[EP] The Worst Birthday

[st_abby]

Of course, everybody had birthdays - even if they didn't know what day it was on the calendar, that didn't stop someone having them. Vax'ildan hadn't honestly thought much about it, until Joanna had got talking when to plant what one afternoon amongst the herbs in her garden. Seasons, months, weeks, days... They were different in this world from what Vax knew. Nevertheless, when he stopped to do a bit of his own math, he thought it must be very near his own birthday in Exandria.

Their birthday. His, by only a couple of minutes, and then Vex'ahlia's.

It seemed a stupid thing to get hung up about. But once it (she) had wormed its way into his brain, his heart, he couldn't get it (her) out, and it became a crushing reminder that Vex could be lost to him forever. He didn't have much in the way of distractions, and the more he tried to forget about it, the worse it had got until he sank into a drowning sulk. He avoided everyone and everything including his mirror-matched room, effectively vanishing for a few days on end, until gravely admitting that the only way out might very well be through.

Which is how he ended up sitting in the one corner of a booth in the cafe, armor exchanged for a simple sleeveless tunic and loose pants from Songrun, staring at the empty seat across from him with arms folded on the table in a bit of a hunch.

"Get us a drink," he told the passers-by mirthlessly, without so much as turning to look at them or stopping to count how many he'd had already. Did it matter? "It's our birthday."

Comments

[st_eelyourself]

"It is tradition in Russia to give speech before toast on special occasions." He tapped the bottle against his glass. "But fuck it, let us drink"

Tipping his head back, he let the vodka coat his throat and burn into his belly.

"Your sister Vex, are you twins? You share birthday?"

[st_upidgravity]

Weird? ...oh. OH.

"Oh."

It was probably wrong to feel smug.

"Okay, not sister. But substitute shoulder and celebrant for the time being." She smiled back at him. "You know, no one celebrated my birthday with me this year. It may have been because I didn't tell anyone about it."

[st_abby]

"That might do it. ...Wait, was that here? Or was it before all of..." He stopped to give her a scrutinizing squint. "How long ago was your birthday, Stephie?"

[st_abby]

That was a good answer.

Vax hadn't expected it. And sure, he'd fallen down deep enough in his cups to be overly sentimental - but that wasn't this. His expression softened.

"...Thanks," he said after a moment, a touch husky. "For reminding me."

[st_upidgravity]

She shrugged and picked up her daiquiri in an elaborate show of casualness. "About two months ago."

To be honest -- and she could be honest in her own mind -- she hadn't felt like celebrating at the time. Plus she wasn't sure that it had actually been her birthday, since it definitely hadn't been Christmas when she left Gotham. "At least by the calendar. I think it's probably more like four months from now if we're going by timeline."

[st_abby]

"Fine speech," Vax commended after his swallow. "...Yeah. Twinnies," he admitted.

He thought on it, for a moment, remembering the thing about manners and names that the other had said at the beginning of all this. "I'm Vax," he explained. "She's Vex. That's Vax'ildan. That's me. She's Vex'ahlia. Vax. Vex. But what's your name?"

[st_abby]

He scrunched his brow. "So I'm either very early, or rather late? Is that, like-" He lifted a glass at her. "A half-empty, half-full sort of thing? Do I get to choose? Because I would like to, really. Celebrate. Your birthday. ...There could be cake."

Right, so... Definitely drunk. And smooth. Very smooth, Vax'ildan.

[st_upidgravity]

"If we're celebrating my birthday, there will definitely be cake." Obviously.

The trouble, Stephanie realized, with drinking when you didn't usually, is that you could feel the bad decisions taking over. And the devil on her shoulder with the rum cake had several good points about the last time they'd both ended up with compromised decision making abilities.

She bit her lip and leaned away before she did something dumb. "The question is, are you willing to put your current plans on hold or should I get a raincheck?"

[st_eelyourself]

"Vax'ildan," It was unlike any name Piotr had heard before and it made him smile. The word rolled around his mouth pleasantly, fitting nicely around his accent and coming out in a rumble. "It is nice to officially meet you, Vax. I am Piotr."

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy shrugged. "You're my brother."

He hauled himself out of the booth to his feet. The room swayed alarmingly. Possibly, the fourth shot had been a mistake.

[st_abby]

Wow. His name sounded really muscle-y and butch when a giant of a man with a deep voice and hard accent said it. Go figure.

"Peter?" Vax frowned, knowing it hadn't been quite so common as that. There'd been more sounds packed tight in the middle, hadn't there? "Pe-oh-tor," he went at it again, wrangling an unusually thick tongue to make sure he'd got it. He did have a knack for mimicry, when he wasn't sloshed. "...Piotr. There. Have I got it yet?"

[st_abby]

He liked hearing about her own twins, and had to admit that the decidedly motherly affection felt soothing. He found himself gradually slumping into his folded arms over the table in a sprawl that was more relaxed, even if it didn't necessarily look more comfortable.

