Tiki did have groceries to buy, and she hadn't had time to look at every single stand earlier. She had been rudely interrupted by Xane's prank, so to be honest, the Voice still had some shopping to do.
"I haven't had a chance to look at every stand, and what they have available. ... You interrupted me earlier," she pointed out, but the words weren't said maliciously or even angrily; one could almost say she was just teasing him about the whole incident.
"If you don't mind, we can just talk on the way while I'm looking for what I need." If she didn't buy everything her husband had asked her, he would probably have a hard time preparing dinner. There was always a reason why he requested certain spices and ingredients, so Tiki always made sure to do her best to find what he needed.
Once the two agreed to get on with whatever shopping Tiki had left to do, the oracle got up from under the tree and offered her hand to Xane.
"Maybe you can tell me some stories from your travels. Surely you got yourself into a bit of trouble in all those millennia of traveling? I would be surprised to hear otherwise." The carefree prankster, Xane, not getting into trouble in about two millennia of roaming and traveling? Unfathomable. The Voice would hardly believe it if the chameleon said otherwise. Of course, so long as the trouble wasn't anything serous, such as getting captured. That had happened to Xane back in Tiki's childhood, and really, she didn't wish for it to happen to him again.
With their plan for the afternoon figured out, the two headed back into Nabias.
~*~
The actual shopping trip hadn't really lasted that long, but the time was well-spent. Xane and Tiki shared some stories of their time apart, and for the oracle, it had given her to opportunity to connect with the Manakete again. She realized how little she had appreciated his company, in retrospect. She had been too busy staying with Prince Marth to really pay Xane the attention he deserved, and she had gotten angry and sad at him more often than anything else. That really sent her back: had she really been that difficult when she was younger? She could remember being an eccentric, if somewhat ignorant, child in her youth. In this present time, she was grateful for Xane to have stuck through her sometimes aggravating, childish behavior.
While shopping, Tiki had taken a few liberties. Not only that, but she offered some free foods now and again from a few stands, as they thanked the Voice for coming to their market. She offered some of that to Xane, saying that it was too much for her to take, since she already had plenty of food at home. After a plentiful afternoon of shopping and taking a trip down nostalgia lane, Tiki was ready to go back home, and Xane was ready to follow her.
Just as Xane had assumed, Tiki's house wasn't all that far from the market. It was maybe a good fifteen to twenty-minute walk through a peaceful neighborhood. It was a relaxing area of town, away from the busy shops and markets.
Tiki's home wasn't the biggest house in the neighborhood, but it also wasn't the smallest, by far. It was a two-story house of a very decent size, and from the looks of it, there was also a basement. It was a bit isolated, but that was mostly due to the fact that they had a huge backyard, so the houses had to be separated; they couldn't be stuck to each other like apartment buildings.
With an easy and quick turn of a key, the oracle unlocked the door and stepped inside, inviting Xane to follow behind her. With Tiki staying at home and not working a job, she had plenty of time to take care of the house, and that certainly showed in how pristine and organized the place was.
"Here we are: this is my home. It's permanent, too," she said, the last part being a bit of a joke. After so many years of living here and there and never really staying at the same place for long, this was finally a permanent roof. Ever since the end of the war, Tiki had lived her, and the couple had no intention of moving or otherwise.
Adjusting her groceries, Tiki turned around to face Xane and to put her hands on his shoulders.
"I'm so excited for you to meet him. I know you don't like humans, but please give him a chance. You'll see he's one of the exceptions." She was beyond delighted that Xane was willing to meet her significant other, even though he couldn't care less about humans. Even during the darker ages of their history, Xane had sided with the feral earth dragons — the powerful dragon family rivalling the divine dragons — in order to get revenge on evil and despicable humans. Still, the oracle hoped the Manakete would take her word for it and believe her when she said that her husband was different.
"He's probably in the kitchen. Come this way," Tiki guided as she turned around and lead Xane deeper inside the house, past a few doors and rooms. It didn't take long to reach the kitchen, and even before they were there, the smell of delicious food was in the air. As they approached, the sounds of gurgling soup and boiling food could be heard, and as they stepped in, Xane finally got to see the human tactician who had swayed the oracle's heart.
... Well, from the back, but at least that was something, right?
As expected, he was taller than both Tiki and Xane, but of average size for a human. His long blond hair was tied in a ponytail, which was actually something he didn't do very often, but he tied it when it came to cooking. He was managing the kitchen with no effort, one hand stirring the soup that was currently cooking, and another sliding along the pages of what seemed to be a cooking book. He seemed to be focused on the words, and he was mumbling to himself as he cooked and read. In fact, he was probably so focused that he hadn't heard anyone coming into the house, since he didn't turn around when Tiki and Xane stepped in the kitchen.
"I'm glad I'm not a thief," Tiki pointed out, speaking a bit louder than usual on purpose so that the chef just a few feet away would hear her.
And hear her he did, because the man jumped just slightly as he turned around.
"What?" he said confusingly, but he quickly caught on when he saw who had called out to him.
"Ah, Tiki! Sorry, I was trying to figure out how to fix this... I didn't hear you come in," he explained a bit sheepishly, scratching the back of his head with his free hand, the other still taking care of the soup that was cooking. He would've asked if she had managed to find everything he needed, but Xane certainly wasn't invisible, and the tactician noticed him fairly quickly.
"I'm guessing this is... a friend of yours?"Now that the two men were facing each other, Xane would notice the somewhat fancy clothes of Tiki's husband, akin to officer workers; the only thing that stood out was the fact he was wearing just one glove on his left hand. He had a few visible scars as well, one going through his left eye, and another going across his throat. The last noticeable thing was his glasses, and beyond that, he looked like your average human.
"Yes," Tiki confirmed as she put the groceries on the counter so she could finally have her hands free.
"This is Xane: he's a Manakete that I would call my brother. He watched over me when I was younger, during my time with the Hero-King," the oracle introduced, trying to pull Xane a little closer to her.
"And Xane, this is Akakios, the tactician I was telling you about."At the mention of Xane being one of Tiki's oldest friends, that seemed to spark Akakios's interest in the boy.
"You knew Prince Marth, then?" the tactician asked, taking a few steps closer towards the two Manaketes.
"I'm always a bit envious when Tiki tells me those stories." He then extended his right hand to Xane for a friendly first-meeting handshake, his gloved hand rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He didn't look or sound intimidated or disgusted at the prospect of meeting a Manakete; the habit was actually from being just a bit timid at meeting new people.
"I... wish I could've met the Hero-King himself, too, to be honest, heh," he added with a sheepish smile, his voice sounding more timid than one would expect from a supposed tactical genius that could send another army's troops packing.
As they spoke, Xane would also probably feel something peculiar from Akakios; a very curious power, something not unlike his own or Tiki's. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was, but if anything, he didn't have the same feeling or power of a regular human.