MHA #6, Valentine's Day Evening

[arboreal_priestess]

It was Valentine's Day and while it wasn't their first Valentine's Day together, the last one had still been early enough on that neither of them had really known what they were doing. As a couple. This time, however, 'I love you's' had been exchanged and so had keys, he'd met her family, he hadn't run screaming from her family, and he'd even rescued her from a snake cult. Those were a lot of relationship milestones right there, even if some were Price-exclusive.

So tonight she'd sent the mice off to gorge on cake and cheese in their closet in the spare room, turned the lights to dim, turned some slow music on, and started cooking dinner. The one flaw in her holiday plans so far was that she'd naively assumed that 'an ability to cook basic food' meant that she was fully qualified to cook elaborate romantic meals.

She was vastly learning that this was in error.

"What? Emulsify? I've got a spatula and a slotted spoon, how the hell am I supposed to do that?!"

[For the boyfriend!]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

“Ooh, mysterious,” Liam said. “But message received, I’ll stay out of the kitchen,” he promised. He tugged off the pair of fingerless gloves he’d been wearing and tossed them on the couch before going over to the dining room table to take care of that request for wine.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity winked at him, ducking into the kitchen to check on the first course. It was a salad with entirely too much bacon in it to be anything even approaching healthy, and all that would be fine except it she was also making a dressing out of the bacon grease and red wine vinegar.

The bacon grease had been allowed to cool a little too much and wasn't mixing well. Rather than heating it up again, Verity decided to just mix harder.

"Oh no! Shit."

[firstofitskind]

“...Everything okay?” Everything did not sound okay, for the record.

[arboreal_priestess]

Yeah, the clatter and resounding bong from the kitchen was...not the best noise?

"Okay," Verity said, looking slightly more frazzled and less sexy than the last time she'd stuck her head out of the door. "How much of a fan of salad are you?"

[firstofitskind]

“I could take it or leave it,” Liam admitted.

He was guessing they were going to be leaving it.

[arboreal_priestess]

Indeed they were.

"After all the fuss I went to finding shallots," Verity grumped, definitely coming over to get her glass of wine. "Ugh. Stupid emulsifying."

That wasn't--never mind.

[firstofitskind]

Liam wordlessly held out the glass of wine for her.

"No salad just means more room for dessert," he pointed out.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity took the wine and finished half the glass at once, then held it out for a refill. "That was only one course," she agreed. "We still have a few more to go."

Well, two.

Wait, did dessert count as a course? Dammit, she could recite four ways to take down a harpy in mid-air, but she had no idea how many courses their were.

[firstofitskind]

... Were they going to need more than one bottle of wine tonight? Possibly. Maybe the wine could count as a course.

"And you're sure you can't give me a hint?" he wheedled.

[arboreal_priestess]

Wine should absolutely count as a course.

"It's very fancy," Verity said, smiling at him. "Does that count as a clue?"

[firstofitskind]

"Mmmm," Liam hummed. "I think you're enjoying keeping me in suspense a bit too much."

[arboreal_priestess]

"And I haven't even told you what you get after dinner" Verity purred.

In an outfit like that, though, it wasn't really a surprise what she had planned.

[firstofitskind]

And frazzled or not, Liam would argue that she was still damned sexy.

"Almost makes me want to say we should just skip right to that part," he admitted. "... But then we'd be putting all your hard work to waste." And that would be tragic.

[arboreal_priestess]

"We are not skipping out on dinner," Verity agreed. "...But I am willing to give you a sneak peek of what I have planned if you want one."

[firstofitskind]

"'If I want one', she says, as if she has any doubt about the answer," Liam said to... no one, actually, because the mice were all busy with their cake.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Well then c'mere," Verity said, all too happy to kiss him again.

And maybe push him up against a wall while she was at it.

[firstofitskind]

Verity's demand was met with enthusiasm, a pleased moan escaping as his back hit the wall and his tongue found hers.

[arboreal_priestess]

In the kitchen a small timer dinged, letting her know that it was time to take the food out of the oven. Verity missed it entirely, her hands busy with the front of Liam's shirt as he thoroughly claimed her mouth with his tongue.

[firstofitskind]

And not being the one preparing dinner, the timer wasn't even on Liam's radar. Caught up in kissing, and the feel of her hands as she undid the buttons on his shirt, he also missed it entirely.

Oops.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity sighed, deep in her throat and pressed closer to him, hands splayed out under his shirt, pushing herself against him.

This was going to be fine.

[firstofitskind]

Totally fine.

Liam ground his hips against hers, his own hands finding the strings to that frilly little apron she was wearing. Contemplating tugging them undone.

[arboreal_priestess]

Well, her hands were working at his belt now, so, really, why hold back? Especially not after she wrapped her leg around his thigh and ground against him.

Hmm. Did he smell anything?

[firstofitskind]

As it happened, Liam had finally ended the kiss out of a need to, well, come up for air. He tilted his head down slightly to place a kiss in the crook of her neck, breathing in the scent of her as he did so. Only-

"... Do you smell that?"

He wasn't talking about her body wash, for the record.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity nuzzled his neck. "Mmmm, is that a..."

Wait.

She pulled away from him to wail, "The paella!" and sprinted back into the kitchen. A waft of smoke greeted her entrance there, just as the smoke alarm started to beep and the sprinklers went off.

Welp. At least the kitchen was most definitely not on fire.

[firstofitskind]

He'd been given strict instructions to stay out of the kitchen, true, but he figured a smoke alarm kind of put that directive on hold, and so followed her in.

"Sorry," he said, sounding kind of sheepish as he scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I shouldn't have distracted you." As thoroughly enjoyable as that distraction had been.