2020-10-14 - Love You, Goose

There's this diner that's not too far from the agency. It's one of those Mom and Pop places that serves regulars with grace, and newcomers with some suspicion. It's a familiar place for Kevin and Magnolia to reconvene after a Dream, particularly when they were already apart. Magnolia had stayed late at Sneakers, letting Kevin head home to get Lark fed and to bed. So, when Magnolia is startled back into the waking world after trying to befriend a rock dragon, she sends out a text--

(TXT to Kevin) Magnolia : Pancakes?

Then she grabs her stuff and locks up to make the walk to the diner.

Luckily, Kevin didn't zone out into the Dream at Lark's bedside. Unluckily, he zoned out in front of his computer shortly after, raiding on WoW (boy are his guildmates pissed), and so he wakes up with hazy, bad memories -- and QWERTY-face. At least he didn't short out his keyboard with drool. "Wow. Just. Wow. That's not embarrassing or anything." He's not talking about the QWERTY-face, that's happened often enough that it's just not a big deal. No, he's talking about the Dream. And then his phone chirps out the first bars of Hailee Steinfeld's 'Love Myself,' and he flips it over and reads the text.

(TXT to Magnolia) Kevin : Yeah. Pancakes. Dad's home. He'll watch Lark. Be there soon.

Kevin actually took a few minutes to dig out an old, well-worn brown shirt with the legend 'Han Shot First,' and then heads out, wearing a light jacket over the telltale shirt. Besides that, and the glasses, he looks pretty different from the boy in the Dream. Or he would if there wasn't a remembered curl to his shoulders, a bashful little duck of his head as he comes in and looks to find Magnolia, to sit down alongside her in the booth, "So." His QWERTY-face has mostly faded, but there are still some faint squares on his cheekbone.

Magnolia is already seated with two mugs, hers full of coffee. The waitress swoops in to fill Kevin's mug the moment he's settled into his seat, and then she disappears off to leave the two to talk as if she's done this dance before. Her smile is soft as the man settles into his hunched shoulders, and she bumps her shoulder into his lightly. "So. How did I miss how adorable you were as a teen?" Her blue-hazel eyes are soft, warm, and gentle -- things that don't always come together for this sarcasm-driven PI.

Kevin blows out a breath, "Yeah... that's not what women though then." He cradles the warming mug of coffee for a moment before he pulls off his glasses and buries his face in his hands. "That was embarrassing." There's a moment, and then he peeks up from behind his fingers, "You were pretty badass. Please tell me that wasn't just teenage Magnolia, that you knew what you were doing? Because that was terrifyingly awesome."

"Teenage girls are idiots." Magnolia takes a sip from her own mug, savoring the caffeine and pale bitterness. Then she is watching him sink into his hands, and she nudges her knee against him. "What was embarrassing? That you were a total nerd? Baby, pretty sure we're all on the same forkin' page when it comes to the fact that you are, and were, a nerd." Now she leans in to kiss his fingers, tugging at them so she can kiss his nose, and then his forehead. "Chillax." Now she nods slightly. "Yeah, I was aware of what was going on... not sure why beyond that I fucking hate Dreams." She rubs her hands across her jaw and sides of her neck. "Not even sure what was happening there... something got that dragon's attention, and I think it was protecting us."

"Pretty sure teenagers are idiots," Kevin responds readily, rocking under the nudge of her knee despite the fact that she didn't push his upper body and despite their size difference. She pulls down his hands, and he sighs out in response to the kisses and her words. Pushing his glasses back into place, he considers the statements, and nods, "I am with you there, one hundred percent. If there's a time in my life I don't need to revisit, it's middle school." That could be a nonsequitor except that he adds, "If there're two times in my life I don't want to revisit, it's middle school and high school. But you were badass. I'm pretty sure I remember you staring down that dragon, and then it went after the thing that was attacking those other two kids."

"All of them. I watched all you being idiot teenagers. The only not-idiot was James." Then Magnolia shrugs, gesturing at herself. "I mean, and me." Her fingers curl around his briefly before she finishes off her coffee, wanting a refill but not willing to ask for it. "I wasn't that much of a badass in high school... I would have hated that field trip because field trips mean nothing to college entrance. It was weird seeing Byron and Lilith all cozy, but guess there's always the subconscious, filtering into Dreams." Then she frowns at the recount, thinking back. "No... I don't think I was staring down the dragon... I was definitely wanting to make friends."

