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Date: September 25th, 2000
Status: Vaguely Public - Sphix, Anathema, Aziraphale, Loki, War, Uriel
Setting: Tadfield Dining Room
Summary: Care to have a bite?

It had been, precisely, one week, and another thirty-three nanoseconds, according to Aziraphale's entirely ethereal* watch.

Not that he was counting.

He had tried not to think about it, and that didn't work; he had tried to think about it, and that went even worse. The only thing left now was to distract himself from it, and all the books in the library did were remind him of his bookshop, and with that the fire, and with that Cr- someone's heroic efforts.

Naturally, Aziraphale did what any angel would do when faced with this situation: he went for lunch, downstairs. It was stubbornly quiet when he walked in - he'd come in a bit early, after all - but it would pick up, he knew. The angel took his newspaper, newly purchased from the front desk, and made himself comfortable.

*It appeared to only keep the hour and minutes, in a grandfather-clock face with Roman numerals, but did far more. 'Appearances were often deceiving' appeared to be a recurring theme this week.

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"I'd also like a glass of milk, actually," Uriel said, smiling. "And as for the actual food, I'd like rice, chicken, and some salad, please." She almost shuddered at the mere thought of raw meat. Thankfully morning sickness was now a thing of the past, or merely hearing Sphinx order her own lunch would have been enough to send her to the bathroom.

Bran kicked as though to express his opinion about such things, and Uriel set a soothing hand on her stomach. No, she wouldn't touch raw meat even if it wasn't unhealthy for pregnant people. Her son would have proper nutrition.

Wensley repeated the orders on the slip of paper in his hand, double-checking that the orders were right. There hadn't been a table in this large for a few weeks.

"I'll be right back with everyone's drinks," came the reply, and with a nod and a smile, he was back in the kitchen.

Ana watched as Wensleydale walked away and turned her head in Uriel's direction.

"How is the baby doing? Do you need any thing else for headaches, or is everything alright?"

Personally she hoped that everything was alright, it wasn't healthy to take any kind of pill during pregnancy, not even something for headaches.

"Oh, the baby is doing very well," Uriel said, "and the headaches seem to have ceased for now as well. Thank you for asking, though." She smiled down at her stomach, patting it as Bran kicked again. "The baby's been very active lately. So, I may have a very playful case in my hands in a few months -- or one that likes abusing its mother," she chuckled.

Of course, thanks to Bast she knew that she was having a boy, but she didn't want to tell that to anyone just yet. She wanted to keep it her own little secret for a little while longer still.

Anathema smiled widely at hearing that the pregnancy was doing well. It was always a good thing to hear. "Well, may everything go smoothly for you for the rest of the pregnancy."

Loki smiled slightly at Uriel's confirmation that all was well with the baby, but didn't look up from his folding. The finished piece wasn't quite as symmetrical as he'd hoped, but it was recognisable as a ship, if not the Viking longboat he'd been aiming for. It would do.

For a moment he wondered what to do with it, then remembered his companions.

"Here, for you," he placed the little ship in front of Uriel.

"Thank you," Uriel said, smiling at Anathema. Then, as Loki gave her the little ship, she continued, "And thank you, too. It is adorable!" She picked the little ship up carefully as though it was a precious treasure. "Although now I feel a bit like a little child the nice big brother is trying to cheer up," she added then, grinning at the god.

Loki looked at her in alarm. "Why, do you need cheering up? Is something wrong?"

She'd just said the baby was fine, hadn't she? What else could be upsetting her?

Aziraphale felt awful about being relieved that he - and misery apparent - were being left alone that he sat, quietly, nodding to the conversation thus far, and turned to Uriel when she spoke.

"I think it may have been a figure of speech," he said gently, as somewhat of an apology for sending the group's attention her way.

"Loki, my dear, your hair is very - well, you have some. Why the change of style?"

Oh fuck! Did Ezra have to say that right in front of Uriel?

"Well, yes, it grew back and I decided to leave it for now. Seems a lot of people didn't like the way I looked without it."

He shrugged. "I'm trying to figure out what I like better myself at the moment."

