"Hmm..." Zade pursed her lips, making something of a show of being in deep thought for a minute before promptly plucking the pineapple from his grip. "You really are quite cruel, to make me decide," she admonished, but there was no missing the note of dry sarcasm to the statement. Setting the fruit down on the counter, she removed a utility knife from her belt and took a wedge out of the yellow flesh. He likely knew by now that she was good for it; she was prone to odd behavior of this sort.
There was, however, a purpose to her seemingly random activity. The cross-section revealed no rot, and she was pleased to discover that it tasted quite sweet. Slicing another wedge, she proffered it to the largely silent Two-tone. This, too, was just part of a personality that seemed to be comprised of random sections from competing identities; while she was capable of being quite cutting or bitter, she did have her moments, and Two-tone was a nice guy, besides. It wasn't as though she had anywhere to be at the moment. Reaching for her purse before her fingers became too sticky with pineapple juice, she laid out enough for her now-mauled fruit and a coconut, taking a seat on the counter herself in the absence of any chairs.
There was a chessboard in one corner of the room; it wasn't exactly uncommon for merchants to have such small diversions in their shops for slow moments, depending on what their hobbies were, but she wondered who he played with. Two-tone seemed a bit quiet to be one of those people with loads of friends that would just stop by whenever. It looked like a game was presently in progress on the board. Maybe he plays himself? The thought was somewhat disconcerting. Zade wondered why that was.
"So..." she said, aware that most of the conversation was bound to be about the same as her talking to a brick wall but not really minding, "how's the family?" It might be a sensitive question, but then she was never one to hedge, or care about personal reservations, for that matter. Sure, if she was more compassionate, she might have avoided asking for the sake of keeping the atmosphere easy as it was presently, but Zade wasn't particularly compassionate. Empathetic, occasionally, and certainly always curious and imaginative, but also blunt. It didn't help that in her experience, the best way to deal with the kinds of problems that came from sick relatives was to talk about it.
That she barely knew who she was speaking to mattered little in the end. In fact, it made it a bit easier. What was the worst that could happen? Two-tone could kick her out, maybe, or ask that she not come back, but no merchant wanted to lose customers, especially not ones that bought your expensive tropical fruits. He could refuse to answer; she'd respect that. Or, he might actually decide to talk, and they could both leave feeling just a little better about the day. Who knew?