The sun is hot and unbearable, so they decide to stay inside. Cleo, the little Texan that she is, doesn’t think it’s too hot outside but everyone else decided to drag her inside. Clemonte is from Washington so it is affected the most, the blasting AC is mostly for it’s benefit.
Shepard and Vas are both from New Mexico and are still uncomfortable in the heat but less so than Clemonte. So they’re all sat inside with all the windows closed to keep the heat out.
Cleo and Vas are cuddled on the couch watching tv, Shepard is cooking in the kitchen also mostly watching tv, and Clemonte is sitting in the living room pretending to watch tv but is actually just reading.
Cleo is in her normal t-shirt and jeans, unbothered by the weather as she is, although she’s taken off her jewelry. Vas has their jacket around their waist but is in their normal crop top and shorts, almost perfect for the weather. Shepard has his sleeves rolled up but otherwise is fine, he has his hair in a ponytail to keep his hair from suffocating him with heat. Clemonte has changed out of its usual heavy knit turtleneck and into a thin turtleneck tank top, the kind with no sleeves or shoulders, just a collar.
Clemonte recognizes the show they’re all watching but has no interest in watching tv, it prefers reading. If everyone else loves the show that much, it might be convinced to watch, but it’s content to continue reading.
Shepard is trying to make something in the kitchen to eat. Judging from the smell, he’s experimenting with lots of spices and herbs. He likes to mess around with cooking, and ever since he started cooking for the four of them, he’s had to experiment a little.
He has four different plates that he serves himself. He can’t just make dinner collectively because they all have different servings that have different things.
Vas is mildly allergic to pepper in that it makes them sneeze a lot if it’s close enough to them so they don’t usually have pepper in their dinner. The unfortunate side effect of the allergy is that they don’t like any kind of spicy stuff, most people use a lot of pepper in their spicy dishes so it created an unfortunate association with them.
But on the other hand, Clemonte has messed up taste buds that lowers its ability to taste things, so it likes its food very spicy, sour, or bitter, because it’s most of what it can taste.
Shepard and Cleo eat most of the same stuff and the other two get special servings, but this time they all have different plates. He made dinner with basil, because that’s the recipe and he’s sure it tastes good. But he hates the taste of basil.
So he plates up four plates with four different servings of differently made dinner and hands them out. It’s not a hassle or a burden as they sometimes worry about, he loves making dinner for his datemates and Clemonte.
It’s still funny to say datemates plus Clemonte. Not that it’s being excluded in anything they do, they all love Clemonte and it’s one of their dearest friends. It was a little awkward in the beginning when Vas came home with the dark academia enthusiast trailing behind them. But after months of it being normal, it would be a problem if it were still awkward.
It’s normal for Shepard to sit next to Cleo on the couch, it’s normal for Clemonte to lean towards the couch to link hands with Vas, and it’s normal for them to pass dinner with laughter and storytelling.
None of them would give this up for anything. They wouldn’t want to give up hearing Clemonte wax poetic about something most people would never think much of, getting so passionate that it almost tips its dinner on the carpet before Vas lunges to catch it. They wouldn’t want to give up hearing Cleo rave about the show they just started, roping them all into watching the rest of it. They wouldn’t give up the look on Shepard’s face when they all compliment dinner repeatedly, knowing that he deserves it.
And maybe they all think in the back of their heads, maybe this is the way they want to be forever. They can’t get married and they aren’t all dating each other, but even so, they all love each other romantically or not.
This is how it always is, and this is how they want it to be. They all go on separate dates of course, but they all love each other. Clemonte might not be in a relationship with all of them but it is still a vital part of all of their relationships. Beyond the relationships, they all are vital parts of each other’s lives.
And to think, this might not have happened. They can’t imagine it.