The Photo Hut - Thursday

[flamesburned]

It was so close to Christmas now and Liz was looking forward to Noctra’s first Christmas and spending the holidays with her family. She didn’t have too much work to do that day so she was spending the morning focusing on finishing up some admin tasks that she still had to finish before Christmas and so she wouldn’t have as much work to do next week.

[the Photo Hut is open!]

Comments

[hasaknightjob]

With Blathers' blessing, Steven left work a little early so he could try to stop by the Photo Hut before it closed.

"Liz, hello! How are you?"

[flamesburned]

"Steven hi," Liz smiled as she looked up from her computer, "I'm good thank you, how about you?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Well, thank you," Steven said. He came over to where Liz was working. "I brought something, if that's all right? A little present for Noctra."

[flamesburned]

Liz smiled at that, “that’s definitely alright, thank you,” she assured him. .

[hasaknightjob]

Steven reached into his satchel and pulled out a present wrapped in red and green paper with little animals on it wearing Santa hats. "Here we are. A little something for the little lady. They said this goes like gangbusters for years, not just almost one year olds."

[flamesburned]

Liz smiled at at that as she looked at the weapping, “Noctea’s definitely going to love opening this,” she told him, “thank you Steven,”

[hasaknightjob]

"I remembered you saying how fond she is of Rain," Steven said. He pointed out on the wrapping. "See? Little cats on this one. Thought she might like it. Maybe as much as the gift, who can say?"

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana arrived earlier in the day than her normal wont, hoping to catch Prompto and Noctra as well as Liz before they left for the holiday.

"Hello!" she called extravagantly, sweeping into The Photo Hut - empty-handed, of course. Yes, there were presents coming, but other people were carrying them. Obviously. "Merry Christmas, Liz darling! I'm glad I caught you before you left!"

[flamesburned]

"Liliana," Liz smiled as she came into the store, "thank you and Merry Christmas to you as well, how are you?"

[deathsmajesty]

"Wonderful, darling," she said, gliding in while somebody else huffed and puffed behind her, carrying a number of wrapped packages. "I'm sure you're having a busy day and I don't wish to intrude, but I assumed you'd be leaving shortly and wanted to deliver gifts before you went. Surely you have a few moments for presents." She batted her eyes outrageously.

[flamesburned]

"It's actually not been to bad today, just finishing up some emails before Christmas," Liz told her with a smile, "so I definitely have a few moments for presents," she said, "thank you,"

[deathsmajesty]

"Well, of course, darling, it's Christmas," Liliana said. Unlike the sizeable gift that had been thunked down in front of Prompto, Liz had three and they were much more reasonable.

In the largest gift, she'd find a luxurious bathrobe, which would go well with the second gift, a collection of bathbombs from Pick Your Poison in various colors and scents. "I'll admit, these were backup gifts in case you didn't like this one," Liliana said, sliding over the last one. "But I rather thought this one was interesting, especially with your love of photography."

Inside the final gift was a cyanotype kit.

[flamesburned]

Liz’s eyes were wide as she carefully opened each present, “oh wow,” she gasped, “these are all amazing, thank you,” she said as her eyes drifted over the cyanotype kit, “I’ve never actually tried this before,” she admitted.

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana laughed. "I was hoping you hadn't," she admitted. "I thought it might be more fun if you hadn't. Everything I read suggested that it's non-toxic, so you needn't worry about it harming Noctra, either."

Nobody probably wanted the baby to guzzle the chemicals or roll around in them, but at least Liz wouldn't have to worry that experimenting would lead to a cloud of murder vapor or whatever.

[hashtag_chocobro]

And Prompto, of course, had a ton of unnecessary nervous energy about getting ready for the holiday and the inevitable trip out to New Jersey and worrying about forgetting something for Noctra's first real big trip out there, not to mention all the presents for everyone, and, oh, shoot, he still had to make lunch, and so there was making lunch, and should he make cookies to bring, too? And now lunch was overcooking because he got distracted by cookies, and now the kitchen was definitely going to be a disaster, so guess he'd be spending his afternoon cleaning it, and, ohgods, Noctra was crying now because of.....some reason, and so he had to go and settle her down, and ohno, lunch was burning again and....

It was with a sigh of relief, almost, that Prompto finally made it downstairs for lunch, Noctra still being fussy and pouting into his shoulder as he carried her down, and then Prompto sighed again and gave Liz a faint smile as he held out his offering for the day.

"I hope you like them," he said, "I really worked on them super hard."

They were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. With sliced apples and some strawberries.

Sometimes you just had to know when to quit while you were ahead.

[flamesburned]

"They look amazing, thank you," Liz told him with a fond smile and she took a moment to coo softly at Noctra as she fussed slightly before looking back up at Prompto, "I'm guessing its been a busy morning?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Noctra gave a grumpy little whine in response to that, a sound that was uncannily mirrored in Prompto's own faint pouting and grumble. The baby's whine continued with some squirming and some reaching out for Liz with those small, almost-formed murmurs of words she was struggling to get out, and so Prompto dutifully shifted her so that he could hand her over to go sulk on Liz now, as she apparently wanted.

