IC INBOX for The Last Voyages

[magician_king]

You know what to do.

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[magician_king]

"Maybe."

Says Quentin, who isn't up for the big questions today.

"Could you pass me the water, Lark?"

[ninefox]

"Dinner for three, then. Is there a traditional menu?" he asks, squeezing the back of Fives' neck as he bends and puts it in reach.

[magician_king]

"Mm. Not strictly traditional, except that there should be a feel to it- shift over, I'm ready to come up."

He says, giving Fives a kiss and a nudge to straighten, and beginning to climb them both and onto the couch, joining in the tangle.

"It's best if it feels elegant- no finger food or stuff that gets your face covered in sauce. That it be kind of difficult to cook, to represent that effort went into it- or that it be something you don't eat often to make it a special occasion. Normally there'd be wine- but sparkling cider would be very nice. Very best is if it's the favourite foods of the person who's being surprised. So like- dinner rolls and white seafood or shellfish. Like halibut, scallops, seared in brown butter- or clams or mussels, in white wine or cream sauce with really delicate spices like saffron. Next to a dark green salad, like spinach or kale or arugula that has a nut and a fruit in it, or someone's favourite balsamic vinegar salad dressing."

There. If they want a cheat sheet to a 'knows he's appreciated' Quentin Coldwater, it's definitely mussels cooked with saffron.

"Oh and dessert's the most important part. Like a dark chocolate mousse or a lemon souffle."

[ukan]

"Sure, here-"

He takes Quentin's wrist lightly so he can set the glass securely in his hand instead of Quentin having to fumble for it.

"It's about half full, I'll top you off after you're done."

Quentin can't see him, so he doesn't bother guarding or masking or hiding his expression. He frowns at the array.

"I know you're in capable hands, everything you need is here as far as I can think of. But is there anything you...uh, want? Music, a story? Sprite?"

[magician_king]

"Tea?" He asks, hopefully. "Chapter of a book- wolf looming? Hang out for a bit, maul anyone that comes to interfere with me while I fever-dream. Not really, especially not if I'm dating them, but- wolf looming would be nice. You can't sleep with the lights on when you're getting eye transplants, it turns out."

[ukan]

"I planned for tea, hang on..."

He's gone a minute or so and back with the delicate clinking of china.

"It's still hot enough I'm nervous about letting a newly blind person drink it. If you burn your lap off, tell Jedao it was Bill. And make sure we're thinking of the same kind of wolf looming."

[callmefives]

Fives straightens and then happily subjects himself to being climbed and settled on, Quentin and Jedao both tangled together and mostly sprawled across his lap now. He tugs them both back against his chest and feels... an actual full part of something that's the three of them for the first time. Not him and Jedao, Jedao and Quentin, and then the careful adjunct of him and Quentin. It feels like him and Jedao and Quentin, all three of them together, even if it's still something they're working on.

He likes it, and he gives them each a lingering kiss on the cheek as Quentin explains this Valentine's thing. "It sounds... it sounds like the nice kind of complicated." He'd never been able to do something special to make someone feel loved before, he likes the idea a lot.

[magician_king]

"Transform, nap on top of me?"

He compromises.

"Pad off when the next shift arrives to take over? Should be- shortly before the next pill's supposed to be."

[ukan]

"Yes. But I'm still pretty heavy as a wolf."

Conservation of mass, and all.

"Are there any broken ribs, hips, legs...?"

[magician_king]

"No. Just the eye."

He says, and shudders, curling his hands into fists in the blanket and taking a few gulps of his water, leaving a slug in the bottom, and suggesting;

"Pour some tea in with this?"

It'll be weak and cool and less hazardous.

[magician_king]

"If you were theoretically surprising someone with this, the meal-planning notes from operation fuck-it-we-can-do-squid are in the pantry, along with a couple of cookbooks that should cover most of the components."

Since they both do well with detailed instructions.

[ukan]

Lark does, and he sets it where Quentin can get it without knocking it over.

"You're using your ears more- It's not going to be a pleasant sound."

Bones breaking, organs reshaping.

[magician_king]

"I'll stick my fingers in them."

He says, but reaches for the tea first, spidering his fingertips across the floor until he finds it, and picks it carefully up.

[ukan]

"I want you to know I just spent a week stuck as an actual dog, and if anyone else on board had asked me to change I would have taken my tea and gone home. And the second you're feeling better I want to talk theory with you."

He finishes stripping, folds his clothes where he can grab them in a hurry, and with a thought he changes. The sounds are grotesque, but Lark hadn't wanted to be far enough away to make it inaudible.

As a wolf, Lark pads back up to him and puts a paw on his arm.

[magician_king]

"You're too good to me."

Quentin tells him, and runs his fingers through all that fur, giving him a gentle tug to get him up onto the bed.

"Come on up here, let's nap."

[ukan]

Lark is something of a bed hog, like most animals, and Quentin did say he has no injuries except his eye. Which means when Lark hops up he is not the least bit shy about burrowing around so Quentin's arm is around him. All the better to pet his belly with.

[magician_king]

He squishes over for him, sets his tea down, and rolls onto his side to furl against Lark's back, arm draped warmly over him, letting out a soft sigh.

"People are terrible man."

[ukan]

Lark groans in a way that sounds like a question, because it is, even if there are no words. He licks Quentin's chin to punctuate it, or maybe just because he can smell pain so much more clearly now. It's unexpectedly frustrating to be unable to do anything about it. Not as frustrating as when Alec or Tiffany death tolls, because at least this was from going overboard and not deliberate.

But still.

[ninefox]

"I've always been a very theoretical person," Jedao lies, because gleeful and obvious sarcasm is different.

[callmefives]

Fives rests his chin on Quentin's shoulder and grins past him, out of his line of sight, at Jedao. "Very theoretical," he agrees solemnly.

[magician_king]

He leans over, moving to give Jedao one quick kiss on the cheek.

"I really am sorry. And I both love you and like you."

Just to be sure he knows, now that things are less harrowing.

[ninefox]

Now feels like not the time to poke at Quentin's shitty taste like a kid with a loose tooth, and Jedao certainly doesn't have the heart for it. This is good, and warm, and they all need a little of that.

"I really am fine. I couldn't expect you to predict - that." Hence needing all the more to tell, once it happened the first time.

"We brought you breakfast and barely let you have any of it. Float the tray over here, I want to hand feed you things."

[magician_king]

He laughs, and reaches to find his snout, to hold him by it and give him a kiss on the top of the head, because;

"You're a good boy."

[callmefives]

Fives is content to air back on the couch and be buried under the pair of them as they talk now. He goes back to letting himself run his fingers gently through Quentin's hair while his other hand futzes with the seals on Jedao's uniform so he can slip his hand under his shirt and press it against warm skin.

[magician_king]

"You are ten times more gregarious and shiny and chaotic than I am on any given day, but I like being around that. It pulls a richness into my life I'd normally be unable to sustain outside of a manic swing."

The rare and distressing other side of the coin to his periods of exhaustion.

"I can't always keep up, but I do love trying."