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The sparkling noise of champagne being poured into a glass gets her attention. She turns to look at him, brows furrowed as he lifts two glasses and walks over to her side, offering her one.
"It's your birthday," he smiles cheekily at his justification and Ajay supposes she can make an exception and drink this one glass. She smiles and takes it from him. She turns to face the view outside the balcony again.
"Crazy bein' back," she muses, watching the sea gently swaying outside of the Apex Legends living complex. They're back on Solace, after their short stay on Talos where they were forced to live within the small confines of the dropship. Now they were back in their old dorm rooms, the coziness of the peach walls in Ajay's dorm finally putting her at ease. It was a lot more spacious than her dropship room, a lot less cramped despite the mess that often resided in it.
The light of the sun setting on the horizon casts a golden glow over the entire room and the familiarity of Solace's warm, dry air comforts her. Octavio stands by her side, closely, arms nearly brushing against her elbows.
"Yeah," he says into his glass, following her gaze out over to the isle of Kings Canyon on the horizon. He takes a sip of the champagne.
"Am not gon’ miss the old map. The snow reminded me too much of Psamathe." She says, looking into her glass and swirling the liquid around gently.
"Yeah, I know how you feel," he sighs, placing an arm around her waist. She leans into him and puts her head on his shoulder.
"My parents called." She says, the sentence leaving a bittersweet taste on her tongue. Family was always a tough topic for the both of them, albeit for different reasons.
He takes a sip from his glass. He's almost done with his somehow.
"They sent me birthday wishes, but it's weird not bein’ home with ‘em." She mumbles, kinda regretting bringing up the topic. Her parents always loved her until she found out the truth about their work. Since then their relationship had grown sour and Ajay had tried to cut off contact with them completely but in recent years her parents were reaching out to her more often, and Ajay was scared. She had very mixed feelings about it. She wanted to be back on good terms with her parents, but she couldn’t seem to forgive them.
Octavio never had very good parents but as a kid he grew up to be a pretty good liar when the topic did arise.
"Were they sincere about it?" He asks and she hugs his side tighter subconsciously.
"Yeah," she says and she believes it, wants to believe it, "yeah, they always sound sincere."
Octavio sets his glass back down on the counter to properly hug her back. "Then I'd say that's good," he says, gently rubbing her arms as they hold him, "it's a step. They still love you."
"Even though I've gone against everythin’ they stand for?" She asks and she's being uncharacteristically open. He's the only person she feels like she can be so upfront with.
They sway lightly.
"They should be proud of what you're doing," he says, his head moving towards her and his lips gently pressing to her forehead, "I'm proud of you."
Ajay swallows back the tears welling up in her eyes. She holds onto him tightly and lets herself lean into the warmth of his chest. She doesn't cry often, and she definitely didn't expect to get teary-eyed over something so small as this, but she's glad that it's with Octavio. He’s the only person that has seen her like this before.
After a while, he detaches himself from her and she sniffles but the tears are gone with a simple wipes at her eyes.
"If they're not proud of you, fuck 'em," he says and playfully bumps her shoulder and she smiles.
He pours himself another glass, Ajay finishes hers. There’s leftover cake in the fridge. They're gonna just enjoy themselves tonight. God knows she needs it.