fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (5/29)

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The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (5/29)

There was a pile of luggage in the office that Steph was very steadfastly ignoring in favor of getting all of the Pride decorations out of the stockroom.

The problem with this was that a new bag labeled AVOIDANCE WHEEEEE appeared on the pile every few minutes, but again Steph was (deliberately keeping herself) too preoccupied to notice.

Saffron, meanwhile, continued to ignore her from atop her own small pile of baggage. What it said was anyone's guess, what with cats not having a written language and all.

[OOC: Open!]

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Some things had grown and one or two ha shrunk, but overall Vi's own baggage wasn't that different to previous times this had happened, especially because she was ignoring the main new addition (covered in elephant print for some reason).

That didn't stop her from all but tackling Steph when she saw her. "Hey."

Oh, the one with elephant print identical to Steph's steamer trunk? Which had a twin parked at the foot of the bed at home?

"Hi," Steph replied, folding into the hug with almost pathetic eagerness. "I love you."

She was totally fine, why would you think otherwise?

Yes. Not that Vi had noticed either of those. Or had her own baggage react to them. At all.

"I love you too," Vi said, burying her face against the crooks of Steph's neck.

What possible reason could either of them have for not being fine?

It was kind of distressing how much of their baggage matched, honestly. It was comforting, but also distressing.

"How was your morning, babe?" Steph was not letting go yet, no.

It wasn't like either of them had issues or anything. Never mind the full set of ABANDONMENT ISSUES rollaway suitcases over by the lost and found (very funny, island).

And look, she can do better was much smaller than it used to be! Never mind that selfish and greedy was bigger.

"Oh, you know, just great," Vi said, not inclined to let go of Steph either.

They'd done shifts joined at the hip before. It was easy. Especially when, as previously stated, they had no issues whatsoever.

Steph could have done without the entire footwear rack labeled WAITING FOR THE OTHER SHOE TO DROP, she really could have.

"Just another one of those days, huh?"

They had a lot of practice doing shifts that way by now.

A miniature duffel bag-shaped catnip toy landed next to Saffron as she raised her head to realize her humans were at it again and give them a long-suffering look.

Vi could've done without you don't deserve to be happy, no matter how much she agreed with it.

"Yeah," Vi agreed softly. "Can't wait for it to be over."

You wished you worked as well together as these two.

Truly, Saffron was the real victim here.

Wait, was that one Vi's or Steph's? It was kind of hard to tell sometimes.

"We're getting there," Steph assured her, touching their foreheads together. "Easier to get through it now that you're here."

Maybe she could duck outside and, like, burn that one. Didn't deserve to be happy, her ass.

If you asked Saffron, it was too bad the humans hadn't mastered the art of just turning all of that baggage into a comfortable bed and showing it who was boss.

It was obviously Vi's since Steph clearly deserved every happiness in the world. Several worlds even.

"Tempted to skip class to help with that," Vi said, which given it was Raiden's class...

That was because, unlike Saffron, Vi and Steph had to worry about their spines.

See, and Steph would argue that it was probably hers because Vi deserved all of that far more than she did.

"And let you pass up a chance at food?" A backpack labeled dragging her down with my issues landed on the counter by the register. Steph continued to ignore it. "I've managed all morning so far, I can manage another hour or so. I can't do that to you, babe."

Human spines were inferior, that was why. Saffron could claim to be sorry about that but she'd be lying.

And this was one of those rare occasions where Steph was tragically wrong.

"You know you're more important to me, right?" Excuse you, baggage, that was 'sharing each other's burdens' thank you very much.

And after all, the world deserved Saffron's radical honesty.

No, no, it was one of the slightly less rare occasions where she was unequivocally right, thank you very much.

"I do." Steph nuzzled at Vi's cheek as a stack of elephant-print hat boxes manifested next to the backpack.