"It was weird seeing Byron and James. I mean, by then, Byron was totally gone, and James had graduated and gotten the heck out." Kevin shakes his head, "I didn't even mind those field trips. I just kept reading. Like I did in class." He stares down at the coffee, considering for a long time before he picks it up and takes a sip, "I'm glad that you made a friend. Sent it chasing off after whatever the heck that was. But if it's all the same to you, I'd like to avoid having the brain of a teenager again. Stupid Dreams. I can deal with it when I'm me, but just... not recognizing you, it's hard now. I would've liked the comfort of knowing you were there."

"Of course you didn't mind the field trips." Magnolia sighs with a smile. "You're a nerd." Then she hooks her foot lightly around his shin, creating a possessive embrace even while she teeter-totters her mug back and forth. She glances up at him. "Wonder if I'll see the creature again... it seemed honestly... like maybe it was there to protect us? Or protect something. Is that a case? Finding a rock dragon?" She looks aside to him with a quirk of a smile. Then her expression softens again, and she shakes her head. "It's alright, Vin... I had you even if you thought I was just some hot blonde with some random D&D facts."

"No, I'm a geek." Kevin pauses a moment, and then admits, "And a nerd. You my dear, were just a nerd. Until you learned the Challenge Rating of a Greater Mimic." See, he remembered that. "And yeah, it seemed like it was trying to protect us. Or at least chase after that other thing with the Scary-Shout-TM." Yes, he actually says 'TM.' "And I'm pretty sure that that's a case that requires Dreaming. Or crossing the Veil. And I don't much want to go chasing after even a totally cool rock dragon into the Veil. But of course, since you had my back, I'll do it if you go. And look, you're totally smoking hot now, but I think I would've gone with 'cute' and 'terrifying' for you then, personally. You've kept both of those and added the Smoking Hot and Total Badass feats." Setting his cup back down to nudge it around with one hand, he slings the other arm around her shoulders, squeezing gently. "And now I know those weren't just random D&D facts."

"I was not a nerd... I was trying to get out of Gray Harbor on the tails of my academic successes. I was using the system for my own gains." Magnolia crosses her arms defiantly. She is not a nerd, and she will fight him if he keeps suggesting otherwise. "I don't know... I'd definitely cross the Veil to get myself my very own dragon." Look, Magnolia can be quite a girl about some things, and she is definitely the type to give into the whole Girls Like Dragons thing. She glances aside to him at his compliments. "I was pretty terrifying," she agrees, bypassing the compliment of cute. "Look, I do actually pay attentiong when you're rambling about CR levels and everything like that."

"Pretty sure that being a nerd was still the end result." Kevin leans over to press a kiss to her temple, then settles back to turn the mug around on the tabletop with his free hand. "Do you think it'd be small enough to sit on your shoulder? Because a shoulder-dragon would be really cool. I mean, anyone who doesn't think that a shoulder-dragon is cool is just crazy. But I guess that a shoulder-dragon would be less useful than a giant dragon-beast," Kevin rambles, only to narrow his eyes teasingly and respond, "I do not ramble, but yes, I know you pay attention. You haven't needed me to tell you what to roll in ages."

As Kevin rambles, despite his proclamation that he does not ramble, has Magnolia smiling with that warmth she reserves for him. "Shoulder-dragon," she agrees. "I gotta work my way up to becoming a dragon rider like those Pern novels." The waitress comes back around finally, and then there's two large plates of pancakes -- one regular, one chocolate chip -- being set down in front of them. Mags smiles up at the waitress in thanks before she takes the napkin-rolled silverware, tearing off the paper ring to unravel the fork and knife. She starts in on the chocolate chip pancakes first.

Kevin snap-points at Magnolia as she goes Pern instead of Game of Thrones, "Aaaand you went Pern." Food arrives before he can fawn over her choice, and he gathers up the plain pancakes, pointing across to her plate with his bundled silverware, "I'm gonna want half of those once you're done with them, Lia." Tearing open the packet, he starts cutting up his pancakes, "So you and Lark've settled in well, right? I mean, at the house." Now he's gotten nervous again.

"What do you mean 'I went Pern?'" Magnolia gestures out wide on either side of her, glancing around almost incredulously. "What else was I going to pick?" Then she scowls. "You thought I was going to choose Game of Thrones, huh? I'm sorry... I ain't no one's Kaleesi. I'm a goddamn dragonrider." She thumbs at herself while glaring at Kevin, but there's no real heat or annoyance there. She snorts out a breath as she chews though a monstrous bite of chocolate and carbs. She glances at Kevin as his nerves spike up, and she starts to smile. "Kevin... you think I wouldn't tell you if we hadn't settled in? Come on. I'm Magnolia Jones. I'd tell you if it wasn't working out."

