[Social - Karasuki & Zen] Respite at the Inn

Zen tried his hands at cooking within the halls of the Guild. He wasn't used to the particular ovens and other items and appliances they had, so he was glad that he didn't burn down anything. Zen still felt like he needed a bit more practice, though. Maybe he could help out somewhere? But where? A pub or an inn sounded like the idea he should roll with. If so, which place exactly? He was about to say that he could go look for one, but the answer was in front of him. Not literally, but close enough. The inn that Ryo had recruited him in. The Red Dragon. "Of course." Zen chuckled. Now there was only hoping that the innkeeper wouldn't turn down his offer.

Zen dressed very casually. Black jeans and a simple blue t-shirt. Within new few minutes he found himself in the inn. The young man approached the innkeeper with his request. He seemed to be glad that some help had been offered. "Always happy when Sabertooth lands a helping hand, lad. You'll be working both in the kitchen and as waiter. Wherever needs helping the most. The rush hour is almost here." Zen listened to the instructions and nodded. "There's some spare aprons in the back." The innkeeper would point to a door that was in the back of the room. "Got it. Thank you." The innkeeper nodded with a smile and Zen took off into the back. He was greeted by the staff who gladly helped him out once he stated why he was there. He was given a black half-apron for waiters with a number of pockets. It was slightly greasy around the edges, but Zen didn't mind too much. Once he was armed with a tiny notebook and a pencil, he stepped outside to see a few groups of patrons entering already. The innkeeper wasn't kidding when he said that the rush hour was close. Then again, it was nearing that time of the late afternoon. The young man was ready to take some orders. There was one lady already taking some, but the sudden flow of patrons made it tougher on her. Some guests, who were sitting by the doors didn't have their orders taken yet, so Zen decided to head there first. Some tables were still free around the entrance area of the inn, so people could still come in and wouldn't have to wait for seats. Zen would step up to the group of four guests, paper and pencil in hands. "What can I get for you?" He would ask with a smile and jot down their orders.

The people continuously trickled into the inn and the waitress that Zen was helping out seemed to be thankful for it. The inn itself was quite packed and Zen had a lot of work on his hands. He was in the kitchen helping with some pots and pans, dealing with Jewels at the register and helping with the queue of people outside. His hair was a mess and the apron was even dirtier than it was when he picked it up. But he felt great. As much as it tiring to be running around this much and having to deal with a lot of different patrons, it was also exhilarating. Zen was in his element, doing exactly what he wished to do sometime down the road in his life. If he ever got that far, that is. There was no time like the present, however, so it was for the best if he didn't think too much about the uncertain future.

The past two times he went outside to fetch more people for the free'd up tables, Zen noticed a girl standing in queue, her head buried in a book so deep, people just walked around her in the queue, instead of telling her to move forward. Or something. The people, who he was just about to call inside were one of those, so Zen decided to step around them, much to their vocal disagreement. "Excuse me, there's a table that has free'd up, miss." He would say and gently place his hand on her shoulder, to get her attention. Hopefully she wouldn't get scared at his sudden touch, but that was the most gentle way Zen could think of to bring her out of her focus on the book.

The girl looked up at Zen and fixed her glasses. He was glad that he didn't startle her. The young man lifted his hand from her shoulder as she said that it felt like she was standing in the queue for a long time. Zen wasn't always the one picking up people from the queue, but he still felt guilty, nonetheless. "I should've noticed earlier, I apologize for that." It wouldn't return the time the girl had lost, but hopefully she didn't mind too much. He would motion for her to follow him inside, as the people who cut in line glared at him.

As Zen led the girl around the tables, she said that she was indeed standing in the line for well over an hour. That just made Zen feel that much worse. But he hoped to rectify that. The young man had to stop a few times, as not to bump into careless patrons who moved around the inn. In the meantime, the girl talked about getting absorbed into books. Zen could relate to that, but only partially. He would slightly turn his head backwards, so that the girl could hear him, but he could keep looking ahead. "Well, I wasn't raised on books, but I do know the feel of getting absorbed into your work." He would say with a chuckle and lead the girl to a free table in a corner. He thought that such a table would be well-suited for her. Zen would motion for her to take a seat and look around to see if the other waitress had everything under control. Under control would be stretching it, but she was trying her best, it seemed. The young man would nod to himself and turn to the girl. "What can I get for you?" He would ask her as he took out a piece of paper and a pencil out of his apron's pocket.

Zen was glad that one of the tables that had free'd up was a corner table and that the lady liked the choice. After he asked her what she was going to order, however, she took a look around the rest of tables that she could see. Unfortunately, there was no real menu, at least not a classic menu that one would be thinking of. There was only a handful of meals and drinks handwritten on a blackboard on a side of the inn, which was quite hard to spot, let alone read, with this amount of people. The lady ended up asking for Zen's dish ad some tea. The request somewhat baffled Zen, but in a good way. The young man put the end of the pencil to his lips, in thought. "There are so many dishes. I cannot limit myself to just picking a single favourite." He mused for a moment. "But I will see what I can do." Zen would say with a mysterious smile as he wrote down a few notes on his paper and then put it away into his apron's pocket. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He would say to the lady and make for the kitchen.

