chef_chocobro | MHA #18; Monday Afternoon [08/11].

Entry tags:

where: mha #18

MHA #18; Monday Afternoon [08/11].

There would always be a part of Ignis that couldn't help but feeling that retaining his lease on the MHA apartment was a waste of money and resources, though that part of him was swiftly quieted by the irrefutable evidence of just how convenient and useful still having it and having access to it had been. Not only as a conveniently closer location for quick bursts of romantic rendezvous, but also as an excellent place to work on things or to keep things that might run the risk of early exposure, thus ruining some surprise, were it to occur or be held at the mansion. Which did seem to make it quite the glorified storage unit, really, but a useful one at that.

Well, not just a glorified storage unit, but even if it was just that, regular maintenance on it was especially crucial because it was not being used. Letting something sit and forgetting about all the finer details was an excellent way to ensure its slow decay. But those romantic rendezvous were fairly regular...but what of the time in between them? Dust still collected, a staleness settled in the air, a dormant, vacant space was just an invitation to all sorts of settling uncleanliness and other things.

So Ignis had made it a habit, usually after his visit to the Consortium, of swinging by the apartment to clean. To check appliances and fixtures, let in some fresh air, change the linens, keep tabs on general wear-and-tear through the march of time...All those little things that kept a place habitable that flew under most people's radars.

Perhaps it was just old habits, too. He found a certain comfort and familiarity in being the steady, silent, unseen force that made the lives of those he cared about seamlessly better in ways they'd never even realize. Liliana might spend, at best, an hour or two a week in the MHA apartment, but that was no reason why it shouldn't be perfect and immaculate every time she did.

So, needless to day, when he came by that Monday to tidy up and discover it to be anything but the usual quiet stillness he was accustomed to, he was a little thrown. Even more so by the fact that he was greeted not only with an inordinate amount of activity coming from the kitchen (leading one to, for a brief moment, dread a potential raccoon- or gremlin-related break-in), but also the scent of cooking (or at least the attempts at it) and the occasional worrisome thump or clatter followed by rather unique and colorful cursing. Concern creased his brow for a moment (in part just because his mind was already thinking of the additional cleaning time required this week now), but then his head tilted with the curiosity that was overriding it as he ventured that way.

"....Liliana?"

[[ and for the unexpected kitchen invader, obvi~ and doubly NFB, se vois plait ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In the kitchen, Liliana froze. Like maybe if she remained still and silent long enough, Ignis would think he was mistaken, that nothing was going on in here.

Not that that had an angel's chance in the Abyss of working anyway, but especially not with the blasted hand-mixer still on, the metal of the...mixer...things...scraping against the side of the glass bowl. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" she hissed at it, tempted to just rot everything to sludge and Planeswalk away. She'd bribed the squirrels to keep their damn mouths shut about this. No proof she was ever here! The sludge could have come from anywhere!

All right, no. Not going to work. And while she was good enough at lethemancy to pull this memory from his mind (and was, in fact, almost tempted to), she wasn't even close to good enough at it to not do additional damage. Which...she didn't want to do.

Damn it all.

Fine. She was just going to have to brazen this out. Her chin up, shoulders back, and fucking hand mixer off, she swept out of the kitchen like everything was completely normal. That there was nothing strange at all about her being here, in the apartment, instead of still at the Consortium. That she could frequently be found working in a kitchen.

"Ignis, my darling," she said, striving to sound completely natural, for all that her teeth wanted to grind together. She'd been so--well, okay. Probably not close, but almost certainly nearing the end of the learning curve! "Whatever are you doing here?"

"Rather wondering the same thing about you, Liliana, my dear," Ignis answered, in a response that he figured she'd have expected. His mind was, naturally, already concocting its own possibilities, especially when considering the sweetness and the sharp tang of citrus in the air (underlaid, he felt, with the even sharper pang of tightly restrained panic), but he certainly wasn't about to let himself leap toward any conclusions (regardless of how his heart was already doing a few jumps of it own in his chest). He felt he had gone quite a bit lax in his effort to restrain even the faintest of smile these days, but he felt he'd done an upstanding job of it now, feeling little more than a slight purse of his lips before getting to an actual answer to her question.

"But I've come to tidy up the place a bit, before heading home to start in on dinner..."

"Tidy the place up?" Liliana looked around, caught now between confusion and suspicion. "My darling, what is there to tidy? We're barely ever here."

A few hours on Tuesdays. Sometimes, as long as an entire evening, if Liliana wasn't ready to leave the bed when Ignis had to return to work. Him wanting to tidy would make sense, perhaps, if it had just been pollen week, but now...?

