back like I never left

look at everything you've overcome - don't give up now

Finding Flora in the clamour and dazzle of the festivities is no easy feat, not least because they each have their own long-losts to greet and catch up with, and in the end, Vai spots her almost by accident. Seizing the opportunity before either one of them can be whisked away again and distracted, the witch sweeps through the crowd, colourful skirts whispering about her legs, her curls wild around her face, until she can grasp Flora by the shoulders from behind. 

"I hope you can spare a moment for your nonna this evening," she trills, grinning and waiting for the Doubletake to turn around properly before enveloping her in a hug. "It's been a long time since I saw you together with both of your brothers," she whispers, grinning and tilting her head as she glances across the party. "Not that I can see Mateo right now, and I have a feeling I should be thankful for that. Anyway, come get a drink with me so I can take a proper look at you."

Vervain

you don't know that you're living 'til you're carrying scars

Flora spins the moment warm hands find her shoulders, her curls catching the lanternlight as they fan around her face—and the sound that bursts from her is somewhere between a squeal and a sob of disbelief. "Nonna!"

There’s no pause, no royal composure, no queenly restraint. She throws her arms around Vai like a tide crashing back to shore, burying her face against the familiar wildness of those curls and breathing in a scent she’d memorised as a child—herbs and woodsmoke and something like old spellbooks and sunshine. "You’re here—you’re really here—!" she breathes, her voice cracking on the second word as she clutches tighter. The jasmine at her spine trembles with the force of it, and for once she doesn’t care how many people see her crying. "You haven’t changed at all, you’re just as pretty—how is that fair? You were supposed to get all grey and wise so I could finally catch up."

She pulls back only enough to see her properly, eyes glimmering with tears and laughter all at once. "Gods, how dare dad keep you being here a secret." Her voice wobbles with the ache of all the lost time and the wonder of getting even a second of it back. "There's so much I've wanted to tell you."

Then, catching herself, Flora laughs wetly and presses her fingers beneath her eyes to swipe at the tears. "Gods, I look a mess now," she says, exhaling a half-hysterical little giggle. "Yes. Please. A drink, or maybe several."

you're either falling in love or you're falling apart

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

look at everything you've overcome - don't give up now

"Of course I'm here," Vai says through a laugh, hugging Flora as tightly as she dares without crushing any of the beautiful flowers that make up her gown. "I wouldn't miss your fathers' ten year anniversary. And I'm glad you didn't either - I had no idea Remi was planning all this." She squeezes her close, kissing her curls and reaching up, when they finally step back, to also help carefully wipe her tears away without ruining her makeup.

"Hush now," she scoffs, "I'm withered and wise on the inside. I was hoping to earn a mane of silver hair, but you'll just have to imagine it. Deal?" Winking, she fusses over the girl's dress, the flowers and her hair until everything sits just right, before nodding and ushering her over to the drinks table. "Several sounds great to me," she agrees, reaching for two chilled glasses of white wine.

"Come on now, tell me everything. You're queen of Torchline, you're gorgeous, and from what I've seen, popular, powerful, and everything I could have ever wanted for you and more."

Vervain

you don't know that you're living 'til you're carrying scars

Flora laughs beneath her breath, all misty eyes and freckles, and murmurs, "Withered and wise on the inside—gods, Nonna, you make it sound like you’ve got a raisin heart and a spellbook for a liver." She goes willingly when Vai fusses with her, lifting her chin obediently, brushing her curls back behind her ears as needed, and straightening her spine like she’s five again and being inspected before Vai let she and her brothers roam the woods. "Mateo made it," she adds proudly, gesturing down at the living bouquet stitched to her curves. "Literally coaxed it into growing for me. I told him I wanted to smell better than anyone else here and he delivered."

She accepts the glass of wine like a priestess taking a sacrament and clinks it gently against Vai’s before exhaling and draping herself into a lean against the table, letting the party glitter in her periphery while her focus settles entirely on her grandmother. "Everything?" she echoes, mock-dread in her tone as she flutters her lashes dramatically. "Okay, well—if we’re doing the tragic romantic comedy portion of the evening first…" She takes a long sip. "I was dating someone. Jack. Smuggler/Pirate. Handsome in a criminally inconvenient way. My dads hated him, which, of course I didn't care about, and gods, Vai, I wanted to marry him. Like an embarrassing amount, even though he super isn't the type for it, but I just thought..." Softly, Flora sighs before flashing the witch a crooked grin that fades around the edges like seafoam. "Anyway. I tried to play hero. Did something risky and stupid—whatever word you want to use—and he dumped me for it." She shrugs like it doesn’t still sting. "But I really loved him. Like...deep-down, all the way, loved him."

