—revealed the table-top.

It was completely, totally covered, in just stuff. Serena couldn't make sense of it, it was like she was looking at something an alien from two galaxies away had put together.

In the middle of the table, Clemont had taped down a large game-board—only it wasn't just any game-board, it was one Clemont had made himself. It was a large section of poster paper, sliced to be perfectly square from all-sides, and taped down so that it wouldn't be removed from the table-top until the game was done. In pencil, Clemont had drawn up what looked like a world map, complete with mountains, forests, villages, lakes, valleys, canyons, and a large ocean to the east. It wasn't Kalos, and when Serena looked too closely she would quickly realize it wasn't a real map—all of the landmarks were too perfectly crammed together, in too perfect proximity to be anything real. The landmarks and specific areas—usually special buildings, or areas of town, or caves or dungeons—had numbers on them, like they corresponded to some other material.

Sure enough, there were other, smaller maps, drawn on sheets Clemont had clearly printed off of some website, with a large graph paper section in the middle and little lined descriptions at the bottom. They had names like 'Dungeon 3F' and 'Tavern 1B' on them, and more numbers in the grids that were clearly maps.

Serena saw shoddily-done clay figurines, and twenty-sided die, and notecards with attacks and spells written on them. Of the several chairs placed all around the round table, each of them had a sheet in front of them with a low-res picture or a halfway-decent drawing in the picture box, a name and a bio—character sheets, Serena had heard Clemont call them in one chat.

All of the things Serena saw amounted to one, resounding thought in her brain:

Oh no.

"Dungeons and Dragons!" Clemont said, proclaiming, looking for all the world like he was proud of himself—for some reason Serena couldn't discern. Not that she was looking at him, but she could picture the rest from just his voice.

Serena swallowed. She looked like she was about to cry, staring at the table-top—at her surprise afternoon with Clemont.

Her surprise afternoon that had just been ruined.

"I made the whole campaign from scratch, too! I think it's really something, it's something special I think will really just speak to you…"

Serena heard every word that Clemont had said, and though it was clear to her what he was saying when she repeated it back to herself silently in her head, it was far more jumbled up and filled with cereal.

Never one to have impressive eating manners, Clemont was sitting at his end of the folding card-table that had been temporarily set at the far corner of the room, in his own chair—not like one of the thin and flimsy folding ones Serena had been sat in on her side, his 'dungeon-master' chair, an old desk chair with wood accents and embossed brass studs holding down the leather upholstery of the back and the seat. The chair had impressive range, creaking back and holding Clemont at a near-perfect 45 degree angle, his feet planted on a pile of nearby boxes with his legs keeping him back, as he cradled a the tall box of cereal Serena had pulled from the upstairs. Enough crumbs had piled into the folds of his pale-blue jumper to assure Serena he was getting enough to eat—if it had ever been a concern of hers with Clemont.

"Well, remember how I was telling you about my last campaign?" Clemont asked, going on like Serena was interested in what he was saying. "And you were telling me how much it reminded me of those fantasy novels you like to read? Well, I decided to base it on that! And I created something that sort of puts you in the driver seat of a character who's sorta like those books—I, well, did a lot of reading in anticipation of putting this together… uh, 'research', you could say."

Serena couldn't believe Clemont was still eating, and still talking. Even if he wasn't eating, she wouldn't be any more surprised, or annoyed.

The bowl of oatmeal Serena had made for herself earlier was completely empty, the smooth white walls of the bowl practically licked clean. Serena hadn't wasted a second eating from it, as soon as they had sat down at the card-table getting to work on it. It was a healthy distraction from everything they were doing and had been talking about, giving something to put Serena's mind at ease when she was just listening and realizing how easily she had stepped into this trap of Clemont's devising. She had convinced herself that the best route out of this situation was a diplomatic solution, and she just needed time to think her way through it, and there was no better way through it than eating.

Serena still had to remind herself that this wasn't a really a 'trap'. 'Trap' was a harsh word and implied malice on Clemont's part, and though it was definitely feeling like a trap it really wasn't at all. This, whatever it was—Serena had heard so much of what Clemont was saying and still hadn't really put together in her head what it was they would be doing if she really agreed to play this game—was made out of some affection for her.

Maybe this was the right thing.

"—I thought that including angry, antagonistic fairies like the story has would be interesting. But, what would be more interesting? Orcs!"

In the middle of his seemingly endless rant, Clemont finally looked up from the dogeared notebook he had been carrying around—a notebook he had transformed into his own guide for how to play his own game, filled with new pages and printed things, sticky notes and fold-out pages from old guides—and looked up at Serena. Across the table where she sat, she was looking down at her bowl, and Clemont could tell she wasn't really looking at the bottom of the bowl—not because he knew it wasn't interesting, it was most definitely because he knew the exact look she was giving him; it was the look he knew she was giving when he was doing something that really, really bored her. This early in their relationship he had figured out all the little signs: her eyes weren't as wide and attentive as they were when someone was giving out interesting information, her back wasn't wilting down and making her hunch over. This was clear and present disinterest, and yet she was smiling.

"Serena…?" Clemont asked, trying Serena. His gaze was still beneath his glasses, and he had no idea what to do with his face. He closed his notebook slowly, not necessarily caring as much about his place in the book, setting it on the table and placing his hand over it like he might go back to it.

When Serena looked back up at Clemont, she looked confused, but she still smiled nonetheless. It was unsettling to Clemont, but she seemed more calm that he had ever seen her being.

Reaching across the table, to where Clemont had placed his hand over the top of the notebook, Serena reached and rested her hand over his. Her thumb grazed his knuckle, doing all the touchy-feely things couples did with their hands, rubbing and sighing. This only served to confuse Clemont more, who looked down at where their hands met and overlapped, even slowly turning his hand over to meet palm-to-palm with Serena. Even more unsettling, Serena was still staring at him, something he hadn't noticed until he had gone to look back up at her. She was still staring at him with that dreamy, bored look, and still smiling.

"You are really handsome, you know that…?" asked Serena, her voice extra smooth and settling. It was the best she had come up with in the few seconds since she had made it her mission to get out of this in the nicest way possible.

"Serena, is something wrong?" Clemont immediately asked, shrinking back in his chair. It all really was inexplicable what was happening, and yet, somehow, it was making Clemont blush harder than he had had the chance to that day.

Serena smiled, wistfully, like she was just casually dreaming something up to say. She shook her hair playfully from her face, freeing up a small tangled strand that had stuck to her brow, making sure Clemont could see all of her face and the drama that was playing across it. She was making her eyes smile as much as she could, making them full of hope and desire.

"I was just thinking…" Where she was tracing a circle on the tabletop with her finger, closest to her side, she scooted it across the tabletop toward Clemont. She brushed aside piled, single pages that had been pulled out and left as references for him to gaze over as he made his pitch, scooting them aside without a single thought of whether or not they were organized in any particular fashion. Her finger stood up and casually walked towards him, finding where he had left his other, free hand against the table surface and across his fingers. She rested her hands atop his until he turned them, now giving her both of his hands.

"What were you thinking, Serena…?" asked Clemont. He had moved past the feeling of wondering what exactly this was all about, asking the question he could feel Serena was dangling in front of him.

"I was thinking… We should do something else…"

"Really...?"

"Literally, anything but this."