hashtag_chocobro | The Apartment above Covent Garden; Thursday Evening [11/11].

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The Apartment above Covent Garden; Thursday Evening [11/11].

So, Prompto did not have a date per se, but he was, instead, to be a chaperone for a cat playdate that evening, and it was decided that the cats should have a little bit of privacy for said playdate, so the guys had agreed to drag themselves and Seivarden out for the night to grant Prompto and Issa that privacy, and while Prompto was pretty grateful for that, a part of him had to admit, it was a little weird having the place to himself like this.

Not that he was complaining! It was nice, and definitely better than having to deal with everyone else, even if now he had a nice gap between the time it was and when Liz was going to show up, and that gap in time would probably be filled with a lot of anxiousness and nervousness about...everything, but thankfully, he figured out a good distraction.

Because Issa? Had, like, so many toys, half of which were dumped on her because Pancakes had too many toys, so first? He and Issa had a very important task at hand, and that task involved him dumping a box of all the toys onto the floor and sitting down with Issa and looking at her with a very important look on his face and informing her, "Alright, now, we have new friends coming over and we want to impress them, but not overwhelm them, so that means we're going to go through all these toys right now and figure out which ones are the best ones to play with, okay? So I'll pick one up, and you let me know, yay or nay? Or I guess 'meow' or...just don't say anything.

"This one?" he held up a small basic mouse toy with bright colors that had seen better days. Issa placidly turne dher head away.

"Okay, not that one." Prompto tossed it into the box, picked up the next. "This one?"

More ignoring. Into the box! "Okay," he said, feeling like maybe they needed a winner here and reached for a ball bursting with bright feathers. "What about this one?"

That seemed to catch her attention, getting up enough to start sniffing it with interest. "Okay," said Prompto, "not a meow, but I'm taking that as a yet." He set it aside, picked up the next. "This one?"

That one got a resounding meow, and Prommpto chuckled as he added it to the good pile and continued shifting through the toys.

Needless to say, it was an excellent distraction.

[[ expecting a lady with a cat, but definitely open should anyone want to poke at him before that in the timeline! ]]

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Liz was feeling rather nervous about this … Prompto had invited her over for a cat playdate and she was telling herself it was fine … this was for the cats … but she was still rather nervous about this evening. She would still be spending time with Prompto and she wanted it to go well.

Rain was in her carrier, meowing softly because she knew that they were in a different location and she wanted to get out and explore it already.

Liz had also wanted to bring something and the only thing she could think of was bringing beer. Did Prompto drink? She wasn’t sure but beer was essentially the one drink she did know so she thought she could at least bring over a 6 pack to share or maybe his roommates could have it later? She really didn’t get a lot of invites to other people’s homes.

At least she remembered to knock this time as she waited.

Yeah, forgetting to knock would definitely lead to probably a different kind of night, but at least then Liz might get really nice and aquainted with the particular woodgrain on their door?

But hearing the knock, Prompto immediately stiffened where he sat crosslegged in front of a cat who was clearly already bored with his game, and his heart began to start racing. Okay. Okay, this was it, that was probably Liz (AND RAIN!), and it was fine, it was no big deal, their cats (well, Liz's and Seivarden's) were just having a little social get-together, that was all! And other then the cats, they had the place to themselves, and there was a small mountain of movies on the coffee table, and some snacks and...

...okay, Prompto. Don't get ahead of yourself. One thing at a time. He breathed out and looked at Issa for a moment. "Alright," he said, "that's probably them. Are we good with these final choices?"

Issa just sort of looked at him like she was expecting him to do something actually interesting now, and he nodded, swept up the toys they hadn't gone through yet to drop into the box, and then sprung up to his feet, glad the door was still closed so that no one but the already-judging-him-anyway Issa would see him getting a little tangled up in his own feet as he did so, and then he headed to the door, Issa placidly following him because surely what was behind the door would be more interesting that this.

The door swung open wide.

"Liz!" If something in his voice almost sounded surprised to see her, that was most likely just relief that she did actually show up. "Rain!" Definitely a big grin toward the cat carrier, too. "Hi! You made it! Come on in!"

He stepped back to give them plenty of space, with a sweeping, dramatic gesture of his arm at the apartment as a whole. "Welcome to Casa de Chocobo Plus Seivarden! And this pretty little lady here," the arm moved toward the white fluffball of a cat that was sniffing the air in dubious consideration of these new scents, "is Issa! Say hi to Liz and Rain, Issa!"

