Presents!

Chapter Eighteen: Solstice | Part 7

By the time Thirtyx returned to the twins, Rhea had talked Benn into a raid of the kitchen’s cake storage. It was entirely unnecessary—any of the staff would have tripped over themselves to serve the royal children cake on their birthday—but the planning and execution of the heist was its own festivity. 

Once stolen, the cake disappeared until after dinner, at which point the trio huddled in Thirtyx and Benn’s room, cackling through the resulting sugar high. While the twins debated sugar alchemy, plotting how to dispose of the frosting-smeared evidence with Benn’s potion set, Thirtyx slipped the gift bags out of their hiding spots.

Rhea noticed first. “Presents!”

Benn contrasted her delighted gasp with a suspicious frown. “Thirtyx doesn’t have the money for presents.”

“No, but I have connections.” His toothy grin didn’t abate the doubt in Benn’s expression.

When Rhea snatched hers and tossed out the decorative paper with all the enthusiasm of a rodent seeking a nut, Benn begrudgingly copied. Rhea withdrew the paper nest in which Thirtyx had placed her gem. Her jaw dropped, her eyes wide with a delight he hadn’t seen in them in years. “Is this— did you— how did—”

“You really don’t have the money for these presents!” Benn cried, staring dumbstruck at the gem in his own paper nest. “How in the universe did you do this? Are— are they real?“

Thirtyx scoffed. “You think I’d give fake gems to royalty? I… I hope they’re not too small to go on your crowns someday, but if they are—”

“Crown jewels!” Rhea wailed, her eyes rimmed with tears. “Oh, Thirtyx, thank you! Seriously, I have no clue how you pulled this off, but the fact that you even tried to make this day feel normal is just…” She breathed a content sigh and threw her arms around him.

Thirtyx’s heart swelled—with relief. With love. With gratitude for the sort of friendship most people would never have the fortune to experience.

Benn hugged him after Rhea, but when he released Thirtyx, he kept his hands on his shoulders and looked him squarely in the eye. “You’d better not have done anything illegal to get your hands on these.”

“Nothing illegal,” he laughed. “I honestly never dreamed I’d manage something this nice, but… I made a very fortunate trade, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

Their curiosity served as a pleasant palate cleanser from the cake. He offered only cryptic details in response to their incessant questions. But he could only derive so much energy from his own secrets, and it wasn’t hearty enough to stave off the crash from all the sugar. Eventually, all three lay nearly comatose on the floor.

“This is why I hate food,” Thirtyx grumbled. “My food doesn’t make my energy spike and plummet like this.”

“How nice for you,” Rhea whined. “If we were home, I probably wouldn’t have eaten as much cake—social pressure and all.”

Benn snorted. “Does that mean you regret it?”

“Twin hells no! It was kind of nice to have a birthday without all that pomp and circumstance. You know, growing up, I’d hear about other kids’ birthday parties, and I’d feel almost jealous, because I never got to just… be a kid on my birthday. Funny how, now that we’re not really kids anymore, we finally got to live that dream.”

Benn made a content humming sound. “That’s a really nice way of looking at it, Rhea. Thanks for putting it into words.”

Thirtyx found himself grinning at the ceiling. “Have I told you guys lately how honored I am to be the person you don’t have to keep up the pomp and circumstance for?”

Rhea shook her head and made a gag of disgust. “Nope. Now you ruined it. Too sappy. I’m going to toss my cake if you don’t shut up.”

“Yeah, I’m sure watching a princess vomit was absolutely what Thirtyx meant by being honored to know the real us.” Benn smirked at Thirtyx, eyes gleaming. “If you ever get down on your luck, I’m sure you could write some wild exposes.”

“How bad your feet smell could be one by itself.”

Before Thirtyx could sit up, Benn had rolled across the floor and twisted Thirtyx into a classic Sigraexil grapple—one he’d long forgotten how to escape. But that didn’t stop him from futilely trying and, when that failed, threatening more exposes about Benn’s unsavory behaviors. The affair devolved into a pillow fight that left Thirtyx with more than one nasty bruise. And yet, when Rhea finally bid them goodnight, picking stray feathers from her hair in annoyance, Thirtyx crawled into his bed thinking it had already been the best holiday he could’ve ever asked for.

Because perhaps he had the best friends he could’ve ever asked for.