fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Monday [19/9]

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [19/9]

The day had started out mostly normal, but once Vi had started work, she noticed that the growing menagerie of plushes had been joined by a number of rats with eye-patches, which Saffron was having a great time batting around the floor.

Then, when Vi went to tidy up all the RPG books, they'd all been replaced.

And Little Bot was wearing his pirate costume, but he did that all the time anyway.

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Saffron had been out of cat food, so of course Steph had to make an emergency cat food run as soon as she realized it.

But now here she was, a very large bag of cat food in her arms, watching from the doorway with a grin on her face.

"Wait, is it Talk Like a Pirate Day? I love that the store decorated itself."

"Talk like a pirate?" Vi repeated, as Saffron deigned to give Steph a moment of her attention before pouncing on another pi-rat plushie. "That why the place's had a Bilgewatee makeover?"

"Yeah, it's a weird sort of not-quite-holiday, just for fun," Steph explained, shifting the bag in her arms so she could point at the plushie pi-rats. "Like, I definitely didn't order those."

See, this was why she didn't like to do inventory.

She flashed Vi a cheeky grin. "Arr, think ye that ye'll be sick o'me talkin' this way 'fore the day's ended?"

Vi snorted and came over to take the bag off Steph. "I can probably think of a way or two to shut you up if I do," she said, leaning over to demonstrate one of them.

Had Steph maybe been trying to go for that result? Maybe.

"Arr, be that so, me love?" she teased, once she pulled back from the kiss. "Then methinks I'll keep at it 'til the sun sinks below the horizon, yarrrrrrrr!"

Oh god. This was a terrible time to remember Isabela's literary interpretations of them.

Terrible? Or the best time to remember?

"You're such a dork," Vi said, not that it was going to stop her from following through on as much kissing as needed.

Yes.

"Aye, 'tis true, 'tis true," agreed Steph, flourishing with an imaginary cutlass. "It be my brand. 'tis, you could say, my charrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm."

Steph. Stop this right now.

Somehow, Vi heroically kept from laughing. "And I be very fond of yer charms, as it were. Yer charms and yer booty."

Look what you've done, Steph.

Steph grinned and waggled both eyebrows at her, not sorry in the least. She'd have been disappointed if Vi hadn't made that joke, really.

"Arrrr, me hearty, now yer gettin' the spirit!" she exclaimed, and pretended to duel the cardboard beholder standee for a second as Saffron looked on with the most judgmental of expressions. "Ye'll make the finest first mate a pirate captain ever hoped for."

That's right, she'd gotten a promotion from being a cabin girl in Isabela's stories.

It was everything Vi could've wished for.

"And what be a first mate's duties then," she asked, after putting down the bag of cat food. "Apart from looking out for her capt'n's booty?"

Steph snickered and started to playfully back up into her.

"I'd say to watch the helm, an' that be true, but I think first and foremost, ye be expected t'mind the ship's cat. It's an ill omen, they say, t'have an unhappy cat treadin' the deck, an' ye be the only one with skill to tame the beast's savage heart."

Which meant Vi just had to slide her arms around her waist, oh noes.

"Aye, she be a temperamental beast indeed," she said.

Look, Saffron did not have to stick around for this base slander.

The last thing Steph wanted! Oh wait.

"The perfect cat for a pirate ship, arrrrrr," Steph exclaimed with a flourish that ended in her reaching up and back to cup Vi's cheek.

As if on cue Little Bot came rolling up just in time for Saffron to make a grumbly noise and climb on top of him because she didn't have to take this, thank you.

"Shiver me timbers, a cat on a pirate ship! Proof that I be right!"

Vi grinned and turned her head to nuzzle at Steph's hand. "Aye. Clearly ye be the cleverest pirate in these parts."

Saffron refused to look at either of them, sitting majestically as Little Bot rolled forwards. How dare Steph turn Snuggle Human against her like this.

"And ye be the most fearsome," Steph replied, tilting her head back to grin at her. "Aye, the sweetest as well, but that be our closely guarded secret."

Steph was a pirate, Saffron, what else did you expect?

"Ye be saying the sweetest things to me," Vi said, bending her head to kiss her. "Though I fear there be radio spies about the place."

"Not as long as I rule the airwaves," Steph said, dropping the accent finally. "On Tuesdays, anyway. I promise I won't broadcast anything to ruin your badass rep."

Vi's loose hug tightened for a moment. "You don't have to do that for me," she said softly. "Least not over something like that."

