"So you're going to be playing the violin… on Moon Day?"
WHAT: Siblings getting over issues with the moon WHERE: Morningside Apartments to Griddy's WHEN: Way back, before Moon Day WARNINGS: References to abuse STATUS:Complete!
Her practice had run late, and by the end of it, Vanya was hungry. But mostly just for doughnuts. The orchestra was excited about this upcoming Moon Day celebration performance. Vanya was excited that they were excited, but she figured it was something she had to be part of to understand. Maybe she’d come to understand it after it happened.
Once she was free for the evening, she exchanged some messages with Klaus and headed for the nearest Waypoint to take her home. Less time than she had told him had passed when she was knocking on his door, having already dropped her violin off at her apartment.
Vanya had no idea what possessed her to reach out and ask if he wanted to go for doughnuts. Maybe it was because they’d actually had fun at the party thrown by the Magicians. He’d stayed sober, she’d actually relaxed. It had been good. Better than what it normally was. Maybe that could keep going.
To say Klaus was surprised when Vanya invited him along to Griddy's would be an understatement. He'd had to tell himself not to overreact, because he didn't want his sister to change her mind. He'd been hesitant to go to Eliot's party, then surprised to see Vanya there. Even so, he'd initially latched onto her to help keep himself distracted, then decided to make a point out of ensuring Vanya actually enjoyed herself. Before he knew it, he was having a good time himself, completely sober.
"Vanya, hey, come on in," Klaus greeted, opening the door at his sister's arrival. "Let me introduce you to the one, the only, Jules Waffle Hargreeves." He scooped the cat off the floor and held him up to Vanya. "He's adorable, isn't he?"
Despite being here, she hadn’t really spent much time in her sibling’s homes. Alison wasn’t even in the building anymore, and she actually had no idea where her new home was located. But that wasn’t exactly new. She hadn’t noticed the cat when he first opened the door, but apparently Jules Waffle Hargreeves had followed Klaus, because suddenly the cat was basically eye level.
“Very adorable.” she agreed, reaching out to gently, but briefly pet the cat on his head. She didn’t spend much time around animals. “Ben picked him out?”
Jules Waffle purred at Vanya's touch, nuzzling her hand before it was pulled back. "Look, he likes you!" Klaus said happily, before setting the cat back down on the ground where he immediately went to rub against Vanya's leg.
"Ben definitely picked him out. I would have gone for the Bengal, but how could I deny my brother the cat he wanted?" He looked down at the animal and promised he'd be back later then turned his attention back to Vanya. "Griddy's?" he asked, throwing on Ben's leather jacket even though he had no real need of one. Since that and the hoodie had shown up, he rarely went long without at least one or the other on.
She followed the cat with her eyes, watching as he wound through her legs, and tried to move carefully so she didn’t bump into him when she stepped into the apartment. “Aren’t Bengals a lot more high maintenance?” Or maybe the name just sounded fancy, she wasn’t really sure. Still, it would make sense that Klaus would go for a fancier cat and Ben would go for this one.
“Yeah, I want doughnuts.” She just had a craving, and it wasn’t like she got them often. She was usually pretty decent with what she ate. “I didn’t get a chance to get supper today. So, I guess I’m going right for dessert.”
"Hmmm, I don't know," Klaus replied, which was fairly typical that he wouldn't know if the cat he wanted was high maintenance or not. Fortunately Ben had won out, and Jules Waffle was pretty simple to manage.
"Doughnuts can be dinner," Klaus informed his sister. "Just like cake is a breakfast food if you call it breakfast cake." And if Vanya had missed dinner, they should get going. "Bye Jules Waffle!" he called out cheerfully as they headed into the hallway.
"So late rehearsal?" he asked, trying to make normal conversation the way normal siblings would where one of them hadn't previously blown up the moon.
Vanya took one last glance at the cat on the floor, trying to imagine the conversation Ben and Klaus must have had, before following her brother out into the hallway and toward the elevator.
“Yeah, the orchestra is doing a free performance for Moon Day.” she said with a shrug. The irony was not lost on her, but considering she had no memory of the moon blowing up, it wasn’t as strong for her. “The locals are pretty hyped about it, they want it to be perfect. It’s all music I’ve never heard of before.” So the learning process had been interesting.
They were already in the elevator, door closed, when Vanya said that which was probably good because it would have stopped Klaus in his tracks. Instead, his eyes widened and he tried to keep his voice calm as he asked, "So you're going to be playing the violin… on Moon Day?" A pause. "What is Moon Day anyway?"
No, that was not smooth at all.
If Vanya understood what he was getting at (she did), she wasn’t showing any signs of it. “Yep.” she said casually, turning in the elevator button to go down. “It’s some sort of a big day here. People have been talking about it. It’s coming up on the 20th, but apparently, the moon is just full in the sky all day. The sun doesn’t rise.”
When the elevator doors opened on the bottom floor, she casually walked out of the elevator and kept talking. “A normal thing. There are promotions around it. The orchestra does a free performance for the community.”
The elevator doors almost closed again before Klaus finally stepped out into the lobby, staring at his sister. As far as he was concerned, the issues between him, Vanya, the rest of his family, and the moon weren't resolved enough yet for her to be casually mention that she was going to be playing the violin, in an orchestra, on a day called Moon Day.
