[Closed] Season Of Romance

[skyward_eyes]

Who; Nida, Yuki, Jacob, Ignis
What; The giving of gifts to a husband. And maybe some romantic meddling during separate training sessions.
Where; Ignis and Nida's Home
When; During Cherishment
Warnings; None

I. Gifts Given To Students - Closed to Yuki and Jacob (Separately Though)

There was nothing to make the world more alive than the rush of fighting. Training was the closest he could come, and for Nida there was at least his two students to help him. They came in on a schedule now that the workout room had been finished at the house, and he was happy to make time for them when he wasn't working for himself. Such a today, when he had a plan. He had Yuki and Jacob both coming in today, and just inside the room was two little bags, both made of soft gray fabric. They were his plan.

And there a knock at the door to the house. Nida smiled and moved to answer it. It was time for a sesson, and further supporting his wonderful students. Just call him a match maker. Or reinforcer? Whatever.

"Hey, you ready for your workout?"


II. Time for a Husband | Closed to Ignis

Did it matter that they'd already had a playful set of nights for Ignis's birthday recently. But Cherishment seemed like another one of those traditions he didn't mind. And honestly, he liked all of this. There was something similar back home, Heart Day, where people exchanged gifts and the like with friends and lovers. So this one was something he knew how to deal with. He'd gone to the flower shop to get a bouquet, he'd gathered what he needed to cook a meal on his own, and of course he had the gift.

Gifts and spoiling each other seemed to be what Ignis and Nida did.

"Babe?" Nida called out as he came home that evening. He thought Ignis shouldn't be home yet. And... Well, if he wasn't...

Nida smiled and moved into the kitchen. Time to cook.

Comments

Husband

[faithfulsupport]

Ignis hadn't known what to even begin to think about this new holiday. He'd saddled up the chocobo and on his way to work, he stopped and bought some fresh ingredients as was his usual. So by now most of the shopkeepers knew him by sight. But today what caught his attention was the unusual display of hearts and things of a more romantic nature.

So he made a mental note, finished his usual shopping, and brought it all back to the Lodge for everyone to unpack and put away. But he then spoke with some of the other chefs and had them take over for the last half of the day which allowed him to pack more large sacks for shopping because the others were full of fresh ingredients from the market. And so after a half shift, he brought his chocobo mount back to the shops. Ignis dismounted and started looking around after pulling the sacks off of the back of the saddle on the bird.

Nida came to mind first and foremost, but he thought some of the decor and things might look great at the Lodge too. And so began his shopping trip for Cherishment. The first thing he saw was heart shaped pastries, which he learned were called macarons. So he bought red velvet ones with cream cheese frosting, and pink ones with lemon buttercream. There were some coffee flavoured ones too, so he picked them up for himself. Of course then he saw hot chocolate bombs and so he was definitely bringing those home.

For the Lodge he ordered lots more of the two kinds of macarons he chose, several orders of the hot chocolate bombs, some really fancy pink tea cookies and red rose cupcakes. Those he had shipped to the Lodge itself so he wouldn't have to make several trips.

Coming home with the macarons, hot chocolate bombs and a bouquet of roses, Ignis came in the door. Something smelled good and he smiled as he walked in the door.

"Darling?"

Re: Husband

[skyward_eyes]

So many tasty things that Nida could partake of after dinner. As it was he was busy stirring a very carefully made stew. And when he heard Ignis's response he smiled.

"Kitchen," he called back. "Trying my hand at this cooking thing."

As if he didn't do it, what, once a week at this rate. Sometimes just for himself at his apartment because of work, but always once a week.

[faithfulsupport]

Ignis went wandering into the kitchen when he heard Nida's voice calling to him. But then he spotted his husband cooking and Ignis was touched the man was moved to make dinner for them. So he carefully set everything down on the table and stood behind Nida, peering over his shoulder.