"Just a little rough, I think," he said with a sigh. "Definitely gonna have to do some mega cleaning after this, but I am so ready for a couple days away at this point. It's just a sign from the universe, or something."

[flamesburned]

Liz carefully took Noctra in her arms so she could lean against her shoulder, “it will be nice to get away for a couple of days,” she agreed as Noctra kept fussing slightly, “I can’t believe how close Christmas is now,” she added.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Just four more days!" Prompto reported brightly, then laughed, a little relieved to have Noctra's grumpiness passed off to someone else, although she was clearly settling now that one cause of it in the absence of her mother had been resolved. "But who's counting, right?"

[flamesburned]

Liz giggled at that, being mindful of Noctra who was settling on her shoulder, “I’ll know, I still can’t believe how quickly this year has gone,” she added.

[deathsmajesty]

The family was just finishing up their lunch when Liliana made her appearance, giving them all an extravagant smile.

"Merry Christmas, darling," she said to Prompto, gesturing for her helper to put a very big, very heavy looking gift down near him. "You look like you're having a day, so I'll be quick, but I simply couldn't let you leave without presents."

[hashtag_chocobro]

At least sandwiches and fruits and a proximity to her mother seemed to have settled Noctra's grumpiness a little; Prompto was, momentarily, distracted with lifted brows at the substantial present being set down, before he just sort of sighed and shook his head in response to Liliana's astute observation. "It's all good," he assured her, "some mornings are just a little rougher than others, I think she's just a little restless with all the holiday prep, you know?"

And he could just keep talking about the baby, but it was hard to ignore...you know...present, especially since that's what brought Liliana in in the first place, and he gave her a soft, touched smile.

"You really didn't have to," he said, "you've already been pretty great already. But maybe you can at least stick around long enough for me to run upstairs and grab your present. I was just going to leave it with Iggy before we left, but I think he'd appreciate the efficiency if I saved myself the trip later."

He had not wrapped it yet, so he would have to scramble to get that done real quick, but he could also just toss it in a nice gift bag, maybe, too?

[deathsmajesty]

"I'm pretty sure that the consideration towards efficiency is the present he'll appreciate most," Liliana said with a small, fond laugh. We needn't go into how fond, it's fine, it's not even important, okay?

"Open your gift first, so you can heft it upstairs, and let me know who should be opening Noctra's gifts," she said, gesturing at the gift that the overworked rickshaw driver had basically hoisted in.

Under the wrapping paper, Prompto would find gun safe that we're pretending is of a carryable size because of pretendy fun reasons. "I figured you'd likely already had something like that with Noctra," she said as he opened it, "but even if you did, I thought you might prefer one that was a little more personalized."

And Prompto would discover that Liliana hadn't just used her time pawing through old pictures to learn things for Ignis. On the front of the safe was the Kingsglaive symbol again and in each corner was a hand-sized engraving of different symbols. The upper right had a sword and the symbol for light magic. The upper left, two daggers crossed over one another. The lower right, two crossed guns (a gun and a crossbow was too busy, visually speaking). The lower left, a katana and a shield.

"The lock is a puzzle one, so that you don't have to worry about keys or combinations if you need to access the interior in a hurry," she continued. "But it should take anyone else who doesn't know the solution significantly longer."

And, once the door was opened, he would see the Kingsglaive symbol again, but this time, instead of their weapons, there were a images of: a fish on a line, a cup of coffee, a camera, and a Cup Noodle^TM.

"Merry Christmas, Prompto. I do hope you like it."

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Oh, Liliana! Wow!" Prompto gushed out, after taking a few moments to just sort of gawk and marvel at the safe while looking it over. He continued to gawk and marvel at it, too, grin broadening as each particular detail became cleared in inspection. "This is amazing! And you've got the Kingsglaive symbol right there on front of it! And my guns! And Iggy's daggers, and Noct and Gladio's stuff, too! And the space is great! The inside is perfect, holy shi--" He faltered, because baby, "--oooot!" And he laughed. "Is it weird that I wanna keep some cameras in here, too? This is incredible! This makes my present look like garbage!"

For all the disparaging nature of the comment, it was said with complete and utter glee, and then he just turned his attention to Liliana with the appreciation clear on his face.

"Thanks, Liliana. This is really something else. Are you a hugger? I am definitely a hugger, and this feels like this is a hugger kind of moment..."

He looked at her hopefully, arms opening up a little in case that might entice her a little more.

[deathsmajesty]

What was it about Liliana that made Prompto think she was a hugger, even a little bit? It certainly wasn't her expression. Or her posture. Those were both dubious at best. He could basically watch her come to the resigned conclusion I suppose for the holiday, before she stepped forward into his arms and accepted the hug.

Which was basically your other gift from her: one hug by Liliana Vess, likely never to be repeated.

It was a very awkward hug, too, unsurprisingly like she had little practice with the concept.

...The long, full-body embraces where she and Ignis got lost focusing only on one another didn't count for reasons.