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

[arboreal_priestess]

You could just call it 'watching porn,' Liam. It was okay.

"Doesn't matter how much of a turn-on it is if it makes you look like that," Verity noted.

[firstofitskind]

There had been watching porn, yes. Also reading porn. And asking extremely blunt questions. Though that last had tapered off once he'd figured out the concept of a brain-to-mouth filter.

"Yeah, but," he frowned, unsure of how to articulate it. "I don't want you to feel like you're... missing out? On anything? Because of me."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Would you make me do something that obviously made me uncomfortable?" Verity asked softly. "Just cause you liked it?"

[firstofitskind]

"No!" Liam said firmly. "Of course not."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity just looked at him and waited for all the pieces to fall together.

[firstofitskind]

Which they did, after a few moments. For all that Liam was physically, emotionally, mentally an adult, there were still some areas in which he lacked relative life experience. ‘Negotiating personal boundaries’ was one such area, apparently.

“Oh,” he said softly.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Yeah," Verity said, reaching for his hand. "Exactly."

[firstofitskind]

“Suppose that makes sense,” Liam admitted, a little sheepishly, lacing his fingers together with hers. "Dunno what I was thinking."

[arboreal_priestess]

"That my happiness comes above your comfort," she said, because she understood. "But it doesn't. Not for anything."

[firstofitskind]

"You know, no one's ever said anything like that to me before," Liam admitted. To the Taelons, the Resistance, he'd always just been a means to an end. His own desires had rarely come in to play.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity leaned in for a kiss. "No one's ever seen you the way I do," she said.

[firstofitskind]

Liam tilted his head down to meet her for that kiss.

"I know," he murmured against her lips. "Most days, I still can't believe how lucky I am that we found each other."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Considering how hard I fought coming out here, I have to agree," Verity murmured. "And yet it's changed my whole life."

[firstofitskind]

"You wouldn't be you if you didn't put up a fight," Liam grinned. "But I'm glad Fandom won out."

[arboreal_priestess]

"So am I," Verity admitted. "I found way more of a home here than I was ever expecting."

And so much of that was because of Liam.