On the way to the kitchen Zen came across the other waitress. The young man would stop her for a moment. "Can you take more people from the queue along with their orders? I have a special request to cater to." The waitress looked confused for a second, but quickly nodded and continued with her work. She had no time to ask any favours of Zen. Especially if he was going to drop out for a little bit. The young man entered the ever so busy kitchen. The idea that Zen had was to make some Midi-styled skewers called yakitori. He simply couldn't pick one most favourite dish, but yakitori was one of the top ones for him. "I hope you won't mind me taking these skewers, some chicken meat and green onions?" He would ask in general, as he gathered the ingredients. "Nope. Quite the order you got there, though." One of the cooks replied. "Well, I got a request for my favourite dish and since I cannot just choose one, I chose one of my favourites." Zen would say as he skillfully cut the chicken and green onion into pieces. "Ah, I see I see." The cook would nod to himself. "She had been waiting outside for over an hour, because I didn't notice her and people just passed in the queue, so I want to make it up to her, somehow." The young man would admit as he mixed some spices together and then tossed the chicken and green onion pieces in it. "Oh really? Nobody actually told her to go forward in the queue? That's messed up." Zen nodded and searched for a suitable place to grill the skewers at, as well as some black tea, that the lady had requested. He didn't know if he would find a spiced one, though. "That's true. She was focused too much on her book, but still. I should've seen her sooner. Much sooner, for that matter." The young man would say as he placed the skewers at a grilling pan, hoping to get some colour onto them. They most likely wouldn't have that char and flavour he would get from making it on an oldschool charcoal grill, but it would have to do, for now. The cook who was talking to him hummed in response and fully returned to his work at hand. The skewers were grilling, now Zen had to figure out this tea dilemma. He found some loose leaf black tea in one of the cupboards, but it didn't seem to be spiced, in any way. Zen was no tea guru, so he had no idea what he was doing. He was only relying on his cooking instincts. He ground up some various spices together that he came across, such as cardamon and the like. To test it out, he made just a teeny tiny cup of it, to see if it was any good, before he attempted to serve it. In the meantime, it was high time that he flipped over the skewers. They had surprisingly nice colour to them. Zen jumped back to the tea and put in a bit of sugar, giving it a stir. He downed the bit of tea in one fell swoop. It didn't taste bad in particular, but he was afraid that he couldn't do better. As such, he made a bigger version of it.

The result of his work was a plate of four seasoned yakitori skewers with green onions and a rather large mug of black, somewhat spiced, but sweetened tea. There was a bit of sweat that made Zen's hair stuck to his forehead, revealing bits of his mark. The young man made his way to the lady's table as fast as he could. "Here we are, I'm sorry about the wait. Waiter's special along with some black spiced tea." The young man would say, somewhat exhausted, as he set down the plate and the mug on the table. Only then Zen noticed how dirty his hands were, the guildmark being surprisingly visible despite that. "On the house." He would add quickly, with a little bow as an apology for leaving her wait outside for so long.

The young lady started apologizing and Zen wasn't sure why. His observational skills were almost non-existent after a couple of hours of overworking, but she seemed happy with the meal he had prepared. Zen would smile and give her a small bow in thanks. He was glad that his choice had some success. The young lady was also intent on paying and then noticing that he was from Sabertooth. Zen would smile tiredly. "You don't have to worry about the payment, really. Even if I am just a very temporary staff, I am staff nonetheless, so I should've paid more attention." He would reply as he lifted his dirtied hand, where he had the guildmark on its back, in silver hue. "But yes, I am from Sabertooth. Haven't been a member for too terribly long. Not to mention that I don't really know anybody, aside from one of the Guildmasters." Zen would answer young lady's recent question.

The young man wanted to chat a bit more, but from behind him, he could hear some people complaining and a woman's voice apologizing right after. It was high time that he got back into the swing of things and help out. "I'm sorry, I would like to chat a bit more, but I have to get back to work. I will come back a bit later when things clear up. Enjoy your meal!" Zen would explain the situation and wave the young lady a temporary goodbye, as he went back to work. Not that he was slacking in particular, but he needed to get back to catering to the plethora of patrons in the inn. The issue was, that a good chunk of them was leaving, since they had finished their meals and wanted to go on about their evening. Zen and the other waitress split the sides of the inn and tackled the patrons in their respective sides. Some people were cool with the bit of delays and such, but some took it quite hard and personally, which resulted in verbal attacks towards Zen's person. He just forced himself to smile and apologize, so that he wouldn't make any problems for the innkeeper, while silently considering the throwing knives he always kept on him. It took a bit of time to get everybody sorted out and at the end, there were mostly people who wished the spend more of their evening and night at the inn. The young man would sigh, as he slowly made his way back to the table where the young lady should be. "Very well, that should be it, for the most part." He would try to stifle a yawn.