Infinite Consortium, Monday

[deathsmajesty]

The chair was back in the display window today with another shame sign, Homunculi Are Not For Eating.

"It's one thing to keep trying to eat Dean," Liliana scolded. "That's funny. But we do not eat the merchandise! Keep it up and I'm getting a plastic chair cover."

The chair drooped pathetically, but Liliana was firm. "You stay in that window until that hourglass runs out or I say you can leave."

And then, chair being appropriately shamed in the window, Liliana was back behind the counter, reading a new book based on some myth or other. The heroine, Circe, had some excellent ideas about how to deal with unwanted guests and obnoxious men, and Liliana was enjoying her story highly.

Every so often the chair would creak and Liliana would snap, "Is the hourglass empty yet?" and the chair would settle back with its sign.

Infinite Hourglass
Never run out of time again!

[Open]

Comments

[chef_chocobro]

Well, hopefully, Ignis would not now (or ever, really, though he wasn't so sure he could ever count himself as that lucky, as much as he was warming to the concept) be considered either unwanted or obnoxious to the point where Liliana would feel the need to draw instant inspiration from those tales, but at least he could have confidence that she'd at least wait until after he'd gotten the food he brought with him to the counter.

Which was where he was heading now, upon entering, after the usual care for the door and his glasses and an ear tilted toward anything unusual (a particularly...whimpering?...creak, from the direction of the window?), unless his usual call of Liliana's name led him swiftly on a different course.

[deathsmajesty]

"Ignis, darling," Liliana said from her usual seat, voice warm enough to banish, at least for now, the worry that he might share the fate of the crew of Odysseus. "Why what ever brings you to my little shop?"

Someone was feeling playful.

[chef_chocobro]

That warm and playful tone brought a pleased smile to Ignis' face, as it was usually a pretty good indicator of just how...amicable the shop was being that day.

"Oh, well," he drawled lightly, casually, oh-so-offhandedly, as he set down the food, to better free his hands to offer out to her to help her out of that seat and into his arm, "just more of my usual attempts to beguile and seduce its charming shopkeep with my culinary prowess. Not to get too far ahead of myself, but I think I might be making some progress..."

[deathsmajesty]

That outreaching hand was immediately clasped by a familiar chill one, fingers brushing against the skin of his inner wrist before wrapping around his as she slid from his seat and into his arms. "You know, I've heard that very same thing," she said with a soft laugh. "Though, not to be telling takes outside of school, that there might be more at play than just your undeniable culinary prowess." She kept the kiss that followed a tease, too short to be anything but a literal amuse bouche, not even close to being satisfying. "I've also heard that shopkeep is something of a temptress herself, be wary she doesn't work her wicked wiles on you."

[chef_chocobro]

Ahh, but Ignis truly did love a nice little amuse bouche, a small soupçon of something to serve to only whet his appetite even more for what he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt would be a delectably satisfying main course.

"Mmmm," and there was that thoughtful hum, both for spoken word and speculative kisses, "while I do rather appreciate the warning, darling, I'm afraid you're rather too late. I am far too gone already."

And his returning kiss very clearly intended to prove that unquestioningly.

[deathsmajesty]

And indeed it did, Liliana twining her arms over his shoulder and around his neck, pressing herself against him. "And so," she murmured...eventually, "...we have the the shopkeep well-beguiled and the chef thoroughly tempted. Doesn't that just make us a pair."

Another kiss, thorough and lingering and one might even say heartfelt, though it would be wiser to not say so within a certain proximity.

"'Nys..." You make me happy. Imagine saying that out loud. Liliana could never. "...I could play games with you forever."

Wait. That might be worse. But the words were already out.

[chef_chocobro]

At the very least, those regrettable words did seem to pull an odd, soft, different kind of smile put of Ignis, as his arms around Liliana seemed to draw her in just a little closer, a little tight, and his forehead angled toward hers. Not the kind of smile that would satisfy many treaties or truces, with a slight bit too much distance and overdrawn in its sincerity.

Or was it tge words, or something else entirely? Was it just having her there in his arms, was it everything they'd both poured into their kisses, was it some sort of residual contentment over the success of the party that weekend, or some other thing other than those words? Impossible to tell, and Ignis surely wasn't about to give any of it up, he was just going to linger in it for a moment as they often did those kisses.

"I would say," he murmured back...eventually, "that that's only because I let you win, but we both know that isn't even remotely true."

Most of the time, anyway.

"But what is true," he added, after the slightest, most miniscule, hair's-breadth hesitation, slipping an arm out from around her so he could bring a hand to brush tenderly, fondly, almost gratefully against her cheek, "is that the sentiment is utterly, undeniably mutual. I could never have fathomed finding as compelling a match as I've discovered with you, 'Iana."

[deathsmajesty]

The distance, the hesitation...they seemed at odds with his words and it had Liliana's brows contracting in confusion. But there was no doubting his conviction and so she locked it away as one of the things she did not wish to think about, right next to why she had said such a foolish and soppy and vulnerable thing, and simply kissed him again.

...As if there were anything simple about their kiss, as complex and deep and flavored by so many different things as an Argentine wine.

She didn't know if it had been the words (of course it had been the words, such foolish and slippery things), but the tenor of their embrace had changed and, for once, she was at a loss to put it back. "And, lo, you've discovered the secret meaning behind the theme of the party," she teased.

[chef_chocobro]

Briefly, a small wrinkle in Ignis' forehead mirrored that in Liliana's brow, because while he might not have seen it there, he could feel it, he could practically hear it, in that subtle, nearly imperceptible shift, in those layers underneath the layers already implied in a kiss like that. And so, naturally, he was trying to go back and find where, exactly, it had happened. Was it something he had said? How he'd said it? Or, perhaps, he now realized, something she had said, and how anathema it was to show even a hint of her cards, unless that hint was just another part of the play itself...

Feeling a tug in his chest, Ignis stopped wandering down that line of thought, and, instead, directed the constantly million different directions of his mind to focus, for the remainder of that kiss, on her and her alone, locking it away as one of the things he did not wish to think about until the early hours of the morning with a cup of coffee.

"It's never truly about just a chandelier, is it?" he asked, light and teasing back, with a smile to match, although that soft distance couldn't help but remain, less a distance in space as it was in time. "You know what I'm thinking, my love? Tonight might be an excellent one for getting use out of our chessboard. Or perhaps some other challenge, if you're so inclined. Maybe finally get a good run at that new dart board."

[deathsmajesty]

"The chandelier was just the icing on the cake, my darling. An tribute to our love of games and a chandelier," she smiled up at him. "And I think spending and evening playing one of our games sounds lovely."

Her hands slid down to his hips and lingered there. "But that's later activities."