mylandmyrules | Monday Night at Nell's

When Gladio came in, he was expecting to just find what Nell was up to, interrupt whatever she was doing with a kiss, and present to her the beverage of the week (clearly inspired by his guest that weekend), but it would seem that the ~~brazenly modded~~ kittens, having gone an entire weekend without seeing him as much as they had gotten used to, have a very different idea, having heard him coming and went scampering and meowing to come meet him.

"And here I thought," he said with an amused chuckle, shaking his head down at them before setting aside the drinks so that he had a hand free to scoop up one of them in each, "I was finally done with whiny little babies for a while!"

Once they were settled and cradled and purring in the crook of his arm against his chest, he grinned over at Nell. "Hey, you."

Edited 2024-01-08 20:24 (UTC)

Nell laughed. "Now, now, they're not whiny, they're just expressing their happiness in seeing you again!"

She smiled at him. "And hey, you. I'm glad to see you too. But I htink I will refrain from meowing at you and trying to climb up your legs."

It was quite the adorable sight and, reminded of a conversation she'd had with Steven a while ago, she took out her phone and captured it for posterity.

Once Gladio realized that Nell was taking a picture, he gave her a big grin for the shot; he wasn't sure if he'd managed to get it in time, but, he had been used to always trying to put on a best face from Prompto's impromptu pictures back in the day, so he probably managed pretty well.

"Yeah, don't worry, guys," he assured them, and, now that they were settled against the significant ledge that his arm made, he could move one of his hands to give them a few ear scritches, "I'm excited to see you, too. And I appreciate that," he told Nell. "There are much better ways to climb on all of this than up my leg."

What? She brought it up!

"How's your day been?"

"Really?" she drawled."Maybe you'll have to show me later. For educational purposes, of course."

She looked him over fondly as she put her phone away. "I have a few ideas." She did. Lots of them.

"My day was lovely and quiet. I'm thinking of making some bath bombs and bubble bath things to sell."

"Speaking of ideas," Gladio had no delusions of thinking that he would be able to put the kittens down so soon without them putting up an impressive fight to retain their territory, but he could, at least, still give Nell a little nudge with his elbow whilst so unceremoniously be-kittened, "sounds like something that maybe could use a little testing out before we put it on the market. You know. Just to make sure it's all doing what it's supposed to, right?

"What made you think of that idea?"

"Oh I think we'll definitely need to do some personal testing," Nell said with a smile. "Maybe lots of testing." She nudged him back, careful not to dislodge the kittens.

"Some company sent an email about today being national bubble bath day," she explained, so it got me thinking."

"Better safe than sorry, right?" Gladio grinned. "And, oh, yeah, there was something about that at T&C, when I went to get the drinks. Apu was in a bathtub and everything..."

"Oh dear," Nell said. "I can't say I'm sorry I missed that!"

She smiled at him. "You in a bathtub, however..."

Well, assuming it was a fairly large tub, anyway, otherwise all you'd get were knees blocking all the good stuff.

"Is that how you plan on marketing these new bath bombs and bubble baths?" Gladio simply had to ask.

She did have a lovely big soaking tub. Whoever had designed this house apparently really enjoyed their baths. But you know, enough bubbles would only tease at the good stuff anyway.

Nell pretended to consider that for a moment. "No," she said finally. "I think that any pictures I took would be solely for me."

"You sure?" asked Gladio, lifting skeptical brows at Nell, but her was grinning faintly. "Just think of how many bath bombs a face like this," excuse him a moment as he preened and mugged and stroked his chin to help prove his point.

"Nope. Too selfish," Nell said. "I guess I'll just have to take the loss of sales."

"See, now," Gladio grinned, waving a finger of acknowledgement at Nell, "I like that. Standing by your principles, good sign of integrity, right there."

"Selfishness, integrity," Nell said, waving her hand. "Same basic thing, right?"

She smiled at him. 'But I do like to keep you all to myself. Stay over tonight?" SHe'd missed having him in her bed. "Stay over any night. Or all nights."

"All nights, huh?" Gladio's brow lifted. "At this point, maybe I should just move in."

At first, he'd gone into saying it as kind of a joke, especially since, well, Ignis had practically done that already with Liliana, and Gladio, while staying at Nell's not nearly as frequently, wasn't that behind.

Well. He did say in class today he should give gardening as try; that was one way to plant a seed!

Nell stopped what she was doing and turned to give him her full attention. She just looked at him silently for a moment with very little expression.

Then she said, "Maybe you should."

Why not? She was happier when she slept in his arms. He was good company. He didn't need entertaining and was perfectly happy to read a book companionably by the fire. The cats loved him - almost as much as she did. Why not?

Why not do what made her happy?

"Maybe you should."

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sword_chocobro - 2024-01-09 11:19 (UTC) - Expand

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mylandmyrules - 2024-01-09 13:54 (UTC) - Expand

Liliana forewent the obvious response, because they were doing this 'get along' thing - and, more importantly, it was fruit so low-hanging even Noctra could have reached for it and she had standards. So she simply smirked, and said, "You've managed to survive the onslaught, however."

Edited 2024-01-08 21:38 (UTC)

"All thanks to some strong reinforcements," Gladio said, with a nod and a slightly crooked grin back. He then gave her a nod, with a note of thanks in it. And an offering of one of the beverages he'd brought with him.

Which was a nice gesture, probably, until his grin grew and he pointed to the bottle. "That's pretty much you, right?"

You sure about that 'get along' thing, Lils?

Edited 2024-01-09 00:20 (UTC)

"Entirely wrong color palette," Liliana sniffed. "Otherwise, the resemblance is uncanny."

Casually she pulled out her phone and did a bit of scrolling. "And this is you, right? About ten years ago?"

Gladio had been expecting Liliana to pull up up some ancient picture gotten from Promtpo's collection, so when he saw what she did pull up, he had to snort with laughter.

"No way," he said, and squared his shoulders a little while giving his stomach a pat, "that was me just this morning."

"Mmm..." She glanced back at it. "Raw and unseasoned? Yes, that does track, doesn't it?"

"Raw, I'll take," said Gladio. "But unseasoned?" He grinned. "Never. Besides, I bet Specs' got a fancy word for whatever you'd call that."

Gladio, you had been heir to literally the seconds most important House of Lucis. Don't act like you didn't know steak tartare.

Please, he'd had at least three conversations with Ignis, so even if he hadn't been the Amicitia heir, he'd probably know the term.

"If you say so, Carpaccio," Liliana snorted, lips twitching. She gave him a skeptical once-over. "I'll take your word for it."

Even with multiple conversations to work from, Gladio was still going to have to look something up later.

And, briefly, for a moment, he thought of pointing out that she didn't have to take just his word for it. In fact, out of the people currently here, she was the odd one out on that one, but figured the trouble to amusement scale on that one just wasn't worth it.

"Probably for the best," he agreed. "That wouldn't be fair to Igs."

A pity, because Liliana would have been very interested in that little tidbit. So actually, good on you, Gladio, saving ya boy yet another conversation that contributed to global warming.

Instead, she just laughed. "You keep telling yourself that," she said merrily, patting an arm the size of a ham hock. "You sound like you need that win, so I'll let you have it."

Apparently, she didn't see much of a reason for Ignis to be concerned.