vexation /vɛkˈseɪʃ(ə)n / noun
the state of being annoyed, frustrated or worried
* * *
Mae sat at the piano, her fingertips raced quickly up and down the keyboard, perfectly reciting the song without missing a note.
"So that's what a Panic! At The Disco song sounds like?" Death asks.
Mae hummed in response as she brushed the dust off the keyboard and closed the music stand over the keys, she turned in her stool to meet eyes with Death and the room filled with cardboard boxes, the only things left being the piano, a vase of dasies balanced on the top of it, and an abstract painting hung above the piano.
"Though, most of their songs are a bit more bouncy, its just hard to recreate the 'bounce' on a piano. I just played a little bit more of a- how can i word this? - acoustic.. version if you will." Mae's english accent shone through her words and another silence was shared between the two, Oscar standing alone in the kitchen doing whatever.
"So..Death.." She gulped and continued her sentence "What would you like to drink?" She asked her, standing up from her seated position and stretching.
"Do you have wine? I heard it makes things.. fun? What is fun? people speak of it very highly." Death responds.
Mae nods slowly and awkwardly, wondering about how clueless Death is on most topics.
"Yes we have wine.. I'll grab you some." Mae disappears into the kitchen and meets Oscar, who is sitting on the breakfast bar at the front of their kitchen.
The floorboard creak under Mae's white converse and Oscar looks up to meet eyes with her, almost instantaneously jumping down from the breakfast bar and landing on his plain white, yet dirty, socks.
"What are you doing?" Oscar asks Mae who is struggling on her very tip-toes trying to grab the bottle of white wine from the highest cupboard.
she uses her fingers and jumping ability to push it off the shelf, catching the fragile glass bottle before it smashes on the ground.
"I can't believe this, Mae." Oscar says trying to get eye contact with her as she struggles to open the bottle using only her fingers.
she hums in response and he sighs.
"seriously, Mae are you joking? You've let a stranger into our house that is claiming to be the actual human embodiment of the grim reaper? Do you see how stupid you're being?" He says, a slight streak of his british accent slipping out.
"Whatever, I think she's telling the truth. Don't be such a pessimist, Oscar. We have no choice, the girl needs help."
Pop!
"Aye!" Mae says at the successful opening of the wine bottle.
"we need to figure this out." Oscar watches her pour the glass of wine.
"what?" She responds absent mindedly.
"This whole relationship thing, Mae." He says "Don't try to act dumb."
"You see, Oscar. I like Panic!'s latest songs and whats to come next. You like their old music." She replies bluntly.
"What is that supposed to mean?" He furrows his eyebrows.
"It means that I like living in the future, you like living in the past, it's as simple as that. I guess the whole Panic! thing was a silly metaphor to use, huh?" She pours three glasses.
"Maybe we could fix things, start again?"
"No." was all she could say.
"You know, this whole situation, lets make the most of it. I'm excited for what happens next" She smiles a toothy grin and she hands him a glass of wine.
"To death." they both say in unison, clinking their fragile wine glasses against eachother
* * *
Mae stands in the bathroom staring at herself in the mirror.
I cant believe we're over. I can't believe it. He's such a tool. We were so compatible.. Now we're through. Why am I only saying this to myself now? We've been broken up for a few days. I'm just helping him move out.
A tear slips down her cheek and falls onto the shiny white ceramic sink.
"Why are you crying?" A voice appears suddenly behind her.
She whips her head around in fright, the sudden break in the silence making her heart skip a beat.
"Oh..." She wipes a tear from her cheek and brushes herself off "It's nothing."
"Why are you..." Mae gestures to the full bathtub, Death sitting in it fully clothed with the wine glass in her hand.
"Bathing, I've been told it's relaxing and gets rid of stress."
"Yeah.. Yeah it does. Wait, so you've never..bathed?" Mae asks in confusion
"No, no. Not in this form." Death says casually as she sips her wine.
"Ugh!" she spits her wine into the bath in disgust, her eyebrows furrowing.
"How can you humans drink that!" she exclaims and Mae just shrugs.
"Wait what do you mean by form?" Mae wonders
"Oh right now I've decided to take the form of a teenage girl, I can take many others too though." Death shrugs and splashes the water near her hands around the bath.
"Right, right of course." Mae says before leaving the bathroom.
* * *
A/N
If you didn't get it in the first chapter I hope you understand it a little more now.. I quite explicitly said it during the conversation with Oscar that she was the Grim Reaper but yeah..
Hope you enjoyed!
-s.v
YOU ARE READING
Warmth //Steph
Conto"sorry what was your name again?" - Mae didn't think it would be so warm, but she gracefully accepted the embrace of death itself, metaphorically and literally.