"I'm glad you went Pern, instead of Game of Thrones, like so many new geeks would." It's a little relief from the nerves, but they settle right back in, Kevin adjusting his glasses again and then looking aside to Magnolia again, "So before I go spending two months' salary that I don't have -- that's totally corporate racket anyhow -- I wanted to see if it was some sort of thing that you wanted to make really long-term. Like permanent. Like marriage."

Magnolia blinks. Her lips part to speak, only to them clamp shut again in honest surprise. It takes a lot to run this Private Investigator speechless. So, poor Kevin is left with silence as her answer for a good long while until she offers, almost tentatively, "You don't gotta spend that much. I mean, I'm a pretty simple girl. Go ask Lilith and she could hook you up, but... uh... check to make sure it isn't cursed, okay?" She taps her finger against the fork. "So, sure... like marriage."

There's some part of Kevin that really loves that he's rendered Magnolia speechless. But there's a bigger part of Kevin that's getting really nervous as the silence stretches out. He's opening his mouth to pass it off as a joke, to take it back, to do something when she finally responds. Her words cause him to sag in relief, letting out a shaky breath, "Woah, Lia. You had me all..." a gesture generally toward his throat or collarbone indicates just where the panic was building, "And yeah. Not Cursed would be a good selling point. You think she guarantees that?" But that's just his nervous mouth getting away from him, and he takes in a deep breath and tries again, "Okay then. Magnolia Louisa Jones," Lark spilled the beans for a promise of making cookies together long ago, "PI. Serious Badass. Goddamn Dragonrider. Will you marry me?"

Magnolia still hasn't forgiven Lark for being such a bigmouth. But this time, she will let it go. After all, she's got something else worth responding to. He asks her, there in the late night diner where they first really met again after high school, surrounded by pancakes and hot coffee, and a lot of bills back home that will need to be paid somehow. There's still a half-broken refrigerator, and a kid who is going to outgrow school before it outgrows her, and a soon-to-be father-in-law who is always trying his best even if he fails most of the time. And then there's this shitty place with its bad dreams, worst nightmares, and everything else. So, she takes a breath, smiles that winning smile that is almost incandescent, and she nods. "Yeah." She shrugs a shoulder. "Sounds like a plan."

Kevin takes in a slow breath, closing his eyes to keep the happy tears from leaking out from behind his lids. "I'm not crying, you're crying." He's not quite crying, but he wouldn't be Kevin without a little awkward. "Oh good. 'Yeah's just what everyone wants to hear." He opens his eyes and his smile spreads to nearly match hers in brilliance. "I'm pretty sure Lark's gonna be okay with this too, but if ehe isn't, I'm good. We can keep things how they are. I want both of you to be happy."

Magnolia grabs Kevin by the front of his shirt, yanking him forward as she says, "Kiss me, you fool." Then she connects with him, and that kiss has a wonderful heat to it while also softens into true affection. She just savors this wonderful moment with the man she loves. Her eyes close, nose brushing up against his while her lips move gently with his. While they kiss, the waitress comes by to refill their mugs of coffee so that when they slide back from each other, and Magnolia smiles, the smell of fresh coffee wafts up from their mugs.

They each have their own way of celebrating, and Kevin quite enjoys Magnolia's. He leaves his mug on the table even as his glasses get nudged askew and he leans into the kiss. Some part of his brain notices the return of the waitress, but most of him is focused on the slow pressure of his new fiancee's lips on his. He breathes in slowly as they drift just slightly apart, then nods, "Yeah. I'm good with that for the rest of my life." Oh look, there's more coffee, and he blinks, "Right. There are people here. I forgot there were any other people here. We should probably have our after-dinner breakfast so that we can forget about how embarrassing it was to be back in high school."

"You're easy to please." Magnolia now presses her nose gently against his before she sinks back a bit further. "Right. Focus... after-dinner breakfast, and then we can get home." She flickers a glance away from him before she is back to her world being just this nerdy Kevin and pancakes. "You really think that it was embarrassing? High school was that bad?"

Okay, getting engaged is great, but hearing Magnolia call his old childhood house 'home' for her and Lark? Kevin just kind of melts. Sure, she's done it before, but not right after he proposed and she accepted. He pauses a moment, and then adds, "Yeah. It was... yeah, it was bad. Not as bad as middle school, because I was GMing for the Adventurer's Guild, but beyond that? Not a whole lot going for me." Leaning close, he aims to press a kiss just at the corner of her lips, "Things are looking up though. Really up. Straightening up, he adds with a grin, "I've got pancakes."

