CiggaretteQueef   Sal tugged on their tie, a nervous habit, as they got out of the car at the restaurant. They closed the door, waiting for leo to step out of the passenger seat so they could lock the doors, walking around the car to offer leo their hand to walk inside. The night had started with sal surprising leo with flowers at home before they got ready to head out tonight, a dinner sal had planned weeks in advance, but only told leo theyd reserved a couple nights ago. It was supposed to be a surprise afterall, sal couldnt let him know it was weeks in planning, he mightve gotten suspicious.

mongrel

Leo’s tail had been wagging all night. First flowers, then they got all nicely dressed up, and now they were going to have a nice meal? They hadn’t gone on a fancy date in a while, and he was excited to finally have one again! He hopped out of the car, a bit less dignified that what the other patrons would consider appropriate, and gently closed the door. He then immediately took his place next to Sal, sneaking a kiss and whispering, “You look so handsome right now.”

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Sal smiled at the compliment, squeezing his hand "you look very handsome too." they tried to relax and stay calm, taking a little breath and leading the way inside. the building was large and as fancy as you can imagine, red carpets, beige and gold walls and posts, intricate designs all over. the kind of place theyd probably turn away anyone not wearing formal clothes.  sal greeted the person at the podium with their name and the person checked their list before leading  the two to a table, already decorated with glasses, candles and a wine bottle. sal wouldnt be drinking, but they wanted to give leo the option.  the person lit the candles and told them "your waiter will be with you shortly." before walking away.  sal took a seat, tapping the bottle "do you like wine?"

mongrel

Leo gaped at how fancy this place was. If he was being honest he was a bit scared to be in there, he felt like he was going to break something. The exact feeling he got when he’d go inside a pier one imports. He tried not to wag his tail with excitement and pretend to be a high power businessman instead of the goofy student teacher he was. He quietly followed Sal, staying next to them but slightly behind. When they got to their table he let out a soft gasp, it was so pretty and way more elegant than he could imagine. He’d never been to a restaurant that had everything set up for you already, without having to wait for alcohol. He felt a bit out of place. When sal offered him some wine he readily nodded, “oh yes please, uh, is it a…grape?”. He smiled, hoping that was correct wine talk, as he passed sal his glass.

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sal kept glancing at leo to see his reactions to the place, enjoying that he seemed happy enough with it, giving them a little more confidence. they smiled at leos guess for the wine, thinking it cute "yes, it is a grape, good guess!" even though all wine, by definition, was grape. they glance at the bottle "i cant say it as fancy as the staff, but  this one  tastes like cherry and chocolate."  as much as a wine could anyways.  the cork had been removed a bit before they arrived, by request, since sal had incidents trying to remove a cork before. they pour the dark liquid into leos glass and handing it back as the waiter appears and hands them both a fancy menu to look over.

mongrel

Leo wagged his tail, happy that he’s passing as one of the upper crust. He gestured his glass towards Sal, like he’s seen in the movies, and wordlessly nods. Then Leo, the naive, thinking that the wine would actually taste like cherry and chocolate and not the wine version, excitedly takes a sip. His nose scrunches up once the taste hits it mouth, this isn’t good at all! This is just grape trying to be something else! He tries to keep his composure though, “it’s very fancy.”. He tries to save it by looking over the menu, there’s not much he could understand on here. Lots of words he’s never seen before and the descriptions don’t help. He more or less decides on the first item he recognizes, from what he can gather it’s some kind of steak. “What’re you getting?” He nervously asks, maybe they’d have a better idea of what’s good here.

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Sal held back a giggle at the gesture, and had to really try not to laugh at his apparent distaste of the wine and his comment "it is." They glanced over the menu, having been here before and similar restaurants, "hmm, the lobster medallion salad I guess. How about you?" Sal knew leo wasnt completely comfortable with fancy things and places, but that didnt mean he wouldnt end up liking it, right? After all, they quite enjoyed the fancier things, even if they also liked fast food French fries.

