Welcome to Gaia! ::

As Cirrus' plate inched away La Llorona reached over and took it for herself. She moved the meat to her own plate and handed the empty one back to her fiance.
"And why wouldn't he miss everything? I've brought so much adventure and excitement to his life. Isn't that right, Little Ghost? " LaLo cut the conversation off decisively by taking her turn.

The smell of his tea in the morning. The soft hum of his conversations with his animal companions behind closed doors ... but those were thoughts best kept hidden and pushed deep, deep, down. Though she had found herself wishing more often that the nights would stop being so lonely and cold.
Instead she smiled like a predator and replied in a cool tone; "I'd miss our stimulating conversations, of course! Did you know there's doom all around us and everything is terrible?"

"Everything is terrible," Cirrus murmured, staring at his now mostly empty plate, with only the smudge of blood left behind. Lalo’s words, surprisingly, hurt, because he hadn’t expected her to make fun of his doomsaying. She was cruel sometimes, but lately her attacks had been easy to overlook, directionless.

"It’s all terrible, horrendous, which is actually delightful and very good for business, especially now darling Nev has cornered the market." Noble added, alluding to Cirrus no longer practising his fortune telling. "You know, you should both stay the night. We have heaps of space and it’s going to start raining soon."

Cirrus pushed his chair away from the table. "I want to go home."

There was a sparke of real annoyance across Nevermore's face and her eyes flashed. Whatever Cirrus may have thought upon his arrival, no one was in any real danger in Nev and Noble's home. Except now. Now in this moment Nev could conceivably launch over the table and pummel one or the both of them. If there was a time to be really scared, it was in this second.

And then it passed. Nev settled a little further back into her chair, picking up her coffee cup and taking silent sip. She was going to be the bigger phony here and let it slide. She wasn't entirely sure Noble's motives here and starting a real fight would only upset him. She knew her roll in whatever little scene this was was over. She'd played her part.

"C'est la vie." she said into her drink using the cup to help cover her annoyance, though all the sing song had been wrenched out of her tone. "Competition is good for businesses, it'll just make me better at what I do. It's a shame you must leave so soon after Noble worked so hard on dinner but if you insist...." she trailed off, her eyes closing, and sipping her drink. As far as she was concerned, they knew where the door was and they could get the hell out.

The hurt he’d felt was almost immediately erased. The moment she stood up beside him to declare this dinner over, to defend him, Cirrus nearly burst into tears. There was a lump in his throat and a warmth in his chest that he hadn’t expected. He was suddenly aware of that strange emotion he’d been ignoring for weeks now and it made horrible sense.

He said nothing else, just followed her directions and left her there in the dining room to face down Nevermore and Noble Born. Outside to stand in the night, staring up at the heavy clouds and listening to the rumble of thunder. It was definitely going to rain. But something more, there was something else written in the sky and he could hardly bear to look at it.

When La Llorona joined him, they walked home in silence, except for two words,

“Thank you.”

~o~

“Well, that was interesting…” Noble Born lounged back in his chair and tapped a hoof against the table, not at all bothered that his dinner was sitting there getting cold. It would simply mean there would be leftovers and if he was feeling magnanimous, he might deliver a bit to their guests for their lunch tomorrow.

He grinned at his sister, glad to have served her up something even better than a delicious meal. “I hadn’t expected their relationship to progress quite so far. It will be fun to see just how far it goes.”