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JGOB, Sunday Afternoon

Lili had never seen so many sweets and cakes and confections in one place in her whole life. Eyes wide with wonder and happiness, she stared at the glass case, wriggling like a puppy in excitement. "And I get to choose a whole cake of my very own?" she asked the nice lady behind the counter? "And you'll write my name on it?"

It was her birthday and sugar and sweeties had been awfully hard to come by since the Cabal had invaded and look, that cake had big purple and white and green roses on it and those were her favorite, favorite colors in the whole world. Oh! And that cake looked like a beautiful lady's gown! And that cake had such a pretty design on it! Lili was in awe.

"May I have that one?" she asked, pointing to the perfect cake. It looked just like her mother, if her mother was one of Serra's holy angels. And she didn't want her mother to be one, since the only times she ever saw one was when they were flying overhead about to go into battle and Father was already fighting the Cabal and it seemed unfair to have both of her parents on the front lines, but Lady Ana said that angels were symbols of peace and love and beauty and prosperity, and Lili thought her mother would be very good at that.

...Even if she was somewhat more cranky now with the baby teething and another on the way.

Several minutes later, Lili was the proud owner of a cake that said Happy Birthday Lili! in bright purple letters, wearing a sparkly hat that also said Happy Birthday on it that one of the bakers had found in the back, and had a colorful balloon tied to her chair so that it wouldn't float away in the air. "You'll all have slices, too, won't you?" she asked the people working behind the counter. "I couldn't possibly eat all this myself!"

And she'd have to box up a slice for Josu as well. He'd be so sad to have missed her birthday!

[Open! Feel free to come help Lili celebrate with cake!]

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The search for Prince Noctis continued, but to no avail, and Ignis wasn't sure which emotion was stronger: concern and worry, or annoyance and frustration. He currently leaned more towards the latter, as he'd run into Gladio and he'd joined the search, but honestly, Ignis didn't care much for the Amicitia heir. He was loud and brash and boisterous, though he supposed those traits might come in handy for a future Shield, and they were likely stuck with him, so he supposed he'd better get used to it.

He'd managed to shake him eventually, though, with the suggestion that they'd cover more ground faster if they split up, and so now he was back to searching solo, trying to think of where a prince might be if not where one might expect him to be. He was starting to suspect he'd been swept up on some official business and no one deigned to tell him. Which was...irritating, he didn't like being out of the loop, especially when it came to Noctis, but he understood it, he was just a kid after all, even if the king had entrusted him to take care of his son for years now...

It was with that full head that Ignis decided to check the bakery, to see if Noctis had been spoiling his dinner by treating his sweet tooth here, but there was no sign of him there.

There was, however, a familiar face.

"Ah, Lady Vess," he greeted, coming in and offered a small,polite bow after adjusting his glasses a bit. "That is quite the cake you've got there!"

"Thank you!" she said, beaming at him. "Today is my birthday! Would you like to have a piece? I have to save some for Josu, but I'm too little to eat a whole cake!" She was idly petting the angel's wings. "I didn't think I'd get a whole cake for my birthday," she confided. "Josu promised he'd get me something, but a whole cake is a lot of fancy ingredients."

"As well as a good deal of time and skill to make such pretty wings like that, as well!" Ignis remarked, his eyebrows lifting, clearly impressed, especially now that he was close enough to see it better. "They must have a very talented cake decorator here, I've only seen finer in some of the most ..." He seemed a moment to struggle with finding just the right word, "premeire confectionaries in all of Insomnia."

He found a small bit of heat, though, rising to his cheeks, with a sort of awkwardness he hadn't expected.

"So I would be very honored to enjoy a slice, Lady Vess, thank you. That's very kind of you, to share your birthday cake. Oh! And happy birthday, of course! I'd ask how old you were turning, but I've been told it's very rude to ask a lady such a question. I guess it would be doubly rude to do so when she's sharing with you her cake!"

"Oh, I'm seven," Lili said, gesturing him to come sit. "I wish I was older though because I'm still not allowed to do fun stuff except for when Josu lets me do stuff with him. He's the heir so people listen, so long as Mother and Father and Lady Ana didn't say I definitely wasn't allowed to do it."

Ignis had heard a lot about Josu this weekend, but then she'd heard a lot about this Prince Noct, so it probably evened out.

