Isle of Ikea, Sunday Evening

[arboreal_priestess]

"So we're not leaving without getting a bed and some meatballs. Everything else is optional, but definitely those two things."

Verity had been threatening to drag Liam to Ikea ever since the giant snowstorm and she'd seen the empty expanse he called a bedroom. Honestly, Liam? A chair? If their physical relationship ever moved past the whole 'glowing cloud of purple light' thing, Verity figured they'd sometimes want a place to retreat to where they didn't have to negotiate with mice for a bit of privacy.

Which they couldn't do with just a chair.

"Also, considering the size of the store, maybe we should have brought along a couple of guide ropes and maybe a GPS," she added as the doors opened and she took in the sheer size of the store. Though maybe having the entire island being named for it should have given her a clue. "Uhhh...excelsior?"

[For the guy!]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

"I guess he thinks I really need those ducks."

Where would he even put them? It wasn't like he currently owned shelves.

[arboreal_priestess]

WHICH WERE ON THE LIST!

"You gotta be honest with me, Liam," Verity said, trying for solemn. And failing. "Do you have a secret duck fetish you haven't told me about? This is a place of no judgment, you can be open."

[firstofitskind]

"Oh yes," Liam nodded. "You've caught me out, I-

... Can't even finish that sentence with a straight face," he admitted, with a snicker of his own.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You sure about that?" Verity checked, pointing off to Liam's left. "Because boy did I spot a couch for you."

[firstofitskind]

"... Does that say 'demons'?" Liam asked, squinting at the monstrosity in question.

He was pretty sure it was supposed to be 'Lemons', but it sure looked like 'demons'.

What either had to do with ducks was another question entirely.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I'm really thrilled with this whole 'Possessed' line they seem to be showing this season," Verity snarked. "From absorbing cushions to demonic ducks, there's a lot of nightmare creativity on despair."

[firstofitskind]

"'Thrilled' is... not the word I would use," Liam said, nudging Verity's side as he found yet another monstrosity.

"I thought Ikea was all supposed to be about particle board and bright colors."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity wrinkled her nose. "That's just disgusting," she said. "This has to be
a weird kind Ikea nexus. These are from the Ikeas in horror dimensions or something. I mean, look at that thing. I think it's made from monster-skin or something."

And now she was peering at it more closely, trying to see if she could identify the species it had come from.

[firstofitskind]

"You're trying to identify it, aren't you," Liam said, in a kind of resigned-but-fond tone.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Well just look at it!" Verity said, not even trying to deny it. "It had to come from something. Female lindworm, maybe?"

You picked this, Liam.

[firstofitskind]

Hence the 'fond'.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I've never seen a lindworm."

[arboreal_priestess]

So weird though.

"You need to get out more," she said. "There's a lindworm living under a dumpster right in Baltimore. Juvenile male going by the size and coloring."

[firstofitskind]

"As long as you take me to dinner, sounds like a date to me," A beat. "... By which I mean we get dinner, not are dinner."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity snorted at the very idea. "Any Price gets herself or a date eaten by a lindworm will be summarily stricken from the family record," she declared. "That's pretty much babytown frolics."

[firstofitskind]

"Hey, I just like to be sure," Liam said, as they finally made their way through the last of the living room furniture displays.

[arboreal_priestess]

And leaving the terrifying offerings from Ikea: Mosterworld behind them. Or, at least, she hoped they were.

"I can't promise that our dates will be free of gunfire, bleeding, knife fights, and running for our lives," Verity said with the good cheer of someone who thought all of that sounded like an amazing amount of fun, "but I draw the line at 'getting eaten by monsters.'"

[firstofitskind]

"I dunno," Liam teased. "Gunfire, bleeding, knife fights, and running for our lives? That sounds an awful lot like work, to me."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Your old job maybe," Verity teased right back. "Not a whole lot of that in your new one."

Except for those times when the island went from 'sleepy' to 'terrifying.'

"Maybe I was sent to keep you from missing all the old excitement."

[firstofitskind]

"That must be it," Liam decided, reaching to sling an arm around Verity's waist and press a kiss to the side of her head. "In that case, I can't complain."

"So," he said. "See anything the mice might like?"

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity was busy smiling up at him with a goofy grin to really notice the new displays, but managed to stop being a parody of a happy couple to look around once he brought her attention to it.

"Oh god, look at this," she said, dropping in front of the white shelving unit. "They'd love it. And it would be less embarrassing to lug around than the Barbie Dreamhouse."

[firstofitskind]

"More customizable, too," Liam agreed. "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with eight-year-old-girl aesthetic, but maybe not all the mice are in to that style."

[arboreal_priestess]

"I had to stop them from getting at the walls the other day," Verity said fondly, running her hands over the space and picturing how it would look once the mice got their paws on it. "My apartment is going to end up with tiny, geometrically-perfect mouse holes all through it, leading to stairways, rooms, and even portrait galleries if I'm not careful."

She was accurately describing the family home back in Oregon.

[firstofitskind]

"That... actually sounds kind of adorable," Liam had to admit. "But it also sounds like they need an outlet for their construction habits that won't get you in trouble with whoever you're renting from."

Liam was maybe already moving to heft the flat-pack of that shelving unit on to their cart. Because why not?

[arboreal_priestess]

"Especially since my lease runs out in a few months," Verity agreed. She'd come here for a limited engagement, after all, one that would already be up if time didn't turn out to be passing much more slowly back home.

She didn't really mind; it wasn't like she had much to show for being here, at least not on the whole 'dancing for a living' front.

[firstofitskind]

Something in Liam's stomach dropped at that reminder. Yes, Verity had told him about what had brought her here, but that had been... well, before you could even call what they had a 'relationship'.

"Right, of course," was all he said, having finished moving the pack on to the cart.