WHO: Marina Andrieski & Eleanor Shellstrop WHEN: Today, this afternoonish WHERE: Eleanor’s apartment WHAT: Bringing a birthday present she meant to bring and one she didn’t TRIGGERS: Marina being bad at feelings and being dumb mostly
Marina wasn’t going to give Eleanor a gift in front of people, which meant seeking her out on her own. Which meant showing up at her apartment with only a few minutes of warning. She’d brought frozen yogurt to make up for it. She was pretty sure it was enough of an apology.
Learning blood magic was definitely weird, but she wasn’t that worried about it. It was less about dark magic and more about really finding ways to make things better. The main thing she wanted to look into, for now, was a way to give Eleanor some protection when she wasn’t around. Onyx and one of the other coven members had helped her to make a coin sort of thing to hang on a necklace. A protection sigil was stamped into the coin and Marina had mixed epoxy and her own blood to power the sigil. She’d tried a few times before she’d gotten it to actually work and Onyx’s face had screwed up a few times when he had to attack her to test it because she felt kind of bad making them attack each other and she was pretty sure she’d be fine. There were potions if anything too bad happened. Then she asked Dorian to test a few to make sure that they’d stand up against magic, assuring him she wasn’t coming for his job...even if she didn’t really need to. It wasn’t like she was just going to give people things with her own blood in them for fun. She was definitely going to use someone else’s blood for that if she was asked for others. Unless it was Kenzi, she guessed.
Once she had figured out what tweaks needed to be done and found the right sigil for the job, binding her blood-epoxy mixture with the right metal, she was sure of Eleanor’s safety. It was possible that no one knew what exactly it was for, but if anyone saw Eleanor wearing it, they’d probably be able to put two and two together. She’d ignore that then. Also now.
Marina's text announcing that she was on her way over was a surprise, but also it fit with what Eleanor knew of her friend. Fortunately she was home and presentable, so when the knock came only a few minutes later, she was also ready.
"Hey!" Eleanor greeted, welcoming Marina in. "Froyo? And everything okay?" She'd already asked via text message, but she was just checking. Though she knew better than to expect a straight answer if it wasn't.
From appearances though, everything appeared okay. And she assumed one of those frozen yogurts were for her which meant the day had just gotten better on two accounts.
“Why wouldn’t I bring froyo? It’s an important part of everyone’s life.” And not a weirdly meaningful friendship thing that involved her knowing Eleanor’s favorite froyo.
“Yes. Everything’s fine. I just wanted to come over. Cause sometimes we can hang out here.” She felt like the gift was burning a hole in her pocket. “Plus isn’t it like practically your birthday by now?” She’d definitely googled to check when it was while also googling to make sure there wasn’t a birthday for her online for anyone to find.
"It is practically my birthday," Eleanor agreed, letting Marina enter but taking the offered froyo in the process. "I'm actually aging, after being dead forever." Except she had been dead forever, but it had been all in one night. Vallo was weird, she didn't think about that memory flood too much. But it was fun to have a birthday again. Getting older wasn't so bad when she realized that she wouldn't have before.
"This is birthday froyo?" Eleanor asked, smiling as she headed toward her couch.
“Welcome back to getting old.” Marina smirked to avoid an actual smile. “I’m sure it’ll be a great adventure or whatever people usually say when someone who used to be dead isn’t dead anymore.” Like it was a universal experience. Then again, there was a version of her who was dead and that probably would have been weird if she’d been dead one second and been not dead the next.
“Birthday froyo is the best froyo?” She shrugged. “And I maybe got you something.” She did her best to keep her body language casual and relaxed, but there was a tension in her shoulders. “Unless you don’t like presents.” She bit back a demand that Eleanor never tell anyone that she got her a present. It wasn’t necessary and she felt like Julia would side eye her about it anyway.
She pulled a little box with giraffe wrapping on it.
Marina got her something? Eleanor grinned, setting the froyo down on the coffee table so she could focus on the gift. "I like the giraffes," she said as she unwrapped it, guessing this had to be from watching the first episode.