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Leo, not one to openly admit he can’t read most of the menu, sticks to his choice. “Ooooh lobster sound good…but I was thinking of going with the steak tartare a-vack oof.” He confidently sits up straighter, happy that he was able to navigate the hardest part of fine dining with relative ease. While also having no idea what he ordered exactly, other than some kind of steak. Which was fine by him. It took him a moment to hit him, then his eyes widened in concern. He whispered, “Oh wait, oh no, sweetheart, aren’t you allergic to fish?”

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the waiter took their orders, probably raising a brow at leo, and sal sips the sparkling juice in their glass before nodding "oh yes, i'm allergic to several fish, but not lobster thankfully. though i've been warned i could develop an allergy to it eventually. i used to be able to eat clams, but well, i guess that happened. isnt that odd?"  theyd planned every aspect they could for this date, and while they considered having the ring put into leos food, they decided against it because 1- they didnt think a ring in food would be very clean. and 2- leo wasnt the most observant and they were worried he'd end up swallowing it.

mongrel

“Oh. Huh. Yeah that’s pretty odd but like, in a cool way! I thought people kinda…always had their allergies. Learn something new.” Leo made a mental note of that. He’d purposely been avoiding seafood whenever he knew he’d be close to them, but it was a relief knowing that he could have some. Leo had gotten some mango juice to go with his meal, it sounded fancy and he’d never tried it before so he figured it’d be fun. After a small sip, he took the glass and poured a small portion of it into the glass that still had some of the chocolate wine in it. Extremely appropriate for their environment. He then looked it over, watching the colors swirl, before taking a swig if the concoction. Wow! It was disgusting. He kept drinking it though, taking a pause to point at it and tell Sal, “This is horrible. Don’t try it.”

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sal watched leo mix the drinks in contained horror, and at first they thought he must have liked whatever it was, as he kept drinking it. to each their own, they wouldnt judge. at least, not out loud. that is, until leos comment on it. sal laughed before covering their mouth and glancing around, worried it was too loud, and looking back to leo, amused "oh sweetheart, why are you still drinking it? we can get you something that tastes better." after a short wait, the food would arrive, looking fancy as fuck, and if leo wouldnt, sal would order him a drink more to his tastes hopefully, like sparkling juice.

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Leo laughed along with Sal, not as sensitive that he’s disrupting the other patrons as Sal was. “I don’t wanna waste anything!”. He finished off the glass in one last swig, then washed it down with the rest of his juice. “This mango shit’s, oh sorry stuff’s, bangin. If we could get more of this that’d be fantastic.” He thanked the waiter when he came back with the food, before he could see it, but his face dropped once he saw it. It looked like cat food...he had no idea how to eat this. Should he just, lean down and eat? His hands? A fork? He couldn’t tell, but considering the environment he chose fork. He carefully set the egg aside, which was a nice surprise by the way, and dug into his food. This was pretty good! As he chewed he watched Sal eat with a dreamy look in his eyes, Sal was so handsome and proper. Totally fit in with this place. “Is your salad good?”

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Sal tried not to laugh again at his fix of cursing, it was definitely inappropriate in a place like this, but they honestly didnt mind, they really loved everything about leo and his brash but sweet personality.  sal seen his expression over the food, worried he wouldnt like it, but still eat it anyways. they ate their own food, always enjoying when they got to eat at places like this, which to them wasnt often, even if it was a couple or more times a month.  "its very good, hopefully i wont have to give up lobster anytime soon." they gave an amused smile "how is yours? if you dont like it, id really prefer you order something you do. its important to like what you put into yourself."

mongrel

“Well I like you.” He smiled, trying to be quiet about his dirty jokes because that’s the one thing he knew wouldn’t fly here, “And besides, I do really like this! I was just surprised, is all. I’m glad you like your lobster though! But if you end up not being able to have it anymore, you can always have this fish.” He winks then continues eating. It wasn’t a large amount of food, so he tried to eat as slow as possible to have it last instead of his usual scarfing down. He wasn’t sure if a place like this served dessert, or how much dessert you’d get if you did, so he was mentally planning a trip to a burger place later. Probably once sal was asleep so he wouldn’t hurt their feelings. He loved the place, don’t get him wrong, he just had a large stomach and didn’t want to break the bank by eating until he was full. “You think this is the type of place they film movies in? Or maybe where mobsters hang out? Like we’ll look over and see James Bond bust through the ceiling.”

