WHERE:Vallo City WHEN:October 9th, 2021 WHAT:James turns the tables on Mei and takes her out to a party for once, before giving her an early birthday gift. WARNINGS:Death talk STATUS:Complete
It had been a splendidly long time since James attended a party similar to the ones he and Mei used to frequent - but there was something a bit fun about nostalgia, wasn’t there? James didn’t actually recall whose party it was tonight - a friend of a friend, something like that. But the venue was perfect in that ‘throwback’ kind of way, a local band playing equally throwback tunes - he’d pilfered a bottle of bourbon to drink in the shadow casts of the back of the space; everything had that telltale aroma of cigarettes and beer and people. He wondered how long he’d last before needing to recharge his social battery - but he was going to do his best since this was a party and almost Mei’s birthday (he remembered - they were about to be the same age, until James ticked himself up a notch again) and he had a gift for her.
The gift wasn’t bourbon, though he was enjoying the bottle and the caramel and vanilla notes to the stuff. Over a cover of one of the songs he knew was played during one of Geliara’s dances, circa 2003 or 2004, he scooted over to Mei and offered the bourbon. “Happy early birthday,” James grinned. “I brought your present tonight, don’t worry.”
Now that things had calmed down a little (no more killer robots on the loose), he could pretend like maybe his life was somewhat normal. Even if he wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to even define that anyway.
What was the quickest way to feel old? For you to realize that the decade you went to high school in could now be considered a ‘throwback.’ Yet, Mei didn’t let that get her down. She refused to feel old when she still felt like she was in the prime of her life.
Her girlfriend had come out with her and James that evening, but had turned in fairly early, her own desire to be social was very low in comparison to Mei’s. But she had given her blessing for Mei to party like they used to back when they were younger and so Mei had taken full advantage of that, having already gotten her eyes on someone fairly interesting. She had taken a break from dancing on the main dance floor - where people were dancing like they were two steps away from having full on intercourse right then and there - and was leaning into James’ shoulder to take a break from holding herself upright.
Hearing his words, she peeked out to see him offering her the bourbon and smiling at her. Taking the drink and raising her eyebrows, she asked, “Should I be worried? Because it’s always fifty-fifty with you when you’re being mysterious.”
“No, not at all,” James assured slyly - though maybe he was laying on the mystery a little too, laying it on as thick as the morning fog. Because he was a tease, sometimes - or he had something of a sense of humor, defying the Vorerra stereotype that they were all just the vaguely human personifications of shadows and darkness. He’d defied Vorerra in a lot of ways though - was he paying the price for it? Depends on how you look at things. “Here, come on - “
He nudged Mei gently, heading off toward a place where they could sit - she was still free to lean against him, of course, and he’d let her get back to whomever her eagle eye had spotted as being worthy to chat up; if she wanted to disappear off into the night with them too, he wouldn’t be offended. But first, a gift - when they were on a sofa he pulled out a small box from his pocket. Inside was an amulet, a spike of metal hanging from a leather cord; it was also infused with a magical substance, so it glowed faintly, electric blue in a squiggle of a pattern running up and down the spike itself.
“I got it from one of the Outlander shops,” he explained. “It’ll give your fire spells a boost. Thought you might need something, especially if you’re planning on getting more and more involved with their nonsense.” He was chuckling about it, but he did want her to be as safe as could be. Because they all knew ‘Outlander nonsense.’
There had been increased insanity since the Outlanders had started to show up over two years ago now, but correlation and causation were still being highly debated among all the covens. But now that Mei had been sent to liaison with them by the Elders, there had certainly been an increased risk to her personal well being - because she had never been great at staying out of a fight if she saw it happening.
So her face went from vague suspicion - she knew him well enough to know his sense of humor could be at play - to soft fondness. "You're a big softie under that guyliner," she said, holding the chain up between them so she could look at the pendant better, before leaning forward to press a kiss to the side of his face. "Thank you, James."
Well. James supposed he wouldn’t argue. He accepted the kiss with a bit of a blush though, probably furthering the notion that he was in fact a softie. Alas - there was no fighting certain things.
“You’re welcome,” he responded gruffly. Then busied himself with taking a swig from the bottle of bourbon - it went down easy, in that ‘smooth warmth’ kind of way. ‘Twas a bit nippy outside, thanks to the change in seasons (the air was crisp and cool, the tree leaves still hanging on to the only thing they’ve ever known), but no danger of that happening in here where the party was - not with the press of bodies and the proximity and the generation of heat. “Any other plans for your birthday and beyond? How’s your brother doing, by the way?”
Honestly, when she had first met James in the library of Geliara, she had put him off as one of those quiet Vorerra kids that was always scheming under the surface. But eventually they had gotten to talking and it became obvious that he was more awkward than anything else. So despite the reputation Vorerra had overall, Mei had been comfortable with James for a long time. Enough to tease him about how his insides were soft and gooey despite first look. But she left it at the kiss and didn’t call him out on the flushed face, letting him hide in the dimness of the party.
