Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What did you say you needed chopping? The carrots?”

Flertom looked up from the stove, where she was stirring a simmering pot, and said, “You don’t need to, I can—”

Chilchuck fixed her with a stare. She stared a challenge back, but gave up the effort almost immediately. “Yes, please,” she said.

The comfortable sounds of cooking settled over the kitchen as he took a seat and began working.

“So, when did you learn to get so good at that?” she asked over her shoulder after a minute.

“At what? Cutting vegetables?” he asked, scraping the first slices to the side of the cutting board and beginning on the second carrot.

“Hm… maybe,” she said. “Cooking. Helping.”

“Helping?” he repeated, pausing his work and looking up at her.

“Sorry, maybe that’s the wrong word.” She tapped excess sauce from the spoon and set it aside before turning to her father. “I guess I was just thinking you learned some new skills down in the dungeon lately.”

“Like helping and chopping carrots,” Chilchuk repeated flatly, just barely managing to keep a straight face.

Flertom crossed gracefully to take the seat across from him. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said earnestly. “Really.”

“Right, right.” He’d definitely drop the facade if he looked her in the face so he focused on the next carrot.

“I mean it.” Fler had taken so much more of her personality from her mother than from him. “I’m just worried about how things are going to go when Senshi gets here.”

His attention whipped from the food prep to her so fast he nearly cut himself. “What?”

“You said he’s a cook, right? Are you sure this food is going to be good enough for him?”

Oh. That. Chilchuck smiled. “I’m sure he’ll love it,” he said. “But why are you so worried about this?”

“What if he doesn’t like it though?” She pinned him with that innocent gaze. “What if he never wants to come back?”

“It’s not like he’s a customer,” Chilchuck replied, now baffled. “He’s just visiting, so if he doesn’t want to come back to the house, it’s fine.”

“It’s not. No one’s getting any younger after all, and the way you talk about him, it seems like he’s a really good person, so—”

“Wait, wait.” When Chilchuck had invited Senshi to visit, he’d invited his daughters as well because… well, because they were important to him. He wanted them to meet Senshi. But now he was starting to wonder if he hadn’t made a mistake. He knew she had her preferences. “Why are you so interested?”

“You’re always talking him up,” Fler said, tone seemingly innocent but there was a little smile that he wasn’t sure he trusted. “So I just thought—”

“He’s too old for you!” he blurted out, finishing chopping the last carrot and pushing the cutting board across the table.

“—for me?” she repeated, but, face burning, Chilchuk was already out of the chair and hurrying out of the kitchen.

Oh, he was a fool.

Flertom had never been exactly subtle about the dwarf husband thing, but he hadn’t been thinking about Senshi as a dwarf, he was just… just Senshi. The idea that one of his own daughters might be looking at this as some kind of dating opportunity hadn’t even crossed his mind. Clearly it should have.

Was it too late to—

“Dad?”

He turned to see Puckpatti running a cloth over a small table near the door with an air of finality. Then she grinned at him. “I think this is the cleanest this house has been since Mom was here.”

Despite his lingering anxiety, he chuckled his agreement. He’d finally come to terms with the end of that relationship—the ghost of their time together no longer haunted the house. And he was away too often to be hung up on deep cleaning.

“It looks nice,” he said. Then as though he could feel Marcille’s eyes on him, added, “Thank you for the help.”

“Of course,” Puckpatti said. “And I’m really glad you invited us to meet your friend! Just make sure you keep it clean, okay?”

She was trying to give him a stern look, but she was going to need a decade’s more experience to hone that look before it would work on him. “Why?” he asked, chuckling again.

“Well, if Senshi starts visiting more often—”

Her too?

“Wait, wait,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but-”

“Mom started dating again.”

He withdrew his hand as though she’d suddenly grown hot to the touch. “Yeah?” he asked. The news didn’t bother him, exactly, but why was she bringing it up out of the blue?

“And Uncle Senn and Aunt Jeid are worried. They say you don’t take care of yourself.”

He opened his mouth to argue the point, then closed it again and facepalmed instead. “And why are they talking to you about this?” he asked instead.

“Because we all think you deserve to be happy again,” she said, smiling sweetly.

He… What?

And what did this have to do with Senshi?

“Tell them if they have something they want to say about me, to come say it to me instead next time, okay?” he said, sidestepping the question entirely.

“All right, but I—”

They were interrupted by knocking at the door. Grateful for the reprieve from trying to understand what his girls were thinking, Chilchuck went to answer it.

Senshi, he could at least understand. It was always nice to see him. Comfortable. Warm.

Senshi had brought a dessert. As he introduced the girls, Fler took the pie, Mei said the table was set, and everything finally started to fall into rhythm.

______

“So Meijack, I hear business is going well?”

“It’s paying the bills,” she replied around a mouthful of food. Her mother had despaired of teaching her manners. Chilchuck hadn’t cared before, but tonight for some reason, he now wished he’d said something to her too.

“That’s the most important thing,” Senshi said, smiling warmly. “Keeping yourself fed and safe. Sounds like you’re doing well.”

