Saturday Early Evening: : 43 Unicorn

[mylandmyrules]

Nell had briefly met Gladio's sister - sister! - last night and frankly her head was still spinning. She was delighted for Gladio and worried that Iris would, rightly, think she wasn't good enough for him, and delighted for Gladio and oh, good lord, she was going to make a wonderful dinner and make sure the house was spotless for when they all got back from the Parent's Weekend activities.

Gladio had, of course, invited her to come along, but she wanted him to have as much alone time as possible with the sister he loved so much and hadn't been able to see for two year. Two Years!

When Gladio and Iris and possible Aranea? - got back they'd find the house redolent with the aroma ofspahetti sauce and fresh baked bread. The kittens even seemed to be on their best behavior.

Comments

[chocosis]

Hopefully, those kittens had enjoyed their peace and quiet while Gladio and Iris were out at the festival because they were going to absolutely get no peace at all once President Amicitia got her hands on them!

But dinner and getting to know Nell a little better first! Iris couldn't help being so proud of Gladio, knowing what an absolutely unrepentant flirt he could be, knowing that he always claimed to not be the settling down type, that he'd actually found someone, especially in the wake of Fandom stealing him away from Eos the way it had. She could just tell, too, the way he talked about Nell, the way he sort of grinned to himself whenever she'd come up as they caught up with each other, that she meant a lot to him. And she was just thrilled that he had that.

Like, sure, he had Iggy and Prompto, too, but that totally wasn't the same!

Thankfully, she was able to convince Aranea that she should probably be pretty safe with her big brother, and Aranea agreed to let them have the evening. "Though if anything happens to her," she'd warned Gladio, knowing full well she didn't have to, "you'll have the whole of New Insomnia down on your ass. It's fine, though. Maybe I can just grab a drink at the bar or work on some of my moves on that pole in our room."

Unsurprisingly, Gladio did not want to hear any more about the pole in his sister's room.

But they were finally making it back home, and Iris was buzzing with excitement as they made it up the stairs to the apartment. "This place," she gushed, "is so cute, Gladdy! And, oh, that smells amazing already! I'm not surprise Nell's a good cook. Me and Iggy have left you too spoiled to be with someone who isn't, especially since if you were left to your own devices, you'd probably just have Cup Nood--"

At that point, Gladio had opened up the door, and Iris cut herself off to call out eagerly, "Hi, Nell! We're back! Dinner smells incredible!"

[mylandmyrules]

Nell quickly wiped her hands on her apron before setting it aside quickly onto its hook, then straightened her skirts (and her shoulders) and went to meet their guest. "Come in, please," she said. "Hospitality and safety to you while you're here."

Nell stepped back and gestured for Iris - President Amicitia? - into the house. "I hope you like spaghetti," she said. "It's simple, but tasty."

[chocosis]

"Noodles!" Iris remarked, with a laugh and an beaming smile as she reached over to nudge Gladio's shoulder with a fist as he lead her inside. "Figures! But no, I love spaghetti, thank you!" Her bright eyes started roving around the room to take it all in before they settled on Nell and the smile managed to brighten even more. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

[mylandmyrules]

"Not Cup Noodles, sadly," Nell said with a little twinkle in her eye for Gladio, "But good nonetheless. And no, everything is set. I just have to toss the noodles in once we're ready to eat. But please, come see the house."

She waved at the living room. "Or have a seat, if you'd rather. I hope you don't mind kittens. Cygnus and Rigel are certain to want to be all over you, but I can put them in the bedroom if they bother you."

Or maybe she'd like to go up to the roof to see the greenhouse and hives and hot tub, but Nell felt as if she'd probably said too much already.

[chocosis]

"No, no!" Iris said quickly, laughing a little as she shook her head. "I can't wait to meet them, too, they don't bother me at all! How could they? Kittens! Gladio told me all about them, too, and that you guys have bees? Only he explained that they're not like the ones we're used to be back home, sometimes they can can get so big and mean! But maybe that's for after dinner? Hopefully, Gladdy didn't spoil his appetite too much with the pie eating contest down at the festival!"

Gladio snorted. "For Nell's cooking?" He moved over to her, giving her a grin before swooping in for a quick kiss on the forehead, not wanting her to feel too awkward but really needing to show her, in some small way, how much he appreciated this, but, with the way they were standing, at least he knew Iris wouldn't catch the wink that came with it. "Impossible."

[mylandmyrules]

Nell turned into him, wrapping an arm around him for a quick lean and private smile to go with his wink.

"Not sure I've ever seen Gladio too full to eat something else," she teased softly. "Might just have him a black hole down inside somewhere. The bees can absolutely wait till after dinner and they are definitely much smaller and more friendly than yours back home unless Gladio has been pulling my leg."