Issa looked like she would say hi to Liz and Rain when she was good and ready to say hi to Liz and Rain, thank you.

“Hi,” Liz smiled as she stepped inside, “thank you for having me and Rain over,” Rain let out a meow so Liz put down the carrier and let her out.

Rain stepped out and instantly started looking around and inspecting her new surroundings, she eyed Issa curiously and gave another cautious meow.

“Hi Issa it’s nice to meet you,” Liz smiled as she bent down to say hi.

The step forward and tentative sniff toward Liz seemed performative at best, as if she felt like she had to do at least the bare minimum toward a human out of politeness before she could turn her attention to what she was really curious about, and that was the other cat, who was not Pancakes (to her disappointment which she would never admit!) but was still very intriguing, all the same, and she padded over to investigate this other cat further.

Prompto, meanwhile, was pretty much holding his breath as the potential cat drama unfolded, not just because it was a good distraction, but also because if this suddenly went south and the two of them did not get along at all, this was probably going to be a pretty short night, and then he'd be spending the rest of his evening alone with a mean cat, eating too many of his feelings of disappointment with the excess of snacks he had....

Rain was also intrigued by the new cat and she let out another meow and a purr as she let Issa investigate her. She liked meeting new cats and she wanted to play.

Liz was also watching this introduction nervously because she had said Rain was good with other cats and hopefully Rain would get along with Issa, she could get along with twenty other cats surely she’d get along with Prompto’s roommate’s cat?

Well, Rain definitely seemed different from Pancakes, but she seemed alright, so, with an approving twitch of her long, fluffy tail, Issa finished doing one more loop around the other cat as if making a final assessment, and then started padding importantly over to where the chosen toys were still laid out in the middle of the living room. After all, if she had to suffer through Prompto's meticulous sorting of them, they might as well be shown off, and she settled in front of them, wrapping that fluffy tail around her paws and sitting importantly, the very picture of the refined feline that she was, as she waited for Rain to join her and have a look.

And since that was absolutely a distinct lack of hissing, scratching, or other indications of a viscious catfight on their hands, Prompto grinned and turned an impressed look toward Liz. "I think," he declared, hoping that by saying so, he wasn't just about to jinx it, "we're off to a good start!"

Rain followed Issa happily towards the toys …she liked playing with new toys and most importantly other cats.

She meowed contentedly as she settled down to see what toys Issa had.

“It definitely seems that way,” Liz smiled as she watched the cats for a moment, “oh,” she said, remembering the 6 pack of beer she was carrying, “I bought this over, um …I wasn’t sure if you drank but I …uh thought we could share it if you did,”

Issa seemed to consider this behavior on the part of the other cat as acceptable, and that meant that she decided she was worthy of at least some of the toys, taking a moment to bat a few of them Rain's way to see if she'd approve of them, but the bright ball of feathers, she decided, was not to be tampered with by some new cat, and that, she batted aside importantly so that it was clear that it was out of bounds.

"Oh!" Prompto wondered if he should have noticed that she'd been carrying the six-pack, and was defintiely willing to chalk that up to his nerves, but he felt he should immediately rectify it by holding out his hands as if to relieve her of the burden. "Y-yeah, no, that's great! That's, uh, really thoughtful! And actually kind of perfect because...." He hitched a thumb over his shoulder toward the kitchen with a faint grin. "I've got snacks, too. And I thought, you know, once the cats kind of get settled in and figure things out, we could, like, just kind of chill? Watch some movies, or something?"

Since, you know, they were there and everything. With no roommates...

Rain definitely approved and purred to show that the toys she had been offered were indeed acceptable. She did look at the ball with the bright feathers but she accepted that Issa didn’t want to share it, she had more than enough new toys to keep her entertained.

Liz smiled and handed over the pack, “that sounds really great,” she said, “I’d …I’d really like that,”
she told him.

The pack now in hand, Prompto took a moment to peek over at the cats as if to make sure that they weren't about ready to start fighting or anything, but they looked like they were doing pretty good, Issa starting to get a little more into batting a few toys around. "Great!" he beamed at Liz now. "I'll grab the snacks, too. We made some caramal kettle corn, and Ignis also did some fancy potato chips, but there's also, you know, good chips, too, so we're pretty set there!

"Errm," Prompto then ventured with a sudden spark of doubt, "if that's okay? I mean, is there something else you might want?"

Rain was happily trying the different toys she had been shown, she wanted to try all of them ... obviously with the exception of the ones that were off limits to her of course, Rain was good with boundaries.

