[ it is nice, even if izō doesn't directly say so. it's easy enough to tell as much anyway just from how he is, which improves as usual with the more he drinks. he knows his situation isn't entirely solved, but at least has an idea of what to do next.

as requested, he's still within the fun, social drinking phase of the night by the time they're finished eating. ]

Oh, yeah. Hehe, now I'm real curious 'cause it must be somethin' y' couldn't jus' give me right here...

[ he looks thoughtful but he'll never figure it out trying to guess. ]

... Yeah, I still got nothin'.