He placed a soft kiss to his husband's cheek and smiled. "Well I see you have dinner planned and underway. Do you need me to help set the table?" That was a throwback to how they first started this whole cooking thing. It had been surprising to Ignis, but the man had insisted on helping if the advisor was cooking for them both,

[skyward_eyes]

Stew was one of the more complicated things he could make, even if he knew it wasn't that complicated. But this was a lighter one, in its own way, and he even had some bread, but he didn't want to have too much of either. Considering he had other plans that needed them not stuffed.

"Would you be so kind? I didn't get home as early as I wanted, and you seem to have rushed."

[faithfulsupport]

"Of course I can do that." Ignis replied, sounding playfully offended as he turned away to get the table set. It was an easy enough task. "And I'm always in a hurry to get home to the man I love." Sure it was sap, but it was real sap and he meant every word he said.

As he passed by Nida with their plates and bowls, he stopped to give the man a gentle kiss on the cheek and kept moving.

[skyward_eyes]

"You were, but I was hurrying to surprise you," Nida chuckled. "My love, we rushed ourselves quite a bit, perhaps needlessly. But I thank you for being here."

The kiss made him hum in delight. "Happy Cherishment. If that's what it's called."

[faithfulsupport]

Ignis smiled at his husband. "I suppose it was a mutual rushing in this case with both of us in a hurry to get home to the other." And if that was the case, he was just happy as he could be with that thought.

There was another smile. "It's similar to Valentine's Day though isn't it?"

[skyward_eyes]

"Valentine's Day?" Nida asked, looking over his shoulder at his husband. Yet another term he'd never heard before in his life.

[faithfulsupport]

"I overheard a person here or two speak about it." Ignis shook his head. "One of the non locals, bear in mind. But the way they were describing it, it sounded somewhat similar."

Gifts

[areasontohope]

Yuki had shyly bought a few things for Jacob when he heard more about the hype of the holiday. But he made sure he made time for sensei, because he didn't want to slack off and get out of shape somehow. He had to stay fighting fit because he had more of a reason now.

And fighting would keep his mind off of the man who occupied so many of his thoughts, especially since there was this crazy holiday going on or whatever. So he had dropped Haru off at the Chocobo farm for a few hours and knocked on Nida's door. He was excited because this would be his first time seeing the man's house.

Once he saw sensei, he nodded. "I'm ready."

Re: Gifts

[skyward_eyes]

Hibiscus, off in her own room, warbled a hello at the knocking, knowing that this time of day was Yuki's. Sometimes he brought Haru and that always made the chick excited. But that he hadn't today wasn't a problem at all. Nida didn't want the distraction.

He opened the door and nodded to his young student.

"I think today we're going to put you through your full kata with a live blade. See how you're progressing."

[areasontohope]

It had been a little bit of an ordeal to find the place, but now he was here and it was just beautiful. There even looked to be the start of a garden somewhere and of course he was a gardener himself. But he would wait to see if that would get brought up at some point, because he could totally help.

But at seeing sensei, he nodded and was excited. A live blade, this was going to be fun. "Will you be practicing with me too?"

[skyward_eyes]

"We're not to live blade sparring yet," Nida said. "But if you want to see a performance, I suppose I can try and put on a bit of a show."

But that could wait. Nida nodded for Yuki to follow him through to the proper space.

"You brought your blade?"

[areasontohope]

"Right, I don't want to spar that way with you yet." Yuki replied, shaking his head. That was something he didn't mind working up to, but he didn't want to do that today. He did smile when he heard sensei would put on a show. Quietly he just followed Nida to the spot and started untying his sword from his back.

"Yes."

[skyward_eyes]

"Good. You've got a lot of potential and skill, but you aren't there yet, not with live steel."

Especially with how Nida was half worried that if they did spar together, with that blade in hand, Nida might snap. No, he wanted to make sure that he had someone else there used to combat to help if Nida got to that point. So that they could step in. Of course then he'd have to find someone he could. Maybe that Illyana lady. She apparently had serious magic.

"Good to hear. But before that, I wanted to give you something."

[areasontohope]

He just smiled because Shishō back home taught him to work with live steel. But every teacher was different and had different ways of teaching and Yuki absolutely respected that.

