“It may help the human media image, but that's about it,” Henry stated easily.
“Is there anything else we could do instead?” Maya perked up, “People think I am bad or whatever right? Isn’t there a way we can show them I’m not.”
“We could hold an interview or two,” Croy offered, refocused on the situation at hand.
“I hate that idea,” Atlas muttered.
Anani looked up at Maya and she continued to run her hands through his hair from where he sat leaning against the window seat.
“It may work though,” Marco grunted.
“I like that idea,” Maya perked up, “would it be in a magazine like the ones I get? Because I’m thinking we could use it as an excuse to get a family photo. You know two things for the price of one, help my image or whatever and get a cute photo of the eight of us.”
Sai grinned, looking absolutely infatuated with our mate, “Maya, you are so perfect it's painful.”
Her eyes blinked wide as she offered a small smile, “If you say so.”
“Alright I’ll call the Times,” Marco grunted, and I made the decision to break the serious tension.
I stood up and pulled Maya’s hand slightly as she hopped up. My brother followed as we left the room and walked downstairs, the afternoon still rainy and somewhat dark.
“Want to bake since we didn’t get to last night?” I asked Maya, who nodded eagerly, letting go of my hand to twist her hair up into another messy bun since it had fallen out.
My brother sat at the counter staring at her while she seemingly didn’t notice. That saying about having stars in your eyes when you are smitten comes to mind. Shaking my head at him I pulled out a cookbook that I’d ordered for her. I already knew what she would want to bake.
“Can we try these?” She pointed towards a recipe for chocolate orange cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I nodded and started taking out stuff as Anani turned on some music causing Maya to hum. The sound making my chest rumble as usual.
I had no idea why but her singing or humming, usually had my dragon freaking the fuck out. Either getting worked up if it was in a happy way or panicked if it was a small sad sound. I figured it had something to do with being a phoenix but honestly, I didn’t have much of a grasp on what her powers should be.
“How old are you two?” She asked curiously after a moment, “Like, when is your birthday, because there is a birthday cake recipe in here that I want to try for sure.”
As I set things out on the counter, Anani responded, “Our birthday is August 15th, Peanut.”
Her eyes flashed up, “You mean I missed it? Well, why don’t we have a birthday party for you guys also? I mean, I can’t be the only one we celebrate.”
I zoned out for a moment, not hearing what my brother said, feeling a pang of hurt and anger from the past radiate through my chest. Our birthday was never really celebrated. On purpose. It had always been associated with terrible things. Our mother died giving birth to us. Our older brother disappeared on our 6th birthday, turning our father into...well, the monster he became. Every year the abuse got worse until our tenth birthday when he’d dropped us off on the steps of the military academy without another word.
The only plus side was that the next day brought some level of positivity. We met Marco the morning after being dropped off and he’d brought us into the only thing we could consider family now. When we had still lived in the Dreki realm, our father had started to reach out to us around twelve, claiming that he had a right to some of the stipend the academy was giving us. Marco had, of course, fought it. On holidays we stayed at the academy with the rest of our team because when we had made the mistake of going home once, our dad had beat both of us blue. Fucking asshole.
“I still think we should celebrate,” she said sweetly, frowning at my brother’s obvious fake smile, “it was the day that brought you two into this world. So I love it.”
I swallowed hearing that word off her lips and said something I never thought I would, “You know what Maya, I think you’re right. Next year we will hold something, but only if you promise we can celebrate it along with yours.”
She broke into a smile as my brother’s eyes widened, “What? Really?”
“I think a change is important,” I stated softly. My brother nodded looking hesitant but we continued to start baking as we used the mixer and made a ridiculous mess, her light-hearted smile somehow making the rainy morning feel a lot more positive. More positive than I’d felt in years.
It also could be how fucking sexy she looked in a light sweater, leggings, and a purple and pink apron, flour essentially covering the two of us. I didn’t even care, if Maya wanted cupcakes, we were making some fucking cupcakes.
It was easier to talk about the others' birthdays as I explained that Marco was the oldest out of our flight. Atlas was the second oldest at twenty-two followed by Sai who was 19 and Henry who would turn 19 in October. The fact that Maya was so close in age to the two of us actually fit into our flight really easily.
I knew that Marco was thrilled that she was letting him hold her a birthday party this weekend and I actually liked the idea as well. One. Because other supernaturals needed to know she was our mate. Two. I think it was going to make her irrationally happy. Three. I really did want to celebrate her birthday because that was the day that she officially became ours. Although, I think I would have always considered her ours if we’d grown up together.
I shook my head thinking about our music career and how at the time it had seemed so important. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved music and singing but the actual lifestyle that came along with fame wasn’t very attractive to me.
Anani, on the other hand, was a different story. Then again, as established, he liked shiny shit. So fame was part of that in his mind. I had no doubt that the moment he had the opportunity he would be taking her to one of those human awards shows like the Emmys or Oscars, just because we were always invited.
Honestly, the fact that she wanted to be so open about our relationship as a group made all of this feel so much more real. It was also nice to be able to hold her hand in public without worrying I was messing up some carefully constructed story for the media. It would be hard to maintain it because I found myself touching her without thinking about it. Even as we separated out the small liners and began to pour batter into them, I tucked that strand of pink hair behind her ear just so I could touch her.