When the box was unwrapped she found a necklace, and although she had no innate magical abilities that might have sensed the power contained within, she loved it just based on its appearance and guessed the sigil might have meaning.
"This is beautiful," she said quietly, placing the coin in her fingers so she could inspect it. "What does that mean?"
Marina avoided eye contact as Eleanor opened the gift despite wanting to see her reaction. She focused on other parts of her face or the spot off to the side of her face where she could still sort of look at her without looking at her. It was probably stupid, but it was a personal gift, so she felt weird about it. Usually she stuck to the simple, barely thought up gift. Just a vague idea of a gift. She left the personal gifts to someone else or just left them somewhere without explanation or card. It made it easy to deny that she’d had any part of it.
She cleared her throat, making herself look over after a minute. “It’s nothing. Just something I got. They said it was like a protection sigil or something...since you turn up in the past and get drunk sometimes and could get killed or whatever. Or Jason’s dumb ideas get you caught up in something also dumb. Figured it can’t hurt.”
Sure, she was leaving details out, but she figured it wasn’t the biggest deal. It’s not like Eleanor would be hurt that she’d neglected to explain that she’d made it on her own and used her own blood to power it.
Eleanor put the necklace on, holding onto the coin for a moment, admiring it, before she took Marina's frozen yogurt from her and set it down next to hers on the coffee table. Which freed Marina up for the hug she was about to receive.
"I've been saving this," she informed Marina. "Though I think I really should get a freebie for my birthday."
Eleanor might not have been hurt to find out that Marina was leaving out the most important detail, but chances were her reaction would have been slightly different. As it was, she hugged Marina, knowing that this choice of gift said more than Marina would actually speak aloud.
When she pulled back, she lingered, not quite letting go, only moving far enough back so she could look at Marina, their faces dangerously close as Ezekiel's words echoed in her head, almost like a challenge.
"Thank you."
Marina guessed she should have seen the hug coming. It was bound to come eventually and she’d almost expected it to come sooner, but it hadn’t and so she hadn’t had to figure out how to react or if letting someone hug you meant hugging back because she didn’t really hug people. She let Eleanor do the hugging and usually with other people. She froze for a moment before moving to pat Eleanor’s back, momentarily annoyed by how much like a guy that reaction was.
“So now you want to be greedy about hugs on your birthday?” She tried to push amusement into her voice because she felt like that was something to turn into a joke even if it was something more like a basic question to her and she was still trying to figure out the right reaction to the hug as it was.
But as Eleanor lingered, Marina found herself even more confused. She gave her a quick questioning look, not sure what to do - stay or move back on her own. “Yeah. It’s barely even a deal, much less a big one.” She shrugged. “It looks nice on you,” she said after a moment, glancing down at the necklace.
"If I can't be greedy about hugs for my birthday, when can I be?" Eleanor asked back, amused at how Marina patted her back but trying not to show it. Marina was trying, and that counted for something, but not nearly as much as the necklace.
Which apparently wasn't a big deal. Right.
"It means a lot to me," she said softly, again thinking of what Ezekiel said about her going after what she wanted. But if she was misreading everything, would her friendship survive? Did she want to risk that? And that confused look on Marina's face wasn't helping anything.
“I don’t know. I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about hugs and how to get more. So that’s the mystery. Christmas?” But she wasn’t sure she was regretting mentioning that or not. Now Eleanor was maybe gonna want hugs for Christmas. Then again, that would be the easiest gift she’d ever given someone. Did hugs count as actual gifts in replacement of things like this? This was bordering on too much thinking regarding hugs, so Marina pulled herself back to what was happening outside of her thoughts.
Eleanor was looking at her and she hadn’t moved away from her at this point still. There was something weighted about the situation when she spoke. The words were said in a way that was different from usual Eleanor. She wanted to ask if this was just part of hugging or if she was supposed to read into it more. She considered the options because she’d had moments similar to this with Anna before things were terrible. But it wasn’t something she’d considered and she looked at Eleanor quietly for a moment.