Rolling her eyes at the mention of her brother, she handed the pendant to him and swept up her hair in one hand, turning around so that James could put the necklace on for her. “You know him. A little of this, a little of that. Won’t actually tell me what he’s up to until he gets himself into some kind of shit and needs to be bailed out.” Last time it was gambling against some centaurs. The time before that was messing with the gnome mob. “How’s your sister?” Mei asked, turning her head slightly so she could send him a sly look. “She’s been looking great lately. She cut her hair?”
James snorted a laugh, taking the pendant and slipping it around Mei’s neck when she swept her hair up - he clasped it easily and let it settle; it looked nice, and maybe the magic responded to her too because it seemed to glow just a little bit more blue. Bright as cyan wax poured into a mold to make crayons for a child’s box - it suited her, either way. He hoped the whole thing would come in handy for those inevitable battles.
“Oh, she’s grand - you can just ask her out, you know,” he added. “If that’s your plan.” He was quite sure Julia liked Mei enough for that, anyway - though as a general rule he tried not to poke into her private life too much.
His expression turned a tad more serious though, as he glanced down at the bottle of bourbon in his lap. “Our parents have cut us both off, so - I’m sure she could use the distraction. It’s been...difficult.” The entirety of Vorerra had cut them off, and they made it seem like they were doing the Barlow siblings a favor by not immediately poisoning them and tossing their dead bodies into a wood chipper.
Not yet, anyway - James knew they were always going to be watching him, however. Waiting.
Inelegantly snorting, Mei turned and leaned back into the couch, as she examined her new piece of jewelry. She smiled down at it when she caught the glow coming off it. “You know Julia and I don’t date.” Hook up occasionally? Yes. Was it always great fun? Obviously. But dating? Ehhh. Especially considering how messy the Vorerra connection was with the siblings. It wasn’t a layer of complication that she was ready for in her life.
Enki had only just started to open more to the other covens in the past two decades. She didn’t need to throw a wrench in it by making it messy with the Vorerra via her connections to the Barlows. She already got enough shit from the Elders from hanging out with James and Julia. “But if she needs a distraction, I could pay her a visit and see if she wants to spend a weekend together. My boss is making me take weekends off now that I’m liaising with the Outlanders.” Raising her eyebrows at James, she asked, “What about you? You claimed to have something of a social life now?”
“A weekend ought to do you both some good,” James agreed. If Mei and his sister did some not-dating during that excursion then, well, that was fine with him - he wasn’t Julia’s keeper, even if he still considered it somewhat of his responsibility to look out for her. Not like their parents were eagerly stepping up to do what they were supposed to do - not like they ever really did.
Their childhoods had been wrought with different sort of shit. For example, a lot of the Vorerra businesses just doubled as stash houses for ‘hot’ items. Jewelry mainly, sometimes weapons or other supplies - he’d grown up knowing that and he continued to know where everything was even now; they weren’t going to change that around, which was why anyone leaving the coven was seen as a problem - James and his sister knew too much, basically. Not to mention the fact that James had treated so many of the coven members and had been inside their heads.
It wasn’t some sweet story where family members painted their elders and their lives as anything idyllic - it wasn’t ‘every Vorerra head is also a mother or a father, or a sister or a brother, or an aunt or an uncle.’ No, their villainy spilled over into even their personal lives - James’s own parents probably thought it would be easier and better for the coven if he wasn’t breathing. And that stung.
“Something of a social life though, yes,” he added, twisting the bottle around and around in his hands. “One of the Outlanders - I took him to an Asetenarra party. And we’ve seen each other a few times since.”
Wiggling her fingers at him to get the bourbon from him now, Mei took a swig for herself and made a face. It was good bourbon, but she always had to have a few shots of it to get over the unique burn of it because she was definitely more of a vodka girl. “Tell me more about this Outlander you’ve been courting. Have I met him yet? Is he pretty? Can I snoop on him? For security reasons, obviously.” She was definitely going to stalk their social media regardless, but it was always nice to ask first.
She knew James had a lot of hang ups about letting people get close because of the very real damage that the Vorerra and his parents had done to his emotional well being (and, potentially, his physical well being as well). However, it was nice seeing James put himself out there. He deserved to have bits of fun, even if it didn’t turn out to be anything serious in the end.
Oh ye gods. “I’m definitely not courting him,” James insisted, sounding amused at the prospect. “I’m not sure if you’ve met him - Leon? He’s very pretty though.” In a rough-around-the-edges, ‘I just took an undignified bite of my hot dog and squirted mustard on my eyesore Hawaiian shirt’ kind of way. Plus the messy apartment that should have not been attractive but it just was also falling under ‘uniquely charming’ and what the fuck.
“I’m not sure if anything will come of it,” he added, mostly because Leon was probably obsessed with some criminal back home that he was chasing. Seemed like it violated about a thousand different ethics rules, if you were a cop - however, considering James was raised in what was basically the mafia, he wasn’t about to talk ethics violations with anyone. “But I put a shield trigger in his head just in case - he’s sort of desperate to leave the world and I’m concerned he’ll go barking up the wrong tree, if you know what I mean. You can snoop if you’d like though. Let me know if you find anything interesting.” James had his own ways of snooping if need be, but he’d already promised to not do any mind reading - and he’d abide by that.