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sal blushed, tugging their tie out of habit "oh jeez-" they glanced around nervously, getting flustered much easier in public, before looking back to him when they deemed no one was near enough to be too worried about it, smiling at the joke "im glad i'll always have you, you're the one thing i'd never want to give up, even if i was allergic." getting sappy, they felt maybe they should propose now- almost not hearing leos further comment, they tried to focus and not get more antsy "oh um, i think they did film something here once, but i dont think it was a super popular movie, because i cant remember it.." they glance around again before leaning a bit over the table and lowering their voice with a sly smile  "i dont know about james bond, but i know for a fact theres some mobsters who eat here." the waiter came back after a bit, and sal ordered desert "tarte aux pomme please.", because to hell if they didnt want some, plus they almost never skipped an opportunity to eat apple pie, or is this case, an apple tart, being their favorite dessert.

mongrel

Leo’s brows shot up at the confirmation of his suspicions about the mobsters. “Oh.” was all he could manage. When the waiter came back, Leo hadn’t quite finished his food, but he ordered something called profiteroles. He’d heard of them before, they looked like fancy donut holes with a chocolate drizzle, so he was looking forward to those. “Could we please get a pitcher of chocolate sauce for the table?” He asked the waiter, not sure if that was possible but hey it wouldn’t hurt to ask. The waiter told him they’d see what they could do and he thanked them. Just as the waiter left, he looked down at his plate. Only the egg in half shell and what he assumed was a garnish was left. He truly saved the best for last. He took the egg, and daintily tipped the contents of it into his mouth. Similar to how people eat oysters. He let the yolk slip down his throat before he popped the shell into his mouth and began crunching. He quietly moaned in approval, “letting it sit in the shell really let the flavor seep in! Gotta remember that.”. He wagged his tail happily as he chewed away.

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the moment leo put the shell into his mouth, sal grimaced, looking horrified as he crunched it and then moaned over an egg shell. not for some high class or tasty food, a fucking egg shell. their mouth had actually opened in horror as they watched, before quickly trying to get a grip. they knew he had some weird quirks, he did mix his two drinks together afterall, among other slightly odd food endeavors theyd experienced with him previously, but the egg shell really topped the list at the moment. though their second thought was 'at least if i accidentally get egg shells in a cake, he'd still like it'. they quickly compose themself and nodded with a concerned smile "im.. glad you enjoyed it." they momentarily wondered if he ate the shells when he was making scrambled eggs. they were leaning towards yes. their original plan was to propose after the desserts were brought out, before they ate them, but now the thought of an after kiss of egg yolk didnt sound appealing, so they quickly revised to wait till after theyd eaten dessert, then the possible kiss would be sweet. and probably very chocolaty judging by leos choice of a pitcher of sauce, but that was fine by them.

mongrel

The waiter came back after a small amount of time, clearing their table of their plates and updating Leo on the chocolate pitcher. They could do it after all. Leo thanked them again, before turning his attention back to Sal, continuing where they left off. “Someday you should definitely try it! Unless you’re sensitive to sharp food.” He shrugged, “Though if you can eat lobster shells it’s basically the same texture as that. Different flavor though, less salty, more, uh, calcium-y? Is that a word? You can taste the calcium. The only thing that’s a bit hard to get through is the weird papery stuff in the middle, but that’s about it...Can you have lobster shells?”. You could tell he was passionate about the eggs from his posture and how excited he was to talk about them. He tried not to thump his tail against his seat too hard, but he couldn’t help it. He was having a wonderful time and he loved spending time with Sal and on top of all that he got to have some good meat and soon will get donuts! How cool of a date is this?!

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Sal was a little stunned at first, the fact that leo thought eating lobster shells was ok too really drove it all home. he apparently ate shells of things on the regular. they only frowned a little, keeping their face as neutral as possible, because seeing how excited he got about it made sal aware it was something he enjoyed and wanted to share with them, and at the very least, they appreciated that gesture greatly and felt happy he wanted to share his likes. it was up to them not to diminish them or make fun of it, so he'd always feel comfortable sharing things with them, especially things he was excited about.  "i think i could probably eat the shell, but the.. texture, of most shells, isnt really to my taste.." they put their hand on leos from across the small table, giving him a genuine smile "it sounds like you really like them though, is it something you were raised eating?"

mongrel

He nodded in understanding, lots of people had issues with textures and we wasn’t one to judge why. Leo held their hand and looked into their eyes, romantic as all hell, and said “I wasn’t supposed to with my dads. But my grandma watched me and saw that nothing happened, so she let me do it from then on.”.

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sal rubbed their thumb against leos hand while they held it, nodding to his explanation and gave a half suppressed laugh "i see. i guess there isnt any real harm in it." the waiter came back with their dessert, setting them on the appropriate sides. as they ate, sal would offer a fork of theirs to leo to taste, because in their head that felt like a romantic thing to do, also they just wanted to share how tasty it was. theyd have to ask oscar soon to make them an apple pie.

mongrel

leo wagged, eyeing the pitcher full of chocolate. though it was a smaller pitcher than expected, it was a cream dispenser, he appreciated the small white ceramic cow that gave him an unreasonable amount of chocolate. he took hold of the little cow, and drizzled about a quarter of its contents on one side of the mountain of profiteroles, leaving the other half bare so he could appreciate the flavor without an overwhelming amount of sweet. he popped one of the non-chocopocalypsed ones, it was exactly like a filled donut! He closed his eyes and wagged happily, munching away until sal offered some of their tart. he blushed and took the fork into his mouth, savoring the flavor. it was good too! he smiled, "wow, thats incredible! Here, have one of mine too." he looked down at his plate and mentally stumbled, "uhhhh, chocolate or no?"

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Sal happily accepted the offer with a thank you, requesting a chocolate one and leaning on the table,  opening their mouth, oblivious to how it might have been a lewd look to some.  they were preoccupied in their head, going over a checklist for everything that needed to be perfect. they focused too much on how everything should be, like that of a romance movie, always one to get hung up on the details.

mongrel

Leo’s brows raised, and he smirked, figuring that Sal was purposely trying to be coy. Finally, all those hours of studying so many overly goopy schmoopy lovey dovey romcom movies would pay off. He placed the confectionery into their mouth and as he gazed into their eyes he gently closed it with his hand, trailing his thumb across their lip. He lowered his eyes, now half-lidded, and leaned in, whispering “Now you chew, unless, of course, you want to open that pretty little mouth of yours again so I can drown it. I’ve got half a cow left.”. He scooted the cow romantically over, or as romantically he could scoot a ceramic cow full of chocolate. Which isn’t very.

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sal was surprised with the sensual gesture, causing a blue blush to dust their cheekbones. even the drowning in chocolate sauce comment was hot to them, stimming from a fantasy of getting covered in cum, something they werent typically ok with since bodily fluids were too messy and dirty. sal shook their head, sitting back a bit with a more obvious blush, responding after eating the treat "i- um, no thank you, um, but thanks for the offer." the imagery of them opening their mouth for leo to pour chocolate in for anyone else in the place to see embarrassed them to no end and was definitely not on the agenda.

mongrel

Leo shrugged, “ok, more for me then.” He then proceeded to open his own mouth and place it around the cow’s head, and silently suck about an eighth of the chocolate out. Once he was satisfied he stuffed a few of the pastries into his mouth and closed his eyes happily and thumped his tail against his seat. He blinked a few times, realizing exactly how improper this all was, and swallowed the entire mouthful in one gulp in order to apologize to Sal. “Shit-uh shoot, I forgot that we uh, we’re in such a nice place for a moment. Sorry.” He lowered his head bashfully, “You don’t think they’ll kick us out right?”

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Sal couldnt help but chuckle at that "kick us out because you sucked a cow? oh, that sounds wrong.." they made a face before continuing "no, i dont think they would." probably not anyways. unless maybe someone of high stature complained about it to the staff. Sal drew in a deep breath quietly,  alright, now or never. well, thats not true, i could always- they started to argue to themself before mentally shaking their head, and getting back to task. this was a moment for action! leo had pre-preposed to them, a sweet gesture, even if it was after getting hit with a baseball. they'd previously asked for chomper and eddys approval, even if it was considered old-fashioned, its just something they had wanted to do. sal waited for leo to finish(or nearly finish) his dessert before starting "leo, i uh-" they cleared their throat, steadying their voice, having probably practiced this 100 times in the mirror. "Leo, I have an important question to ask." their soul felt like it was going a mile a minute, and they were probably starting to sweat out of anxiety, even if they were fairly certain leo wouldnt say no.

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Leo was a bit concerned with how worked up Sal was getting. They had a lot going on; their medical problems, the baby, their relationship, their job, their house, and there was probably more too that he couldn’t think of. He hoped it wasn’t anything horrible like them…no he wasn’t going to even entertain the thought. He cautiously smiled and held out his hand for them, trying to be reassuring. “Yes?”

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sal took his hand and squeezed it before they stood up from their chair gracefully, having also practiced it many times, and dropped to one knee in front of leos chair,  pulling a little box from their pocket and opening it in a gesture toward leo, "Leonardo Stafford, will you marry me?" they mentally berated themself for the small, probably unnoticeable hitch in their voice in the middle of the sentence, feeling like their lungs might combust out of fear, they tried to keep the situation in perspective and stay calm.

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Leo squinted in confusion, thinking they were getting up to tie their shoes until they pulled out the box. He let out a soft gasp, and held his hands up to his mouth. A wide grin swept across his face and he giggled. His tail was wagging madly, hard enough to wiggle his entire body. “Of course! Absolutely! Yes!” He actually started crying out of joy, “I love you so much, yes, please let’s get married.”. He didn’t know if he should hold out his hand for them to put the ring on, but it didn’t matter. He scooped them up onto his lap for a bear hug. He couldn’t seem to stop saying “yes” through his tears.

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Sal smiled, feeling a rush of relief at the positive answer, though they were a bit startled when they were grabbed, taking a couple seconds to react before they hugged him back, kissing him as they held onto the little box tightly, afraid of dropping the ring. After the kiss, they shyly held out their opposite hand "can I put it on you?"

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Leo nuzzled their cheek then leaned back, “oh yeah, yeah of course! Here.” He held out his hand, fingers splayed out. He giggled a bit while waiting for them to take it out of the box, he still couldn’t believe that they wanted to marry him. Him! The doofus that’s too loud and rowdy and a bit gross but well meaning. It was so cliche and sappy for him to be thinking this, but he honestly felt like a princess with just, everything. The venue, the dinner, the ring, how cute and pretty they both looked all dressed up. He kinda liked it.

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sal bounced a little in his lap, excited for this moment, they almost fumbled with the box before correcting their grip and taking the ring out carefully, holding leos hand gently in their other, and sliding the ring into place.   they grinned proudly "you are now my fiance. oh gosh, i have a fiance.." they put their arms around his neck, kissing his cheek. definitely one of the best things to happen to them. and then pulled out their phone to take a selfie with leo.

mongrel

Leo let out a little gasp as they placed the ring on his hand, it fit perfectly…and was so pretty. He let out another giggle at Sal’s words, “Same here! It seems, I don’t know, it seems so unreal. We’re fiancés.” wrapped his arms around them, squeezing them before smiling for the picture. Well, more like turning his head towards the camera, he didn’t think he could grin wider without it looking like he was baring his teeth. “Wait. Wait where’s your ring? You gotta get in on this shit.”

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