strangetrip | [EP] NOT the Worst Birthday Ever

It was hard to believe Vex had been at Madonna Inn almost a year. It felt both far longer and not nearly that long.

It also wasn't anything to celebrate. Unlike today, which demanded to be celebrated. Not with anything big or flashy. No surprise parties, thank you! But drinks certainly. Not like last year, though, when Vex hadn't been here at all, and Vax had attempted to drown himself and her absence in booze. It was their birthday and they were both here to raise a glass together.

So drinks. And cake, because birthdays had always meant cake, even when Vax had had to swipe it for them, or cut a purse to buy it. So when she slid into a booth in the bar, wearing a shirt Percy insisted she needed, she set a plate with two cupcakes, one almost black with chocolate and espresso, the other snowy white but flavored with mint, on the table between them and kissed her brother on the cheek, pleased to see he was wearing the shirt to match. They were twins, after all.

"Get us a drink," she said with a bright grin and a twinkle in her eye for the person passing by. "It's our birthday."

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"Perfect people are boring at best. Most of them go on to being completely insufferable." Like elves. Completely and totally insufferable, how they prided themselves on being just so, and looking down their too perfect noses at anyone who wasn't.

If Snow was someone else, Vex would have pulled her into a hug. But Snow was Snow, as Vex had just pointed out, so Vex reached out slowly, telegraphing her movements and watching for signs she should pull back without smoothing one of Snow's braids.

Snow allowed the touch in a way she wouldn't have for most people, even closing her eyes to savor the affection. "Then... maybe it's best she failed with me," she murmured.

Vex could have asked. With some people she might have. But Snow, like so many of the broken people Vex was most fond of, would probably shut down at direct questions like that. And when she trusted those people enough – Snow, Kash, Curnen, of course Percival – Vex could share a little of herself instead.

"Our father believed, if he had us properly educated and indoctrinated, people – and by people, he meant elves, although of course he wouldn't say so aloud – would forget we were only half, or worse what that said about him. But when we failed, they laughed," or often worse, "and when we excelled at things they thought of as elvish, they hated us for being better at it than they were.

"I'm glad he failed with us. I like who we made ourselves much better." And who you are too.

Snow couldn't say where the urge had come from, but rather than question it or struggle with it she... gave in and gave Vex a kiss on the cheek.

Coming from Snow, the affection was a sweet surprise. Not the feeling behind it, but the kiss itself.

Vex smiled, more with her eyes than her mouth. "One lacking girl to another, that might just be the best birthday gift I've gotten so far today."

[EP] NOT the Worst Birthday Ever

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Re: Vex & Snow

Re: Vex & Snow

Re: Vex & Snow

Re: Vex & Snow