ʷʰᵃᵗ ᵗᵒ ˢᵃʸ ;; ᵉˡᵒⁿᵒⁿᵃ ⁽ᵖ:ᵉᵍ⁾
Summary: Eloise and Wenona go to a restaurant on a date for Wenona's birthday. Unfortunately, a casual restaurant has its employees try too hard to impress Ultimates, and the paparazzi has found them. The date isn't going fantastic, but with a change of plans, they make it work.
Word Count: 1,639
A/N: Happy late Wenona day! I felt the urge to write an Elonona one shot (I think that's their ship name) based on their 2025 birthday arts, so here's this. In case you needa refresher, Eloise's birthday art's caption was, The weather is slowly starting to warm up and the flowers are blooming, so Eloise knows it's a great occasion to put on her favourite spring dress for her important day. Wenona's was, Nothing can ruin her night, not even the paparazzi tailing her on the way to have a simple dinner with her secretary... Though, they are pretty irritating. No, seriously, can a lady not have some privacy on her birthday?
something tells me i'm going to love you forever
Dating the girl that was literally the Ultimate Entrepreneur always made Eloise Taulner a bit self-conscious about herself. She knew Wenona wasn't as harsh as she could make herself seem, and she liked being Wenona, but she always overthought whenever she had to do things for her. Wenona was the youngest billionaire, so she obviously should have high expectations. It was stressful trying to think of something that would impress her.
Since it was Wenona's birthday, Eloise decided she would do something simple for her. They would go to a casual restaurant, and Wenona would take a break from her job. She had to admit that she was a little shocked when she learned that her girlfriend didn't see her own birthday as a good enough excuse to take a break...
It was getting colder, but the weather lately had been relatively warm. Eloise figured it was a good day to wear her favourite dress. She usually only wore it in spring, but Wenona said she looked cute in it. She mainly wore it because it was comfortable, but that added a more important reason as to why she should wear it.
Yesterday, she had told Wenona to dress casual, so she was a little surprised to see her dressed in a rather short skirt with what seemed to be a shirt over the dress and a coat draped over her shoulders. When she reminded her of what she said, Wenona replied, "This is casual."
"Oh. O-Okay..." Eloise was starting to feel very aware of her choice of clothes.
Like she could read her thoughts, she offered, "I could change. It shouldn't take that long."
"It's okay. Really. You look amazing." It wasn't a lie. She really needed to stop thinking about herself when a gorgeous woman was standing right in front of her. It still amazed her that she managed to get the Wenona to like her enough to be what Wenona considered a friend, let alone eventually get her to become her girlfriend.
They held hands as they walked to the restaurant. They hadn't gone to a restaurant since their almost-failed first date, when Eloise couldn't mentally handle the stuffy five-star restaurant, which apparently Toshiko advised against going to, but Wenona didn't listen to the Ultimate Matchmaker. She thought she blew her chances with the best girl she ever met before they decided to have a walk instead. A walk itself wasn't anything special, but the scenery was incredible, and it was nice talking about small things that didn't matter at the end of the day but were fun to discuss. Wenona seemed much more gentile, and she looked beautiful.
Their dates after weren't fancy. This one wasn't going to be fancy either, but before entering, Eloise just remembered one time when Wenona mentioned that she hadn't been to any restaurants that weren't fine dining ones. The difference in experience might do something bad. What exactly would happen, Eloise didn't know because she had 50 different scenarios all playing in her head at once.
This restaurant took reservations, though they also accepted walk-ins, so that was something Wenona was probably familiar with. What she definitely wasn't familiar with was the host immediately stumbling over his words when he saw them.
Wenona, as composed as ever, didn't look amused at the man trying to recompose himself. She interrupted him by stating, "My girlfriend has a reservation here."
"Girlfriend?" He glanced at Eloise. "I mean, of course you would have a girlfriend! You two would be dating! You're both very talented and amazing women! You're also coming here together! Not that friends don't come here together—"
"If you already know who we are, can you actually do your job?"
"R-Right! I'm so sorry! I... I'll shut up now..." The man busied himself with finding their reservation.
Before they went to their table for two, Eloise quickly apologized to the man for accidentally making him uncomfortable, then apologized to Wenona for making her experience that.
"It doesn't matter," Wenona told her. "It was his fault for not preparing himself for seeing Ultimates anyway. You used your real name, didn't you?"
"W-Was I not supposed to...?"
