Selkie Peak, Sunday Afternoon

[not_a_parakeet]

It was good here, Warren had decided. Whatever this place was, this 'Fandom' that only knew vaguely of the years the island spent under Umbridge's rule, it was... good. A man could order himself a coffee looking the way he did without being questioned for it. Could meet a lovely blonde with a self-assured look in her eye and spend a night with her

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[glacial_witch]

"Here you are," Karla said quietly, coming up the hill. "Didn't find you last night and kind of got worried."

She held out a cup of coffee in one hand and a cupcake in the other with a single candle stuck into the top. A glance from her ignited the wick. "Happy birthday."

[not_a_parakeet]

"Happy b--" Warren certainly hadn't been expecting this. As a matter of fact, those words hadn't been said to Warren in years. Oh, he was well aware of the date, of course. It was difficult to ignore, really, especially since it meant that back home, people couldn't question the legality of anything he did based on his age again.

It had been a sticking point during his takeover of the company. One of many, including the most obvious. His board members... really didn't want him around, for some reason.

Pity what happened to them on that cruise a few weeks back...

"I... Happy birthday to you, too. I'm sorry, I don't actually have anything..."

Their birthday. They had shared a birthday, he remembered. And here he was, empty-handed.

[glacial_witch]

Karla laughed and sat down next to him. "I'd be surprised if you did. You weren't exactly expecting to be here this weekend. Maybe I'll make you take me out to the Devil's Nest and slip me a drink or something," she teased. "Now that you're all legal and I'm not. And everyone on the island knows me, so my fake's no good."

[not_a_parakeet]

"I could probably manage that," Warren replied, a smile coming a little more easily to his face as he reached to take the cupcake. "A drink is pretty simple, on the scale of things."

There was a moment's pause, and then he laughed and shook his head a bit.

"They wouldn't even be speakeasies here, would they? Just... bars. Actual, licensed bars, serving alcohol over the counter. Maybe someone standing behind with a bar towel and a dirty glass, like they do in the movies. I've never had to get a drink on the island that I didn't have to be sneaky about. That's actually kind of novel."

[glacial_witch]

"Well, if you're giving a drink to me, we will be," Karla laughed. "Eric's bar doesn't serve minors anything harder than soda. I can drink all I want at Caritas, but it's not as much fun when you can."

[not_a_parakeet]

"There definitely is a certain sort of appeal to taking something that you shouldn't." That smile was still toying at his lips, even as he reached behind himself and pulled a feather from his wing, turning it over in his hands a few times. "You know, I'm toying with the idea of cutting this cupcake in two and sharing, since it's our birthday and all. But I'm dubious about neurotoxin cupcakes, admittedly."

[glacial_witch]

"Well, depending on how virulent, I could probably metabolize it," Karla said with a shrug, calling in a small knife and handing it over to him instead, "but I'd really prefer not going through the process if I don't have to. Especially not on our birthday."

[not_a_parakeet]

"It would probably taste a bit on the unpleasant side, at that," Warren chuckled, turning the feather about and jamming it into the ground beside himself. It slipped into the rock with barely any resistance at all.

"There are better ways to spend a birthday, really. Thank you." He took her knife, blew out the candle (he wasn't going to tell what he had wished for), and a moment later he was presenting her with half of the cupcake. "You know, I keep forgetting that you can do that. Just... make things appear and disappear with your Craft. I never got to see my own Karla do much of that."

[glacial_witch]

"She was hobbled," Karla agree, looking into the distance and shaking her head. She'd had another taste of what that was like and was all too glad not to have to deal with that again. "That might be another reason she was so furious with you, you know. You had the freedom to be what you were. She didn't. Craft is so much of how I define myself, when it's taken away, I feel lost. Same with Warren. So she'd lost two supports. I don't envy her."

[not_a_parakeet]

"I hope she never has to lose something like that again," Warren mused, running a finger carefully over the edge of the blade to get the extra frosting off before holding the knife back out to her. "I always respected her for that, though. I'm the one who spooked and ran away the moment I got hurt. She stuck it through. She did what needed to be done, and I was a kid who had no idea where to start."

[glacial_witch]

"We had already run away by that point," Karla told him softly, vanishing the knife. "After awhile, you start to wonder if you keep running away, when will you ever stop?"

She swiped a fingerful of icing from his cupcake without thinking and licked it off her finger. "Besides, fighting against an evil tyrant who was hurting people she cared about? Too close to home."

[not_a_parakeet]

"I can only imagine," Warren replied, gently. "Going from Glacia into a world ruled by Umbridge would be like stepping right back into it again. And... there's only so much running away a person can do before they put a foot down and say no. I've finally learned that, too."

[glacial_witch]

Karla reached out for Warren's empty hand. "I'm glad," she said, giving it a squeeze. "I mean, I'm sorry that it came to that, but I'm glad you found something you could put your back against and turn around to face the things that you used to run from."

[not_a_parakeet]

"No more running," Warren agreed as he closed his fingers around her hand. "I won't be the victim any more. I refuse to be."

[glacial_witch]

Karla smiled down at their entwined hands, admiring the blue of his skin against the paleness of hers. "We look like a Glacian flag," she laughed, holding their hands up. "That's another point you can use in your plea to Karla. Patriotism."

[not_a_parakeet]

"Please consider taking me back, my unique skin condition means it's obviously meant to be?" Yeah, even Warren had to chuckle at that one. "Never looked at it that way, either. Maybe I'll include that in the letter I write her."

Because it wasn't like he'd make it to Glacia. Really, he'd probably have to find a way to send the letter through a proxy, too, if he didn't want to risk it being requisitioned by certain nosy individuals before it made it that far.