"Oh wow, no that'll be more than enough, they all sound amazing," she assured him, "it's been quite a while since I've done a movie night," she admitted.

[sorry work was chaotic but I'm back now :)]

"Well," Prompto's grin went a bit proud for a moment, feeling that it was kind of nice to take a chance on something like that and have it kind of pay off, "we've, uh, got plenty to choose from. I know you said you liked Space Battles, but I didn't know if you meant, like, just the origianl? Or some of the sequels? But then I found out that there are actually these prequels? And then more after that? And a few others that are, like, extra? Or something? I don't know, we don't have those movies where I'm from, I've seen the first few, but I didn't realize there were so many, so I just kind of...got all of them? And we could just pick one?"

It had been a very stressful moment for him, when he realized that a simple question had lead to such a rabbit hole filled with potential wrong turns.

Liz blinked a bit and tilted her head, “wait there’s sequels? Is that to the original trilogy? I thought there were only going to be the six movies in all, episode 2 came out earlier in the year for me,”

She definitely had a lot of catching up to do.

Prompto just sort of shrugged, with the shell-shocked wide-eyed look of a man who had clearly been mistaken when he thought what kind of movies do you like would be a nice, easily dealt with solution. "I don't know," he admitted, "but I got them all," yes, all of them, why were there so many?, there were even one involving some kind of holiday special that seemed to have singing? And some with teddy bears?, "and they're on the coffee table, if you want to have a look."

Thus hopefully saving him the mortification of having picked just one, only to have her inform him that, no, that one sucked, and he clearly sucked for picking it.

“Oh …I didn’t realise there were now so many movies in the franchise,” Liz said as she considered all the different options that she now had with her favourite franchise, she was going to be surprised when she found out they were making even more movies and there were TV shows now as well, “I’ve seen the original trilogy,” she paused, “actually I’ve seen it a lot of times,” she admitted, “we could always start with the original and go from there?”

She really wasn't going to turn down an excuse to watch her favourite films, especially being able to watch them with Prompto.

Prompto went and grabbed the bowl of popcorn and put the extra beers in the fridge while Liz mulled it over, then drifted back into the living room with the drinks while trying not to focus on the fact that go from there suggested potentially going for at least a double feature, and...

He grinned a little. "Can't go wrong with the classics, right?" he said. "And I've really only seen it, like, a couple of times, anyway. This place has...a lot of movies to catch up on."

But!....he had played all the video games!

Well you couldn’t just stop at one after all.

“I must admit I haven’t caught up with a lot of popular culture that I’ve missed since I’ve been back,” Liz said with a smile, “I feel like now that might be an impossible task, especially if the Space Battles franchise is anything to go by,” she wondered how many other franchises had additional movies since they were supposed to be completed or if they were still going.

"Well...." said Prompto, taking a moment to glance over and check on the cats, where it appeared that Issa had decided to forget entirely about the toys and had flopped over on her side and was just grooming her paw; seeing that they were still good (this was all about the cats, after all!), he turned back to Liz, handing her one of the beers. "Maybe we could work through some of it together?"

A bold move, especially for him, projecting like that when he still had to survive through this night.

“I’d really like that,” Liz said with a shy smile as she accepted the beer she was being offered and yes there was blushing, one day she may get through a conversation with Prompto without being so awkward but it wasn’t going to be tonight. “I’d really like that a lot,”

She was trying to ignore the gnawing guilt she was feeling, she didn’t want to have that conversation right now … admittedly she didn’t want to have that conversation ever but she wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to put it off. Maybe that would be something to ask Dr. Lecter in their next therapy session?

"....awesome," said Prompto, who only realized a second later that his internal monologue had actually been very external. The red rushing to his face was immediate, though, but, thankfully, he also had an excuse to divert his attention to the pile of DVDs stacked on the coffee table.

"Right, so, um, the first one you said, right?" he gushed, reaching for it and inadvertently sending the ones around it skittering to the ground. One bounced and hit Issa, who let out a meow of complaint before shifting further away, nudging Rain to come with her.

"S-sorry, Issa!" he called pit and, ignoring how his face was now even more red, put his focus into just getting the DVD into the player without further incident if he could manage it.

Rain had looked up from the current toy that she been examining because it had been loud when the DVDs had crashed everywhere and when Issa had meowed, she’d also let out a loud meow and when Issa nudged her to follow she did, forgetting all about the toy that she had been examining.

“Yes uh … episode 1V,” she nodded, just in case that needed clarifying and she put her beer down to help pick up the scattered dvds and put them back on the coffee table in a neat stack.

