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“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it back in time,” Lucanis said over the phone.
It was late in Treviso, and Teia only noticed the call because Coconut had decided that 2am was an excellent time to play with Teia’s hair. (Of course Coconut only liked Teia’s hair, not Nova’s or Viago’s, or even Lucanis’).
Teia was reclined out on the couch in the living area, silk robe half fallen off her shoulder and the kitten dashing around her feet with utter delight.
“It’s okay mi amore,” Teia said, her voice still a little husky from sleep, “these things happen. Its not your fault a massive snowstorm decided to rage across half the country grounding every single airport.” And she did mean it. In their line of work, the holiday season was always busy.
“I know, it’s just our first Satinalia all together. I wanted it to be special,” Lucanis said with such earnestness that Teia wanted to start walking over to Tevinter that instant.
“Nova was already making plans for second Satinalia before we went to bed, so I shouldn’t worry too much.” She smiles at the thought, how excited she’d been about it, already making a list of all the desserts they should have.
“Before she- wait- Teia, what time is it for you right now?!”
She tapped her phone screen, answering “2:16 am as of right now- no, 2:17.”
“Oh Maker, Teia I’m so sorry, I thought-” he sighs in defeat. “I got the time conversion wrong. I thought-”
“Hey, hey, don’t spiral on me Dellamorte, Coconut woke me up begging for attention and I saw the call come through. Unlike some people, I have a sense of work life balance and have my phone on silent at night. It’s alright.” She heard the intake of breath from Lucanis, about to go on a tirade how he was being rude and presumptuous, so she cut him off. “Anyway. This way I get you all to myself,” she purred.
"Greedy,” Lucanis scolded.
“I don’t see you complaining, do I?”
Lucanis barked out a laugh, “no, no I suppose I’m not.”
“So where are you at the moment? Not stuck at the airport, I hope?”
“No, no, do you really think Antiva Air would let its platinum members go through something like that? Be stuck in their incredibly fancy and expensive first class lounge with all that free gourmet food? Be reasonable Teia.”
“Rich boy,” Teia chuckled.
“I don’t see you complaining, do I?” Lucanis replied, his cheek audible even several countries away. “No, I’m in a five star hotel maybe, oh, 20 minutes from the airport. They’ve assured me that I’ll be given priority for a rebooked flight, so hopefully I can get out tomorrow or the day after, depending on when the weather clears.”
“I hope so too,” Teia said, flopping over to lie down on the couch, grunting when Coconut decided her stomach would be the perfect landing pad.
“You okay?”
“Just Coconut making trouble as per usual, oh and I think she wants to come say hello to her papa,” she said as Coconut began padding her way up Teia’s chest with tall steps, “she’s bringing out the big steppies,” she informed Lucanis.
“Oh, what a good girl. Tell her I miss her, won’t you?”
Coconut let out a meep of a meow and leaned against the phone, purring so hard she was nearly shaking. Teia smiled, giving scritches as required, Coconut leaning her full weight against Teia’s hand. Muffled through the thick grey fur, she could hear Lucanis crooning at the kitten, lying blatantly to Coconut’s face and saying how she was such a good girl.
At last, Coconut decided she had received enough praise and royal tribute for one night, and stomped back down Teia’s stomach with surprisingly heavy steps for such a small, scrungly creature. There was one last announcement of a meep, before Coconut jumped back down to the floor to conduct her important cat business of licking her behind.
“Well,” Teia said through a jaw cracking yawn, the hour starting to catch up on her. “I should probably try go back to bed before Nova rolls herself up into all the blankets and leaves none for me.”
Lucanis laughed, “it is always a danger with her.”
“Not that she ever steals Viago’s, mind you,” Teia grumbled.
“Clearly the solution is to be more grumpy.”
“I think all the grumpiness has been allocated out in this relationship, I’m afraid.”
“Wouldn’t want to overdo it, would we?”
“Any more and the world would surely combust.”
Lucanis laughed, and warmth curled up in Teia’s chest at the sound. Oh how I wish you were here right now, she thought. Lucanis was a terrible insomniac, but selfishly she always loved the time they spent together when they both awoke during the night.
“I miss you,” she said, “I wish you were here so I could curl up next to you with some hot chocolate and we could gossip all about the latest episode of Real Housewives of Val Roueaux together.”
“You still could,” Lucanis said, and she wished she could pepper his face with kisses.
"Nova and I have been waiting for you to get back before we watch any more episodes.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” he said, his voice so surprised that they would think of him like that. It made Teia’s heart want to weep, and made her arms want to squeeze him into the biggest possible bear hug.
“It’s not the same without you,” she grumbled.
“Well hopefully I won’t leave you two waiting long, hey?”
“Yeah…” Teia said, a cool melancholy biting at her, even despite the comforting warmth of Lucanis’ presence.
“You sound tired, mi amore,” Lucanis said in that damnably soft voice of his that he knew Teia could never refuse. It was unfair, really.
“Okay, but first,” Teia said, enjoying how Lucanis instantly quieted, breath catching on her words, “I’m going to send you a little present before I do.” The line was as silent as the grave now, and she grinned, “and I want you to have some fun with it, since you’re all alone on Satinalia.”
“Teia, I-” He began.
But Teia was already chirping a cheery, “night Lucanis!” And hanging up.
Despite Coconut’s pathetic and tragic mews, Teia exiled her from the living room with an apology and promise for a treat afterwards. It felt weird to do it with a baby cat watching.
She undid the tie of her robe, letting it fall open to reveal herself already bare underneath it. She grabbed a sprig of mistletoe and a discarded ribbon from the box Viago had given Nova. She wrapped it around her chest, tying it in a neat bow and propped her camera up against the couch. The mistletoe went over her toe as she laid back propping her legs straight up in the air.
The camera went off and she grinned at the result. She attached it to a message for Lucanis, captioning it:
Not sure I want a kiss on the lips under this mistletoe <3
Can you think of somewhere else you could kiss me?
The three bubbles indicating a reply being typed out popped up onto her screen, then disappeared, then popped up again.
She waited a few minutes, gleeful at having made Lucanis speechless, before texting back again.
Send me a picture of the results
Or better yet, a video ;)
Enjoy your present
Then she placed her phone face down on the coffee table and headed back to bed. She was glad Coconut wasn’t there to hear the swears that would have made even a sailor blush upon seeing Nova burritoed up in every single one of Teia’s blankets.