fandomtownies | The Photo Hut; Monday [10/03].

Entry tags:

The Photo Hut; Monday [10/03].

There wasn't really a whole lot that needed doing around the Photo Hut that Monday (or most Mondays, really). Just a few new things coming in and Prompto taking care of putting those where they needed to go, especially the heavier stuff that he wouldn't want to leave for Liz to handle, and that was fine. It was definitely still kind of an adjustment, getting used to the much slower paced and less, you know, life-threatening day-to-day here on the island, but it was nice. Peaceful. And the extent of activity going on with Prompto's phone right now made up for the lack of activity going on in the store.

He was leaning with his elbows on the counter as he poured over various texts and responses, mostly with Summer, because he'd been thinking about something a lot, which only solidified in his brain as he was working that morning. And, of course, what started out as him asking her about potentially picking up a job there blew up into all sorts of other things, mostly about Gladio being back and what that meant for Ignis, and also at least one threat not to hire him unless he shaved off his beard, which Prompto pointed out was discrimination and he'd sue, and she said she'd like to see him try, and then he asked if this was all because of him, and that shut her up about that real quickly.

And when he wasn't texting Summer, he was texting Gladio, mostly links to the weather reports that said they might be in for some rain this week, so maybe he shouldn't be camping in the preserve when there was a perfectly good couch at their place, and Gladio insisting it was fine and Prompto rolling his eyes a lot and somehow managing to agree to meet him for fishing at some point.

And when he wasn't doing either of those things, he was making at least a few more attempts to get a call through to Iggy. Nothing, though, of course, but after talking with Summer, he realized he should probably just try again in two weeks...

The Photo Hut is open!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Liz had had a few errands that she had wanted to run that morning and afterwards stopped by the Perk for coffee, getting a large pumpkin spice latte for Prompto and a small cuppachino for her since it had been a couple of weeks since she’d had one and she thought it would be nice to get some coffee.

“Hi,” she smiled, “how has your morning been?”

"Hey," Prompto looked up from his phone, smiling back. "Quiet..." He lifted the phone a little, as if showing her what had been demanding the bulk of his attention so far. "Mostly taking care of some stuff. Did you know Gladio's been just camping out in the preserve these last few days? That's why he hasn't been back to the apartment."

"Oh?" Liz blinked a bit at that, "I didn't realise, I mean I did notice there seemed to be less Cup Noodles™ but I thought he'd come back," she admitted.

She paused, "I got this for you while I was out," she told him, holding out the coffee tray towards him.

Prompto shook his head a little, but he couldn't help grinning at the offering being bestowed upon him. "He says he's just more comfortable out there," he said, with a small sigh, "and, well, I mean, I guess that tracks, but, still..."

There was then a soft hum of appreciation, once he had that coffee in his hands and wrapped his fingers around the warmth of it, and then just breathed in a little bit of the aroma of it that managed to waft up from underneath the lid. Closed his eyes to just sort of soak it in before looking back over at Liz. "Thank you. This is going to be amazing. You wanna take a coffee break with me?"

"You're welcome," Liz's smile widened, "a coffee break does sound amazing," she told him as she took her own coffee, "I also have something else I want to give you but it's upstairs," she told him.

She had finished working on the photo album of her pregnancy journey for the first few months and she was excited about being able to share those photos with him and give him the album.

Considering how things had worked out this weekend, Prompto couldn't help grinning at the first thoughts of what Liz could be showing him later. "Yeah?" he asked. "Something for later? You know, since I'm stuck here having to deal with all these customers and everything at the moment..."

Liz couldn’t help but grin in response to that, “well, not quite what I was going for but I’m sure arrangements could definitely be made for later, since you’ve been so hard at work here with all your customers, I think that does deserve a reward,” she said with a grin, “but I was actually talking about the photos I took during the first few months of the pregnancy, I put them all in an album for you,” she added.

"You could call me a credit card," said Prompto, grin growing and absolutely unable to help himself, leaning over the counter in an attempt to kiss Liz, "the way I'm racking up those rewards. But a photo album? Of the months," months, his brain reminded him, as always, not years, "I missed? Liz. That sounds amazing!"

Liz giggled at that and leaned in closer over the counter, she would have no objections to a kiss, “everything's in there, even the progress of the work I’ve been doing with Amaya for our daughter’s crib,” she added, “I’ve been working on the album all week,” she added with a smile, “I hope you’ll like it,”

"I know I'm going to love it," said Prompto, who wasn't going to waste an opportunity for another kiss while she was there. "I'd apologize for not having an album of what I've been up to during that time, for you, but, trust me, it wouldn't be a very good one.

"Speaking of the crib, though," he added, "I should get working on that soon....the nursery..."

The more he was doing, the better, really, to help him feel useful, to not feel useless, to help make up for the lost time...

Then he bit his lower lip a little, looking over at Liz curiously, before tentatively venturing, "what do you think...of maybe yellow?"

“I did speak to Dwight the other day, he’s nearly done with the furniture he’s making for us,” Liz smiled, “I said I’d let him know once we decided on the colour scheme so he can finish everything,” she added, then she considered the colour Prompto was suggesting.

“I was actually thinking yellow as well,” she told him, “I was thinking that would be a nice bright neutral colour and it goes well with everything as well,”

"It's also my favorite color," Prompto admitted with a chuckle, a shameless shrug of his shoulder. "But it's also warm. And bright....

The opposite of darkness, really, and that was what he wanted out of it more than anything.

And, since Liz seemed on board with the color, Prompto tried maybe venturing a little further into some of the other ideas he'd been having.

"Maybe with some pink and blue accents," he suggested. "In sort of a diamond motif."

Being back, and throwing Kanan in Summer's face as a defense against the beard had definitely triggered his nostalgia...

