[For him? Hubert blinks as he accepts the roses, his eyes dropping to eye-catching bundle. Magic certainly made such things more available, even in the dead of winter, but... magic or no, this couldn't have been a cheap gesture.]
[A holiday to spoil your partner, or find one. The paper wrapping crinkles with even the slightest shift of his fingers, and Hubert drags his gaze back to Nico's flushed face. For all his lack of interpersonal graces, Hubert wasn't unaware of... of whatever it was developing between them. He kept Nico's company far more than he kept any other's aside from Leslie's, and over the creeping of months their easy banter and collaboration had become joined by fond smiles and board games and fleeting touches, and... whatever that was, at the start of winter.]
[Hubert enjoyed Nico's company and affection, and there was no more to it. Even though the slow growth of their relationship wasn't the subtlest, this was still something so very unique about being presented a gift like this and a confession with it. He, Hubert von Vestra, sinister enforcer of the Empire and figure that stalked precautionary tales.]
[Nico knew none of it. Even if she had known something other than a business partner and alchemical associate, Hubert doubted that would change much. Her spirit and tenacity reminded him so much of Dorothea's, and doubted she'd be intimidated. After taking in Nico's words, her nervous little gestures, her meaning over the course of a moment, Hubert smiles, mouth quirking at the corner.]
Why, Miss Goldstein... it sounds as if you're courting me. [It certainly wasn't where Hubert expected to be, the day he met her because of a scarecrow.]
[Teasing aside, something a little more serious settles in his eyes, even if the smile remained.] ...you would ask that, even knowing the nature of our existence here? Ethereal, and fleeting?
[Either one of them could disappear tomorrow, whisked away to a world the other would never see. And Hubert, if offered a choice in the matter, would return to Fódlan at first opportunity, no matter what he built here.]
[He knew where he stood on the matter, but it felt important to hear Nico's side.]
no subject
[A holiday to spoil your partner, or find one. The paper wrapping crinkles with even the slightest shift of his fingers, and Hubert drags his gaze back to Nico's flushed face. For all his lack of interpersonal graces, Hubert wasn't unaware of... of whatever it was developing between them. He kept Nico's company far more than he kept any other's aside from Leslie's, and over the creeping of months their easy banter and collaboration had become joined by fond smiles and board games and fleeting touches, and... whatever that was, at the start of winter.]
[Hubert enjoyed Nico's company and affection, and there was no more to it. Even though the slow growth of their relationship wasn't the subtlest, this was still something so very unique about being presented a gift like this and a confession with it. He, Hubert von Vestra, sinister enforcer of the Empire and figure that stalked precautionary tales.]
[Nico knew none of it. Even if she had known something other than a business partner and alchemical associate, Hubert doubted that would change much. Her spirit and tenacity reminded him so much of Dorothea's, and doubted she'd be intimidated. After taking in Nico's words, her nervous little gestures, her meaning over the course of a moment, Hubert smiles, mouth quirking at the corner.]
Why, Miss Goldstein... it sounds as if you're courting me. [It certainly wasn't where Hubert expected to be, the day he met her because of a scarecrow.]
[Teasing aside, something a little more serious settles in his eyes, even if the smile remained.] ...you would ask that, even knowing the nature of our existence here? Ethereal, and fleeting?
[Either one of them could disappear tomorrow, whisked away to a world the other would never see. And Hubert, if offered a choice in the matter, would return to Fódlan at first opportunity, no matter what he built here.]
[He knew where he stood on the matter, but it felt important to hear Nico's side.]