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Infinite Consortium, Monday

Liliana was considering taking the afternoon off and booking a very long massage at the spa later. She had spent the vast majority of the weekend down in her workroom, emerging early Sunday evening, triumphant, and tumbled almost immediately into bed, absolutely exhausted. Fifteen hours of sleep had taken care of most of the accumulated sleep debt, but hadn't done a damn thing for the soreness that came from nearly forty-eight hours spent working on--well, never mind what she'd been working on. It was probably all fine and, like, super-ethical and stuff. Don't even worry about it.

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Knowing full well how Liliana had spent her weekend, Ignis was arriving at the Consortium for lunch bearing coffee, and to go along with it, some pistachio pomegranate biscotti, croissants drizzled with chocolate, and small finger sandwiches with a nice smoky bacon to compliment the roast. He himself, to avoid the pull of his curiosity, had spent a majority of his weekend taking care of this and that and the other thing around Innistrad, though his own mind was firmly distracted on things that had very little to do with the rebuilding of various vampire clan and following up on various tabs, and almost everything to do with a small bag he hadn't even realized he'd had until five seconds before destroying it.

He was, irony of ironies, rather disappointed that Liliana had gone into the shop today. He was not even remotely self-centered enough to think she might be avoiding him, he knew things like the baggage left Liliana in a state of vulnerability and visibility that threw her off her cool composure, so he wasn't in the least bit sirprised that shecwanted to throw herself into something else. After all, wasn't he tge same way? But there was the small itch of possibility in thr very back of his brain, and so he made sure to take extra care in the kitchen, and even if they didn't necessarily suit the rest as a compliment, there were familiar key lime bites in there, as well.

"Liliana?"

"Over here," Liliana said, already rising out of her chair. It was odd how she'd noticed his absence over the weekend, even as she'd spent the majority of it sequestered away. She would barely have seen him anyway, mostly when he managed to impress up in her the need to eat something, and yet his absence had almost been a palpable thing, even down in her workroom, as she fought to put the memory of baggage - not just hers, but his - firmly out of mind.

Standing pulled a soft, involuntary noise from her as her body protested the movement. That settled it; she was definitely getting a massage today.

"Hello, my darling. Not playing games with clocks today?" she said, hands reaching for him as soon as he got in range.

If Liliana hadn't already decided for herself, that sound might have inspired Ignis to insist upon it as well, especially if the small, concerned frown it produced was anything to go by.

But the frown was chased away, soon enough, in reaching Liliana, arm sliding around her (coffee and food finding a temporary resting spot on one of the oh-so-convenient surfaces close at hand about thr shop, of course) in congruance with her hands finding him, too, and with the kiss that followed.

"I'm afraid," he then answered, "that it may have been the clocks playing games with me this time. The morning seemed to drag on with an incomprehensible lethargy today, but here we are finally, and I've brought coffee."

Now to decide if she wanted a professional, or if she should inveigle her paramour instead...

"You know, you simply could have come earlier," she chided, chilly fingers brushing over the sharp planes of his cheeks, the lush curves of his lips. "Rather than force yourself to stay away in deference to something as tyrannical as time."

See? No reason to worry that Liliana was avoiding you, Ignis! Why, she probably hadn't even seen whatever baggage had you so worried and preoccupied! And certainly had no idea, opinions, or preconceptions about what kind of baggage you could be carrying about m--any specific topics anyway!

"How was your trip to Innistrad, my darling? Productive?"

Ahhh, but what if that distinct lack of opinions on the matter of this theoretical baggage was precisely the crux for why such a artifact might even exist in the first place, if it, indeed, did?

But there were her fingers against his skin, and he was kissing her with the fervor of a very long weekend hopefully being put to rest.

"Ah," he said, "but there were things to bake and properly cool before I could package them to bring here, my love. Hardly the tyranny of time, but rather, the demands of culinary artistry. One does, admittedly, tend to follow suit of the other.

"And it..." A pause, to think of how best to answer, "was. Some of the disarray is starting to settle; it's rather convenient, some of the strategies in place for getting New Insomnia back on its feet have been just as effective in Thraben, if not more so once one considers the scale.

"And I notice you've gotten some sleep," a small chiding in that observation? Perish the thought. "And the house is still in one piece, so I can only assume a success?"

Well, that certainly couldn't be true. It was far likelier to be related to certain dead kings and have nothing to do with Liliana at all. Something else she, er, hadn't thought about extensively over the weekend, of course.

"Indeed," she said, flipping open the packages to inspect said artistic endeavors that had so cruelly kept him away. That they would end up being worth the wait was a given, but she still wanted to see what they were. "It took a bit more tinkering than I expected--" possibly because she'd been distracted by things "--but I am clever and persistent and was able to smooth things out eventu--oh! Are those key lime tarts? Should I then be careful of--"

The possibility of shaped bits of metal with no significance took on a potential new meaning in light of certain baggage, didn't it?

