It was like, so difficult you know? Trying to work on this teleporting thing. She was getting better at it - there was still absolutely no control over where she ended up, but she had managed to make herself step two or three times just today. She was getting tired and frustrated, though, unable to pick where she went.
After another unsuccessful attempt at even stepping at all, Alexis stamped her foot like an actual child, fists at her side and let out a pretty exuberant ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. “Q, please, for the love of everything dolce & gabbana, I am going to lose my mind. Why can’t I do it?”
She threw her phone at the couch, flopping down dramatically and kicking her feet up. “I’m never gonna do it right.”
"I hate to break it to you," Quentin said with a huff as he shook his head while Alexis threw her tantrum, "But I've got no love for designer brands." He warned her with a teasing grin, but then that was how they'd been from the start, him teasing her for her frankly wild way of speaking and interacting with the world. And Alexis taking it with various amounts of grace depending on her mood.
"No one gets this stuff without work," He reminded her as she flopped down into the couch. "It's just the way it goes - when I was learning The Hammer Charm of Legrand my teacher wouldn't even let me talk until I'd gotten it down." He told her, like he was making a point of how gracious a teacher he was, by letting her grouse when she grew frustrated by her inability to control the steps.
"Don't be so dramatic," He said, shaking his head and sitting down beside her. "You'll get there eventually, most people aren't perfect at something right away."
“I’m a dramatic person, Quentin, you already know this.” She groaned, another low growl of a scream into one of the couch pillows before she rolled onto her back, still defeated and annoyed. “I know but I’ve been working on it for like, almost four months!” At least she got to talk, not that that made her feel all that much better at the moment.
Alexis frowned at Quentin. “Ugh can we just do something fun instead?” She whined, head tilted up practically towards the ceiling, a huge pout on her face, before she stood and started pacing again.
“Please please please I just need a break, we’ve been at this for like, hours. There’s just no way I’m going to get it tonight.”
"Believe me," Quentin said with a laugh, "I know you are." He was under no delusions as to who he'd offered to help train in the ways of teleportation.
And like she was trying to prove the fact that she was a dramatic person Alexis growled before she was on her feet again asking him if they could do something fun instead of more of the training they'd been doing.
As for what kind of fun they could have, he was at a loss. "Like what?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow at her. It was a strange situation being the more level headed one for a change. His mercurial moods often left him being the dramatic one of his friends, but with Alexis finding a balance had been easier than he might have expected.
“I need, like, six drinks at least.” She concluded, hands on hips and the frown turning totally upside down. “Bar? Club? I have vodka. We could dance!” At any of those places, honestly. Alexis felt the need to both move and be intoxicated, because she felt like she deserved it?
She threw herself back down on the couch next to Quentin, taking his hand in hers, eyes bright and eager to turn this training session into something more positive and fun. “Please? Please please please please please. Let’s go dancing. Or turn music on in here and dance. And get drunk. And pretend like, we’re not in some fucked up danger place all the time trying to kill us that gave me some magical fever that got me all to teleport around town.”
Eyes still bright, she gave her best begging, sad puppy pout. “Say yes.”
"In fairness," Quentin began, "We're only in some fucked up danger place like a week out of each month so really I think we're doing pretty well on that count." He countered with a grin, obviously teasing her as she pouted at him, begging to go out or dance or drink or some combination of the three.
"You think that's a good idea?" He asked her after a moment, he was willing to let loose a bit from time to time, but when they were trying this and Alexis stepping when she was drunk didn't seem like a safe idea.
And mostly Quentin wasn't much of a dancer, Filip was the exception to the rule, and there had been a party and a dance just the weekend before so really he’d reached his quota..
“Sometimes it's like, two weeks.” She replied, eyes widening for just a moment before she twisted around in her seat so she could throw herself dramatically across Quentin’s lap. She was full of theatrics tonight, but - well, she’d been a bit frustrated, sad, and pent up since Daimon had been taken away. Not to mention work was stressful with everything that had been going on there, people floating, Sea Gods, monsters.
