Monday Night at Nell and Gladio's

[mylandmyrules]

After (presumably) a very quiet day at the shop Nell was looking forward to having some company tonight. She had a variety of fixings for making sandwiches and wraps - on her homemade bread, of course - and lots of (moddable) sides to go along with them. Everything was all ready to set out when guests had come and easy enough to put away afterwards.

She'd cleaned the house to within and inch of its life over the weekend, so now she had time to curl her feet up on the couch and relax for a little bit.

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[sword_chocobro]

Gladio had, of course, been out on his usual Monday errands...checking in at the gym, doing a little bit of training himself before heading up to his class, and then swinging by the store to pick up some beverages for tonight. And a lot of time, that was just a matter of finding something that just seemed weird or interesting or different. After spending just a little bit of time chatting Apu up about those bees, especially with everything he knew now about bees thanks to Nell's, he headed over to the beverage section to have a look.

And then found himself with a little bit of a shock. A shock that still stuck with him well after finally leaving, with a slightly disturbed crease in his brow that he carried all the way back home, his usual demeanor quite a bit diminished. He went almost straight to the kitchen, to drop off his...unexpected find, and, setting them down on the counter, he frowned at them for a moment longer, picking up a bottle, turning it over in his hand thoughtfully until, finally, he set it back with all his brothers before heading to the living room to find Nell.

"Hey," he said, leaning over to interrupt her reading with a kiss, before settling in with a slight grunt on the couch beside her. "Good book?"

[mylandmyrules]

"Hi, you," Nell said back after kissing him. "It is good. You okay? You were in the kitchen a while. There is dinner, just most of it's in the frig."

He didn't quite look like himself either, so it worried her a bit.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio nodded a little, but that contemplative frown was back as he considered if he should even bring it up or not, and then shook his head. "I was kind of wondering where most of it might've been hiding," he said, with a faint smile. But the fact that he wasn't really feeling it told him that he should probably explain a little after all. He sighed, looking at Nell for a moment, as if to bolster that decision.

He leaned over to kiss her again before pulling himself away, with another groan to match that first grunt as he pushed himself back up off the couch. "Hold on a sec, okay?"

Gladio returned to the kitchen to pick that same bottle from before back up and then returned to the living room to hold it out for Nell to take.

"You ever have one of these before?" he asked.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell set her book aside and sat up to wait for his return. She was a bit concerned. He wasn't acting like his usual self. Not that she expected him to be light and cheerful all the time, but this was rather unusual.

She took the bottle and looked it over carefully before looking back up at him. "No.I never have. And I'm pretty sure it's not one you've ever brought home before. Why?"

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio grunted faintly, unsurprised by the answer. A part of him had been hoping that maybe Jetty's could be another Cup Noodle^TM or Coleman^TM or Vivienne Westwood thing that he'd just never noticed because, but he'd asked Summer about it, too, and she also hadn't recognized it.

But once he explained, she had offered to look into her records to check where the shipment had come from, with a concerned frown for his own concern and an understanding on why it was affecting him the way it was.

He was pretty sure Nell would get it, too, so he settled back beside her with a sigh, arm stretching out behind her on the back of the couch.

"No," he confirmed, "it's not. I've never actually seen 'em here before."

Even saying it to Summer earlier didn't make it any less weird saying it again now.

"It's from Eos. We used to have this. Back home. In Insomnia."

[mylandmyrules]

Nell tilted her head to give him her full attention, looking back down at the drink in her hand. She examined it carefully, then looked back up again. "It's from Eos?"

She let out a long breath. "But nothing has come through from there before."

After a second she reached up to touch him and see if he'd come sit beside her. "That's a lot," she said. "What are you thinking?" And feeling?

[sword_chocobro]

Of course Gladio'd come sit beside her; sitting seemed a good idea in general right now, and next to Nell, leaning into her a little, shoulder to shoulder? Even better.

"Nothing for a while, that's for sure," he huffed put, shaking his head. "I mean, except us, and even then...nothing but us ourselves ever since it cut off for us all those years ago...

"Summer said she's going to look into where it might've come from," he added. "Says all sorts of weird stuff comes through from different places all the time. And she used to get Ebony in for Iggy back when we first started here, too. I don't know, maybe things opened up again? Might swing by portalocity to talk to the gnomes tomorrow, see what they have to say about it..."

[mylandmyrules]

Nell set the bottle down as if it was a priceless crystal before leaning into him and wrapping an arm around his.

"Do you want to go now?" she said. "I'd go with you."

The implications of maybe things connecting again was amazing and also potentially a huge cruel joke from the universe.

[sword_chocobro]

"Well," Gladio said, "let's not get ahead of ourselves. It might not mean anything. Whatever it is could just be the thing that brought us back in the first place....one-way ticket kind of thing..."

[mylandmyrules]

"Well, I had just meant to Portalocity to talk to the gnomes," she said with a smile, which quickly became serious. "But I understand about portals playing tricks."

It was hard to know what to say, if there even was anything helpful she could say. So she leaned into him further and wrapped her arms around him. "Whatever it turns out to be, I'm here for you."

[sword_chocobro]

"Oh," Gladio huffed out a wry sort of laugh, leaning on Nell in return and draping an arm around her to pull her in closer. "Right. Guess it's pretty clear where my brain jumped to right away...

"It can wait," he said. "Talking to the gnomes. If it's just a short window kinda thing, odds are it already passed, and if it isn't, then there no need to jump right to it..."

And to think, not that long ago, nothing could stop him from going to those gnomes immediately and demanding answers.

But now? There was so much to think about. So much to consider. About what that might mean...not even for himself, but for the other guys, too. And Nell....Liz, Noctra, Liliana...

(Rigel and Cygnus, even...)

[mylandmyrules]

"Understandably," Nell said easily, though her mind was busily thinking through implications as well.

More than anything, she wanted Gladio to be happy. Even if that meant losing him and even if that meant breaking her heart.

"I can go with you tomorrow if you want. OR you can swing by the shop later to let me know what you discover."

[sword_chocobro]

"Naw," Gladio shook his head, "don't worry about it. I was planning on just swinging by before heading into the gym. But I'll definitely let you know if I find anything out."

He gave Nell a squeeze, turning his head to brush a kiss on the top of hers.

[mylandmyrules]

"Sounds like a solid plan," she said with a smile. She snuggled into him a little more. "I'm here for whatever you need."

Cygnus took this opportunity to yowl at Gladio's feet after having been ignominiously ignored in favor of some bottle.