Monday Night at Nell's

[mylandmyrules]

Nell was in the mood for comfort food today so she made a big pot of chicken and dumpling stew and a smaller pot of a veggie stew for the Detective if he should stop by. She also prepared a batch of sourdough rolls to pop in the oven so they'd be piping hot when it was time to eat. Then, with time to relax, she curled up on the chair by the gas fireplace with the cats and read her book.

Comments

[sword_chocobro]

Hey, two out of three ain't bad!

"Birthday text?" Now, the curious tilt of Gladio's head was entirely genuine. "Did I miss your birthday?"

He was pretty sure Nell wouldn't be able to say when his was, either, so he didn't feel too bad about it, but it was definitely good to know that kind of thing for future reference.

And retroactive gifts. Ahem.

[mylandmyrules]

"Oh, well, I... Not exactly," she said. "We kind of celebrated on Saturday."

[sword_chocobro]

"It was Saturday?" Gladio asked, frowning slightly. Not so much for having missed something he'd reasonably had no way of really knowing, but more for the fact that he wasn't sure about 'doing what they would have normally done anyway' equating to 'celebrating.'

"Why didn't you say anything?" He smiled, though, lightly, to show that he wasn't bothered by it, just a little bemused. "I coulda brought you a cake or something."

[mylandmyrules]

"Mmmhmmm," Nell said. "The eleventh."

She smiled at him a little shortly. "Last year was the first time I ever actually celebrated a birthday," she said. "And Steven and the Detective and Lana came and... it was nice. It felt strange though, as if I was asking for presents or something."

She looked up and smiled at him. "And Steven said that I should do what made me happy for my birthday, so... I did. I wanted to be with you. To watch a movie and sit under the stars with you and sleep in your arms. That was what I most wanted to do. And you gave me just that. What else could I have asked for?"

[sword_chocobro]

To that, Gladio could only just grin back at Nell fondly for a moment, before reaching over to pull her into the kind of hug that also called for a gentle kiss on the top of her head, before he huffed out a laugh and answered her question with a slightly teasing, "A cake?"

And then, a well-timed beat later:

"Cup Noodle^TM?"

Maybe he was just thinking of his own birthday wishes...

[mylandmyrules]

She laughed. "I didn't need anything else. But if you tell me when your birthday is I'll make sure to have extra Cup Noodle and your favorite cake."

[sword_chocobro]

"Well, that's not really fair, now, is it?" Gladio challenged with an amused snort. "If I didn't get the chance to spoil you rotten for your birthday, then how come you should get to for mine, huh?"

Was his braim already trying to think of some good retroactive birthday spoiling, anyway? Maaaaybeee...

[mylandmyrules]

Nell laughed again. "You're free to spoil me some other time, I suppose," she said. "But I got exactly what I wanted on Saturday."

[sword_chocobro]

"Yeah," Gladio allowed, "but you can get whatever you want out of me on any given Saturday."

A beat.

"Any day that ends in Y, really," he had to admit.

[mylandmyrules]

Again with the laughter. "Aren't I the lucky one then," she said. "It's like my birthday any day I want!"

[sword_chocobro]

"Without even getting that much older, either," Gladio smirked. "Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty good deal. And how about this? You got the birthday you wanted to have last Saturday, how about you have the birthday I'd like to give you this Saturday?"

[mylandmyrules]

"What would you -" Nell started then stopped. "Yes. If I'll be with you, yes, whatever you'd like will be wonderful."

She trusted him. She didn't need to know specifics to agree.

[sword_chocobro]

"You're gonna love it," Gladio promised, smile and tone softening a little with that start-and-stop of a question that tumbled into such a firm decision to just trust him, and, since that kind of thing shouldn't go unrewarded, the next kiss he bent down to give her fell on her lips this time.

And his own lips didn't move too far away, either, when he offered, "And it's April 2nd."

[mylandmyrules]

How he made the gift of his birthdate such an intimate, practically sensual thing, Nell had no idea. But he did. And she shivered delightedly, leaning up to kiss him again. "I know I'll love it. How could I not?"