Some of the soldiers showed me a few simple things on the camp fire.
[ For much the same reason Hakuno was worried about: so he didn't starve while scouting out in the woods. ]
I have a little more of the cornmeal in my pack. And we have eggs.
[ Those were the topic ticket items for griddle cakes, and those were a simple matter of mixing up a batter haphazardly and cooking it off on a hot pan. Pretty simple. ]
[She's shocked he can tolerate the texture of cornmeal, but she feels she should encourage this. She transfers Griffon to his arms instead, and stands and stretches with a faintly alarming number of cracks and pops.]
I'll make sure to leave some bath salts for you. They're good for muscle aches.
[ Griffon flaps his way up onto V's shoulder, and there's the silhouette completed. It's comforting to have both of his creatures again. Griffon might have gotten a little spoiled being an only child for a few months. ]
Thank you.
[ He doesn't know what salt in your bath has to do with anything, but that's the kind of question that can be written down and referred to later. ]
I'll make sure they don't eat your breakfast.
[ 'The demon ate it' is a plausible excuse, but it's also one that can only be used so many times in your life to any effect. ]
[She gives him a smile, tired and warm, and pats his arm as she slowly moves past him. She makes her way up the stairs slightly faster than the common garden slug, at least, but he doesn't see her again for nearly an hour.
She comes downstairs practically a new woman, toweling her hair and humming along the way. A faint floral scent is wafting off of her, and she's got a nice, healthy pink in her cheeks.]
[ He turns his head from where he is finishing small cornmeal cakes, with the aim to move on to eggs. He's tied his hair back out of his face, the little ponytail doesn't quite get all the short pieces in front. Washing up to his elbows in the kitchen sink had been easy enough, but all he could do to his hair was tie it back. ]
Almost done. Nothing's burnt.
[ She knows that V, she'd be able to smell it if it was. ]
If you want that dried fruit, I didn't put it out yet.
[ He carefully cracks two eggs, eying them suspiciously because he's not very good at cracking eggs yet. He determines they're fine, and they also cook off quickly in the hot pan the cakes had been in. It's all steaming on the plate that he sets down for her. Griffon is there to steal half a griddle cake almost immediately. ]
That's hot!
[ V shoos him off the counter like a bad cat. The real cat is asleep in the middle of the floor. V has just been stepping over it back and forth. ]
I don't mind. It looks like it'll be worth the wait.
[Hakuno settles into their little four-person breakfast table and nudges a chair out a little Bir for Griffon, should he feel like hovering in hope of future cake-snatching opportunities. She leans over the back of her own, head pillowed by her folded arms as she watches him tend to the griddle.
[ In the chair is not a great location for cake snatching, but he takes one anyway because he has determined he is important enough for one!! No one here is going to correct him.
V moves on to scrubbing up the few utensils, pans, and bowls it took to finish that quick campfire inspired breakfast. The task isn't really done until all of its pieces and parts have been returned to their places. This is assuredly a piece of Vergil embedded in him. ]
That was the idea, wasn't it?
[ He's been putting his whole heart and soul into everything he's been doing. He expected results. ]
[She looks at him now, and maybe it's the after-bath warm softness suffusing her, and ,maybe it's just part and parcel of what it means to be Hakuno Kishinami, but she thinks back to the day they met—the sandals in the snow, the cageyness, the look he gave her sandwich—and with that image transposed against the sight of him deftly moving around her nice, cozy kitchen, the words just slip out.]
[ He turns his head at the softness of her tone. He had been trying to keep things light but maybe that's hard when he's still got blood on his sweater. He finishes rinsing out the bowl he had mixed batter with, and turns it upside down to drip. He dries off his hands with a rag, which also gets used to do a quick sweep of the countertops. ]
Are you? It's hard to stop and think about it, whether or not I should be proud.
[ Yeah we can tell V. You're literally doing it right now. ]
[ Griffon always thinks it's amusing when she goes hard against him. V just smiles, shaking his head in amusement. ]
It was good, to come home. [ He closes his eyes for a moment. ] I think about the house burning down. About never going home... more than any of his other memories.
It would help if there was a different word for an inherited memory.
[ Something that acknowledged how deeply he shares the hurt of those memories, but also acknowledged that it wasn't really V who looked up at those flames. He shrugs about it, he's a nerd but he's not about to try to invent his own word. ]
So I promise to come back, and you promise the door will be open.
Hey, hey, Nerd. You gotta install a rope I can pull to get that door open.
Don't forget the bath salts. They're in the blue-tinted jar one the lip of the tub. I'll steep up some tea while you're in there.
[She left them out on purpose. His muscles are welcome in advance.
She gets the fruit and eats her cake and Griffon gets some too, as they banter back and forth on the topic of whether or not as a tenant Griffon can and should lobby for a new, avian-friendly door opening mechanism to be installed.
Hakuno scores immediate, notable points by innocently asking if he thinks Shadow might want her to cut in a lower door or sectional to navigate, too.]
[ Somewhere in that time, Shadow slips past them both to go lie outside the closed bathroom door. V finds the creature there when he comes out and-- Pauses before readjusting his balance to step over the demon. He's never lived in a confined space with it before, it's not terribly convenient to him sometimes.
V comes back down with Shadow at his heels. With his precious sweater from Santa too gross to wear right now, he comes back in a short-sleeved tunic. Now that all of the familiars are here, all of his tattoo have settled in place. They had been talking about growing and changing, some of that has been physical for him. He had been withered when he'd arrived, and now he's who he remembers. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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No, you first. I'll get some tea and food ready.
