mylandmyrules | Monday Night with Nell and Gladio

"Liz! Welcome. Come in and make yourself at home," Nell said cheerfully.

Mmm hmm, that's exactly what it was. Or not. Nell would never tell.

Nell sniffed at the lasaagna smells. "I think it smells pretty good," she said, "But I do think it should taste very good."

"Sure, if you'd like," she said. "Though I don't mind hosting at all, I wouldn't object to you helping out there."

Her coffee was quite delightful, Ignis, if perhaps not quite up to your standards.

"Oh, that's what I meant, dear one," Liliana said quickly, actually looking faintly chagrinned to have misspoken like that. "It smells delicious and I'm sure will taste even better is what I was trying to say. If I ever dislike the scent of garlic and tomatoes, you've discovered a changeling creature and should attack it with all due haste."

A larger knife, please, not a huge broadsword!

"Yes, well, then they're welcome to skip any garlic bread that's offered," she said with a smile. "And in the meantime we can enjoy the garlicy goodness!"

Mmmm, maybe they could compromise with a short sword.

"Which just means more for us," Gladio said, "and you won't hear me complaining about that."

But, even with the tiny, barely existent knife he was using, it didn't take him long to slather that bread and he looked over at Nell with a faint grin on his face. He was bringing his hand up to his mouth to lick some of the sauce that had gotten on his thumb off, but at the last second, seemed to change his mind and redirected his hand so that he brushed a little bit against her cheek.

"Looks like you got a little something on your face, though," he said, then licked the rest of the sauce off his thumb and looked way too proud of himself, and this is what you agreed to, Nell, by letting this man help you in the kitchen.

Prompto had to chuckle a little bit at the mention of that salad in the middle of all of that, but it weirdly enough, made him feel a little more comfortable. Like, if he had a salad with it, then he didn't have to worry about pigging out too much on everything else.

(He would definitely still worry about pigging out too much on everything else).

"Sounds great," he said, bouncing Noctra a little, although she was still almost chewing on the chicken and just mostly staring at Nell a bit. "And it's really nice of you to cook for everyone like that. I mean, I know there's no shortage of food at any gathering with this group of people, but still. It's really appreciated! Oh, and if you're not doing anything on Sunday, we're having a party for Noctra, I hope you and Gladio can make it, it's almost her birthday! And with Iggy's birthday on Wednesday, we're going to have a pretty good week, I hope!"

It was the sort of thing that made him a little nervous, honestly, like something was sure to go wrong, but also, they filled that quota up pretty nicely last week, in his opinion!

And as Liliana was describing it, Prompto had to admit, he couldn't really blame Ignis for being a little swayed into putting a trip like that above the birthday of a kid that wasn't even his....up until she got to the last part, after which a look of surprised confusion flitted over his face.

"Wait, fly-fishing?" he asked. "Really? Wait. Is it, like, a thing where you catch the fish, and then they give a lesson or something on how to prepare it? Like in a traditional way or something?"

He's been on a lot of school trips, there was almost always something like that in those kinds of places!

"Oh, hey, Detective!" said Prompto, when he spotted him (okay, okay, he might have smelled the cinnamon rolls first, but can you blame him?), and he gave him a little bit of an awkward smile as he slipped one of the invitations out of the small stack he'd brought with him to hand over. "Good, I was hoping I might catch you or Steven or both here tonight so I could give you one of these! We're having a birthday-slash-puppy bowl party for Noctra on Sunday. No worries if you guys can't make it, but, well, if you can, it'd be great to have you there."

It was more than a little weird for him, if he was honest, because of the house thing, but he knew it would probably mean a lot to Liz, and if it meant a lot to Liz, he'd do pretty much anything.

"I have no idea," Liliana admitted with a soft chuckle. "I'm only including it because when we were discussing excursions, it sparked a several minute rant on how he felt about fishing. Which, to sum up, is 'not a fan.'"

And she enjoyed bedeviling him and he, apparently, was fond of being bedeviled, and so there they were.

"I am certain Ignis will want us to return to the island for Noctra's birthday party," she said. "Did he know the party was going to be this Sunday?"

“And you as well, as always, Ms. Ingram,” Watts replied. “You’re doing well?”