Another sip. Another sigh.

"And then," she says, as if announcing the next act of a theatre performance, "out of nowhere, I get really close with someone who’s always just been a friend. And it turns out, when you’re already close with someone, the whole sleeping together thing is so much better." Her brows rise as if this is the most groundbreaking discovery of her twenties. "But of course he likes someone else. And I thought I could do a one night stand. And instead?" She makes a heart shape with her hands and breaks it with a sigh. "I caught feelings like an absolute idiot."

She smiles helplessly, tipping her head back and squinting at the stars as if they’re to blame. "Enzo said I should forget about both of them and make us a new house instead."

you're either falling in love or you're falling apart

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

look at everything you've overcome - don't give up now

"Don't go telling everyone my secrets," Vai quips, flashing a wicked smile to Flora that she promptly douses with a generous drink of wine. "The raisin heart and spellbook liver are the key to all of my power." Winking at her and taking another sip of wine, it's with a content sigh that she leans against the table beside Flora, leaning companionably into her warmth and the sweet fragrance of the flowers that adorn her. "Of course he did," she trills of Mateo. "I always figured he would go far with those seedlings of his."

All of them have taken the pieces of her she'd imparted and used them in their own way - even Enzo, whose wings had been clipped well before their time. (Though she often gets the sense that he's waiting in Mort's halls, rather than fully existing in them as the rest of them do). 

"Oh, everything, sweet girl. I want to hear it all," she insists, promptly settling in to listen, however tragic, dramatic, or morose it might get. And listen Vai does, without interruption, even though she recognises Jack's name and knows all about his reputation; even if she might have seen the fireball of their breakup coming before either one of them did. But of course that isn't it, and her head tilts at act 2 of Flora's tragicomedy, the witch wincing as things go from mythical, doomed lovestory to the typical drama of romance in one's twenties.

Vai lets out a low whistle, then leans in to kiss Flora's curls. "Your heart has taken quite the battering, hasn't it?" she says quietly. "Much as you'll look back and be glad of it all one day - and you will, I promise you - in the moment it really fucking sucks. I'm sorry, sweetheart."

Smiling, though, at Enzo's advice, the witch can only offer a tentative shrug. "He might have a point, you know. Focusing on yourself for a bit can be really healing. And, between you and me, sometimes self-care out of spite works wonders." She winks.

Vervain

you don't know that you're living 'til you're carrying scars

Flora huffs out a low, rueful laugh, swirling her wine but not drinking yet. It's very likely one day she'll come to see the truth in the witch's words for herself, but in the moment it's hard to feel anything but stupid for letting her heart be sliced open again—by someone she considered such a close friend no less—so soon after having just tried to put in the final stitches from the damage both she and Jack had caused to it.

But the kiss to her curls—that does something. That quiet, simple gesture from someone who knew her before any of the thrones and titles, before the heartbreaks and declarations and impossible stakes, lands deeper than she expects. It makes her blink down at her glass, her throat tight with gratitude she can’t quite name. Vai had always made space for her messy feelings without asking her to explain them. That hadn’t changed, even in death.

So she leans into her without hesitation, resting her head gently on Vai’s shoulder, the star-jasmine brushing against the witch’s arm as Flora lets out a quiet, unguarded sigh. "I think Enzo’s advice is gonna work, like...90% of the time," she admits, voice soft now. "When I’m flying or fighting or running the city or sunbathing with too many cocktails and too little sunscreen. But it’s that last 10% that gets me. That stupid sliver of time when I’m alone, when the party’s over and the sheets are cold and it’s just me and my thoughts and all the what-ifs."

She turns her face slightly, looking up at Vai with a vulnerable kind of openness that few people get to see anymore. "What am I supposed to do then?" she asks. "When it feels like it’s all for nothing if I’m going to bed alone again. Like...I’ve built this whole world, Nonna. But sometimes it still feels like there’s a hole in the middle of it, and I keep trying to fill it with projects or parties or people, but it never really works."

Her fingers toy with the stem of her glass. "Is that just part of being grown up? Or am I doing it wrong?"

you're either falling in love or you're falling apart

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

look at everything you've overcome - don't give up now

Vai's arm automatically curls around Flora as she scoots closer, the witch careful of the flowers she wears but not at the detriment of being able to provide her comfort. Hearing the Doubletake out - and smiling softly, because if they haven't all wrestled with that 10% at some point in their lives - Vai inhales a slow breath and sighs it out again, chasing it up with a long sip of her wine. "You aren't doing anything wrong, sweetie," she assures her, setting her glass down and reaching for Flora's free hand to give it a warm squeeze.

