A Club in Baltimore, Monday Night

[arboreal_priestess]

Between snake cults, dragons, and now singing fish going evil for a lack of participation trophies, it had been awhile since Verity and Liam had had anything resembling a real date. So Verity had skipped out on her shift at the Devil's Nest and headed out to the mainland with him, dressed to kill (both literally and metaphorically), and looking for a good time.

The club they'd ended up at was a lot smaller and quieter, one where they could have dinner the second floor up and actually hear themselves talk. "Oooh, good call," she said as they were led to their table. "Dinner and dancing. It's like you know how to show me a good time."

Comments

[arboreal_priestess]

So much for granted, she hadn't even realized what she'd done. "What are you grinning about, banana hammock?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

Clearly he was Up To Something.

[firstofitskind]

"Nothing," Liam said. Super-convincingly.

What would they even count from, for anniversary purposes? First kiss? First date? ... Because of course they'd thrown the usual order of things on its head, here.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity hadn't sat down and figured it out yet, but probably their first kiss? Their first kiss that they'd volunteered for anyway.

Though who knew? And argument could be made for their first PB&J sandwich, even.

"You're not as good a liar as you think you are, Kincaid," Verity declared, pointing her fork at him.

[firstofitskind]

He could be! When he wanted to lie convincingly, anyway. Which he didn't really, right now.

"I know you were making a joke, but 'one year anniversary'..." he said, still grinning. "I liked hearing you say that."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity blinked at him, confused for a second, then blushed a little. "Oh right," she said, ducking her head a bit. "I guess I just kinda...took it as a given, heh. Didn't even think about it."

She didn't exactly know where they were going, but the one year anniversary seemed a pretty safe bet, yeah.

[firstofitskind]

“Although that does raise an interesting question...” Liam realized.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity raised her eyebrows and waited for him to elaborate. "Traditional year gifts among cryptozoologists?" she teased.

[firstofitskind]

Liam laughed. "I was thinking more along the lines of what date are we counting from, but actually, yes, that would be good to know too."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Holy water and blessed ash," Verity answered immediately, which was far more ready answer than she had for his first question. "...And I have no idea. We kind of did everything backwards, didn't we?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam filed that information away for future use.

"We met, you adopted me in to your family, we woke up together, kissed for the first time a few weeks after that, and then went on a date," Liam recounted, ticking them off on his fingers as he went. "Not quite the usual order of things at all."

[arboreal_priestess]

"I shared my guns with you that first day," Verity said, eyes dancing. "That's really what we should be counting from. I don't share weapons with just anyone, you know."

Hell, had she done so since? Now she had to try to remember.

[firstofitskind]

She had not. But to be fair, Liam had really only started carrying anything beyond the beam gun pretty recently.

"In that case," he grinned. "That seems like a pretty good point to count from, absolutely."

[arboreal_priestess]

"First anniversary of sharing weaponry?" Verity asked. "I mean, it was practically a sign that I was going to get serious about you."

The waiter came over to get their order, prompting Verity to open hers for the first time. Fortunately, she was easy. Was there a chunk of meat on offer with a side of delicious carbs? Great, she was having that.

[firstofitskind]

Liam's order may or may not have included actual leaves. You can't prove anything.

"That's a Price way of doing things?" he wondered. "Or just a Verity thing?"

[arboreal_priestess]

Why? Was he a rabbit?

"If you need to ask that, you need to talk to the mice about my Great-Grandma Fran more often," Verity said with a grin. "Of course, her name is the Violent Priestess, which probably answers the question."

[firstofitskind]

Sometimes you just needed to eat green things! They were good for you!

"It does seem pretty straightforward," Liam had to admit. "I'm definitely glad kid-you trusted your instincts. These last nine months have been," he took a deep breath. "Honestly? Some of the best of my life." Which sure, technically speaking, hadn't actually been that long, but a lot had happened in those six years.

[arboreal_priestess]

Mmm...sounded like fake news. He never ate anything green from Verity's fridge!

"Mine too," Verity said, leaning across the table to lace her fingers through his. "And considering I was on Dance or Die for awhile, that's saying something." She winked at him. "Of course, if I'd won, that might be a different story."

[firstofitskind]

Because there was never anything green in there!

... Although now that he had a key and everything, it was entirely possible he might attempt to smuggle some contraband salad in there every once and a while.

"You probably wouldn't have ended up in Fandom, for starters," Liam said, squeezing their laced fingers together gently.

[arboreal_priestess]

Sometimes things went green in there!

"True, I'd be living the glamorous life in LA, not slogging through sewers looking for snake cultists with Sheriff Sexy Butt."

[firstofitskind]

"Thought we'd agreed it was Sexy Ass," Liam countered, raising an eyebrow as he took a sip of his drink.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I apologize for getting your title wrong, Officer," Verity teased. "Is this an arrestable offense? Are we looping back around to that conversation about getting tied up again?"

[firstofitskind]

"Well, I was going to let you off with just a warning," Liam said. "But I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm letting you get away with things just because we're dating and all..."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Plus, you know I'm incorrigible," Verity said and wow, her foot was sliding up his leg again, who would have ever expected that. "You give me an inch and I'm going to demand...at least five or six more."

[firstofitskind]

Liam would never call Verity predictable, but she did certainly have her go-to moves, there was no denying that.

"Hmm," Liam said thoughtfully, uncurling their fingers and lazily tracing one finger over Verity's open palm. "That's true, you are very demanding."

That was not a complaint.

[arboreal_priestess]

There were a very limited number of moves one could engage in in public without being either very sly or willing to be legitimately arrested.

Besides, why waste good high heels by keeping them on the ground?

"I know," Verity said, shaking her head. "Constantly asking you for...more."

The way she said that, she probably ought to be arrested for indecency right there.