43 Unicorn Street; Monday Evening [11/11].

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio had not run his usual errands that Monday. Training, yes. Errands? No way. Today was Nell's birthday, and he decided that one of the things he was going to do for her was surprise her by trying to make her dinner for a nice relaxing evening.

A dinner that wasn't Cup Noodle^TM!

(Although she should only be so lucky!)

He'd consulted with Iggy, of course, for ideas for something easy enough that even he could pull it off, and, with it being fall and all, he decided he'd try his hand at a nice, meaty, spicy chili that he felt was honestly going pretty well!

He was much less confident in the cornbread he tried to make (from a box, don't get too excited), and he already knew the cake looked a hot mess, but that was part of its charm, right? It was kind of lopsided and tge green icing was kind of messy, but that was how you knew it was definitely made with love.

He was definitely feeling pretty convinced to keep leaving the cooking to other people, though.

[[ for she with the birthday! ]]

Comments

[sword_chocobro]

"You know," said Gladio, after a moment to finish chewing the bite of cornbread that took maybe slightly longer than one would have expected and he shook his spoon at Nell a little before it went diving in for more food, "I wanna argue with that because this sort of thing should just be standard, but, on the other hand..." That spoonful of chili went into his mouth before he continued, "I am pretty great, so I feel that puts me at kind of a standstill."

[mylandmyrules]

Nell laughed again. "Very true," she agreed. "You are awful great and I'm awful lucky to have you!"

She smiled at him in the candlelight. "We're both awful lucky." Yes, they'd said it before, many times, but it bore saying again.

"Think we can still get away somewhere next weekend?"

[sword_chocobro]

"We better be able to!" Gladio said with a decisive sort of grunt. "I'm gonna be kinda pissed if something tries to get in the way of it. Even if it wasn't for your birthday, it's been a while."

Some of that firm stubbornness against the universe melted into a lopsided grin across the table.

"And it'll just be real nice to get away, just the two of us,for a few days."

[mylandmyrules]

"I'm always in favor of time alone with just the two of us," Nell said softly. "Especially out somewhere beautiful."

She had another few bites of chili, then she smiled up at him. "Let's sit out under the stars in our hot tub tonight. Enjoy the beauty of the night sky."