ON HIATUS

Runwil puts his hands on Suula’s shoulders, leans back slightly and takes a good look of his face, smiling widely with the corners of his eyes wrinkling.  

He grimaces a bit but then utters a small laugh./

I have missed you too, uncle. Don't worry, I have fared quite well despite the climate... and the native folk./Suula looks around for Runwil's luggage, then fixes his eyes back to the frost mage./

Runwil is greeted by the warmth of a huge hearth on one side of the hall when he steps into the main building of the Embassy. Halfway up the hill, the wind had picked up and before they noticed they were in the middle of a snow storm.

Now even though the Interrogator is a frost mage and cold shouldn’t affect him that much, he finds himself shivering while shrugging off the snow from his shoulders. Truly, his (regrettably) unrelated nephew had not exaggerated the hideous weather of Skyrim in his letters! 

Speaking of such nephew, the Interrogator checks the hall, his emotionless face melting into a soft smile when spotting Justiciar Suula standing on the other side of the room, having obviously been waiting for him. Not even sparing a nod of farewell to his escorts, he strides towards the much younger mer. 

It doesn't take long till he hears footsteps and the mage fixes his posture - and not a second too early as he hears a voice greeting him and in an instant is being embraced by a tall, much older mer, his scent (still surprisingly familiar) filling his senses. Smiling to himself, Suula wraps his arms around the taller mer and momentarily presses his head against his chest, before letting go. He looks at the Interrogator and gives him a lopsided smile./

They sit and talk for a while, the sweetrolls disappearing into their stomachs and leaving only crumbs behind on the table. It is surprisingly pleasant to converse with the Justiciar, Tilhi notices once again - despite his scornful nature. Before they notice it has become quite late although Tilhi is not displeased. 

He is a little relieved when Tilhi begins to gather the dishes, but also surprised to hear that the redhead found his company that enjoyable. He does not recall anyone else ever even saying something like that to him, not really knowing how to feel about it or how to react to it. Suula returns the smile and gets up./

"That is great to hear. Thank you, Suula." 

He is incredibly glad that he won’t have to run into Runwil in the hallways or dining hall on a daily basis. 

At the Justiciar’s comment on the pastry he chuckles and picks up the other sweetroll. He takes a bite and shrugs.  

"That is… purely my own personal wish", he admits, finally looking back at Suula. "The Embassy would of course gladly house my father. But." 

The Justiciar raises his brows at the question./

He blows into his own tea to cool it down a little and sips it. It tastes good enough for him without any sugar. Thinking about Suula’s sweet tooth, however, reminds him of someone else. 

Tilhi takes two cups from the shelf and places one of them in front of Suula along with a spoon. Steam is rising from under the lid of the kettle and Tilhi takes a small bag of fine quality tea leaves (imported from Alinor, of course) and measures three spoonfuls into it. 

"Good, I’ll heat up some water." 

The taller mer leaves the bedroom and goes back to the kitchen. He searches the cupboard for a kettle and pours water in it, then walks to the lit fireplace and places the kettle in the middle of it, hoping it won’t take too long to boil and goes to get the sweetrolls. 

"They are fairly fresh, I got them this morning from someone who has been watching me work with the recruits", he utters a small laugh. 

"Alright, you can take him to the bedroom. I don’t have a basket or anything for them so they sleep on my bed."

He notices that the cat has stopped purring as he places it next to its mother. It does not even bother to reposition itself more comfortably on the bed, it just makes a quiet sigh and falls asleep. The blonde hems./

He finds kittens quite enjoyable to touch, though. They are just so incredibly soft and warm. But pretty much everything else about cats are not so pleasant. One of his relatives used to have a cat, and it brought dead rodents into their house, sometimes carried the filthy thing to their bed. Disgusting.

Soon he quits scratching and petting the cat, giving a questioning look to Tilhi./

He takes the toy from Suula and chuckles. 

"That is what they do. Little kittens give their hundred percent for everything, or that’s how it seems, at least." 

The redhead walks to one of the kittens and gently lifts it up, stroking its fluffy fur. The kitten is tired from the play and having a full stomach so it only yawns and calmly looks around from so high up. 

Well, Alright.

/The Commander lowers the cat into Suula's arms and he is surprised how light it is. And also incredibly soft. The Justiciar thinks that it would be wonderful to have a fur coat made of cats. It is a shame that felines are so small. 

He tugs the pine cone up, away from the kittens’ grasp and holds the stick out for the Justiciar. 

Sure. /He takes the stick and waves it around, and the kittens jump around it. One gets a hold of the cone, and it kicks it with its little ears pinned back, then suddenly it gets up and runs to under the table. Suula moves the stick so that the cone moves in one small circle, making some of the kittens spin when trying to follow it. The blonde laughs.

He plays with them for a while, but after a bit the cats one by one get too tired to chase the toy. One is laying on the floor, still keeping its blue eyes on the pine cone, its small chest moving up and down at a fast pace. The mage clears his throat and hands the stick over to the redhead./