"And I've also seen you literally shield me with your own body on multiple occasions. I know you, Vi. You love so hard it's awe inspiring, but I don't want you giving up little bits of happiness you absolutely do fucking deserve --" that might have been directed toward a certain piece of baggage -- "just to distract me from this bullshit for a couple of hours."

That the world might not be able to comprehend Saffron's radical honesty was not her problem.

Edited 2025-05-30 14:15 (UTC)

Nuh uh. Steph was extremely wrong about that.

Vi turned her head to kiss Steph, soft and sweet and ignoring any and all luggage that was manifesting. "And I don't want you to feel like you have to suffer nobly because of me."

After all, suffering nobly was Saffron's job.

Another AVOIDANCE WHEEEEE bag toppled onto the pile and rolled down the side, followed by a trio of GUILT carryons.

"I just don't want you missing out on things because you're worried about me, when it's something like this that isn't a big deal," Steph murmured against Vi's lips.

Saffron hated to agree with Food Human on this, as the new catnip stuffed mini suitcase might imply.

Without even looking at it, Vi kicked the nearest bag out of the way.

"It doesn't need to be a big deal for me to worry about it," Vi said. It wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility that the bag she'd kicked earlier had been saviour complex. "I am gonna bring you leftovers though."

How could Food Human do this to her?

"You can worry," Steph said, reaching up to run her fingers through Vi's hair. "I just don't want you to feel like you have to put everything on hold for me."

A new bag labeled damaged goods (smaller than it had been in previous years, granted) landed at her feet, if Vi wanted to kick anything else.

"Besides, you know how much I love when you make breakfast for us, and I was looking forward to you picking up a few new tricks," she added with a slight grin.

Ugh, Food Human, how dare you be right about something for once.

Vi closed her eyes and leaned into Steph's touch, giving that bag a hefty kick beforehand. "You say that like it doesn't make me happy to spend time with my hot, smart, amazing girlfriend," she said. "I like that too."

What was this feeling? Indigestion?

Steph stretched up to kiss Vi on the forehead with a fond smile at the bag kicking.

"And you know I love making you happy, but I feel bad about you missing out on other opportunities for fun on my account."

Just ignore the Dead Weight tote bag that appeared there. Saffron sure was, on account of going over to her dish to eat her feelings.

Vi would probably be eating her own ~~bodyweight in bacon~~ feelings soon enough, but for now she reached out to kiss Steph's knuckles. "I don't feel like I'm missing anything when I'm with you," she said. "Regardless of what else I could be doing."

Steph squeezed Vi's hand, smiling faintly.

"I trust you," she said. "If you're cool with it, so am I. I just don't want you to ever feel like you don't have a choice in the matter, you know?"

Another short stack of shoeboxes popped into existence at the end of the counter.

Vi squeezed her hand in return. "I do have a choice and it's you," she said, determinedly ignoring any luggage that even so much as hinted otherwise. "You have no idea how much better my life is with you in it.

"I might." Steph reached up to trace her fingertips lightly over Vi's cheekbone. "I sleep next to you, remember? I can tell how much more relaxed you are. And how much easier it is for you to smile."

It was her turn to bring Vi's hand to her mouth and kiss her knuckles one by one, slowly and deliberately, making eye contact with Vi the whole time.

"That's mutual, though, you know."

There was neither a small nor subtle difference between curling herself into as tight a ball as possible and octopussing all over Steph.

"I know," Vi said softly, proving Steph's point with a blinding smile even as the elephant-print set gained a few more pieces.

Yes, suffice to say Steph had definitely noticed that difference.

"Gorgeous when you smile," she murmured, tracing Vi's lips with her fingertip. "Love you so much."

One of the pieces in the elephant-print set just might have been labeled something like would saying mo m just those three words just ONCE kill you two?

It just might have subsequently been flattened by a larger one labeled YES.

Vi hooked her fingers into Steph's neckline and tugged her in for kiss. "Love ou too."

The luggage had tried and failed.

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