"Pancakes are pretty awesome." Then Magnolia smiles wryly aside to him before she starts to dig out her wallet, where envelopes of carefully budgeted money reside. She starts to count out bills from the 'Dream Recovery Fund' envelope so she can pay for their breakfast. She leans her shoulder against his as she rests alongside him in the booth. "You know, it was really just Byron and me for most of high school. Well, and you know, Levi... but Levi was always looking after mom."

Kevin goes into his half of the plate of plain pancakes, seating quickly. "Pretty sure you fooled all of us, Lia." He draws in a slow breath, his chest inflating and then deflating once more, "You certainly looked like you had it all together. Guess it goes to show that we all have our own problems, and no one every really knows what everyone's got going on."

"Every one has their own shit their dealing with... mine in high school was making sure I was on the honors list, if not on the track to become valedictorian, so I could score myself a solid path out of this town. But, it has teeth, holding tight... I didn't get out, even if I wanted to." Magnolia smiles up at him. "But I'm kinda glad... in the end." Now she starts to finish off her second mug of coffee, but not before she drowns it in some cream from the tiny silver boat.

"I mean, you did. We both did." Kevin looks up and around the diner, smiling a little crookedly, a little sadly, "Aaaand then we both ended up right back here." His arm tightens around her shoulders a little, and he leans in to press another kiss to her temple, "And in the end," he repeats her words, "I'm kinda glad." Pausing a moment, he adds, "All I ever wanted was to make a better life for my kid than I had myself." Evidently, Lark is his kid too now. "That why you want to work with the PD?"

"Kinda? You're kinda glad?" Magnolia nudges him with her elbow. "Jerk." Then she leans her head gently against his. No matter her teasing, no matter her jabs, she still finds great comfort in being close to Kevin. Her eyes close, savoring this moment. Then she leans back a bit at his question, huffing out a breath. "Would be more consistent work, and I don't know... I wondered what I wanted to be back when I was young and stupid... a cop? A lawyer? A cop, I think. Detective, like dad."

"Oof," Kevin grins as she elbows him, but her explanation causes him to nod slowly, watching her features as she gives it. "I kind of like that you're not gone consistently all the time, but consistent pay'd be nice." He nods again, poking around at the pancakes on the plate in front of him, and then reaching over to cut a piece of the chocolate chip ones in front of her, "I'm real sorry I never got to meet your dad, Lia. He sounds like he was a heck of a guy." And then the bite of pancakes goes into his pancake hole.

"He would have liked you," Mags murmurs. It isn't a platitude either, as Magnolia usually never invests into those. "He would have mocked you horribly, but he would have liked you." She glances aside to him. "He would have taken you out to teach you how to shoot a gun though. Hope that's cool with you." Then she takes another bite of pancake, chewing through it before she smiles toward him. "You good with me looking into some consulting work with the PD?"

Kevin steals another bite of chocolate chip pancakes, accepting the caveat, but beaming at the compliment that precedes it. "Yeah well, you like me but you mock me horribly, so I think I'm pretty okay with that." He licks his lips, glancing down for a moment and clearing his throat, "Um... if you want to teach me to shoot a gun, I wouldn't say no. I've mostly been working on the whole brain-taser thing, but I don't know if that works so well around the normies." That statement along gives him pause, "Crap. There really are normies and not normies. The Clued In," his term for his fellow conspiracy theories, "always say that but..." he realizes he's rambling and trails off, "Yeah. I'm good with it. I can take over more of the gruntwork cases for Sneakers. I mean, if you think I'm ready for that."

Magnolia chokes a bit on her bite of pancakes before she turns to laughter. Her eyes brighten a bit. "The Clued In. I like that." She then becomes absorbed in another bite, savoring this one with slower chewing. She glances at him with a quirk of a smile. "Yeah, I'm good with you taking on the bigger, meaner cases. You got this, baby." She slumps back now, stretching out her legs. She's already paid for breakfast to eliminate their need to order more. Now she's smiling aside to him. "You wanna take me home now?"

Hoovering up the last pieces of pancake (Dreams about high school plus proposing in Real Life take it out of a guy), Kevin carefully turns his fork tines down and starts to scoot out of the booth, holding out his hand, "'Take me to bed or lose me forever?' No, wait, I don't want to be Goose. He's cool, but I like to survive the movie, thanks. So yes, I do want to take you home now, Lia."

Magnolia starts to smile warmly. "You know, that's just a kid's movie." Then she is scooting out after him, grabbing hold of his hand with a tight squeeze. "Love you, Goose." She presses a kiss to his cheek before she lets him do the leading.