Caleb and Vex | Halloween party
Oct. 27th, 2018 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainVex asks Caleb for a dance.
Caleb’s arm was getting tired. Hawks were surprisingly heavy, more so than he’d expected them to be. With a grunt, he switched Frumpkin over to his other arm, apologizing as his cat-turned-bird ruffled his feathers unhappily. He stretched his aching, now unburdened arm and looked out at the party. He was as far on the fringes of it as possible, so he had a good view of all of the chaos. Apparently movies got some things right, because this was exactly what they’d advertised—Loud, busy, and alcohol fueled.
“Maybe we should get a drink, huh?” Caleb scratched at Frumpkin’s breastbone, smiling when he gave his finger a little nibble. “And something to eat.”
At a party with this many friends Vex would normally be a few drinks deep and dancing if the spirit called for it. She wasn’t avoiding anyone, but she was more subdued than usual. Her fingers toyed with her necklace. She considered grabbing a chair and hiding under Trinket. She spotted Caleb passing close as she debated and her expression softened at the hawk in his shoulder. The markings on his feathers were distinctly familiar.
“Hello, beautiful,” she greeted. “And hello, Caleb. Frumpkin has feathers tonight?” Her attention shifted to Caleb and there another spark of recognition. “Oh. Love it.”
Caleb had been debating the merits of getting a drink versus the merits of staying right where he was when Vex spoke. He blinked at her. “Thank you. I like your hat.”
She smiled wryly. “I went all out.”
“Some people need to do more work than others,” Caleb replied.
“You look great. You could rock a cloak every day.” Her fingers trailed over her necklace again. “I was just thinking I might need my familiar. Trinket’s getting a little too big to ride on a shoulder all night.”
It was surprising that Trinket wasn’t already out and about. Everyone at the school had to be used to having him around by now. “Every witch needs her familiar.”
"And every wizard?" Vex squeezed the charm and bamfed Trinket out of the necklace. She leaned down to scoop him up, hugging Trinket to her chest. "Hi darling. Welcome to the party." She nuzzled the top of his head.
“Tonight, I am not a wizard. I’m a knight.” Caleb felt pretty cool with his cloak and sword, and Frumpkin the hawk perched on his very heroic-looking bracer.
She smiled. "Are you going to do something heroic before the night is through? Maybe accept some quests from strange women in lakes?"
“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government,” Caleb reflexively quoted, then answered Vex’s question with, “No. Probably not.”
"I really wish I had a sword on my back right now to test that theory." Vex gestured between them. "We need to have a movie night.”
Now Caleb’s other arm was getting tired. He lifted Frumpkin up to his shoulder to move him to it as he said, “Okay. What movie?”
"Should we do a bunch of fantasy movies?”
“Those are the best kind,” Caleb said as an agreement. “I’ll ask Cal, and Clint.” A movie night seemed like something they’d like.
“I’ll grab Keyleth and we’ll make a night of it.” She didn’t want to overwhelm Caleb with her full entourage, so Keyleth would be a good start. “Are you dancing tonight, sir knight, or does the hawk on your shoulder hinder that plan?”
It took Caleb half a moment, but he realized this was Vex’s roundabout way of asking him to dance. As he tried to decide on a polite refusal, he took in her half-hearted attempt of a Halloween costume, and her uncharacteristically subdued nature and changed his mind. “He does not. Frumpkin, go wait somewhere for me, please?” In a flap of wings, Frumpkin flew off.
Vex gave Trinket a squeeze and then set him down. She didn’t ask him to wait, Trinket was welcome to follow. He was generally conscientious enough to to trip anyone at parties. She offered Caleb her hand. “You’re full of surprises tonight.”
After a brief hesitation, Caleb took the offered hand. “It is the night for tricks, and treats.”
“So far, this is a treat.” She squeezed his hand gently. “And if you want to play tricks on a witch, you can guess how well that will end.” She winked.
“It depends on who you are rooting for,” Caleb answered as he left the safe security of his wall and walked with Vex toward the dance floor. “Where are your friends tonight?”
“Right here,” she told him, pulling him closer. “And I suppose the rest of them are around getting up to mischief.”