It was all a bit much, and while Alexis did tend to take things in stride - she thought she was allowed to, sometimes, be as dramatic as she wanted in the comfort of her own home with her best friend and maybe have a night of bad choices like getting too drunk, just because.
“What’s the worst that can happen? I teleport while drunk and you have to come find me? Doesn’t make much of a difference sober or drunk, you’d still come find me.” She pouted again. “I think its a great idea.”
Quentin leaned back as Alexis threw herself across his lap making him roll his eyes at the level of dramatics she was stooping to as she needled at him to let loose. “Yeah but that’s only like…. Every three months so like not even half the time we’ve been here.” He reminded her, like that made any of it better or easier to take.
He knew she’d been through a lot here, she might have had a life that defied all manner of logic before she’d arrived here, but she was still just a normal person who had been thrown into a world of magic and paid the price for it since showing up here.
“You say that like it’s a walk in the park herding you back here,” He said shaking his head. “We’re not going out.”
“Why do you hate me, Quentin? I thought we were like, be-eff-effs FOREVER.” She pouted once more, but really he just said they weren’t going out. So she still got up, running over to grab some orange juice from the fridge and the vodka, because that’s all she had at the moment, and two glasses.
As she poured them both drinks, she graciously added “You can pick the music?” She had a little sound-system with bluetooth, which she knew Quentin was already hooked up to or able to hook up to, given how often she wrangled him over.
“But we’re drinking, and we’re dancing, because I deserve it for all my hard work. And like, so do you, for putting up with me.”
“Oh stop it,” He said rolling his eyes as Alexis pouted at him, she should have known by now that things like that weren’t an effective sway for him from most people - no matter how good a friend they might be. Of course that didn’t mean he wasn’t a push over in other ways, and he didn’t stop her when she went to grab something for them to drink.
At least he got to deal with music, which was perhaps an overly generous offer from Alexis because he was absolutely putting on Taylor Swift whether or not it fit the vibe for the evening. So he got out his phone and selected something suitably upbeat, he wasn’t going to be a downer even if he wasn’t going to be all in on dancing.
“I think I deserve to sit out on dancing after putting up with so much,” He countered, hoping it was a suitable offer though he didn’t hold out too much hope once they started fixing drinks.
“Absolutely not.” There was no sitting for Quentin. She danced her way over with the drinks, handing him one and drinking rather too quickly from her own. Alexis didn't really do feelings very well, and she had a lot of them lately.
She kept her drink in hand but used the free one to drag Quentin up and off the couch to dance to Taylor Swift. “If I were like, sixteen I'd probably be like, a super insufferable swiftie.” Alexis laughed, raising her glass to cheers Quentin.
“So now, we get drunk, pretend I don't suck at teleporting, dance to music and tomorrow we'll get back at it again?” Despite her general annoyance at it and constant complaining, Alexis was clearly motivated to master this obnoxious ability.
Even if she was aiming to still be drunk tomorrow, given how fast drink #1 was gone.
He groaned as she tugged him up to his feet accepting the drink she handed him. He didn't throw it back as quickly as she had with hers, but laughed as they cheersed.
"Yeah well, I'm nearly thirty and I'm probably a super insufferable swiftie," He countered, because he knew this about himself, though he did his best to keep it to himself. It was just those who were in his head who knew just how insufferable he could be. And what could he say? Swift knew how to craft a lyric.
He chuckled, taking another sip from his glass. "Let's see how we feel tomorrow before we make plans to practice more." He suggested, if she was planning on getting as drunk as it seemed like she might, a day off was probably for the best.
She'd have to bring the bottle over to them if she was going to be treating her drinks as shots, but for now she laughed at Quentin's admittance to being a somewhat insufferable swiftie at nearly 30. “That's alright. I like, totally accept you anyway.”
And she did, too. Quentin was the best. At this point, she really wasn't sure how she'd be faring in Dunwich without him. Daimon had been a big help, too, but he was gone now. Matt was busy. Apparently Quentin was dead where he was really from.