“Sooooo...banging him like a steel drum hopefully?” Mei asked with an innocent flutter of her eyelashes at him. But she couldn’t keep up the act for long, as she broke out into a smirk and took another drink of the bourbon, making an internal ‘blerg’ noise in her head. Taking the name given - Leon - her eyes flashed blue and then held the colour as she linked up to her database where she kept all her information on the Outlanders.
Flipping through it, she lit up on Leon with a little, “Oh!” Unlinking her mind from the database, her eyes returned to their normal brown and she grinned at James. “I haven’t met him, but he’s the one that looks like Mako’s soulmate. Very good looking. A little intense though? Keep me up to date on this though so I don’t have to snoop on you to know what’s going on.”
While Mei did her database accessing, James took back the bourbon for a moment (he’d have to get her a bottle of vodka to go, if she wanted, as repayment for the snooping) and drank from the bottle - he might go for a beer next, if he wanted to really fuck himself up this fine evening (liquor before beer you’re in the clear was the biggest amount of bullshit, honestly).
“Mako’s soulmate?” James repeated and - well, that was interesting. “Yes, I suppose so. He’s got another face twin wandering around here too.” Cullen, or something - it was apparently a popular face though he guessed he could see why. It was also a good face. “I’ll keep you up to date, I promise. We only kissed once. I’m not sure steel drum banging - “ What a euphemism, he was impressed, “...is in the cards for awhile.” If at all.
Maybe he was just destined to die alone. Seemed fitting. Not like he could actually introduce anyone to his family. Not like his family even wanted him to be happy.
“Mako Mori, the woman who haunted my wet dreams during my mid to late twenties,” Mei said dreamily with a little sigh. She would have killed to get in the middle of a Mako and Raleigh sandwich, but who knows? Maybe with this Outlanders business, she was one step closer to checking that off her bucket list. “Her person in her world shared a face with Leon and the other face twin.” She vaguely recalled the other one, but he was more of a old timey guy, more than this Leon guy. Waving her hand around as if to move on from the topic, she added, “Not important. Just let me know if I ever have to meet him and nicely threaten him in case he ever hurts you.”
Yeah, sure, James was from a mafia family, but Mei could ruin someone’s credit score. Who was scarier now?
Softly, she added, “I’m glad you’re putting yourself out there like this. It’s about time you tried.” She knew all about his awful family - save Julia, of course - and their treatment of the Barlow siblings. If it wouldn’t start a conflict between their covens, she would have ruined all of Vorerra’s credit scores by now.
James appreciated that, he did - the words from Mei were kind of like a balm to his roughed up, barely-scabbed over wounds. He dove into his work to help other people, to be a good doctor to his patients, to help them function in society and to take advantage of that unique opportunity that psychiatry provided - but he didn’t have many people in his corner, and the bullshit with distancing himself from Vorerra just proved that.
“Thank you,” he chuckled throatily, and rather than blush about it he just slipped his arm around Mei and dragged her a bit closer, pressing a kiss (a bit of a prickly one, thanks to five o’clock shadow) to her temple, while music pulsed around them like blood rushing through veins. “For offering to threaten him - “ James just hoped that credit score wasn’t ruined already but either way it probably wasn’t very good, “...and for the encouragement. You know I’ve got your back as well, should any family trouble crop up on your end.” They were all in decent company, in that regard.
Aw, affection. It was rare to get James to initiate moments like this, but Mei treasured it all the same when it did happen. Snuggling into his side and wrapping both arms around him, she let the moment settle around them, at odds with the lively music going on around them.
Eventually she pulled away so that she could pull him up with her, making him set the bourbon down. "Can't have family troubles if your family is dead, am I right?" She said lightly, the pang that came with missing her parents dulled now, muted after twenty five years of missing them. "Come on, let's leave this melancholy mood behind and go dance!"
Booze set down - in fact, James tucked the bottle away into his leather jacket, which he definitely took off. It was too hot to wear it inside the venue - and if Mei wanted to dance, he wouldn’t need it anyway.
“Well, I don’t know if that’s entirely true,” he admitted. Your parents were special - a mother’s love, a father’s love, that intoxicating blend of adoring your children, being willing to die for them, but also sometimes wanting to get the hell away from them. It was a paradox that James had seen, and felt, within the headspaces of many patients - but he couldn’t say that he’d ever personally felt anything like parental love from his own mother or his father.
Having dead parents hurt too - it was always going to hurt to some degree even if time softened the blow; it was a void that could never be filled, and he didn’t expect Mei to ever manage that completely. Anyone who did could just fuck all the way off and then some.
“But I could go for dancing, sure.” He wouldn’t torture her with the deep emotional talks that felt like something was clawing into and climbing inside your soul - not in a venue such as this. “Let me sweep you off your feet, darling.”