When Filia closed up her shop, she discovered that it had gotten colder during the day. The entire day had been cloudy, with wind blowing, and never warm, but somehow between when she had opened up her shop and then it had gotten worse. The clouds, once crisp and white, were now gray and heavy with precipitation. The wind, which had been a gentle breeze in the morning, was now blowing in earnest. The morning had been cool, but now it was cold and she could see her breath.

The change in the weather made Filia smile softly. Wintry weather caused her business to be much better, as people came looking for presents to give during the Winter holydays. The two beastmen who had come with Val would soon be returning, and she'd not be alone with Xelloss so much. (Val, still an egg, was not company. He did make a decent night light, though.)

Filia walked home quickly. The house was completely empty when she arrived, and somehow she found the lack of Xelloss's presence disappointing. She knew she hadn't really expected him to be there, waiting for her, but...

She shut the door, automatically turning the lock. Jillas and Gravos would be back as soon, and hopefully she'd regain her senses. I should not be missing that namagomi!

Filia finished putting her freshly-washed dishes in the drying rack, and pulled out a white pillar candle and an old, chipped saucer. Going into her parlor, she put the saucer down on the ledge of the window beside her front door, and carefully place the candle in its center. She used a small fire spell to light it, and sat down in the comfortable chair positioned so that, during most of the year, it would be well-lit by the window.

On the side table lay a book with a polished and inlaid wooden box on top of it. Filia slipped the book out from underneath the box, and sprang the box's hidden catch with deft fingers. Inside of the box was a well-loved and well-used set of artist's pencils, mostly in shades of grey but a few colored ones, well-worn erasers, and a pencil sharpener. She chose one of the grey pencils without looking at them, her eyes focused on the pages of the book -- a sketchbook -- as she turned them, looking for a blank page.

Most of the sketches were of pottery, and of designs for painting on pottery. She had taken up making, and later on painting, her own pottery not long after opening her shop. Antique vases brought in a lot of money, but only when they sold and often she found herself not having quite enough income to maintain her stock. Somehow, it had simply seemed natural to start selling tea sets. The potter who had made the first tea sets Filia sold had been a friendly young widow, who had taught Filia the craft and when she had remarried she had given Filia her old house with the small pottery workshop.

Filia had been grateful. She had been starting to suspect that Jillas was sometimes forgetting to knock on her door before entering on purpose, and besides that she had discovered that the living quarters above the shop were too small. Being able to work with the clay whenever she felt the need to was wonderful, too; something about making things out of the clay made her feel relaxed and content.

Some of her drawings, however, were not designs to be formed in the clay or painted onto things. They were of other things, like of Val in his egg or Endymion, a large calico cat that had come with the house and was always sleeping whenever Filia saw him, taking a nap in a sun puddle. On the blank page she found, she started sketching out roughly the form of a man lying down with a sheet partially draped over him.

Filia sensed Xelloss before she heard his voice, right behind her ear. "Your drawing's lovely," he said in his smooth voice. She put the pencil she had been using to color the man's hair in down in its place in the box and turned to look at him.

Xelloss looked at her, eyes open and his arms full of sleeping cat. "I suppose I don't have to ask if you missed me." He grinned.

Filia looked from the man in the sketch to the real thing. I better change the subject, she thought to herself as she blushed. "Are you here to offer yourself to me again?"

"Well, it does look like you think I look good in your bed..."

Filia blushed, and looked at her sketch. It was a particularly good drawing of Xelloss, just as he had looked like when she had finally left her bed to get dressed... He had looked like a lazy wolf, the sheets draping over his hips and little else of him, and his closed eyes watching her...

And she could hear small, somehow cute little snores. She looked at Endymion in Xelloss's arms at almost the same time Xelloss did. They sweatdropped together as they realized that yes, the cat was snoring.

"Let's go to bed, Xelloss." Filia quickly put her art supplies up, leaving them in almost the same positions they had been in before, and picked up the saucer holding the candle. "I hope I can trust you to put the candle out after I've fallen asleep," she said, turning in time to see Xelloss nod and put Endymion down in her just-vacated chair.