chilly boulder: thursday afternoon

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Ice cream wasn't something Nathan got to indulge in much back home. It was a luxury and luxuries weren't really at the top of his priority list when he'd been running from the Hunters, from the Council and just about everyone else in the world.

It felt like that, at least.

But, he wasn't at home, he wasn't running and he was curious. There were just so many different flavors and, while he'd tried some, he hadn't tried all of them. Not that he was planning on trying all of them today but maybe he'd try one or two or five.

Or maybe he'd just order a sundae with all the toppings and take it to a table in the corner to eat it. The sweetness hit him immediately and he had to grin. Even being inside wasn't too bad when his focus was elsewhere.

When he went back home, he'd have to find Gabriel and take him for ice cream. Maybe Annalise could come too. They all deserved it.

[Open]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

Anders wasn't normally much of an ice cream person. It was all but unknown in Thedas, and the brain freeze he'd managed to give himself the first few times he'd eaten any it had kept him off it in Fandom.

But when he saw Nathan through the shop window, he decided to give the ice cream thing another try. He ordered a small cup of strawberry before sliding into the seat across from Nathan.

"Hi," he smiled. "You look happy."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I'm all right," Nathan answered, smiling up at Anders. "The ice cream probably has something to do with it. I'm going to end up ill but it'll be worth it."

[My notifs are hit and miss so I apologize for missing anything]

[not_every_mage]

Anders took an experimental bite of his. "I keep giving myself a headache with this stuff," he admitted. "But it's worth trying again."

They were such a fun pair.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Headache?" Nathan asked, having not yet experienced an ice cream headache.

[not_every_mage]

"It's like someone stabbing you right between your eyes with an icicle," Anders explained. "Put me off ice cream for a while."

He took another tiny bite. "Doesn't seem to be bothering me today, though."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"How does it happen?" Nathan asked, frowning now and looking suspiciously at his ice cream. "Is it a certain flavor that does that?"

[not_every_mage]

"I don't know what makes it happen," Anders said, peering at Nathan's mound of ice cream. "It was chocolate that did it. Did you get chocolate?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I think there's chocolate in here," Nathan said, moving some ice cream around with a spoon. "But there's a lot of different things in here so who knows where it might be."

[not_every_mage]

"Can I?" Anders asked, spoon hovering over Nathan's dish. "Whatever you have in there, it looks good. Mine's just strawberry."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Please do," Nathan said, sliding the bowl closer. "There's a little bit of everything in there so you should get some different tastes."

[not_every_mage]

Anders prodded at the ice cream, getting a bit of chocolate and something with caramel and cookie bits in it onto his spoon. He made a noise that was probably illegal in 37 states as it melted in his mouth.

"Nathan, I like you a lot, but I may be in love with this," he decided. "Did you try the part with the little crunchy things?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I've tried just about all of it," Nathan said, snickering. "I'm glad you like it, though. If I don't finish it, I can give it to you."

[not_every_mage]

"You're so sweet," Anders said wryly, returning to his plain strawberry with some reluctance. "No headache yet, by the way. So we don't need to worry too much."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sweet, the ice cream is," Nathan corrected. "But I'm glad there's no headache. I'm the one that's supposed to get sick from being inside."

[not_every_mage]

"No, sorry, you're sweet too," Anders decided with a little snicker. "Oh, is that where you were last weekend? Out in the preserve hiding from the insanity?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Not hiding," he said, shaking his head. "I just didn't really venture out. I tried to read and then just rested. But, I heard things were strange. Stranger than usual."

[not_every_mage]

"People were older," Anders nodded, between bites of ice cream. "And also Kathy's going to be mayor after a zombie apocalypse and Thorin's going to be king. So that's -- stranger than usual."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Huh." Nathan took a bite of ice cream, looking thoughtful. "You weren't older?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders shook his head. "Probably I was very busy," he decided, liking that notion more than he liked the thought he'd been dead. "Older me, I mean. Maybe I found some little island and got myself named grand duke of it. No time for reunions."

He still thought he was probably dead. But if he kept talking, the thought would be less real somehow.

"And you" -- he pointed his spoon at Nathan -- "were probably busy with something equally amazing. Grand duke of the island next door to mine."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You have a very active imagination," Nathan said, amused. "I think you have to be born to royalty to become royalty, right? Or at least marry into it?"

[not_every_mage]

"It keeps me company," Anders shrugged, agreeing about his imagination. "All right, not grand dukes. Viscounts? Presidents? Something very rich and busy and important, anyhow. We don't know so we can make it up, can't we? May as well make up something good."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"If that's true, I don't think I'd want to be royalty," he said, shaking his head. "I'd want to be someone that's outside a lot. Maybe an artist who paints landscapes?"

[not_every_mage]

"Sure," Anders agreed easily, chasing a bit of strawberry around his dish with a spoon. "Do you think you'd just paint one place, or would you travel?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Travel." He nodded, taking another bite. "I'd find a map, point at a place, get you to read it to me, and then we'd go."

[not_every_mage]

"I like it," Anders decided. "Maybe I could figure out if they needed a healer anywhere while I was reading up on the place. Then I could keep busy that way while you painted."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"From what I've seen, no one would turn down a healer," Nathan replied thoughtfully. "There's always going to be someone sick or injured. You'd always be needed."

[not_every_mage]

"As long as we stayed places where people accept magic, at least," Anders nodded. "Or if I hid what I was doing, which I could learn to."

This was actually sounding better than the grand duke idea. Anders suspected they'd both get bored in that one.

"And people never get sick of art, either. You'd always be welcome."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Unless there was someone better than me," he retorted just for the heck of it. "Then, we might have to have a fight. Last artist standing kind of thing."

[not_every_mage]

"It'd be a terrible turf war," Anders said around a snicker, also for the heck of it. "Lots of paint spilled. Pencils at 20 paces. All of it."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Or maybe we could come to an agreement and just paint different things," Nathan suggested after a laugh. "To keep the peace. And to save paint supplies."

[not_every_mage]

"I suppose that would be the calmer solution," Anders admitted.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"But less colorful," he replied with a snicker. "And I do like color."

Sometimes.

[not_every_mage]

"I could tell, what with all the fluorescent colors you wear," Anders nodded. "Oh, this has nothing to do with that at all, but what day is your birthday? It's soon, isn't it?"

At least, he knew his was, and he vaguely remembered Nathan mentioning his was around the same time.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"June, I think," he answered, nodding. "So, fairly soon."

[not_every_mage]

"Mine's the 11th," Anders informed him.(Well, technically it was 11 Justinian, but he doubted Nathan wanted a lesson on the Thedan calendar.) "We should celebrate together, then. A weekend away or something."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"That'd be nice though I have no idea where we'd go," he admitted, nodding. "But, it'd definitely be nice."

[not_every_mage]

"I want to say the ocean and someplace not too crowded, so you don't get sick," Anders said with a thoughtful smile. "But would that be too much like where we live anyhow?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It might be but there's not much bad with where we're at now," he replied, shrugging. "I like the water. And even if it's the same, it'll be someplace I've never been before which is important."

[not_every_mage]

Anders nodded, agreeing. "Then I'll look up places and give you some ideas next time I see you," he promised. "It should be nice."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like a good idea," Nathan replied, nodding and sliding his bowl more in the middle. "Help me finish this because I'm not leaving till it's done."

[not_every_mage]

"I suppose I could manage that," Anders said, with the flash of a smile, and he pushed the dish holding the melted traces of his strawberry ice cream to the side to go for Nathan's sundae.

The cookie bits were his.