Tuesday Night at Nell's

[mylandmyrules]

It was hot and sticky and rainy, so Nell had made up a Thai chopped salad with a tangy peanut dressing and a delicious fruit salad. There were of course cookies and brownies she'd made in the relative cool of the morning and both ice cream and frozen yogurt for anyone who wanted a sweet dessert.

She'd set up a sort of canopy over her bee hives to try and keep them a little safer from the driving rain, which she'd run up to check on before her guests arrived. The bees seemed fine, but she was rather damp and her hair was curling wildly, with maybe just the slightest touch of green around the edges.

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[sword_chocobro]

The rain had and always would wreck havoc on Gladio's allergies; it had always been a thing back home on Eos, but the foreign air stirred up around here made it even worse. But being inside would definitely help, and maybe he'd gotten out all his sneezes on the way over. Either way, he was, of course, there, this time with a small stack of games tucked under one arm and another unique beverage to try in his other hand.

[chef_chocobro]

And, of course, Ignis had accompanied Gladio again this week, and he had carried over his color theme from his diner specials into his food offerings for the gathering, bringing with him some green goddess dip, blue corn tortilla chips, and violet muffins.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell had teas for that Gladio, if only you'd tell her.

She met him at the door, laughing a little since she'd just run down from the roof and was so brushing off raindrops. "Good timing! Hello, hospitality and safety, come in!"

Her eyes widened when she saw the board games. "Ooh! Now that's a good idea!"

[mylandmyrules]

"Come in, come on," she called, "hospitality and safety, and she's from the rain apparently. How are you, Iggy? Other than wet!"

[sword_chocobro]

But telling her would mean acknowledging that they were an issue and not something that did actually consistently happen every time it rained.

Thankfully, he'd just gotten a little bit of a sneeze out of him right before Nell showed up, so it would probably be a while before he was due for another one, and it was all pretty much forgotten, anyway, with that laugh in her greeting. He grinned proudly as he shifted his hold on the boxes to hold them out in a somewhat untidy stack, but he had big hands, he did a pretty good job of balancing them on one so she could see better. "I figured," he said, "it'll just give us a few more options, in general. Lotta trivia based ones, which could be interesting, considering all our backgrounds, but it was tricky, trying to find one that didn't rely too much visual elements so that Iggy didn't feel too left out. But there's actually one Vi found that might wind up giving him the advantage."

[chef_chocobro]

"Looking forward to being dry again, shortly," Ignis answered, with a faint grin, and he certainly needed no extra goading to come on in, although now he would be mildly stressed about how to not go about dripping unnecessarily inside Nell's home. "But I am doing quite well, Nell, thank you. And yourself? Did you have the chance to enjoy yourself this weekend?"

He would try, at least, to not be quite so maudlin about it with Nell as he had been with the Detective.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell laughed again. "I think unless it's a Fandom trivia game we're probably all going to have trouble."

She ushered him in and grabbed a towel from a stack she'd set by the door. "Feel free," she said, wrapping one around her hair. "It's awful wet. Now try me about the one that's good for Iggy."

[mylandmyrules]

"If you don't mind me taking your delicious food offerings I can hand you a towel from the pile here," Nell said. "I set them out so people could dry off when they came in."

She gave her hair another rub with her towel before draping it over her shoulder to take his food. "I'm well, determined to make the best of this rainy weather. The weekend..." Her mind couldn't help but drift back to her conversation with Gladio and her voice got softer and gentler. "It was nice. Very nice. And you?"

[sword_chocobro]

"I figured," Gladio chuckled a little, "they could be a good way for us all to learn some new things together. Maybe discover little pockets of knowledge where one of us knows some surprising stuff about."

He did read a lot of books, after all. It may open up a good door to show off a little.

Before his attention shifted from Nell to the offered towels, he couldn't help noticing that it seemed like she'd maybe done a little something different with her hair. Of course, by the time he'd grabbed a towel for himself, she'd wrapped it up, making it hard for him to really confirm.

"It sounds like a good team-building game, too," he offered. "Basically, the premise is that everyone's blindfolded except for one person, and that person's out to get all the other people on the board. So the blindfolded people have to work together to try and avoid getting caught by that person. And I can speak from experience: there's no one I'd trust more to lead me out of the dark than Iggy."