"You already do so much for these evenings," Ignis pointed out, "it's the very least I could do by offering my own capable hands in some capacity as well."

Don't let the generosity of the offer fool you too much, though, Nell. Even with the incredible strides he'd made in actually allowing Liliana's steward to take on certain tasks around the house without his interference, it was all just an offer to ensure he didn't get too twitchy from being idle while others did the work.

“Little Miss is well on her way to becoming a proper young lady, isn’t she?” Watts asked, wiggling his fingers in greeting at the Little Miss in question after tucking the invitation away in his suit jacket. “Though what, if I may ask, is a Puppy Bowl?”

Yeah, well, you wouldn't be much of a fan, either, if you were dragged to every fishing spot you passed everywhere from Insomnia to Altissia from hours on end, only to then have the guy who dragged you there go and sacrifice himself so that every time you thought about it, fishing not only made you feel residual trauma from being bored out of your mind, but also residual actual trauma from missing him so much you'd actually give anything just to be that bored with him again....

.....but anyway....

"I'm pretty sure I mentioned it to him," Prompto said, "but, I mean, we've had kind of a busy week. Maybe I forgot? Or he did? Or it got lost in the shuffle? I don't know, I guess the nice thing about portals," when they actually worked the way they were supposed to anyway!, "is that popping over really shouldn't be a problem, though, right?"

Prompto sounded a bit like he was trying to convince himself and not doing a very good job of it, but, of course, he didn't need to worry about it at all, Ignis had definitely considered this and was planning on just that, and would be shocked to discover that anyone would even think otherwise, even if that anyone was Prompto.

And the Little Miss in question certainly knew about finger wiggles and waves, and so she was stretching out a hand toward Watts and opening and closing her fingers at him. Which doubled also as an invitation to give her something, if he felt so inclined, because that was what a lot of other people did, soooo....

With the question, though, Prompto's grin gained a little bit more confidence. "Have you ever heard of the Super Bowl?" he asked, for starters. "Big American football game that comes around this time every year? Well, anyway, the Puppy Bowl is like that.....only with puppies! It's seriously my favorite American holiday, and it's kind of amazing that it falls almost at the exact time as Noctra's birthday! You've got to check it out, it is the most adorable thing ever! Sometimes, the halftime show is cats! And they partner with animal shelters so it's also all for a really good cause, too!"

"Prompto," Liliana said with a soft sigh. "He watched your cat for you. He plans out whole menus to make for Noctra that are delicious, nutritious, and will hopefully spark a love of cuisine in her as she grows. He suffered through several hours of her trying to take his glasses off at the picnic."

He wouldn't even do that for her, hmmph.

"Do you truly think he would miss her birthday party, even for a trip he will love? Ignis?"

Honestly, feelings for Prompto and Noctra aside, did Prompto really think Ignis would prioritize something that would make him happy over literally anything else?

As it happened, Watts did have something he could offer Noctra, in the form of a soft pretzel wrapped in a handkerchief, which he pulled out of his other suit jacket pocket.

Well, not the whole thing. He broke off a piece and raised an eyebrow at Prompto in an unspoken question, waiting for a go—ahead to actually hand it to her. Or not, in which case, well. Snack for himself!

“Well now that does sound intriguing,” Watts admitted.

You people were creating a little grabby-handed monster by letting her get away with this! It was a good thing she was cute!

But Prompto was looking at the proposed offering a little skeptically, because while it was food, he was generally trying to get Noctra to stop putting things that people gave her into her mouth immediately, and also it was from a pocket (handkerchief or no!), and also also chewing was still a little bit of a dubious, nervewracking act for him, so he ultimately decided, "Maybe a bit smaller than that," with a little nod.

And that indecisive tone just made Noctra sort of reach for it a little bit more, with a little sound of protest before her dad changed his mind.

"And it's really great," he added, with emphasis. "I fell in love with the whole thing back when I was a student. I've held a party for it every since time I've been here to actually catch it. There's even a few videos on YouTube of me running a few games with the shelter pups, too."

Liliana! Prompto just figured everyone prioritized everything over him! Sure, he'd like to think that his involvement wouldn't be a factor when it came to Noctra, but there was no avoiding it, really, and therefor...