Ana smiled. Personally, she had liked Loki withotu the hair, but it did suit him better with something covering up the baldness.

She wondered what had made him decide to shave it off in the first place.

"I like it either way." She said out loud.

Loki gave Ana a quick flirtatious smile.

"Ah, a Lady with taste. And a beautiful one at that."

She was attractive, too, though not in the Viking way. Then again Loki wasn't picky about that. She was the kind of woman that wouldn't catch Odin's interest and for most of his life that had been a go ahead signal for Loki. (Not that he'd never tangled with Odin's type, but those tended to leave him before he was tired of them. Those damn charms of Odin's really weren't fair.)

"It's a beautiful colour," Aziraphale observed, obstinately. "You are certainly able to carry off either style, of course."

He drank from a glass of water that had not been there before.

War looked across and grinned. "I've certainly never understood why people make a fuss about red hair. Shows a bit of a spark in your nature," she quipped, as she winked at Loki. Certainly, with the hair growing back he did look better than he had done with it gone.

"People make a fuss about red hair?" Uriel blinked. Clearly, there were a lot of things in the human culture she had never heard of. With a thought and a shake of her head, she turned her own hair red. "That sounds... unreasonable. It's just a colour, after all."

"It depends on where and when you are," Loki commented with a slight shrug. "It wasn't such a big deal to the Vikings, but the Indians were quite fascinated when we first arrived in America."

His hair colour seemed quite normal and uninteresting to him, but women tended to like it, so he was quite happy with it.

"And so were the African nations, and the Far East, really. The only place that wasn't so surprised at the phenomenon was the Philipines. Really. Oh, Loki, what ever did you think of the explanation for the colour by humans? I always thought it was a bit silly, really. Mutation. They're not, you know, the Z-Men."

"Z-Men?" What in the world? "Oh, do you mean the X-Men? What do you have against them? I think they're quite entertaining."

Just because Loki liked reading books didn't mean he looked down on comics. They were little help when he needed information, but entertaining and on occasion very inspiring.

Anathema snorted in laughter. She had nothing against red haired people. How people could have ever thought it was a mutation was beyond her...yet again she wasn't as old as Loki, and even older, Aziraphale.

"What other theories did they have for red hair?" she asked, amused by the conversation.

The sphinx sat and just listened to the conversation, trying to decide if any of the other people sounded like a police officer. Of course, she had no idea what a police officer should sound like, exactly, which made the task much more difficult. Then a glass appeared out of thin hair and the colour of Brenda’s hair suddenly changed, and the sphinx realised that law enforcement people might just be the least of her problems.

She had seen things appear and change before, but it was always unsettling. After all, if someone could materialize a glass, what would stop them from materializing a spear, going through someone’s heart, or a bullet, inserted right into the brain?

A shiver went through the sphinx, a half unconscious reflect to the threat. If she had wanted - and if she had had less experience managing herself - it would have covered her body in fur and changed her shape. As it was, she just flinched, remaining human.

Aziraphale looked thoughtful. "A great many. Fire for hair, most say, but there's other ideas like the Nephilim's children (perhaps you met Raphael?) or the children of various deities."

He wasn't looking at Loki's hair.

Really.

"Of course that would have to have been very active deities," Loki added with a grin.

So, he might have left the occasional half god around, yes, but surely there hadn't been that many of them. Certainly no more than perhaps fifty. Or maybe a hundred considering the length of his existence? Did grandchildren also count? He almost wished he'd kept an eye on all of the human women he'd bedded through the centuries. It'd be nice to have relatives around, even if they were mortal.

"There's all sorts of red, mind," War added. "Most people could cope with the reddish blondes, but mine tends to stand out." She grinned. "Not that I mind that, of course."

Anathema smiled. "Hair envy. Sometimes I wish mine was something other than plain black." She shrugged "Dying it a different colour though, it always felt like cheating, so here I am with my hair still its natural colour."

"Plain?" Loki couldn't believe it. "There is nothing at all plain about black hair. You know, where I come from black is a very rare hair colour and I've always considered it especially attractive, especially on a beautiful lady like you."

He winked at Anathema. Oh, if only he were a little stronger!

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