Drabble:72
POV:Third Person
It was Sydney's first visit to Moroi Court after Palm Springs, and it was exponentially better than her first time ever. This time, she wasn't just another blind devotee of the Alchemists' code, instead she was her own person (and she quite liked the sound of that). This time, she wasn't surrounded by a bunch of unfriendly guardians, or awaiting repercussions for aiding a criminal. Instead, she was surrounded by her close friends and pseudo-family, in a café, which was a far cry from the guardian building she had been escorted to the first time.
The booth was clearly meant for 6 people maximum, but that hadn't stopped Dimitri, Rose or Christian from pulling up chairs from nearby tables, not that anyone complained…..not that anyone dared to complain. Because, after all, this was the moroi queen's beau and a rather formidable (most would say crazy) royal guard…and her even scarier and more lethal (better?) half.
In the booth itself, Sydney was sitting on one corner of the sofa in the booth, staring at a plate of pancakes with maple syrup. On her right was Jill, stabbing at her fruit-salad while stealing glances at her sandy-haired guardian, Eddie, who happened to be talking excitedly about cafeteria-versus-home-cooked-chicken-nuggets with Dimitri's younger sister, Viktoria. Viktoria was making her way through her plate of mac-and-cheese, while swinging her legs under the table (and occasionally hitting someone or the other's shins or ankles. Beside her, Sonya Karp-sorry, Tanner-sat, nursing her coffee and sharing a plate of gogosi with her husband, who looked bemused, as if he didn't actually know what he was doing here. Beside him was Dimitri, who was eating his chicken sandwich and black coffee (its fumes, by the way, was enough to kick awake Sydney, even from the distance), and tracing random patterns on Rose's legs, which were deposited in his lap. Catching Sydney's observing eyes, Dimitri spared her a (ridiculously handsome) smile before looking back adoringly at the love of his life. Rose was too busy shoveling French toast in her mouth and stealing fries off Christian's plate when he wasn't looking to notice her beau's loving gaze. And the reason Christian couldn't fully concentrate on his alarmingly diminishing plate of fries and nuggets (a breakfast-habit carried over from school days presumably) was because he was busy texting his own significant other, who'd been caught up in a council meeting and couldn't make it to breakfast.
And speaking of loves, there was Sydney's own beau, who was walking over with a mug of coffee and an ice-cream sundae in his hands, and attracting an inordinate amount of admiring eyes due to his sexy-and-I-know-it swagger. Rolling her eyes at him, Sydney refocused on her maple-syrup-smeared-pancakes, which seemed to be mocking her with their glaziness (goddammit! She knew she shouldn't have gossiped with Rose for half of last night or stayed awake the other half doing….umm, well….doing not-a-lot-of-sleeping with Adrian). As she sighed, Adrian dragged yet another chair to their overcrowded booth and deposited the coffee-cup in front of her before sitting down and placing his ice-cream bowl on the red-and-white-checkered-tablecloth-covered-table. The moment he did, Rose, Christian and Jill lunged at it, brandishing their begged, borrowed and stolen spoons, eliciting a shocked gape and scowl from Adrian and laughter from the others.
Sydney laughed, genuinely happy and glad to be here, which somehow seemed to be an inkling of a happy ending. None of them were perfect, not by a far stretch of anyone's imagination, but they were friends who considered each other to be family, and maybe…..just maybe, that's all you need to be happy. Smiling at her mushy thoughts, Sydney cut into her pancakes with a smile, which only broadened, when Adrian's hand snaked around her waist and squeezed reassuringly.
Okay, so all of you who guessed about the last drabble got it right. Let's see how you do this time….among the three who lunged at Adrian's sundae, whose spoon was begged, borrowed and stolen?
Do review! Cheers!