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]

“You’re right, you are adorable,” Liam said with a nod.

Liam, that was not the word she had used.

[arboreal_priestess]

Still made her smile. "You know, if your plan was to get us kicked out of Ikea without a bed for making out in a nest, it's working," she told him.

[firstofitskind]

"You know, it wasn't? But that's looking better and better right about now."

... No, Liam. You needed a bed. Because future narratives implied you had furniture now. No getting kicked out.

[arboreal_priestess]

"On the other hand," Verity said, hooking a finger around his collar and pulling him in, "we get you a bed, we could go home and make out there and no one can kick us out at all."

[firstofitskind]

"Gorgeous and you're a genius. No wonder I'm crazy about you," Liam said with a grin. He was still gonna lean in for a kiss right now though.

[arboreal_priestess]

And she was going to take him up on that kiss, for as long as it took to get an annoyed throat clearing from that obnoxious Ikea employee. On the other hand, with the island right there, he probably had to deal with this kind of thing a lot.

"Just wait till you've seen me kick ass in heels," she murmured, still just a breath away from him. "Might just end up head over heels."

[firstofitskind]

He was... pretty much there already, metaphorically at least. "I hope that's sooner rather than later," he admitted. "Because now you've got that image in my head."

[arboreal_priestess]

So miiiiiiiiight have been Verity, but she wasn't really running towards declarations just yet. For reasons, most of them revolving around 'my life is complicated.'

"You like ladies who can kick ass?" she asked with a wink, hopping up out of the nest and offering a hand. Because they were going to find him a bed, dammit.

[firstofitskind]

"One in particular, anyway," Liam said, taking that offered hand and hauling himself up after her.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I dunno," Verity said, giving him a thorough once over. "You look like the kind of guy who just like competence and kick assery in general." She grinned at him. "But I'm okay with you liking me best."

[firstofitskind]

"That's true, I suppose," Liam had to admit. "Given that the other women in my life are more like siblings than anything else, though, there's still no competition."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Poor them," Verity said, not bothering to hide how much she was preening at that. "And lucky me."

[firstofitskind]

"Funny, 'lucky me' is pretty much how I feel about the fact that I get to date you," Liam said, slinging an arm around her shoulder.

[arboreal_priestess]

"And if that feeling's lasted past my attempts to cook, I must be doing something right," Verity said.

Then, lowering her voice like she was afraid she might scare something off, she added, "Don't look now, but we might have made our way into the area of normal people beds."

This bed was still pretty weird, but it was explicably weird in that someone-has-a-hard-on-for-modernist-furniture kind of way.

[firstofitskind]

"It's a little too 'trendy boutique hotel where the shower is probably open to the rest of the room' for my tastes," Liam said. "But you're right, at least you can sleep on that."

[arboreal_priestess]

"See if I try to convince you to get an en suite shower then," Verity said, snorting a laugh. "You're killing all my dreams here, Liam."

[firstofitskind]

"My roommates are pretty laid back, but a renovation project like that might raise a few eyebrows," Liam pointed out. "Though there's nothing to stop us from spending a night or two in some trendy boutique hotel, I suppose, sometime." Eventually. Maybe if they ever slept together in a way that wasn't either literally just sleeping, or floating and turning incorporeal.

[arboreal_priestess]

Hey now, they'd managed to progress to the point where 'floating and incorporeal' still left Verity feeling really good.

"Mmmm," Verity said happily. "You know what that means? Room service and no mice."

[firstofitskind]

"You pick the time and place, and I'll book us a room somewhere," Liam promised. And between Portalocity and his shuttle, it wasn't like they were even limited to what was nearby on the mainland.

[arboreal_priestess]

And after this summer, they were going to need it. "You ever think about showing me your world?" she asked, nudging him with her shoulder.

[firstofitskind]

"Aside from the rainforest, you mean?" Liam asked.

[arboreal_priestess]

"If there are trendy boutique hotels in the rain forest and you haven't brought me there yet, we're going to be in a fight," Verity teased.

[firstofitskind]

Liam grinned. "No, no trendy boutique hotels," he assured her. "We only just got the rainforests back, nobody's actually in a hurry to destroy them all again."

The grin faded as he considered her original question. "But going somewhere populated on my world could... at best be weird, at worst end kind of badly."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Everywhere?" Verity asked, resting her head on his shoulder in sympathy. "I'm sorry. Ignore that suggestion then."

[firstofitskind]

"I had one of the most high-profile jobs on the planet, and I'm supposed to be dead," Liam said with a shrug. "I dunno. Maybe we could make something work, as long as it wasn't too central. And anywhere in North America especially is probably right out."