Malia had her eyes half closed, a joint loosely hung from held fingertips. The cool air was a pleasant contrast against the hot water of the bath she was lounging in, the room smelt heavy, earthy with a hint of light florals underneath.
She had needed to just destress, relax, and ground herself after a particularly nasty court battle her firm had gotten mixed up in. Serves her right, she supposed, turning a blind eye as some of her less experienced lawyers began to entertain bribes.
It had been a long and gruelling two months, stuck in the city of London but that was behind her. It was sorted. Little human judges given enough fabricated evidence to clear everything.
Taking another deep hit, the smoke was released slowly from her lungs, floating above her before slowly dissipating. Malia never smoked often, it very rarely led to good thoughts but it certainly hit the spot to calm her shot nerves. Better than any tea any of her pointy-eared friends had ever given her.
She found herself thinking soon of simpler times, gentler times when she hadn't been alone in such a large house to herself.
-------------------------
There was a soft giggle paired with the sound of the rustle of fabric and the blonde-haired vampire rolled her eyes, listening to her sister attempt to sneak into their shared bedroom. The air taking on a grassy scent.
"Are you drunk by chance my dear sister?" Malia called over her shoulder, keeping her eyes firmly facing forward, hands pausing in the braid she'd been making, her hair pulled over her shoulder.
There was a pause before she could see her sister's illusion drop as the door shut and there she was, Lucinda. She could see her standing there in the reflection of the mirror, cheeks flushed, a bright smile on her face and a. . .why were those roses in her arms?
"I am quite insulted at the notion of such! I? drunk? sister you surely must be joking" Lucinda teased, her voice just a touch higher in pitch than Malia's.
Malia simply sent her sister a raised eyebrow, and watched as she giggled more and stumbled towards her side of the room, dropping the roses quite unceremoniously onto the floor as she fell down onto her bed.
"You will need to change out of that dress you know, Mother will know something is off when she comes in to wake us later and you are still in yesterday's clothes." Malia warned, shaking her head slightly at the high-pitched whine noise that filled the room "Or get caught, I really do not mind. Quite frankly Father and I would enjoy the show over breakfast"
"He would not!" Came the indignant squeak of her younger twin and she bit her tongue, watching as Lucinda rocketed up into a sitting position and groaned, clutching her head "Oooooo too fast"
"I really do doubt Mother's insistence, I was the one she dropped as a babe"
"You sound far too pleased right now, please stop talking"
"Hmmm" Malia tapped her lip with a finger before shaking her head "No I don't think I will"
Her sister's whine got a quiet laugh out of her as she finished up her sleeping braid and stood.
Walking over to Lucinda, quietly mumbling under her breath, she moved her sister's hands off her head and gently replaced them with her own. Now magically cooled. Aware that her sister always ran quite hot after she had been drinking.
"Oh, that is nice" Lucinda sighed, leaning into her sister and Malia laughed again, quietly.
"You are welcome, once the room has stopped spinning, I will help you get dressed into your bed clothes then I expect to be given something for my silence"
Malia snorted, smiling softly as Lucinda giggled at the sound
"If I recall, you requested, Nay demanded something to keep your silence when I came back late one evening smelling of Mr O'Connell's Lavender bushes with deep marks on my neck sister, I dare say, this is a similar situation?" She directed her question with a poignant look and playful grin
"It might be" Lucinda replied, fluttering her lashes dramatically before both of them leaned against each other, giggling messes. After the giggle fit had passed, Malia helped her sister out of her baby-blue day dress, the bottom of the hem covered in grass stains, and into her bedclothes, a simple white slip-on. Leaving her sister to slip under the sheets while she scooped up the roses and walked over to the empty vase they had on the window.
"They'll look quite nice here" Malia announced, arranging them neatly before walking over to their bedroom door, locking it and walking over to her own bed.
"They do" Lucinda said with a dreamy sigh, staring at them with a soft expression on her face and Malia snickered
"Alright who was this night's escapade with?" she prompted and Lucinda burst into giggles before recounting her with a tale of a late-night stroll through the family gardens then the forest beyond, how the roses had just appeared in her company's hand as if by magic and how their first kiss was in a moonlit grove, soft purple flowers blooming all around them. Trying to be subtle but failing as she dodged the question of 'Who'
Malia let her recount the events, making appropriate noises here and there while not questioning much. She was curious but not enough to hound her sister, like a milkmaid wanting town gossip, about who her mystery date had been.
She would tell her in due time.
Malia could tell by the way Lucinda's words slowed and her breathing along with it, that her twin was falling asleep and thus went quiet. Waiting until she fell asleep before using some magic to pull Lucinda's blankets higher, under her chin just the way she liked it, and to douse the fire lighting the room.
"Goodnight" she whispered quietly to the air, tucking herself in under her heavy woollen blankets and closing her eyes.
----------------------------------
Opening them again in the 21st century, the memory already fading but she remembered still how it had ended.
Breakfast the next morning had been a delightful affair, their mother had suspected Lucinda had snuck out but had no proof and after being promised that she would get help with her chores that day, Malia had kept her mouth shut. Backing up her sister.
She still remembered how their father had turned to them both, a smile on his lips after her mother had left for the morning and asked them both if they'd just lied to their dear poor old mother.
Never being ones to lie to their father, they had simply adored him too much to even entertain the thought, Lucinda had confessed and the laughter that had filled the room brought a small smile to her face.
Her Mother, if she could even still call her that, had turned so cold, cut off after her Father died. The beginning of the large rift that now stood between mother and daughter.
Of course only to her, Lucinda had been the golden child and that never changed, even after Malia had tried to apologise years after grief had finally stopped tinting her vision but well.
There were just too many things that had been said on both sides and that had only compounded since then. Her mother and sister only ever visited when they needed something which was not often.
And she was only ever courteous, never kind, only doing what she needed to to not break the rules of hospitality.
She groaned loudly and snuffed out her blunt, tucking it back into the porcelain container she kept her drugs in before dunking herself under the water. Entertaining the idea of letting the warm water fill her lungs for a moment before dismissing the notion, it would take her hours to get it all back out again.
Surfacing, she stood, her two towels flying over as she stepped onto the mat she had in front of the bath. The longer towel wrapping around her body as she clicked her fingers, the other towel beginning to dry her hair.
There was a pop as the bath began to drain and she thought through her options before heading towards the kitchen.
She was feeling quite thirsty and believed she still had some blood from the young blue-dyed haired artist she met last week.
Time to put all thoughts of family quite firmly out of her head.