"Oh..." Prompto blinked at the DVD in his hand, which was definitely Episode 1, shook his head, and murmured, "Oh...right."

Because Episode VI being the first made all the sense.

"Got it," he said, brandishing the right one now with a sheepish laugh and went to put it in and move back to the couch before any more damage could be done.

“it's kind of weird how they filmed it,” Liz admitted as she went to join him on the couch, “episode 1V came out when I was 2 in 1977 and episode 1 came out a few years back nearly twenty years later,” she gave a small smile, “I imagine most people now just start watching from episode 1,”

"I mean," Prompto said, trying to chuckle it off as he grabbed the remote to get everything set up and playing, "you can't really blame them for that, I guess..."

“No, you really can’t,” Liz said with a smile, “even though that would be fun to do one day, start from Episode 1 and marathon all of them,"

She was very curious to see what'd she think of the other films when she'd eventually get to them.

"Definitely could make a say out of it," Prompto said with a grin, setting aside the remote, taking up his beer, cracking it open and holding it up in a toast. "But for now? To number obe actually being number six, and to two...surprisingly well behaved cats right now."

Seriously, you two, your chill and aloofness right now was transcendent.

Liz gave a smile as she opened up her beer and brought it up to toast his, “here’s to that,” she said with a grin, she glanced over at the cats, “They do seem to be getting along rather well don’t they?” she agreed, hopefully they would continue to play nice and maybe there could be another cat playdate for Rain and Issa.

It was for the cats, after all, it was all totally for them.

Edited 2021-11-12 02:28 (UTC)

"They really do," Prompto agreed, "which is great, I think Issa has been pretty bummed out since her bestie went to space and all."

Prompto had no idea if that was even remotely true. Issa had pretty much been fine, really, but it sounded like a good thing to say, especially if this was something that could be a repeat thing.

For the cats. Obviously.

"Actually," he realized with a tilt of his head toward the screen, "probably doing stuff like this, but, you know, as a cat..."

Which he mostly mentioned as an attempt to maybe divert Liz's attention away for a moment so she wouldn't notice all the awkward shifting on his part as he tried to figure out the best way to actually sit right now. He wanted to seem all cool and relaxed, neither of which he was feeling much of just then, and also....well, inviting? Even though he figured it was kind of a long shot that there would be much of anything but sitting timidly on far sides of the couch, but maybe, just maybe...if he say toward the middle and slung one arm over the back of the couch...he could at least put out the energy of possibility....

(Yeah, right, keep dreaming, Argentum, she probably just wants to watch the damn movie...)

“Oh, I hope Rain can help cheer her up then," Liz said as she followed Prompto’s gaze to the TV, not noticing the arm movement across the lounge at first and when she did spot it she gave a small smile and yes was blushing. Was she meant to lean back, that was how this worked right? She tried to lean back closer to Prompto without being completely obvious that that was what she was doing but she wasn’t succeeding very well.

She was really bad at this.

Wait. Did that...did that actually work? As Liz seemed to settle in a little closer, Prompto found himself unable to believe that it was anything but coincidence. She was just getting comfortable, it had nothing to do with him, it just so happened that getting comfortable meant getting a little closer, right?

A now-familiar lump started to form in his throat again, and, as he tried to swallow it down, he felt somewhat emboldened, a little, to shift again, as if he hadn't quite hit that comfortable sweet spot yet, and if that shifting meant that he was inching a little bit closer still, well, that was just a side-effect! But it was just a little bit, he really didn't want to push his luck too far here, and once he was done with that small shift, he resolved to hold still, hold that position.

The problem was that, even in the best of times, staying still was pretty much a Herculean task for Prompto, with all his fidgeting, so he failed to restrain himself entirely, the energy releasing in the form of his fingers, both the one holding his drink and the one on the hand draped over the back of the couch, curling and uncurling with his nervousness.

"Oh," he said, when he remembered about things like conversation, "I, uh, I mean...it'a Rain, right? She can cheer just about anyone up, I bet!"

Liz smiled and oh look, there was another awkward attempt to move back towards Prompto.

“She is pretty good at that,” she said fondly, casually glancing back over to where the cats where.

Oh, were they checking on the cats now? Because Prompto could do that, too, only, well, you see, from where he was sitting, he sort of had to arch back and lift himself up off the couch for a moment to really get a good look at where they were, and, well, if he just so happened to somehow be maybe a little closer still when he settled back down...