She definitely didn’t know how to read the situation, but… “So is this a staring contest or are you going to kiss me because I am choosing to assume this isn’t your usual hug ritual. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong…” Blunt was probably the way to go here and it was something Marina had experience with, so she used it.
"Christmas works," Eleanor replied with a slight grin as Marina tied herself into a free hug at the holidays. And then she decided to stop thinking so much as Marina questioned her, replying, "Yes," without specifying which option.
That wasn't a mystery for long, as Eleanor finally gave in, closing the distance between them and ignoring any lingering questions as she pressed her lips to Marina's, which felt so long overdue and reckless at once, changing the dynamic between them no matter how Marina responded.
It was worth the risk.
Despite being aware the kiss might happen, she’d also not really expected it to happen. There was still that moment of freezing, but she kissed back and let herself relax.
Once they pulled back, she resisted the urge to laugh. “You been thinking about that one for a minute?” And then a beat just cause she wasn’t done being insecure today. “This isn’t some weird kiss every Magician’s character thing, is it?” Cause that was a tragedy to think about and she knew for a fact she’d already made out with Margo. Which was a fair reaction, but still something her mind latched onto.
As Marina relaxed, so did Eleanor, finally having an answer to the question that had lingered longer than a minute. "Something like that," she offered when Marina spoke, but then her eyes widened as she went on to suggest Eleanor was making her way through the Magicians.
"Sure, if you consider baking cupcakes with someone an euphemism for making out with them. Except I did bring you cupcakes after that." They'd looked rather sad but had tasted really good. "And… this isn't just making out with you." She had made out with Margo, it was true. But that was all it had been and Marina was definitely different.
Marina rolled her eyes. “If you kissed Emo Hair, I’d have to disown you, so that’s probably for the best.” And those cupcakes had been pretty sad. They were the saddest cupcakes she was probably ever going to see in her life, but she’d eaten one since Eleanor had brought them and it wasn’t the worst thing she’d eaten. Just one of the ugliest.
She still had a lot of questions...like why, but she was trying to figure out how to word it without sounding pathetic. Or like she was trying to start a fight. The latter being the way she usually went because it was easier than discussing feelings and trying to make sense of things that didn’t make sense. It was hard to ask why me without sounding sad, though. “It was that time you saw my ass in tight pants, wasn’t it?” Because that seemed like the easier thing to joke about. “I get it.”
"I mean, no one could blame me," Eleanor said, okay with keeping things light because this was Marina, who hadn't run off yet. "Or because I'm guessing that's my favorite flavor of froyo," she said, leaving the dessert untouched for the moment.
“You don’t know. I could have requested a Bad Janet flavor and it could be farts.” Marina kept her expression pretty borderline neutral as she spoke. It sounded like a Marina thing to do. “Or I got you Mother’s Love.” Which she didn’t. It was definitely actually Eleanor’s favorite. Only now the part of her that leant toward self sabotage wished it was one of those things or like her not quite favorite.
"Yeah, you brought me a necklace designed to save my life so…" She was going with that was her favorite flavor. "Guess I could check though," she added, moving for the froyo and then sitting down on the couch.
She was trying not to ask questions or put any pressure on Marina, but then she decided that was a dumb idea. She'd held back for months now, she was done with that. "So what are you thinking?"
Marina made a face. “I mean, you do dumb things and your friend is very dumb, so you probably needed it. It’s basically a necessity thing at this point. Like pencils.” She frowned after that, trying to push back against all the habits that made sense because people sucked and she didn’t really want to know most of them.
With Eleanor sitting, Marina wasn’t really sure if she was supposed to sit also or where she was supposed to sit. Usually it was near Eleanor, but with space and now she wasn’t sure if that seemed weird, which was probably not actually important since they’d just kissed and if kissing didn’t make something weird, sitting probably wouldn’t. Part of her also felt nervous because she was definitely not a philosopher and her ability to care about a lot of people was none. She’d seen their show, so it wasn’t like she didn’t know already.
