The Apartment Above the Photo Hut - Wednesday Afternoon

[flamesburned]

Liz supposed she did need to call Dr. Lecter, especially since Rain was still living with him and she knew that Hellboy would like to see her when he came to visit for the weekend. She had managed to talk to Dr. Lecter for a while at the picnic the other day but she hadn’t had a full conversation with him about what the next part of her ongoing therapy and treatment would be. So she decided to place a call after his class on Wednesday.

After she had done that, she decided to do a bit of work in the apartment instead of heading downstairs.

She sat down on the couch, trying to get comfortable with her laptop and began to do some work, deciding to get a head start on the end of month reports that she needed to work on. She also made sure to have some fruit with her to snack on, still feeling guilty about admitting to how poorly she had been doing for a while to Prompto and Dr. Halstead.

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[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto's sleep schedule was all sorts of messed up right now as he started getting used to just being back and having proper days again, and just generally acclimating himself to a very different, significantly quieter life than he'd had in the past few years. And even though they were starting to grow out of that initial clinging stage upon his return to the arrival, it was hard for Prompto to not feel compelled to just sort of...hover around Liz at all times. He tried to give her space, though, because the last thing he'd want was to overwhelm her and have her get sick of him before he'd even made it a full week back, buuuuut....

That was why, at some point, Prompto dangled a bottle in front of Liz from behind the couch. "Water," he announced, because Dr. Halsted had emphasizes hydration a lot. He waited for her to take it before launching himself over the back of the couch to settled down into the seat next to her, craning his neck toward the computer to see what she was working on, although, really, it was just an excuse to lean into her a little, and he grinned over at her.

"I'm just here to make sure you don't work too hard," he informed her. "Don't mind me."

[flamesburned]

Liz gladly accepted the bottle of water and took a long mouthful of it. She knew she definitely needed to drink more water.

“Thank you,” she said when she finished drinking.

She smiled brightly up at him, not minding the leaning at all, she angled her laptop towards him, showing her half written financial report that she was preparing so she could show Professor Broom on the weekend.

“I will try not to work to hard,” she promised, “I thought I’d get a head start on some reports, especially with the weekend coming up,” she paused, “did I tell you that Professor Broom and Hellboy are coming to visit?” she asked.

[hashtag_chocobro]

And here Prompto was going to make some quip about how she should just pass those reports over to him to do the next time he had trouble sleeping at night (it had....definitely been an issue), but that last part just threw him right off that point. His eyebrows lifted.

"No," he said, "I don't think it's come up..."

To be fair, though, they'd had a lot to go over so far!

Just excuse him a moment as he started to brace himself for what he could only imagine was going to be a harsh but justified rebuke for the whole 'disappearing for four months/ten years' thing. But he'd been facing daemons practically five times Hellboy's size on the daily for the past decade, this should be fiiiiine, right?

[flamesburned]

“Oh,” Liz realised that with everything that had been happening, she’d forgotten to mention about Parents Weekend, “it’s Parents Weekend this weekend, HB and Professor Broom both said they could come,”

Honestly she was just glad that it was Professor Broom and not say Agent Manning, because it was definitely still awkward with everything that had happened with Pittsburgh.

“It’s …” and now she was beginning to realise the other issue since she knew Hellboy was definitely over protective with everything regarding the pregnancy and Prompto’s absence and she wasn’t sure how he was going to take with Prompto being back, “I told them you were back,” she said quietly.

[hashtag_chocobro]

And Prompto knew he deserved any ire or anger that was directed at him in light of everything that had happened, but that didn't mean he was prepared for any of it. And he didn't really think the few days he had until then would be enough to really get there.

He'd probably never get there, to be honest, so he'd just have to be ready to suck it up and take it.

He was quiet for a moment, just leaning on Liz's shoulder with his own.

"Did they say anything about it?" he finally, quietly, asked.

