Private You Don't Cut Pasta With A Knife

[Yugam]

Once upon a time there was a princess.

Or that might be how this story would've started if it was some kind sappy romance, but no. Once upon a time there was an Italian woman who cut her fucking pasta with knife and brought shame upon herself and all her forebearers. And while Ari could not teach her how to twirl her pasta with a fork (God knows he'd tried) he could at least teach her to cook, and that way people might overlook the egregious sins she committed every time she put the pasta to the knife.

Consequently, they were also trying to make a pasta dish.

"Carbonara," Ari stated as he laid out the various ingredients on the kitchen counter. "Slightly more complicated than cacio e pepe, not complicated enough that you could possibly fuck it up." That and it was an Italian classic, and Ari had the distinct sensation that Nico needed to get a little more in touch with her roots. "Plus, it should impress the missus," the man added, figuring it might be the one thing that actually pushed Nico into putting in some amount of effort.

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

The audacity of this motherfucker...

Yes. She sought after him first. Yes, she wanted to learn how to cook because she couldn't leave Ronja to do all the cooking once they- She paused that train of thought before it could reach french man levels of creepy. She's italian afterall.

She put up a scowl, setting her target back on the present situation, with a mix between paying attention to the one who actually took cooking classes, but plotting his demise became a side-objective.

"Carbonara,"
"Carbonara." She repeated after him, baby blues scanning each set of ingredients she had seen plenty of times in the past.

Rarely from her mother, compared to the servants themselves. Fleeting memories grasped her attention. Enough to miss a few words, not enough to miss his trashtalking though.

"Okay... I heat up water, and what's next? You can't just drop all this shit then tell me to do it. Guide me through, fucker." She finally retaliated with the ferocity of a cheetah. "Ehem, I mean, if my cooking sucks, then that means I'm doing something wrong. So give me like, a few instructions or write them down and I'll get it done by lunch time." Nico clarified, much more understanding now than earlier. At least she figured so, given her attempt from trashing on the idol-looking mofo.

Specially after the 'impress the missus' part finally clicked in her head. The delay didn't help her blush any less, given he was right about it: It was all for Ronja, afterall.

"Is this why you learned to cook, too? To impress girls?" She would take the bait and ask a stupid question, coated in genuine curiosity.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"Okay... I heat up water, and what's next? You can't just drop all this shit then tell me to do it. Guide me through, fucker."
Ari stared back at her with a deadpan look.
"Ehem, I mean, if my cooking sucks, then that means I'm doing something wrong. So give me like, a few instructions or write them down and I'll get it done by lunch time."
A sly grin tugged at the corner of the man's lip as he lifted a hand flicked the girl's forehead. "Chill woman, I'll walk you through it. Relax. Besides, I gotta watch you to make sure you don't burn our place down." And then they'd both be homeless.

"Alright next," the man said grabbing a bowl and a whisk, "crack three eggs in here, add about a cup of parm, some black pepper and then whisk it all together," Ari instructed Nico, sliding the bowl towards her, and then the other ingredients one by one.

"Is this why you learned to cook, too? To impress girls?"
"Am I impressing you right now?" the man joked, knowing that wasn't quite what Nico had meant. "Nah, I just wanted to learn for myself. Everyone in my family cooks, and I wanted to make more things than just what I learned at home so I signed up for some classes. Do you really see me hitting on some chick and inviting her over for dinner or something?"

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

Just as she finished tying up the apron he had to go and stare her like she said something off, and that alone ticked every alarm in her brain and set her into attack mode. "What?! The fuck I sai- GNEH!" She yelped and winced once caught off-guard by a flick on her forehead, following it up with a harsh slap on his wrist. "You bitch..."

But after her complaints and grumpy huffs, Nico finally could focus on the bowl & whisk task, "Sounds easy enough. Gimme dat". Clear instructions were her best friend, and following up to what he said wasn't particulary a difficulty for her. Granted, it made her add just a little bit more of parm and black pepper than a cup, given her lack of experience.