"--eating far too many of them in too short amount of time?" Ignis offered, with a faint, almost distant sort of smile meant to cover up the sharp tug in his chest. Because of course he'd thought of that, as he was making them, but if it weren't for the doubt, it would have been the risk of damaged teeth and choking hazards and culinary pride, not to mention the matter of location. Because of course while he was busy checking in on and paying respects to what remained of the vampiric clans of Innistrad, he was narrowing in on the finer details of other plans, as well.

Sometimes, it was truly difficult to understand the weight of something until you were practically holding it in your own hands...

"Always," the answer to his own question (and many more, currently unspoken) was soft, and lingered for a moment, before he reached out to intercept Liliana's hand before she could claim one of those tarts, entwining his fingers with hers and drawing it to his lips to kiss it.

"My darling," he said. "We've both had rather long and productive weekends, wouldn't you say? Do you know what I think that means, that we have more than earned and are well over-due for, besides?"

"A day off?" Liliana suggested, smile bright and not at all covering up any odd feelings in her own chest. "Perhaps even as many as a few days off, if I can convince you to play hooky from Luke's tomorrow?" She drew him in closer, gliding her free hand down his chest and then around his side before pulling him in closer. "I am willing to be very convincing, love, if you give me the opportunity," she added in a whisper in his ear.

"I suppose that all depends," said Ignis, and as he held Liliana firm against him, that pull in his chest became a veritable storm of conviction, head and voice both lowered to give her his response in kind, "on if you'll afford me the opportunity to sway you to do the same for your class on Thursday.

He felt her slight hesitation there. It was class after all, and summer sessions had so few of them already...

But then, there was that free period on her syllabus, one she'd built in just for a bit of wiggle room...

A moment of hesitation, yes, but the outcome was never actually in question. "Yes," she told him, closing the distance between them. "Of course yes, my darling."

As if Ignis 'Not On a School Night' Scientia could begrudge anyone a hesitation over missing a class, but from Liliana in particular, it brought on something else entirely, that for all her frequent flippancy toward schedules and work and certain obligations, there was still that that reverence when it came to teaching and academia.

(With room for fun in the schedule, too!)

How could he be anything but absolutely, completely, voraciously wild for this woman?

The distance between them remained all but nonexistent for a good, long while, a few unfortunate shelves bumped and rattled in Ignis' attempts to pour into his kiss the eager frenzy of for what he now knew for certain was ahead, and for soothing that ache that came with the realization of their distance over the weekend.

Funny, that, to think of wasted time when they could have...will have...all the time in the multiverse.

He drew away for air, and a grin, and a soft, thoughtful sort of hum quite a bit deeper than his more casual ones.

"A strong start, I must admit," he said, "but I can't say I'm entirely persuaded yet..."

"I think it's safe to say that you missed me over the weekend," Liliana teased, more than a little breathless from the intensity of his kiss. That she had been kissing him back just as deeply, and just as frenzied made it safe to suggest she had missed him just as deeply, but she was hardly going to say that out loud.

Not when she could wrap herself around him, arms over his shoulders, legs tight around his hips. Not when she'd already loosened the lacing on her gown, giving up what few shreds of modesty it might have clung to, in eager invitation for his own hands. Not when she could initiate her own kiss, ardent and hungry, and call it persuasion, even as she'd half-forgotten what it was she was persuading him for.

"I can think of a few other things I could try," she said, voice low and smokey and smooth like a fine scotch. "Perhaps you'd like to hear a few suggestions to start?"

The Kamigawan poetry from last week had nothing on what she started whispering to him then.

And the fact that Liliana was even able to make it past the first part of her suggestions was a true testament to Ignis' will, although he certainly wasn't about to waste a single moment, either, fingers slowly working to finish up with those loosened laces. Save for the catch of his breath, and a brief appearance of his tongue to moisten his lower lip, his expression remained stonily stoic, but the effectiveness of her words were clear in the way his grip tightened and his nails dug into her skin when something managed to catch his attention particularly well.

(Which was, truth be told, nearly its entirety).

"Well," he stated, once more than a few of those suggestion had tallied up and he had to let out his breath in a hungry rush; his hands reluctantly left Liliana to make quick work of his own clothes while he spoke, "that all certainly sounds good on paper, but there's only one way to truly know for sure."

And then that will didn't so much break as it was released and unleashed, and all that build-up came crashing out of him and into her, and you could tell just how persuaded he truly was because he didn't even care that the coffee was going to just go cold.

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Infinite Consortium, Monday

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