...it's a million little things.

Saturday, September 15
Close to seven in the evening

A solid week had passed since a new resident moved into Burgoyne Birbidges Lofts. On the building's top floor, the door to 5G stood ajar. The flat's new occupant hadn't yet learned that keeping one's door closed and latched was the safer option. Summer Winds[1] could be heard coming from the flat - the tinkling ballad was one of Elijah Grimlish's favorite songs at the moment.

Inside the studio apartment, a young man stood inside the kitchenette, head shoved within the icebox. He had spent the last few days setting up his space, getting comfortable in his new environment. Boxes and trunks were mostly unpacked and those that hadn't yet been sorted were shoved beneath the large four-poster bed. On the wall opposite the fireplace, a large, ornate mirror hung upon the wall. There were two smaller mirrors, both matching the first, situated to either side of the massive glass piece.

Gazing into the largest, one could see the library inside Grimlish Manor. An identical match to the one in 5G hung there, reflecting back the inside of the apartment. The frame to the left showed his mother's sitting room in London and the one to the right appeared to be nothing more than a simple mirror.

The scene within the last was the one that changed the most frequently. The partner of his soul checked in daily and often showed him the most fantastical sights. He missed his twin sister with an almost physical ache and her brief check-ins did little to alleviate his loneliness. She had been off traveling the world, learning incredible magics that Elijah had never dreamed about, and while he was proud beyond belief, he couldn't help but feel slightly abandoned.

The rest of the flat was positively cramped with books and tables covered with deep blue cloths and topped with arcane divining tools. On the small balcony a large telescope covered half the available floor space and a large easel holding a partially completed star chart filled the rest. An abnormally large vampire bat flew around the ceiling, letting out a scree every few moments to help him see better.

Back in the kitchenette, Elijah closed the icebox with a soft click. A small table had been appropriated from the main room to serve as a spot for dining and Elijah had spent the last few hours frying, baking, grilling, chopping, tossing, and otherwise preparing a meal for his incoming guest. The food was almost ready, though Eli wasn't sure how palatable it might be. He had never been interested in the culinary arts, but he had followed the recipes exactly - surely it wouldn't be inedible.

He had made enough to feed a small army, though he had only invited one person to attend. Figaro Sellaphix lived down the hall and he knew that leftovers wouldn't go to waste. Perhaps a meal wasn't the best choice for an evening with Avalon Roth, who had issues with speech - reading lips could be difficult when one's mouth was full. Still, Elijah wanted to appear sophisticated, and he and Avalon were so close that the pair rarely relied on lip reading for communication any longer.

Elijah was so excited to see his old dormmate. Since graduating, Eli hadn't been able to see his friends as much as he would have liked. Working for the Vampire Liaison Office meant that he kept very odd hours, mostly when the rest of the wix community was sleeping. The scheduling conflicts were no match for Eli's determination, however, and now that he had his own home for entertaining, there was no stopping him.

If only Avalon would show up.

1.	Song by Three Owl Standard

Avalon carried the names of the twins upon his heart always. There wasn’t a day that he didn’t think of them in one way or another, and though most of their time after school was spent trying to find their place in the world, Ava felt so very close to them still. He would have married Evie if given the chance, would have looked after her and protected her like a knight of old if she had let him. Both she and her brother were such a large part of his heart, he entertained the idea once of simply marrying them both just to keep them close.

It pleased him greatly to hear of her travels and that Elijah was getting his own place. He lived now with his father, the ironworks a steady source of income when season wasn’t in session. he stayed closer to his team when the new season started and roomed with three other players. They partied so much that the blasting of the music and the constant coming and going of both fans and family made it almost unbearable for someone who dared not silence what he heard around him.

A deep rooted fear came even in classes when they learned the enchantments and spells to bend or break the noises around him, and he could barely finish school without as much aid as his own stubborn pride would allow him.

Elijah never left his side.

The dark haired youth wondered at the nerves that filled him nearly every time it came to see the now Vampire Liaison, and how he could hear his heart beating well over the sound of his steps on the walk or the music of the night.

At the entrance of the building he stopped a moment to turn the bottle over in his hand as though more afraid of the contents than he should be, but he knew how hard it was to get. As a gift he brought Elijah a bottle of wine, red—rich, and laced with blood. He could have paid his rent with it, but this was what being a friend with the Grimlish was. They’d outfitted him, fed him, loved him, and paid for more than he would have wished had he even known. How did you ever repay that?

Beneath the lantern, the candle flickered and he thought for a moment he heard a small part of something wicked laugh in the dark. The September shadows long and dark made even the streets feel so very unnatural and with the promise of October just around the corner, he wasn’t going to ignore this feeling, but for now he would push it aside and make his way in.