[mylandmyrules]

She read an awful lot too, so it might just work out. "Very true," she said. "Find out what secret knowledge we all been hiding"

It wasn't long before the towel was off her hair if he wanted to see the crazy curls - and the hint of green.

"That blindfold thing sounds fun," if a little nerve wracking for someone who was always on alert, but with this group and probably be fine. "We should try that if he wants to."

[chef_chocobro]

"Please do," Ignis said, as he held out the very assuredly watertight containers for Nell to take, "thank you. And I can grab one myself, just tell me which direction I should expect to find them.

"And I enjoyed it," he said, prepared at least to have the question turned back on him, "as well as I could. And I'm pleased that everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves, as well."

[sword_chocobro]

And, of course, after he'd thought it, Gladio remembered what Nell had said about the rain and her hair at the gym (as well as the perils of simultaneous threads!), and had to grin a little at that glimpse of a confirmation.

And then he shrugged a little. "Just some ideas," he said, "if we're feeling up to it. Figured it wouldn't hurt to have more options, and if we don't dive into any of them this week, there's always next time."

[mylandmyrules]

"Just to your left, maybe 'bout hip level." she explained. "Then you can follow me on in."

Nell smiled gently at him. "Gotta be odd a bit, not seeing all the colors, though there were a few you'd prob'ly have been hair to miss."

[mylandmyrules]

"Yep," she said cheerfully, "We can do whatever we want, no one gets to tell us different."

Was she trying not to look at his chest and wet shirt? Well, at least trying not to be caught>

[sword_chocobro]

How could Gladio do anything but smile softly at the cheerfulness in Nell clearly reveling in a statement like that, in something that most people would take entirely for granted?

Well, he was also letting out a small sneeze, as if Nell's gaze had provided a reminder to Gladio's body that it did, in fact, have a damp shirt clinging to its already wet self.

"Excuse me," he said, with a small shake of his head, and then a focus back to the conversation.

"So what do you think you'll mostly want to do with the evening?"

[mylandmyrules]

But his sneeze had caught her attention. "Do you have a cold? I'd say you should get right out of your wet things, but I certainly don't have anything your size. I can make you some hot tea, though."

His question would have to wait.

[unusual_sith]

"I feel like I'm back on Dromund Kaas," Lana announced as she showed up. "With a little less lightning." She smiled at Nell. "How have you been?"

[mylandmyrules]

"I'm good," Nell said. "Come in and grab a towel - hospitality and safety. Please, get yourself dry. We're all soaked, I think."

[sword_chocobro]

See, now, usually, Gladio's way to solve the wet shirt problem would be just to take it off, but that clearly wasn't an option in this situation.

"Oh, no," Gladio assured Nell, lifting a hand, "I'm fine. It's just...kinda like your hair thing, the rain just sort of makes my nose do this thing..."

Allergies, Gladio. They were called allergies.

"And makes me sneeze. It's not a big deal. But...if you're offering, some tea could be nice."

[sword_chocobro]

"Lana." As usual, Gladio greeted her with a nod, and a lift of his drink, which, at the point, was a mug of tea that used to be hot. "Good to see you. How was your weekend?"

[mylandmyrules]

She looked him over. "Sounds like allergies... Come in, I can find something that will help."

Nell went into the kitchen and began pulling herbs from the shelves. "A little of, mmhmmm, and maybe... no, this one , and then, yes, that will work... or... yep, that's good." She put together a combination, hesitated, then added one last herb and stirred them up. SHe put a tablespoon full into a tea strainer and the rest into a ziploc bag and wrote 'Gladio - for allergies, 1 tbsp in boiling water, steep 5-7 minutes'. His tea strainer went into a mug with hot water poured over it.

"Okay, that will be ready shortly and the rest of it will go home with you. Iggy?" she called. "I'm sending a tea home with Gladio to help with his allergies, make sure he uses it."

Everything went back away, disappearing as if it had never been there. "It's good with honey and if you don't like the flavor I can adjust it."