"Am I impressing you right now?"
"You know what. That's fair." She nodded, if only because she could see the logic behind that, and the answer was clearly a 'no'. Her hand busied itself with whisking away the mix, the sound repetitive enough to lay off on the background as she listened to his real reasoning, beyond obviously an extra addition to his ladies-exclusive curriculum. "So you do have the kind of drive to learn new stuff, huh." Her voice dragged out, the idea almost a very distant memory to her: To have the drive and reason to do something else out of the box.

"Do you really see me hitting on some chick and inviting her over for dinner or something?"
"Actually, I do, yeah." Nico chuckled, eyeing him up and down for a second, only to confirm her statement with a nod. "Sure it's a bad idea, but I mean, you are full of bad ideas and some of them work out. Hell, you won the lottery, you are one lucky son of a bitch. I wouldn't be surprised if all your shitty ideas worked out in the end because of that." Silence followed, with the whisk slowing down and a thousand yards look plastering her features for a moment, lingering a little too long over the bowl before focus returned back to her.

"I never asked... What happened once I left, Ari?" The question had a tight grip in her heart ever since 'it' had planted the seed of doubt in her head. "Did you three do as I asked?" Her voice feigned being casual, if only because the topic was not-so-casual in comparison to their duties right now.

And that's why she wished to keep it brief and straight to the point.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

The rhythmic sound of the whisk beating against the inside of the bowl filled air. "So you do have the kind of drive to learn new stuff, huh."
"Only if I'm interested enough," Ari admitted. If he didn't find the subject interesting, he would put exactly zero amount of effort into his learning. On the other hand, he tended to go a little overboard when it came to the things he was actually interested in. Hyperfixation, he'd heard it been called before. But those came and went, sometimes lasting months, others mere days. In summary, it was impossible for the man to stick with anything long enough for it to be meaningful.

The fact that Nico could see him hitting on random girls and asking them back to his apartment, however, was something that would not happen in a million years. "I know you meant that as an insult, but I'm choosing to take it as a compliment, and that you believe I have the unfounded confidence of a white frat boy." And while that was something Ari wanted to never be associated with, he could use some unfounded confidence from time to time.

"I never asked... What happened once I left, Ari?" The man gave no particular indication that he'd heard Nico's question. Though he wasn't pretending as if he hadn't either. "Did you three do as I asked?"
"You mean Szofrit? We took her down," Ari said. "We didn't kill her though. Too much valuable intel to be gained. She'll suffer though, I'm sure of it. So you don't have to worry."

At the end of the day the outcome that Fiora had wanted just hadn't felt like the right one to Yugam. And not out of some misplaced sense of hope, or altruism. It was a utilitarian decision. The leader of the Dragonship magic, a powerful dissonant. There was much knowledge to be gained by keeping her alive, at least for now. "And when they're done with her, they'll put her down. Dissonant or not, the things she did were war crimes. She won't be walking free again."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"Y'know what, that's fair." She could agree with it, enough to stop whisking for a split of a second to do so before she resumed. But that only got cut short when Ari tried to play with her own words and turn them into a compliment to himself, exhaling a chuckle as her eyes darted back at him.

"You? Lacking confidence? You don't lack confidence." She rised a brow at that, humoured by how he worded that out. A second or so of thought given before Nico picked to be straight with him, as usual. "It's more that you don't have a reason to do any of that. It ain't got nothing to do with having the balls to. You just don't do it. Don't care." The whisk resumed it's course, circling over the bowl, now counter-clockwise. "You need to be interested enough for that. And turns out, Val did that for ya'" At least that was how the pinkette saw it, but it would be false to say she didn't project a little with that, because afterall, that's exactly how it worked for her. She had zero reasons for a million things in her life. Meeting Val and Ari gave her many to turn that statement upside down.

But the revelation of their actions only seemed to 'kill' this energy she carried when they begun to cook. For a moment, it wasn't Nico who whisked away at the bowl.

"I somehow doubt that, Ari. But let's pretend they somehow learn what players and Landers couldn't years ago with Titanius, a bigger source of dissonance by the way, from this lackey and then they put it down." She took the whisk out, gently dragging the bowl over the table, closer to him. "We are taking the guns away from one monster and handing them to another: a group spearheaded by a guy who killed himself three times as an 'experiment'." Let alone disarming Szofrit, that power would fall in the wrong hands. Finweald was hollowed inside out, with it's government weak and stupid, and from the factions that are standing, two out of them have the most suspicious leaders holding the leash of a ruined kingdom. "I would be careful who I consider an ally if I were you." She paused, only to point back to the bowl with one hand.

"This thing's done, by the way." She patted her hands to gesture a job well done, with a lite smile twisting her lips upwards. "Heard anything from Val lately?" Nico pried. She had missed the conclusion of this battle, and didn't have the time to message her about it.

Her mind was split into too many places she couldn't be all at once to remember.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"You? Lacking confidence?" Ari looked over at Nico with a raised brow, unable to believe that she was about to say the thing he knew she was going to say. "You don't lack confidence." Ari blinked slowly at Nico as she went on to explain her general reasoning behind her assumptions, and though she wasn't entirely wrong, she wasn't entirely right either. "Well, then I've just gotten really good at faking it," the man said with a soft chuckle as he went back to the recipe to double-check what the next step was. The truth was, most of Ari's actions were just a general disregard for his own well-being. Confidence didn't play a part in it. And when it did, boy was he an internal mess. The man's ability to express emotion was just so stunted apparently, no one really noticed.

Things slowed down though as the conversation of Szofrit progressed. "I wasn't there for any of that," Ari pointed out, having only heard about Titanius through League records. "But we learn, we make progress. And when we fail, we try again. For better or for worse." It was true, there was no way of knowing whether or not the MIT would be able to glean anything a captured Szofrit, but how would they ever know if they didn't try? "And I'd remind you, he killed himself three times. Might be crazy, but it definitely confirmed the UI-Lock theory. And it's better than testing that theory out on someone else." Allies would have been a stretch to Ari. Especially as he functioned as just a lone fish in the sea, doing his own thing until he was inevitably swallowed up by whale, or pulled into a whirlpool or something.

Ari took the bowl from Nico and set it aside before going over to one of the cabinets and pulling out a rather short pot and setting on the stove. "Aight, next, two tablespoons olive oil, heat it, and then cook that chopped bacon in it for about eight minutes," Ari said, pointing at the bacon in a small bowl on the counter. "Just make sure to keeping stirring everything so it doesn't burn."

"We talked a bit after we logged out," Ari confirmed as he watched Nico do her thing. "Just been chatting as usual since then, nothing special. She's alright though. A little shaken, but frankly, Szofrit was nothing like Camp Hope, so she'll be fine. How's Ronja?"

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"Well, then I've just gotten really good at faking it,"
She shrugged, a little smirk crossing her lips. "'Till you make it." Nico added.

Yet the mention he wasn't part of past events didn't surprise her: Nobody who faced Titanius was, and the few who remember or been there would have certainly gone for the head when it came to Szofrit, least history repeats itself- A very likely outcome now.

"At the rate this is going, there will be no world left if failure is all we gonna be doing." She squinted, folding her arms under her bust. "I don't believe that's all there is to him. Just the fact he killed himself three times to prove a theory says plenty. If he will go that far with himself, imagine how far he will go with others." There's only so many adjectives for a 'sacrifice for science' sort of madman, and none of them include altruism. "I would expect that kind of reminder from Val, not from you, Ari." He could be bright when he wanted, but perhaps she is misjudging him on this case or, as he put it, is really good at faking.

Her brain died a little when he mentioned tablespoons and olive, the short-circuit solved quick enough as her wits came back to the pinkette and moved over to fill up the pot with water, leaving it to boil as she reached for a spoon, already familiarized with the layout of his utensils and cooking ingredients enough to not miss a beat.

"Afraid I'll burn down the entire place? Hope you got insurance." She rised a brow, dropping two 'tablespoons' of olive oil, giving a bit of time to the pot to heat up before dropping the chopped bacon over it. "Like this, then?" Nico turned to face him to get actual confirmation, by now she was just following every instruction to the letter rather than to sit down and think about it. Instructions were easy afterall.

"'Okay' is a way to put it. She took the worst out of any of us. She's fine, as fine as she can be really." She recalled her conversation prior to logging off. The painful contour on her face, the tears... Just the mental image was enough to make her frown right now. "I take it you two didn't have big time wounds?- Well, I'm not looking forward to go back in just yet. Not until Ronja does. That said, being down to one eye and ear is disorienting. Feels like I'm missing half of my head"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"'Till you make it."
"Pretty much," Ari nodded.

"Just the fact he killed himself three times to prove a theory says plenty. If he will go that far with himself, imagine how far he will go with others."
Ari sighed, beginning to sense the futility in keeping up this argument. Nico wouldn't come around, she was far too stubborn for that. And Ari was still confident in backing the choice that he'd had. "I think we both know the things we do to ourselves are far worse than anything we'd do to someone else. It may not be altruism, but it isn't psychopathy either." As insane as that very sentence sounded, no one was certain whether or not UI-Locks were even real at the time. All things considered, assuming the game was, in fact, just another game was really not as far-fetched an assumption as they probably thought today. Discovery took risk though, and it was better to risk yourself than others sometimes.

Nico began to toss together the ingredients as she'd been instructed, although that was definitely a lot more than two tablespoons, and as Nico poured the bacon into the pan to cook, Ari was almost certain the whole thing would go up in flames in mere moments. "Yes, I am worried about that actually. Unless you plan on moving in with Ronja soon, try not to leave us homeless."

The fact that Ronja was 'okay', as Nico had put it, gave Ari some sense of relief at least. The man didn't know the magia very well, nor the girl behind the avatar, but Nico cared about her, and that was more than enough for him to give a least half a damn about her well-being. Seemingly uninterested in lingering on the subject though, Ari allowed Nico to glaze over the conversation, instead answering her following question. "Nothing serious, no," he said. "If you ever want to-" he waved his hand lazily between them, indicating fixing her eye and ear with magic, "all you gotta do it ask."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"We don't put ourselves through certain death though. Besides, this is a science guy we talking about." And not exactly Bill Nye with his bowtie and nerd haircut, to be specific. "If he would take these risks on himself, imagine what he would do on others- No one who plays this game is right in the head, I think we both are good examples of that." She said, insinuations set over the table once she begun slowing down her ingredient dumping if only to not have boiling oil jumping all over them.

A part of her wanted to mention Valeria. Yet she wanted to hope that their similarities had a well-drawn line on them. That they didn't share that much pain- The weight on her chest made her believe otherwise all this time, however.

It's only when Ari's gotten all worrisome over his lair that she exhaled air like a bull, turning her attention over to him but only after confirming the what if scenario wasn't about to play infront of them. "Living with Ronja's all I've been thinking about. But, even if I did burn down this whole place, I'd find a way to get you a new one." Nico added. Money has never been an issue, so long as she was willing to swallow her pride and words. Yet if her mother would accept such a scuffed deal without any guarantees... Different matter.

The pinkette kept stirring it up as instructed, humming to herself once he confirmed their own well-being. Not like most wounds mattered so long as it wasn't death. Damage done to the mind byproduct of the physical one, however, was a different story...

"I'll be fine, Ronja will fix it up with magitech. It helps her to practice, too. Not everyday you get to make a cyborg out of someone." Perhaps the only time she could trust someone enough to do experiments on her, even if that only would ever happen in Terrasphere to begin with, a quiet frown pressed hard against her features. "How is it looking. Should I take it off the fire now..?" It really felt like it would burn down now to her, after so much arson-talk.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"We don't put ourselves through certain death though. Besides, this is a science guy we talking about."
"That's kinda the point though," Ari argued, becoming increasingly exasperated. "It wasn't 'certain' at all then. We only know that its certain now because of him. You're trying to apply modern knowledge to a question of the past, it doesn't work." But really, that didn't matter. Not in any meaningful way at least. They could talk circles around each other, but nothing would change because, ultimately, they were both just too stubborn sometimes. The choice had been made, with or without either of them, it wouldn't have made a difference.

"If you somehow bought me an entire new apartment, I'd be worried about whether or not the feds would come seize it from me immediately afterwards." Who knew, maybe Nico was actually a secret mafia boss or something.

And of course, Nico turned down Ari's offer of fixing her up in a potentially very Frankenstein-esque manner. Mores the pity.

"Leave the pan on the stove actually, just turn the heat off. We're gonna keep it warm while the pasta cooks," Ari said, gesturing for Nico to put the spaghetti in the boiling water.

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"That's not the point, and even then he is not the first person to confirm that you can die and get locked up in the game. Most people find out in-game, on a sketchy forum, or when they go check on a friend and find them dead on their beds with their headsets on." A nightmareish reality to some, and a bitter thought for her, one that just voicing it out dries her throat.

The cooking took her mind off from it, at least enough to bit her tongue and swallow down words she would regret.

Nico snorted at the prospect of having Ari on T.V, probably cuffed and with all his belongings confiscated. Sure, she only needed the money for it and to be a criminal mastermind, and unfortunately for her (and fortunate for him) she's neither. "If so, They gonna find out you are an ilegal and send you back to Fuckboytopia."

Turning off the stove with her left hand, while the right wiggled an accusatory finger back at Ari. "Say, what if I told you I'd handle the kitchen for one whole week but you have to use a knife whenever I cook some pasta..." Half-hearted tone portrayed her skepticism, yet her eyes were attentive for any chance of a confirmation showing up on Ari's face. Who knows, maybe the pros outweigh the sins for him. "You teach me to cook, I teach you to eat like a real person." A sharp grin crossed her lips just then.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Ari sighed as he gave up on trying to argue with Nico. At this point he was almost certain she was arguing with him just for the sake of it. She wasn't going to relent to him, and if she really did believe that the guy was just an idiot, he'd never be able to convince her. Somehow, she always managed to be more stubborn than he. Honestly, it was a talent.

"You know I was born here, right?" Ari asked, raising a brow in genuine concern for his friend. It wouldn't have actually surprised him if she just assumed that he'd come over on a boat or something. But at the same time, it wouldn't surprise him in the slightest if she was just pulling his leg. Especially with the 'Fuckboytopia' dig.

"Say, what if I told you I'd handle the kitchen for one whole week but you have to use a knife whenever I cook some pasta..." Ari stared blankly at the woman for a moment. Was she being serious? "Can I at least try the food first. I'm not entirely convinced you haven't poisoned this yet. Or that you won't in the future."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

Nico stared blankly, perplexed at his tungsten-like density. He didn't lack a sense of humour, and yet here he is, baffling her with unexpected corrections over his birthplace. "I forgot it's always a fifty fifty with you. Either you get an obvious joke or your brain becomes a smoothie and you can't tell left from right." She stirred the pot with a spoon, hoping he wouldn't ask what a 'smoothie' is. She could expect that from Dayeon, who could starve a zombie to death given her lack of braincells, but Ari at least had some intact... Right?

"Fine!" She huffed in protest once he accused her italian dish from being hydrazine itself, squinting her eyes like thin daggers aimed at his. "I'm sure you can put it on a plate without my help." She crossed her arms for a second, waltzing past Ari in direction to one of the drawers to pick up knives and forks (Yes, plural) and a pair of glasses too to set over the dining table.

"'I'm nOt EntIRelY coNViNCeD You HaVen'T poIsoNEd ThiS yET'... Prick." She whispered in what she believed to be the most accurate representation of an ungrateful asian adult.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"I forgot it's always a fifty fifty with you. Either you get an obvious joke or your brain becomes a smoothie and you can't tell left from right," Nico said as Ari got out the bowls and forks, and a knife, for them. He could practically feel her rolling her eyes at him. "Which one's my left again?" the man said, a small cheeky grin on his face. Seriously, she just made it too easy sometimes.

It was Ari's turn to roll his eyes this time though as Nico started a tiny hissyfit and insisted on him plating the food. "Yeah, yeah, I got it," the man said, putting their food out without another complaint. Setting the food down in front of Nico, and in the seat next to her at the counter, Ari moved around the counter before seating himself. He picked up a fork and was about to try the food when he paused. Something smelled...off? "Uh, does this smell right to you, Nico?" the man asked with a genuine hint of concern.