“Oh, we are doing this right—Okay,” Caleb stammered as he stumbled after Vex. He, fortunately, knew how to dance, and once he found his feet again, he moved with an easy grace that could almost be called confidence.
She smiled at his flustered reaction. Normally, she might push the flirtation. Figure out how much she could make him blush, but not discomfort him so much he’d want to flee. Caleb was... well. Maybe her type. Except her type was apparently bad ideas. For all she knew, this was all an act, and maybe Caleb was secretly a sociopath pretending at shy boy. He certainly had a dangerous power set. Vex glanced down from his face, suddenly very interested in the drape of the costume across his shoulders.
“You move well,” she murmured. “Have girl’s forced you to dance with them before?”
This was why Caleb didn’t like getting to know people. They asked questions, and the more questions they asked, the more obvious it became that he was hiding something. “My mother,” he answered. “She taught me. How did you learn?”
Vex scrunched her nose. “Our mother. And when that wasn’t good enough, an instructor last summer.”
Caleb tried not to let his surprise show; Vex’s mom must take dancing seriously if she’d hired an instructor. “It paid off. You dance well.”
“I’ve been to some very exhausting parties where it was my one saving grace.” She chuckled softly. “I do wonder if Vax stayed in London longer if he would have ended up in lessons as well.”
“Why wasn’t he in London as long as you?” Caleb’s impression of the twins was that they were inseparable. A them against the world sort of thing.
“His powers manifested before mine,” she explained. “He came here, and I was stuck with our father for a few months.”
Caleb made a small sound of understanding, gentle leading as they made slow circles on the dance floor. “That is unfortunate. You and your father are not close?”
“No,” she said simply.
“Okay,” Caleb said. He’d clearly hit a sensitive subject and knew well enough to leave it alone.
She offered Caleb a small smile. “He hasn’t been in our lives for long.”
Caleb made another small sound of understanding, but said nothing. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and had already made things awkward enough.
Vex's fingers trailed against Caleb's shoulder. "Do you think you'll try to solve Shaun's murder mystery later? He certainly knows how to theme a party.”
“I did already. With Clint.” Caleb pointed his friend out. He was easy to spot in the crowd dressed as he was as the huntsman.
She smiled. "Were you the first to solve?"
“I don’t know.” Caleb hadn’t thought to ask. “Maybe. We did it close to the start of the party. It was not very hard.”
“Or you’re very clever.” She smiled. “I’m not sure if Shaun was going for challenge or simply excitement.”
Caleb moved them over some as another couple started to crowd a little too close to him. “Both?” he replied. “But, I don’t know Gilmore very well, so I could be wrong.”
“It does sound like him,” she assured.
“Ah.” There was a stretch of silence as Caleb had no idea where to take the conversation from there, before falling back onto a comfortable safety net—Magic. “I’ve been working on a spell to talk to animals.”
“Really?” He had Vex’s immediate interest. “How is it going?”
Caleb frowned and admitted, “Slowly. I have not had much luck yet.”
“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Vex said. “Trowa tried once with his powers, but he couldn’t talk to Trinket. He said he wasn’t like other animals. I never considered if it could be done some other way.”
“It’s what magic is for, isn’t it? Finding other ways of doing things.”
She smiled. “Or doing things people would rather we couldn’t. Pushing limits. Yes.”
“Like talking to animals,” Caleb said instead of the other things he was thinking of: Time manipulation. Memory modification. Fire.
“That seems like the most joyful application.” Vex glanced over at Trinket. “Do you think Frumpkin will have opinions on what shapes he prefers?”
“Cat,” Caleb answered firmly.
“He is a beautiful cat. I think if I was the animal companion, as nice as flying is, I’d rather be the shape that could be close to you.” Her smile made it unclear if this was teasing flirtation or honesty. “And cats are extremely stealthy.”
Caleb blinked and stared awkwardly at Vex for a long moment, then, in a fast, stumbling ramble, said, “We are the best of friends. He is the very best cat that a boy could ever have.”
“Speaking with animals will wonderful then. Let me me know how it goes or if I can help.” She gave him credit for losing his tongue but not his feet. “Words aren’t necessary, but would be a bonus. I think that’s the difference between a pet and a familiar. They understand you as well as you understand them.”
“It is going very poorly. You’re welcome to give it a try yourself.” The song changed to something fast, and the people around them started bouncing and grinding against one another to it. Caleb stopped abruptly.
