Forgotten Birthdays
Summary: Rhode promises to plan a birthday party for the young Jasdero and Devit--if only they can remember when their birthday is.
Prompt: 010. Mystical
Disclaimer: D. Gray-man series and characters do not belong to me.
Rhode, chin in hand, had been staring across the dinner table at the twins deep in thought.
They hadn’t noticed. They were too busy fooling with the lacy edge of the tablecloth. Jasdero and Devit had been part of the Noah Clan for little more than a month, and now surrounded by the opulence of the family’s property, the most unlikely things surprised them.
Judging that Jasdero and Devit had recovered from injuries sustained after their awakening, Rhode and Tiki had accompanied the newest members of their family to a mountainside cottage to enjoy the winter scenery. It was isolated, and the twins had spent yesterday climbing all over rocks and trees and snowdrifts with Rhode, who was delighted by her newest playmates.
“Hey, Jasdero and Devit. When’s your birthday?” asked Rhode.
They let go of the tablecloth and looked at each other. “What’s a birthday?” asked Devit.
Rhode looked stunned. How could they not know about birthdays?
Tiki, who was the only one still eating, paused to explain. “You know, the day you were born.”
“Dero doesn’t remember that far back,” said Jasdero.
“Yeah, me neither,” said Devit.
“No, no, no,” said Rhode, putting her hands on the table and rocking her chair back. “The date you were born.”
They looked at her without comprehension.
“Every year you have a celebration on that day,” said Rhode. She had hoped this would elicit a sign of recognition, but the twins’ expressions were mystified. A frown crept onto on Rhode’s face.
“Why?” asked Devit.
“Why not?” asked Rhode.
Everyone thought about the questions for awhile, Tiki as he finished his fish.
“Because you can,” said Rhode.
“Because it’s weird,” said Devit.
“Rhode’s right,” said Tiki.
“Dero doesn’t understand,” complained Jasdero.
“You get presents,” said Rhode.
Jasdero and Devit perked up in their seats. “Really?” said Devit eagerly.
“Yes,” Rhode said. “You see, everyone has a birthday, which is a day that’s all about you-or two of you, in your case-and people have to celebrate by giving you gifts.”
“Wow!” said Jasdero.
“They have to?” asked Devit. He looked angry that nobody had told them this before.
Rhode nodded. Beside her, Tiki was regarding her critically. “As I recall, you forgot my last two birthdays.”
“I didn’t forget, I just didn’t give you any presents. And then last time you didn’t even come home for your birthday.”
“That’s because nobody gave me any presents the time before,” said Tiki.
“Whine, whine, whine,” said Rhode.
While Devit was deep in thought, trying to figure out when their birthday was, Jasdero asked, “When’s Rhode’s birthday?”
Rhode gave a mysterious smile. “Mine’s secret.”
Devit looked up. “Can ours be secret too?”
“It’s only secret if you know it and nobody else does,” said Rhode happily.
“Rhode probably knows lots of secrets,” said Jasdero, slumping down in his seat and trying to poke her chair with his foot.
Tiki rolled his eyes-he was only encouraging her. “Look, Rhode, they just don’t know when their birthday is.” Rhode fixed him with an opaque expression that was probably a sign of displeasure.
Devit blushed faintly and protested automatically, “We do too!” He wasn’t going to pass up a promise of presents, anyway.
Rhode pushed her chair back and stood. “Well, let me know tomorrow. Then I can plan your birthday party.”
“What’s a birthday party?” asked Jasdero. As Devit told him it was must be what it sounds like, Rhode ran from the room, calling back to Tiki that it was his turn to do the dishes.
Rhode rendezvoused with Tiki in the living room the next morning. The day outside was bright and crisp, sunlight catching on the pure white snowdrifts and mountain stones. “Did you figure out their birthday?” she whispered.
“No, when I asked Devit he just said ‘The day Jasdero was born,’” replied Tiki.
“That’s like what Jasdero told me. ‘The day Devit was born,’ he said. It’s a mystery, that’s for sure.” Rhode rubbed her chin in thought. “Which is too bad, because I really want to plan a birthday party for them.”
“How long do you intend to make them-” Tiki began, but Devit slammed the living room door open and stood framed in the doorway with Jasdero close by his side.
“Hey Rhode! You know, if we don’t know our birthday, then in theory every day could be our birthday,” said Devit, in the spirit of a boy who, having been granted more than he’d ever imagined, intended to see what else he could get.
“That’s very clever of you,” said Rhode, her eyes narrowed, “but I’m pretty sure you have just one between you, and if you don’t even know when it is, it’s like you don’t have any. ”
Jasdero and Devit looked disappointed and a little upset. “We have to go think things over,” said Devit with a show of confidence, and slammed the door closed.
Tiki was watching Rhode closely. He hadn’t had breakfast yet, but he took out a cigarette and lit it behind his cupped palm while he watched Rhode from the corner of his eye. She was humming to herself and swishing her skirts from side to side. “You sure like birthdays, don’t you,” he said.
“Who doesn’t?” said Rhode, smiling enigmatically.
“You still haven’t told me when yours is,” said Tiki.
“I’m good at keeping secrets.” Humming to herself, Rhode sashayed her way to the window and watched the twins climbing up the snowy slope.
Jasdero and Devit scrambled up the sunlit mountain path that led from the cottage. They’d explored the cottage’s surroundings the other day, and their new pants were already snow-stained and fraying at the knees. But there was plenty left to explore. On the uninhabited mountain, they felt surrounded by infinite space. The boys clambered up a whitish rock overgrown with lichen and settled there, looking over the white valley and grinning. Snow surrounded them.
“Tiki says there are spirits in these mountains, but I bet he’s lying,” said Devit after awhile. His breath clouded in the air, but he was accustomed to the cold and warm from exertion.
“Probably,” said Jasdero, although he glanced behind them just in case.
Devit, thinking about something, frowned. “Are you sure you don’t remember when we were born?” he asked.
“Hee! Not a thing,” said Jasdero.
“Damn. Me neither. That’s a weird thing to forget, you’d think it’s kind of important.”
“Maybe we were never born,” giggled Jasdero, putting a hand to his mouth.
“We had to have been born! Anyway, I want to find out about this birthday party thing,” said Devit.
“Dero too.”
They stared up at the sky for awhile. It was an intense blue. Clouds moved across it, making them dizzy when they watched them for too long. Jasdero leaned back on his elbows to better watch the clouds.
“If you were alive and had never been born,” Devit said slowly, “it would be pretty remarkable, wouldn’t it?”
“So probably we were born,” put in Jasdero, lifting his head. He sounded slightly disappointed.
“You would probably have mystical powers or something,” said Devit. “Like a spirit. Or you’d know the secrets of Time.”
“Sounds like fun, hee! Hey...” Jasdero sat up, his gaze unfocused. “Do you think maybe Rhode was never born? If she won’t tell when her birthday is. Maybe she doesn’t have one!” he finished excitedly.
Devit looked thoughtful. “Nah, she knows so much about birthdays. She has to have one herself.” Devit jumped down from the rock, feet sinking into snow. Jasdero crawled to the edge, looked over, then half-climbed, half-fell off.
“Let’s go back, I know what might help,” said Devit, and they skidded their way down the path.
Rhode grabbed the arm of Tiki’s chair. He was playing Solitaire on the adjacent table. Rhode said, “Come take a walk with me.”
“What happened to the twins?” asked Tiki. He was winning his game and didn’t particularly want to get up.
“They’re busy,” said Rhode.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have asked them an impossible question.” Tiki glanced out the window, already resigned to the fact that he was going to take a walk. Outside it was sunny-too sunny and too cold.
“It’s a perfectly reasonable question,” said Rhode in an annoyed tone. “Everyone was born sometime.”
“But there’s no way to know when your birthday is if nobody tells you which day you were born. I don’t know, I feel kind of sorry for them.” Tiki stood. “Let me get my coat.”
Rhode was frowning as she helpfully gathered the cards from Tiki’s unfinished winning game back into a deck.
As he went to retrieve his coat and leave his tuxedo jacket safely in his room, since he knew the twins might borrow it if he left it lying around, Tiki passed the partly closed door to the room where the twins were staying. They were lying on the floor looking at a calendar, the one that had been hanging in the kitchen. A thick two-year calendar, it depicted nature scenes. Tiki remembered Jasdero asking what it was when they’d arrived, and Tiki, surprised at their ignorance, had explained to the twins that it told the days in the year. He’d pointed out Sunday and Monday-Jasdero and Devit had caught on quickly and expressed astonishment that the weeks lined up into neat rows-and, since the calendar was in German, told them the name of the current month, February. Now they’d flipped it back a month. Jasdero was moving his finger back through the dates and counting aloud. Devit was making marks on the days. Tiki stopped to watch-they were completely absorbed in what they were doing. Devit put dots on most of the days, but occasionally more elaborate marks.
“Nine, ten… eleven… twelve, um….” said Jasdero, moving his finger from day to day.
Devit grabbed Jasdero’s hand and moved it to indicate one more day earlier. “This is the day we met the Earl,” said Devit, putting a star on it.
Tiki remembered that. The Earl had come to greet the newest members of the Noah family a little over a week after Tiki and Rhode had found and retrieved them. The twins hadn’t understood who exactly the Earl was-okay, so Tiki didn’t either-but they had been impressed.
“And…” Devit paused, thinking. “This is when I asked you how long we’d been at the mansion, and you said, I think it’s been a week, and I thought it had been a week too. And we asked Rhode what day it was, and she said it was Sunday.” Devit checked the top of the calendar to make doubly sure what he was looking at was in fact a Sunday, then jotted a couple dots on it and skipped a week back. Jasdero put his finger on it and counted back the days, “One, two, three…”
When Tiki had been showing the twins the calendar, Devit had asked him why the days had numbers. Tiki had struggled to explain what dates were as they stared at him with no sign of understanding. Tiki was kind of surprised that they had such a good grasp of how many days had passed. He could barely remember what had happened the day before yesterday. Except that had been the day they’d moved to the cottage, hadn’t it. Well, barring any memorable occurrences, most of the time he could hardly remember the day before yesterday. Perhaps in the absence of calendars, the twins had developed a good sense of time. Although if they were trying to work back ten plus however many years to their birthday, they were pretty much doomed.
Tiki moved quietly past their door. The hallway was dim, unlit by any windows, but if they noticed him spying they’d be upset.
Tiki and Rhode were strolling along a snow-lined mountainside path, Rhode chattering about the new dresses she wanted, when Jasdero and Devit appeared behind them, each seizing one of Rhode’s arms. They were out of breath but laughing, their eyes shining.
“Oh, Jasdero, Devit!” she said. Devit shoved Tiki aside, and he and Jasdero continued along the path on each side of Rhode, holding her hands.
Tiki followed along behind them, feeling tall. “Did you figure out your birthday?” he asked. Their plan had been overly optimistic, not realistic, but they sure looked happy about something.
Devit looked over his shoulder. “No,” he said shortly.
“But we’ve almost remembered!” said Jasdero. He swung his and Rhode’s arms back and forth in a wide arc.
“Really,” said Tiki.
Jasdero nodded, not looking back, and Rhode gave a low chuckle. “I know when my birthday is,” she announced loudly. “For all you know, it might be today. So give me presents--don't you dare imagine one up--and I might not kill you.”
Jasdero gave a short shriek, and Devit said, “But it’s probably not your birthday,” although he sounded concerned. Jasdero rummaged in a pocket with his free left hand and produced a barrette. “Dero’s giving you this barrette,” he said, and tried to stick it in Rhode’s vest pocket.
“Jasdero, that’s my barrette,” said Rhode patiently. “You can’t give me things that are already mine as presents.”
“Oh,” said Jasdero. He put it back in his pocket.
She grinned at him. “It’s sweet of you to offer, though.” Jasdero smiled uncertainly back, his eyes threatening to move in opposite directions.
“As far as you know, it could be our birthday today,” pointed out Devit. He pointed at the trail. “Jasdero, I’m giving you that rock.”
Jasdero gave a shriek of laughter. He pointed back in the direction of the cottage. “Dero’s giving Devit the table!”
“You can’t just…” began Rhode.
Laughing, Devit peered past Rhode at his twin. “Then I’m giving you the tablecloth.”
Jasdero pointed at the slope to his left. “Dero’s giving Devit the mountain!”
“Thanks!”
Rhode stopped so the twins could recover from their laughter. “I don’t know about the rocks and the mountains, but the table and everything else in the cottage belongs to the family,” she said, although there was grudging amusement in her voice. She looked at the mountain, the sweeping blue sky, the distant snowy valley below. “Let’s go home for lunch,” she proposed.
Tiki led the way back along the trail as the children held hands and tried to give things to each other the whole way home.
“Jasdero and Devit, I forgot to ask,” said Rhode in the middle of dinner. “How old are you? I’ll need to know that too, if I’m going to be planning your birthday party.” Tiki thought he detected a threatening undertone. He wished Rhode would stop bringing up the subject of birthdays so often, but she couldn’t seem to let it go.
The boys dropped their forks onto their plates and glanced at each other, which Tiki took as a bad sign. “Older than you,” said Devit.
“At least not any younger!” said Jasdero.
Rhode laughed. “I doubt it,” she said.
“How old is Rhode, then?” asked Jasdero.
“Eighty.” She had a triumphant look on her face, as if she’d just won a contest.
“That’s a lot of years!” said Jasdero, impressed.
“You don’t look like an old lady,” said Devit.
Rhode showed her teeth. “I age well.” She slurped at her hot chocolate.
Devit, understandably enough, didn’t seem to find this a believable excuse. “It’s true,” Tiki told him.
“No it isn’t,” said Devit. Tiki vouching for the truth of a statement made it a lie, apparently. Tiki shrugged and took a bite of potato.
There was a long pause.
Rhode decided to reminisce. “I remember my last birthday party. There was a white cake as high as me, and my favorite present was a gold bracelet set with rubies. Everyone was there.”
On pain of death, as Tiki recalled. The cake had been good, though-Skinn had been in charge of ordering it. I should start searching for a gift for Rhode’s next birthday, in case she decides it should be less than a year from the last one, thought Tiki, then paused. He remembered what Devit had said about every day potentially being his birthday. Good God, that’s what she’s doing.
Devit was unperturbed by Rhode’s bragging. “We’ll have it figured out by tomorrow,” he said with his mouth full. Beside him, Jasdero nodded, looking excited.
“I’ll know if you’re making it up,” warned Rhode.
Tiki sauntered into Rhode’s room. All the bedrooms in the cottage were small and cozy, but hers felt as smallest and coziest because she had the largest bed, and cloths of black and white and burgundy hung from the corners and bedposts. Rhode was sitting on her burgundy sheets reading from the light of a kerosene lamp. Tiki was sure that Rhode was going to inadvertently burn the cottage down sometime, from which she’d emerge unscathed while everyone else suffered severe burns. Rhode would probably laugh about it, too.
“About your birthday,” said Tiki. Rhode glanced up sharply. “You’re just keeping it secret so you’ll get more presents, aren’t you.”
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Rhode asked sweetly.
Tiki leaned against the wall by the door and crossed his arms. “Weeell, Devit was all set to do that, clever bastard, and you wouldn’t let him. But it seems to me you had the idea first. Selfish little kids think alike.”
Rhode looked down at her book, partly annoyed and partly distant. “If you’re jealous, Tiki, I can share my presents.”
Tiki straightened up. “Nah, I just thought I’d let you know I’d figured it out. Keep your game going, I don’t mind. Although I’m curious as to when your real birthday is.”
“Well, I’m not telling,” said Rhode.
“Yeah, that would ruin the game, wouldn’t it,” said Tiki. He understood how she felt. He wished Rhode goodnight and left-but stuck his head back in the doorway a moment later. “I don’t care when your birthday is, next time I’m getting you the best present.”
Rhode showed him a real smile.
Munching biscuits taken from the kitchen, Jasdero and Devit opened up their calendar. They’d worked back to the beginning of last month, to the day Tiki had found them. The two days before that were blacked out. Jasdero looked at these dates, considering. “It was before that…”
“Yeah, it took them awhile to find us,” said Devit. He was sitting with his knees up, twiddling the pen in one hand while he finished a biscuit.
“Heee, more than a week,” said Jasdero, biting his thumbnail. On his stomach on the floor, he concentrated on the blacked-out dates. “One…err, five, six, seven…and one more…” he skipped back. He flipped to the previous month partway through.
“It was longer,” said Devit. His biscuit done, he traced a light line through a row of days and up to the next one. “The day we tried to leave the village.” He put in a faint spiral.
“And back, and back…” muttered Jasdero, walking his fingers across the squares.
This month was still vivid in their minds. “Two Sundays passed in the village, after,” declared Devit. He indicated them by tapping with the end of the pencil. “And a Christmas.” He cast about for a Christmas, but all he saw was numbers.
Jasdero had already moved past both Sundays. Suddenly his hand froze. “Here,” he whispered.
Devit penciled three crosses onto three days. He sat back, looking at them. “Which one should it be?” he asked quietly.
Jasdero made a fist and raised his fingers one at a time, ending with three. “Third one,” he said. He looked unusually intense and serious.
Devit stared at the date for a long time, memorizing it.
Devit triumphantly bore the calendar into the kitchen during next morning’s breakfast. “We figured out our birthday!” he announced to Tiki and Rhode, who were scrambling eggs. They looked blankly at Devit and Jasdero (who was beside Devit looking insanely happy).
“What?” asked Rhode.
“Figured it out!” said Jasdero, indicating the calendar.
“We double-checked it and everything, just to be sure,” said Devit proudly.
Tiki took the calendar from him and flipped it open. “Is the circled day your birthday?” he asked.
“No, idiot, that’s the day we met you and Rhode,” said Devit. “It’s in the month before that.”
Tiki stared at the mysterious marks covering the month until Devit had to come point it out to him. Rhode came up and squinted at it on tiptoe. “That’s your birthday?” she asked doubtfully.
“Yes,” said Devit.
“It’s on Tuesdays,” said Jasdero.
“It’s on twenty-one of the Christmas month,” said Devit proudly.
“December,” corrected Tiki.
“That’s what I said,” said Devit.
Rhode turned on Devit. “You made that up,” she said.
“No we didn’t!” complained Jasdero. “It’s our real birthday!”
“But how could you suddenly remember your birthday if you never knew it before? You just want the presents,” said Rhode.
“Rhode…” began Tiki, examining the calendar.
But he was interrupted by Devit yelling back. “You’re the one who wanted us to tell you when our birthday was! So we figured it out.”
Rhode fixed Devit and Jasdero with a cold stare. “I think you’re liars, and I’m never giving you a birthday party.”
Her response confused the twins. “But-” began Jasdero, and ran out of words.
“We don’t need your birthday party,” said Devit, eyes narrowed. “Now that we have a birthday.”
Rhode’s eyes widened for a moment, then her expression turned murderous. However, in an exercise of self-control, she turned and stalked out of the kitchen, her hands clenched into fists.
Tiki, tossing the calendar aside, closed the kitchen door after her. “Looks like she doesn’t believe you, twins. You might have to apologize for something.”
“That isn’t fair. We didn’t lie or anything,” Devit complained. He glanced up at Tiki. “Do we still get presents from other people?”
Tiki took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. “That might depend on Rhode.”
Devit looked downcast for a moment, then brightened. “It’s all right, we can give presents to each other,” he said in the direction of Jasdero. Jasdero was picking up the calendar off the floor. He hung it back up on the kitchen wall, then took a pencil stub from his pocket and began drawing triangle mountains over the past few dates.
Tiki and Rhode ate lunch together while the twins were outside throwing snowballs at each other. Tiki had brought the calendar to the table and was examining it as he ate his sandwich. Rhode had her chin in her palm as she chewed. She hadn’t spoken to him since morning, and was glowering past his ear now.
Tiki broke the silence. “I think this is the day the twins awakened as Noahs,” he said. He tapped the calendar on one of the days marked with a cross.
Rhode sat up.
“It isn’t exactly their birthday, but they weren’t lying either,” said Tiki.
“Are you saying that counts as a birthday?” demanded Rhode.
“It must count as something.”
“Good thing we know our birthday now,” said Devit, winding his way back to the cottage with Jasdero. They’d missed out on it for the years they’d already lived, but they were no longer living in ignorance.
“Dunno. Dero was partly hoping we didn’t have one and were mystical spirits in secret.”
“We did have powers we never imagined,” pointed out Devit.
“Not as much if we were never born!” said Jasdero. He ran ahead through footprint-riddled snow to the cottage door and dragged it open for his twin.
Rhode was sitting the living room with a book, and Tiki was on the floor shuffling playing cards. Rhode looked up when the twins came in, trailing dirt from bare feet. “I believe you about your birthday,” she told them.
“We were telling the truth,” said Devit, sounding offended. Jasdero looked excited for a moment, then thoughtful.
“I made sandwiches and hot chocolate earlier,” said Tiki.
“Give us some,” said Devit, and followed Tiki into the kitchen.
Jasdero hurried to Rhode’s chair. “Dero’s happy you believe us! And happy to know our birthday. But Dero thinks it might be even better to not have a birthday,” he confessed, giggling.
Rhode looked at him, mystified. “Whyever not?”
“Because hardly any people are special enough to be alive without being born,” explained Jasdero. Wondering aloud where lunch was, he wandered off into the kitchen.
Her book neglected, Rhode looked out the window at the wild winter mountainside for a long time.
Tiki knocked on Rhode’s bedroom door. There was no answer, so he opened it and peered in.
A checkered door materialized at the foot of Rhode’s bed, and she stepped out with a spring in her step and black and red wrapping paper in her arms. “Oh!” she said upon seeing Tiki, and took on a furtive look.
“Is it your birthday already?” asked Tiki.
“Just planning ahead,” Rhode said smoothly, her composure swiftly regained. “But it’s not mine. I was thinking I might not celebrate my birthday anymore, since the Earl always gives me presents anyway. And I’ve had so many birthdays…”
Tiki looked mildly shocked. “Wha…what brought this on?”
Rhode shrugged. She dumped the rolls of wrapping paper between her bed and the wall. Behind her, the door vanished.
“You shouldn’t stop having birthday parties,” said Tiki. “They were fun, they were a family event. It’s like you’re cancelling a holiday.”
“You really enjoyed them?” asked Rhode in surprise.
Tiki raised his hands palm up as he shrugged. “Sure. Though you’re too forceful about making everyone come. And your piles of presents? So materialistic.”
“Just because I need more than cigarettes and fake glasses to make me happy-”
There was the sound of running in the hall, and Devit and Jasdero squeezed past Tiki. Snow trailed from their shoes. They stood squarely in front of Rhode, Devit with his hands on his hips.
“We’re sorry you got angry with us for no reason,” said Devit roughly. He cleared his throat.
“We were going to give you poison ivy for a present, to apologize, but we couldn’t find any!” said Jasdero, giggling.
“I’ve never gotten poison ivy before,” Rhode said slowly.
“So we’re giving you the valley instead!” Jasdero waved his arm behind him, in the direction of the valley that spread green below the mountain.
“We are not,” said Devit. “We were just apologizing because Tiki said to.” Tiki raised his eyes to the ceiling to avoid Rhode’s gaze, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was gazing steadily at Devit, and Jasdero.
“Tiki also said to wrap your present, but it was too big,” said Jasdero. “Already gave the mountain to Devit…”
“Happy Birthday to me,” sang Rhode, and taught them the words.
------
Note: If Jasdevi have an official birthdate, I plan to revise the season described here as necessary. As of the release of the fanbook, Jasdero, Devit and Rhode all have official birthdays. I've revised the story accordingly.
Prompt: 010. Mystical
Disclaimer: D. Gray-man series and characters do not belong to me.
Rhode, chin in hand, had been staring across the dinner table at the twins deep in thought.
They hadn’t noticed. They were too busy fooling with the lacy edge of the tablecloth. Jasdero and Devit had been part of the Noah Clan for little more than a month, and now surrounded by the opulence of the family’s property, the most unlikely things surprised them.
Judging that Jasdero and Devit had recovered from injuries sustained after their awakening, Rhode and Tiki had accompanied the newest members of their family to a mountainside cottage to enjoy the winter scenery. It was isolated, and the twins had spent yesterday climbing all over rocks and trees and snowdrifts with Rhode, who was delighted by her newest playmates.
“Hey, Jasdero and Devit. When’s your birthday?” asked Rhode.
They let go of the tablecloth and looked at each other. “What’s a birthday?” asked Devit.
Rhode looked stunned. How could they not know about birthdays?
Tiki, who was the only one still eating, paused to explain. “You know, the day you were born.”
“Dero doesn’t remember that far back,” said Jasdero.
“Yeah, me neither,” said Devit.
“No, no, no,” said Rhode, putting her hands on the table and rocking her chair back. “The date you were born.”
They looked at her without comprehension.
“Every year you have a celebration on that day,” said Rhode. She had hoped this would elicit a sign of recognition, but the twins’ expressions were mystified. A frown crept onto on Rhode’s face.
“Why?” asked Devit.
“Why not?” asked Rhode.
Everyone thought about the questions for awhile, Tiki as he finished his fish.
“Because you can,” said Rhode.
“Because it’s weird,” said Devit.
“Rhode’s right,” said Tiki.
“Dero doesn’t understand,” complained Jasdero.
“You get presents,” said Rhode.
Jasdero and Devit perked up in their seats. “Really?” said Devit eagerly.
“Yes,” Rhode said. “You see, everyone has a birthday, which is a day that’s all about you-or two of you, in your case-and people have to celebrate by giving you gifts.”
“Wow!” said Jasdero.
“They have to?” asked Devit. He looked angry that nobody had told them this before.
Rhode nodded. Beside her, Tiki was regarding her critically. “As I recall, you forgot my last two birthdays.”
“I didn’t forget, I just didn’t give you any presents. And then last time you didn’t even come home for your birthday.”
“That’s because nobody gave me any presents the time before,” said Tiki.
“Whine, whine, whine,” said Rhode.
While Devit was deep in thought, trying to figure out when their birthday was, Jasdero asked, “When’s Rhode’s birthday?”
Rhode gave a mysterious smile. “Mine’s secret.”
Devit looked up. “Can ours be secret too?”
“It’s only secret if you know it and nobody else does,” said Rhode happily.
“Rhode probably knows lots of secrets,” said Jasdero, slumping down in his seat and trying to poke her chair with his foot.
Tiki rolled his eyes-he was only encouraging her. “Look, Rhode, they just don’t know when their birthday is.” Rhode fixed him with an opaque expression that was probably a sign of displeasure.
Devit blushed faintly and protested automatically, “We do too!” He wasn’t going to pass up a promise of presents, anyway.
Rhode pushed her chair back and stood. “Well, let me know tomorrow. Then I can plan your birthday party.”
“What’s a birthday party?” asked Jasdero. As Devit told him it was must be what it sounds like, Rhode ran from the room, calling back to Tiki that it was his turn to do the dishes.
Rhode rendezvoused with Tiki in the living room the next morning. The day outside was bright and crisp, sunlight catching on the pure white snowdrifts and mountain stones. “Did you figure out their birthday?” she whispered.
“No, when I asked Devit he just said ‘The day Jasdero was born,’” replied Tiki.
“That’s like what Jasdero told me. ‘The day Devit was born,’ he said. It’s a mystery, that’s for sure.” Rhode rubbed her chin in thought. “Which is too bad, because I really want to plan a birthday party for them.”
“How long do you intend to make them-” Tiki began, but Devit slammed the living room door open and stood framed in the doorway with Jasdero close by his side.
“Hey Rhode! You know, if we don’t know our birthday, then in theory every day could be our birthday,” said Devit, in the spirit of a boy who, having been granted more than he’d ever imagined, intended to see what else he could get.
“That’s very clever of you,” said Rhode, her eyes narrowed, “but I’m pretty sure you have just one between you, and if you don’t even know when it is, it’s like you don’t have any. ”
Jasdero and Devit looked disappointed and a little upset. “We have to go think things over,” said Devit with a show of confidence, and slammed the door closed.
Tiki was watching Rhode closely. He hadn’t had breakfast yet, but he took out a cigarette and lit it behind his cupped palm while he watched Rhode from the corner of his eye. She was humming to herself and swishing her skirts from side to side. “You sure like birthdays, don’t you,” he said.
“Who doesn’t?” said Rhode, smiling enigmatically.
“You still haven’t told me when yours is,” said Tiki.
“I’m good at keeping secrets.” Humming to herself, Rhode sashayed her way to the window and watched the twins climbing up the snowy slope.
Jasdero and Devit scrambled up the sunlit mountain path that led from the cottage. They’d explored the cottage’s surroundings the other day, and their new pants were already snow-stained and fraying at the knees. But there was plenty left to explore. On the uninhabited mountain, they felt surrounded by infinite space. The boys clambered up a whitish rock overgrown with lichen and settled there, looking over the white valley and grinning. Snow surrounded them.
“Tiki says there are spirits in these mountains, but I bet he’s lying,” said Devit after awhile. His breath clouded in the air, but he was accustomed to the cold and warm from exertion.
“Probably,” said Jasdero, although he glanced behind them just in case.
Devit, thinking about something, frowned. “Are you sure you don’t remember when we were born?” he asked.
“Hee! Not a thing,” said Jasdero.
“Damn. Me neither. That’s a weird thing to forget, you’d think it’s kind of important.”
“Maybe we were never born,” giggled Jasdero, putting a hand to his mouth.
“We had to have been born! Anyway, I want to find out about this birthday party thing,” said Devit.
“Dero too.”
They stared up at the sky for awhile. It was an intense blue. Clouds moved across it, making them dizzy when they watched them for too long. Jasdero leaned back on his elbows to better watch the clouds.
“If you were alive and had never been born,” Devit said slowly, “it would be pretty remarkable, wouldn’t it?”
“So probably we were born,” put in Jasdero, lifting his head. He sounded slightly disappointed.
“You would probably have mystical powers or something,” said Devit. “Like a spirit. Or you’d know the secrets of Time.”
“Sounds like fun, hee! Hey...” Jasdero sat up, his gaze unfocused. “Do you think maybe Rhode was never born? If she won’t tell when her birthday is. Maybe she doesn’t have one!” he finished excitedly.
Devit looked thoughtful. “Nah, she knows so much about birthdays. She has to have one herself.” Devit jumped down from the rock, feet sinking into snow. Jasdero crawled to the edge, looked over, then half-climbed, half-fell off.
“Let’s go back, I know what might help,” said Devit, and they skidded their way down the path.
Rhode grabbed the arm of Tiki’s chair. He was playing Solitaire on the adjacent table. Rhode said, “Come take a walk with me.”
“What happened to the twins?” asked Tiki. He was winning his game and didn’t particularly want to get up.
“They’re busy,” said Rhode.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have asked them an impossible question.” Tiki glanced out the window, already resigned to the fact that he was going to take a walk. Outside it was sunny-too sunny and too cold.
“It’s a perfectly reasonable question,” said Rhode in an annoyed tone. “Everyone was born sometime.”
“But there’s no way to know when your birthday is if nobody tells you which day you were born. I don’t know, I feel kind of sorry for them.” Tiki stood. “Let me get my coat.”
Rhode was frowning as she helpfully gathered the cards from Tiki’s unfinished winning game back into a deck.
As he went to retrieve his coat and leave his tuxedo jacket safely in his room, since he knew the twins might borrow it if he left it lying around, Tiki passed the partly closed door to the room where the twins were staying. They were lying on the floor looking at a calendar, the one that had been hanging in the kitchen. A thick two-year calendar, it depicted nature scenes. Tiki remembered Jasdero asking what it was when they’d arrived, and Tiki, surprised at their ignorance, had explained to the twins that it told the days in the year. He’d pointed out Sunday and Monday-Jasdero and Devit had caught on quickly and expressed astonishment that the weeks lined up into neat rows-and, since the calendar was in German, told them the name of the current month, February. Now they’d flipped it back a month. Jasdero was moving his finger back through the dates and counting aloud. Devit was making marks on the days. Tiki stopped to watch-they were completely absorbed in what they were doing. Devit put dots on most of the days, but occasionally more elaborate marks.
“Nine, ten… eleven… twelve, um….” said Jasdero, moving his finger from day to day.
Devit grabbed Jasdero’s hand and moved it to indicate one more day earlier. “This is the day we met the Earl,” said Devit, putting a star on it.
Tiki remembered that. The Earl had come to greet the newest members of the Noah family a little over a week after Tiki and Rhode had found and retrieved them. The twins hadn’t understood who exactly the Earl was-okay, so Tiki didn’t either-but they had been impressed.
“And…” Devit paused, thinking. “This is when I asked you how long we’d been at the mansion, and you said, I think it’s been a week, and I thought it had been a week too. And we asked Rhode what day it was, and she said it was Sunday.” Devit checked the top of the calendar to make doubly sure what he was looking at was in fact a Sunday, then jotted a couple dots on it and skipped a week back. Jasdero put his finger on it and counted back the days, “One, two, three…”
When Tiki had been showing the twins the calendar, Devit had asked him why the days had numbers. Tiki had struggled to explain what dates were as they stared at him with no sign of understanding. Tiki was kind of surprised that they had such a good grasp of how many days had passed. He could barely remember what had happened the day before yesterday. Except that had been the day they’d moved to the cottage, hadn’t it. Well, barring any memorable occurrences, most of the time he could hardly remember the day before yesterday. Perhaps in the absence of calendars, the twins had developed a good sense of time. Although if they were trying to work back ten plus however many years to their birthday, they were pretty much doomed.
Tiki moved quietly past their door. The hallway was dim, unlit by any windows, but if they noticed him spying they’d be upset.
Tiki and Rhode were strolling along a snow-lined mountainside path, Rhode chattering about the new dresses she wanted, when Jasdero and Devit appeared behind them, each seizing one of Rhode’s arms. They were out of breath but laughing, their eyes shining.
“Oh, Jasdero, Devit!” she said. Devit shoved Tiki aside, and he and Jasdero continued along the path on each side of Rhode, holding her hands.
Tiki followed along behind them, feeling tall. “Did you figure out your birthday?” he asked. Their plan had been overly optimistic, not realistic, but they sure looked happy about something.
Devit looked over his shoulder. “No,” he said shortly.
“But we’ve almost remembered!” said Jasdero. He swung his and Rhode’s arms back and forth in a wide arc.
“Really,” said Tiki.
Jasdero nodded, not looking back, and Rhode gave a low chuckle. “I know when my birthday is,” she announced loudly. “For all you know, it might be today. So give me presents--don't you dare imagine one up--and I might not kill you.”
Jasdero gave a short shriek, and Devit said, “But it’s probably not your birthday,” although he sounded concerned. Jasdero rummaged in a pocket with his free left hand and produced a barrette. “Dero’s giving you this barrette,” he said, and tried to stick it in Rhode’s vest pocket.
“Jasdero, that’s my barrette,” said Rhode patiently. “You can’t give me things that are already mine as presents.”
“Oh,” said Jasdero. He put it back in his pocket.
She grinned at him. “It’s sweet of you to offer, though.” Jasdero smiled uncertainly back, his eyes threatening to move in opposite directions.
“As far as you know, it could be our birthday today,” pointed out Devit. He pointed at the trail. “Jasdero, I’m giving you that rock.”
Jasdero gave a shriek of laughter. He pointed back in the direction of the cottage. “Dero’s giving Devit the table!”
“You can’t just…” began Rhode.
Laughing, Devit peered past Rhode at his twin. “Then I’m giving you the tablecloth.”
Jasdero pointed at the slope to his left. “Dero’s giving Devit the mountain!”
“Thanks!”
Rhode stopped so the twins could recover from their laughter. “I don’t know about the rocks and the mountains, but the table and everything else in the cottage belongs to the family,” she said, although there was grudging amusement in her voice. She looked at the mountain, the sweeping blue sky, the distant snowy valley below. “Let’s go home for lunch,” she proposed.
Tiki led the way back along the trail as the children held hands and tried to give things to each other the whole way home.
“Jasdero and Devit, I forgot to ask,” said Rhode in the middle of dinner. “How old are you? I’ll need to know that too, if I’m going to be planning your birthday party.” Tiki thought he detected a threatening undertone. He wished Rhode would stop bringing up the subject of birthdays so often, but she couldn’t seem to let it go.
The boys dropped their forks onto their plates and glanced at each other, which Tiki took as a bad sign. “Older than you,” said Devit.
“At least not any younger!” said Jasdero.
Rhode laughed. “I doubt it,” she said.
“How old is Rhode, then?” asked Jasdero.
“Eighty.” She had a triumphant look on her face, as if she’d just won a contest.
“That’s a lot of years!” said Jasdero, impressed.
“You don’t look like an old lady,” said Devit.
Rhode showed her teeth. “I age well.” She slurped at her hot chocolate.
Devit, understandably enough, didn’t seem to find this a believable excuse. “It’s true,” Tiki told him.
“No it isn’t,” said Devit. Tiki vouching for the truth of a statement made it a lie, apparently. Tiki shrugged and took a bite of potato.
There was a long pause.
Rhode decided to reminisce. “I remember my last birthday party. There was a white cake as high as me, and my favorite present was a gold bracelet set with rubies. Everyone was there.”
On pain of death, as Tiki recalled. The cake had been good, though-Skinn had been in charge of ordering it. I should start searching for a gift for Rhode’s next birthday, in case she decides it should be less than a year from the last one, thought Tiki, then paused. He remembered what Devit had said about every day potentially being his birthday. Good God, that’s what she’s doing.
Devit was unperturbed by Rhode’s bragging. “We’ll have it figured out by tomorrow,” he said with his mouth full. Beside him, Jasdero nodded, looking excited.
“I’ll know if you’re making it up,” warned Rhode.
Tiki sauntered into Rhode’s room. All the bedrooms in the cottage were small and cozy, but hers felt as smallest and coziest because she had the largest bed, and cloths of black and white and burgundy hung from the corners and bedposts. Rhode was sitting on her burgundy sheets reading from the light of a kerosene lamp. Tiki was sure that Rhode was going to inadvertently burn the cottage down sometime, from which she’d emerge unscathed while everyone else suffered severe burns. Rhode would probably laugh about it, too.
“About your birthday,” said Tiki. Rhode glanced up sharply. “You’re just keeping it secret so you’ll get more presents, aren’t you.”
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Rhode asked sweetly.
Tiki leaned against the wall by the door and crossed his arms. “Weeell, Devit was all set to do that, clever bastard, and you wouldn’t let him. But it seems to me you had the idea first. Selfish little kids think alike.”
Rhode looked down at her book, partly annoyed and partly distant. “If you’re jealous, Tiki, I can share my presents.”
Tiki straightened up. “Nah, I just thought I’d let you know I’d figured it out. Keep your game going, I don’t mind. Although I’m curious as to when your real birthday is.”
“Well, I’m not telling,” said Rhode.
“Yeah, that would ruin the game, wouldn’t it,” said Tiki. He understood how she felt. He wished Rhode goodnight and left-but stuck his head back in the doorway a moment later. “I don’t care when your birthday is, next time I’m getting you the best present.”
Rhode showed him a real smile.
Munching biscuits taken from the kitchen, Jasdero and Devit opened up their calendar. They’d worked back to the beginning of last month, to the day Tiki had found them. The two days before that were blacked out. Jasdero looked at these dates, considering. “It was before that…”
“Yeah, it took them awhile to find us,” said Devit. He was sitting with his knees up, twiddling the pen in one hand while he finished a biscuit.
“Heee, more than a week,” said Jasdero, biting his thumbnail. On his stomach on the floor, he concentrated on the blacked-out dates. “One…err, five, six, seven…and one more…” he skipped back. He flipped to the previous month partway through.
“It was longer,” said Devit. His biscuit done, he traced a light line through a row of days and up to the next one. “The day we tried to leave the village.” He put in a faint spiral.
“And back, and back…” muttered Jasdero, walking his fingers across the squares.
This month was still vivid in their minds. “Two Sundays passed in the village, after,” declared Devit. He indicated them by tapping with the end of the pencil. “And a Christmas.” He cast about for a Christmas, but all he saw was numbers.
Jasdero had already moved past both Sundays. Suddenly his hand froze. “Here,” he whispered.
Devit penciled three crosses onto three days. He sat back, looking at them. “Which one should it be?” he asked quietly.
Jasdero made a fist and raised his fingers one at a time, ending with three. “Third one,” he said. He looked unusually intense and serious.
Devit stared at the date for a long time, memorizing it.
Devit triumphantly bore the calendar into the kitchen during next morning’s breakfast. “We figured out our birthday!” he announced to Tiki and Rhode, who were scrambling eggs. They looked blankly at Devit and Jasdero (who was beside Devit looking insanely happy).
“What?” asked Rhode.
“Figured it out!” said Jasdero, indicating the calendar.
“We double-checked it and everything, just to be sure,” said Devit proudly.
Tiki took the calendar from him and flipped it open. “Is the circled day your birthday?” he asked.
“No, idiot, that’s the day we met you and Rhode,” said Devit. “It’s in the month before that.”
Tiki stared at the mysterious marks covering the month until Devit had to come point it out to him. Rhode came up and squinted at it on tiptoe. “That’s your birthday?” she asked doubtfully.
“Yes,” said Devit.
“It’s on Tuesdays,” said Jasdero.
“It’s on twenty-one of the Christmas month,” said Devit proudly.
“December,” corrected Tiki.
“That’s what I said,” said Devit.
Rhode turned on Devit. “You made that up,” she said.
“No we didn’t!” complained Jasdero. “It’s our real birthday!”
“But how could you suddenly remember your birthday if you never knew it before? You just want the presents,” said Rhode.
“Rhode…” began Tiki, examining the calendar.
But he was interrupted by Devit yelling back. “You’re the one who wanted us to tell you when our birthday was! So we figured it out.”
Rhode fixed Devit and Jasdero with a cold stare. “I think you’re liars, and I’m never giving you a birthday party.”
Her response confused the twins. “But-” began Jasdero, and ran out of words.
“We don’t need your birthday party,” said Devit, eyes narrowed. “Now that we have a birthday.”
Rhode’s eyes widened for a moment, then her expression turned murderous. However, in an exercise of self-control, she turned and stalked out of the kitchen, her hands clenched into fists.
Tiki, tossing the calendar aside, closed the kitchen door after her. “Looks like she doesn’t believe you, twins. You might have to apologize for something.”
“That isn’t fair. We didn’t lie or anything,” Devit complained. He glanced up at Tiki. “Do we still get presents from other people?”
Tiki took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. “That might depend on Rhode.”
Devit looked downcast for a moment, then brightened. “It’s all right, we can give presents to each other,” he said in the direction of Jasdero. Jasdero was picking up the calendar off the floor. He hung it back up on the kitchen wall, then took a pencil stub from his pocket and began drawing triangle mountains over the past few dates.
Tiki and Rhode ate lunch together while the twins were outside throwing snowballs at each other. Tiki had brought the calendar to the table and was examining it as he ate his sandwich. Rhode had her chin in her palm as she chewed. She hadn’t spoken to him since morning, and was glowering past his ear now.
Tiki broke the silence. “I think this is the day the twins awakened as Noahs,” he said. He tapped the calendar on one of the days marked with a cross.
Rhode sat up.
“It isn’t exactly their birthday, but they weren’t lying either,” said Tiki.
“Are you saying that counts as a birthday?” demanded Rhode.
“It must count as something.”
“Good thing we know our birthday now,” said Devit, winding his way back to the cottage with Jasdero. They’d missed out on it for the years they’d already lived, but they were no longer living in ignorance.
“Dunno. Dero was partly hoping we didn’t have one and were mystical spirits in secret.”
“We did have powers we never imagined,” pointed out Devit.
“Not as much if we were never born!” said Jasdero. He ran ahead through footprint-riddled snow to the cottage door and dragged it open for his twin.
Rhode was sitting the living room with a book, and Tiki was on the floor shuffling playing cards. Rhode looked up when the twins came in, trailing dirt from bare feet. “I believe you about your birthday,” she told them.
“We were telling the truth,” said Devit, sounding offended. Jasdero looked excited for a moment, then thoughtful.
“I made sandwiches and hot chocolate earlier,” said Tiki.
“Give us some,” said Devit, and followed Tiki into the kitchen.
Jasdero hurried to Rhode’s chair. “Dero’s happy you believe us! And happy to know our birthday. But Dero thinks it might be even better to not have a birthday,” he confessed, giggling.
Rhode looked at him, mystified. “Whyever not?”
“Because hardly any people are special enough to be alive without being born,” explained Jasdero. Wondering aloud where lunch was, he wandered off into the kitchen.
Her book neglected, Rhode looked out the window at the wild winter mountainside for a long time.
Tiki knocked on Rhode’s bedroom door. There was no answer, so he opened it and peered in.
A checkered door materialized at the foot of Rhode’s bed, and she stepped out with a spring in her step and black and red wrapping paper in her arms. “Oh!” she said upon seeing Tiki, and took on a furtive look.
“Is it your birthday already?” asked Tiki.
“Just planning ahead,” Rhode said smoothly, her composure swiftly regained. “But it’s not mine. I was thinking I might not celebrate my birthday anymore, since the Earl always gives me presents anyway. And I’ve had so many birthdays…”
Tiki looked mildly shocked. “Wha…what brought this on?”
Rhode shrugged. She dumped the rolls of wrapping paper between her bed and the wall. Behind her, the door vanished.
“You shouldn’t stop having birthday parties,” said Tiki. “They were fun, they were a family event. It’s like you’re cancelling a holiday.”
“You really enjoyed them?” asked Rhode in surprise.
Tiki raised his hands palm up as he shrugged. “Sure. Though you’re too forceful about making everyone come. And your piles of presents? So materialistic.”
“Just because I need more than cigarettes and fake glasses to make me happy-”
There was the sound of running in the hall, and Devit and Jasdero squeezed past Tiki. Snow trailed from their shoes. They stood squarely in front of Rhode, Devit with his hands on his hips.
“We’re sorry you got angry with us for no reason,” said Devit roughly. He cleared his throat.
“We were going to give you poison ivy for a present, to apologize, but we couldn’t find any!” said Jasdero, giggling.
“I’ve never gotten poison ivy before,” Rhode said slowly.
“So we’re giving you the valley instead!” Jasdero waved his arm behind him, in the direction of the valley that spread green below the mountain.
“We are not,” said Devit. “We were just apologizing because Tiki said to.” Tiki raised his eyes to the ceiling to avoid Rhode’s gaze, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was gazing steadily at Devit, and Jasdero.
“Tiki also said to wrap your present, but it was too big,” said Jasdero. “Already gave the mountain to Devit…”
“Happy Birthday to me,” sang Rhode, and taught them the words.
------
Note: If Jasdevi have an official birthdate, I plan to revise the season described here as necessary. As of the release of the fanbook, Jasdero, Devit and Rhode all have official birthdays. I've revised the story accordingly.