Liz smiled, “then we can definitely go with yellow,” she told him, “and I do like the pink and blue diamond motif,” she added, her smile widening as she was picturing it, “I’ve also made a few arts and crafts pieces for the nursery as well from Sidon’s Arts and Crafts class that I took in the summer,” she added.

"Sidon did an arts and crafts class over the summer?" asked Prompto, who had to laugh as he tried to picture it. It wasn't really that difficult to imagine, though, and he shook his head. "Ohmygod, that must have been a whole...experience. But, yeah, we'll definitely have to see how we can incorporate those in there, too. I think it'll be fun."

Liz smiled brightly at that, “It had been years since I’d taken an arts and crafts class,” she told him, “but I did make a mobile and some other decor, mostly involving sea shells,”

"Of course they involved sea shells," Prompto snorted, albeit fondly, with a shake of his head and a side thought that he really should check in on Sidon soon. If anything, he could probably go for a good puppy pile at the shelter while the two of them caught up. He looked at Liz thoughtfully for a moment, then, picturing her in this arts and crafts class, putting together a sea shell mobile, and the soft fondness of his grin grew even more.

"I would have loved to have taken a class like that," he mused. "So I'm glad at least one of us got to. Did you enjoy it?"

“I did,” Liz told him with a small smile, “I did take photos as well, of what I made during class, it’s in the album as well,” Liz had taken a lot of photos, it was lucky there had been an album big enough for them all, “it …it helped me stay focus this past summer,” she admitted softly.

"That was going to be my next question," Prompto admitted, his next laugh made a little softer by that last part, his expression gone a little pained and apologetic, and the next kiss he leaned over to deliver to her reflected all of that, too. "That's....that's good, though, that you did...have something you could focus on."

He hesitated a moment, wondering if he should say anything else, but knowing he'd just feel terrible if he didn't.

"I'm sorry," he said, smile going a little self-deprecating, even though he knew it couldn't be helped, that there was no way of knowing...but that didn't make him feel any less guilty about all of it, "that you even needed something to focus on to begin with..."

Liz bit her lip, she knew the arts & crafts had helped but there had been a lot of things she had needed to distract herself. She didn’t want to bring up how badly she had fallen apart at the start, she knew she’d have to eventually.

Only she didn’t want to bring any of that right up now, she didn’t want Prompto to feel worse, “it wasn’t your fault,” she told him softly, “you’re here now, that’s what’s important,”

"I am here now," Prompto confirmed, reaching for Liz's hand, as if to validify that confirmation by giving it a squeeze and holding on. "And I'm not going anywhere, either."

Liz gave a smile at that as Prompto took her hand and squeezed it, “and I’m not going anywhere either,” she assured him as she returned the gentle squeeze.

"Good," said Prompto, smiling faintly, bringing Liz's hand to his lips so that he could give it a kiss. "And you know I'm double locked in now, too, actually." He bit his lip, not sure how Liz would take this news, but it seemed as good a time as any to bring it up. "I, uh, I just picked up another job."

Liz grinned as Prompto kissed her hand. Then she listened to the rest of what he was saying and her smile faltered a little.

“Oh?” Liz hadn’t been expecting that, “what kind of job?” she bit her lip, “do you not want to work here anymore?”

She was a little worried at that, maybe he didn’t want to keep working with her.

Edited 2022-10-04 00:27 (UTC)

"No, no!" Prompto assured her quickly, brows lifting in surprise, because he didn't even think of it possibly coming out like that, and now he started to feel that little twist in his gut for having screwed something up. "Nothing like that! I still want to help out here, too, I love being able to help out here! It's just....well, I mean, you know, it's not really....it's kind of....well, it's all Professor Broom, right? And it's great to have his support and everything, but I'm....well, you know, we're going to have a kid, Liz, we're starting a family, and I want....I want to be able to support us, you know?"

He gave her a faint smile, another kiss on her hand before his other one moved up to join them, wrapping hers up between both of his.

"Unfortunately, there's not really a market for ex-daemon hunters and failed Crownsguards around here. But I want to start looking into selling some of my work, stock photography if anything, maybe eventually some read gigs, and I can start teaching again in the spring, but, until then....

"I've been talking with Summer, about starting over at T&C. Het some income in, and, better yet, employee discount. Everything we'll need coming up, we can just get from there, that discount can really go a long way, you know?"

"Oh," Liz blinked a bit, feeling rather relieved that Prompto still wanted to work for her and she started to feel a bit guilty that Prompto had been worrying about money ... which she had been wondering herself for some time but taking a teaching job or a second job wasn't really a good option for her, not with everything that had been going on.

"I ... Professor Broom has offered to help, well more than he has already with the store," Liz told him softly, "but I ...it's a lot," she nodded, "and I understand ... I've been trying to put away as much money as I can," she added, "I have some savings before I moved to Fandom, but they won't last much with everything we need to raise our child,"

She paused, "when do you start your new job?"

Prompto gave Liz a faint, relieved smile. "She said I can come in for training later this week; I'll probably be taking the Friday shift."

Liz returned that smile, "Friday doesn't sound so bad," she said, "and I can always come and visit you," she added, "I can even try making you lunch," she smiled.

She had been learning how to make new recipes but her skills definitely needed a lot of work since the only thing she knew for certain how to make was a cake.

"Now that sounds nice," Prompto had to admit, with a wistful, pleased sort of grin. "A good break from all the back-breaking work I'm sure she's already planning on putting me through."

To be fair, though, Turtle & Canary definitely got way more traffic and steady business than the Photo Hut.

Even though admittedly that wasn't hard, most places got a lot more business than the Photo Hut.

Liz's smile widened, "I know you will be wonderful," she told him, "and it will be a well deserved break," she added.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Photo Hut; Monday [10/03].

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject