fandomtownies | The Perk; Sunday Afternoon [05/14].

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The Perk; Sunday Afternoon [05/14].

It was a pretty quiet Sunday, huh? Even quieter than usual, but that suited Gladio just fine. It meant just heading over to the Perk to grab some coffee and a seat, and catch up on some reading with a new book he'd picked up.

And wondering if it would be too late to swing by the T&C to see if they had any good Wine Mom stuff still for Mother's Day to pick up for Iggy.

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Nell stopped in for flavored coffee - hers just weren't quite the same - and had to work not to laugh too hard when she saw Gladio. "I'm sorry," she said, "Its just..." She held out the book she'd just picked up.

And Gladio honestly still wasn't sure if he was using the fancy coffee machine Iggy liked to use, so...

"Maybe that's the one I should have gotten," he said, the interested tilt of his head when Nell came in turning into a broad grin and a snort when she spotted him and laughed. "Hot topic recently, I guess."

Hmm, wonder why that could be?

He placed a marker in his spot in the book, setting it down as he nodded to an empty chair at his table. "Care to join me? Impromptu book club, maybe?"

Nell smiled at him. "Guess it is. But you probably know more about sports in general than I do, so I think we've got the right books."

She made her way over toward him. "If you don't mind the company."

"'Course I don't," Gladio said. "You're way more interesting than sports' history, anyway."

Even if he had to admit, it was pretty interesting, but he was kind of a nerd about stuff like that. Don't tell anyone. Still more than happy to put down the book and pick back up his coffee.

"How've you been, Nell?"

"I'm not sure how interesting I am," Nell said as she sat down. "And this baseball sport thing, well, I..."

She looked down at the book and sighed as she set it down out of the way on the table. "I'm not sure I'll ever be good at the sports thing, but I suppose as long as I have a basic idea about it for Tuesday it will be okay. I'd rather be reading about my bees.""

"Bees?" Gladio asked. "For your plants? And baseball's pretty simple; I could probably give you a run-down, fill in the gaps so you can focus on that, instead. I wouldn't worry about it too much, either. Baseball's a good one to watch with friends, because you can get distracted by asides or conversation without really missing a whole lot."

"Yes," Nell said. "Oh, you wouldn't know." It's not as if they'd talked much outside of the gym. The time he'd brought her home from the bench in the park didn't really count since she hadn't really been all that coherent.

Nell's face lit up as she talked about it. "I have a greenhouse on my roof and I bought two beehives. My bees arrive Wednesday, so I'll be moving them into the hives just before dusk. I've never had bees before so I'm very excited."

Her eyes widened and she smiled. "Oh, that would be helpful. I'd hoped that snacks and such would be a distraction, but I figured I need to know something about it."

"Does that mean you'll have your own honey before long, too?" asked Gladio, who could probably be content to listen to Nell go on about bees all afternoon, if it put a smile like that on her face. "Or are they mostly just for pollination?"

There was a slight, considering pause. "Well, I guess they'd go hand-in-hand, wouldn't they? I...definitely know more about baseball than I do bees. And most of the bees I have dealt with are probably nothing like the ones you're getting, or else all that training's going to be real useful.

"But what have you got so far?" he nodded toward the books on thet able. "About baseball? Any begging questions you just haven't managed to sort out quite yet?"

"By the end of the summer," Nell said. "Though you really shouldn't harvest much from the bees durimg their first year. They need to get established."

She smiled at him. "I'm guessing your bees must be a lot larger than ours. Honeybees are pretty small and if you leave them alone they'll usually leave you alone too."

"Hmm... I know about the pitcher and the person with the bat and how they run around in a circle to get points - run around on bases," she corrected herself. "And that it's a three strikes and you're out thing, but beyond that it starts getting confusing."

"Well," Gladio snorted a bit, "honey bees definitely sound a lot sweeter than killer bees. Most of 'em would get to be about half your size."

Bugs and insects, in general, did not mess around on Eos.

"But that is just about the basics," he offered, encouragingly, "everything after that is just the technical details and nuances. Like with fouls and walking and base stealing, things like that."

"I don't think I'd like to run into those bees," Nell said with a laugh. "I'm happy to keep just my relatively tiny bees. I bet yours don't even make honey!"