"If you didn't, it would explain his shock, but if he knew Eloise Taulner had made a reservation, then it was his fault for acting immature. There aren't many people named that, and even if there were, my mind would've gone to the Ultimate Fencer."
"You still should've had a better experience..."
"It's fine. I don't mind."
Eloise could tell that she did mind, though. The servers tried not to make it obvious, but it was obvious they were competing to see who would serve their table. They tried so hard to give the best service possible that it ended up being bad service. Even the chefs seemed to be competing because even though the food seemed to be higher quality than normal, Eloise could vaguely hear arguments coming from the kitchen. Wenona was increasingly getting more frustrated, and while it was slightly amazing that none of the servers seemed to notice, Eloise was getting more and more embarrassed over her choice. If they had to go to a restaurant, she should've chosen a fine-dining one. Maybe Wenona would've been impressed with how far she had come.
Today was supposed to be about Wenona, but all of these workers were making it about themselves. Eventually, Eloise excused herself to go to the bathroom, but instead of going there, she went to the host.
"I-I don't know who to tell this to," she admitted, "but can you please tell your coworkers to stop bothering my girlfriend? Can they treat her like a normal person?"
The man was startled when she first spoke. He quickly said, "You're both Ultimates, so we're prioritizing your experience—"
"Our experience here is going very...very poorly. Your... Your coworkers are trying too hard. Tell them to stop."
"Right away!" The man hurried off. Eloise was now questioning if he was allowed to do that, but she refused to think much of it and headed back to her table.
Wenona was on her phone, a frustrated look on her face. Her expression softened upon seeing Eloise sit down, but she wasn't completly happy. When Eloise asked what was wrong, Wenona took her hand and kissed it. Eloise smiled.
As Wenona interlocked their fingers, she asked, "You don't mind everyone knowing you're my girlfriend, right?"
"No," she answered. "I like when everyone knows that...that I'm yours, and you're mine."
Wenona leaned forward. Her voice quieted to a whisper. "Promise me you won't turn around."
Eloise sat a little straighter. "I promise I won't..."
"Good because the paparazzi is here."
Instinctively, Eloise was ready to whip her head around until she found them. She barely managed to stop herself, but her grip on Wenona's hand tightened. "H-How did they..."
"Someone in this restaurant must've tipped them. I'll ask Wolfgang later if I can sue for this, hopefully both the paparazzi and this establishment, but when you came, I was talking to my own employees. I don't want them anywhere near us when we're having our dates, but you don't like the paparazzi."
Ultimates were no strangers to the paparazzi, but Eloise had this trouble of sometimes forgetting that she was an Ultimate student. It was the reason why she didn't hesitate to use her real name instead of some fake name, and why she didn't think about how the average worker might treat two Ultimates going on a date in their restaurant. As an Ultimate, she should be used to people treating her like a celebrity, but she didn't feel like one, so having people take so many pictures of her felt so unnerving.
"I'm sorry for this," she said. "This date isn't going well at all..."
"This restaurant is bad. If you don't want to go while the paparazzi is still here, we can wait until my employees scare them off. Grace is still travelling for her golf tournament, so we'll go to my dorm."
Eloise nodded. While holding her girlfriend's hands, she took deep breaths to steady herself. One mistake wasn't bad. Everyone made mistakes. Even Wenona made them, even if it didn't feel like she could ever do that. She would just have to plan a better date next time. One that didn't have regular people or the paparazzi.
When they went to Wenona's dorm, Wenona wanted to change out of her clothes, that also meant she was going to unbraid her hair. Eloise took this as an opportunity to brush her hair. Her hair was so thick and long that she could play with it for hours.
Eloise sat on a chair while Wenona sat on the floor between her legs. As she brushed her hair, she said again, "I'm sorry about today. I-It was your birthday, and it wasn't going well..."
"I don't care about my birthday," she replied. "It was never anything special to me."
"I care more about you. Were you okay?"
"The paparazzi coming was a little scary...but I'm okay."
"That's good. Today wasn't the best day, but if you're still fine, I can ignore it. We'll just do something better tomorrow."
"We can do something else. We can figure that out later."
A peaceful night inside didn't sound bad at all. They could cuddle and do something simple, like watch a movie, or Eloise could listen to Wenona talk about her business. She often found it hard to keep up, but Wenona spoke with enough confidence and certainty that she would listen—she was also pretty, but that was a bonus. That would be a nice way to end a birthday, and Eloise knew that Wenona would agree.
