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Time passes. Canada is cooperative about portals and now there's one each in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, on a second floor of the hub with customs agents Isabella is tolerating for the time being as long as they're well-behaved. Japan and Australia and the UK all follow suit at roughly the same time, so then there are portals in their big cities, too, a couple new ones per week. Other nations are slated to trickle in as they handle their red tape to deal with sudden new national borders that don't have the built-in delay of airplanes. Some of the parking garages are being replaced with custom-built installations. Isabella pays off her loan, renegotiates for the continued use of her shiny credit card, and has reason to be grateful for her retained law firm, which is kept busy by frivolous lawsuits by airline companies. She's not appreciably cutting into their traffic yet - sure, the price point is dropping, but they're still competitive. They can just smell their own demise coming from a mile away.
Five witches besides Isabella ward the colony site. Robots guard the site of the portal, obligingly letting colonists through during scheduled trips and reporting to Isabella by mirror if anybody else shows up. Other robots help the colonists with setting up their farms and houses in the warded area. It'll hold a city, no problem, although another transfer of silks and bags to pay for warding a second site is going to be called for before they get literally everyone across, since in addition to city they need farmland, and since they can't build vertically as effectively as fully industrialized Earthlings or the deceased aliens.
One day:
"It's been exactly a year now since you crashed my picnic. Let's go to a fancy restaurant and celebrate."
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"I'd probably let you kiss me if I had morning breath," she acknowledges.
prodigal_miser
"That makes me feel better. I'm still not getting up earlier, though."
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"I didn't expect it for a second."
Here is a delicious appetizer!
Here is a delicious appetizer!
prodigal_miser
He giggles.
Ooo! Delicious appetizer! It is exactly what is sounds like, on both accounts. Adarin tucks in.
Ooo! Delicious appetizer! It is exactly what is sounds like, on both accounts. Adarin tucks in.
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The rest of the dinner also proceeds deliciously, including the soufflé, which Isabella was very smart to order.
prodigal_miser
Adarin has cheesecake as a dessert, instead. Not quite as nice as the soufflé, but still delicious. He enjoys it, along with the rest of the dinner, quite a bit. He's not sure he could deal with going to a fancy restaurant all the time, but it's certainly nice on their anniversary.
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Isabella steals a bite of cheesecake.
"A lot of witches can't digest lactose. I am glad I am not one of those."
"A lot of witches can't digest lactose. I am glad I am not one of those."
prodigal_miser
"Huh. Yeah, that'd be annoying. How would you steal bites of my cheesecake if you couldn't eat it? I'd have to order something else."
prodigal_miser
"Very! I'd have to change a third of my recipes, as well, possibly more, just to cook for you."
prodigal_miser
"It would be very annoying," says Adarin, sappy smile on his face. "I would probably just stop cooking with dairy products entirely so I didn't have to have multiple cooking books."
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"You would give up butter and cheese and cream for meeee?" says Isabella. The sigh is exaggerated. Her reciprocal sappy look isn't.
prodigal_miser
"I suppose so! But also for organization and storage space. Too many cook books and I would get incredibly annoyed and try to alphabetize them all."
(He loves her so much.)
(He loves her so much.)
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"Ah, so you'd give up dairy for me but you would not alphabetize. I see how it is," she teases.
prodigal_miser
Adarin snickers. "A man has to have boundaries, my dear. Alphabetizing is one step too far, I'm afraid."
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"How fortunate that I do not much find there to be much call for it in my life."
prodigal_miser
"Very much so. I like our relationship, let's not let alphabetizing come between us."
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"I like our relationship too."
(Under the table, Path is snuggling up to Vern like he's not a witch's daemon and she's a space heater and they are in Alaska.)
(Under the table, Path is snuggling up to Vern like he's not a witch's daemon and she's a space heater and they are in Alaska.)
prodigal_miser
Hand-kiss, because there is a table in the way and he can't kiss her properly.
(Vern is snuggling Path right back, nestled comfortably and making soft cooing noises.)
(Vern is snuggling Path right back, nestled comfortably and making soft cooing noises.)
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"So now that we have finished our desserts we could go look for floating candle holders."
prodigal_miser
"Yeah," agrees Adarin, grinning. "And a suitable body of water."
prodigal_miser
"River or lake. Lake's the tradition, though - ocean isn't calm enough."
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"There's ponds in Central Park, or we could portal to Chicago and put 'em in Lake Michigan." She heads out of the restaurant and starts peering around for likely places to buy floating votive candle holders.