And now, the fraction of a smile did slip out, a soft and gentle and almost sheepish thing, highlighted by that particular faint blush that surface in those rare moments of being seen when he hadn't expected to be, but by someone he wouldn't mind having witnessed it, and of not knowing quite how best to explain...

"You'd be surprised," he decided, going with something that would likely be true, "how much nothing can wreck havoc when left unattended. But....speaking of wreaking havoc....darling. What are you up to?"

"Oh. I. Well, that is..."

For a moment, Liliana floundered, that off-kilter feeling from the weekend rising up again. For a moment she did consider fleeing, trying to find the words to explain what she was doing and why. It wasn't just that he'd startled her, or that he'd inadvertently stumbled into her next surprise, but for a moment, the idea of it all just seemed so...antithetical to being Liliana Vess that she didn't know how to explain.

But then she thought of the lavender posset she'd made in this very kitchen for Hannibal's class; one of the few things she'd known how to make because of how often she had made it, even though it had been nearly two hundred years since the last time she'd done so.

Perhaps this was more Liliana Vess than not.

Dangerous thoughts. Ones she pushed away almost as quickly as they surfaced. And did what she always did when she was feeling off-balance and adrift. She leaned in. Never let them see you sweat.

"Well, my darling, I would never invade someone's workshop for my own projects, and the kitchen at home is very unilaterally yours," she said, which was like an answer.

If you didn't think about it too hard.

Ah, but it was a fair bit more difficult, wasn't it, to ensure they didn't smell you sweat.

But Ignis knew Liliana. Far better than he imagined anyone ever had (including, he often wondered, even herself). So he knew her deflections from a mile away, and it was always just a matter of how to handle them more than anything else. When to call them out and when to follow their lead.

"Then I certainly am gladio," he said, with his own brand of leaning in, and an acknowledgement to what terrible things were likely occurring in his kitchen on Ravnica perhaps even now as they spoke, "someone around here can respect the sanctity of my kitchens."

And now, to figure out which direction to lean next, but, in this instance, Ignis just found himself leading toward what might not necessarily be the most strategically sound route, but rather the one that would likely please himself the most.

"So," he said, "what is this project? And, more importantly: how can I help?"

Liliana had several tenets by which she lived her life. Never let 'em see you sweat, was one. Another was Always look out for number one. But the belief she held closest to her heart? There is always, always a way to steal a win. So long as she was still drawing breath, she could find a way to turn any situation to her advantage, to come out on top.

For a moment, she just stared at Ignis, with his chipper offer to help and his ridiculous ways of saying I love you bringing him to mostly-abandoned apartments, rather than being at home in the mansion and leaving her to scheme in peace, seeing the all the hard work of the last month, possibly longer, going up in flames around her. She had seen it so clearly, had orchestrated every minute of her surprise in her mind's eye, had plotted and planned everything out meticulously...

All for it to end with him asking how he could help, two full days before he was even supposed to that there'd been anything to help with.

How in the Abyss was she supposed to pull a win out of this? Her plan had been perfect. The first surprise leading to the second, the hints in the dessert - the hint of the dessert - leading all the way up to the final reveal...There was absolutely no way to surprise him now. No way to capture that expression on his face of mingled shock and delight. How could any of this be a surprise when he was right there in the kitchen with her--

Wait.

There it was. The way she could win. Because as much fun as it was to surprise him, as delighted as he would be to be surprised...she was pretty sure he'd like this even more. A chance to cook with her. Those few times she'd tried her hand in the kitchen during their relationship, he'd been given the results, but had never been there with her. The closest they'd gotten had been the agreement for her to help with lunch, before she'd turned into a cat, and he'd been so happy--

You know, this could work out even better than her original plan. Just had to adjust a few of the details...

And there you had it, folks. Liliana Vess, finding another way to work things out to her advantage. As she always did.

As she always would.

She grinned at him, a slow and curling thing. "The first thing you can do is come greet me properly," she purred. "And then..." A low, rich laugh. "My darling, would you mind giving me a hand in the kitchen for a little while? I'm making dessert and I would love it if you'd be willing to cook with me."

In that very first, fleeting moment of Liliana's response, Ignis began to feel that slight flare of disappointment, that her next step should lead him toward that direction, for as much as she excelled in it and as much as he would thoroughly enjoy it, it would feel just a...touch uninspired. Effective, yes, but hardly impressive, and a far cry from what he'd been hoping to throw in to potentially lead her steps as well. So when that first impression was proven summarily wrong and she traipsed along those anticipated beats he'd so carefully laid down...

Well, in that moment, he was rather certain there was no better feeling, and his own smile came with ease. Relief. And that very unique thrill running through him that had all too recently been cut short before it could flourish on account of cat.

