The Icarus To Your Certainty

chapter five

Elaine rested her chin on her hand, watching Vega.

She had an exaggerated laugh. It was the first thing Elaine noticed about her when they first met-that Vegas' laugh was exaggerated, loud and boisterous, which was likely when she developed a big, fat crush on her as a teenager.

Vega would throw her head back when she laughed heartily, exposing her neck, or she would bend her body forward, laughing-usually at something Aaron had said.

And it was at the dreadful age of fourteen that Elanie began to watch Vega. She never imagined that years later, as an adult, she would still be watching Vega Ashford.

The two of them were at the kitchen counter having breakfast together, as they often did since Elaine had moved in with them. Vega was sipping black coffee while Elaine drank chocolate milk. Beside them, there was a mug of tea and another hot chocolate, ready for Aaron to choose from when he eventually decided to wake up.

"Merde," Vega cursed softly under her breath. Elaine took a sip of her milk, noticing Vega's grimace. "j'ai brûlé le palais, she said as Elaine watched. " I burned the sky of my mouth," she explained.

Elaine looked at her gently. "The sky?"

Vega opened her mouth, rubbing her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Yeah."

"The roof, you mean?" Elaine smiled.

"No, mon couer," Vega replied, narrowing her eyes at her. Elaine chuckled softly. "The sky of my mouth."

"Right. Sky," Elaine agreed. She liked how Vegas' voice changed pitch slightly when she spoke in french. Sometimes she even felt that Vegas'' voice in french was more Vega.

Vega was born in France and lived there for a long time before moving to England permanently a few years before the age of 11 when she met Aaron at boarding school. Before that, she visited often and constantly spoke English with his father, resulting in a unique accent. She remembered when Aaron had introduced them as kids and how she had been fascinated by Vegas'' accent, which was much stronger back then, even though she wanted to hate her for taking up so much of her brother's time. When she was around Brits, Vegas' accent took after her father's Cornish accent, but when she talked too fast or got excited, her accent completely changed to this day, and anyone could hear the French accent in her English. Elaine liked to hear the French accent stand out over the British accent.

She knew that Aaron had already spent several Christmases in France with Vegas' family. Aaron always talked about how it was better because Christmas in France the food was much better, and on New Year's Eve, they went to the beach and swam at midnight. And, of course, Elaine was never jealous of hearing those stories. Not at all.

Vega blew on her coffee and took another sip. She made a face, and Elaine chuckled.

"Did you burn the sky of your mouth again?"

"Shut up," Vega muttered, blowing on it some more.

"You and Dudley." Elaine tried to sound as casual as possible. "Is she not your girlfriend?"

"No, ma'am," Vega seemed amused by the question, but Elaine didn't have time for jokes; she needed to get this information out of her.

"But?"

"But we enjoy each other's company sometimes," Vega chuckled. "We broke up before term started." Elaine had found out a little about their relationship from Teddy, who said that the two had had an on-and-off relationship for some time, and just by the way Aaron spoke of Daisy, she knew that she was very dear to him. "Any more questions?" Vega began to take another sip.