GRACIA IS TOTALLY GOING TO KILL HER. there’s about a thousand different ways this could go wrong—starting with getting axe murdered, and ending with somehow losing what little money she has—but it was chance that had emilia respond to the craigslist ad in the first place, and it’s chance that keeps her here tonight. the chance that this man has some real money to this name, namely—and as emilia walks around his living room closely, as if all his books and knick knacks are museum artifacts, she thinks she’s actually made the right choice. who owns this many old books if you don’t have money to your name ? granted, he could’ve just inherited them, but the thought of books being passed down from generation to generation is almost as depressing as marrying a stranger itself. she looks up when he enters the room, offering a small smile that hopefully screams sweet and gentle instead of on her guard. “ honeymoon ? ” oh, god. she hadn’t even thought about that. the question makes her blink in surprise for a moment. emilia doesn’t really want him to pick, but how much is he willing to go with this ? “ i’ve never been out of the country, ” she admits, a little sheepishly. “ i don’t know… somewhere tropical ? but i don’t have a passport. ” that’s not a dealbreaker, is it ? the offer of wine actually makes her smile, genuinely. “ i’m not picky with my wine. ” she has a feeling whatever he has will be good regardless. “ where’s this from ? ” she asks, pointing to a picture of him in some foreign place, seated on the mantle.
that stiffness in their body language is hard to ignore but he appreciates her effort to alleviate it with her smile, enough for him to offer one in return. a curious eyebrow perks up at her confession that she has never left the country. “why? never had the chance?” bane honey, your privilege is showing. “no passport… okay. then we should get you one.” he’s quick to rationalize. “puerto rico doesn’t require a passport. we can go there in the meantime.” his tone is authoritative, a clear indicator that he is used to taking the lead. “does that uh, sound good to you?” he asks after a beat, hoping to hear her input. they are official partners now after all. on paper at least. “me neither.” he says, a little too thrilled to have something in common. “my parents are though. they send me a new bottle every other week. they would probably disown me if they find out i haven’t opened even half of the bottles they’ve sent me.” in his defense, it’s a lot and he’s not much of a drinker in the first place. his parents’ devotion to good wine does come in handy though because even if she says she’s not picky, bane can’t help but want to go all out. so he grabs the most luxurious bottle he can find ( the one that his parents swear is worth every penny ) and fills two glasses before making his way over to her. he offers one for her to take, his gaze landing on the picture that she is gesturing to. “shaanxi, china.” once his hand is freed up, he reaches out to grab the picture and angle it towards her so she can get a better view. “you see the stone wall? when we discovered this we thought it was supposed to be a section of the great wall of china. turned out to be a city buried underground. the infrastructure suggests that it’s at least four thousand year old. when i was there i–” normally this is the part when bane goes on for hours about the topic of his adventures but the last thing he wants to do it talk emilia’s ear off about things of his past. especially when he still has so much to learn about her. “sorry. i’m not trying to bore you with a history lesson.” he chuckles.
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