Welcome to Gaia! ::

A beautiful day.

A glorious day.

And everything was going according to plan.

The smiles, the occasional gift, the attention paid.
The gentle touches, the warm looks, the rare, tender kiss.
The invitations, the dinners, the too-long nights.
The talking, the reassuring, the concern.

All of it had led to this.

A small dinner, one where he was adamant about the little leech...er, precious child, not attending. Offering instead to shuffle her off to one of those places where there was pizza, games, and people in mascot suits that probably smelled like a dumpster. A distraction, of sorts.

Oh, yes, he promised they would both go get her afterwards. After all, the leech had somehow taken a shine to him. Both of them were in the palm of his hand. One was carefully molded, the other was merely putty to play with. Diomed relished every moment of it.

So generous was he, that he had spared no expense at this dinner. Spared no expense on his outfit, black and silver and sapphire. Spared no expense on the finest silverware, food, and even the table and chairs were new.

"I wonder...if you have been thinking the same thing..." He began, delicately. To gauge interest and willingness. To calculate his next words carefully. "I mean...regarding possibly little Billie the chance to be an older sibling, somewhat?"

Everything, every last little thing,
Every single tiny microscopic little thing must go
According to plan.

The momentary twinge he felt made him uncomfortable. It was only for a second, and he was practiced enough to not let anything show, outwardly. But the fact there was a twinge at all is what made him so very hesitant to continue speaking.

Instead, he stared at her. Softened his gaze, reached over to take her hands in his. His smile never faltered, and his eyes twinkled. Thoughts running through his head manifested in a soft chuckle. A warm, friendly chuckle to go along with that warm, friendly smile and that warm gaze. Truly, he was a creature madly in love.

"My dearest Etsuko, nothing makes me happier than to hear that." her hand was drawn to his lips, and he placed as loving a kiss as he could upon it. "Billie will be...ecstatic. I shall clean up, then we'll go get her."

"I can't wait to see the look on her face."

"You continue to be positively adorable." Diomed chuckled, already at work cleaning up.

Cleanliness was close to godliness, after all. And Diomed had to have everything clean. One of the few times he nearly cracked was when the Kumiho child had managed to make a horrible mess with what had appeared to be a tube of bright red lipstick. Where she'd gotten it, he didn't know, as Etsuko never seemed the type to wear that shade of red, and he certainly didn't keep such things around. It was probably the only time he'd gotten even the smallest bit angry at either of them, now that he though about it. But, he left the child's behavioral issues to her mother.

After all, if he were to do any sort of discipline, the child might very well end up in tears for the rest of her life.

Nevertheless, with dinner finished, table cleared, plates and utensils put away, it was a decently short jaunt to the entertainment building. Making sure to be hand-in-hand with the adorably naive mother-to-be, and continuing to lavish attention upon her.

And, of course, once they got there, making a show of looking around for Billie as any worried father might for their child being potentially lost in the sea of games and rides.