[flamesburned]

“I talked to Professor Broom, he was happy you were back,” Liz told him, as she leaned in closer to Prompto, lowering herself to get in a comfortable position, “I … I didn’t talk to HB, I - I don’t know what his reaction is going to be,” she admitted, she was hoping she could intercept him before he talked to Prompto but she also knew how he could be … especially with that very first meeting before they had ended up bonding over the cats and Leo.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Well," said Prompto, after another long moment, "I guess we'll find out."

And since Liz had shifted her position a little, Prompto did the same, shifting in a way that hopefully made it more comfortable for her, with his arm going around the back of the couch and her shoulders.

"How did they take the news?" he then asked quietly. "When you told them you were pregnant?"

[flamesburned]

Prompto changing his position did help Liz get more comfortable as she snuggled in closer to him, careful to not let the laptop fall as she did. She realised that it would have been better to set aside the laptop for the time being but she was quite comfortable leaning against Prompto now and she didn’t want to move.

“They didn’t want me to go back to Fandom initially,” she admitted, “they were concerned with … everything …. If I was going to be able to cope with my powers,” she paused, “they wanted me to have the baby at the BPRD, that it would be safer than going back to Fandom but I … I wanted to go back …. I knew if I waited long enough, I … you would come back,” she added quietly.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto couldn't really blame them for that one, either. Had he been in their position, he probably would have felt the same way. But Liz's explanation for her reasoning on returned had him closing his eyes, tilting his head against hers after pressing a kiss into her forehead.

"I'm sorry it took me so long," he said.

Even f it hadn't been as long as it could have been, it had still been far too long.

[flamesburned]

Liz closed her own eyes, feeling the comfort from Prompto’s embrace and the kiss on her forehead, “you don’t have to apologise,” she told him, she couldn’t help but feel guilty when she remembered how she had been at the start when Prompto had first left and why she had been back at the BPRD in the first place, “you came back, you’re here with me now …” she said softly, “you’re still here,”

[hashtag_chocobro]

"I'm still here," Prompto confirmed,now resting his chin on the top of Liz's head as he pulled her in a little closer. "And you're here, and our daughter, too. We even got to see her yesterday, and she's healthy..."

Despite Liz's negligence, apparently, but he wasn't going to focus on that.

"It's all going to be okay now..."

[flamesburned]

Liz winced a bit at the healthy part, she knew she was very lucky that she hadn’t caused any long term side effects, she still felt guilty that she hadn’t t been able to properly look after herself and their daughter.

“she’s amazing isn’t she?” she said softly as she recalled seeing the image of her for the first time.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Yeah, she is," said Prompto, with that small bud of warmth and wonder already starting to bloom within him over the whole thing, where it was only going to keep growing and growing until he was downright insufferable about the whole thing.

"Already starting to take after her mom."

Okay, scratch that, make it more insufferable than he was already.

[flamesburned]

Liz started to blush at that, “you really think so?” she said softly, “I think she looks a bit like you,”

She tried to lift her head to look up at him without moving too much.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto laughed at that, but there was a little hitch at the end, because gods, he hoped she didn't look like him, like Verstael, like all those dead Magitek soldiers...

Clinging to that laugh, his tone went thoughtful.

"Vague, fuzzy, indeterminate blob with a big head? Small hands? Yeah, that sounds just about right."

[flamesburned]

At the mention of fuzzy, Liz did have to glance at the stubble on Prompto’s chin, especially now that it had been pointed out to her.

She smiled, looking back up at him, “who is also very handsome as well,” she added, her blush deepening as she said it.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto's smile in response to that was soft and grateful, though his eyes were a bit distant, not quite looking at Liz, instead just sort of rubbing her shoulder as he tried to reconcile a compliment like that with the fact that there were some days where he couldn't even stand to look at his face in a mirror...

"Naaaah," he said, light as he could, maybe even a little teasing. "Any good looks are obviously coming from your side."

[flamesburned]

Liz smiled softly at both the shoulder rubbing and Prompto’s compliment, “I can’t wait to meet her, she’ll be here in five months,”

There was still an awful lot of work that had to be prepared, she did wonder if they were going to have time to complete everything.