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[mitochondriaaya]

Aya shifted her head on the desk just far enough so she could see the clock. Eleven is what the numbers told her. Five hours after she was suppose to be home. After she was suppose to be home and...and...entertaining? That was a good word for it. Even her mind was shying away from the reality of dating Dilan.

And here she was standing him up.

Of course, he had a key to her place, always had but...she was suppose to be home. It didn't matter that she knew, logically, that he could make himself comfortable regardless just...gah.

Gah.

Gah.

She was going to put a dent in her desk with all the head thumping she did. "Just...call him Brea." she muttered at herself, ignoring the pointed looks the deputies were shooting her through the open door. "Call him and explain." and hope he didn't...high tail it? Give up? Come to his senses?

Fuck.

This? Was going to hurt. Somehow, some way..it was just going to. She knew it, because her dating luck trumped his and...and...

...and she needed to call him.

She didn't bother looking at the keypad, just dialed his cell by heart and laid the receiver next to her ear on the desk. "Ummm, so, that Dalton/Harris feud escalated this evening..." she began the moment she heard his end click on. Best to spit it out right?

Comments

[mitochondriaaya]

"Don't worry, it's a very lovable trait." She poked his side as he passed, then passed him a knife as well so he could help chop. "And you don't get underfoot and give me heart attacks so..."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, no. That's Cat's job." he grins at her and obediently helps with the salad.

[mitochondriaaya]

"And she's very diligent in her work." Aya laughed "She's going to manage to break my leg, you watch!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Nah. We already did broken legs...she'll break your arm."

[mitochondriaaya]

"...if your Cat breaks my arm I'm going to kick you." she informed him after a moment of thought. "I really don't want to go through the whole cast thing again."

[sliceitwithwind]

"That's fair." he laughs a little and chops salad, "You'll take care of her while I'm busy, right?"

[mitochondriaaya]

Salad tonight consisted of mostly choppable things and a light, decorative garnish of lettuce? Most of it had gone on her sandwiches this week. "We'll take care of each other. We both rattle around too much when we're alone in big empty houses for long." she promised. "I'll spoil her properly with no curfew and the ability to throw wild parties and things."

[sliceitwithwind]

He snorts at her. "Aya. She's a cat. She's going to sleep on your ankles and chew on mousies."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yep, that's exactly what we're going to tell you she did." She slid the last of her salad bits int the mixing bowl and stood back up to start setting the table. "But my ankles will probably appreciate the fuzzy addition."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Of course they will. We all have well-trained ankles."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Well, it was just too damn hard to tell her no!" she swore good naturedly."Cat got a double dose of irresistible."

[sliceitwithwind]

"And doesn't she just know it?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Of course she does, it's why she prances when we're around." She was royalty. Utterly and completely. "Fetch the plates? I'll get the chicken on the table..." and the salad bowl was easy to set there.

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan stood up to reach the plates and pressed a light kiss to Aya's hair as he did so. It was...somewhere between the generalised affection he'd showered on her from the time she was little and something more romantic.

He felt awkward about kisses for the first time since he was fourteen.

[mitochondriaaya]

She wrapped her hands lightly around his waist and gave him a hug to try to dispel some of the awkward? Then she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his chin. Because, well.

Yeah.

That was normal.

Just...different now.

"Plates go better on the table kitten. Too much longer and your meat over marinates and then you get sugar high from it..."

[sliceitwithwind]

He paused for a moment, his thinking pause not his panicked pause (she knows them after all these decades) and then tilted his head just enough to let it be a bare whisper of brush of lips.

Then he laughed a bit raggedly and said, "Going, going."

[mitochondriaaya]

Thinking pause was good! And she was oddly glad her lips weren't chapped? And she didn't bother hiding her own thoughtful pause after the lip brushing bit.

This...might work.

In the short term.

Wind and Space...she didn't remember how to long term date!

Don't freeze. Don't freeze.

She swatted at his back playfully and smiled after a moment. "Good. I'd hate to think you were delaying on purpose just so you'd have raspberry meat instead of a hint of such."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Would I do that?" He'd totally do that.

Dilan set the table, grabbing things with the ease of long familiarity with the kitchen set-up. A lifetime of familiarity with the kitchen set-up, really.

"Do you want me to grab drinks? I'm thinking water for me, tonight." he wants his head on straight.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yes, you'd do that." She knew him! "Shamelessly and with a great deal of grinning around the first mouthful." And she'd giggle, as he always looked adorable when he did so.

"And yes. I have limeade in the fridge, so half that, half water for me?" Since she tended to leave concentrate in the jug fro when Dilan visited and water other glasses accordingly? The sugar was already on the table, and she could dance around him to get napkins and such...

[sliceitwithwind]

Not the A-word! Not the A-word!

"Limeade for you, water for me. Got your evil white stuff already?" Sugar, he means. He headed for the sink to fill one glass with water, and the other half-way, before adding limeade to her glass and setting them on the table.

[mitochondriaaya]

Totally the A-word! Just quietly! In her head!

"Yes, on the table, in the 'Dilan won't touch this' container!" She laughed and tweaked the end of one of his dreads as she passed. "I'm sorry you don't like it, isolate me some fructose for my table sugar and you won't have to wrinkle your nose at me!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Ahh, good." At her comment he got a thoughtful look, "...I could do that. I wonder why nobody has thought of it before?" and then wandered out of the room to find a pad of paper and a pen.

He'd come back to this reality when she served! Really!

...She didn't think dating him would change him, right? Right.

[mitochondriaaya]

She probably would have freaked if it changed him that much! "Sorry, I should have grumbled sooner!" Yes, she was dishing things onto plates, and setting the serving bowls out for more...salad dressing, silverware...

"Dilllllllan! Dinner! Plus, I'm totally going to figure out how to make proper cookies with the fructose if you get it to me!"

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan wandered back with a pen behind one ear, another one jabbed into his topknot, and a third between his teeth...all in addition to the one he was scribbling notes with. He settled into his chair absently and stuck the pen between his teeth next to the other one in his topknot and finished a line before looking up and smiling at her,

"It'll probably take a few months to really get it banged out. I've got the idea, though, so...we'll see."

He had no idea how many pens he had stuck in various places. He tended to get distracted by something being the "wrong" colour and having to find the "right" pen and...things happened?

[mitochondriaaya]

"Well, that gives me time to decide which cookies I want to subject you to first." And she'd probably take months of fiddling herself to make sure textures came out okay before she served them to the boys! "Hold still, you're sprouting office supplies. And if I don't catch them in the early stages they'll root and multiply!"

So, time to pluck four pens from him! The one he'd kept using got set to the side nearby in case he needed to write more notes later. The others were tossed into a draw.