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

A few seconds passed before she caught up on to his 'question', her head rotating in his direction. Her eyes were given confirmation of the image she pictured in her mind already, not a miss in her design as the man held the smuggest grin he could ever pull on her. It stings twice as much when done by someone who lives and dies by their unexpressive, monotone face.

"You ate a clown for breakfast, funny man?" Nico pursed her lips, keeping her huffing and puffing to herself, least he also finds a way to poke fun at that...

"You saying I cooked this shit wrong..?" A vein popped around her neck as she leaned closer to take a whiff from her plate, the twitch on her nose catching onto the strange aroma, like a cocktail of eggs and used socks. But to admit he's right after her voice jumped ready to be her own lawyer in this trial, the pinkette pulled the chair back, pushing herself to full height. "It's missing some marinara sauce, that's what." Case on point, there was still a jar full of left-over sauce from last week. Cold as ice to the touch, or so the container gave away once she wrapped her hand on it.

"Should have told me, I completely forgot we were missing the flavor.." She was well versed on the ways of microwaving everything known to man, and this sauce was no exception to her malignant intentions of heating it up...

Once the 'ding!' of fate called and the microwaving was over, and now with a spoon at hand, the pinkette carried back to the dining table to pour some on her own plate, before offering to do the same for Ari's. "Come on you literally saw me cook this, It's perfectly fine. If you don't like it we just dump it on the garbage lid and call it a day." Hardly she would accept defeat here, her determination pushing for this plate, vouching for it if she had to if that's what it would take to make him try it out. "Bon appetit, fucko."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Despite being highly tempted to continue to push Nico's buttons in the same manner as she pushed his (except much nicer), Ari decided it was better to pass on this opportunity. There was only so much the gremlin could take before going nuclear herself.

Of course, insinuating that there was something wrong with Ari, Nico brought her nose close to the food and gave it a few good sniffs, like some sort of dog. Apparently she had nearly the same standards for food, as she immediately suggested adding marinara sauce. "You can't be fucking serious..." Ari said, following her with his eyes as she went to fridge and pulled out the leftover marinara and threw it in the microwave.

Ding!

"Nico, I swear to god if you do what what you're about to, I will kick you out of this house," Ari said, watching her with a look of horror as she poured marinara onto the carbonara. "Your ancestors are rolling in their graves right now..."
"Come on you literally saw me cook this, It's perfectly fine. If you don't like it we just dump it on the garbage lid and call it a day."
Ari sighed. She wasn't wrong, and although Nico probably couldn't cook for shit, she couldn't be that bad. And Ari had carefully observed her the whole time, at the very least it should be passable. "Bon appetit, fucko."

Ari twirled some of the pasta onto his fork. It was...mostly the right color? Maybe a little more grey-ish than usual...Still smelled like dog...What in the hell had happened that this came out so weird looking, Ari wondered as he brought the pasta to his mouth. Hmm...tasted...

Cue the ambulance sirens

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"What's wrong, ain't so funny anymore?" A grin from ear to ear showed up on her face. It wasn't her intent to shock him like this, but she would surf this wave of fortune as it comes. Even with the marinara on hand though, Nico couldn't dare herself to pour anything onto his plate. "You say that like I don't plan to leave as soon as I can." She added, backing off to her seat and pouring the sweet delicacy upon her plate.

"My parents would too, but that's kinda why I keep doing it. It's funny." She let out a giggle, too late to realize it happened in the first place, but she didn't wish to put attention into that, not when she's supposed to be mad even now as they share a plate.

"Bottoms up!" The pinkette cheered for him at the first bite of his carbonara.

---

Oops...

　

 [ Valeria ]

　

Ari got poisoned. I'll send u a link to track my location so u don't get lost on the way to the hospital.​

 Live location has been shared.​

​

That was all Nico sent her way. She could already see her running miles just to get here. Rightfully so, given she spent a good time without being able to make contact with Ari. The waiting room wasn't nearly as full as she would expect it to, but neither empty, a middle ground that made it all easier to snooze away tucked against a corner on her chair.

