"As long as you are certain." She sighed and nodded. "I trust you." And she did. She trusted him with all that she was and all that she would ever be. "I believe in you. I know that we are good together, and if you think that it is going to work for you then I know it will work for me as well."
"It will work, Lilly, promise. Just cover your ears once he starts poking me. You really don't need to learn half of the bad words I know."
"I'll attest to that," Gav muttered. "Makes my ears burn every time I get near him with a needle. And I've been around him my whole life, including the war between your people and the races. Which, trust me, was no picnic and his language skills only seemed to get worse the longer it went on."
That had her laughing. "You do know that I am totally going to listen now, if only to pick up on a bunch of new and good curse words. I look forward to them, learning new ones, that is," she said with a smile. "Just sayin' is all," she teased happily.
"Most you likely won't understand," Gav told her with a chuckle. "After the first few minutes, he switches to his native tongue and even I have trouble figuring out what he's saying. And I speak his tongue, but even I don't know all the variations and intonations that go with the various words."
"Well I will listen very, very closely, and then maybe if I am lucky, he will tell me what the words mean later. Maybe if we are lucky, he will tell me and I can master a few words in his native tongue?" She was teasing Ax by talking to Gav about it, squeezing Ax's hand as she did so.
"You can ask, I don't think he'll tell you what any of them mean. Hell, I've been harassing him for years to teach me the cool ones and he won't. But then I know the general tongue of the Vhampire and he has the added bonus of knowing many of the local dialects of the various regions. Not something an outsider ever gets to learn," Gav told her as he poked at the lid on what Artaxias had pulled from the oven. "What is in here and why does it smell so good?"
"It's a casserole, a meal in a single dish. It has cheese, so of course it smells good to you. I could put cheese on your old gnarly runners and cook them up and you'd say they smelled good."
That had her laughing. "Oh God, you are too funny," she said with a smile. "All right, well here is the thing. Ax, I would very much like to learn the words that you will more than likely use. Will you teach them to me? Please?" She smiled as she asked the question.
"I'll teach you a couple," he said with a sigh. Reaching up, Artaxias brushed a finger down her cheek. "But if you ever use them on me, I will never teach you another one again." Leaning in, he kissed her gently. "Can you finish up the lemonade while I get the table set?"
"You betcha." She had leaned into his touch. She found that she did that a great deal lately. "I would like to learn them, and I will try very hard not to use them on you, but no guarantees, you know. Who knows when I might become über pissed off and have to pull out some random word to toss at you in order to throw you off your game?"
"Just not while we're being shot at or anything like that. Which reminds me, I'm only teaching you ones I think you'll be able to pronounce. And, for the love of all the Gods, never use them on another Vhampire. Mispronunciation can get you killed among those of my race," he said. Pressing a kiss to her lips, he was gone before she could get into enjoying it.
"Yeah, well, teasing your mate with a hint of a kiss and disappearing on her can get you killed as well," Lilly muttered as she finished preparing the lemonade. When she had the jug of lemonade made, she turned to put her back to the counter and grinned. "All right, now what can I do, boys?"
"Grab some glasses and ice, take everything to the table, and plop your gorgeous ass in a chair. Lunch is ready," Artaxias said, moving the casserole dish to the table. He went back to the fridge and returned a moment later with a salad and a couple choices of dressing in hand.
Doing as instructed, Lilly was shortly sitting and pouring them all a glass of lemonade, hesitating at the third glass. "Ax, do you want a glass as well? I still can't figure out if you eat, don't eat, drink, don't drink. I'm trying. I really am, but, well … help?"
"Yes I'll have some. I usually eat a meal here and there throughout the week. It helps my body build the blood-cell count, and I actually do enjoy it. It's just a hassle most of the time, so I usually cook something and pawn it off on Gav. Not that he's complained much. Well, except for that time about a month ago, he had to start letting his belt out an extra loop."
She giggled and shook her head. "Well, I hope that you will begin to share more meals with us now that I'm in your life. I actually do enjoy being able to sit down and share a meal with the two men that I adore most in the world."
"I can only eat a few times a week, no more than four meals or my body starts to get sluggish and I can't process the blood properly. So I tend to spread the meals out throughout the week and only eat at home. I never eat out. You never know what's going to be in something," Ax said, lifting the lid from the casserole. He handed her the spatula. "Ladies first," he said with a smile. In the next instant he smacked Gav's fingers with the salad tongs in a move she almost wasn't able to process. And the blasted man was still smiling even while he did the ninja move he just did.
Shaking her head, she laughed. "Goodness gravy, that was too funny." She scooped out her casserole and asked, "The two of you act more like brothers than anything. Are you really sure that this bonding between the three of us will work?" She was worried, honestly, worried she wouldn't be enough for both of them.
Gavriel touched her cheek gently. "Of course it will work, Lilly. We're fated to be, meant to be. There is no other woman that could put up with us as we are, or would want to. You accept us for who we are, in every way."
"I am more than a little attached to the two of you. I happen to really and truly adore you both. I don't know what I would do in life if I didn't have you, so I'm so very, very happy I met you when I did." She had been floundering and knew it.
"And we're here for you always, Lilly. You are never going to be alone again. So get all thoughts of that out of your head now. We're not going anywhere," he said quietly. Leaning over, he kissed her gently on the lips.
"Good." Lilly licked her lips and sighed happily. "Now, let's all sit our butts down"-she looked to Ax on this one-"so that we can eat this wonderful meal? Please?" It smelled so very good, all of it looked delicious, but she refused to start without Artaxias.
Gavriel pulled out her chair. "Dish up first, otherwise we'll never eat. He's seriously old-fashioned about such things. Ladies first and all that. Unless it's into danger, and then he goes first. Or pushes me into the line of fire."
"Well I happen to really love that about him, his old-fashionedness, if that is a word. Whatever, you know what I mean," she said happily. "He's mine and that, in the end, is all that matters. He's mine, you are mine, and I belong to you. Life is good that way."
"And he cooks, so really, you can only bitch so much. Unless you're shot and then bitch a lot," Gav advised with a grin. He moved to sit once she was settled. "And if you really want to irritate him, talk about him like he's not even in the room. Makes him go buggers." As Gav eased down into his chair, it was suddenly about four feet away and he hit the floor.
"Talking about me while I'm in front of you does annoy me," Ax said quietly. "But remember, I've got centuries on you, pup, and can get even in ways you could never imagine."
"Yes, this is very true," she said with a sigh. "I'm glad that you boys have such a calm fight," she teased. "I've seen some people who come to blows because of how they just can't seem to get along. So at least when you two don't ‘get along' per se, you still get along."
"Oh, this is fairly calm," Gavriel muttered, hauling himself up from the floor. He went to collect his chair and held onto it as he sat down. "Normally when I piss him off, I find myself in the gym being beaten on."