...there were probably going to run out of space between them soon at this rate. And maybe, just maybe starting to realize that this had been a mutually-dimishing space, Prompto grinned over at Liz.

"She's a pretty good cat, all around, really. I'm really glad this is working out."

The cat date, that was. Of course.

“Same here,” she returned the grin and moved back again only to move and realise she had moved back as far as she could go…funny how that worked.

“We should do this again,” she said rather shyly with a smile.

This was all totally for Rain and Issa’s benefit really.

You know, that was kind of funny, wasn't it? This couch was clearly way smaller than originally thought!

And the red that had burst across Prompto's face when he realized that gap had been successfully closed had layers. One was for the fact that they were now so incredibly close, and the other for just how much of a thrill that fact gave him. To be fair, though, the last time he'd been this close to anyone in any sort of...potential cuddling capacity had been....Ignis. And that was just on account of them playing with sex pollen fire and getting very burned.

The lump in his throat was back. He licked his lips, to find them incredibly dry. But she was so...there...and warm....or maybe that was just his face? And he was pretty sure she was close enough now that she had to hear how loudly and fast his heart was pounding in his chest, so loud he'd be surprised she could even hear the movie...

Not that they'd been paying much attention, anyway.

"D-definitely!" he managed to get out. "I think....I think it would, yoi know, be really good for them..."

And while he spoke, his fingers drummed an erratic cadence on the back of the couch, a nervous little dance of indecision before he forced them to be still. A brief moment of repose before making the decision and taking that terrible plunge, and Prompto lifted his hand, and lowered it, to settle lightly on Liz's shoulder.

It wasn’t like she had seen these movies …at least the original trilogy hundreds of times before.

“Yes,” Liz agreed, still with that shy smile, “it will be a good experience for them,”

Surprisingly enough Liz had not really had experience with any of this and she blushed bright red when she felt Prompto’s hand on her shoulder. Hoping she could keep the blushing under control, or else it might be a rather awkward way of explaining her powers and she was liking this …sitting here, so very close…

She couldn’t exactly move any more closer or she would be sitting in Prompto’s lap, which might be rathet forward of her …so she hesitated very briefly and adjusted how she was sitting so she could lower herself so that she could lean in against him and hope this was what she was meant to do.

The one, singular downside to this arrangement--literally the only one, because everything else about this was...amazing--was that there was no way Liz would be able to miss the slow exhale of relief that left Prompto once she settled, feeling like he'd been holding his breath for much longer than he had been.

Then he was just going to take a moment to sort of marvel that this was actually a thing right now and just enjoy it. Especially since there was a part of him that was starting to think this might be some kind of nice dream, and it wouldn't be much longer before Gladio yanked his blanket off the bed with a rousing call of Up and at 'em, Buttercup, let's get a move on!

And when that moment didn't come, and it seemed maybe it was here to stay, he ventured a soft question.

"Are you...comfortable?"

"I am," Liz smiled up at him only just lifting her head up slightly so she could look up at him, "I mean I'm comfortable," she assured him, "this is ...I mean ... it's nice," she wasn't sure of how else to describe it but she liked this feeling, "I haven't done this before," she admitted.

Prompto had been smiling faintly back down at Liz until that last part hit, and it made him lift his brows a little bit. "Really?" he asked, and then, realizing how that might have sounded, quickly added, "I mean, not that I have...a lot, either....myself. Mostly just with--"

Yeah, okay, Prompto, maybe let's not babble your way into mentioning your ex when snuggling on the couch with somebody else.

"Erm, but...you like it?"

Prompto, she literally just said she did.

"S'good?"

“I do, it's good” she started to nod and then realised that might make things a little awkward considering where her head was so she settled for smiling and yes still blushing. “This is n …” she started to say and then realised she had already said that, “this is really nice,” she tried again.

"...yeah," Prompto agreed, with a sort of lightness and a grin to match, as he finally seemed to just allow himself to accept and appreciate that fact, his thumb brushing lightly against Liz's shoulder. "It really is..."

Liz’s smile widened as she leaned back down and she was quite content to stay there.

She was still trying to ignore that guilty feeling that had resurfaced but she was trying to ignore that and enjoy … this. There may not get to be a second chance after he found out but she was trying not to think about that. She stayed still and murmured softly as she felt his thumb on her shoulder.

“Yeah,” Liz echoed and apparently that was the extent of her vocabulary as she just lay there and occasionally glance at the movie but her focus wasn't completely on it.

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The Apartment above Covent Garden; Thursday Evening [11/11].

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