fandomtownies | Luke's Diner; Tuesday [12/10].

"Before you say anything," said Ignis, as he came into work that day, already moving toward where the bottled water in the kitchen was kept as a detour from his usual first stop at the coffee maker, "yes, I already have new recipehs in mind for today's specials. Because while I may not be so inclined to make lemonade in winter just because life has handed me lemons, I do feel as though today's offerings are much more conducive to a proper winter menu."

Expertly, almost mindlessly, he set about making his first pot of coffee for the diner for the day, and then got to work collecting some of his ingredients directly from the taps, while trying not to think too hard about the hows and whys, and double-checking to make sure they had plenty of extra water on hand to take care of everything else they'd have to do.

Really, if you didn't have a hearty supply of jugged and bottled water on hand in Fandom during the winter, then that was simply on you.

Today's Specials
Mulled Wine Christmas Burger
Mulled Wine Tofu with Saffron Rice
Hot Chocolate Pudding Cakes

Luke's is open!

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They almost certainly had jugged water in the house. That was very much a thing that Ignis would insist upon. And that was fine for ensuring they had water for tea and coffee and Josu, but Liliana wasn't going to go through the bother of heating up water for a lukewarm basin bath, perish the thought.

Which was why her arrival today came with black vapor tendrils and a spot of frigid cold. Her bathroom on Innistrad worked quite nicely, thank you.

"Hello, my darling," Liliana called. If there was any lingering emotion from yesterday, she certainly wasn't showing it.

And Ignis, as fastidious as he was about that sort of thing, had spent the better part of the last decade and change with very few satisfactory baths, and so he wasn't too bothered in that regard.

But if tomorrow revealed a string of such waterline contaminations with a bout of cider or eggnog or peppermint mocha, then he might also be considering a brief venture out toward literally anywhere else not so ardently struck by holiday whimsy.

"Hello, my love." If there was any lingering emotion from him from yesterday, it likely did show, in the soft tenderness of his smile, though he would very much argue that that was simply the lingering emotions of how he felt regarding Liliana as a whole, entirely divorced from any discussions that may or may not have occurred that led to quite the marathon of pointedly sharpening knives around the mansion when he got home...

Ahem.

And coffee now set aside, he made he way out from behind the counter to meet her, and greet her more properly with a kiss. "Come to refuel after your travels, I trust?"

Because, yes, clearly, it was the food that weekly brought her into Luke's...

"There is nowhere else I'd rather break my fast," she murmured, once the kiss - and its very important follow-up kiss - had finally come to an end. Dratted continued reliance upon breathing.

"Although I diiiiid have an important question to ask of you as well, my darling," she added, finger walking her way up his chest and appreciating the fine form hidden below his clothing.

"Oh. Well," said Ignis, taking a moment to capture that hand once it finished its travels, brushing a kiss against her knuckles before ensnaring it further with his own fingers. "Now I'm concerned."

Although he didn't exactly look too terribly concerned. There was, of course, still a faint bit of truth to the statement, but far less so at that moment than perhaps there may have been in previous iterations of such lingering questions. Even with that extra worrisome drawl in her words.

"What's on your mind, 'Iana?"

"Christmas trees," Liliana said promptoly, giving him a brilliant smile because, yes, she knew precisely how that drawling announcement would have come across to his ears. "And, more specifically, when we can go get ours. We only have two weeks until Christmas and still we have no tree."

Oh, he was getting the big, sad eyes for that; his ability to see them was irrelevant. He knew they were there.

And that, considering the month and all the fond memories of last year that it brought along with it, was exactly why Ignis actually wasn't concerned, because even he'd have bet substantial gil on the notion that this important question was distinctly holiday-related. His smile, then, was two-fold: for his finely tuned instincts as well as for the request itself.

"Since we can hardly go back in time at this juncture to remedy this grievous oversight," he stated, "then surely the only answer is as soon as possible. I'm sure I could slip out a bit early today should you like to go fetch one tonight, or we could simply make a day of it tomorrow.

"Well," he amended, giving her hand a small squeeze, "an afternoon of it, anyway. Unless I could manage to convince you to be roused early for such a task."

"The trees aren't going to be any more treelike in the morning," Liliana scoffed, as he certainly expected her to. "What do you say," she continued, leaning against him. "We go to the same place as last year this evening, and, if they should have no acceptable trees for us, we continue our search tomorrow?"

If they did need to extend the search out until tomorrow, they could even potentially open the trip up to others, if they wished, but Liliana was hardly going to put off getting their tree just to involve other people.

"One could argue," said Ignis, because of course he was very much one who would argue whenever given half the chance, "that trees actually are at their most tree-like in the morning, because do they not also break their fast to drink deeply of the morning sun after the dark of night?"

But figuring these observations were far more poetic than biological, he slipped his hand around her back to hold her in that lean against him and kiss her again.

"But I daresay, that is an excellent plan, darling."

"You know, there is a question within about whether you are most yourself in the early morning, when you drink deeply of the first cup of coffee after the dark of night, or in the late morning, when you drink deeply of the first sound of my voice after the silence of sleep," Liliana teased, her own arms sliding around his waist. "But it's likely that I don't wish to ask it, lest my ego be dinged by the answer."

"Mmmm," Ignis hummed deeply with the deep appreciation of both those things, with a contented sort of sigh as he lingered in those pleasant and frequent occasions, as well as in the fact that instead of contesting his claim in defense of wasting those early hours in sleep, she leaned into it and took it down her own path. A simple thing, perhaps, but one that made warmth spread through his chest in a very particular, almost overwhelming way.

"And now you know," he extrapolated, "why I hold those rare moments when I might be graced with both simultaneously so precious and dear. The perfect union of both to awaken me."

"And therefore isn't it best to keep those moments rare?" she asked with another laugh--a far warmer and more genuine laugh than he'd heard from her yesterday. "So you can continue to treasure each one; truly appreciate the unexpected gift that is the blending of the two. Something something patience, something, something moderation."

Luke's Diner; Tuesday [12/10].

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