and steps through, nodding a greeting to the waiter at the front.

“Just the two of you?” the woman asks as she grabs a couple menus and glances down at the list in front of her.

“Yeah. Got anywhere a bit out of the way and a bit quieter than out here? Preferably near a wall,” Ichigo asks before she can decide where to seat them.

She hums, looks up again, then clearly does a double-take as she takes the two of them in properly. It’s only for a second though, before she gives herself a small shake and says, “That depends. Mind sitting near the kitchen at all?”

Ichigo checks with James just to be sure, before answering, “Sounds fine by me.”

“Right this way, then,” she says, turning to lead them through the room.

Ichigo follows, James immediately on his heels, as they walk through the aisles of tables, back past—

A tree?

He pauses. Stares up at the branches overhead, strung with little lanterns shining cheerfully in the semi-darkness of the place. Wonders what the hell sort of place puts a tree inside, even if it’s part of their name.

James snickers and nudges him in the back. “Gonna lose our guide if you keep starin’ like that,” he murmurs just loud enough for Ichigo to catch.

Ichigo scowls at him. “It’s a tree,” he hisses in exasperation, though he does force himself to move again.

“Didn’t know trees were so rare in Japan,” James says with enough faked innocence to make Ichigo gag.

“They aren’t inside buildings!” Ichigo growls back, even as he nods politely to the waitress and takes a seat at the table she indicates.

James slides into his own seat, back to the wall and a (relatively) clear view of the way they came, and immediately relaxes a bit. “Coulda fooled me with the way you were lookin’ at it,” he says with a grin, accepting the menu the waitress hands to him.

“See if I ever go anywhere with you again,” Ichigo grumbles without heat. “Thanks,” he tells the waitress, because he isn’t completely without manners, no matter what Uryuu might say.

She makes a soft noise of amusement, lips curled into a warm smile, and says, “No problem. Your waiter is Seth, and they’ll be with you shortly. Anything I can get you to drink?”

“Just water,” James answers immediately.

Ichigo glances briefly at the menu — apparently he picked some sort of steak house? Not bad — then shrugs and says, “Same as him.”

“Right, I’ll get that in. Have a good meal!” she tells the two of them before turns and retracing her steps back to the front.

James flips his menu open and starts to scan it. “Think you can find something here?” he asks.

“Yeah, probably. Comfortable?”

“It’ll do,” James answers with a shrug. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, I’m just regular tense, not…” he waves his right hand slightly towards the way they’d come, “not like back there.”

Ichigo considers the man for a moment, then shrugs and looks back down at the menu. “Alright, just let me know if you want to leave.”

“Right back at’cha,” James says with a smirk.

Ichigo pointedly rolls his eyes — the snicker he gets is well worth it, in his opinion — and focuses on the menu, letting a comfortable silence settle between them. The sounds of the other diners is a bit muted where they are, just a pleasant background noise, and the place is… well, comfortable, honestly. It’s not too bright, the table is clean, the seat isn’t bad, and the menu is pretty decent.

For a semi-random pick, he didn’t do too poorly.

(Now he just has to choose something to order.)

(Decisions, decisions…)