“Um.” The question brought her out of her thoughts and she looked at Eleanor for a moment before her brain caught up with the question. She hadn’t moved, though, because the concept of moving and her brain’s ability to move had paused at overthinking and seemed frozen in place after. “Nothing important,” she said after a long pause before she forced herself to move and sit down after picking up her froyo again. It was a little closer than her usual, but she felt like it was probably a deal.
"So I just kissed you and you're not even thinking about me?" Eleanor teased, appreciating that Marina was sitting closer because it wasn't that hard to lean over and nudge her slightly before focusing on the frozen yogurt. Which unsurprisingly was her favorite.
Rather than facing the television, Eleanor turned sideways on the couch so she could face Marina, maybe somewhat emboldened by her other decisions, or the fact that it was almost her birthday, or that Marina had given her a pendant to keep her alive. More than likely, a combination.
"That's rude," she added, still teasing.
“I feel like that’s a given,” she said after a moment. It was kind of hard not to think of someone when they’d kissed you. And she was thinking about Eleanor. She just didn’t know how to think about everything else or talk about it.
“I’m…” She frowned slightly, looking at her hands. “Ugh fine.” Because she didn’t know if sitting in anxiety over it was probably going to work here. “I...are you sure, though? About me? And everything?”
"I'm sure," Eleanor said, watching a woman who normally exuded confidence look less than that in the moment. "I mean, you don't seem opposed so…"
But she allowed herself a more serious moment, adding, "Marina, I know who you are. I want to… see where things go with you? Enough so that I was willing to risk my best friend freaking out on me because I kissed her. So, yes. I'm sure."
“Freaking out seems a little exaggerated. More like...casually pretending it didn’t happen and then considering if I needed to make a clown painting early.” But she felt a little less anxious. She’d definitely not expected any of this coming in. “But I guess if I wanted to pretend it didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have asked if you were going to do it or not. Cause I’m not sure if standing there for longer was gonna get weird and then maybe turn into a staring contest and that seemed like a lot.”
Wanting to see where things went meant dating. It had been a really long time since she’d ever dated someone. “So...what? You want to date, then?”
"Okay, yeah, that sounds like you," Eleanor agreed. "Glad you didn't go that route, by the way. And yeah, I want to date you. If that doesn't sound too weird and you're not opposed to it. Have you really never thought about it?"
“There’s still time.” But she wasn’t going to. Probably. “I haven’t thought about actually dating anyone since everything sucked in Tumbleweed and my ex was apparently the worst. I mean, sleeping with people and stuff, sure, but I mean...I’m kind of surprised you thought about it. Mostly cause like you know. My future as a blonde.” But she hadn’t actually answered the question. “But sure. I guess we could try something. But also I’m not really sure I’m going to be good at this whole thing and PDA is definitely weird and I don’t really like socializing with people or pretty much anyone from home, so you know...if that’s gonna be weird.”
"Hey," Eleanor said, "It's during your future as a blonde where you admit that you really do care." She had to work not to laugh when Marina listed off the things she didn't like, though she couldn't help smiling.
"Marina, I know who you are. I'm not going to demand PDA, or that we go to all these things. I mean, I might still go to a party without you, but if you do go, I want you to be comfortable."
She gave her a slight shrug. "I mean, I might refer to you as my super hot girlfriend and that'll be different but…" She wasn't Anna. She didn't want Marina to change who she was completely.
Marina rolled her eyes. “I mean sure. I care. Big deal.” It was technically a big deal. She sighed. “Sorry.”
She snorted softly at the mention of being called her super hot girlfriend. “I am, in fact, super hot.” But this probably meant getting used to hugs. She looked at Eleanor for a moment, considering what she was about to say. There was a chance she was going to regret this, but if she was going to be someone’s girlfriend and she was already being weird...“I guess we can work on the hugs.”
"Wait a minute, was that all I needed all along?" Eleanor said, looking at Marina in feigned surprise. "I would have asked you out months ago."