"I feel weird about going too in-depth about anyone's personal business on the radio, not just ours," Steph replied, leaning back into her. "Though speaking of our personal business... how would you feel about my friend Alex coming to visit for the weekend?"

Vi kissed the side of her neck, grateful their positions meant Steph couldn't see the... complicated series of expressions her face was making. "At least one of us should have guests."

Little Bot crossed their line of sight again, still carrying Saffron who was still pointedly ignoring them.

"But are you going to be okay with it?" Steph asked, just a touch insistently. "I know you know how I used to feel about her. I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

Saffron would continue to ignore them until they learnt the error of their ways. Just wait and see.

"It'll be fine," Vi insisted, though that 'used to' was doing a lot of heavy lifting.

"Hey, come on, talk to me," Steph said gently. "I want you to know you have nothing to worry about, but if you are anyway, that's totally understandable. I just want us to stay on the same page about it, okay?"

"It'll be fine," Vi repeated, pressing her face against Steph's shoulder. "I'm not going to tell you you can't see your friends because I'm scared they'll realise how dumb they were to let you go."

Steph thought about the evasive answer to 'do you like girls?' that Alex had given her back during their first foosball game.

"Let go of what? I don't think she was ever interested in the first place. And besides." She tried to shift in Vi's arms, turning so she could tilt Vi's face up and look at her. "I'm done wondering what could have happened if she had been. I'm your girl, and I don't take that lightly."

"I know you don't." Vi smiled, somewhat shakily, and traced her fingers along the side of Steph's face. "Guess I just find it hard to believe that anyone wouldn't be into you."

"Fair," Steph said wryly ~~because apparently 96% of players agreed with Vi~~, reaching up to put her arms around Vi's neck. "But, believe it or not, some people aren't and that includes Alex. I just think it would be good for her to come here, meet more people with -- shit, I didn't tell you about her powers, did I?"

"Then she's really dumb," Vi said, and maybe didn't sound sad about that at all. "No, but it's not like you just share that kind of stuff about people either."

Steph stretched up to give her a quick kiss.

"No, but you should know. Alex can read people's emotions. The strong ones, mostly -- she can see those, like an aura. She can't really turn it off."

"Oh, okay." Vi really wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she appreciated Steph trusting her with it. "Is that why we don't play anyone with that power in our game?"

Steph nodded and hugged her more tightly.

"From everything she's said it sounds like a fucking nightmare," she said. "Which is as much as I'll say without her permission, but I wouldn't want that power and don't think I even want to explore what it might be like in game."

She smiled at Vi, trying to be reassuring.

"I'm always going to care about her. And sometimes I might wonder what would have happened if things had gone differently. That's just the truth. But I'm past being sorry they didn't, and I wouldn't change things now."

"Yeah, it sounds like it sucks, Vi agreed, kissing her forehead, pressing her own against it. "I wouldn't either, well except maybe all those times we were idiots."

Steph laughed and cupped her hands behind Vi's neck, locking her fingers together.

"Alex would've shoved us in a room and not let us back out until we got our shit together, before we drove her crazy," she remarked. "But hey, look at it this way: if she had been interested in me, you and I never would've met."

Vi grinned, resting her hands on Steph's hips. "And that would really suck," she said. "I'd have had to steal some less cool person's clothes."

"Damn. That would have been everybody's loss," Steph quipped. Then, more seriously: "Even if someone gave me the option to go back and change the way that part of my life shook out, I couldn't do it knowing I'd lose you."

~~Which was a very Max Caulfield thing for her to say, really.~~

Vi bit her lip, and feeling incredibly guilty replied "I wouldn't want to either."

"Well," Steph added slowly, also chewing on her lower lip for a few seconds, "assuming nobody here including you would've remembered I existed if I did change things up, I'd do it on one condition."

She inhaled slowly, because even as a hypothetical she kind of hated thinking about this.

"If it meant you could get your sister back. I'd do it in a heartbeat. Even if I was stuck remembering everything."

Vi leaned in to kiss her, frantic and desperate. "I love you," she mumbled between kisses.

"Love you too," Steph got out in a voice that was slightly muffled and breathless from the kissing.

Little Bot had been heading back in their direction, but abruptly turned and zipped back off at a sharp angle before they came into Saffron's field of view, which was very considerate of him.

Extremely, because Saffron did not need to see them doing that right in front of her foodbowl.

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [19/9]

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