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The first time Joaquim noticed something was off was when Tiago just... stopped.
It was a weird thing really. They were talking—Joaquim finally finding some footing in liking the guy—when he trailed off mid sentence.
Mid sentence not in the way like he didn't know what he'd say next, mid sentence more as in Joaquim had said “Man, you're saying you aren't in school anymore?”
And Tiago had started with “The irmãs1 taught me everything, JoJo.” He said as if that were normal, but then began saying “I went to public school for awhile but...” and he stopped there and went quiet. Dazedly he blinked, looking straight through Joaquim with his frighteningly intense eyes between the fluttering of his eyelids. The sudden quiet was awkward, a good few seconds having passed when Joaquim went to tap him on the shoulder when “–but I got taken out.”
And Tiago was back. Even then, Tiago blinked a few times; jerking backwards with a strange look on his face as if confused by his own lapse of silence.
He paused again, cocking his head to the side and looked between Joaquim's eyes and to his necklace before nodding assuredly. “The irmãs taught me everything.”
Joaquim could really only bring himself to smile awkwardly and agree, as if that made sense, and filed this encounter away for future Joaquim to make sense of.
———
The second time is when things really got strange.
Joaquim and Tiago were having a so-called 'boy's afternoon' ... (Odette named it and looked so earnest). They were sitting at an outdoor café, lunch between the two of them at their table.
It had been a few days since the last incident and to be honest, Joaquim let it slip his mind completely.
Well, until Tiago suddenly sat up straight, knees accidentally hitting the underside of the table and shaking it, and looked around like a man possessed.
“Um... véi2? The hell are you doing... we're supposed to be laying low.” Joaquim asked, voice slightly less loud than his usual tone.
Tiago's head suddenly swung towards him, brows furrowed as he stared intensely at Joaquim.
“JoJo. Do you hear bells?” With the terribly serious look on Tiago's face and the abrupt question, Joaquim couldn't help but bark out a laugh. When Tiago didn't join in, instead only asking more frantically, “do you, JoJo?”
He looked around, bracing both hands on the table, and Joaquim then realized that Tiago actually wanted a response.
“Oh... uh, yeah no véi. There's not a church nearby. Or any kind of place with a bell actually. It's a... it's a cafe.” Joaquim couldn't help but feel awkward. He really hoped they weren't causing a scene.
Tiago frowned slightly, bringing a hand up to mess with his scarf as he stared distantly off to the side. He looked as if he were preparing for something, but a few minutes passed and he lifted up his glass and took a sip of the far too expensive tea he'd ordered, exhaling a loud sigh as he set it down.
“Okay,” Tiago said quietly with a small nod of the head. “Okay.”
For a talkative guy, Joaquim noticed Tiago sure didn't talk about some of the more... obvious things.
———
The third time is when it actually started to click. In a way at least.
For once, there was peace. No Stand users attacking them, no new clues to follow, and his aunts and Niamh were out shopping—leaving just Tiago and Joaquim in the hotel room to relax and hang out.
Then Tiago quit making sense.
They'd been talking about whatever stupid shit was on the TV, some Swiss show they couldn't understand, and then it happened.
“Porra3! Oh my god, véi, did you see that?” Joaquim laughed as one of the characters did something stupid.
When Tiago didn't respond, he looked over to his friend who was staring straight forward—almost as if he was trying to burn through the TV with his gaze—and fussing with his hands. The action would have been normal had Tiago's scarf been clutched between his fingers, but it was still wrapped around his neck and Joaquim felt a bit off put.
“Véi?” Joaquim asked, a bit hesitant. “...uh, cabeça de vento4? You still with me?” He waved a hand in front of Tiago's face, wondering if he was deep in thought for some odd reason.
Then, Tiago started mumbling.
Joaquim couldn't really make out what... it was less of a mumble and more a quiet slurring of half nonsensical words... though they did sound like one of the many prayers he often heard Tiago saying to himself.
He leaned over, putting an ear closer to Tiago's mouth to see if he could hear exactly what was being said, but the most he could catch sounded like “God rebuke him” and “humbly pray.” Other than that, it was unintelligible and seemed to go on in a loop.
Feeling a bit awkward, Joaquim stood up and walked to the hotel room's kitchenette to get a drink.
When he came back after a few minutes, Tiago was sitting up straight and had the ends of his scarf gathered in his hands. It seemed like he dialed back into reality for the most part, other than a slight furrow between his eyebrows as if he was confused about something. Join the club, Joaquim thought a little sardonically.
Sitting back down on the couch, Joaquim glanced over to Tiago and back to the TV. He bounced his leg a little as he tried to decide whether or not asking would get him a satisfying and understandable answer.
He bit the bullet. “What uh... was that?”
Tiago cocked his head to the side, looking at him from the corner of his eye. “O quê5?”
“...The whole... like, staring and talking thing. What is...” He tried to remember whatever Tiago had been saying. “God rebuke him, we humbly pray... um...” He drifted off, not being able to recall anything else.
Luckily for him, Tiago picked it up. “And do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts...” He fully turned to Joaquim with a nod of the head. “Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. I like that one JoJo, where did you hear it?”
“...You? Like... five minutes ago,” Joaquim said, a tinge of a question at the end because he couldn't tell if Tiago was poking fun at him.
Tiago shook his head. “No, I was watching TV.”
Joaquim grumbled. He was never going to get a straight answer out of this guy. But at least he knew for sure that the strangeness was a constant.
———
It actually did make sense to Joaquim the few days after Poland. Though he didn't find out until Isa told them after he, Odette, and Niamh returned from a peaceful, relaxing dinner.
They'd trusted her in looking after Tiago, his friend having suffered a great deal during the fight with Wojciecha, and went off on their merry way.
When they got back, laughing and full of cheer, Joaquim almost didn't hear Isa's welcome back. Well, less of a welcome back and more of a, “Tiago had a seizure.”
Odette's loud “Ué6?” followed by Niamh's “Janey Mack7! The fuck you mean?”
Isa was standing tensely by the coffee table, switching from looking at them and Tiago who was laying in the bed, asleep. “I don't know if it was because of the poison or even if it's a one and done kind of thing but... yeah. Scared the shit out of me.”
“He... he what?” Joaquim came back to himself, brain still processing what his aunt said. He found himself watching as Odette rushed to the bed and fluttered about, trying to see what she could do for the unconscious teenager.
His aunt gestured for him to go and sit on the couch and he agreed. Niamh followed after and soon the three were sitting together, all looking up various things on their respective phones.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph there's a lotta shit to look through,” Niamh sighed, sunglasses pushed up onto her head so she could better read the screen.
“No kidding,” Isa agreed. “It'd be a lot easier if we knew whether or not this has happened before but... kid was hardly in a state to talk after he woke up from it...”
Joaquim had half tuned out what the women were saying as he further invested himself into his scrolling. As he did, things were starting to stick out to him and ring various alarm bells. Some of these were awfully familiar sounding.
“Hey,” He started, looking over to his aunt and Niamh. “Have you seen him do any of this stuff before? Like before the poison and stuff.” Joaquim shoved his phone under their noses and waited for a response.
After a few moments of reading, Niamh slowly nodded. “Yeah, think I've seen Steele spacing out before. Thought it was some kinda teen boy whimsical daydreaming but... well if the shoe fits.”
“Yeah,” Isa said. “He's been doing a lot of these since we picked him up.”
All three of them breathed out.
Shit.
“Steele couldn'ta told you guys he's got epilepsy when he met you?” Niamh asked.
Joaquim rolled his eyes. “Getting him to say anything about himself clearly is basically impossible.” He thought back to every instance of strangeness. “It does explain a lot of things. The staring at least.”
Odette then joined them. “Poor boy,” She said with a gentle shake of her head. “At least we know now.”
“Ah, cheers to that,” Niamh said.
“Maybe he'll tell us more when he's awake. Now that we do know.” Isa mused, moving aside to let her wife sit beside her on the couch.
At least the mystery was partially solved now, Joaquim thought.
———
After they knew what exactly they were dealing with, it became a lot easier to recognize the signs. That and the fact that Tiago actually knew what he was experiencing made things so much easier. Why he didn't say anything was beyond Joaquim, but at least he could better explain... when he actually thought to say something at least.
Tiago didn't have any more big seizures during the rest of their trip to Greece, but various absence and focal seizures were littered throughout the days.
Despite knowing him for less than a month, they really started getting a hang of things. It became so ingrained in their minds that by the time they returned to Caxias do Sul (minus Niamh but with Joella in tow) well, they sort of forgot to bring Joella into the loop.
It happened like this:
Joaquim had missed the two weeks after winter break, so he was getting ready to head into school on a bright Monday morning—hoping to not have a mountain of make-up work waiting for him. He was also running late, an unsurprising recurrent routine, and left the apartment in a hurry.
Considering Joella and Tiago had only met a few days prior, he gave his tia a slight run down on his friend's quirks and vice versa. Though he, accidentally, left out the entire part about the epilepsy.
So when he got a phone call during lunch from his tia, Joaquim picked it up with perhaps a bit of annoyance because she never called him when he was at school.
“What?” Was his unkind greeting.
“Joca, I know you said your friend was odd,” was his tia's calm response.
“...What? You mean Tiago? What'd he do?” Joaquim asked, annoyance draining to make room for confusion. “If it's the God stuff don't mind, he's just like that. Though we probably need to find a church for him or something.”
His tia didn't respond for a moment, why he didn't know, but she eventually got back to him. “No... no God stuff.”
“Um... okay? What are you calling me about then?”
“Tiago has a surprisingly good stare. Did he often have staring contests with tea kettles on your trip?”
“He's... oh. Oh yeah.”
“He did?”
“Oh... No. No! Not that. Tia, what exactly happened to lead up to this?”
“He left your room about fifteen minutes ago, probably just woke up, and I offered him some tea. He accepted and I poured some for him. Ten minutes ago he asked if there were any bell towers nearby. I told him no and five minutes later he stopped talking to me... just staring at the kettle. A bit of twitching too. Is this something I should worry about?” Joaquim could imagine his tia standing beside the table, looking down at Tiago as she talked with him on the phone.
“Not worry, no,” Joaquim said. “You said he asked about bells?”
“Mhm.”
“Okay, yeah. Yeah, don't worry just... watch him and just be chill when he gets back to you. I might've forgotten to tell you about something, but I'll explain after school.”
“Joca...” His tia's warning tone was a bit too calm for his liking.
“Wait! Wait it's not totally my fault, Aunt Isa and Auntie O know about this too and they also forgot! If you can't wait for me to get home, ask one of them.”
He heard an extended sigh before his tia responded again. “Okay, Joca. I'll see you at home then.”
The phone hung up.
“Fuck,” he breathed out. How could he forget about that of all things?
Well at least it wasn't anything dangerous this time around.
———
It was a hard thing to accept, but it was a necessity.
The entire chain of events began on a weekday morning in October. Joaquim was getting ready for school (graduation rapidly approaching rather frighteningly), Joella was sipping her tea, typing away at her laptop, and Tiago was sitting on the couch, cross-legged, watching TV with great intent.
After they'd returned from Greece, it became apparent that A: Joaquim needed to finish out his final few months of school, B: Tiago never really had a formal education after a certain point, was technically an adult who could make his own decisions, and none of them really saw a reason for him to enroll for only a few short months so he really didn't need to go to school, and C: Tiago was probably going to be living with Joella and Joaquim for the time being... at least until he could get a job and eventually a place of his own.
In all honesty one of them should've recognized the warning signs. Joaquim and Joella were familiar enough with all of Tiago's quirks by this point to know when something was up, but something about that morning just didn't click.
Maybe it was the normalcy setting in. Maybe it was the quick way Joaquim was getting ready, already running late. Or maybe it was Joella's narrow focus on the current piece she was writing up. Perhaps it was a culmination of everything.
Still, though, they missed them. Most of Tiago's tells weren't present.
It started maybe half an hour after Joaquim left the apartment.
Joella later told him that she was so focused on work that she'd forgotten to glance over at Tiago every once in a while—just to make sure he was okay. There had been a few incidents over the past few months that required a semi-constant watch on the teenager.
When she finally did get a chance, nothing had seemed off. At first, at least. He was still sitting on the couch, back almost completely to her, and watching the weather channel. He still had his scarf on, a typical fixture in his daily outfits, but was wearing a pair of Joaquim's old workout clothes because he'd run out of his own and no one had gotten around to doing laundry yet.
“Really, the rigid staring at the TV should've set off alarm bells,“ Joaquim heard her tell Odette a few days afterwards. ”I knew that things were going too smoothly lately... something was bound to happen.“ Frustration sat heavily in his tia's words.
The seizure started only a few minutes later.
Joella didn't even hear Tiago collapse, though it didn't help that she'd moved into the kitchen to boil the kettle again. She reentered the room to hear a small thumping sound. What she would soon find out to be his jerking leg repeatedly hitting the cabinet the TV was situated on top of.
She'd rushed over as quickly as possible, removing Tiago's scarf and placing a throw pillow beneath his head, pulling out her phone to time the rest of the seizure and hopefully be able to figure out how long it'd gone on before she'd gotten there.
The seconds ticked up into a minute, then a second one, and then a third. Both the Jordão's as well as Odette and Isa had freshened up their knowledge on what to do in these kinds of situations as it became apparent that Tiago would be staying with them and that they weren't one off incidents. The time continued to go up as Tiago's arms and legs kept twitching with the same fervor as they had been.
Tiago's seizures hardly ever went on long. And most of them weren't tonic-clonic. Rather, his tended to be focal in nature.
As Joella watched her timer, she tried to think of how long it could've been going on while she was in the kitchen. It had to have only been a minute, but as she looked at the numbers displayed on her phone she realized that that'd push the total time over five minutes.
She needed to get Tiago to a hospital.
While her fear grew, tightly gripping her lungs and making it hard to breathe, Tiago's movements finally began to slow down before eventually stopping completely. Joella turned him onto his side and checked to see the final time. Her heart dropped as she added the number to the estimation of her initial absence.
Almost six minutes.
Joella had to decide if she should call emergency services or get one of her friends to drive them to the hospital.
She decided on the latter, first making sure Tiago was situated and would be fine for the few minutes it'd take to go get Isa or Odette, and left the apartment. Skipping steps as she went downstairs, Joella knocked on the couple's door with a sense of urgency.
It took a moment before the door opened, Isa standing there, bleary eyed, apparently having just woken up. ”JoJo,“ she greeted with a yawn and a stretch. ”'dette went in early today, so—“
Joella quickly cut her off. ”Get the car started, we need to go to the hospital.“
That woke Isa up instantly. ”Wh... hospital? Are you okay?“ A faint, shimmering green aura surrounded her as her eyes swept up and down Joella, instinctively calling Elastic Firecracker to heal whatever was wrong.
”Not me...“ Joella shook her head, already beginning to go back upstairs. ”Tiago.“
Thankfully, Isa had the sense to follow after, still asking questions. ”What'd the kid do? Joaquim already leave for school?“
They reached the second floor.
”Half an hour ago,“ Joella replied to the second question first. ”Tiago almost hit six minutes.“ She added, opening the front door.
Isa's silence told her she knew what happened. After all, she'd been the first one to bear witness to one of Tiago's seizures. Though that had been months ago in Poland, directly after a near deadly Stand attack that had triggered the seizure.
The two of them managed to bring Tiago downstairs and got him situated in the car's backseat with Joella.
Before too long, they were at the hospital.
From what Joaquim gathered later that day, they sat there for a while before being seen.
The text exchange between his tia and him was almost burned into his mind.
Joca if im not there when school lets out go to your aunts apartment.
He remembered looking down in the middle of class, a bit confused, and found his tia's sudden lack of punctuation in her text a bit concerning. She always typed in a meticulous fashion, never forgetting a comma or apostrophe. He tuned out whatever his teacher was saying and texted back.
oq8? why wouldnt you be home
tia
hello???
why are you texting me cryptic shit and not answering
He'd shoved his phone back in his pocket, frustrated and thinking that maybe she got called out for another job.
But then his phone buzzed and the notification had him exclaim out loud in class, causing a few heads to turn his way.
At the hospital.
oq????????
are you okay???
tia wtf
With isa.
Tiago had a seizure.
Joaquim frowned. His friend had had a few of the larger kind since their return to Brazil, but none of them warranted a trip to the hospital.
pq9???
what happened?
Almost six minutes. Didnt see it start
In the waiting room right now. Hes awake but not really with it.
Isa thinks it might have done some damage.
Will update you.
Six minutes? Joaquim thought, quickly looking up the dangers of seizures to see just how bad it was.
When the text loaded he sucked in a breath. Fuck. Yeah that was bad.
He swiped out of the web browser and pulled up his texts with Odette, wondering if his auntie knew what was going on.
hey
auntie o
did tia or aunt isa text you
q10?
No, jojo
Is there a reason why?
they brought tiago to the hospital
i thought aunt isa wouldve texted
!!!!
What happened???
tia said he had a long seizure
and that it might not be looking good for him
Meu deus11 really?
Im going to close up early
And when you get home we can straighten things up at your apartment
And make it comfortable when they come home
flw12
ill see you
He shut off his phone for a moment and stared at his reflection in the blank screen. Then he turned it back on and sent her another text.
would tia be mad if i skipped the rest of the day
The typing bubble popped up a few times before Odette sent a reply.
Maybe
But she would understand
Abs13
When the class ended, Joaquim picked up his bag and left the building.
He made it home right as Odette was exiting her apartment, apron still on and covered in soil, holding a bag of assorted items.
”JoJo!“ Odette greeted, allowing him to head upstairs to the apartment first before trailing after. ”Isa called me and said that he's being seen now. They don't know how long it'll take though.“
Joaquim nodded, a little solemn, and opened the unlocked apartment door. The TV was still on and the kettle was still sitting on the stove, burner thankfully turned off. He noticed Tiago's scarf lying abandoned on the floor.
Picking it up, he laid it across the back of the couch, ready for when its owner returned home to wear it again.
Odette spoke up from behind him. ”If you start the laundry I'll clean up your bedroom. I know how dirty it gets.“ He flushed a little, embarrassed.
It didn't help that Tiago was sharing his room and despite having his oddities, his friend was still as messy as the average teenage boy.
”Yeah... alright,“ Joaquim agreed. ”It'd probably be nice to come home and wear your own clothes anyway.“
His aunt smiled and patted him on the shoulder. ”Get to it, JoJo!“
They spent the rest of the morning cleaning before taking a short break for lunch. Two hours after noon passed the door swung open and Joella entered the apartment followed by Isa who was half guiding Tiago inside.
His friend looked quite out of it—a sort of blankness in his eyes. Isa led him to the couch and lightly pushed him down onto it before greeting Odette with a kiss on the cheek. Joella sat down in the living room chair, holding a stack of papers. Joaquim looked between the four people in the room and spoke.
”So? What happened,“ he asked. ”Why was today fucked?“
Isa shot Joella a glance, his tia nodded at her, and then she began speaking. ”Well first of all. Who knew how hard it'd be to get help for an orphaned eighteen year old who moved to this country without a medical history or single paper to his name,“ she shook her head with a bitter laugh. ”After getting that figured out though, the doctor ended up taking him for a bunch of scans to see what exactly causes all of the shit he's got going on."
When her voice tapered off, she looked back to Joella and gestured at the papers. His tia took the hint and picked up the conversation from there. ”Well as we suspected, he has epilepsy,“ Joella sighed. ”More specifically left temporal lobe epilepsy. Considering we don't know his family history it was hard to cone to certain conclusions, but it's assumed it's probably genetic. This diagnosis explains the occasional memory loss.“ His tia's eyes traced down the words on the paper again. ”After we answered some questions about his behaviors, we also learned that one of his specific symptoms also includes interictal psychosis which explains the...“ Joella's gaze traveled over to Tiago, who was staring into the TV, focusing on the smudged marking on his face.
"God talk?" Isa and Joaquim asked at the same time, realizing what exactly she was looking at. Joaquim briefly thought of the tattoo he knew was on Tiago's back before refocusing on the next part his tia said.
"Yes. The interictal part apparently means that it happens in periods between his seizures... not before or after." Odette frowned and walked over the the couch, taking Tiago's scarf and carefully draping it over his shoulders. His friend absentmindedly lifted a hand to gently stroke the end of the woolen material.
”Isn't there some kind of prescription he can get to tone it down some?“ Joaquim asked. There were pills to manage this kind of stuff, right?
A grim line set into Joella's face. ”In some cases yes. In other instances there's also surgical action that can be taken to reduce symptoms.“
Joaquim didn't like the look his tia had. ”But..?“
”But Tiago's got shit luck and has the type that makes any kind of intervention almost completely useless,“ Isa cut in.
”Neocortical TLE,“ Joella clarified after a moment of shuffling some papers. ”With the other type medication or surgery helps. With this, medicine is mostly useless and the surgeries have a low chance of success. Considering Tiago hasn't had any kind of intervention in his life, his brain's too far damaged to make any kind of improvement.“
This was the hard part.
”The seizure today didn't help at all either. It made things a bit worse. The imaging shows a lot of lesions on the brain... if things keep going like this he's going to start facing some serious cognitive decline.“
Considering all of Tiago's quirks that, while they were familiar with them, incapacitated his day to day life—there was a rather large chance that it would be extremely hard for him to hold down a job.
”So he's just... stuck dealing with this?“ Joaquim couldn't help but be in disbelief.
Tiago probably wouldn't be able to live by himself without a large risk.
”Meu Deus,“ Odette breathed out, carding a hand through Tiago's ruffled hair. ”Poor Tiaguinho.“
He was only going to get worse as time went on.
”Kid drew the short straw,“ Isa muttered, crossing her arms.
It would keep affecting his life more and more.
Joella set down the papers and stood up, entering the kitchen to pour out the kettle and begin heating it again. When she returned she stood by the arm of the couch.
“I did some research while we waited for him to get his scans done. I'll have to ask Tiago when he's feeling better, but it might be in his best interest to let someone, most likely me, become his healthcare proxy,“ Joella bit her lip, carefully choosing her next words. ”If it comes down to it, we probably have to consider curatela14 later along the line.”
The silence felt as if it extended on forever. The implications of her words cause bleak expressions to form on all of their faces. After a few more moments, Joaquim, simply because he had to know if it could have been preventable, asked, ”Do you think that his... Stand made things... worse?” He looked to Isa and Odette, realizing that his tia really had no familiarity with what Terrible Lie could do.
”Well I imagine that with an ability that ritually sacrifices some part of your body is bound to do some kind of long-term damage in some way,“ Isa said with a displeased look. ”Didn't realize it would extend beyond just physical harm though.“
Odette shook her head sadly, hand coming to a rest on Tiago's head.
His friend was still blankly watching TV, shoes on the couch as his knees were pressed onto the couch. Joella looked like she wanted to say something about it, but looked away to ask. ”What exactly does his Stand do?“
Joaquim grimaced. It wasn't pretty and there was a reason why Tiago didn't really use it.
”Tiago has to 'sacrifice' a part of himself in order to harness a bit of power,“ Odette explained a bit morosely. ”It was often unnecessary to use it in fights... at least at a larger scale, so a lot of the time I believe he just gave up some of his blood. It usually only made him drowsy. Though the larger sacrifices took flesh... thankfully Isa could heal that up.“
”Pretty fucking powerful though—when he did go for the large-scale stuff,“ Isa huffed out. ”Got us out of a pinch or three.“
Joella looked thoughtful. ”Perhaps it does harm him more than we thought but... there shouldn't be danger here that requires his Stand. Not like that at least.“
They all nodded. While Tiago might not get better, things here would be. They would all make sure of it.
———
“Véi,” Joaquim's voice was a whisper.
The room was dark and he could only faintly make out his friend's sleeping body. His tia and Odette were standing in the doorway to the room, waiting.
Tiago didn't stir.
“Hey, lerdo15, wake up.” His voice grew a little louder, yet still kept in a whisper. This time Tiago moved a bit.
After a few more moments of gentle prodding and quiet words, Tiago finally jolted up.
“Are you up, dorminhoco16?” Odette called out in a hush.
Tiago squinted, first at Odette before looking at Joaquim and cocking his head to the side. He was still a bit bleary-eyed from sleeping, but stood up. “Come on véi,” Joaquim said. “There's something you need to see.”
His friend simply nodded and followed along without question.
He'd had a seizure the day before, though it lasted less than a minute. Still, it took a bit out of him, which was why the careful approach to the morning's current events were happening in a much more toned down way than they'd normally be orchestrated.
“Is today special?” Tiago asked.
Odette smiled, placing a hand on one of his shoulders. “Very, Tiaguinho. It's a very special day.”
From the kitchen, Isa called out, “February eleventh to be specific.”
Joella pulled out a chair at the dining room table and invited Tiago to sit down. After a few moments Isa entered the room, carrying a cake littered with candles and setting it down on the table.
The small flames reflected in Tiago's amber eyes, lighting up his face and crooked grin.
They started singing to him and upon finishing, Tiago responded with his own half-mumbled, half-spoken song.17
He blew out the candles, all nineteen of them, before taking the largest one from the center and leaning under the table to bite it.18 When he rose, Odette had started taking out the rest of the candles and setting them on the edge of the plate the cake sat on.
Joaquim patted Tiago's back. “Happy nineteenth, véi. I hope it's a good one.” His friend looked up at him, smiling a bit wider, before accepting the knife that Isa was handing him.
Taking care to cut a decent sized slice, Tiago set it on a fresh plate and stared at it for a few moments. He then glanced between the four people surrounding him. Then he went back to the plate.
Joaquim watched with keen interest, wondering who he was going to pick.19
The slice was then carefully thrust in his direction and he blinked in surprise.
”Thank you, JoJo.“
Joaquim himself grinned.
“Any time, Tiago. Any time.”