Vex squeezed his shoulder and took a step back. “I think this is too fast for either of us tonight. I’ll have give it a try. I have a couple of things I’m working on right now, but I may need to reprioritize. Do you do teleportation?”
Relief visibly washed over Caleb as the tension left his shoulders. He started off the dance floor, hoping Vex would just follow. “It’s another thing I am working on.”
“Mmm. Now I’m pondering collaboration verse a race to see who safely gets there first,” she said with a grin. She followed Caleb, and Trinket followed her close at Vex’s heels.
“I like how you added ‘safely’ in there,” Caleb said, amused. He stopped beside the chair Frumpkin was perched upon and offered out his arm for him to climb onto.
“It’s no fun if you show up without a limb.”
Smiling, Caleb said, “It would put a damper on things.”
Vex lifted her hands, wiggling her fingers. “This is where most of the magic comes from, and I’m not about to risk a few of them to freak transportation accidents.”
Caleb scratched Frumpkin’s fluffy bird breast. “No splinching,” he agreed.
Vex ducked down to scoop Trinket back up. It was going to be sad when he got too big for her to do this. “I’ll let you know how the experiments go.”
“Thank you. I’ll let you know too,” Caleb replied. “Your brother wants to talk to his snake if we figure it out.”
“Phrasing.” She grinned. “And yes, I’m sure he does.”
Caleb snorted a laugh at the pun. I really should have seen that coming. …Phrasing. He laughed again.
Vex tucked her chin on top of Trinket’s head and smiled at Caleb.
“What?” Caleb asked.
Vex decided to toss caution. “You’re very cute,” she told him. Hoisting Trinket into a better carrying position she added, “I’ll catch you later Caleb. Don’t forget to ask your roommate about a movie night.” She moved to make her exit before he had time to fully process the statements.
Caleb, who had nothing he could say to that, just watched Vex leave open-mouthed. “Okay!” he stammered after her long after she was out of sight. He turned on his heel, started in one direction, then turned again and went the other way toward the drink table.
Caleb’s arm was getting tired. Hawks were surprisingly heavy, more so than he’d expected them to be. With a grunt, he switched Frumpkin over to his other arm, apologizing as his cat-turned-bird ruffled his feathers unhappily. He stretched his aching, now unburdened arm and looked out at the party. He was as far on the fringes of it as possible, so he had a good view of all of the chaos. Apparently movies got some things right, because this was exactly what they’d advertised—Loud, busy, and alcohol fueled.
“Maybe we should get a drink, huh?” Caleb scratched at Frumpkin’s breastbone, smiling when he gave his finger a little nibble. “And something to eat.”
At a party with this many friends Vex would normally be a few drinks deep and dancing if the spirit called for it. She wasn’t avoiding anyone, but she was more subdued than usual. Her fingers toyed with her necklace. She considered grabbing a chair and hiding under Trinket. She spotted Caleb passing close as she debated and her expression softened at the hawk in his shoulder. The markings on his feathers were distinctly familiar.
“Hello, beautiful,” she greeted. “And hello, Caleb. Frumpkin has feathers tonight?” Her attention shifted to Caleb and there another spark of recognition. “Oh. Love it.”
Caleb had been debating the merits of getting a drink versus the merits of staying right where he was when Vex spoke. He blinked at her. “Thank you. I like your hat.”
She smiled wryly. “I went all out.”
“Some people need to do more work than others,” Caleb replied.
“You look great. You could rock a cloak every day.” Her fingers trailed over her necklace again. “I was just thinking I might need my familiar. Trinket’s getting a little too big to ride on a shoulder all night.”
It was surprising that Trinket wasn’t already out and about. Everyone at the school had to be used to having him around by now. “Every witch needs her familiar.”
"And every wizard?" Vex squeezed the charm and bamfed Trinket out of the necklace. She leaned down to scoop him up, hugging Trinket to her chest. "Hi darling. Welcome to the party." She nuzzled the top of his head.
“Tonight, I am not a wizard. I’m a knight.” Caleb felt pretty cool with his cloak and sword, and Frumpkin the hawk perched on his very heroic-looking bracer.