She stepped away from Gladio a bit. "Get your sister a drink? Unless you'd like some tea?" she said to Iris. "Tea's my specialty."

[chocosis]

"Well, if it's your specialty," said Iris, eyes twinkling at the little scene playing out there between Gladio and Nell, and, especially after seeing Prompto and his little family at the picnic yesterday and Ignis and Liliana later that day, it was all she could do to not sigh a little wistfully to marvel over just what all three of them had seemed to have built up in their absence from Eos....not that it was any surprise, obviously, they were some of the most incredible people she'd ever known, when you got right down to it, "then I'll definitely have to have some tea, if you don't mind. That sounds great!"

[mylandmyrules]

Nell considered Iris for a moment, then set about preparing a tea that would fit with what she knew about her, then poured a cup and invited her to settle on the couch in the living room before serving it to her. The kittens immediately hopped up to nudge into Iris for snuggles.

"If you don't like it I can adjust it to be more to your taste," nell said. "And there's fresh honey right from our own hive to sweeten it if you'd like."

[chocosis]

"Oh, look at you two!"

Sorry, Nell. The tea was almost completely forgotten in lieu of kittens. When they jumped up to join her on the couch, she immediately fell into fawning all over them. "Aren't you two just adorable! Hi, Cygnus! Hi, Rigel! Ohhh, I wish I had more hands so that I could pet you both even more!"

One of them looked up and meowed in a way that sounded like an agreement, and she had to laugh.

"Which one's which?" she asked, looking up with her eyes bouncing from Gladio to Nell, and then back to the kittens, lest they think that she was already forgetting about them!

[mylandmyrules]

Nell couldn't help but laugh as well, given how non-bothered Iris seemed to be with the kittens. "Cygnus is the black and white one, Rigel is the crazy orange tabby."

[chocosis]

"Cygnus, black and white," Iris repeated, scrunching up her whole face in a little adoring expression as she scritched behind that one's ears. "And Rigel," now he got the same expression and treatment, "crazy orange tabby. I think I can remember that!"

She shifted a little, to make more room for them in her lap as she tried to then free her hands so that she could hold that tea.

"You let me know if they're too much trouble for you," Gladio informed her. "I'll go toss 'em off the roof."

Iris gasped, but it was clearly for dramatics sake, and her hand not holding the mug did its best to cover at least poor Cygnus' ears. "Don't you dare!"

"Maybe I'll throw you off with 'em."

To that, Iris huffed and pouted at him, but then she couldn't keep her smirk back when she looked back at Nell, shaking her head. "So much for my hopes that maybe he'd straighten up with the love of a good woman, but I see he's still the very same Gladdy as he always has been!"

[mylandmyrules]

"And I wouldn't want him any other way," Nell said looking over at him fondly. "Not that I'd let him throw anyone or anything off the roof."

She settled down in a chaor next to the couch. "Now... you'un must have some good stories about Gladio and I'm all ears to hear 'em all."

[chocosis]

"She'd be just fine if I threw her off the roof, you know," Gladio said, going to join Iris on the couch, and reaching over to pluck Rigel out of her lap and setting the little guy on his shoulder, while passing her an almost warning look in light of this sudden class for stories.

Iris just smirked back at him and batted her eyelashes, as sweet as can be, and then she laughed. "I'm sure you," she said, looking back at Nell, "have some pretty good ones you could tell me, too. But he's right. About throwing me off the roof. He used to throw me around in battle all the time, even before we started Hunting together. But you better believe, he always had my back, too. He wasn't going to let anyone get to me."

"Not a chance," Gladio agreed, and there was a faint softness to his usual crooked grin, because it was impossible to see Iris and not think about how he was convinced he'd never actually see Iris again. "That was my job."

[mylandmyrules]

"There will still be no throwing people off of my roof," Nell said firmly, even as her lips twitched with a smile. "Not if anyone wants to eat dinner tonight. And don't think I missed that look, Mister Amicitia."

She might not be close enough to give him a nudge, but her smile probably said enough.

"Of course he had your back," she said gently to Iris. "He'd never let you down."

[chocosis]

"Sometimes not even when I asked him to!" Iris agreed with a laugh, remembering all those times when Gladio would just swoop in and pick her up and swing her around and she'd just shriek with laughter and demand to be put down but he'd march her practically all around their big sprawling mansion. And as she remembered it, she felt a little twist in her chest and she looked at Gladio and he was here, he was really here, and she just wanted to launch herself at him and never let him go, but she wouldn't want to go and embarrass him like that in front of Nell.

Embarrass him in other ways in front of Nell, sure! But not something like that, at least not in that moment.

Her starry, somewhat teary eyes shifted to Nell again with a bright and eager smile. "I wanna know," she said, "how you two met!"

