fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Monday [24/10]

Entry tags:

The Magpie Emporium, Monday [24/10]

Much as she appreciated Steph's artistic endeavours, Vi wasn't entirely sure what was going on with the pumpkins, so she was just kind of side-eyeing them in between paging through some of offerings on the spooky game display.

Which was why she was now trying to set up a block tower with Little Bot's help and Saffron's "help".

[Open!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Did Steph trying to sneak up behind her for a hug count as helping?

And would that answer change depending on whether she had brought a double order of lasagna for them to share for lunch? Because she had.

Regardless of if they were helpful, hugs were always welcome, even if the sneaking had Vi tensing for a moment before relaxing when she realised it was Steph.

"Hey you."

"Hell yes, successful stealth check," Steph said, wrapping her arms around Vi from behind and hugging her tightly for a moment or two. "Hi. Having fun with the Jenga tower of doom?"

Vi put her hand over Steph's and squeezed, smiling at her. "I'm pretty sure my theoretical players won't die the first time they try something."

"Probably not the first. Maybe the second," Steph allowed, looking at the tower as she moved to stand next to Vi instead of behind her, which was slightly less fun when you were the shorter person in the hug.

She gave Vi a contemplative look. "Ever consider running a game for real?"

Vi slung her arm around Steph's shoulders, leaning in to nuzzle her temple.

"I don't know," she said softly. "There was this one game I used to play with my sister, when we were little."

Steph leaned into her, smiling, as she reached out to carefully tweak a couple of the blocks.

"Yeah? What kind of game?"

"We shared a bed, and she'd get restless, so we'd pretend to be bigger and bigger monsters," Vi said, not really paying attention to the blocks any more. "Like, she'd say 'I'm a slug monster with venom for ooze', so I'd say 'Well, I'm a slug-eating crab with razor spikes'."

"I love it," Steph said, genuinely; she was still messing with the blocks, but her attention was fully on Vi. "Was there an upper limit on how big the monsters could get?"

Vi smiled, very briefly. "Not really, but sometimes I'd get too into it, and scare her," she said. "Then I'd pretend to chase my own monsters away so she wouldn't cry and wake our parents. 'No monster's gonna get you while I'm around,' I'd say."

She paused, swallowing. "Then a real monster showed up and I just ran away."

Steph turned and wrapped her arms around Vi again, pulling her close.

"Being a hero in a game's so much easier than it is in real life," she murmured. "It's always so much easier to say you know what you'd do in a situation than it is when you're actually in it, and you'd literally just been through hell. You didn't just run away. You wouldn't spend every day of your life here wanting so desperately to find a way to get back and find her if you did."

Vi cling back for all she was worth. "What if I find her and she doesn't want to see me," she mumbled.

"Then we figure that out from there," answered Steph, emphasizing the we slightly because there wasn't a question as far as she was concerned about leaving Vi to handle this alone. She held onto Vi as tightly as she could, swaying gently like it would soothe her somehow. "Would you -- if she didn't want to see you, would you think that was understandable?"

Vi nodded. Since she hadn't meant Silco when she talked about real monsters.

Steph hadn't been sure what she'd meant by that, exactly, just that it was some part of that whole awful situation on the bridge.

"Then you're off to a way better start than you would be if you didn't think she had a right to her feelings," she said, and kissed the top of Vi's head. "But we'll figure it out together, okay? If it comes to that."

Well. Assuming her own presence in Vi's life didn't go over poorly with Powder and complicate matters more.

And what were the chances of that, really?

"Okay," Vi repeated, nodding.

Slim, probably! Really!

Steph kissed the top of her head again, and buried her face in Vi's hair. "I'll have your back no matter what," she promised. "You know that. And for the record, I think that story just made me fall a little more in love with you."

"I do." Vi clung a little less tightly to Steph, thought she was still leaning into her. "Really?"

There was no need to sound so sceptical, Vi.

"I mean, I kind of do that on a daily basis anyway," Steph said lightly. "What can I say? I have a real soft spot for the warm and squishy parts of you that mostly get hidden behind your badass exterior."

"I mean I try not to hide around you." Mostly. There was some force of habit involved.

"I know you don't," Steph told her. "And I also know you kind of can't help it sometimes, but it means the world that you still try."

"I love that you see the best in people like that," Vi said softly but sincerely.

"I don't do that for just anyone," Steph pointed out. "Alex is way better at that than I am. But the people I care about? Different story."

"Don't sell yourself short," Vi said, because didn't Steph know she had a monopoly on that?

Nope, Steph most certainly did not recognize any sort of monopoly on the subject on Vi's part.

"I'm not," she replied. "I know that's true, only because I don't pay enough attention to most people to be able to do it. But... I'd like to think I'm learning to try."

It was very rude stealing Vi's schtick there, Steph.

Vi leaned in to kiss her. "Guess I'm even luckier than I thought."

Why look at it as stealing when they could share, though?

"I could say the same thing," Steph pointed out. "Since I do happen to actually think so myself."

"Yeah?" Vi said, because she was never going to get tired of hearing that.

Saffron chose that moment to knock the block tower over, because, really how much was a cat supposed to take?

"Abso--"

That was as far as Steph got before anything else she might have said would have gotten drowned out by the crash, anyway. Little Bot beeped in distress as he zipped across the floor to come help put things back together.

"I think Saffron might be sick of our shit now," she said, because she knew better than to think it was probably just a coincidence. "Either that or she's mad at me for my Halloween decorations claiming she was cursed."

"It's probably both," Vi said, laughing as Saffron swooned all over the blocks, stopping Little Bot from trying to rebuild them. "Even though you'd think she'd appreciate people being warned off annoying her."

"I was trying to do her a favor," Steph insisted, and just pulled out her phone to get pictures instead of trying to shoo Saffron away from the pile of blocks. "Though that's probably cancelled out by my cruel insistence on stealing your attention away from her yet again."

She shook her head and leaned into Vi again. "We have the most dramatic fucking cat, and she's a cat so that's really saying something."

Oh look, she'd finally acknowledged that Saffron was their cat.

Vi had already accepted that long before this, but she still beamed and leaned in for another kiss. "We really do."

Heedless of the yowls coming from the cat writhing in the throes of neglected agony atop a pile of wooden puzzle blocks, Steph wrapped an arm around Vi's neck and kissed her back, catching Vi's lower lip between her teeth.

"Wouldn't have her any other way, to be honest."

Vi made a pleased little growl into the kiss, that was rather ruined by the fact she was still giggling at Saffron's antics.

"Me neither."

They weren't going to be able to have a serious makeout session as long as Saffron kept this up, so Saffron ought to feel proud of herself for that.

Steph rested her head against Vi's shoulder. "I knew getting her was a great idea as soon as you picked her up for the first time, and I haven't regretted it once, since."

Sure, the affection in her tone was probably drowned out a bit by Saffron's drawn-out pitiful yowl of being so horribly neglected, but hey.

"Not even once?" Vi asked, sliding her arm around Steph's waist, as Saffron sang them the song of her people.

You'd think this would be a total mood killer, and yet. Maybe they were just used to it.

"As much as she clearly loves you?" Steph nudged her gently with her elbow. "Not even for a second."

You could get used to anything, really.

"Well, I love her too, much as she doesn't believe it."

Either that or they were just weird.

"Saffron." Steph looked down at the piteous caterwauling creature stuck with them as caretakers. "She really does love you, you know."

Saffron was having none of it, of course.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Magpie Emporium, Monday [24/10]

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject