Are we Hunters or Partners??? I'm Confused! (Nana & Foster/Smith Partnership; So much chaos)

He chuckled before winking at her, taking another lick of her ice cream, "Oh, but where might the fun in that be?"

"Et tu Brute?!"

Nunally giggled and looked at him with innocent puppy eyes. "I dun wanna be eaten~!" The girl told him childishly. "I'm just an innocent strawbewwy girl~..."

"We will see about that some other time," he said, looking away, hiding the sudden blush spreading on his face with his hair, "Maybe." Without another word, he began walking a bit ahead of her, not expecting her to try to catch up.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Hey that was actually quite clever, dude."

"Huh?" Nunally looked at Joseph with confusion clearly visible on his face. What was that supposed to mean? His reaction was weird! Why the blush? Nana quickly started adjusting the pace to once again be beside her partner. "Hey, what do you mean?" She asked, confused.

Joseph shrugged, hoping that she wouldn't be brave --- or naive --- enough to try to google what he could possibly have meant. Instead, he played innocent, walking along. "Is there anything else that you want to do today?"

"H-hey! That's not an answer to..." Nunally said and then sighed loudly. Actually, she was about to use google to get a clue about what he'd meant. "Come ooon..! It's better if I heard it from you! Using the internet feels like cheating!" The girl said trying to further pressure him to answer her question.

Minerva just started laughing at the pure silliness of the whole situation. "This is great!"

His face burned further, and he let his hair try to hide it as best it could, "Who said you needed answers?" He asked, maintaining the smooth confidence in his voice that he'd had previously, despite his current embarrassment. Well, there goes the "gentleman" illusion...

"Well, uh, I... want them..?" Nunally replied, clearly confused by his question. Why couldn't he just explain everything to her? Why was he getting so embarrassed too? It was really confusing for Nana

Suddenly, Joseph got a text message. It was from Minerva, of course. She'd decided to help Nana a bit... by torturing the poor man.
"I'll tell her if ya don't ;)"

Joe went into a coughing fit the instant he saw the message, dropping the stub of what was left of his cone and the small bit of ice cream within it. This did nothing to help his embarrassment, but he hoped she'd just think he choked and not question why.

"A-Are you okay?!" Nana asked with a worried tone. He started laughing so suddenly it almost made her jump in place. She put her hand on his back gently and patted him as if she hoped that it'd help him with coughing.


Meanwhile, Minerva sighed loudly. "Just kiss her already... she's waitin' for iiiiiit"

It was a good thing that he couldn't hear Minerva, right now, as doing so would have made it impossible for him to recover. "I... it is fine," he asserted, straightening, though he looked at the ice cream with a sort of disdain, now that it was covering the sidewalk.

Well, luckily Nana still had some ice cream in her cane remaining. "Oh... Well, I guess we can just share my delicious strawberry ice cream if you want!" The girl suggested, not realizing that it was possible that it could potentially be a pretty bad idea.

Minerva was about to send the definition to Nana... That simply felt both funny and right to her. Joe shouldn've been more honest with poor Nana. At least in her opinion.

He shook his head, still trying to right himself and not quite ready to talk. Joe held a hand up to try to further explain that he wasn't interested, but he had his doubts that such would be effective. Right now, his focus was still more on hoping that Minerva would not provide Nunally with an explanation.

His reaction only made Nana more worried. His sudden change of behavior was really strange. At least in her eyes. Well, Joe was a strange man, but it was weird even for his standards. "Hey... Joseph..? Is everything okay?" The girl asked to make sure.

Minerva decided to delay sending her explanation to Nana. Instead, she decided to send another message to Joseph:
"Let me give you a very friendly advice: Just be honest with your feelings. Accept them. Share them with the girl, if you want. From what I've noticed, she would probably forgive you every stupid thing. And you know what? If you promise me that you'll be honest with your feelings (that doesn't mean I'm forcing you to tell her everything/anything ofc), I won't tell her that the meaning of your words was a suggestion that you'd turn her into a not-so-innocent "strawbewwy girl" ;) "

Joe, fool that he was, made the mistake of checking the new message the second he received. Immediately back in a coughing fit, he sent a quick "thumbs up emoji" --- Lily, what even were these things --- before pocketing the phone and holding his head. Righting himself once more soon enough, he shook his head and offered Nana a smile that was meant to be reassuring but came off more as apologetic. His voice hadn't quite returned to him yet.