"You fill that hole with yourself," she says quietly, earnestly - and not hiding the scrunch of her nose as she realises the clumsy wording and potential innuendo. "What I mean is that the person who should be romancing you the best is you, Flora. And until someone comes into your life who can treat you as well as you can treat yourself, if not better, they don't fucking deserve to be there." It's not easy and it sure as hell isn't a quick process, but it's for the best.

"I understand being lonely, and that those long hours in the middle of the night can be hard. But gods, believe me - being alone is better than settling for less than you deserve."

Vervain

you don't know that you're living 'til you're carrying scars

Flora presses her hand more firmly into Vai’s, her rings clinking gently as they're pressed together by the wtich's fingers, and lets out a small, surprised laugh at the phrasing. "Nonna," she murmurs with a mock-scandalised grin, eyes wide and wicked, "that is absolutely the title of your sex tape going in your spellbook memoirs. Chapter Twelve: How to Fill the Hole Yourself."

The laughter is short-lived but sincere, and when it fades, it leaves behind something softer—acceptance maybe, or the ache that comes with hearing something true said kindly. Her thumb draws slow circles along the back of Vai’s hand as her expression turns thoughtful. "Enzo said something like that too," she murmurs. "Not in so many words. He said if they didn’t have the qualifications, they didn’t get the interview." Her smile tilts fondly. "Same idea, I think."

She squeezes Vai’s hand again, eyes flicking toward her with something that’s part hope and part mischief. "But be honest with me," she says, tilting her head just so. "You couldn’t just whip up a spell? Conjure me a tall, brooding, emotionally available man with strong hands and a devotion complex? Maybe one who likes dragons and doesn’t get intimidated by my entire deal?" She arches a brow. "I’m not saying I deserve magical assistance in my love life, buttttttt I do feel like there are several birthdays you weren't around for, so maybe you could bend the rules?"

you're either falling in love or you're falling apart

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

look at everything you've overcome - don't give up now

"I mean, there are so many ways to do it," Vai says with a scandalous raise of her eyebrows, leaning into it since Flora has seized on her bad phrasing. "It deserves its own chapter - and don't lie, if I ever published a spellbook, you'd be annotating it in no time." Filling the hole yourself indeed. To hear, though, that Enzo has given similar advice if in a much more Enzo way, has the witch scoffing out a laugh, and she raises Flora's hand to her lips to kiss her ringed fingers.

"Death has made your brother wise," she says. "Either that or it's the increased exposure to me out in Mort's halls." Grinning and squeezing her hand back, Vai releases Flora if only so she can reach back for a wine bottle and top up both of their glasses. "I don't know if my spells work like that," she says apologetically, "and besides, the only pool of bachelors I really have at my disposal are lacking something quite important - a pulse."

Raising her refilled glass in a toast, she does give it some thoughtful consideration, though. "If there are any suitable candidates that suffer from an unfortunate case of being dead, though, I'll put a good word in for you to Mort. How about that?"

Vervain

you don't know that you're living 'til you're carrying scars

Flora flashes a grin sharp enough to be criminal, her dimples deepening with mischief. "If you did write that spellbook, I’d annotate the margins, highlight the raunchiest bits, and distribute limited-edition, scented copies at the Hanged Man, and I bet it'd be banned in at least three regions within a season," she says, clearly delighted at the imagined chaos.

At the kiss to her fingers, her smile softens into something quieter, more grateful. "It has made him wise," she agrees, sighing as if the universe has personally wronged her. "Which is so unfair, by the way. I was supposed to be the charming one and the smart one. Now I’m just floundering around with all my scars and emotional damage while he’s off dispensing spiritual wisdom like some ethereal life coach."

She accepts her topped-up glass with a nod of thanks, only to snort into it at Vai’s mention of pulseless bachelors. "I mean, so long as Remi brings a book so he doesn't interfere...I don't see why you couldn't rustle up a date for me from the ghostly roster," she says coyly, nibbling on the inside of her cheek as her lashes flutter innocently.

