Policeman and the cat

18 - Breakfast in bed

After asking about her first memories Ian had become warmer, that was the best way to put it, he ruffled her hair more, patted her more, let her sit on his lap without tensing or showing odd expressions, and didn't mind one bit if she clung on him or hugged him or snuggled up to him.

She didn't even need to beat Chilli in power, she had become the number one pet just like that and it no longer bothered Nelly if Chilli sat on Ian's head because Nelly could hug him anytime and he would stroke her head.

Nelly was happy.

After one year of being invisible in the fish tank, she had gone back to being close and warm and being what she should be. And Nelly noticed that when she was close, she was sharing her aether with Ian, every astral she ate didn't become only her strength, but also his.

Aether said nothing of this, though. And she had learned a lot from the air in that classroom and the library and being around those cursed two. If the witches hadn't told about the gemheart curse and had the two not helped Ian out, then she would be very on guard around them. They really did smell like murderers.

Yet Joel and Wesley were nice people as far as Nelly could tell - they took them to eat good food and gave Ian advice and from the bits Nelly had caught in the library she knew that a 'dead zone' was just one name for a certain type of dryad's domain. Set locations-- Nelly drew a summoning circle for Purple's wisp in mid-air.

Ian would wake up soon. Some aether said it was nice to give the person you liked breakfast in bed, so-- Nelly caught on the wisp to draw it close and whispered to it--

"Take three-quarters of my aether and give two coffees with lots of milk," because aether said shared food tasted better and-- "something tasty for breakfast with chili inside," because Ian liked food with chili in it.

The wisp nodded taking aether from the hands she had on it. Phew-- it felt a bit tiring, but it was fine because they would take a detour and she would get to hunt some astrals.

Nelly let the wisp go and snuggled up to Ian again and moments before the alarm buzzed, two coffees appeared along with two bowls of something delicious scenting with tomatoes, eggs, and chili in it and the wisp disappeared.

***

Ian woke up to a delicious scent and alarm buzzed and as he reached out to press the button, he noticed that there were two glass mugs with cafe latte (the type he didn't have at home) and two bowls of huevos rancheros.

Nelly had a smug smile and a look that asked for praise-- just how cute could someone be? He messed up her hair with a smile. Just what sort of stuff was she picking up from aether in the air?

If this wasn't Nelly, he would feel she was trying to seduce him. Very successfully at that. Nelly wasn't making fun of his taste in coffee either and she ate spicy food-- if people could get familiars why did they ever look for girlfriends?

No, ok, romance with Nelly just didn't seem likely. But, by the same token, having a romance with Nelly around didn't seem likely either. There were some things in this life that were better not thought about-- Ian decided to postpone worrying about it and passed Nelly her glass of coffee-- then was left near tears about how delicious all this stuff was.

Ian had no idea what to do with the empty bowls and mugs but that was a needless worry, a wisp popped up to have them disappear--

"Wait up!" Nelly caught on to the wisp. "Can I set up a place for where to take Ian if he's injured and calls you?"

[Yes,] Came a reply and Nelly told what Wesley and Joel Garold had said and after [Preference recorded.] The wisp disappeared.

Ian was surprised to listen to Nelly set it up, he had been under the impression she was fully focusing on food and then on napping on his lap, but the way she explained it was even clearer than how he remembered it. Thanks to Nelly's surprise breakfast they got to leave the house even earlier than expected and Nelly could take her time hunting.