ax_main | Caleb and Nott - Perfectly Present

Caleb welcomes Nott to Xavier's with a very special gift.

Gilmore had come through again. The flask had come out even better than Caleb had imagined. As had the enchantment on it, though that had been a little tricker than he’d expected. Now, though, the perfect flask contained the perfect, never-ending supply of single malt whiskey. He hoped Nott would like it.

Sticking the flask in a gift bag with some crumpled tissue paper, Caleb went down the hallway to her room and knocked on the door.

On the other side of the door, something banged sharply, then there came the sound of a shove and soft thump. "WHO IS IT," Nott's familiar voice yelled with a tone bordering on alarm.

“It’s Caleb,” Caleb called back.

After a moment, the door unlocked and swung open. "Oh! Hi Caleb," the small green girl greeted from the other side of the threshold. "Do you want to come in? Jester's not here.”

Caleb gave Nott a confused look as if to say he didn’t understand what Jester had to do with him coming in or not. Frumpkin, who had been sitting at Caleb’s feet, had already darted into the room and made himself comfortable on the room’s windowsill. “Yeah, I brought something for you.” He held up the gift bag.

It didn't make much difference, really. But she didn't know what he was here for, either? Not that she wouldn't let him in...

Nott glanced at Frumpkin as he dove by her legs, finding herself presented with the bag as she turned back. "You did? You did," her expression lit with interest, and she eyed the bag eagerly.

“It’s just something small. Call it a housewarming gift,” Caleb said, holding the bag out.

Nott was excited enough that she didn't stop to think of manners as she reached to snag the gift bag from Caleb's offering hands. A real present, from him to her?

"It's! It's...!" She wasn't sure by touch alone. She pulled it free of the tissue paper and blinked at it. It was small enough to fit easily in her tiny clawed hand, skinny through the middle, rectangular but rounded-off at the corners with a hinged cap. A bottle, but not any old bottle... Perfume maybe?

Nott unscrewed the top right away, getting a whiff of the contents. "It's a flask," she realized, wide-eyeing the whorls of fine metal surrounding the glass and the fancy monogrammed N at the bottom. And such a beautiful flask. She'd never seen anything like it.

The nervous anticipation that had pinched the corners of Caleb’s mouth bloomed into a smile at Nott’s wide-eyed awe. He watched happily as she looked it over, glad that she seemed to like it. “It’s enchanted,” explained. “It’ll always be full. I call it an endless flask.”

"You made this with magic?" Nott stared at him for a beat, then looked back down at the flask. What kind of magic could go on doing something forever? No kind of spell she knew. He was so talented. "...Endless, huh."

There was only one good way to test it. Nott flipped open the lid and put the flask to her lips, tossing her head back and swallowing a mouthful of whiskey. And swallowing. And swallowing. And-

Caleb put a hand on Nott’s arm, and guided the flask away from her mouth. “Slow down. It’s not going anywhere,” he said, his tone fluctuating between concern and amusement. “You’ll make yourself sick. To answer your question: Gilmore made the flask. I just made the enchantment on it.”

Nott let him take her arm without resisting, gasping for a fresh breath as he did. The flask really hadn't run out, or slowed its pour, even. It would always be the same stuff, but that didn't matter to her at all. She could drink as much as she wanted, whenever she wanted?! This was some motherfucking MAGIC.

She looked at the flask intently once more as her insides started soaking it all up, however they did their whatever they did that could transmute steel if it had to. "It's so pretty," she said, more than a little dumbfounded. She looked back up at Caleb with shining eyes and a crooked smile, feeling a bit stupid with shock and joy. "It's so thoughtful. This is...AMAZING," she stressed. He didn't always accept praise very well, but that wouldn't stop her from trying.

Caleb shrugged self-consciously, but he was smiling. “It’s just a small thing. I thought it could be helpful. The credit for the design really goes to Gilmore. I just told him to make it pretty. He came up with all that on his own.”

The flask had inspired some other ideas, though. Caleb wanted to try a bag next. Something that could hold a lot more than it looked like it could and, given Nott’s sticky fingers, could conceal what was inside it somehow. He still needed to work out the details. Enchanting a crossbow to be Nott-sized would probably be easier.

"Well then, I'll say 'thank you' to Gilmore later," she promised, glancing at the flask again and tracing one claw gently over the pretty scrollwork. "And I'll say 'thank you' to you now." It wasn't a small thing, not to her. But she thought Caleb knew that already and was trying to downplay it because emotions were messy.

A small smile warmed Caleb’s expression and he squatted down in front of Nott to give her a hug. “Welcome to Xavier’s School, Nott.”

She worried... She'd worried that Caleb might not like her so much, now that they were out of the Facility, now that they were at a safe place where he had other friends who could pass for normal if they had to, who could help him get stronger and better and protect him, and could admire how smart and funny and sweet he was. Maybe he wouldn't need her like before. Nott wasn't sure if he'd still like her once he'd seen what her drinking habit looked like, or her sticky fingers, or...whatever.

He could have given her, like... A t-shirt with the school crest, or an AA brochure and a stern lecture. But he'd gone to all the trouble to get her a special flask.

She squeezed him extra tight and swallowed as they hugged. "...Thanks, Caleb. It's really nice to be here." It was where he was, after all.