(So help him, should she turn into a cat yet again...)

"'Iana," he said, stepping closer to close that distance between them that he had mostly kept just in case the unexpected interruption had been a rather sore point of irritation, his hand smoothly slipping around her hip to the small of her back, "if I were do come greet you properly, it could be hours before we got to any cooking at all."

He was still going to kiss her now, though, because, in that moment, there was nothing in this world or any other that could hold him back from doing so.

"But I would truly love," and no careful planning or strategizing or tactics at play there, just simple, achingly sincere truth, "nothing more than to cook with you right now."

"You're still going to have to do the sift--rrrow!" she said, as Fandom's magic once more took hold...

"You are going to be dreadfully disappointed however," she teased, nibbling on his bottom lip. "There is absolutely no sifting required. I made sure of it."

~~And that, dear readers, was how the great Fandom Island Fire of 2025 began...and some say is still burning to this very day...~~

"Is that..." Ignis asked, head tilting and his grin growing, leaning in to nip back at Liliana, but also just to hold her there, a little longer, "a challenge I hear? One may not require a great many things, but that does not mean one might not still utilize it to great effect."

"Mmm, I suppose that if you wish to spend all your time sifting for Big Flour, I can't stop you," she teased, gently leading him back into the kitchen. "But you'll have to do so out in the living room. I have declared the kitchen a Sifting-Free Zone."

You know one of the benefits of being blind, Ignis?

You didn't have to see what she'd done to the kitchen.

Oh, it would only be a matter of time before he may yet bear witness to the war zone he expected, and should anyone ever truly doubt his love and dedication (ha!), then the proof would be right there in the parabolic pudding of him dutifully resigning himself to mere working around it.

"Then I shall surely spare my sifting for some subsequent situation," he said, removing his glasses along the way and tucking them somewhere safe, and looking all the more pleased for the alliteration, which helped soothe the distress of trying to access the scene and determine more specifics. "So what were we in the middle of making before you were so rudely interrupted, darling? And where were you? Just finishing with the mixer?"

Someone had learned a very important lesson about when we turned on mixers and why the answer was 'when it is in the bowl already.'

That same someone had also learned that 'cream' as a verb did not mean 'to mix with cream,' but that was why she'd had her steward purchase extras of the ingredients. "I had just finished beating the eggs into the butter and sugar, though there are still more things left to mix in. I'm making a cake, my darling," she said. He likely didn't need her to tell him what kind, with the scent of key limes heavy in the air, but she snagged a section of lime and popped it into her mouth before leaning in to kiss him again, delivering it to his mouth with her tongue. He had gotten increasingly familiar with this method of delivery during RageFest.

The absence of detail on what kind of cake only left Ignis's brain to fill in the obvious blank, which just lead that brain to reiterating for him that she had been making a key lime cake, in secret, for a surprise, no doubt...

And if Liliana hadn't kissed him just then, he'd have kissed her, in a way that truly would jeopardize any hope of that cake getting finished any time soon and likely requiring to redo the entire mixture all over again. But she's managed to beat him to it by that split second, and the bursts of tart citrus accompanying it pulled a soft, surprised, appreciative groan.

Rude of Liliana, really, to the cake, which now had to strive to live up to the that sharing of taste and desire.

"My timing, then, is excellent. The next few steps are made that much easier with the assistance of an extra set of hands."

Hands that would, alas, have to leave her, eventually, for such assistance, but they were clearly in no rush quite yet.

"Really?" she asked, voice arch. "Because when I use my hands in the kitchen, you say I'm not being helpful in the least."

Whenever Ignis did get around to letting Liliana go - she seemed to also be in no real rush for that to happen - he would be gratified to discover that she had all the ingredients already laid out, many of them already measured or otherwise prepared.

Cooking did share some overlap with the knife and herb healing of her youth--the more tedious overlap, yes, but it did offer her some benefits.

Gratified and rather impressed, really; the preparation and organization was more than enough to make up for all the messes in between.

And this part of the overlap may be more tedious, yes, but which situation yielded more delicious results, hmm?

"Hands used to help add things to the recipeh," Ignis clarified with a certain loftiness, darting a quick kiss to her neck, "are helpful. Yours all too often are far to intent on taking things way. Be it my mise en place or my attention."

...Maybe we should save all comments on deliciousness until after the cake was finished. Just saying.

"Are you really going to try to say that your attention is really better served anywhere than on me?" Liliana asked. "I find that hard to believe. Though I suppose this is your opportunity to prove me wrong...would you like to mix while I add in the rest of the wet ingredients?"

Honestly, the most impressive thing here was that Liliana didn't immediately settle back and let Ignis just take over.