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio followed Nell dutifully to the kitchen, watching her set to work with a soft, fond, almost fascinated look on his face....

...until she called out to Iggyml.

"Aww, come on!" he protested. "You don't have to go and invoke Specs on this. I'll drink it."

"She most certainly does," Ignis responded back coolly. "You'll forget all about it by the next time it rains."

"He has no idea what he's talking about," Gladio said, leaning forward to whisper it to Nell.

"I know you know I can still hear you," Ignis offered, and Gladio grinned smugly over it.

[mylandmyrules]

"You'll drink it and you'll like it," Nell said firmly, but with a laugh. "Or at least you'll like the lack of sneezing."

Did she have a little shiver when he bent down to whisper in her ear? She wasn't saying.

Nell took the tea strainer out, took a sniff, added a little honey and handed it to him. "THere's more honey if you want. And if you're cold I can dry your shirt. One of those towels should cover you."

Mostly.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio's glance toward the towel was skeptical, but his attention was momentarily going into cupping his hands around the mug, blowing on it a little after an attempt to take a first sip, and then had better success on the second try. Considered a little more honey, just went for another sip.

"I guess this shirt isn't getting dry very fast like this," he allowed.

[mylandmyrules]

"It is not," Nell agreed and held out one of the larger towels for him and held out her hand for his shirt.

[sword_chocobro]

And there was a moment, before Gladio took the towel, where he met Nell's expectant look and felt the very strange and alien sensation of actually being hesitant to take off his shirt.

But then he just couldn't help himself, either, from asking, "Do I get to yell at you to not look now?"

But it was too late, anyway, he was already pulling it over his head to hand over and exchange for the towel.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell giggled, she couldn't help it. "Yes, by all means," she said and covered her eyes with her free hand.

She might just have snuck the tiniest of peeks as she turned to bring the shirt to her dryer, though.

[sword_chocobro]

And after a moment to grin faintly over that giggle, Gladio just sort of shook his head a little and tried to figure out the best way to utilize the towel after drying off the last of that dampness and maybe rubbing it against his hair a little bit too. Drape it around his shoulders? Wrap it around with torso, maybe? Draping was probably going to be the least awkward, probably

[mylandmyrules]

Draping would work. Mostly. If Nell got too flustered she might just throw an afghan over him, but then again it wouldn't take that long for his shirt to dry.

"So," she said on returning. "What shall we do tonight?"

[unusual_sith]

"Thank you." Lana smiled. "Earth's range of climate never fails to amaze me. How are your bees handling it?"

[unusual_sith]

"It went well, thank you," Lana said, nodding back. "If colorfully. And yours?"

[mylandmyrules]

"So far so good," Nell said. "I rigged up a bit of shelter for them, but they didn't seem to bothered."

[unusual_sith]

"Oh, that's good. Though I suppose in the wild they'd be rained on anyway. Still."

She dried herself off gratefully. "I'm afraid I was distracted by the Pride things this weekend and never went home, so I've got nothing in the way of food or drink to offer this time."

She was fairly certain Nell wouldn't care, but she felt she ought to apologize anyway.

[mylandmyrules]

"Good thing you came here then where there's enough food to feed a small army," Nell said. "Sounds like you had a good time this weekend?"

[unusual_sith]

"I did," Lana agreed. "I find the attitudes toward sexuality on Earth odd, but I'm pleased to help anyone who needs encouragement to break those chains, as it were. And it was fun. So what are we in for this evening?"

[mylandmyrules]

Nell found all of it very unsettling to think about, but she also felt that people had the right to do as they pleased as long as it didn't hurt anyone, so all she did was smile at Lana. "Then I'm happy for you."

The other question was a bit harder to answer. "Gladio brought some games we could play and I'm happy to do that or anything else. Or we could play games and have a baseball game on in the background."

[unusual_sith]

"A little bit of everything, then?" Lana suggested. "A game sounds fun. I'm not sure if I remember many Earth games, but they should have instructions."

[mylandmyrules]

"Ive never played any games - from Earth or anywhere else," Nell admitted with a smile. "But I'm sure we can figure stuff out together as we indulge in a little bit of everything."