[mylandmyrules]

Nell would completely understand her impulse and let her have as much Gladio time as she wanted.

"How we met," she said with a smile. "I was working out at the gym. Met him there."

That wasn't the story you wanted to know, Iris. You'd have to probe a little more.

"I was awful shy, coming to learn more about self-defense with..." Oh. Someone she didn't like to think about. She made herself smile, even if it didn't reach her eyes. "A friend who was helping me."

[chocosis]

"The gym, huh?" asked Iris, grinning, leaning forward as best she could with Cygnus in her lap, with her tea cradled between her hands, and she looked over at Gladio with a grin. "Yeah, that tracks. The one he runs here, right? On the island?"

There was a soft hum and a nod of confirmation from Gladio, though he was mostly watching Nell a little at that point, with that pause, and the mask of a smile. "Been coming by nearly every week since, too," he added. "And she's been taking some of my combat training classes, too. Nell's pretty scrappy, Iris. She'd probably give you a pretty good run for your gil."

"Well, obviously!" Iris agreed easily. "Can't see you being with anyone who couldn't!"

[mylandmyrules]

"But I was way too shy to ever do more than nod and say hello," Nell said. "Way too shy."

She smiled over at Gladio.

"Couldn't help but see how handsome he was, even if men were an awful scary prospect."

[chocosis]

And Gladio's initial grin back softened a little into a gentler smile by the end that, remembering with a small twang in his chest that first time Nell got the drop on him, and the way she responded, but, most of all, he was just remembering how far she'd actually come from then. It was hard to even remember, without her mentioning it, just how shy she really had been in those early days, and as he started to remember, he had to snort suddenly and remark, "I even used to go and put a shirt on when Nell came in."

And now Iris was gawking over at Gladio with her eyes wide in disbelief.

"No way!" she insisted. "I do not believe that! That's it's! We clearly took the wrong portal, you can't possibly be my brother!"

"It's true!" Gladio insisted, and now he laughed, especially as Iris threw a light slap of her hand toward him. "I swear it!"

[mylandmyrules]

"It is," Nell said, eyes fully on Gladio. "He did that because he knew how scared I was. Pretty much all the time. Of men anyway."

She smiled, eyes getting a little far away. "Then he saved me one day. I'd gotten caught in a fire and got hurt and I left the clinic when I wasn't supposed to and couldn't quite make it all the way home."

[chocosis]

Iris was boggling a little at the idea, not only of being afraid of men so much like that, but that someone who was would find someone like Gladio a comfort like Nell clearly did. Because, obviously, she knew all about Gladio's soft, squishy center as his sister, but she also knew how he could pretty scary and intimidating at times, too, especially if you didn't really know him, all gruff and boisterous...

But as she was musing, Gladio picked up the story.

"I was actually heading over to the clinic to bring some Cup Noodle^TM to some of the people that got caught in that fire. Mostly my friend Stark, but Nell, too, when I heard she'd been involved. So imagine my surprise to see her just sitting on a park bench instead! Looking in real rough shape, too, but insisting she was fine. And you know me. I wasn't going to just let a thing like that slide. So I got her some of what she was going after at her house, then scooped her right up and carried her there myself after that. And then I fed her cats and she yelled at me."

He flashed Nell a grin because that was still one of his favorite parts of the story, and Iris let out a long, wistful sigh.

"Ohmygosh," she gushed, "that's so romantic!!"

She then turned toward Gladio.

"Are you sure you're my brother??"

"Just be glad you have tea and a cat or you'd be meeting this pillow next."

"There he is!" Iris laughed. "That's the Gladdy I know and love!"

[mylandmyrules]

Nell laughed too. "All that and I never even got any Cup Noodle. Not till much much later."

She made a face at Gladio. "Then I found out how important his family was back home and glory, he's far too fancy for me. And now with his sister a president? Oh boy."

[chocosis]

Iris had a soft, proud smile for that fact for a moment before she rolled her eyes dramatically toward Gladio.

"Well, it probably would have been him if he hadn't gone and disappeared on us all all of a sudden!" she said. "But he's even a bigger deal now than he ever was before! He and Iggy and Prompto and Noctis? All pretty much saved the entire world! He's got a statue now and everything!"

[mylandmyrules]

"A statue?" Nell gaped at her, then turned to Gladio. "I can't be with you anymore. That's... oh no, you're way too important for someone like me."

She was mostly kidding. It was true, but she wasn't about to give him up.

[sword_chocobro]

"Sounds like first thing on the agenda if we go back," Gladio said, without even missing a beat, and looking over at Nell like he wasn't going to hear any of that kind of talk, "is smashing some statues, then."

[mylandmyrules]

"You will do no such of a thing!" Nell insisted. "I'll just have to learn to live with it."