Her appeal toward reason, though, did pull a little bit of a sheepish grin out of him as he rubbed the back of his neck a little. "Well," he said, and sighed, since she did make a pretty good argument, didn't she? "No. Not if he could help it, anyway. But, I mean, I don't really think anyone could blame him if he decided he'd just rather enjoy his super nice birthday trip with his girlfriend uninterrupted, though...

"I would definitely blame him if he decided to enjoy fishing uninterrupted, though," he added, "that'd just be too far, man."

Hey now, pocket snacks didn’t deserve to be maligned so.

Nonetheless, Watts nodded, tearing the piece in half again and handing that over.

“I shall have to look those up on the google,” Watts decided.

Liliana arched an elegant brow at the title, but since she was getting Prompto to see reason, she wasn't going to derail it to quibble over word choice. ~~Weird how that kept happening.~~

"I am fairly certain that if I did try to convince him to spend any part of our vacation to go fishing, I'd be returning to the island with one paramour fewer than I left with," she said, adding just a touch of stress to his proper title.

Because they were bougie bitches, that was why. And other reasons that were very not important and had nothing to do with emotional vulnerability, how dare.

"You're his family." She shrugged. "He would move heaven and earth for you. And that includes going to the birthday party of his niece."

Prompto didn't know what had been in those pockets! This was his daughter's still developing immune system at stake here! And he definitely did not subscribe to the Gladiolus Amicitia 'what's the matter, a little bit of dirt never hurt anyone!' school of dietary advice!

What if he put a little bit of dirt in your precious Cup Noodle^TM, huh, Gladdy? What then?

And, not surprising anyone, least of all Prompto, the pretzel was going into Noctra's mouth almost immediately, just after the laughed a little when she surprised herself by how much it squished in her fingers when she squeezed her hand around it to get a grip on it.

"I could just send you a link and save you the trouble, if you want," he then offered, although his attention was now almost entirely on Noctra, whose attention was entirely on him, with her eyes big and wide and waiting for the moment for him to try and stop her from eating the thing, but since it seemed like it was okay, she was going to just keep going.... "Only, keep in mind, I made those, like, ten years ago. Well, not ten years ago here, but ten years ago for me..."

He shook his head.

"Never mind. Doesn't matter."

"I don't know, Liliana," said Prompto, but it was in a tone that had decidedly shifted toward the light joking and the ribbing and the very unseriousness that he would always use to blanket all those insecurities and uncertainties, "I mean, you did say something about him making his own wine. It might take at least ten birthdays to drag him away from something like that."

Then, he snorted, maybe a little bit to show just how convinced and joking he was. "Actually," he added, "when are you leaving? Maybe by the time Sunday rolls around, they'll have kicked him out for being too insufferable about it, anyway."

“The manner in which time works around here is deeply strange,” Watts agreed. “Did I ever tell you that I had a former coworker who attended school here? He arrived shortly after your wife graduated, apparently. Only from his perspective it’s been thirty years since.”

“And yes, if you could send me the link, I would appreciate it.”

Mmmm, Liliana was over two hundred years old, Prompto, and employed a great deal of deflection to boot. You think she didn't recognize someone doing the same? Game knows game, son.

She regarded him for a long moment, violet eyes unfathomable. Normally, she wouldn't bother pointing out that his insecurities ended up doing the people around him a grave disservice, but one of those people was Ignis and she was generally inclined to bestir herself on his behalf where she wouldn't for others. But--no. There were others about and this was meant to be a friendly gathering, and so she blinked and that deep measuring look went away, replaced by her normal arch amusement.

"Darling, I'm once again offended. This vacation is worth fifteen birthdays, at least. I didn't even tell you about the vineyard tours, the early morning coffee bars, and the world-renowned chef working with local ingredients." She crooked a smile at him. "And yet, we'll be there."

Because, she supposed, if Ignis were going, she might as well, too.

"We leave Thursday, after his class lets out. And by Sunday, I'm certain that he'll either be eternal friends or sworn enemies with the sommeliers, and, honestly, I'll be entertained watching either."

Monday Night with Nell and Gladio

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