houseofcards_rp | [OTA] Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

Zoe's twenty-first birthday had started well enough, with murmured birthday wishes from Victor and a promise of dinner tonight before he left to start his day either in his office here or the one over at Club Castle. And it had, for a few hours at least continued well. She dropped in on the accounting office to check on Penelope - she might be taking the day off, but her assistant was still new enough that she liked to check in before disappearing for the day. Then she'd dropped into the Head of Finance's office to hand over the expenditure reports for September and smile at Edison's side-eye. He was a Six, after all, and had some idea that Zoe had plans to challenge him at some point, but there was little he could do about that.

And he wouldn't be wrong, anyway.

The day only went south when she headed down the hall and found a pair of Heart Twos with a box. The library was quiet this time of day, and she hated to let people into Victor's rooms, so she nodded in that direction, letting them put it on a table deep in the stacks and dismissing them before she opened the note. She recognized the handwriting, after all.

Darling, Happy Birthday and a belated congratulations on your impressive achievement of Five. Of course, if you'd stayed put, you could be a Nine with your dear, dear brother by now, but I'm sure you're intelligent enough to not realize that.

I'd hate to leave this day unacknowledged. These are some things I thought you'd enjoy, dear.

Charlotte Huntly Kattalakis

Well, Zoe thought as she picked up the yellowed letters and unfolded the first. They ran the gamut: letters from Charlotte, letters from Aunt Maggie, letters from someone named Maria. Correspondence of a more...professional sort - off-Deck jobs, compensation for them.

It was all supposed to upset her, Zoe thought. And it...didn't, really. She'd known even if she'd pretended not to, what kind of man her father had been. She'd seen things, she thought, and then she blinked when she saw a black velvet box tossed carelessly in the corner of the box, reaching over to pick it up. Inside were earrings, and a note old enough that the paper had started to yellow.

Για Ζωή, για εικοστό πρώτο έτος της ηλικίας της.

"Papa," she murmured, and leaned back in the chair as she looked down at the jewelry. Would he be upset with her for what she'd done with her life? Did it matter? It shouldn't, certainly, especially not after this summer, but...

Well.

Maybe it did, a little.

[Translation: For Zoe, on her twenty-first birthday.]

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Sophie's had no surprises from beyond the grave. In fact, the only "surprise" she's had so far is a small box of Godiva chocolates (given anonymously by Miss Henshaw) on her desk that morning. That's fine by her. Birthday celebrations are meant for other people, not Sophies.

Over the years, people have forgotten October 1st is hers just as she's neglected to mention it. Tonight, she'll treat herself to two scoops of ice cream and curl up with a good book.

Today finds her conducting her weekly library runs. It's not unusual to drop by and say hello to friends. It is unusual to see the normally unflappable Zoe, well, flapped.

"Zoe? What--you look deep in thought. ~~Is something wrong?~~"

On second thought, her friend doesn't look flapped at all. She's wearing that carefully still face that Sophie's come to recognize.

She does not want to be upset by this, really. They're just earrings, beautiful ones, and it's not like she doesn't have heart-shaped jewelry. There's the pendant Victor got her last year for this day, and then the jewelry she got for Christmas last year. Plus everything else over the years that she's gotten and not stopped wearing just because she's now a Spade.

So this pair of earrings shouldn't matter. They just do, a little.

"Hey," she says, and manages a smile. "Oh, just...wondering about a few things. It's my birthday today."

If you squint, a Heart is just a Spade upside-down. Right now, Sophie's not so much squinting at birthday gifts as she is gaping at Zoe.

"Truly? That's--!" She snaps her mouth shut. "...amazing," she finishes lamely. "You don't look terribly excited by it."

"Why is it amazing?" Zoe asks, blinking at Sophie, before she sets down the garnets and shrugs. "Well, Charlotte decided to send along a few things." And Sophie knows how Charlotte Kattalakis is.

"Papa left the earrings for me to get this year." The trust fund he'd left had gone into her hands at eighteen; this was more personal.