He also had the distinct feeling that if Ben was there, he'd be amused at how Vanya was handling things, and it was that thought that propelled him forward, almost smiling. "Clever," he mentioned. "Is this because I made you dance at the party?"
That brought a genuine grin to his face, and he started to relax. Slightly.
She almost had to turn around to see if he was going to follow, but she eventually heard him start moving to catch up, so she kept her eyes on the door, glancing at his face in the reflection of the glass before she pushed it open and walked outside.
Was she being evil? Probably.
“What’s clever?” she asked, keeping her voice as normal as she could. Though she did smile at his question. “The performance? That’s been in the works for ages. They do it every year. Or we, I guess.” It was weird to count herself among a group of locals at times.
“Anyway, being First Chair meant I had to learn new songs that everyone else either already knew, or seemed familiar with.” She wasn’t holding them back, at least. “And now it’s just rehearsals.” For that, and all the other performances they had.
"Oh you know," Klaus replied, but he didn't elaborate. "I know you know even if you act if you don't know." But he was impressed that his sister was the First Chair here as well, and he had vague recollections of her being really good in between the more powerful memories of her trying to kill them all.
"I wouldn't mind hearing you play while not being distracted," he added, leaving out what distractions he may have been talking about. Two could play this game, but he was also being genuine. "So you showed up as a stranger and then blew them all away and got First Chair?"
Vanya shrugged, refusing to get into the whole thing in any real depth. “I guess everyone will have to wait and see.” She’d seen plenty of other full moons here, played on plenty of those nights. This just happened to be a full moon during the day.
“I’m going to see if I can get you guys tickets again. I got them last time, but when I showed up to tell you…” she shrugged. They’d got into another fight, Vanya vs. her superhero siblings. Nothing new. “Not quite. First Chair wasn’t available when I arrived, but the woman who was in it before me retired. There were was an audition, so I went for it.”
"Yeah, none of us win siblings of the year," Klaus noted somewhat glumly before changing his tune. "But good!" he said, switching over to excitement. "I can't wait."
They made their way to Griddy's, which Klaus tried to save for special occasions such as this lest he replace all his other addictions with sugar. (He had already, really, but not to such a gluttonous degree.) "So what else have you been up to? Anything fun? Seeing anyone? Because if so they need to face a Diego interrogation."
The concept of dating was a sore point for Vanya. “No.” she said, probably too quickly. Her last relationship had used her in ways, and manipulated her in ways her siblings couldn’t understand, even if they watched the ‘show’ they were on, it didn’t show everything. Why would anyone love her anyway? She was a mess.
“There’s no one here who would be interested in me.” she said casually, as Griddy’s came into sight. It didn’t seem like relationships were worth it anyway. Even if there was, she didn’t know how she could trust someone again after what had happened last time. She might have ended Leonard, but not before he had done a number on her.
"You never know that," Klaus pointed out. "I fell in love as war waged on and no one, least of all me, would have ever expected that." Reflexively, he reached up and held the dog tags hanging from his neck.
Vanya glanced up to look at what Klaus was playing with around his neck. She was familiar with that part of his story to a point. “The world might have been shit then, but it doesn’t sound like he was.” she said carefully, pushing up the door to Griddy’s. “I’m tired of being abused.” Because when you looked back on it, that was pretty much all she had. Leonard had hurt her, their dad had, and Pogo had gone along with it, and forced their Mom to by association. She didn’t have any trust left, and she wasn’t sure she actually cared.
But that wasn’t why she called him, and she didn’t want that discussion to ruin how much she really wanted doughnuts. “But we’re here to focus on doughnuts.”
"He was good," Klaus said, his voice getting dreamy for a moment the way it always did when Dave was the subject of his thoughts, though Vanya's voice interjected and it took him a moment to reorient himself now that they were in Griddy's. "Yeah, that sucks," he said, genuine sympathy in his voice. He was wondering what else to say on the matter when she turned her attention back to doughnuts.
Doughnuts were easy.
He let his sister order first, then added two cream-filled doughnuts with a glass of milk onto the end. "You should visit me at the Apothecary," Klaus said. "I think you'll like it better than the clothing store." Though he also had to note that he had found clothing that met her approval. It was a talent.
Vanya’s order was a strawberry jelly filled doughnut and a sour cream glazed, with a cup of tea, then stepped to the side to let Klaus order. “Isn’t that like...a beauty place or something?” She owned very little makeup, her idea of wearing a lot of makeup was probably less than what some people work daily. Though, yes, he had found her clothes she was willing to wear.
Beauty place didn't really describe the Apothecary. "More like self-care, or self-indulgence," Klaus replied. "Cleansers and face creams and bath bombs." All of which he'd stocked up on with his generous employee discount. "Coffees and teas, too," he added. "You'll thank me once you stop by."
It was no wonder he was good at his job as his confidence on those sort of insignificant matters was unbound. But if they were going to avoid more meaningful conversation topics and repair some of the distance between them, they may as well play to their strengths. And for once Klaus's "strength" wasn't how long he could stay high.
“Coffee I do like.” she said thoughtfully, thought she wasn’t sure if anything else really sounded her speed. Still, if it was his new job, she would stop by to see what it was all about. “Either way, since you work there I’ll stop by.”
When the waitress handed them their doughnuts, she checked behind them for an empty seat next to the window and motioned to it. “How about we grab those seats, and you tell me more about this new place?”