Fleur-de-lis

Deuteronomy 21:18-21

Alright. Sorry I've been gone for a bit. Had a bit of burnout when it came to writing so I took a break. I'm gonna try to ease my way back into it and continue to provide.

Vanitas's p.o.v.

"Lilith got married!?" Grace asks, incredulously.

"Yeah." I reply, gleefully.

"Aww, what was the wedding like?" She questions.

I take a quick sip of my coffee. "Very classic. Took place in a church, lot's of white flowers and the song for the first dance was Come What May from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack." I smile recalling the day. "Something straight out of a romantic movie."

"Who caught the bouquet?" Grace asks.

I chuckle to myself. "Wiccan."

"Awe. Wiccan. I haven't seen her since she was a baby. I wonder if she remembers me."

I get quiet for a moment as the tone shifts to a more serious manner. "It's hard to. None of us were allowed to even mention your name at home."

Grace's smile fades away. "Not even my name, huh?" She questions in a hushed tone.

"You know mom." I say.

Luca and John clear their throats dramatically to lighten the mood.

I furrow my brow at John. "What?"

"Van. I love you. But the two of you just absolutely murdered the mood in here. I mean really killed it."

"To be fair, we're in an empty diner save for us and the staff so it wasn't difficult." Luca adds.

"Well...sorry our parents are nut-jobs." Grace says to Luca. "Let's change the topic. How did you two start dating?" Grace asks me.

"Oh, that's a long story." I comment. "Let's just say everyone back home hates us. Not just talking about our families either. We've made a lot of people very angry." I take a sip of coffee. "You could probably move back in. I'm certain that everyone is too livid at me to even remember whatever you did."

Grace laughs.

"I'm serious though." I say, laughing with her.

"There's no way they'll let me come back." Grace says. "I sent mom some very unsavory text messages when I left. I can practically hear mom now. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother ... all the men of the city shall stone him with stones, that he die." She says in her best impression of mom.

"Deuteronomy chapter twenty-one, verse eighteen through twenty-one." We both say in union, followed by a good laugh.

John roll his eyes at us. "So how did the two of you meet?" John questions.

"Oh, uh, Luca was actually the guy that convinced me to leave." She replies.

Both John and I raise our brows at the suspicious conclusion we'd jumped to.

"No. Not like that." Grace assures, taking notice of the look on our faces. "We met in a chat room where is was being a...less than agreeable person. I argued with people online constantly and bullied them into corners and they'd all get tired of me and disappear...which I mistakenly took as victory. Then one day I came across Luca...and he was the worst. I swore I hated him." Grace chuckles. "We argued day and night and it would get so heated. I didn't get why he didn't just give up like everyone else. One day he backed me into a corner...I didn't have anything I could say that made sense or wasn't a blatant contradiction...so I gave up.bFor a while I couldn't sleep or think straight because I'd never been bested in the logic of my interpretation of the bible at the time. After about a month I randomly messaged him hoping to get revenge and I guess he took pity on me and refused to fight...and for the first time, we had a civilized conversation."

Grace sighs as if it were a fond memory. "We agreed to disagree at first but our conversations persisted and he slowly dismantled the wall I'd spent my whole life building and I realized that all this time I wanted someone to confirm the doubts that I refused to believe that I had. Luca became my trusted friend and I started to rebel. When mom and I got into that argument she told me that as long as I was disobedient that her love and home would be denied to me...so I left. At first it was rough and I bounced from guy to guy just to survive and Luca didn't have money or a place of his own so he couldn't help me but... We persisted and worked hard to build our lives as quickly as possible and we became roommates first but our relationship grew as more time passed. Here we are now...doing the best we can."

I gently take Grace's hands into mine so she knows how meaningful my next words would be. "I'm so glad that you're doing okay. I've spent every day since you left regretting that I wasn't of any help."

"Are you kidding?" Grace says. "I've regretted leaving you all behind."

The waitress comes back with all of our food and sets each platter down one by one.

"Thank you." I tell her.

"So why're you working at a strip club, Van?" Grace questions.

I sheepishly scratch my cheek with my finger. "It was...totally an accident."

"Huh? An accident how?" Grace responds.

John steps up to answer the question. "After we left home we needed money and had a tough time finding work. It was my idea to become a stripper." John's gaze trails off, unable to look my sister in the eye as he confessed. "I got rejected in favor of Van."

There's a split second of silence followed by Luca and Grace erupting with laughter.

"Ugh. Don't laugh." John mumbles in embarrassment.

"Sorry. Sorry." Luca barely manages to say. "That's just so...unprecedented."

John just takes to shoveling food into his mouth to hide his blushing face from their view.

I chuckle slightly before picking up where John left off. "Anyway, that's how I ended up there. John is still trying to look for an honest job."

"You need work?" Luca questions. "I'm climbing up in a civil engineering company and could use a partner to train.

John puts his plate down and flashes Luca a quizzical glance. "Don't I need a bachelor's degree to do something like that?"

"Technically yes but if someone with authority vouches for you, they won't care so long as you know how to do your job. The most you'll need is a highschool or equivalency diploma."

"I...never technically got my diploma. Didn't stick around for graduation."

"That's alright." Luca assures. "If youve got all the credits, the process is short. And if we start now you'll have your diploma before the end of the month. We can also start your training at the same time."

"Are you being serious right now?" John questions.

"Yeah. Why not?" Luca tilts his head to the side.

"It seems too good to be true for an opportunity like this to be granted after constant rejection."

Luca just shrugs his shoulders. "You in or you out?"

"Wh-? I'm in!" John answers, hardly believing that to be a serious question.