She smiled. "Are you going to do something heroic before the night is through? Maybe accept some quests from strange women in lakes?"
“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government,” Caleb reflexively quoted, then answered Vex’s question with, “No. Probably not.”
"I really wish I had a sword on my back right now to test that theory." Vex gestured between them. "We need to have a movie night.”
Now Caleb’s other arm was getting tired. He lifted Frumpkin up to his shoulder to move him to it as he said, “Okay. What movie?”
"Should we do a bunch of fantasy movies?”
“Those are the best kind,” Caleb said as an agreement. “I’ll ask Cal, and Clint.” A movie night seemed like something they’d like.
“I’ll grab Keyleth and we’ll make a night of it.” She didn’t want to overwhelm Caleb with her full entourage, so Keyleth would be a good start. “Are you dancing tonight, sir knight, or does the hawk on your shoulder hinder that plan?”
It took Caleb half a moment, but he realized this was Vex’s roundabout way of asking him to dance. As he tried to decide on a polite refusal, he took in her half-hearted attempt of a Halloween costume, and her uncharacteristically subdued nature and changed his mind. “He does not. Frumpkin, go wait somewhere for me, please?” In a flap of wings, Frumpkin flew off.
Vex gave Trinket a squeeze and then set him down. She didn’t ask him to wait, Trinket was welcome to follow. He was generally conscientious enough to to trip anyone at parties. She offered Caleb her hand. “You’re full of surprises tonight.”
After a brief hesitation, Caleb took the offered hand. “It is the night for tricks, and treats.”
“So far, this is a treat.” She squeezed his hand gently. “And if you want to play tricks on a witch, you can guess how well that will end.” She winked.
“It depends on who you are rooting for,” Caleb answered as he left the safe security of his wall and walked with Vex toward the dance floor. “Where are your friends tonight?”
“Right here,” she told him, pulling him closer. “And I suppose the rest of them are around getting up to mischief.”
“Oh, we are doing this right—Okay,” Caleb stammered as he stumbled after Vex. He, fortunately, knew how to dance, and once he found his feet again, he moved with an easy grace that could almost be called confidence.
She smiled at his flustered reaction. Normally, she might push the flirtation. Figure out how much she could make him blush, but not discomfort him so much he’d want to flee. Caleb was... well. Maybe her type. Except her type was apparently bad ideas. For all she knew, this was all an act, and maybe Caleb was secretly a sociopath pretending at shy boy. He certainly had a dangerous power set. Vex glanced down from his face, suddenly very interested in the drape of the costume across his shoulders.
“You move well,” she murmured. “Have girl’s forced you to dance with them before?”
This was why Caleb didn’t like getting to know people. They asked questions, and the more questions they asked, the more obvious it became that he was hiding something. “My mother,” he answered. “She taught me. How did you learn?”
Vex scrunched her nose. “Our mother. And when that wasn’t good enough, an instructor last summer.”
Caleb tried not to let his surprise show; Vex’s mom must take dancing seriously if she’d hired an instructor. “It paid off. You dance well.”
“I’ve been to some very exhausting parties where it was my one saving grace.” She chuckled softly. “I do wonder if Vax stayed in London longer if he would have ended up in lessons as well.”
“Why wasn’t he in London as long as you?” Caleb’s impression of the twins was that they were inseparable. A them against the world sort of thing.
“His powers manifested before mine,” she explained. “He came here, and I was stuck with our father for a few months.”
Caleb made a small sound of understanding, gentle leading as they made slow circles on the dance floor. “That is unfortunate. You and your father are not close?”
“No,” she said simply.
“Okay,” Caleb said. He’d clearly hit a sensitive subject and knew well enough to leave it alone.
She offered Caleb a small smile. “He hasn’t been in our lives for long.”
Caleb made another small sound of understanding, but said nothing. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and had already made things awkward enough.
Vex's fingers trailed against Caleb's shoulder. "Do you think you'll try to solve Shaun's murder mystery later? He certainly knows how to theme a party.”
“I did already. With Clint.” Caleb pointed his friend out. He was easy to spot in the crowd dressed as he was as the huntsman.
She smiled. "Were you the first to solve?"
“I don’t know.” Caleb hadn’t thought to ask. “Maybe. We did it close to the start of the party. It was not very hard.”