"One time he took me fishing, but I cried because putting the worm on a hook while it's still alive is mean and also I caught a big fish and it pulled me into the water. I'm bigger now so it probably couldn't do that again, but the worm thing is still mean and also the Cabal is in the forest, so we're not allowed to play in there anymore."

Looking incredibly pleased to have been invited to sit, Ignis smiled and nodded his head gratefully before pulling out a chair to join Liliana. "Prince Noctis likes to go fishing on his birthdays, too," he noted.

"Or any other time, too, for that matter," he amended with a bit of a fond chuckle, "but especially his birthday, and I get to come along and help pick out his tackles. He doesn't use bait often, but it is kind of fun, seeing how different tackles attracts different fish. We mostly fish in the reservoirs around the city; they're very well-stocked. But the prince hopes to be able to fish outside the city some day, out in the wilds."

A nod, since that, too, had been a shared common ground for them, the dangers of war and true freedom under siege.

"Perhaps one day, when we're older."

"And the war is over," Liliana said staunchly. "Father is a brilliant General and he'll soon send them packing back to Urborg where they can do creepy necromancer stuff on each other and leave nice people alone."

Which conflicted a little bit of Josu's plans to be the best fighter and also be the one to send them packing, along with Lili's own plans to be the best healer and bring all their soldiers back from the brink of death with a touch and have them all be very impressed by her, but she was confident that those details would work themselves out.

"Also, you don't have to call me Lady Vess," she said. "You can call me Lili."

"Oh," Ignis blinked a little at that, surprised at first by the eschewing of formalities, and then again at that warmth returning to his cheeks again and the somewhat awkward feeling that went with it, and he nodded. "Alright, then. If...if you're sure...Lili."

And then he couldn't help smiling over it, beaming almost proudly. He always tried to be so proper and formal at the Citadel, but it was nice to not have to be all the time.

"So what else are you planning to do," he asked, "for your birthday, Lili?"

Lili was not a very formal little girl, particularly when she was out of sight of authority. And being called 'Lady Vess' felt weird. That was her mother.

"I don't know," she admitted. "You're right; this isn't Benalia. Maybe not even Aerona. So I don't know what to do. Usually there's a big dinner for all of Father's allies and I'm hoping for a proper horse this year like Josu has instead of my old pony but until we go home I don't know. What do you do for your birthday?"

"Oh." This time, Ignis' awkward moment came with a slight lowering of his eyes. "I don't...do much...for my birthday."

Why would he? He was hardly anyone of consequence, just the prince's companion, really.

"I did have a cake, this year," he said. "Not one as lovely as yours, of course, but it was a chiffon cake, and I rather liked it a lot. A dinner does sound nice, though. And I hope you have a new...horse? Waiting for you when you get home. I've never met anyone who had their own horse before; I've heard that some places used to have some that were tame, a long, long time ago, but all the mesmenir and spiracorns and the like of Lucis are far too wild, and that's what makes chocobos so much more useful."

"Well, when's your birthday?" Lili asked. "We'll probably be far away again, but if this is the beginning of an alliance then maybe we won't and if we're not, we'll have a proper birthday party for you."

With all the fuss Ignis made over his prince, she would think that Noctis would do something more than just a cake, especially since it didn't sound like they were facing the same kind of shortages the Caligo Forest was.

Lili removed the angel with something approaching reverence and then unsteadily cut another slice of cake to pass over. "I have more questions about what mesmenirs and spriracorn and chocobos are," she said, "but I have a more important question for you."

Folding her hands, she looked at Ignis with grave eyes. "Am I going to have to marry Prince Noctis?"

It was the only reason Lili could figure why she'd been brought along on this trip to wherever they were - to meet this prince and seal the alliance with a betrothal.

"February 7th, 734," Ignis reported, dutifully, as if reciting it for some official document, with a little firm nod. "But there no need to go through all the trouble of a party. I'll write down my address for you, and you could send me a card."

A card sounded much more fitting than a party, and it would be nice to receive mail from such a far-off place!

But even as pleasant as a birthday card showing up from Liliana one day in the future may have been, her other question caused him to frown and knit his brow in consternation.

"I suppose...that is possible," he admitted, "though unlikely, although you'd do well to be married to Prince Noctis. I'm sure you could do a lot worse. And arranged marriages don't really happen as much anymore, though if the alliance do prove to be..."

