Ciel tried to make herself smaller as she sat alone at the table for two. He had said he would meet her there an hour ago. She was getting sorry looks from everyone around her, and she had half a mind to leave. Unfortunately, the other half was too hopeful to do that. She turned away the waitress. Again. She kept telling herself to just wait five more minutes.

Then ten more minutes.

Then twenty.

She felt like a complete idiot. She was gathering her courage to get up and leave while she still had some dignity when a tall young man with stupidly long blond hair rushed into the restaurant and made his way toward her.

"Oh my god, I am so so so sorry! There was an emergency at work and my phone died so I couldn't call you to tell you I'd be late!" he announced softly enough that it didn't seem strange or false, but definitely loud enough for most of the restaurant to hear.

Now, of course, this was not the man she had spoken with on tinder. He was a complete stranger, and it was probably not a good idea to stay. Then again, the guy she was supposed to meet here had been a complete stranger, too. At least this stranger seemed to want to help her out. So, after he whispered that his name was Zero and that whoever had stood her up was a complete dickhead, she smiled and softly introduced herself.

Ciel could tell right off the bat that Zero was a reploid. He was in his civvies, so someone who wasn't familiar with reploids would probably think that he was human. However, Ciel happened to work with many reploids. It was easy for her to pin point the subtle tells. But there was something tugging at the back of her mind. She had heard of a reploid named Zero, but she couldn't quite remember who he was. She was a physicist, after all, not a historian. She racked her brain, trying to remember…

"So, Ciel, are you a student?" He asked, breaking her train of thought.

Her eyes focused on him. "Oh, no. I'm a scientist actually. I'm a bit of a prodigy, so I've been working since I was eight." He beamed at her.

"That's badass. What do you study?"

She smiled back at him. "Physics. What about you? What do you do?" she asked before taking a sip of her water.

He shifted a bit. "I'm a Maverick Hunter."

Suddenly, it clicked in her mind. A history lesson she had, a photo of a reploid in red armor. She almost spat out the water, but she caught herself in time. She swallowed and coughed a bit. "You're Zero? Like the Zero? The War Hero?" she whispered, trying not to draw attention.

He gave her a small laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think that's entirely accurate. X did all the heavy lifting. 'War Helper' would be more accurate."

"Don't say that! Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't been there to help? X could have died. What would we have done without him?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, yeah..." She remembered that he always seemed to step out of the lime light and let X do the talking at public appearances. She realized that he must dislike attention. She understood, though she couldn't exactly relate. Ciel had always been a people person. She always loved showing off her latest break-troughs and getting her research published. It was what she was born to do, after all.

She smiled and tried to get him to meet her eyes. "Well, if you weren't a hero before, then you definitely are now for rescuing me," she murmured to him.

That got a laugh out of him. "Why, thank you. I'm very touched, Ciel."

They ate and made small talk. Ciel told him all about how she was solving the energy crisis, and about her adopted sister Allouette. He told her stories from his work, as well as answered any questions she had about him. He told her all about his new kitten, and she told him all about her old dog.

At the end of the night, after exchanging phone numbers with him, Ciel found that she had just had the best "date" ever.