Shopping... Spree?

Cast: (M!Corrin x Velouria)
Prompt: Corrin and Velouria have a dinner date, and there's a cuddle moment at home.

Modern AU

There was a friendly smile on Velouria's face. "This place is so romantic…"

Corrin awkwardly shifted his eyes around.

"Uh… yeah…"

They were in Lobster Lord Pizza, possibly the noisiest and most chaotic pizza place in town. To its credit, the crowds were not so bad near closing time. Though it was understaffed, especially with two of the employees out on a delivery run at the moment. Still, Corrin knew how much his girlfriend loved this place, so picking a dinner date destination was easy.

"Do you like their napkins?"

Velouria looked up from the task of stuffing napkins in her pocket. "Hm? They have brown napkins here. I like those better, so that's good." She went back to stuffing her pockets. "White napkins look too clean. Like, why use something stark white to clean something? It's just going to get messy, white napkins don't need to pretend they're better than they really are."

People felt that Velouria was a little crazy. Sometimes Corrin himself thought that, especially when they first met. But over time he found himself more interested in her unique views, in the way she saw the world. Eventually that interest developed into a full-on infatuation with the girl. Corrin smiled.

"I guess that's another point in this place's favor."

"Are you going to eat your crust?" Corrin looked down. He had eaten his half of the pizza, but not the crust from two of his slices. He shook his head, and Velouria snatched them away. "Crust is my favorite part."

"I know."

As she gnawed on the crust, Velouria smiled. "Om, nom… Thanksh for taking m' he'."

"Haha! No problem. This place really isn't so bad."

The eccentric woman nodded, as she finished off the crusts, and then used her shirt to wipe her hands. She had a large supply of napkins at her disposal, yet elected to clean her hands with her nice shirt. Corrin quirked his brow.

"Why didn't you use any of your napkins?"

"Huh? That would ruin them."

"That's what they're for, though. You said it yourself, napkins get messy."

She winced, looking defeated. "That… That's true. But I also don't have a lot of napkins or towels right now at home."

"Really? Okay then. Why don't we pick some up for you once we get out of here?"

She narrowed her eyes in focus. "You're serious? You… want to go to the store with me. Me."

Then it all came back to Corrin. Velouria was notorious among all their friends for being an easily distracted, very eclectic shopper. Last month, Velouria need to buy a new pair of shoes, and instead left with several empty CD cases, a gift card for an online service nobody ever used, two toothbrushes, and off-brand cookies. Still, as long as Corrin was there, perhaps he could keep her focused.

"Sure, why not?"

They had arrived at Velouria's apartment two hours later. Corrin and Velouria had paid for the meal and left to Valmart a few minutes after their conversation, and it took two hours to finish their shopping. (Okay, traffic played a tiny role in that, but it still should have been a simple in-and-out trip to the store.)

"You could give Selena a run for her money," Corrin joked, as the two of them went to the kitchen. He looked at the haul. While he internally congratulated himself on picking up paper towels for Velouria, he also berated himself for not keeping an eye on her. Apparently she had snuck off with the shopping cart (which Corrin insisted they did not need), and went off to fill it with random objects.

"I see it as less shopping and more of a treasure hunt," Velouria said optimistically. "Like those vintage cereal mascot shirts."

"Who are they for? Those are children's size, and we don't even know any children."

Velouria focused on putting away the few practical groceries. "They're for me. I can't wear them, but they're fun to look at."

Corrin sighed. That was the most explanation he was going to get. He was not even frustrated. Corrin had come to accept these quirks of Velouria's long ago. It certainly helped that Velouria's tastes were on the cheaper end of things, meaning she went broke rather infrequently.

After helping Velouria unpack her 'treasures', she ran off to put them in different places in her apartment, something she insisted she knew how to best on her own. This left Corrin alone on the couch, leaning his head back. He had begun to doze off, when he felt something on his shoulder.

"…Velouria?"

"Hey."

She was resting against Corrin. He smiled. "All done?"

"Almost. But you looked like you needed company."

"Heh…"

"Hey…" Velouria's tone became uncharacteristically serious, "thanks for sticking around at the store. I'm sure it got frustrating. Even my friends don't like to shop with me. But I'm glad you did, and you didn't yell or something."

Corrin blinked, concern waking him up. "Do… do your friends yell at you?"

"No. I'm just glad you didn't."

A wave of relief went over Corrin. At least Velouria was not being harassed by any hateful false friends. "It's not a problem at all. It was actually kind of fun, looking back."

Velouria nestled herself against Corrin's shoulder even more. "I'm glad… to hear that…"

Corrin stayed there for a moment. He admittedly did not want to move from his spot, though he had stopped feeling tired. He wondered how long Velouria was going to stay cuddled next to him.

As if on cue, he heard her going, "Zzzz…"

"I see."

Corrin shrugged in spirit (as a literal shrug may disrupt his girlfriend's nap) and allowed himself to remain as Velouria's pillow.

A/N:

I think one of the reasons I took this request was so I could take a crack at writing for Velouria. She's a bit of an oddball, so I hope I was able to capture her essence. The major thing I'm missing is her idolatry of her parents, but we'll chalk that up to AU. The prompt didn't ask for it to be AU (but it didn't say 'no' either), so I thought I'd try flexing my Modern AU muscle once more.

Go to the blog if you have requests.