There was a pause, frown deepening, but this time, for trying to find the right word again.

"...beneficial. I don't suspect that's anything anyone needs to worry about for quite a few years, though.

"Would you want to marry Prince Noctis? You would be able to be a queen someday, if you did, he is heir to the throne..."

"Febuwary?" Lili stumbled, looking at him in clear surprise. "I don't know when that is. Do you not use Argivian Reckoning?"

So Insomnia (which was a silly name for a kingdom, but she was too polite to say) must be all the way in Corondor, which still used Pendragon. Except 734 it was far too small to be the Penregon Founding. Did they use the calendar of the...other calendar?

Look, Lili was only just seven and Corondor was very far away and sometimes her tutors could be very boring and then she would sneakily read about interesting stuff instead of weird old calendars of places she'd never see.

Except if she was going to marry this prince. Huh.

"I don't even know him, why would I want to marry him?" Lili said, dubious and seemingly unmoved by the prospect of being a queen. "I'm going to be a great healer of the Forward Order and help Josu rule the Caligo Forest." She frowned. "Except...well, I guess he'll end up with a wife to do that." Things she had never considered in her grand planning. "I don't know what a Queen does. We used to have the seven clans, but then Phyrexia came and destroyed everything so now we just have the Houses."

Sometimes these things lasted longer than just the two days of the weekend. Stark wanted to be prepared with sweet breakfast pastries for tomorrow in case it lasted through Monday. If it didn't, well, the worst thing that would happen would be that he had pastries for the morning that he could share with the nurses at the clinic. Or with someone who had returned to her proper size.

So he was in the bakery after the ice cream excursion ~~possibly with a small ginger companion who could say?~~ to pick out a few things that would keep well for the morning.

"Are you having a party?"

"Yes, it's my--" Lili stopped and looked at Stark, hesitant. On the one hand, skin-witches sometimes took people's faces and this man had a mask. On the other hand, sometimes people who were terribly disfigured wore masks, too. On the other, other hand, they weren't in Benalia anymore and the Cabal didn't seem to be here. Except on the other, other, other hand, there was a zombie in her house. On the other, other, other, other hand, he said he'd been made by a nice necromancer, but on the otherest hand of them all, Lili hadn't ever heard of a nice necromancer. "--birthday," she finished a little lamely, like there hadn't been a solid minute of suspicious regarding him in between.

"Happy birthday," Stark said, offering a warm smile. He'd had similar looks directed at him before. And much worse ones. "Are you having a good day? Your cake is beautiful."

Hmm. Well he was being very nice so far and hadn't tried to snatch her or gobble her up or steal her face, so maybe he was just a nice man who wore a mask for a different reason. Lili thawed a bit and offered him a little smile.

"Thank you," she said. "I got it because the angel looks like Mother and that makes me happy. I'm going to save it even after all the cake is gone and show her."

The figure bore a fair resemblance to a certain adult necromancer herself, in as far as 'long black hair' and 'was pretty for a doll' went.

"I'm Lili," she added, though between the 'Ppy Birthday Lili' and the black hair and purple eyes, Stark had maybe guessed.

Stark, as a general rule, did no snatching or gobbling up or eating of faces.

"It's good to meet you, Lili," he said. "I'm Stark. I'm sure your mother will like the angel. It's very lovely."

"I'm also gonna save some cake for her and Josu and Father, too, because we don't have cakes much anymore because of the war," Lili said. "But not for my little sister because she's a baby."

Still a little cautious she added, "Would you like a slice? There's enough to share with more people." ~~Said invitation also extended to any little red-haired girls that may or may not have been present.~~

"That's very good of you to share," Stark said. "Thank you. I would like a slice. How old are you today, Lili?"

"Seven!" Lili said proudly. "I'm hoping that I'll get a horse for my birthday because Josu got a real horse when he was seven and now it's hard for my pony to keep up because she's old and slow, but if I get a real horse we can go riding together every day! Even if we can't go into the forest anymore cause the evil Cabal is there with their horrid skin-witches and evil necromancers."

She did give him a quick glance to see how he took this description of the Cabal. You know. Sneakily.

"I think my friend Summer would like a horse too," Stark said. Just a guess there.

