MHA #6, Friday Evening

[firstofitskind]

So last Valentine's Day, Verity had made a valiant attempt at a romantic dinner. It... well, the evening had ended well, though the dinner itself had been a lost cause.

This time, Liam was determined to pull off the dinner part of the evening successfully, and to that end had temporarily banished her from the apartment, because last year there hadn't even been sex pollen adding an extra layer of difficulty to the endeavor.

Though it had been nearly a month, the smell of cooking meat still made his stomach churn, so there had been a lot of vegetarian meals happening. Tonight was no exception, and as soon as the eggplant parmesan was out of the oven, he texted Verity to let her know it was safe to come home.

[ooc: for the wiiiiiife! and up early for SP.]

Comments

[arboreal_priestess]

Thank goodness for that text. Verity was just all over jittery. She'd gone to Baltimore to have some gingerbread and cocoa with Sunil and get some time away from the pollen, but as soon as she'd crossed the Causeway it had all come back with a vengeance.

"I'm home!" Verity called, trying to ignore the effect of the pollen in favor of the effect of her new husband. "I brought gingerbread and congratulations!"

[firstofitskind]

Oh, and like Liam wasn't?

But it had been either temporary exile, or asking the mice to act as chaperones, and if he'd gone with the latter, he would have then had to deal with convincing them to leave.

"I hope you didn't fill up on gingerbread," he said, even as he made grabby hands for a piece.

Also just grabby hands towards her in general. Because he'd still had to deal with the feelings the pollen inspired while making dinner.

[arboreal_priestess]

Hey! He'd kicked her out! She would have been happy with a lot of sex and takeout!

"Would serve you right if I did," Verity informed him, holding the gingerbread out of reach until she got a kiss - or three - first.

[firstofitskind]

With which he was all too happy to oblige.

"I'm sorry," he said, between kisses. "I just- I remember how badly I distracted you last year."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Yeah, but how much did I like it?" Verity asked, waggling her eyebrows until she leaned into claim another kiss. "Next year, we skip the fancy dinner and just go right for the main course."

Ba-dump cha.

[firstofitskind]

"Hmm," Liam hummed against her lips. "By next year, we'll be an old married couple. Valentine's Day will probably just be a heart-shaped pizza and a baking show marathon."

It would not.

[arboreal_priestess]

Hey now, don't knock the whole 'heart-shaped pizza' idea. That sounded cute.

"Where we haven't had sex in a week so we do it missionary style while checking our phones," Verity giggled.

[firstofitskind]

It was kind of cute and don’t think Liam hadn’t filed away the idea for future use as soon as he’d seen it.

“Gotta keep updated,” Liam retorted, struggling to keep a straight face.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Gotta add that heart-shaped pizza recipe to my Pinterest collection," Verity agreed, her struggle not to grin on par with her struggle not to jump him.

[firstofitskind]

“Maybe I should’ve made the eggplant slices into little hearts...” Liam mused, as he took her hands in his and practically dragged her over to the table.

Yes, yes, he’d made dinner and was very proud of how well it had turned out but now that she was back home again, reminding himself not to just skip past all that was a struggle.

[arboreal_priestess]

How disappointed was Verity to discover that the table was set and there was food there and he was not just dragging her over to the table to, you know, have her on the table?

A pretty fair bit, actually.

But she was an adult and so she sat without even a single whine, and inhaled. "Okay, even so, it smells amazing."

[firstofitskind]

“Hopefully tastes as good as it smells,” Liam said, maybe a touch nervous about that.

He’d been planning this since before this week started; he hadn’t wanted all that to go to waste!

“But I won’t argue if we don’t exactly linger over dinner either,” he admitted, eyeing her with a hunger that had nothing at all to do with food.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh thank god," Verity said in one long rush. "Eat a little now while it's nice and hot and then heat up the rest later when we need the pickmeup?"

He could guess why she was pretty sure they'd need one, right?

[firstofitskind]

“Strategic thinking,” Liam said approvingly. “I like it. Must be why I married you.”

[arboreal_priestess]

"That and fifty percent of my knife collection, probably," Verity teased. "Oh! I was thinking - wanna go into the city tomorrow and have a belated celebration with Dominic?"

[firstofitskind]

“How is that even a question?” Liam asked with a snicker. “Of course I do.”

[arboreal_priestess]

"Thought you might," Verity said, smugly. "Which was why I took the liberty of renting a hotel with a king-sized bed and a hot tub."

[firstofitskind]

“See! Liam said triumphantly, waving his fork in her direction. “Strategic thinking.”

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity took a bite of her eggplant and groaned. "Okay, this is really good," she said. "Not better than sex, but a strong contender for cuddling."

[firstofitskind]

“I’m going to demand reviews on this scale for every recipe I try now, you realize,” Liam told her, laughing.

Truth be told, he’d been more than a little nervous about it. Verity hadn’t complained about the lack of meat-based... anything, in the last while, but he figured that wouldn’t last forever.

[arboreal_priestess]

Luckily for him, she was more than a bit distracted this week.

Next week? Might be a different story.

"On par with necking in the woods," Verity teased. "Almost as good as getting felt up in the backseat."

[firstofitskind]

“We don’t do near enough of either of those,” Liam said. “How can you really be sure?”

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity winked at him. "Again, I did have an adolescence, you know. I have experienced plenty of necking in the woods and getting felt up in the backseat."

[firstofitskind]

Which he’d realized as soon as the words had left his mouth, of course, hence the clarification:

“I meant with me.”

[arboreal_priestess]

"Well, I hadn't said that they were as good as doing all of that with you, now did I?" she pointed out. "But if you want the scale to be accurate to you, there's really only one thing to do about it..."

They hadn't even made out in the SUV, which was a tragic waste now that Verity thought about it.