"And why are there four balls and not three to match the strikes?" Nell asked. "So much of it seems very arbitrary. But then it's not really for me to judge, I suppose."

"No honey," Gladio agreed, "that I know of, out of those guys, anyway. Just deadly poisons."

He did briefly wonder now, though, admittedly. Obviously, they had regular size bees for things like that, but he wouldn't've been surprised if Sania knew of some interesting benefits or hazards of killer bee honey...

"And, basically," Gladio added, tapping his book a little with one hand while he tapped two fingers to his forehead with the other, to indicated the source if this wisdom he was about to impart, "it's a difficulty curve sort of thing. To even things out between the pitcher and the batter. There was a lot of trial and error before they figured this would be the official sweet spot."

"Interesting," Nell said. "Not that I want to run into them anytime soon, but it does make me wonder. People use bee venom here to help with some conditions. I'm not sure if it actually helps or not, but they are doing studies."

She listened as he explained, then sighed. "I'll take your word for it," she said. "I think as long as we cheer for the Chicago Cubs Marc will be happy."

Nell might be a bit shocked when she discovered how much spitting and such went on during a ball game, but she'd survive.

Just as long as they didn't get their hopes up on them winning, anyway...ahem.

But mentioning studies and venom only made the Sania comparisons that much stronger, and that wrench in his chest in wondering how she'd be doing with everything, especially in light of the new world under the return of the sun, probably having a field day in ensuring to revive the frog population...

...he should probably just focus on the baseball.

And keeping any comments about how 'Marc' and 'happy' seemed a little antithetical. At least, if the last conversation he'd had with him was anything to go off of.

Almost a little surprising, really, that Marc would even go along with something that might have the off chance of being something he might....gasp and shock!...enjoy for a change.

He shrugged. "It's definitely not a game that requires a lot of depth of thought," he admitted. "In fact, thinking about it too much probably just spoils the appeal."

She tilted her head, watching him. She'd almost seen... something cross his face and disappear again, but she didn't want to presume to ask him about it.

She concentrated instead on what he actually said. "That's a good thing then. I'll just watch and see what happens and hopefully cheer at the right times. If I don't you can just give me a high sign or something."

"Maybe we could have some kind of code word," Gladio mused with a huff of a laugh, "or you could just follow my lead. And, if something pops up that you don't really follow...just ask us about. You can learn as you go along. I've always found that easier than just studying all the rules and technicalities. It's one thing on paper, but something else to see it just actually play out."

"A code word," Nell said with amusement. "Oh that could be fun. We should have one. What would we say?"

She grinned at him. "But you're probably right, I can watch the two of you and see what you do. And if I need to I'll ask. Or make an excuse and go to the kitchen for more snacks. Oh! Is there a drink you like? I forgot to ask. I have the beer I know Marc likes, but other than that I usually don't have any alcohol in the house, so I'll need to pick something up for you."

"It'd have to be something subtle," Gladio mused, with a slightly exaggerates thoughtful rub of his chin. "Not too obvious. But not so mundane that it might come up normally...

"And I'll be fine with whatever you have," he said. "I'm not too picky, and I can always just bring my own."

And now to decide if he should just get Eric to send an extra case of his Cup Noodle^TM his way...

"Subtle," she said, nodding slowly but with a smile on her face. " So yelling 'rhinoceros ', not such a good idea?"

"I'm happy to get you something," she said, "since I'm sharing the hospitality of my house with you all."

"Maybe not so much," Gladio grinned back. "Although rhino does sound a little like I know; we could probably get away with something like that.

"And you're already sharing the hospitality of your house," he then countered. "If anything, I should be bringing you something."

Ignis was definitely going to be making sure Gladio didn't end up at Nell's place empty handed, anyway, so....

Nell laughed softly. "A very quiet rhino then," she said. "If we need it."

She tilted her head to look at him seriously. "You don't need to bring anything but yourself. I'd just enjoy your company."

Try telling that to Ignis, Nell.

And Gladio met that serious look with a softer grin of his own. "And you don't need to get anything special for me, either," he said, "because...same."

She was blushing. Why was she blushing? Blushing and feeling all flustered. She put a hand to her cheek, feeling the warmth, and blushed a little more. "Well, well, I suppose that's all right then?"

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The Perk; Sunday Afternoon [05/14].

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