MHA #6 Sunday Evening

[arboreal_priestess]

The high of taking down the ghouls who'd been murdering those girls had worn off sometime yesterday afternoon, leaving behind only the remaining guilt that she hadn't figured it out sooner and that she'd managed to have a great time with Liam and Sarah on Friday night, even with four dead girls hanging on her conscience. She'd gone to dance practice in a funk and James had ended up calling it half an hour early because her brain was clearly not in the music.

Which was even more depressing, because if there was one thing Verity had always been good at losing herself in, it was the dance.

Cries of exultation greeted Verity's key turning in the lock. She opened the front door to find the entire Aeslin congregation gathered on and around the tiny table where she kept the mail. Several of them were waving tiny banners made of tissue paper that had been meticulously painted with drops of blue, black, and red ink.

"Hail!" shouted the head priest, waving his banner with extra enthusiasm.

"HAIL!" agreed the congregation.

"Hail," Verity said tiredly, and shut the door, taking off Valerie Pryor's wig and tossing it onto her desk, since the mail table was in use. “What's the occasion?”

"Today is the Holy Feast of I Swear, Daddy, I'll Kiss the Next Man That Walks Through That Door," said the priest, sparking a second, more solemn declaration of "Hail" from the rest of the mice.

"Cool." Verity started for the living room. The mice scampered after her, still waving their banners wildly in all directions. Aeslin religious rituals were nothing if not enthusiastic. "Do I need to do anything?"

One of the novice priests looked at her like he wasn't sure whether or not she was joking. "Priestess…"

"Right, right. I have to kiss the next man who walks through the door, right?" Cheers from the mice, interspersed with more cries of "Hail." "Got it. At least I'm not expecting company." She had some quality brooding to get in.

Her stomach rumbled and she cursed herself for not stopping to grab food on the way. Time to order takeout--and specify that the driver needed to be a girl or non-binary. Thanks mice.

[For one, text taken and heavily adapted from Chapter 14 of Seanan McGuire's Discount Armageddon. Out of chronology but I just love this holiday so much. Up early because time zones are dumb (and also SP)]

Comments

[arboreal_priestess]

Yeah, Verity was still dead asleep, sated and exhausted, blonde hair in a tangle about her face and limbs in a tangle about her boyfriend. Last night had been several flavors of amazing and now she was trying to make up for a week of poor sleep all at once.

Good for Liam for not trying to go anywhere. She'd claimed him. Sorry not sorry.

[firstofitskind]

They'd probably have to move eventually, sure. For breakfast, if nothing else. But for now? Liam was going to just... shift position, slightly, in an effort to avert limbs from falling asleep.

[arboreal_priestess]

That shifting was earning him some grumbling, Verity's face pressed further into his side. Sadly, as much as Verity was fighting against wakefulness, it was a losing battle. Mostly because they'd been very...active...last night and hadn't managed to eat more than a few bites of their dinner before retiring to her room.

But Verity was going to cling to sleep as hard as she could until the inevitable. She was warm and happy and sore in all the best ways. Did it have to be morning?

[firstofitskind]

Unfortunately, yes.

He huffed out a soft laugh at that grumbling, and then used one hand to trace out patterns on her skin as he waited for Verity to rejoin the land of the living.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity batted at his hand and missed, looking more like a grumpy, oversized kitten than a member of a family that induced nightmares in people.

"No," she mumbled. "No celebrations"

[firstofitskind]

Liam was shaking, all right. But it was from barely-suppressed laughter more than fear.

"No?" he murmured. "... Last night was pretty celebratory, don't you think?"

[arboreal_priestess]

"Put that in your ritual an' eat it," Verity mumbled in what her sleeping mind was certain was perfect sense.

Except that shaking was jostling her and a moment later, "....Whazzat?"

Liam, it's possible your girlfriend was not a morning person.

[firstofitskind]

This was definitely brand new and shocking information.

"Morning," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

[arboreal_priestess]

Look, nobody wanted to leap to conclusions, just saying it's possible!

"Mmmm..." she said, stretching against him. And no longer (badly) trying to knock his hands away. Hell, there was even a smile being directed at him. "Morning. It's a good one, isn't it?"

[firstofitskind]

Only if that was a recent development! Liam had stayed over before, after all.

"I'm liking it so far," Liam admitted with a smile of his own.

[arboreal_priestess]

But did he have enough data points to be sure?

"Kind of a carry over from last night," Verity said, snuggling closer and dropping a kiss on his bare chest. "We should keep doing that. Just saying."

[firstofitskind]

Reasonably so! Though he was also willing to conduct further research. All in the name of collating those data points, of course.

"Yeah?" Liam replied. "I think that could be arranged. We've got a bed that needs proper breaking in over at my place, after all."

[arboreal_priestess]

HAIL THE DATA POINTS.

"True," Verity said with a giggle that she would never admit to, even at gun point. "And maybe that chair, too."

She peeked up at him with a distinctly mischievous expression. "You'll still go purple sometimes though, right?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam blinked at her in surprise. Oh, he was well aware that she enjoyed that; it was called a Joining after all, it would be difficult not to know how someone felt about the experience after having shared it.

He'd just figured she'd prefer the strictly human way of doing things, is all.

"Yeah? I mean, sure. Absolutely."

[arboreal_priestess]

Pffft, when did Verity default to anything just because it was the strictly human way of doing it?

"Mmm, good," she said, running her fingers over his chest. "That's an interesting face you're making there."

[firstofitskind]

"It's just my face," Liam protested mildly. His somewhat confused face, more accurately.

[arboreal_priestess]

"That's your 'I'm checking all of my genetic memories and my girlfriend still isn't making sense' face," Verity corrected with a laugh.

[firstofitskind]

"... That has a face?"

Yes, Liam. It very much did.

[arboreal_priestess]

Poor Liam. He hadn't stayed over to get called out like this and yet...

"Not the one you're making now," Verity said with a solemn nod, "but the one you were making thirty seconds? That one. Definitely that face."

[firstofitskind]

"...Oh," Liam said. "Well. I guess I just figured- you seemed kind of disappointed, the night of the dance? I figured if we ever managed to have actual sex, you wouldn't have much interest in the Joining anymore..."

In case Verity needed a reminder that despite his apparent age, there were some ways in which Liam was very inexperienced, here. Watch him grapple with the notion that people can in fact enjoy more than one type of sexual activity!

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh hon," Verity said, leaning in to give him a hug. "Not disappointed? Surprised. Definitely surprised. And not what I was expected. I had to wrap my head around it."

He'd been carrying this around for that long? Now she felt guilty for not clearing it up sooner.

"I like both. I really like both." He...might have noticed that, yes. "Just like I like some of the other things we do. It's like having knives and guns. They both--generally--do the same thing, but you don't see me only using one of those do you?"

Because all good metaphors revolved around weaponry.

[firstofitskind]

"No," Liam said, turning that over in his head. "I suppose not. I guess that does make sense, though."

[arboreal_priestess]

"If you need," Verity said, looking at him with the most earnest expression she could muster, "we can Join right now, just so you can feel how good it is."

SHE WAS A GIVER.

[firstofitskind]

Truly, she was.

"If you wouldn't rather just go back to sleep," now that he'd had a moment to recover a little bit of his equilibrium, Liam couldn't resist teasing her just a little.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Wait, hold on, is more sleep on the table?" Verity asked, teasing right back.

...Mostly