"That's okay..." said Tobias.

The girl clicked her tongue impatiently. "Well, what are ye havin'?"

Anthony had briefly forgot about the girl. "I don't— I don't know?" That happiness was now ruined yet again by this pressure on him. Nevermind that this was literally the easiest and least stressful thing in the world, he already felt like he was going to cry over it.

Tobias watched Anthony's discomfort grow. Suddenly he turned to the girl. "The same, please," he said. She nodded, gave Anthony a confused look, and walked away. Tobias looked back at Anthony. "Everythin' alright?"

That stopped Anthony from breaking down, at least. He just stared at the table and nodded a little once Tobias finally made this decision for him. When the man asked him if he was alright, Anthony looked up at him, nodded again and smiled a bit. "Yes! I'm fine. Of course I am."

Tobias nodded. "Hope ye don't mind me startin'." He gestured at his plate. "Don't want it to get cold." And without waiting for a response, he dug in. He was hungry.

As soon as that was over with, he dropped the smile and looked away again. "Do what you want," Anthony shrugged. And as it became clear that he wouldn't be getting any attention anymore for some time, he just stared at the table in complete silence and waited.

Tobias continued eating, letting the silence sit between them for a while. Eating was a perfect excuse to remain silent and not have to come up with forced conversation, and that served the introverted man just fine. After a while, the serving woman brought Anthony the same meal and a tea.

The silence felt absolutely awful, but he did nothing to break it. His thoughts were interrupted as that serving girl returned with the food, and he took the food and tried to get all that over with as fast as possible. "Right." He wasn't even particularly hungry anymore, and was only really eating to be polite.

Tobias, meanwhile, had slowed down now that his initial hunger was stilled. "Found any job in the mean time?" he asked.

"No." Suddenly he was much happier about the silence.