PHOENIX. [sequel to 067]

17. the night.

the day with dottore and being in snezhnaya was awfully nice. he bought you just about everything you wanted and carried it too. he did look somewhat ridiculous with about twelve bags on a single arm. there was the few bags from the clothing store, one from the jewelry store he showed, one from a kids' toys store because you had found the cutest little plushie, and the ones from book stores and craft stores. overall, the day was great.

you got whatever you wanted, dottore got to see you happy and waste pantalone's (regrator's) money. it wasn't long before the two of you had head back to the large building, which appeared as a palace, where you came from. you had assumed it was the fatui headquarters earlier, which it seemed to be so. the meeting was held there, dottore's "little" lab thing, etc. it was all there, so it'd make sense.

small grumbles and grunts left dottore's mouth as he walked with the bags all one arm. you'd offer to help him, but you couldn't help but enjoy him doing everything. everything. he would open doors for you, lift you over small puddles of melted snow so your (his) coat wouldn't get wet, he'd even shovel snow with his foot for you, as he had. all just so you wouldn't step in it anymore than you already have. it feels nice being treated this way, especially for the whole day.

a whole day of endless flirting, teasing, and being treated like royalty. could it get any better?

dottore motions for the guards outside of the headquarters to open the large, glass, front doors for the two of you. said guards were covered head to toe in armor, thick and heavy armor. it clanked as they moved, but they didn't seem to have a hard time moving at all. it's strange, but you dismissed any thoughts about it.

dottore takes you into the warm building after the doors were opened; you couldn't help but hum at the feeling of the warmness in the building. there's two large staircases in the front area, each with heavily detailed wood carvings and there's even small glass statues on the far edges of the steps. or maybe they were ice.. you don't know.

   "let me drop these off in my room, mi amor, and then i'll come back to get you and cook dinner," dottore says to you as he leads you towards one of the steps. he motions for you to sit on them, which you do, and he then takes his coat off from you.

he throws it onto his spare arm, pressing a kiss to the top of your head, and then goes up the stairs. effectively leaving you alone.

the kiss to your head was sneaky, you had to admit. it didn't technically cross anything, and you never said he couldn't do it; so obviously, he was going to take the chance to. it wasn't the worst thing, though. you had spent all day with him and ... over two million mora of his (pantalone's.) maybe he earned a kiss, or a few.

you could go up the stairs and surprise him. it would be the first time you'd be going up anything by yourself, though. you've crawled on your own, moved your arms and ate on your own, but you've never actually walked or went up stairs by yourself. you couldn't help but imagine that it's much different from having someone to lean onto, who would catch you if you fell. but you wanted to go up and meet him, and if you managed to go up the stairs then maybe you wouldn't need to lean on him so much. not like you minded it, though.