Fler leaned forward, smiling and pushing her empty plate away. “So, can I ask what you do?”

Is she still going to try to hit on him? Chilchuck thought, mortified.

Not sensing Chilchuck’s thoughts, Senshi gave it some thought. “I guess you can call me a traveller,” he said. “All over the world, eventually. Seeing new places. Trying new things.”

“I bet you’ve seen some amazing sights,” Puckpatti said, rapt. Jeeze, these girls. Sure, Senshi was good looking, but—

“Things I never would have believed before Laios, Chilchuck, and the rest helped me expand my horizons,” Senshi agreed.

“That sounds nice,” Mei said. “You should take Dad.”

“Trying to get rid of me?” Chilchuck joked to try to prevent himself from dying of embarrassment at the hands of his brazen daughters.

“Am I wrong?” she asked, looping an arm over her chair’s back. “You two like each other right? I’ve never seen you so nervous as earlier today, and he keeps watching you—”

“Mei!” There was no joking out of this. Death by embarrassment it was.

“Uh… Dad?” Puck smiled tentatively at him. “Is she wrong? We all thought…”

“Yeah,” Fler said grinning. “He’s a catch.”

“And you’re not getting any younger,” Mei pointed out flatly.

Chil stared from one girl to the next. His daughters, ganging up on him, saying… saying…

He needed some space.

“I’ll clean up!” he said, hopping to his feet, gathering a few dirty dishes and heading for the kitchen as fast as his remaining scraps of his dignity would allow.

He was in the midst of scraping the scraps into a compost bowl when he heard the door open. One of the girls, here to continue teasing their dad? He turned around, ready to scold them.

Only to find Senshi there, several plates in his arms.

“Oh,” Chilchuck said, the righteous indignation melting into the sort of awkward self-awareness that always felt like it would kill him someday. “Hey, Senshi. Sorry about…” He hesitated, considering what to say, and decided on, “How I acted just now.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Senshi said, stepping over to the sink and setting the dishes down. “Your daughters are fine young women and they mean well, but that would have surprised anyone.”

The pair fell into a quiet rhythm, one scraping the scraps while the other began washing each dish in turn. It was almost comfortable…

But also awkward as heck. Why was their guest doing chores? Why was Chilchuck letting it happen? What if his daughters made a bad impression on him? If he misunderstood?

“If they’re going to act like that, they can stay home and make their own dinners next time,” he grumbled.

“So next time it’ll just be us?”

It was simply said, but something in Senshi’s words made him think back, somehow, to Mei.

You two like each other right?

“You sure you want to come back here?” Chilchuck asked, re-scraping the current plate.

“I’m sure if you’ll have me.”

Have me? Chilchuck felt his ears start to burn.

“You’re always welcome here, Senshi.”

“That’s right nice to hear.” Senshi’s hands slowed as he ran the washcloth over the current plate over and over. “And not to pry. But about what your daughters said—”

“What they said?” Chilchuck repeated, hoping his voice wasn’t giving anything away.

“You were looking forward to my visit?”

“Of course!” Chilchuck said, looking over at Senshi, meaning to assure him if he did have the wrong idea.

Senshi met his gaze with the almost maddeningly calm one he used way too often for Chilchuck’s taste. “And is that as a friend and adventuring companion?”

There was a weight in that question. “Well… yeah,” Chilchuck said. Looking away, eyes searching for everything but Senshi’s face. He thought about Mei. Her words. What she’d seen.

What he felt.

“But maybe not… only that,” he admitted. Then, as though the motion could eliminate the awkwardness of admitting something like that out loud, he began frantically scraping the second to last plate.

They once more worked in silence for a bit. Senshi broke it this time.

“There’s this place on the west edge of the continent. A little town that makes the most amazing smoked fish you’ve ever tasted. And if ye’ve a mind, there’s a spot where the sunset colors are more brilliant than anything I’ve ever seen. I’d love to show you.”

“What use would a lockpick and trapfinder be on a trip to see a sunset?” Chilchuck asked.

“Not looking to ask a lockpick. Just you.”

Chilchuck mentally groped for an answer. He wasn’t good with saying feelings out loud.

How did Senshi make it sound so natural?

“I’m serious,” the dwarf continued. “I know you have your business and home here. But if you want, there are things I want to show you. While we can.”

Chuckling, Chilchuck said, “I’d like that. I’d like to spend some time with you. Just with you. I’m sure the girls agree.”

“Girls?” Senshi repeated, puzzled. With a slight smirk, Chil spun toward the kitchen door, which was cracked open. They both heard a squeak and then three sets of feet hurrying away.

“They’re trying to chaperone us?” Senshi asked, chuckling.

“More like they’re snooping,” Chil replied fondly, sliding the last plate over to Senshi. As he went to pick it up, their hands touched.

The right, safe thing would be to pull away. But for just a few seconds, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. There was a warmth that spread from their contact, nerve-wracking but also pleasant in a way he hadn’t felt in a long while.

Maybe he hadn’t thought about it before. But now that he had?

He found he wanted to grab this opportunity with both hands and never let go.