Work Text:
"You've overdone it again," said Aventurine after a sigh. Arlan, in the middle of retightening the bandages around his knee, paused and looked up. His stare was unimpressed.
"You're one to talk," said Arlan sourly.
Well. There wasn't much Aventurine could say to that. To point out that Arlan had been a little too eager to step in front of Aventurine to bodily block an exploding bug would only invite Arlan to ask sharp questions about why Aventurine put himself in the thick of battle as if it were a compulsion. Easier to avoid talking about it at all, even though a twang of guilt plucked at his heart when he watched Arlan patch himself up.
It didn't take long for Arlan to finish. He stood up but kept his sword unsheathed now as he led the both of them onwards. Fortunately, they did not encounter any more insects, invisible or otherwise (speaking of which, just why were there what appeared to be Swarm insects on the space station? Arlan had seemed just as lost, which was an extra source of concern) as they arrived at their destination.
A huddle of cat cake creatures sat on the floor of the laboratory, mewing and humming at one another. The sight was enough to bring a smile to Aventurine's face, one that grew as he spotted his trio of troublemakers. This kind of socialization visit was why he had dropped by the space station in the first place. It'd do his cats some good to play around with their... siblings(? Or was it littermates? ...Batchmates?) once in a while. And also, Topaz wasn't about to pass up the chance to spend some time with Asta either, so after their latest assignment had finished, they both agreed that stopping by the HSS before continuing on to Pier Point wasn't the worst idea in the world.
"Adorable, aren't they?" Aventurine asked. He spread open his arms wide to scoop up Clubs (name courtesy of Topaz) and Spades (name courtesy of Jade). Herry--short for Herodotous, because that was the one he let Veritas name--whined at being left out, but Aventurine quite literally had his hands full already. He sent a plaintive look Arlan's way.
Bending over to pick up Herry, Arlan begrudgingly admitted, "They are cute. But not as cute as Peppy."
Aventurine laughed. "Agree to disagree, darling," he said. With his arms full of squirming cat cake, it was an exercise to lean over to kiss Arlan on the cheek without dropping one of them, but it was worth it to watch Arlan sputter and blush in response. "Now come on, we'd best be heading back. Or else Peppy is going to end up about ten pounds heavier if we don't stop Topaz from feeding him all her special gourmet treats."