She'd trailed off, and he spoke up once he realized he should say something probably. Even though he was well off his tits already, and if he opened his mouth, something stupid was likely come out of him and offend the very sweet woman. "...When did you last see them?"

[st_abby]

Vax eagerly shimmied out of the booth after Percy so they-

Whoa.

Vax caught himself with the heel of his palm on the edge of the table before he could crumple to the floor, exactly. ...Well. He had been making a determined effort to drown himself, after all.

"I think," he suggested, slinging himself onto the seat again and holding his head in one hand to slow the reeling, "Percy, could you... Bring'm here, d'you think? Just say... Tell him I need heals. A healing. That'd do." Percy wouldn't even have to lie.

[st_rigaetsica]

"The day I found myself here." She'd thought of that day so often since, and the mess she'd been pulled from before she could clean it up. "Frederick and I... we parted badly. But there was a battle to be fought which he could not fight, and once we'd won – Freya, her sister, my sister, and I – although not without a cost, I tried to call him, to tell him I forgave him, but he didn't answer." The last time Joanna and Frederick had 'parted badly,' it was over four hundred years before she saw her son again. Now she was here, and she could not entirely shake the fear of the wait to come.

Pushing her own pain down deep, Joanna found a softer look for the poor boy slumped on the table. "You'd like Freya. Especially today. She loves being a bartender." And would likely have whipped up a potion-slash-cocktail to ease the ache of missing his twin on their birthday, if she'd been the one here instead of Joanna.

[st_abby]

"I could," Vax agreed, expression growing more earnest. "I could tell you... She's smarter, and more charming, and... More caring than I am. I could tell you... How sharp and witty and cool she is." And how, even for being real, it was part of the front she put up to hide her insecurities behind. How lost and vulnerable she'd been, when they were younger. But always so brave, and loving, and true. "I could tell you how she raised up a baby bear cub that had lost its mother years ago, and that's how she's got an enormous brown bear all in armor that would do anything for her."

He smiled, genuinely, but it still came out painfully sad. "But she really wants to be known as the pretty twin." Which she absolutely was.

[st_abby]

Plans? He stared at her for a moment, trying to remember if there was actually something he was expected to do or not.

At a loss, Vax gave up on the thinking and just smiled at her instead. "If I had one of them, it couldn't have been more important than spending time with you." ...It was totally a cornball thing to say. But then, it wasn't intended as a pick-up line. He just happened to like Steph.

He reconsidered though. He'd been drinking. Like, buckets. And even if she'd been really a very good sport about it so far, he didn't want her to come away with a lasting impression of him as a drunken asshole. "But I might be a lot more charming and a lot less likely to pass out on you if you wanted to wait."

[st_unning]

The emotion coming off of Vax was heartbreaking and familiar. This was why Alcuin had spent weeks mostly in bed after arriving here. After Anafiel's death. And it gave him pleasure to talk about him, the good things, but also made him so horribly sad.

"She's even prettier than you?" Alcuin said with a little smile. "I hope to meet her."

[st_abby]

"Loads prettier," Vax lied pleasantly. They were strikingly similar as far as looks went. But she certainly wore hers better. Vax had never cared nearly as much.

"I hope so too," he added more quietly, letting himself savor the selfishness in it for the moment.

[st_unning]

"Do you think she would like me?" Alcuin asked, a wry little smile on his face, a hint of teasing. Not wanting to pull the conversation away from his sister, but wanting to keep Vax out of his own head.

[st_abby]

It was a surprisingly impish question, and Vax huffed a soft little chuckle back at him, reaching across the table to cup Alcuin's cheek. "You are possibly the single most likeable person here. You really are." The drink was clearly loosening his tongue, but that wasn't to say he was being insincere. "Of course Vex would like you. Who wouldn't?"

[st_unning]

Alcuin hadn't been expecting a real answer, and the sincerity of the compliment actually made a blush spread across his face. Which was easy considering how pale his skin was.

"Oh, I - someone, I'm sure." Which was a weird answer, but he didn't know what to say, except to thank him for the flattery. And meanwhile, remind himself how Vax had no interest in him beyond friendship.

[st_abby]

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Vax thumbed the pink of Alcuin's cheek before letting him go again.

[st_unning]

Alcuin smiled sheepishly. "You're very kind, Vax." It made him think again of how in Terre d'Ange so many people only liked him because of his appearance, not knowing much else about him.

Because it seemed a fluid change in subject and maybe Vax could use thinking of something else he said, "And it's nice to be valued for something other than my appearance." Then, because it made him think of him, "Do you know Ignis? Tall... dark glasses... knows how to cook things other than chicken."

[st_abby]

"Iggy? Sure I know him," Vax agreed, not knowing how they'd got around to talking about him, but not minding either. "We hiked through the jungle of that other-world, Song... Songrun, it was. And he keeps us fed with all those...non-poultry...foods. What you said."

[st_upidgravity]

"It's your birthday. You get to choose what you want." Steph pulled her arm off his shoulder. "Wait here, though. I do require one thing."

She smiled, then was gone.