And Ignis, as discussed, had come with dessert, and he was glad he had most of yesterday to work on perfecting it. He couldn't speak for how it looked, of course, but he had, eventually, managed to produce a cake that met his expectations, after far more trial and error than he would have liked to have admitted to.

He was also feeling very grateful that, not only did the layouts of the apartments on the (most) of the floors of the building match, but that he had confirmed that Shane's was actually the same unit as his and Gladio's, just on a different floor, which made finding it significantly easier. There was a pause, though, a long hesitation, as he finally reached what he assumed to be the door to #10. A moment to prepare himself, for whatever direction things may go that evening, and to tidy himself just that little bit more, knowing full well that Shane had never really been remotely so fastidious, but that was hardly the point...

And, with that, shifting both cane and cake to free up a hand, he knocked on the door.

There was both relief and a certain satisfaction in having gotten the right door, as he locked all the little details of the journey into his mental map. Perhaps it was a bit....presumptuous, but he had to admit, he had a feeling it was a path he would be taking often.

"Shane," he greeted back, with a nod, shifting the cane back into his free hand as he stepped in, and offered out the box that held the cake for him to take. "Dessert, as promised. For later. It smells wonderful in here..."

Barely even the slightest hint of something being burned or scorched or over-seasoned. He was impressed...enough so that one might have even heard it it there in his tone.

"A roussane," Ignis remarked, looking fairly impressed and almost a little bit touched over how well Shane had taken to this particular assignment, although he seemed to be reserving his complete assessment until after one particular question:

"An older vintage, I take it?"

"Ah." Ignis was careful not to let his disappointment surface in his tone, especially since it was still a perfectly suitable choice, and he may have slightly gotten ahead of himself there. "Well. I've yet to meet an roussane I didn't like, and I'm sure this one will be no exception, especially enhanced," here, a small smile, in Shane's general direction, "as it's sure to be, by the company. But most wines, as they age, actually develop slightly different flavor profiles, and an aged roussane brings out certain notes of spice and nuttiness that would be quite complimentary to more autumnal fare...

"That being said," he added, this time with a more apparent smile, "all the wines I've had up until recently have been quite aged by default, so a more recent vintage will be a nice change of pace. Fresher, more vibrant..."

And, oh, this seemed to be veering a little into metaphor territory now, wasn't it?

"Far too long," said Ignis, the sincerity of that sentiment digging in far deeper than that the lightness of his tone would suggest, deep enough that if he wasn't carefully, he might find himself mired in it with little recourse to get back out again, so he moved swiftly on.

"Shall we, then?" he asked, and, taking a moment to try and think back to the last time he was in this apartment (he doubted Shane had redecorated, and he would have thought as much even if ten years had passed for him, as well) and also taking into consideration that the layout was already more recently familiar to him thanks to his own.
.
"Table is this way, yes?" he asked, after moving in the presumed direction.

Well, it wasn't as if Shane's decorating style was particular...elaborate. One might even go as far as to say it was practically nonexistent. And while Ignis didn't exactly remember exactly, he was used to navigating around unfamiliar spaces far more dangerous than this, found a chair with ease, and pulled it out to have a seat.

"I'm really looking forward," he said as he got himself settled, taking a moment just to spread his hands on the table, to feel it and get a measure of the space around him, "to trying what you've prepared tonight, Shane. Thank you for having me."

"I'm certain I will," Ignis assured him. "Especially if you've kept up with it. Cooking is a skill that, like most others, is only bound to improve with practice."

Considering where Shane had been when he first started his cooking journey to where he was now? Well, that was pretty good proof right there. But even if his skills had regressed in his absence, Ignis would still enjoy just the fact that he'd tried, and that they were enjoying the fruits (or vegetables, in this case) of his labors....together.

His smile was small, and distant.

"I've...also missed this," he said.

Which wasn't quite what he meant, but that was as close to what he meant as he would allow himself to get right now.

And there was another soft smile, as Ignis felt briefly for a spoon, picked it up, and carefully dipped it into the soup in front of him. Because that just seemed fitting, didn't it? Him, carefully dancing around something while Shane just goes fumbling straight for it without abandon.

But, even with that extra grace period of all that time while Shane was a goose, Ignis still hadn't quite sorted out where he stood on all of it. He was still working out exactly where he was.

"I should think," he noted, "he should be quite grateful that a stain on the ceiling was all he had to contend with.

"This is quite good, by the way," he added, dipping in his spoon for another bite, already seeing himself making very short work of it, and not merely because he'd been so long without good, fresh, seasonal offerings. "Remarkable, really."

And also talking about the food was undeniably easier.

"Gladio and I," Ignis remarked, smiling back, though he rather wished he could see that smile so easily detectable in Shane's voice, and this it hadn't been so damn long since the last time he had, so his memories of it weren't quite so....fuzzy, "rather lucked out, in that regard. Ours came furnished."

There was, then, a thoughtful hesitation, filled with another bit of soup, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to at least start traipsing a little closer to at least one of the elephants he could only assume had joined them in the room.

"Obviously," he said, "I can't speak for it's taste level, but I can at least attest to it being functional."

"It does enhance the experience significantly," Ignis agreed, "to be able to eat at a table rather than, say, the floor."

Not that he hadn't eaten food in even stranger places.

His tone went...mildly more lightly conversational as he tried not to spend too much time locating that glass of wine.

"Do you have people over often?" he asked, fairly certain he knew the answer, but almost more curious about how Shane answered rather than what.

"I'm not even sure Gladio and I even have neighbors yet," Ignis admitted, but, in his defense, he'd only been back for a very short while, and he was more concerned with familiarizing himself with the island itself again; then he'd focus on reacquainting himself with its inhabitants. "But those upper floors are fairly new, aren't they? I don't remember them being there before."

"That sounds incredibly convenient," Ignis noted, "and also very...Fandom. But what a loss for the potential contractors who would have otherwise handled a project like that."