Nunally sighed quietly and shook her head. She couldn't help but compare the current situation to their little adventure in the swimsuit store. What caused her partner to get in such a weird state? Even though he smiled at her, she was still worried. Perhaps the taste of her delicious ice cream would help her figure out the reason behind Joseph's weirdness? Nana started finishing the delicious dessert and then she remembered, or rather, realized. Was it still really because of the comment he'd made after she'd mentioned being an innocent strawberry girl? "Stawbewwy?" Nana mumbled in a childish voice, curious if that'd be enough to confirm (or reject) her theory.


"Oh well... I guess I'll wait for the situation to develop. Besides... I guess Nana might figure out what the poor dude suggested soon... hehehe! I love stalking these people!"

He made no notion, heads or tails, to either confirm or deny her theory, merely walking along. It seemed that he still didn't really have a destination in mind, other than "not home."

Nunally was certainly dissatisfied with the weapon's reaction. His silence was only making things worse for her. Or perhaps his silence was a confirmation? Nana didn't know what to think about all that. Out of her hidden frustration, she decided to finally use the internet to find some answers. She opened more than a few search windows in a web browser of her phone and started looking for answers. Unluckily, she wasn't able to find anything that'd explain her partner's words from before. "So... where are we going now?" The meister asked the weapon in between the searches. Perhaps she had to approach the problem from a different direction? Perhaps all she needed to do was to find what her partner's silence and behavior after saying his words meant? That's what Nana decided to do.

"I am not sure," he answered her honestly, still walking, his tone certainly not showing any deception. "Is there anywhere you wanted to go?" Joe stopped to turn and look at her as he said this, hoping for some sort of direction where his own mind provided none.

"I don't think so..?" Nunally said after a moment of thinking. She wasn't very good at organizing her time really, despite being equipped with powerful technology that she could use to help herself with that. So, it was no surprise that she would be unable to think of anything interesting to do. That's why she used the internet to help herself! "Maybe we could... visit some cafe and... uhm... get some tea or coffee to drink?" The girl suggested.

Tea sounded far better to him that it probably should have. This would be one of those moments that Lily would be making fun of him, but he certainly didn't care enough to stop, "You know a lot of cafes sell more sugar than coffee, yes?" He asked, but was nonetheless already in the process of looking for one.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Nunally asked and tilted her head slightly. Did it mean that cafes were adding lots of sugar to their coffee? Nana was sure that it's the customer who always decides how much sugar they want in coffee or tea. Was she wrong in her assumption?

He sighed and shook his head, opting to just show her what he meant rather than to explain. "Come on," he said gently, guiding her to the nearest one that his maps application would show him.

Nana simply followed him, trying to somehow understand what he meant. Was it because many cafes sell overly sweet beverages? Or perhaps sweets, cookies and cakes? Maybe both? Or maybe she was wrong with all of her assumptions. Perhaps it was just better to wait and see? It's not like she could read his mind nor rely on her non-existent experience with cafes and sugar. After all, she would never go to a restaurant or any similar place alone. If not for her partners' help she would still be eating instant soups.
So, a moment later they walked into a seemingly random cafe.

Joe held the door open to lead her inside, waiting until she'd walked past him before allowing the door to close behind them. This done, he gently pressed his hand to her back and guided her to be able to see the posted menu. Sure enough, it was filled with all manner of sugary treats, drinks and pastries alike. There were also other baked goods, breads, sandwiches, anything that could be shoved in an oven, almost. "Pick whatever sounds good to you," he told her, already knowing what he was going to get, as though it would ever have been a mystery.