Who: Sera and Caius When: Monday, Oct 2, afternoon Where: Caius' house Status: complete
Caius hadn’t gone to work Monday morning, something he was sure his father would notice and call him out on, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He’d notified his assistant that he was sick and would be working from home that day. It made a vague sort of sense, he’d worked all weekend long with Oysterfest, and been around a lot of people, so of course he could’ve picked up something mild along the way. In reality, he had other work to do.
Reagan had had to go in to open up Belladonna, so Caius had gone home to dive into his library. They had to find something to try, something to break this curse. It would’ve helped if he knew more about it, of course, but be damned if he was going to go crawling to his parents for more information. So Caius had spent the bulk of the day on the floor of his living room with old books spread out all around him, poring over archaic language and esoteric rituals, trying to find anything that might help them. Study was what he was best at, he had to find something.
As the day moved into afternoon, he decided he needed a break. Caius checked his phone, then impulsively sent a text to his sister. Busy after school? He wanted to see her, he hadn’t in a while, and she always had a way of making him feel better. Whether he picked her up to get coffee or she wanted to come over, Caius wanted to spend some time with someone in his family who hadn’t betrayed him.
School had been a rough go for Sera today. She'd gotten a tiny bit drunk after Oysterfest with Cam Malone and a few other people, stayed out late and gotten up early. A full day of classes and then cheerleading practice had been hard to face, but she'd pulled on her boss bitch panties and gotten it done. They'd even been let go from practice a little early, and she was in the locker room putting her hair into an artfully messy updo and getting ready to touch up her makeup when she heard her phone go off.
Her automatic response was a smile when she saw that it was a text from her brother. just finished practice. want 2 hang? she replied, then put down the phone to reach for her face powder. It wouldn't do to look overly shiny.
Oh right, practice. Caius would never understand what Sera enjoyed about cheerleading except for the popularity, but whatever made her happy. Happiness was becoming more and more important to him, it seemed like. With a little groan, Caius stood up from the center of the book circle and gave a stretch. His ass was numb, he needed a huge worktable or something. Yes. Coffee or my place? Up to you. He sure as hell wasn’t going back to the family home just yet, so Sera would have to either meet him or come over.
Cheerleaders were the elite of the elite. It was a way to prove yourself, prove you were absolutely the best. It was true that was the main reason Sera cared about it, but it was also a great way to keep in shape. After practice, she always felt great, full of fire and energy. She finished up her quick makeup refresh before picking up her phone again. I’ll come 2 you. see you in 15! Somehow the thought of hanging out at her brother’s comfortable house won out over a coffee shop. Absolutely no contest.
She gathered her things and breezed out of school and to her car, humming under her breath as she dropped her pack and sports bag into the trunk and slid behind the wheel. The drive to Caius’s place was short; luckily she didn’t forget she was going to her brother’s instead of home. All she had to do was make a left turn instead of a right one once she was in Overlook Estates. Sera locked her car and hopped out, clutching her keys and phone in one hand. Bouncing up to the door, she knocked her typical pattern of seven knocks and waited.
After Sera’s text back, Caius straightened up the living room a bit, stacking the old books together so there was at least a navigable path to the couch. He hadn’t even decided yet if he was going to tell her about the curse. Part of him wanted to, maybe needed to, to have support from someone who wasn’t in the middle of it all, but at the same time, he didn’t know if he wanted to drag her into all of it. Something in the back of his head muttered about how it would be a betrayal of his parents, a way to turn his sister against them, but he was trying not to care. His own loyalty was stronger than theirs, obviously.
He put on a long-sleeved shirt over the comfortable lounge pants he’d spent the day in, and ran his fingers through his unruly hair a few times. He looked a mess, he knew it, and Sera would probably call him out on it. Caius would cross that bridge when he came to it, he guessed. He went to the door when he heard her knock and pulled it open, giving her a wan smile. Caius moved back and gestured for her to come in. “Hey,” he greeted.
“Heeeey,” Sera replied, grinning at him as she walked inside. “How’s my favorite brother? You look… disheveled.” Who would’ve thought a varsity cheerleader would have known how to use the word disheveled? Sera didn’t like to be too predictable. She toed off her shoes and put down her phone and keys before moving toward her brother again for a hug. He was probably the one person in her life with whom she was openly affectionate.
Disheveled was sadly accurate, and a state that he ordinarily wasn’t in when he saw people nowadays, even his sister. Caius hugged Sera back, probably a little too long for just a greeting, but he couldn’t help it. She smelled good and she brought a totally different, soothing energy with her. Giving her one more firm squeeze, Caius let go and nodded in the direction of the kitchen. “You want anything to drink? Or eat? I can whip you up something if you’re hungry.” She had been at practice, after all.
Sera noticed that her brother hadn’t really answered her when she’d asked how he was, and she filed his reaction away until she decided if she needed to ask more probing questions. He looked like he might have something on his mind, but she could be patient. There was something major she hadn’t told him, after all, so she couldn’t be too miffed. She hadn’t been able to decide if she wanted to share what had happened at the gas station the last full moon or if she’d best keep it to herself. She knew about magic, of course, but this was different. “A drink would be great,” she said, since she’d drained her Nalgene bottle in the car on the way over. “Maybe some fruit if you have it? Gotta rehydrate.” She smirked at him and dive-bombed into the couch as was her habit.
Caius couldn’t even quantify how he was in order to tell her anything, if he was being honest. He was all over the place, swinging between worry and fear and determination and a white-hot anger at his parents that he wasn’t used to enduring. It was all just so much. Reagan was usually the overly emotional one, not him, so it was a weird position to be in. “Gotcha, be right back,” he murmured as Sera took over his couch. His living room was messier than usual, with all the books and notes now in hasty piles, and evidence that he’d eaten a couple of meals in there. Caius went to the kitchen to get Sera some of the lemon-cucumber water he always kept on hand, and a bowl of grapes. He brought them back to offer over, sitting down next to her. “How are you? How was practice?”
Sera busied herself getting comfortable, curling up in one corner and propping her head up with one hand as she glanced around. It looked like Caius was busy with something, and she might have felt guilty for interrupting if he hadn’t texted her first. She was always happy to spend time with him so she’d jumped at it. Some people might think that was nerdy, but her older brother was one of her favorite people ever so she couldn’t say she gave a shit. When he sat down, she accepted the drink and set the bowl between them in case he wanted any. “Practice was practice,” she said. “You know. Lots of stretching and bouncing and jumping around.” Also some impromptu ass shaking in the locker room to some rap song just for fun, but that wasn’t worth mentioning. “I’m good,” she added, then gestured with one hand around to the proliferation of books and papers. “What’s all this?”
Caius gave a vague nod, still not sure how she enjoyed all the bouncing and jumping around, but he wasn’t a teenage girl and never had been. They had mysterious ways, and Sera was good at everything she did, so there was that at least. He looked around at everything on the floor and the coffee table and let out a heavy sigh. Maybe it wasn’t best to tell her, but ... well, she was asking, and he couldn’t help that, right? “A research project,” he said after a beat, then looked over at his sister, his face somber. “Some things have been happening. I’ve uh ... got some news you won’t be too happy about.”
Sera was chewing grapes when her brother told her it was a research project, and she nodded, figuring that could go one of two ways: boring or mildly interesting. It depended on what he was researching. She swallowed and then shifted her position as Caius continued to speak. Pulling her knees up, she wrapped her arms around them and tilted her head slightly. "What is it?" she asked, a touch of trepidation in her voice. Starting out by telling someone they wouldn't be happy with whatever the news was didn't bode well.
“You know how Reagan and I went to Anguilla?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “We eloped while we were there, it wasn’t just an engagement.” Caius gave her a second to take that in -- he had never known a woman to be happy about the elopement of a family member. He hadn’t really had a chance to talk to his sister about his quote-unquote engagement, so he didn’t know if she’d been excited to be involved or couldn’t care less, but she would definitely know how much the wedding had preoccupied their mother. Which also stung like another betrayal. Just more fakery and lies. He was going to tell Sera the truth.
“That’s been a couple of weeks,” Sera said, her tone making it unclear exactly how she felt about that. “You’re just now telling people? People like me, your favorite sister?” It sounded romantic, to be honest, but it was also a little weird thinking of her brother suddenly being married. She sipped from her water and then rested it on her thigh. “Did you tell Mom and Dad?”
He wished he was telling her under different circumstances. Like joyfully, some playful secret, but that wasn’t how their lives were set up, apparently. Caius sighed and ran a hand through his hair, fluffing it up further and scratching at the back of his head. “Not exactly,” he murmured. “Dad confronted me the other day. Told me I had to break off the engagement.” Caius gave his sister a wary glance. “This is going to sound crazy probably, but ... our families are cursed. Ours and the Kellys’. Two children from every generation are cursed to fall in love and ultimately die because of it. Which neither one of us had any idea about until that day. So ... that’s what I’ve been trying to work on.” He made a vague gesture at all the stacked books.
"What the hell," Sera said. Her tone was almost blank, and she carefully set her water down out of knocking-over range. "A curse?" She knew a curse wasn't any crazier than her family being witches-- except for her, of course, because she was just that lucky. There was no question of her not believing Caius. He wouldn't try to pull her leg about something that serious. Their father would flip when he found out they'd actually gotten married, she thought with a soft sigh. "What are you going to do?" she asked. "Break the curse?"
