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]

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.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity was poking at the various storage units that would fit with the flat-pack, checking to see how mouse-friendly they were and how much each could stow.

"Hmm, I think I'll grab a couple of these," she said, snagging a few of the woven baskets and tossing those in with the pack. "See if the colony has an opinion of them."

...Was he looking pensive?

[firstofitskind]

Possibly! Or that could just be his regular resting face. Sometimes it was hard to tell.

"I hadn't realized your lease was ending so soon," he admitted.

Okay, definitely pensive.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I mean, I still have until the end of the year," Verity said, giving him a slightly flattened smile. "That's not too awful, right? Just--by then I should really have more of my life figured out. Either I'll know I can make it as a dancer, or...that I can't."

Either way, it would be time for a major decision.

[firstofitskind]

"Okay," Liam said, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Just- when you said a few months, I was thinking the end of the summer, which just seemed... really close, all of a sudden," he admitted.

[arboreal_priestess]

"It's still a few months beyond that," Verity assured him, though the suddenly it didn't feel quite as long as it always had, now.

For some reason.

[firstofitskind]

"Good," Liam said with a small, albeit genuine, smile. And yes, selfishly, there was a part of him that hoped whatever choice she made would be one where they could continue the relationship they'd built over the past six months. "And if you ever wanna use me as a sounding board while you try and figure that stuff out, you know I'm here for you, right?" Because selfish desires aside, he cared deeply about Verity, and wanted whatever choice she made to be the one that would make her happy.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I know," Verity said, reaching for his hand to give it a squeeze. "Right now though, it's mostly just...waiting. Practicing. Working."

She sighed. She was dancing three hours a day and it still didn't seem like enough.

"But there's an audition for Regionals coming up in a few months and that will hopefully get stuff moving so I feel less like I'm just...treading water."

[firstofitskind]

"Also willing to come cheer you on obnoxiously loudly while you're competing," Liam added, twining his fingers with hers.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You'll be the only one, at least at the Open," Verity said, grinning. "The people who show up to watch competition ballroom dancing are sorta like the people who show up to watch really high-stakes tennis: completely silent, never gasping, applauding, or giving any sign they're not all dead. You cheer and you might end up giving someone an actual heart attack."

[firstofitskind]

"Oh, I can do that too," Liam assured her. "After all, being in charge of Companion security involved a lot of standing around stoically. I'm pretty good at it."