Raising her own glass in return, she clinks it gently against Vai’s, her gaze fond and full of warmth. "But if you do put in a good word, tell Mort I’m coming to see him eventually. I’ve been thinking..." Her voice lowers just a touch. "I want to ask if there’s a way I could write to Enzo. Even just once in a while. Like spirit-mail or something." There’s longing in her eyes again, but it’s tempered with the strength of someone who’s learned to carry it without crumbling.

you're either falling in love or you're falling apart

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

look at everything you've overcome - don't give up now

"That's all I'd ever want from a book I wrote, honestly," Vai says with a softly exasperated sigh, as if to say is that so hard? "Perhaps I'll have to start sending chapters to your father and trust him to piecemeal it together until I can visit to give it a final edit." Winking to Flora, like this is a conspiracy for a future book deal, she contents herself with knowing that she'll have plenty to do back in Mort's halls. Resting is optional, in her opinion, however much peace there might be.

She scrunches her nose and gives the Doubletake a gentle swat to hear Flora, in her opinion, do herself so dirty. "Scars and emotional damage make us interesting, dear," she reminds her. "No matter how much wisdom your brother might have gotten, don't think that makes you any less charming or smart or gorgeous. You make even floundering look graceful, and don't ever let yourself think otherwise."

Taking a drink of her wine and smirking around it, Vai tips Flora a knowing wink. "Well," she says, "I can't promise anything of course. But leave it with me and I'll see what I can do." And Remi will have to make sure his book is an interesting one. 

Tilting her head, though, as Flora continues, the humour leaves Vai's expression and she reaches out to tease gentle fingers through the Doubletake's hair, adjusting the flowers here and there with warmth and affection. "I don't see why that shouldn't be possible," she says with a soft nod. "And between you and I, I know there's a lot more you might want to demand of Mort, so this... it's a good start, no?"

Vervain

you don't know that you're living 'til you're carrying scars

Flora waves her glass lazily through the air, sloshing the wine just shy of the rim. "Skip the middle man," she says breezily, her grin returning with full conspiratorial flair. "We’ll workshop the chapters together the next time you manage to sneak through. I’ll bring the scented paper and scandalous illustrations, you bring the ghost gossip and morally questionable hexes. Deal?"

Her laughter softens at the swat, and she bats playfully at Vai’s hand, though the touch lands lightly against her wrist. "You always did know how to make a girl feel like a hot mess on purpose," she says with a fond scoff, tipping her glass to her lips and taking a long, unrepentant sip. "And don’t you dare stop. I want that embroidered on a pillow."

The warmth in her expression lingers even as the conversation dips back toward more delicate threads. As Vai promises nothing and everything with a wink and a smirk, Flora’s smile curves around the edge of her glass. “"You’re the best ghost matchmaker a girl could ask for," she murmurs, eyes twinkling. "If my date ends up see-through, I’m not complaining."

But when Vai touches her hair—adjusting blossoms, smoothing curls—Flora quiets, her lashes lowering with the weight of something tender and still aching beneath the surface. The witch’s words echo gently through her, striking the place where hope lives stubborn and wild despite everything. She hums softly, a breath catching in her throat before she sets down her glass and folds herself into Vai’s arms once more. "I’ll find a way," she whispers against her nonna’s shoulder, voice thick but sure. "After I bring Enzo back...I’ll find a way to bring you too. Even if you’re too sick of us all by then and have to be bribed with eternal spa days."

She smiles faintly, the scent of her flowers wrapping them both like a promise. "You’re not done raising me yet, you know."

you're either falling in love or you're falling apart

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

look at everything you've overcome - don't give up now

With a musical laugh, Vai raises her glass in turn and clinks it against Flora's, enough that a little wine does go spilling over the rim, but so be it. "Absolutely a deal," she agrees. "I'll write myself a to-do list to go back to Mort's halls. Find a ghost-date. Compile hexes and gossip. I wouldn't want to disappoint." She winks. "Oh, and to embroider that hot mess slogan on a pillow. Not sure whether it would transfer through from Mort's realm, so you might just have to get the materials and I'll do it while I regale you of my book chapters."

It's warming in a way she doesn't have words to describe, to be able to talk about next times with Flora - with all of those she considers family and friends - as if death is nothing more than an obstacle in their meetings. Letting her hand drop and setting her glass down as well, her arms loop around Flora to squeeze her close and tight, careful of her dress. "I'm never going to be done raising you, sweet girl," she whispers. "Any of you. But don't put yourself out on my account. I can lecture you enough in the hours I come back without having to get any older, thanks."

Grinning and releasing Flora, she plants a gentle kiss on her cheek before ushering her away. "Now come on - you have never been a wallflower, and we aren't going to start now. Let's get back to the party."

~FIN

Vervain