“Or you’re very clever.” She smiled. “I’m not sure if Shaun was going for challenge or simply excitement.”
Caleb moved them over some as another couple started to crowd a little too close to him. “Both?” he replied. “But, I don’t know Gilmore very well, so I could be wrong.”
“It does sound like him,” she assured.
“Ah.” There was a stretch of silence as Caleb had no idea where to take the conversation from there, before falling back onto a comfortable safety net—Magic. “I’ve been working on a spell to talk to animals.”
“Really?” He had Vex’s immediate interest. “How is it going?”
Caleb frowned and admitted, “Slowly. I have not had much luck yet.”
“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Vex said. “Trowa tried once with his powers, but he couldn’t talk to Trinket. He said he wasn’t like other animals. I never considered if it could be done some other way.”
“It’s what magic is for, isn’t it? Finding other ways of doing things.”
She smiled. “Or doing things people would rather we couldn’t. Pushing limits. Yes.”
“Like talking to animals,” Caleb said instead of the other things he was thinking of: Time manipulation. Memory modification. Fire.
“That seems like the most joyful application.” Vex glanced over at Trinket. “Do you think Frumpkin will have opinions on what shapes he prefers?”
“Cat,” Caleb answered firmly.
“He is a beautiful cat. I think if I was the animal companion, as nice as flying is, I’d rather be the shape that could be close to you.” Her smile made it unclear if this was teasing flirtation or honesty. “And cats are extremely stealthy.”
Caleb blinked and stared awkwardly at Vex for a long moment, then, in a fast, stumbling ramble, said, “We are the best of friends. He is the very best cat that a boy could ever have.”
“Speaking with animals will wonderful then. Let me me know how it goes or if I can help.” She gave him credit for losing his tongue but not his feet. “Words aren’t necessary, but would be a bonus. I think that’s the difference between a pet and a familiar. They understand you as well as you understand them.”
“It is going very poorly. You’re welcome to give it a try yourself.” The song changed to something fast, and the people around them started bouncing and grinding against one another to it. Caleb stopped abruptly.
Vex squeezed his shoulder and took a step back. “I think this is too fast for either of us tonight. I’ll have give it a try. I have a couple of things I’m working on right now, but I may need to reprioritize. Do you do teleportation?”
Relief visibly washed over Caleb as the tension left his shoulders. He started off the dance floor, hoping Vex would just follow. “It’s another thing I am working on.”
“Mmm. Now I’m pondering collaboration verse a race to see who safely gets there first,” she said with a grin. She followed Caleb, and Trinket followed her close at Vex’s heels.
“I like how you added ‘safely’ in there,” Caleb said, amused. He stopped beside the chair Frumpkin was perched upon and offered out his arm for him to climb onto.
“It’s no fun if you show up without a limb.”
Smiling, Caleb said, “It would put a damper on things.”
Vex lifted her hands, wiggling her fingers. “This is where most of the magic comes from, and I’m not about to risk a few of them to freak transportation accidents.”
Caleb scratched Frumpkin’s fluffy bird breast. “No splinching,” he agreed.
Vex ducked down to scoop Trinket back up. It was going to be sad when he got too big for her to do this. “I’ll let you know how the experiments go.”
“Thank you. I’ll let you know too,” Caleb replied. “Your brother wants to talk to his snake if we figure it out.”
“Phrasing.” She grinned. “And yes, I’m sure he does.”
Caleb snorted a laugh at the pun. I really should have seen that coming. …Phrasing. He laughed again.
Vex tucked her chin on top of Trinket’s head and smiled at Caleb.
“What?” Caleb asked.
Vex decided to toss caution. “You’re very cute,” she told him. Hoisting Trinket into a better carrying position she added, “I’ll catch you later Caleb. Don’t forget to ask your roommate about a movie night.” She moved to make her exit before he had time to fully process the statements.
Caleb, who had nothing he could say to that, just watched Vex leave open-mouthed. “Okay!” he stammered after her long after she was out of sight. He turned on his heel, started in one direction, then turned again and went the other way toward the drink table.
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Date: 2018-12-27 01:24 am (UTC)Oh honey. Vex will start sprinkling bread crumbs for him later. She doesn’t flirt with EVERYONE. I mean. There’s Trowa.
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