Dite's Decadent Delights, Tuesday

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy had come into the store today to discover that it filled with birds' nests. Tons of them, tucked away in corners, on shelves, under merchandise. All of the nests were filled with three or four pastel eggs in various colors and patterns, too. None of them looked remotely similar, even the ones in the same nests. Kathy wasn't a naturalist by

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[not_every_mage]

Anders wasn't sure coming to see Kathy at work was the best thing to do for a serious conversation -- but he also wasn't sure a better one would come up. Setting up a special meeting seemed like it'd just make both of them nervous.

So he wandered into the shop about lunchtime, bag of sandwiches and snacks in one hand. "Hi," he said, and got distracted by a nest of bunny eggs. "-- wait, are those hatching?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hey," Kathy said, giving him a tired smile. "And--probably. They're the bigger ones, so I think those are going to be bunnies. Unless they're the ducks. Some of them turn out to be ducks for some reason. I don't get Easter."

[not_every_mage]

"It's the fake-Andraste rose from the dead one, isn't it?" Anders asked. "With some fertility symbols grafted on because it's spring."

He'd never made much progress in his understanding of Christianity, no. Mainly because he didn't see the point.

"But now I'm all curious -- why ducks?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy shrugged, looking bewildered. "Ducks, rabbits, and chickens," she said, looking around at her store. "There might have even been a lamb or two? I decided I didn't want to go upstairs to check it out and see for sure."

This holiday was deeply weird.

"I'm going to go with an attempt to channel bucolic spring imagery and call it good."

[not_every_mage]

"Makes as much sense as anything," Anders nodded. "Though I want to explain how animals work to whoever's shoving miniature lambs and bunnies into eggs."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You wanna take some home?" Kathy offered. "Blondie and Lachlan would love a lamb roommate, right? They can all be best friends forever."

[not_every_mage]

Anders snorted. "Until Blondie and Lachlan remember they're predators, anyhow," he agreed cheerily. "But that might take a while. They're sort of dumb."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't know about Blondie, but I'm pretty sure Lachlan has never been a predator," Kathy teased. "I'm not sure any of his near ancestors were predators, either. I'm, like, ninety-nine percent certain one of them was a throw pillow."

[not_every_mage]

"Lachlan's an excellent gremlin hunter," Anders made up. "I've had him three years, never seen a gremlin in my room. Must be down to Lachlan's skills."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Wait, so I can't lie about your phone, but you can come in here and spin tales about Lachlan?" Kathy tsked. "The double-standard."

[not_every_mage]

"Who said I was lying?" Anders pointed out. "I just said there haven't been any gremlins in my room. That's true."

[spin_kick_snap]

"And then you attributed it to Lachlan, which we both know isn't," Kathy said, sticking her tongue out at him.

...And finally noticing the bags he had with him. "Oh!" she asked, smiling. "Did you come over for lunch?"

[not_every_mage]

"Lunch and some talking," Anders agreed, putting the bags on the counter. "I got cheese for you and roast beef for me, and chips and cookies for both of us. Is that all right?"

Almost casually, he added, "We kept saying all weekend that we should talk, but it never seemed to be the time. So ... I thought maybe we could make the time."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Just cheese?" Kathy asked, because she couldn't remember if she'd told him she wasn't eating meat currently or not. Food got problematic quickly these days.

...Assuming her hunger lasted anyway. Her stomach cramped up as soon as he'd said 'talk.'

"That sounds fine," she said, her bag staying half-opened on the counter as her hands forgot to work. "I mean, yeah. We should. It's probably time."

[not_every_mage]

"Just cheese," Anders assured her. She hadn't told him in words that she wasn't eating meat, but he'd noticed. 'And I think some tomato."

He smiled bashfully as he started unwrapping his sandwich. "Why is it we can talk each other's heads off, but as soon as we start a conversation we should talk we both freeze up?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Under other circumstances, Kathy would have relaxed a little after hearing that her sandwich was vegetarian. Maybe even returned his smile for noticing. Sadly, now she was still too tense to do either.

"I don't think there's ever been a relationship talk in the history of ever that started with we should talk and went somewhere good," she said, unconsciously wringing her hands behind the counter. "Probably just...cultural memory at this point."