Alexis danced her way back to the kitchen, bringing the bottle and abandoning the pretense of needing a glass. She took a shot straight from it, instead. It was set on the table nearby, a second upbeat song taking over. “I'll think about taking a break tomorrow but no promises.”
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that,” He said dryly, amused as she assured him his membership in the swift club was okay with her. But it was nice, to know that even his weird was okay with Alexis, and sure Taylor Swift wasn’t exactly weird but it wasn’t just that, it was all the other things too - they were real friends, for all they poked and teased one another, and maybe even because of all of that.
He was glad he knew this weird girl, even when she made him dance with her. The music was upbeat and fun, easy to dance to, and the more he drank with her the less he was worried about how silly all of this was and instead just let himself dance as the songs played one after another.
“This makes me think about the way things should have been when Julia and I crashed Dionysis’ party a while back.” He said with a huff, they had things they’d needed to do then, they couldn’t just fall into the music and the drugs and the booze the way he might have liked to on any other occasion. And things weren’t quite so wild here, but it was nice to let go for a little while.
It was easy to just forget where they were sometimes - with a bit of drinking and some music, Alexis could pretend she was in some club in Morocco if she wanted. Her mind could go totally elsewhere. She could NOT think about the fact that Quentin didn’t exist in her world. That he didn’t exist in his anymore, either. According to Margo.
Half the bottle had to be gone at this point, at least. Alexis took one more sip, setting it down and turning a little off-balance as the song changed to something less upbeat, still a fun song but a little slower - one of her favorites. “This is how every party should be.” She said, pulling him over to dance again, arms wrapped around his shoulders.
She swayed with him, face pressed against his softly. Alexis huffed a little, pulling him into a tight hug. She didn’t know how to say what she wanted to say to him sometimes, how to express what his friendship meant because she hadn’t had many - or really, any healthy relationships of any type in her entire life. Family, friends, nothing. Zero healthy relationships.
So instead, when she pulled back to tell him he was the best, greatest friend she could have ever asked for - no words came out. No, she just leaned forward and pressed her lips softly against his and then.
Oh fuck.
Alexis panicked, stepping backwards before she even pulled her mouth away from Quentin and in an instant, they stepped. Both of them. The fog wrapped around them and Alexis found herself standing, extremely drunk, in front of that stupid fucking statue she had that weird vision at.
“Quentin? Fuck, oh my GOD Quentin I did not mean to do any of that - not the - not - Quentin? Did you come with me? I felt - it felt like you did, shit. Fuck. Where’s my phone.” Lucky for her, her phone had remained in her pocket. Quentin’s, however, was still at her apartment.
If he was there, he could answer it, right? She dialed his number, listening to it ring.
Things had been going well, he’d been pleasantly drunk as they’d talked and danced and generally avoided anything real, but it was nice. And then it wasn’t - it took him a beat when her lips met his for it to register, this wasn’t them - this wasn’t how they were together.
“Alex-” He started to protest as she stepped away from him with a kind of speed he didn’t think she had in her considering how much they’d had to drink, but before he could finish and before either one of them could let go of the other, a fog swirled up around them and they were transported.
He’d expected to open his eyes and Alexis would still be there, but she wasn’t - and as he looked around a dawning realization settled over him. This was a barren wasteland, there was nothing here - no people, not Alexis, not anything that would help him. This was the place she’d told him about so many times before now, relaying the little glimpses of it she got each time she stepped, the place she’d been trapped. “Oh fuck.”
There was no answer. She called again and again, stumbling her way through the park. She stepped deliberately, the fog wrapping around her and she ended up - somewhere she didn't know. “FUCK.”
Another step, this time ending up downtown. That was at least closer to her apartment. With a lot of effort, she made it back, still trying to call. He wasn't there either, though. Alexis thought back, wondering if he really had gone with her - he should have been at the statue. If he hadn't, he'd be here.
With abrupt realization surprising for her level of intoxication, she realized there was another option. She'd left him in that place.