Make a Wish (Cecil)

Nadia was nursing her second cup of tea, and had been staring at the message for a few minutes, debating on whether or not to send it. Their last night together had been...well, nothing short of magical, really. It had had it's ups and downs, but that was the way of the world. It made the memory all the more beautiful in her mind. Since then, they'd been busy with school...she'd been working, he had his studies...they hadn't really been able to do much since the night that was cut short by Isabella's awakening. And today was...

She had spent so many of them alone, what did it matter to spend another one by herself? What did it really matter when the anniversary of your birth came around? another year ticking away on the clock that counted down to endless blackness.

But...She was lonely. If for no other reason than that, she was texting her boyfriend selfishly to come and see her. Why did it suddenly feel like she was a burden by doing so? She'd pushed and prodded and dragged the poor boy around and yet somehow he still...

The thought of how she'd held him that night in her apartment stuck out in her mind. She hit send on the screen, and waited for an answer.

Sighing, she tipped the cup back and drained the last of her tea.

It was a pleasant interruption to find his phone buzzing. Such a strange sound to hear once upon a time, but now it was almost somewhat...common.
It was a nice feeling.
Stretching out from where he was sat with his books, he checked his phone to see a message from, his...from Nadia. And...something about that message felt different to those before.

It looked like his studies were going to be cut short for now.


A while later, Cecil turns up at the tea shop. looking over the area outside before tentatively poking his head into the building. He seemed meek and uncertain as he tried to spot Nadia, suddenly struck by nerves now that he was here...and because once more, Nadia's location wasn't apparent.

All his mind could do was play back the moment when Nadia stood and revealed herself as he cursed himself and bashed his head on the gargoyles.

Nadia smiled at his quick response. It was a happy smile, and the sudden flush of her cheeks and flutter of her heart was like a drip of rain in the desert. Mana from heaven. Not because it was Cecil, per se, but because right now she felt so suddenly, profoundly alone.

As she waited for him, she looked back at the phone a couple times, looked around the shop, checked and double checked the entrance. One if the waitresses, thinking no doubt that Nadia needed assistance from her glancing about, asked her if she was looking for someone.

It was that waitress who approached Cecil at the door. "Are you here to see a...Nadia, by chance?" she asked, and with an affirmative, would lead him to Nadia's table, where she was sitting cross-legged on the cushion. Staring off into space with her default blank stare. Although there was something even more distant than usual about this stare. She didn't even notice the boy's arrival at first.

The sudden appearance of the waitress somewhat startled him, perception tuning out those in the area that weren't the person he was looking for. "Oh-uh-uh-uh, um, yes? I, I am?" He smiled with a nervous edge, following the waitress as she took him to where Nadia was.
It was nice to see her, but...something didn't feel right, again. He couldn't put a finger on it, but something felt off. She didn't even notice he was there...
He felt the chill of something cold run through him at that.

He knelt down behind her, and gently draped his arms around her. "Is...everything alright?"

Nadia jolted a little when Cecil arrived and put his arms around her. The sudden closeness sent a shiver down her spine. It was most assuredly a good feeling. She let a sweet, contented sigh and pressed up against his embrace.

What was it he had asked again? "hmm...?" she mumbled, looking over her shoulder at him. "Everything is just fine now." It wasn't a lie. This small gesture had been a wonderful reminder that everything wasn't as bad as her mind was making it.

"Thank you so much for coming. I...I needed this." however, in spite of herself, she found herself glancing at her phone again. Nothing. Of course, nothing.

He couldn't help but shut his eyes and squeeze a little tighter as Nadia pressed into him, even if the jolt all but confirmed that she hadn't quite noticed his presence. This was nice too, and he could hardly deny that. Still, he couldn't just stay like this forever. Reluctantly he opened his eyes, smiling warmly and slightly concernedly at Nadia. "Come on. Something was up before."

He cranes his neck slightly to look properly at the girl in his embrace, taking in the little details of her face as best he could despite the guilty pang in his chest at indulging in this all. A familiar reprise settles on the tip of his tongue - "You can talk to me, you know."

Nadia could almost fall asleep like this again, even though she wasn't at all tired. If just felt so nice and inclusive. It felt like she had a place she could run to when she wanted to escape. It didn't happen much, and she had never allowed herself such a thing before. It was nice.

But he was pressing, and as she glanced at her phone again within the span of a couple seconds. She looked up at him through her lashes as he said she could talk to him. She giggled ruefully at that. "you sound like me." she nestled into his arms some more before speaking again. "It's my birthday." she said forlornly. "That's supposed to be important...right?" she asked. Last year she had missed it entirely. This year it gave her pause. Knowing that some families made it a big deal somehow made her silent phone worse.

Cecil let out a quiet breath at Nadia's comment, an amused tint to his features. But before he has a chance to comment on that, he hears a certain bit of information, and suddenly his attitude does a 180 as he starts to fret. "Wait, w-w-wait wait wait, it's - it's your birthday? It's, it's your birthday today?" For a brief moment he hugs tighter and gives her a little peck on the cheek, coming away with an alarmed expression on his face. "Sorry, sorry! I had - I had no idea. Uh...is, is there anything - anything you want to do? I - I don't have anything, I'm sorry." A hint of jade pokes out from under Cecil's shirt, the sudden burst of motion jostling from its resting place.

He looks with wide, imploring eyes as he waits for Nadia to reply, her question and its implications forgotten in the rush of realisation.

As he pulled away from the peck, and told her he didn't have anything, his reaction answer her question. Vindicated the empty feeling. It was important. Not that she was important enough to celebrate, but she knew that as well. Why did it make her feel so...