'Mr. Roussos needs to rest.' They kept telling her... The reassurance it was 'just food poisoning' kept her mind at ease, even if they wouldn't let him leave without further studies. The last she needed to hear is that her spaghetti gave him an infection, but they wouldn't discard the possibility, as unlikely as it seemed to be.

Time passed like a blink of an eye. Enough for her to guesstimate the blonde's arrival to be at any moment and to dread the face-to-face meeting, with the only anchor being the sick man's poor stomach suffering from carbonara.

She just hopes her food was powerful enough to give him amnesia too and forget about whose the cook responsible for it in the first place...

@Luthien @Yugam

 

[Luthien]

She'd been huddled up in the living room minding her own business when the phone vibrated at her side, causing her eyes to look away from the video she'd been broadcasting onto her tv just in time to catch the name of the sender before it disappeared. It was an unexpected one, the pinkorilla had been giving Valeria the cold shoulder long enough that she'd even stopped texting Nico by now—hoping that if she gave her friend the needed space then she'd reach out eventually.

A hand reached for her device before unlocking it, the red alert bubble atop her messaging app causing Valeria more distress that it had any right to. "It's f-fine... It's fine." Quiet whispers were followed by a deep exhale as the girl got her nerves in order, finally tapping the green square on her screen to open up their conversation...

　

 [ Nico  ]

Ari got poisoned. I'll send u a link to track my location so u don't get lost on the way to the hospital.

　

 Live location has been shared.​

 Outgoing Call​

　

What do you mean Ari got poisoned?!​

 Outgoing Call​

 Outgoing Call​

　

Answer the phone, Nico!​

 Outgoing Call​

 Outgoing Call​

 Outgoing Call​

　

Nico!!! ​

​

Call after call and message after message, it didn't matter what method Valeria used to try and get a hold of the other, she'd either dropped her cellphone on accident into the sewers or—more likely—Nico was actively ignoring her now.

Two calls and another message were sent to Ari's phone then, hoping that the pinkette was just pulling a prank of the worst taste possible. When an hour or so had passed while her phone showed no signs of life from either of them Valeria had finally caved in, and she'd booked the first flight to PA she could find before packing lightly for the red-eye trip.

​

The duffel bag currently slung across her chest had been the most practical thing Valeria could think of. It was large enough to store her essentials and a few changes of clothes while still being compact enough that she could shove it under an airplane seat, ensuring that she wouldn't be forced to check-in any luggage in the worst-case scenario of all the overhead bins being full.

A part of her felt relief as she finally arrived to the hospital, the live location shared by Nico being her only guide when she'd called for an Uber ride over. The blonde and pink strands of hair were currently held in a messy bun as the girl marched straight to the front desk, the dark bag underneath her eyes a clear sign that she hadn't gotten a lick of sleep since the message Nico sent her the evening before.

@Nico | @Ari

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

Nico didn't give time for the man behind the desk to even address the blonde. Something something bad energies can be felt across the air, or her instincts were just that sharp when it came to spotting Valeria, despite her groggy body disagreeing with every step, refusing to let her balled fists out of her gray hoodie's pockets, letting her despondent face speak for itself.

"Second floor. I wasn't going to see him without you." Time and place made Nico hold back the contempt for the blonde. It was only logical for her not to face him with her hands empty. "Let's take the stairs." She hoped the hint was clear enough, and if anything else, the moment they stepped through the staircase would do so.

It's easier to keep their eyes off eachother and busy themselves with Ari as the only source of their concerns, specially with how tired she imagined Valeria to be. Her eyebags were enough for Nico to guess, but with how desperate the blonde was with each call and text, the flight, the wait and the lack of information must have been enough to load her with anxiety and concern for a loved one.

Hardly eye for an eye, but it was a start.

The shiny, smooth corridors within the hospital were clad with personnel going back and forth, the T.V adding another sound to mesh with the crowds and their own footsteps. One knock, two knocks, and Nico already pushed through the door...

"Are you awake, Romeo?" She spoke outloud, as if to wake him up if that wasn't the case, stepping to the side to let 'Juliet' take center-stage instead.

@Luthien | @Yugam