mr_gaeta | (no subject)

"I'm not sure," Hoshi tells him, craning his neck to get a closer look at the tag. "It says 'Merry Christmas.'"

He looks up at Felix.

"What's Christmas?"

"No idea," he mumbles, turning the tag over as if searching for more clues. Nothing's immediately forthcoming. "Huh. Should we ask?"

"Sure," he says, cheerfully. "Ask who? Because if we're talking about asking the Lady herself to explain her gift, I volunteer you."

Gaeta jaw drops.

"No," he protests, laughing, and gives Louis a friendly elbow in the side. "I was just thinking about asking Bar."

Hoshi laughs as well, untroubled by the elbow.

"Much better idea."

Gaeta wrinkles his nose at Louis, then leans in to peck him on the lips.

"Hi."

"Hi," he murmurs, smiling, and moves closer in order to return the gesture with a second kiss.

"Enjoying your down time?"

"I am," he says. Gaeta's smile grows as he leans his head on Louis' shoulder. "Look at me, willingly taking more time off for my birthday."

Well, belated birthday. Still.

He slips his arm around the other man and presses a quick kiss to his hair.

"Good for you," Hoshi encourages. "We'll have you doing that on a regular basis yet."

Gaeta snorts a fond laugh. "Let's not go too crazy here."

He turns his head just enough to regard the basket again, contemplative. "We could probably get away with breaking open one of the wine bottles, though. If you want to?"

"I think that sounds like a great idea."

Hoshi peers into the basket as well.

"Want me to get a couple of glasses?"

A passing waitrat, hearing the question, pauses and squeaks inquisitively at them.

"Sure," he says. Noticing the waitrat, Gaeta lifts his head to address it. "Um, just two wine glasses for now?"

The rat nods, lets out another squeak, and takes off in the direction of the kitchen.

"They're really attentive, aren't they?"

"More attentive butler rodents never existed," he intones, very seriously, and with a nod to match. Gaeta leans over to extract one of the bottles from the basket. "Oh, this one looks good."

They can afford to choose wines. Gods, this never gets old.

"It does," he agrees.

Hoshi looks thoughtful.

"If this Christmas thing is some sort of gift-giving occasion, should we get her something in return?"

"...Yeah." Gaeta studies the bottle, then turns his attention up to Louis. "We probably should -- just, um."

His smile looks a little more helpless than it did a second ago.

"I don't know either," he admits. "But I'm sure we'll figure something out. Maybe the Bar can give us advice on that too."

Gaeta nods. He tries to force his smile back into proper shape.

Lightly: "Kind of a daunting task."

"Not really," he murmurs, and puts his hand on Felix's back. Hoshi runs his hand up and down, trying to soothe.

"Remember, baby, she likes you for you. Any one of the Lords who can enjoy getting her hands dirty in a garden won't be offended by something simple."

"I know," he murmurs, unconsciously leaning into the caress. "But...she's done a lot for me. For both of us. How can we even start to -- "

He's interrupted by a tiny squeak. Beneath them, the waitrat twitches its whiskers, proffering a tray with two wineglasses and a corkscrew.

"We could pray?" he suggests, only half in jest.

"Oh-- thanks," he adds, and leans down to accept the stemware from the rat.

That earns another tiny huff of a laugh. "Something else I never thought I'd do before finding this place."

Gaeta adds a soft thank you of his own to the waitrat, taking the corkscrew to get to work opening the bottle.

Hoshi sets out both glasses on the nearby table, and watches Felix's efforts with a soft smile.

Pop. The cork comes free; Gaeta sets it aside, then leans over to fill both glasses. The wine smells as good as it looks.

(Especially after drinking Chief's hooch.)

"There," he murmurs. The bottle joins the cork.

He picks up the glasses and offers one to him.

"Nicely done."

"Thank you, lieutenant," he says, cheerfully, and accepts the glass. Gaeta lifts it a little. "Okay. What should we toast to?"

Not toasting with wine like this is just unseemly.

"I don't know."

Hoshi considers for a moment or two, then suggests,

"To Milliways? Without which we wouldn't have either this time or this wine?"

He hardly needs any consideration himself.

"Perfect," he says, and very gently taps his glass against Louis'. "To Milliways. So say we all."