He was the student here, and was here to learn, not here to try and be the teacher.

But hearing that sensei had something to give him had Yuki confused. What was it he was getting? His mind searched and there was nothing he'd asked for. "You..do?"

[skyward_eyes]

They were different, and Garden insisted on never teaching early stuff with live steel. And that was a hard rule that Nida always followed. Granted he was primarily a polearms trainer, and those misused could be very bad.

"I do," Nida agreed, reaching for one of the gray bags inside the door. He considered for a moment, Yuki's hair and how he normally dressed, and decided to select the white bracelet with the single black bead. That bag he held out to Yuki. "A gift from a mentor."

Gifts <3

[brotherofagod]

Jacob had already gone on a run that morning but it wasn't until his workouts with Nida that he'd really work up a sweat. It was also with Nida that he got his ass kicked but it was more enjoyable now that he was a bit closer to Nida's level. Even if his skill with a bo staff needed massive improvement.

"Ready? Not really." He grinned. "But I like it that way. Fighting never happens when you're ready for it anyway."

He stretched his arms over his head before walking inside and grabbing the staff he store at Nida's home. "You going to break a sweat today?"

[skyward_eyes]

Nida had been happy to guide the guy back to the training room, and he was happy to pick up his own staff as well.

"Maybe. Yuki was already in this morning, so I'm a bit more warmed up than normal," Nida answered with a shrug. "Who knows, maybe you can get me to crack a single drop of sweat."

[brotherofagod]

Jacob stretched his neck until a soft pop released the tense in his shoulder muscles. "I'll take that challenge." He was getting better at using a staff and knew that he'd be able to give Nida a good work out, even if he would inevitably lose. Luckily, he didn't care if he lost. All that mattered was he learned.

"You aren't working Yuki to hard are you?" His relationship with Yuki had been going well and while he was generally a private person, Nida was the exception. Nida knew them both and was skilled at giving advice.

[skyward_eyes]

Nida has to chuckle at Jacob's concern over Yuki.

"Really? You're more interested in someone else's training than your own? Might have to knock you down to size for lack of attention, Jacob. His training is his own, and he's proving to be good with the sword."

Soon Nida would need to figure out if he could control himself in a sword fight, but that wasn't today.

"Got you a gift, though. Do you want it now or later?"

[brotherofagod]

"Learning with a distraction can be helpful." He shrugged but his snarky grin never left his face. It was easy for Jacob to clear his thoughts of distractions but he waited until the very last moment to do so. It helped him react to surprise attacks faster, which was imperative when fighting against the super natural.

"A gift? I didn't get you anything." He didn't know what to even get Nida. "Let's do it now." Because that was absolutely going to distract him.

[skyward_eyes]

"Yeah, because you handled it so well when you watched Ignis and I spar. But that's not what we're doing today, Jacob."

He guides them into the training room and gestures to a gray cloth bag on the table in the corner. "There you have it."

And inside he'd find the bracelet Nida had chosen, one to match Yuki's. Just a set of polished black stones shot through with bits of white. With a single white bead shot through with black in the middle. One that would be the exact opposite partner to Yuki's.

"I didn't ask you anything. But I reserve the right to spoil my students. Just wait until you prove yourself enough for me to get you a weapon, like the sword I got Yuki."

[brotherofagod]

Jacob took out the bracelet and grinned as he slipped it onto his wrist. It fit comfortably and wasn't too heavy. He figured he should practice with it on if he was going to wear it. "Thanks. I like it."

He turned back towards Nida and got ready to spar. "You know I have daggers already." Jacob didn't use many weapons except for the two daggers that he kept hidden on his body. Otherwise, he focused on observation and movement in order to escape danger.

His daggers are the only weapon he's mastered.

[skyward_eyes]

Good. Nida smiled at the eagerness to put it on. Yes, this would do very well in his books. AS it was, he huffed at the daggers comment.

"You might want to talk to Ignis about those, if you want a sparring partner. The knives he uses aren't small, but he's good with them. And there's a difference, you know, between already having another weapon, and receiving a weapon from me, you scamp."