[ He holds out his hand to help her and the bird sit up. ]
What do you think, are we gonna have to burn the clothes they're so dirty?
[ Kekekekeke. ]
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She's pouting a little as he helps her right herself, but she knows it's for the best. Ten more minutes like this and she'd be out like a light.]
No, I've got some solutions for tough stains, and blood's easy to deal with. Have you been practicing cooking, V?
[Color her shocked and proud, if so.]
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[ For much the same reason Hakuno was worried about: so he didn't starve while scouting out in the woods. ]
I have a little more of the cornmeal in my pack. And we have eggs.
[ Those were the topic ticket items for griddle cakes, and those were a simple matter of mixing up a batter haphazardly and cooking it off on a hot pan. Pretty simple. ]
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[She's shocked he can tolerate the texture of cornmeal, but she feels she should encourage this. She transfers Griffon to his arms instead, and stands and stretches with a faintly alarming number of cracks and pops.]
I'll make sure to leave some bath salts for you. They're good for muscle aches.
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Thank you.
[ He doesn't know what salt in your bath has to do with anything, but that's the kind of question that can be written down and referred to later. ]
I'll make sure they don't eat your breakfast.
[ 'The demon ate it' is a plausible excuse, but it's also one that can only be used so many times in your life to any effect. ]
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[She gives him a smile, tired and warm, and pats his arm as she slowly moves past him. She makes her way up the stairs slightly faster than the common garden slug, at least, but he doesn't see her again for nearly an hour.
She comes downstairs practically a new woman, toweling her hair and humming along the way. A faint floral scent is wafting off of her, and she's got a nice, healthy pink in her cheeks.]
All done. How's breakfast coming?
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Almost done. Nothing's burnt.
[ She knows that V, she'd be able to smell it if it was. ]
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[Surprisingly so. Mild, of course, but cooking grain has a definite appeal.
She peers at what he's doing from a distance, still tousling at her hair.]
Need help with anything?
[She feels like a new woman, now. God bless magical invigorating bath salts.]
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[ He carefully cracks two eggs, eying them suspiciously because he's not very good at cracking eggs yet. He determines they're fine, and they also cook off quickly in the hot pan the cakes had been in. It's all steaming on the plate that he sets down for her. Griffon is there to steal half a griddle cake almost immediately. ]
That's hot!
[ V shoos him off the counter like a bad cat. The real cat is asleep in the middle of the floor. V has just been stepping over it back and forth. ]
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[Hakuno settles into their little four-person breakfast table and nudges a chair out a little Bir for Griffon, should he feel like hovering in hope of future cake-snatching opportunities. She leans over the back of her own, head pillowed by her folded arms as she watches him tend to the griddle.
Her fond smile grows.]
...we've sure come pretty far, huh?
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V moves on to scrubbing up the few utensils, pans, and bowls it took to finish that quick campfire inspired breakfast. The task isn't really done until all of its pieces and parts have been returned to their places. This is assuredly a piece of Vergil embedded in him. ]
That was the idea, wasn't it?
[ He's been putting his whole heart and soul into everything he's been doing. He expected results. ]
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[She looks at him now, and maybe it's the after-bath warm softness suffusing her, and ,maybe it's just part and parcel of what it means to be Hakuno Kishinami, but she thinks back to the day they met—the sandals in the snow, the cageyness, the look he gave her sandwich—and with that image transposed against the sight of him deftly moving around her nice, cozy kitchen, the words just slip out.]
I'm proud of you, you know.
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Are you? It's hard to stop and think about it, whether or not I should be proud.
[ Yeah we can tell V. You're literally doing it right now. ]
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[It's a faint but key distinction.]
You've got goals and a home and boots and a friend, at the very least.
[Is that worth taking pride in, for him?]
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[ Griffon always thinks it's amusing when she goes hard against him. V just smiles, shaking his head in amusement. ]
It was good, to come home. [ He closes his eyes for a moment. ] I think about the house burning down. About never going home... more than any of his other memories.
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[She says, as if she isn't a total marshmallow when it comes to the both of them.]
This isn't one of his memories. It's yours.
[His memory, and his home.]
You can always, always come back. I promise. As long as you want to, this door is always going to be open to you.
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[ Something that acknowledged how deeply he shares the hurt of those memories, but also acknowledged that it wasn't really V who looked up at those flames. He shrugs about it, he's a nerd but he's not about to try to invent his own word. ]
So I promise to come back, and you promise the door will be open.
Hey, hey, Nerd. You gotta install a rope I can pull to get that door open.
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[She rubs a hand over her collarbone, expression turning absent for a moment.
The ones she gets from Gilgamesh...
Well, suffice to say, it has certainly only fueled her decision to look after her friend even more.]
A rope might be a bit conspicuous. How about a trick to get in the attic window?
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[ He's offended!! ]
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[Bird, please.]
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You two argue about that...
[ He really needs that shower. ]
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[She left them out on purpose. His muscles are welcome in advance.
She gets the fruit and eats her cake and Griffon gets some too, as they banter back and forth on the topic of whether or not as a tenant Griffon can and should lobby for a new, avian-friendly door opening mechanism to be installed.
Hakuno scores immediate, notable points by innocently asking if he thinks Shadow might want her to cut in a lower door or sectional to navigate, too.]
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V comes back down with Shadow at his heels. With his precious sweater from Santa too gross to wear right now, he comes back in a short-sleeved tunic. Now that all of the familiars are here, all of his tattoo have settled in place. They had been talking about growing and changing, some of that has been physical for him. He had been withered when he'd arrived, and now he's who he remembers. ]
Did you make a decision?
That that attic room is mine.
[ Did he just make that up? ]