She finished her froyo, and set the empty cup down then leaned back into the arm of the couch and said, "This is a pretty damn good birthday and it's not even my birthday yet," she pointed out. "I have no idea what I could give you next month that even comes close."
Marina almost shoved her off the couch in annoyance, but just settled for a withering look. “Don’t make me regret this. Cause I will stop accepting hugs if you want to be annoying about it.” Not that it was new, but she was going to have to be better at affection with Eleanor and that was...going to take getting used to.
“I mean, yeah. I can see how it would be impossible to beat because I did a lot of awesome things. Like I even used my own blood for that,” she said motioning at the necklace. “So that’s pretty badass.” But then her eyes narrowed slightly as she realized that she was pretty sure that she’d never told Eleanor about her birthday. “Wait a second. How do you know about that?”
Eleanor didn't even register the threat, because they'd work through that, and it wasn't going to happen overnight. She was about to say something when Marina's next sentence caught her off guard, so much so that when Marina then questioned how Eleanor knew her birthday she didn't even play coy.
"Oh, I looked at your ID once because I knew you'd never tell me… You used your own blood for this?" she asked, slightly awestruck at the idea.
Marina blinked, trying to react to both things at the same time, but forcing herself to pause so she could address both things. “I don’t really enjoy my birthday, so I don’t really tell people, but rude.” Then again, she’d googled Eleanor’s birthday, so was she really any better? Probably not.
“And yeah. I wasn’t going to tell you cause...you know. You’re definitely weird about things sometimes.” She bit back the request that she tell no one because...it was probably not necessary. “It’s fine. Onyx showed me how to do it and it’s not even going to affect anything. It’s barely any blood. And I know it works cause Dorian sort of did a lot of magic and I made Onyx try to hit me with a lot of things from behind. But it’s not even a big deal.”
"Yeah, well I can't imagine you've had a lot of good experiences on your birthday," Eleanor pointed out. "But we could change that?" It was the same way with hugging, or any sort of physical touch. Did Marina really dislike it so much as she just wasn't used to that sort of intimacy? It wasn't anything Eleanor really wanted to rush and she knew it could be the former so she wasn't going to push it too far.
After all, trust was up there too.
But the revelation about the necklace was on another level. "Oh, yeah. I'm definitely weird sometimes," she agreed. "But now?" Now she could show her appreciation in new ways, which she did, moving in for another kiss, which seemed much easier than their usual dancing around with Marina showing her that she cared while insisting it wasn't a big deal.
Because this? This was the opposite of not a big deal.
The concept of birthday celebrations made her want to break out in hives to show just how not fun it sounded, but she wasn’t actually allergic and she probably didn’t want hives for real. “Sound gross, but maybe. Maybe also just like barely anyone can know.”
“At least you know it.” But the kissing to show gratitude wasn’t that bad, actually. She could get used to that. Even if she still insisted that it was barely a big deal. It was still pencils as a gift. Useful, but nothing to get excited about. But she wasn’t going to let someone hurt Eleanor without fucking them up over it either. She scooted a little closer to Eleanor then. “Might be worth it to be nice,” she joked.
"I do know who you are," Eleanor pointed out, again. That was what, the third time? "Something small, with the people who you would call friends if friend was a term you used." That was probably herself, Dorian, and Kenzi with Julia gone. They could have dinner and watch something stupid on television while drinking. It didn't have to be anything super elaborate.
"I can definitely make it worth it," Eleanor promised.
“Which I don’t.” The idea of having friends was, in fact, annoying. She was aware she had them, but that didn’t mean she liked to know about it or tell anyone about it. Most of them figured it out...probably. Definitely figured it out. She sighed at the knowledge of it. “You’re all dumb.” But it was said without any sort of venom behind it. It was mostly resignation in her voice.
If she’d been a different person, she might have slid over entirely and just let herself lean against Eleanor, but that wasn’t really in her nature. “Does that mean we’re going to make out now or?”