"Oh." From the little she can see (and knowing Charlotte Huntly) that's not all she'd sent. "That...it must have hurt to know he'd never see you now." Why else would he have made arrangements for the gift all those years ago. He must have known.

She'll answer her questions soon enough, but this is more important.

"Yeah..." Zoe fidgets, and then picks up one of the earrings, holding it up to the light. Garnets don't burn quite the way rubies do, but she's always liked their deeper red color. Papa probably remembered that, from one of their trips Outside.

"I don't know that he'd like me being a Spade or not. He was more of one, I think, than he ever was a Heart...but he never left the Suit. Not even after David became King."

"It would have meant leaving you. I doubt your mother would have wanted to change Suits. Was Charlotte horrible?" She shrugs, uncomfortable at the personal question even though they're friends. Family can be...touchy.

"I've always loved the deeper hue of garnets," Sophie tells her, unconsciously echoing Zoe's thoughts. "I, um, today's my birthday, too."

"Growing up? Yes. I...think she blamed me for the fact that she was stuck at Five and Six when I was little. Papa kept me away from a lot of it, though. Today? She didn't come over today." Probably, after the...well, after Victor had gone to see her, she wouldn't want to risk it. "She had some things sent, though. The earrings, and some letters."

The letters were probably meant to be more upsetting, but they weren't.

"It is?" She said, though, blinking. Diverted. "I had no idea. That's so odd. That it's the same day, I mean."

"At least she sent you his gift." Knowing Charlotte Huntly, whatever she sent had been unpleasant. Sophie wouldn't be at all surprised to learn Zoe's father had provided other such gifts for important birthdays. It would be like her mother to withhold them.

"It is, though it's not something I've ever celebrated much. It's really odd, isn't it? I had no idea. Obviously Fate decreed we be friends."

"I think she meant it as a dig." For eighteen, there had been the trust fund; Sandy's aunt had been the lawyer Georgios had left in control of it, so Charlotte hadn't been able to touch the money - either from Georgios' career, or her share of the Huntly money. For her fifteenth birthday, Aunt Maggie had taken her to Maryland to buy Sirona with money Georgios had left behind.

Whatever else you could say about Georgios Kattalakis, he had known his wife well.

"Dafydd took me to Paris last year, otherwise I would have probably avoided majorly celebrating. But it's nice to have it acknowledged, I think. Even in small ways, you know?"

"Oh. I'm satisfied she did." Why did parents pin all their hopes on their children, as if their progeny was merely a chance to live their lives over again rather than an entirely new person?

"Oh. I think I heard about someone making a trip, but I didn't know you hardly at all back then." Her birthdays had been spent with the litany of all the ways she'd failed the past year, first Gerhardt and then her mother parroting every lie he'd told her. Papa had looked on, murmuring hushes and then taken her aside later to bestow a kiss to the forehead and a pat on the head.

He'd meant well, but his eyes had been only for Margarite. "We didn't celebrate them in our family. I suppose it became a habit." She shrugs. "I used to try to do something for the girls, but it was always small." Stolen moments.

"Charlotte liked any opportunity to show off." In that way, she was very much more a Diamond than she'd ever been a Heart, Zoe thinks; so much into appearances over everything else. All of Zoe's birthdays had been celebrated with big parties, especially after Georgios had died.

That was sort of why she'd run off last year. To avoid just that sort of thing.

"Would you like to do something small, this year?" She asks.

"That would be fun. Later in the week, maybe? I imagine Victor will take you out tonight." She had ice cream in her future and maybe--maybe--dinner with Cadogan and Adrien and Sitara. And if that didn't pan out, then she'd spend a lovely few hours curling up on the couch and actually making a dent in the pile of new releases stacked on her end table.

"We're doing dinner, I think." Italian, probably; it was her favorite. "It was early when he left and I hadn't been caffeinated yet. But we should do something; maybe Friday night. You should see if one of your sisters wants to do something. Katriane, maybe? Or Charlotte?" Irene had always seemed, to Zoe, to be the scary one.

[OTA] Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

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