Monday Night at Nell's

[mylandmyrules]

Leaning into the plates of latkes that kept appearing, Nell had prepared various toppings and sides to go with them, including applesauce, a pomegranate and honey topping, and a cilantro mint chutney. She also had a curried butternut squash and apple soup simmering on the stove as well as a variety of pastries for sweets after dinner.

The kittens were mostly dozing, though they'd no doubt rouse themselves when company came in to get their petting and snuggling in.

Comments

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio thought his options would be overflowing with holiday themed drinks for this month, but he actually had a hard time, that day, finding something both festive and non-alcoholic, but he did find a nice variety pack of something else that sounded pretty interesting, and that was always his top priority with the drinks he brought along, so there you had it. They sounded pretty good, too, and, really, he was a bi fan of honey these days, anyway. For some reason.

So of course he was showing up and still feeling pretty good about how the weekend away had gone, already missing some of that crisp mountain air and having to pick branches and twigs out of his hair.

[mylandmyrules]

"Bee soda!" Nell said with a smile. "How fun!" She greeted him with a kiss, lingering a bit.

"Thank you again for an amazing weekend," she murmured. "I had such a wonderful time with you."

[sword_chocobro]

"Made with real, actual bees, too!" said Gladio, because he could not help himself, grinning once he finally had the chance to respond after that kiss, which he absolutely helping in making it be a while before it ended. "And you're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. I know I sure did. Good to be home again, too, though."

And, no, his choice of words there wasn't wholly casual or careless, either.

"Smells like you've had a busy day," he added, lifting his face a little from where it was still tilted toward her to take in a deep breath.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell laughed. "Real bees! Wonderful."

She did notice his choice of words and had to stretch up to give him another kiss. "I'm glad we're home too."

Once there'd been sufficient kissing to hold them for the long trip to the kitchen, she led him to the kitchen. "Soup and latkes," she said, "And all the fixings. Plus all the usual dessert-y things, of course."

[sword_chocobro]

Such a long journey; it was a good thing they were well prepared on the kissing quota to get them through such a trek, truly!

"Of course," Gladio agreed, with a nod, and another good sniff around the kitchen, now with a glance around at everything, too, and Nell probably knew what he might have been looking around for specifically before he asked, but, of course, he'd reveal his intentions soon enough.

"So," he said, "what d'ya need me to do?"

And, as usually, it was pretty tricky to just spot something to jump on in that respect, since Nell usually had things in order by the time he showed up, but still...one day, he might not even have to ask!

[mylandmyrules]

"You get to serve the soup today," Nell said with a smile. "And you can help others with the toppings for their latkes if they need a hand."

[deathsmajesty]

The two extremes of vacations: Gladio and Nell roughing it on a mountain and Ignis and Liliana in a luxury hotel in a city somewhere. (Clearly the places they overlapped were ski lodges and beach houses)

"Oooh," she said, examining his sodas with interest. "These look--" She stopped as she pulled one out, the honeycomb cider and needed a second before she could speak again. "Might I have this one?" she asked in a voice that sounded completely normal, assuming one didn't notice the very small catch in it at the beginning of her request.

[sword_chocobro]

Oooh, and beach houses meant beach runs! Always a big fan of making jogging even more obnoxious with the addition of shifting sand underneath your feet!

Gladio, however, did catch the little pause there, that little odd beat; he sort of wondered how anyone could have missed it, really, but he was always pretty keen on noticing things like that, it'd been part of his job, trained into him since he started pursuing his duty in earnest. He wasn't going to say anything, though, he wasn't even going to lift an eyebrow, he was just going to tuck it away perhaps for use at another time, if it was even really anything to come up again.

Instead, he grinned, snorting a little. "What if," he ventured, "I said no?"

They were for everyone, Lils, they were for sharing, so if you were gonna go and ask silly questions like that...

[deathsmajesty]

Lils.

Anyway, she had asked to be polite, and certainly no other reasons. Liliana cleared her throat - no reason, probably just a bit of potato that had gone down the wrong pipe - and then looked up at him with a countenance that had never known any emotion beyond arch amusement in her entire life.

"Then I would simply have to team up with Nell in some kind of daring heist to claim one anyway," she replied with a casual shrug. "Which does have an appeal now that I've said it aloud, I must admit."

Ignis could answer his question, at least a little bit, did he ever decide to ask it rather than simply hold onto it in hopes of using it against her some day.

The sweetness came not from any of the fruit, however, but the honey, made from bees who fed solely from apple trees, and blended into cream.

[sword_chocobro]

Lils and Igs! It was perfect!


"It definitely has an appeal now that I'm hearing it," he admitted. "That almost makes me want to say no just so I can see that all unfold, you know."

[deathsmajesty]

The first time Bridge Largemeat called her that, she was probably going to stumble and require Ignis to keep her from falling on her ass. Which was likely not a deterrent, no.

"You'd really press Nell into a life of crime? " Liliana asked. "Tch. Terrible, just terrible."

[sword_chocobro]

Deterrent? Oh, no, that was an incentive if he'd ever heard one!

"I wouldn't press Nell into anything she wouldn't want to already do herself," Gladio pointed out, and though the tone was light and playful, there was the firmness of a genuine creed in it, for just a moment, as he leveled a look at Liliana that seemed contrast to the smirk on his face. Just a moment, and then he snorted. "Maybe I should booby-trap 'em next time."

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana kept his eye contact and there was a moment when her arched eyebrow and return smirk flickered into something else - something someone might even qualify as belief before it flickered back.

Look, just because she and Gladio had their own tension didn't mean that she doubted his personal integrity. Not even because of how he felt about Nell, just in general.

"So you're saying that Nell is already primed for a life of crime," Liliana said with a decisive nod, because who had had a moment of silent communication? Not these two! "Well, that does make my pitch easier."