She glanced at her phone again. As she looked up, she noticed the bit of jade sticking out of his shirt. With a slender hand she reached for the charm, tugging it, and with it, him, close so that their lips touched, only for a moment, but it made all the difference. "I didn't expect you to bring anything. But you brought you and it's more than I could ask for. Thank you."

"I've never really done anything for my birthday before. I was hoping maybe you could give me an idea of what I could do?" she glanced at her phone again and pocketed it, looking a little lost.

Surprise shot through him as Nadia pulled him in by the turtle charm, and as they came away from that little touch, he blushed and looked away as she stated just what he was worth to her. "Hey, that's...nothing that you need to thank me for. You deserve more than just, well...this."

A pained expression flashed across Cecil's face as she said she'd not celebrated her birthday before now. "That...feels wrong. Did, nobody...?" Unable to finish the thought, he shakes his head. "This is your day, Nadia. The celebration of another year of you in the world...and you are worth celebrating. It's everyone else's loss if they don't realise that." He nods firmly. "If it's your birthday, then today's about what you want to do. Doing what you've really wanted to, trying the things you'd been interested in, all that. If there's something you want to do, to try...I'll go along with it."
He grins. "Making up for lost time, remember? After everything you missed out on before, someone needs to spoil you rotten."

Nadia listened to Cecil explain. That she should do what made her happy. New experiences...things she wanted to do. That was...sort of what she did anyway, wasn't it? She was always dragging Cecil around to try new things she'd never tried before. To do things that would test them both in some way, so they would grow. It was so she could quantify her change. So she could be a new person, free of all the forbidding walls from her childhood.

She looked up at him, blushing as he said he'd spoil her rotten. Was she worth that? really? It made her smile widen, and happy tears threatened to bead at the corners of her eyes, but she wouldn't let them. She sniffed, bidding the tears away and picked up her phone, glancing back down at it. "Take this from me, please. Hold on to it for awhile, and don't tell me if it goes off. I...don't want to to know." The statement contradicted the fact that she had glanced at the screen four or five times just in the time Cecil had been kneeling here with her.

"As for...what we should do..." Her spirits seemed to lift a little as she pulled out her money and paid for the cups of tea, leaving enough for a decent tip. "We could go to the bath house." she teased, giving him a moment to have an endearling awkward freak-out before she inevitably decided on something else.

"I...alright." Cecil slipped the phone into his pocket as it was handed to him with a somewhat concerned expression. It was clear enough that she was looking at for something that she wasn't seeing...or maybe seeing too much of? But either way, something that wasn't good...
He wanted to be able to make sure it wasn't so painful, but he couldn't really ask just what was going on. Especially since it seemed she wanted to put it out of mind.

So he remained silent, resting his head into the crook of her neck with a worried expression.
This was a thing people did, right? It was nice...
Hopefully she'd think so too and focus on that.

He stiffened and blushed as she suggested the bathhouse again, wide-eyed with a fixed grin as he started to laugh nervously. It settled down slowly, and he lifted his head, looking at Nadia with an uncertain, hesitant expression. "...is...that what you want to do...?"
Something in his tone said that despite his discomfort and the clear tension in his frame, he'd do it if she really wanted to.
It was her choice, and if that was what it took to cheer her up...

Nadia made a small, apologetic smile as she watched his expression. He was really willing to put himself through that embarrassment for her today. Maybe any day, she didn't know. But if today was really that special, she wouldn't enjoy it as much if he was fighting nervousness (more than usual). The bathhouse didn't need to be today and...if she was honest, there was part of her that suddenly was a bit nervous about him seeing her half-naked. She wasn't exactly the most beautiful girl around. To say she was plain was an understatement. She was absolutely ordinary. She didn't care, but...maybe he would? She didn't want to think so, but how did you know?

She shook her head, blushing a little at the thought of it now, "I just wanted to see what you'd say, mostly..." She replied truthfully, looking up at him through her lashes, "You'd really do it for me? Even though it makes you uncomfortable?" She asked. It was a rhetorically question, one she punctuated by laying a soft kiss to his cheek.

"I don't know why you think nobody should be with you...you're a wonderful boyfriend." She smiled sheepishly, mind racing to come up with something else they could do. Suddenly she felt like she had to pick something good, no, something spectacular. But all she really wanted to do was lose herself in his presence. She didn't want to think.

Cecil glanced away even as Nadia laid a kiss on her cheek, his lip quirking up slightly at the sensation but the tension not draining from his body. If he really was being honest, this wasn't something he'd have chosen to do. It was hard enough trying to suppress the mental revolt that came from doing this much with Nadia, a struggle that drained him so much as it rewarded him.
But he nodded in reply at the question Nadia asked. If it meant enough to her that she would ask it of him, then he would go along with it. His feelings could be sacrificed here if it would bring happiness to her day - this day, especially.
It was what she deserved. He wasn't the important one here.

Somehow the suggestion that he was a good boyfriend made him blush more than the suggestion of the bathhouse, and he held Nadia a little tighter - for his own comfort more than anything else. "I don't deserve praise for something this little. It's what I should do."

Nadia sank into his embrace, Sighing a little. This was good. Everything was so much better right now. She stayed like that, ignoring his refusal of her sentiment and just enjoying the togetherness of it - the fact that she wasn't alone. It gave her time to think about things they could do.

Suddenly, she looked up at him. "I'm not going to make you do that, though..." She told him, smiling lightly, "Have you ever been horseback riding?" she asked, with a devious little lilt to her voice.