She'd been tempted.

Very tempted.

But no. She was committed to winning.

Even if Liliana hadn't made such a commitment, did she really think that Ignis would let her get out of her hand in the cooking now?

"I would say," said Ignis, who had already picked up the hand mixer, "that my attention, while clearly best when attentive to you, my love, is vast and contains multitudes and can be utilized for many great things. But, yes." He gave the mixer a small, playful sort of whrrrr. "Let's finish with what remains of the wet ingredients before moving onto the dry, and you can see for yourself just how right I am."

"I remember very well, the morning after our first date, and you being vastly unimpressed by the merits of multitasking," Liliana teased, pressing a kiss against his cheek as she added the limes and vanilla to the bowl.

The rest of the preparation passed in much the same way - laughing, teasing, kissing, flirting. They got the batter prepared and poured into the cake pans, working on the frosting while it baked. Liliana had had what she considered a perfectly brilliant idea for how they could pass the time while the cakes cooled, only to have Ignis insist they clean the kitchen instead - which might have gotten a little messier from all the 'tasting' ~~she'd~~ they'd had to do to ensure the frosting was up to snuff.

Finally, though, the cake was finished and frosted, the kitchen tidy enough for Ignis to be comfortable (even though they both knew he's be back to give it a more thorough cleaning later), and Liliana was curled up in his lap, alternating feeding him bites of cake and having some of her own.

"Better than a surprise?" she asked softly.

"Mmm." The expression on Ignis' face was one that had been rare, practically unheard of, until this last year and a half, a perfect projection of a relaxed, contented, happy calm (even with the only hastily cleaned kitchen looming behind him). His smile was slow and pleased, and if he hadn't been there for most of the mixing, he'd be sure Liliana must have slipped something into the batter, with the feeling verging on downright intoxicating the way it was right now.

"Still a surprise," he pointed out. "This was hardly the way I was expecting my popping in here to go. But it was a wonderful surprise, 'Iana."

His fingers on her thigh brushed in broad circles, and he leaned up for a kiss. So easily, she could have been upset by the spoiled plans, or just asked him to leave, but, instead, she took him up on his offer (and didn't turn into a cat this time!), and he...

...well, quite frankly, he sometimes didn't know what to even do with all this happiness, but he i>did know he was going to mostly just sit there and revel in it.

"Thank you."

How could Liliana deny him that kiss he was angling for? "You're welcome," she breathed, bringing her face down to his and giving him one of those kisses that dragged him in and down like gravity. She slid the hand on her thigh up to her hips, and then reached for his other hand--

But rather than placing it anywhere, she slid a ring onto the third finger of it.

They simply couldn't have a key lime dessert without an insignificant bit of metal coming into play, now could they? The very idea was preposterous.

It would be positively absurd, really.

Ignis's fingers had begun to curl slightly, expecting that they would soon find their way entwined in Liliana's, but, instead, there was that surprisingly weighty piece of metal for something so small and insignificant. His fingers were still going to proceed to interlock between hers, of course, but not after a soft breath of a laugh, and a brief detour to her cheek to guide her back for his own deep undertow of a kiss.

And once his newly decorated hand held hers, he pulled hers up to place his next kiss against her knuckles.

"Describe it to me, mi corazón," he said, moving his other hand join them, so that he might feel it as she did.

"It looks a great deal like mine," she said. "Black and gold, with small fragments of a meteorite and gold leaf in an abstract pattern." Her other hand traced out the general pattern along the inside of his forearm. "Stars and gold. I wished to give you a ring that incorporated stars and gold."

He knew why.

He most certainly did, and in his mind's eye, Ignis felt the image of it forming, an excellent match to Liliana's own, although that, too, he'd never actually seen. How close was his imaginings to reality? It didn't matter. No matter what he thought of them, or what they actually were, they were perfect.

There were no words. All Ignis could do was pull her in for another kiss, with the bright reminiscence of sweet cake and tangy lime and the promise of eternity.

No. There was one word, whispered on his lips as they departed from hers again, and his hand brushed against her cheek, drifted down the trail of her throat.

"Yours."

And, in fact, there was one more, whispered back to him as she rested her forehead against his, lips close enough to brush his own as they moved with her speech.

"Always."

And even more words, it would seem, to come tumbling out after, much like as if those first two were much like that very first piece of ingificant metal in a key lime pie, unlocking the vault of all these emotions in the exact way it opened the door to this very apartment.

"I love you."

Well, if that's how they were going to play this, Liliana had an ace in her back pocket. With a laugh that promised the wickedest things and a kiss that threatened heaven, she murmured two more words.

"Marry me."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

MHA #18; Monday Afternoon [08/11].

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject