a/n: omf so ok i uploaded this in my other ff account but decided to reupload.. here bc i am a loser
birthday violets
Piper wakes up to bright violet eyes.
"Happy Birthday, Pipes," Pollux murmurs, kissing her forehead. She doesn't say anything in reply.
His grin gets wider every passing second. "Sixteen, huh? You're old."
Forgetting about morning laziness, she sits up in protest. "I'm not. Sixteen is a wonderful number. Twenty is old."
"You calling me old?" He rises up as well and snakes his arm around her waist. She's wearing an oversized sweatshirt that looked like it probably belonged to John Adams at one point. Pollux makes a show of ignoring how it meekly covers mid-thigh. "I thought you liked twenty."
Piper peeks through her fringe and flashes a dimple. "In dollar form, yes."
They wear matching grins before she pushes Pollux towards the door. "I'm going to take a shower," she tells him, "so wait outside."
He pouts the way only Pollux can and the urge to roll her eyes wins over. "You're so spoiled," she remarks out of habit.
"Drama queen," accuses Pollux calmly as he brushes her hair off to one side. It was tightly wrapped in a messy braid the night before, so it must have undone while she slept.
"At least I'm a queen."
In the end, Pollux starts up breakfast down in the kitchen; between the two, he was better skilled in the art of food. That isn't to say Piper didn't have her fair share of glutton-induced eating. Pollux called it less-than sporadic binging.
Piper comes downstairs wearing shorts and an all too familiar orange shirt with a faded front. Birthdays call for nostalgia, as her father always says before breaking out the baby albums.
After waiting for her to take a seat, Pollux serves her what he'd been working on all morning. A full-on continental breakfast; bacon, eggs, hash browns, gravy on biscuits—the works. Piper thinks it's a dream come true.
"What spectacular thing did I do to deserve this?"
"You were born." He ruffles her hair affectionately. "It's a birthday breakfast deluxe. I used to make it for Castor and myself whenever we had our birthdays. Took turns, actually."
He sat with her around the long table, simply drinking a glass of orange juice. Piper's never seen him drink wine before, and wonders why he doesn't—before letting the thought pass. Considering his father, she expects at least a little desire from him to pop a bottle every now and then.
Pollux looks around the dining room, taking a sip from the glass. "Are you sure it's okay for me to stay over?"
He looks at scattered photographs of her, her dad, and occasionally, her grandfather. There was a section of the house dedicated to movie posters of him, but that was in his study—she'd have enough of her dad looking like an immortal god in plenty of movies. Personally, her dad isn't all too thrilled about that sort of thing, either.
Piper takes a bite of her biscuit before explaining. "I told you; my dad's off working on a set in Detroit so he isn't gonna be home for a couple of weeks. I usually stay here alone this time of the year, anyway, so housekeepers won't waste their time."
"He's not coming for your birthday?"
"He sent a post card. I think the gift's mailing in tomorrow."
Pollux watches her eat a little longer, and Piper comes to the realization that he's probably already eaten and feels a little sheepish she'd been so slow waking up. Only a little. The taste of the hash browns are light and crispy.
He speaks again, eyes still glued to her face. "It is still pretty unnerving. You know. Being in the house of Tristan McLean."
"Newsflash, you're dating the daughter of Tristan McLean. Can't get any less unnerving."
Unconsciously, he drums his fingers on the polished wooden table. "You don't think he'll get mad I used his kitchen, do you?"
With a flourish, Piper rolls her eyes and chews on a bacon strip.
When she gets her present, Piper nearly doubles over in laughter. It's meticulously yet sloppily wrapped with Christmas gift-wrappings and totes the smell the ground has after a rain. Pollux swears he didn't leave it in his open-windowed van during an overnight shower, though.
"Quit laughing," he says even though he's got a smile tugging at his own lips. "I'm a starving college student with a 3.5 grade point average and a part-time job at a crappy convenience store. Give me some slack."
Tearing off the wrapping paper, she's greeted by the sight of a bunch of birthday cards filled with dead flower petals; the fragrance mixes with the rain smell to make something similar to a fresh garden, like a vineyard. Vineyard. She thinks, Pollux's such a nerd, and then, I love this guy so much.
"If I had the money," he starts, "and if we weren't demigods, I would have totally given you a phone."
"Totally?"
"Totally."
She doesn't mention she could ask her dad for one at any time, but it's precious the way he rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment. On the plus side, she'd pick his present over a monster-attracting 5G any day.
"Sentimentality counts for everything," is all she says before she curls up beside him and reads every hurriedly written Apollo-worthy haiku on the cards aloud. He hides his face in her hair and she can imagine his grin widen with every syllable she repeats.
He kisses her bottom lip as she pouts. "You're not allowed to pout. It's your birthday."
"Hey," she begins to whine, "I want to watch Netflix! Why won't you let me watch Netflix?"
Pollux places his hand on her cheek and kisses her again—longer, quieter. Before she knows it, Piper's hands are tangled in his baby blond hair and his hands slip slyly around her waist.
"I have a secret," he confesses breathily, inches away from her face. "I've got another present."
Someone giggles, and it takes a while before Piper realizes it's her. Fitting, how his father's the god of insanity, seeing as he also happens to drive her absolutely mad.
"Oh? What is it?"
He steals another kiss and it's another few moments before he speaks again.
"Guess you'll have to find out yourself."
The next day, Pollux takes her to a vineyard.
"Disneyland withers in comparison, eh?"
In reality, she discovers, it does.