"It sounds dangerous, where you're from. And frightening."

He was frowning at the description of the Cabal but in an 'oh no that's awful' sort of way.

"Well, war is dangerous and frightening," Lili pointed out. "But Father is the general and Benalish soldiers are the best in the whole world, and Josu is going to be the very best of the best when he grows up, and I'm going to be the best healer and we're not going to let them hurt any more people."

"War," Stark said softly, "is horrible for everyone. Good luck to you. And your father. I hope it ends soon."

It wouldn't! Not by the time Liliana left, anyway.

"Thank you," she said. "But I don't think war is horrible for the Cabal. They seem to like it. And when their soldiers die, they just pick them back up again and turn them into something horrible. Ours, too."

"That's...horrifying," Stark said after a moment. "The dead should be allowed to rest."

Enhhhhh agree to disagree, Stark. At least starting tomorrow.

"Tell that to the Cabal," Lili said with withering disdain. For the Cabal, not for him.

"Do you think they'd listen?" Stark asked.

Somehow he thought not.

"No," Lili said. "They'd just kill you and take your--" A long pause as she looked at what was left of his face. "--skin. That's what skin-witches do."

Stark's eye went wide at that. "Why?" he asked, horrified.

"To wear," Lili said with a shrug. She didn't really know better than that, Stark, sorry.

"That's...that's..."

Gross. Disgusting. Nasty. Creepy.

"Horrifying," Stark said finally. "I'll do my best to avoid them. And I hope you will too."

"It's why I'm not allowed to go into the Caligo Forest anymore," she said. "Or even off of the manor grounds. Not without someone to escort me." She looked around. "This weekend doesn't count, because we're not back home."

"No, you're not home," Stark agreed.

At least not home as her younger self would know it.

"It's safer here. Much safer. I hope you've had a chance to explore here without too much worry."

"Oh yes," Lili replied. "I've been looking for Josu, my older brother! He's probably off with Father listening to all the diplomacy because he's the heir, but I do wish he'd come and get me, too."

She looked a little sad. "It's my birthday" and Josu is the person I want to share it with most in the whole world."

"It's hard when you can't spend time with the people you care about," Stark said sympathetically. "Special days are best shared with special people, aren't they?"

Lili nodded, then resolutely straightened up, shoulders back and chin up. "But Father and Josu are probably discussing an alliance and Mother likely couldn't come because of the baby, and..." and, okay, that didn't explain why she was here without a nurse or at the very least a maid, but perhaps since she was seven now, they had decided she was too old for such things? That would be lovely! "...and those are important. I'm practically grown up now, and I understand that sometimes you must prioritize."

That was one of Father's favorite words.

Oh sure, Lili, just break the glowy alien's heart a little bit with that sort of talk.

"You should be a priority too," Stark said softly. "Especially on your birthday."

A cruel thing to tell a child when there was literally no way her family could prioritize her, seeing how they'd likely all died over a century ago, on a distant plane they couldn't have left, Stark.

"Well...well...I'll have others," Lili said stubbornly. "And so will other people if this alliance leads to peace."

"That's wise of you," Stark said.

Too wise for so small a child.

"Would you like company while you have your birthday in here then? I'd be happy to stay if you like."

Wartime make some fools and some wise and both pay a price in the end.

"Oh, that would be lovely," Lili said. "Ignis will have to go find Noctis for a bit soon and it would be nice to have company. And maybe the talks will end soon and you can meet Josu!"

"Maybe," Stark said with a nod. "And if not, at least you'll have a bit of company. It's better to have company, isn't it? I know I get lonely."

"That's one of the reasons Josu is the best big brother in the whole world," Lili said staunchly. "He tries to make sure that I don't get lonely too much, and sometimes helps me get sneak out of lessons and away from my nurse so we can have adventures!"

Get used to this, Stark. Anytime spent with Lili was going to lead to hearing all about Josu and how wonderful he was.

"I never had a brother," Stark said. "Or sister. Just myself."

At least as far as he knew.

"I think I would have liked one."

"My baby sister is too young to be interesting, but I'm hoping to be as good a big sister to her as Josu is as good a big brother to me," Lili said. "Though she's much younger than I. Josu was almost four when I was born. I was six when Allegra was."

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JGOB, Sunday Afternoon

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