It was kind of a bizarre thing to think about in today’s modern world, but their family knew enough to know that ancient powers lingered under all of the cell phone towers and modern cars and global politics that their ancestors couldn’t have dreamed of. The basics of the world hadn’t changed, they’d just been mostly forgotten. “I’m going to try,” he answered quietly, looking grimly over at his sister. “Our lives depend on it, I have to do something.” Caius let that settle for a moment, aware of how dramatic it probably sounded ... but it was true. He wasn’t going to just roll over and let some curse kill Reagan and himself, but he couldn’t break away from her either, so the curse was the one that had to be destroyed. “I just thought you should know what was going on.”
Sera rubbed her temples, like that might help her absorb what he was saying. “Do you have any details about it?” she asked. “Like, how would it happen, when would it happen, any special circumstances? Or is it just you’re cursed to fall in love and die?” It seemed like a reasonably important question to her. How would he and Reagan know what was best to do if they didn’t have any more intel than the bare bones statement? When he told her he thought she should know, her lower lip trembled briefly, making her look years younger in an instant. The thought of losing Caius was completely unacceptable. Nobody understood her like he did, nobody listened like he did. “Don’t ever keep stuff from me,” she said. “Even if it’s something terrible.” This definitely qualified.
Caius was shaking his head to her questions, because he really didn’t have any details. He would have to go back to his father for more information, he was afraid. Whether Anthony would be cooperative or not was a completely different question. Reagan did not want to involve her parents in it at all, so it was really up to him ... but he was still hurting and stubborn over it all. Caius saw the emotion in his sister’s face and he shifted closer on the couch, slipping his arm around Sera’s shoulders to pull her into a hug. Maybe he needed it too. “I won’t. There has to be more to it,” he murmured as he squeezed her gently. “I’ll find it, and I’ll figure it out. It’ll be okay.” Caius’s tone was soft, but there was steel under the words -- there had to be. Giving up wasn’t an option, and neither was giving in. So he would fix it, one way or another. “I love you and I’m not going anywhere, okay?” he added and kissed the top of her head.
“I know I’m not magic-y,” Sera said, and she had never wished she was more than she did right now. “But if there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll do it. Look at dusty books, find eye of newt… whatever.” She was mostly joking about the eye of newt, because that didn’t sound like the easiest task ever, although if it would help, she’d do it. Anything her brother needed, she was there for. She settled into his embrace, one arm going around him and her head resting on his shoulder. “I love you too,” she said, blinking stubbornly against the tears that wanted to well up. “And you have to stay around so I can be auntie to the beautiful babies you and Reagan are going to have, spoil them and give them all the candy and noisy toys and then go home.” No other outcome was acceptable to her at all.
Very aware of how girly his sister was, her offer to get newt’s eyes meant a lot to Caius. It was a cliche, but such a sweet one. He hugged her tighter and let out a watery little laugh at the rest of what she said. He’d always expected himself and Reagan to make beautiful babies together and live happy lives, and now ... that future was dimmer in his mind. Caius knew he couldn’t let it fade completely away, or he wouldn’t have anything left to hope for, but he was worried it was slipping. “That’s the plan,” he murmured to Sera. “Just ... remind me that’s the plan if I start to forget? Please. ... thank you though, it means a lot to me. Especially with ...” Caius sighed. “Just ... thank you.” He kissed her head again and gave her a tight squeeze, then let her go, feeling a bit sniffly himself. Caius swiped at his eyes.
“Of course,” Sera said. “I’d never let you forget that. We have a wedding to do too, since the other one was secret. After the curse is broken.” She nodded decisively, determined that her brother was going to have a beautiful, wonderful normal wedding. He deserved that, and Reagan did too. Curse schmurse. There had to be a way to get past it. Once he’d let go of her, she sat back in a different position, curling her legs underneath her. “What now?” she asked. “Do we want to do more research, do you want me to bore you with pictures of my dress for Homecoming or should we watch something on TV?” She wasn’t trying to dismiss the problems at hand, but she didn’t want her brother to get mired in them. Sometimes a little distraction was just the thing.
It was the perfect thing, and one of Caius’s ulterior motives for inviting Sera over. Most of his fondest childhood memories were of just bullshitting around with her; they’d always been close. She always brought an aura of normalcy with her, and because Caius’s life was so chaotic in various ways, he felt like he needed that. Sometimes he was selfishly glad she wasn’t ‘magic-y,’ as she put it. “As if you could ever bore me,” he countered with a little grin. “Show me your dress, and tell me all about who you’re going with.” He reached over to steal a few of the grapes he’d brought her, popping two in his mouth to munch on. He felt better -- still exhausted and worried, but better -- just getting it all off of his chest.
Sera was worried about what he’d told her, but at the same time she felt better, too. Maybe it was because even if a situation was as bad as it could possibly be, she wanted to have all the information. Knowledge was power, and if there was anything at all she could do to help, she couldn’t if she knew absolutely nothing. She wasn’t a child to be protected. Smiling the mischievous, amused grin she favored with she was hanging with her brother, she scooted closer and started pulling up pictures on her phone, ready to show him and tell him everything. It was a perfect way to spend the evening.