Chapter Text
“Hmm.” Artis scrunched up his face. “I don’t know.”
Veronica huffed. “What do you MEAN you don’t know??”
“I mean I don’t know.” He squinted his eyes even more, resting his head upon his missing fingered hand. “Which color do you think looks better for a banner? Pink or blue?”
Veronica rolled her eyes and dropped down on the couch of the Artisans’ home. “I mean, she’s YOUR daughter. Shouldn’t you be able to decide this?”
“I’m… I’m out of my element…” He rubbed his temples, worryingly. He looked up at the pink banner that spelled out HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARA in golden glittery letters. “Usually Fidan would be in charge of this stuff.”
“Where is your wife anyway?” Veronica took a candy out of the bowl on the coffee table and placed it in her mouth, throwing the wrapper away in the barely fixed hole in the wall behind her.
“Integrity decided to take her to the vampire salon for a ‘girl’s day’ or something like that. I don’t know. Can we see how it looks in blue?”
Veronica was reaching for another candy when she sighed, snapped her fingers and the banner changed colors to blue. “There. How’s that look?”
“It’s good. Or is it? I don’t know. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.” He sat down on his wicker recliner and rubbed his temples.
Veronica put down her fourth candy piece and scooted near the man. “Hey, uh, buddy. You, uh… you doing alright?”
He crossed his arms. “It’s nothing. It’s fine.”
“You’re a shitty fucking liar, dude.”
“Ugh.” He took a candy that Veronica offered him and placed it in his mouth. “I’m just… nervous, is all.”
“Nervous? About what?”
“I…. haven’t seen Mara in months since she started school. This is her first time back and I wasn’t necessarily… enthusiastic about her leaving anyway given what she experienced months before that and she’s never really had a true birthday party before and I can’t believe she’s turning 15 already because it feels like just yesterday I was in the shed making her crib and… honestly I…” He sighed. “I want to make sure she’s… happy. And that everything is perfect.”
Veronica stayed silent. She kinda figured it was something like this. She didn’t have to read minds to tell that Artis Artisan was a man of many anxieties, someone who wanted nothing more than the happiness of his loved ones. Which was great.
Except for when it meant she had to make a trip across universes to do party planning for someone she had only really known for, like, five minutes (not counting the other five minutes she spent with Pirate Artis when she was disguised as Delnys).
“Yo, Goth Dad.” Veronica stood up from her chair. “Mind if I step outside to smoke?”
“Hm?” He seemed taken out of his headspace. “Um, yes. Of course I don’t mind. Back door to the cave is that way.”
Veronica absentmindedly wondered why the fuck a cave would have a back door. But whatever. She walked out of it to see a nice little apple tree yard, with lots of little plants and assorted things around. She wondered if that’s what Artis ate. Did Artis eat? She took out her notebook, flipped away from her list and wrote down, “do all humans need to eat? Or is Artis not human?”
She put the notebook back into her bag and materialized a pack of cigarettes and made some fire poof out from her finger as she then stuck the cigarette in her mouth and took a long drag. Mira once said smoking was bad for your lungs. Did smoking hurt Veronica’s lungs? She wasn’t quite sure.
She inspected the outside more. There was a nice flower bed, a nice patio table and the aforementioned group of trees. As she got closer to the three apple trees, she noticed names etched into each of the bark: Dain, Teb, Elrich.
“Ew. Really?” Veronica sneered seeing the last two names.
“You have a problem, Ms. Elm Rune?” said Artis’ low voice from behind her.
Veronica jumped, caught off guard, and almost dropped her cigarette. “No. I mean, it’s just… I dunno who Dain is but Teb and Elrich were fucking assholes. Why do you want their names in your backyard?”
Artis paused and looked at the names with a bit of sadness. “While it’s true I cannot condone the later actions they engaged in, I can still mourn the versions of them I grew up with. Not the ones who passed away recently. But the friends I lost in the past.”
Veronica was silent for a moment. “That’s… a good point.” While Artis wasn’t looking, Veronica took her notebook out and flipped to her list. She wrote down another bullet point: stop Dain from dying.
Suddenly they heard sounds coming from inside the cave. “Honey, we’re home!” Fidan’s voice echoed.
“Ah.” Artis turned to Veronica. “Ready to get back to it?”
“I fuckin guess so.” She put her notebook away and followed after the man, opening up the back door and heading into the cave, where the orange skinned tiefling girl known as Integrity was standing and next to her was… Fidan, but… different?”
“Um.” Artis’ mouth hung open a bit, his eyes fixated on his wife’s face. “Did you, uh… did you do something to your hair?”
Fidan blinked her red eyes and ran one of her long nailed hands through her now shoulder length, auburn hair. She smiled. “Do you like it? Integrity convinced me to do something a bit different.”
“I was getting a bit confused trying to figure out who’s who whenever I was talking to y’all…” Integrity said in a muted voice.
Artis ignored her. “Um. I mean. It’s a lot. To get used to. But. I believe. It looks. Good. Yes.” He gulped.
Fidan grinned and looked behind Artis’ shoulder, where the tan skinned brunette girl was. “Ah, Veronica. Pleasant surprise. Haven’t seen you since…”
“The fight? Yeah.” Veronica smiled back. God, hard to believe it had been six months now. Time flies.
… she could slow it down, if she wanted to…
“Great to have you here helping for the party. Did you make the banner?” Fidan set her stuff down on the kitchen counter. Veronica had to admit her hair looked… meh, she guessed. She wasn’t quite sold on it yet.
“Well Artis told me how to make the banner. I just, y’know, made it.”
“Well I appreciate you helping out.” Fidan walked over and gave Artis a kiss on the cheek. “Dear, I’m going to go get ready for when Mara gets here. Do you have everything under control?”
He was still staring at her hair. “Um. Yes. Of course.”
“Good.” Fidan smiled and walked into her private bedroom and shut the door. Veronica let her eyes follow the vampire woman as she left and once she was out of view, her eyes naturally focused on the other vampire woman in the room - mainly because she hadn’t stopped aggressively staring at her.
“So,” Integrity said, frown on her face. “You’re coming to the party?”
“Uh, yep.”
“And I take it Mira’s coming too?”
“... I believe so.”
“And it’s to my understanding you too are an item now?”
“I believe you’re understanding correctly for once.”
“Well in that case.” Integrity walked over, placed her hand on Veronica’s shoulder and whispered in her ear. “If you break her heart, I swear to Gods.”
“Hey, woah.” Veronica pushed Integrity away. “I get it. This whole protective friend bullshit, plus the bad blood between us-“
“You shot me and killed me.”
“Yes, well, I get it. But…” Veronica pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I love her. Really. And I’m not going to do anything to hurt her.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Integrity kept giving Mira the stink eye before holding up two fingers and pointing them at her own eyes and then Veronica’s, an act that Veronica assumed meant she wouldn’t be let off the hook for this anytime soon.
At the very least, Artis seemed to acknowledge the tension in the room as he coughed awkwardly. “Ahem. Veronica, if you don’t mind, perhaps we can get back to preparing the party list.”
“Right, sure,” Veronica said as she sat her bag down, grabbed another piece of candy, and prepared to make some more streamers or some shit, she wasn’t quite sure.