In the glass he saw his reflection and within it he could almost convince himself he belonged here, but before he could talk his own courage out of it he heard the Three Owl Standard and all of those doubts washed away. He was home, even if it wasn’t his own, but wherever Elijah was he would follow.

Avalon took up a great deal of the doorway, his figure filling more and more like his father and with the season training behind him the sleeves of his shirt were a bit tighter now. He wore jeans and a tshirt on a typical day, but this time he dressed just a little nicer and put on a scarf to hide the scars from both his accident and well…that night with Evie.

He didn’t need to sneak up on Elijah, could he with the other being a seer? But he liked to pretend he had that power and closed the distance between them anyway to wrap him up with a silent prayer to never have to let go.

Powerful, protective arms wrapped around Elijah from behind and the young adult melted gratefully into the embrace. Home. Had Elijah not been expecting Avalon, he still wouldn't have been startled. After all, how could one be surprised by themselves? Avalon had a piece of Elijah - like a horcrux without all the murder and darkness. His arrival was like adding a constellation to Eli's star chart - it might not have made him complete, but it did help fill the gaps.

The bottle of wine dug into Elijah's diaphragm uncomfortably, so rather than break the embrace, he turned in Avalon's arms so he could return the hug. He laid his head upon the other man's shoulder and inhaled deeply. Avalon was broader than Elijah remembered and Eli found himself grinning widely. Ava had gone on to play Quidditch professionally and the conditioning was obviously  paying off. Elijah was so proud.

Avalon had been Elijah's friend for so long they were family. He had been there for Eli through every turning of the Wheel of Fate. From the early years at Hogwarts where Eli was bullied for being half vampire, to finding out that he was a Seer and learning he wasn't a half-breed. When Avalon started dating Evie, Elijah had just assumed Avalon would eventually become his brother.

Eventually, Eli gave his friend a peck on the cheek and broke the embrace. He took the bottle from Avalon and whistled appreciatively. Blood-laced wine was incredibly expensive and rare. Wine needed fermentation, but blood needed to be fresh - very few vintners could emulsify the two properly.

The gift was incredibly thoughtful. Though Elijah was not a vampire, he had developed a taste for blood when he had thought that he was. He had a dozen or so blood flavored lollipops in his nightstand and below the food trimmings in the rubbish bin a couple of empty lolly sticks could be seen sticking out. "Thank you," he said earnestly, giving Avalon another quick hug before heading off to decant the bottle and wipe the mist from his eyes.

A quick incantation with his new wand had the cork shooting out of the bottle and flying across the room to land in the rubbish bin. With another flick, the deep-red liquid drained from the bottle and filled a crystal decanter sitting on the counter. A second decanter sat already full on the table, wine sans blood - the vintage poor when compared to Avalon's offering, but still fine enough to serve at a dinner party.

Eli brought the second decanter over to the table to place it beside his own chair. "I drew The Tower for you today," he said, raising his eyebrow questioningly at his very best friend. Eli's Sight had been blinkered the past few weeks, but his readings never lied. The Tower was a terrible omen - chaos, trauma, and upheaval always followed.

Then Elijah remembered that social interactions were supposed to start with greetings and small talk, so Eli changed course. "I have missed you like the moon misses the sun. Chasing each other through the skies always, longing to embrace but always missing each other,"

"Would you care for the grand tour?" Eli then spread out his arms, indicating the room. There wasn't much else to tour, unless Avalon wanted to see the loo.

Home.

It was exactly how he felt as he could very well be at the bottom of the ocean and feel the light of the moon above him. Be it from Elijah or his sister and their ability to hold all the laughter of the moon inside their eyes as well the warmth of a thousand suns with just one touch. He wanted nothing more than to remain exactly as this, a sheltering force against whatever storm brewed above them. The Tower was it?

The Tower:
UPRIGHT: Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening
REVERSED: Personal transformation, fear of change, averting disaster

Confessions like this on Elijah’s lips felt something closer to an omen he wasn’t ready for, but for just a moment he let his attention fall back to the touch to the door and the way it made him feel. He would be a fool to deny that he hadn’t felt watched or seen at least in places where he wanted to hide away…or was it from someone? Ava held him just a moment longer.

“You flatter me,” Avalon signed with a small face of something silly and then waved for him to go on with the tour. Of course he wanted to see. He wanted to see everything that his friend was willing to show, and as he let Eli go through and open the bottle and go on with his rambling he paused at the wall of mirrors. All places he knew instantly, and at one point in time he too had one where Evi was on the other side. It had long since been covered up, and if he was ashamed to admit how long it had been since he’d spoken with her.

How much had she told her twin? Everything he figured. They didn't hide anything from each other, and when it came to their bond no matter how much he wanted to be, Avalon didn’t stand a chance. And even now standing before her mirror there was a small part of him that wanted to see her come across it with a smile and a little wave. Life went on, but it hadn’t been without its fair share of fears and heavy tears.

With his own glass in hand he used one hand to sign the one question he didn’t want the answer to though he desperately wanted to ask.

“Is she well?”

A thoughtful look passed over Eli's features as Avalon stopped in front of Evelyn's looking glass. He had considered covering the mirror for this visit - he had no desire to make things uncomfortable for his friend. Avalon's emotions were more important to Elijah than his own, but he had never excluded his twin from his life. Not for a single moment. The rhythm of his heart was discordant without her near.

"She is well," he replied simply with a small shrug. She had not always been so - her travels often took her to perilous locales, but her spirit was strong and she persevered. "I draw comfort in the knowledge that she is following her destined path,"

That knowledge was small comfort, but sometimes small comforts were all one had. "When I find myself overtaken with longing, I look to the stars and it serves as a reminder that we are all covered under the same velvety blanket by the universe,"

It was difficult to change perspective, but having Avalon nearby helped. "Enough of these unpleasant ponderings," he continued, shaking off the dark thoughts and laughing.

He tugged Avalon's arm gently, trying to pull him away from his reflection. "Have you gotten any post from Itzayana?" He asked, giving his friend a lopsided grin. "The Sorting Hat is broken - she's very upset about it. She's owled me every day since the start of term,"

"She'll be Ravenclaw, like us, but I haven't told her," Avalon would understand why - sometimes foreknowledge was helpful, other times, when the information could change nothing, it was better to keep silent. The experiences she would have during these days would help to shape her into the person she was destined to become.

Her destined path.

Out there beneath that big black sky beneath those stars that Elijah knew like the back of his hand, and Avalon knew only from the way they reflected in the other boy’s eyes. Though in truth, Astronomy was always one of his better subjects. The sky, like he, was silent and especially so when the winter stilled the forest, but that was always when the stars were their brightest.

He hadn’t wanted to bring the mood down, but he hadn’t felt himself in so very long. Even now standing before his beloved friend Avalon felt like a stranger. He was nervous, when he shouldn’t be, and felt like a inside these walls. He took a long drink of his own wine and let himself be pulled out of his own thoughts and into that of the whirlwind that was the Grimlish family.

He shook his head at the question of the youngest sibling and laughed lightly and of course without a sound.

“You should tell her,” He chided Elijah as he grinned, knowing full well that their youngest was going in circles with nerves as it is, and he hadn’t really believed the owls that were coming in about the hat, “She is a nervous child without such weight.” If it hadn’t been such a burden to recall something as simple as a memory or tell a story from previous years he would have gone on about a time when she was little, but as always his signing got in the way.

His hands were tired from both being his main way of communicating and working so hard for his father. There were little scars from the burns of the embers and iron despite the gloves he wore when working over the smelting stone.

“I did write my dad asking about it, the hat.”

His father was from old blood, older still than the trees and made of the same songs that came down from the mountain stones his mother sang to him as a child.

“He figures it to be some sort of fae game,” but that wasn’t out of the normal for Ravus. Everything was some sort of goblin trick or fairy game. “Mother sends her love.” She had always been a big fan of the Grimlish children, welcoming them and enjoying the stories that Avalon told her, but his father….

His father had not been so pleased. Ravus worked too hard for another’s charity and that was exactly how he saw this family, and he hated the way Avalon was so swept up in it to see it. He would have never accepted Evelyn, and he certainly wouldn’t accept Elijah. Upon the last year of their schooling he made that clear.

“What do you think is wrong with the hat?” He asked before sinking in to the couch.

Though the pair had moved on from the topic of his twin, Evelyn was heavy on Elijah's thoughts as he watched Avalon's weary signing. She alone would have truly known how he felt about Avalon: his distressing card reading, his current overworked appearance, his problematic family.

Elijah was no stranger to odd family beliefs. He held many incorrect beliefs himself about the living dead until quite recently, so he totally understood how Avalon's pa could think some odd fey happenstance were at play. Fairies were twinkling lights at yuletide parties - nothing more. Pixies, on the other hand, were much more mischievous - though they were pests at best, certainly not powerful enough to disrupt an ancient and powerful artefact such as the Sorting Hat.

Still, had that been Elijah's only issue with the man, Eli would have happily let the matter rest or even played along. As it was, the young man instead stalled, going to the table and pouring himself a healthy portion of the blood-laced wine. It was often hard for Eli to adequately convey his feelings, he often felt like he was living with one foot entrenched in the eternally flowing waters of the river of time - always just a step out of sync with the rest of the world.

He couldn't find the words to express how he felt about Avalon's father. Needless to say, Elijah didn't like him very much. He was grateful to the man, for Avalon's existence was his greatest accomplishment, but that was the only thing Eli would give the man thanks for.

"The hat, Itzy, and you are all going through a crucible. The fires that test your mettle might differ, but for each of you the embers are bright in my mind's eye," That was all he knew for sure - it wasn't a prophecy, but a strong feeling and Eli had learned to trust his intuition. "The hat had to malfunction for Itzayana to experience Hogwarts without House prejudice. The reason matters little, fate will ensure the journey continues as it is intended,"

"As for telling Itzy, I think not," Eli continued with a slight sigh, "telling her more than is necessary will influence her decisions, I wouldn't rob her of her full range of emotions. She is entitled to them all, even if they aren't all pleasant,"

He finally joined Avalon on the couch and crossed his legs to sit in the lotus position, taking a sip of his dark red beverage and sinking into the cushions comfortably. "How long can you stay?" He asked quietly, dreading the answer would be sooner than he wished.

"You could crash here for a few nights if you wanted," he finished, a hopeful note creeping into his voice at the last.

Avalon didn’t need crystals or cards to see that his friend was lost in the future, this was the one thing he could never carry for him. In all of their years together and events of their youth waxing and waning like the moon, this was the one place he could not follow. It reminded him of a poem he read once, a small collection of lyrics that he tucked away for moments like this.

It described so perfectly moments like this, where eyes like the sea at one moment turned to green the next, and it was hard to miss the beauty in it. Elijah didn’t just see the stars he saw beyond them, walked amongst them without leaving the earth, and bringing back with him the secrets they shared.

Sometimes…sometimes he spiraled, and this was where Avalon knew to reach out and touch his shoulder as though to pull him back down. His touch was gentle of course, but he wanted to make sure Eli had a way to find the ground.

“It will work out.”

Avalon shook his head and closed his eyes, a show that he wanted Eli to do the same thing, close the third eye; shut it off.

“Tonight yes, tomorrow most of the day. I have to be on the pitch by the following.” A light of his own lit up his eyes as he was reminded of something and he dug down in his bag to fetch the season pass and the miss printed jersey. “I had to tell them twice my last name.” The wintered version of their practice jersey was both heavier and made to simply display the very basics of the player so that the scouts could assign them their numbers and not so much their name. Either way it was printed with Orion, and not Roth.

“And my mom wants you to come and keep her company when you can?”

Light and easy conversation, Avalon wanted to keep it this way for as long as he could.

As Avalon closed his eyes, so too did Elijah. He didn't leave them closed for long as he didn't wish to miss a single moment with his friend, but he did take the time to say a prayer. Elijah had always been spiritual, though he had never claimed a single religion. They were all so interesting – how could he be expected to choose just one that was correct? So he didn't pray to a deity, he prayed instead to the stars he held so dear.

Ara seemed an apt place to direct his desires, so as he clenched his eyes closed, Elijah pictured the constellation of the altar. He sent forth all his desires for proper placement and peace.

Everything in Elijah's life seemed slightly off-kilter lately, like a star chart filled in by a first year. The stars were all there, but they weren't quite right. He had a post within the Ministry designed to help those light-sensitive communities in need, yet he spent his nights handing out a useless census and restricting vampires rather than liberating them. His day to night schedule disrupted his social life, leaving him ostracized from his closest friends and family. The disconnect was so severe he had been facing a severe Vision block.

As he opened his eyes, letting out a deep breath and releasing the tension from his body, Eli grinned sheepishly at Avalon. He always seemed to know exactly how to keep Eli from imploding and without Evie around there were scarce few who could manage that.

Elijah's eyes brightened and his smile widened when he was told that Ava would be staying the night. He hadn't dared hope for so much time together, they both kept such disparate schedules, so the information was both surprising and welcome.

Avalon's second gift, and subsequent third, were entirely too much and Eli felt his eyes welling with emotion. He reached out and took the jersey from his mate, caressing the fabric with his fingertips.

"You honor me," he said, lifting the jersey to slide it over his head before pulling it down over the tee he was already wearing. He pushed down a brief stab of guilt when Avalon's mum was mentioned - Eli really needed to send her an owl soon. "As does she,"

"I'll be to every game I can and I'll send a Grimlish as my proxy for games I simply can't attend," though most of the Grimlishes weren't big on Quidditch, they all adored Avalon and any of them would jump at a chance to see him play. Most of them would be distracted by various aspects of the gameplay, but they would be incredibly supportive nonetheless.

"I bet you could fly circles around me these days," He said with a laugh, "I never get to fly for fun these days," Eli wondered if Avalon still enjoyed flying or if playing Quidditch as a job sucked the fun out of it. Working with vampires certainly wasn't as enjoyable as Elijah had fantasized.