The Life and Times of a Girl Named Blaise Zabini

Chapter 5

Notation: [...] means the words are being spoken in Elvish

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"I assume that there is an explanation for why you are in my daughter's room, Haldir. Not to mention how it is that you are here, when I remember you dying quite a long time ago, and thus should be in Valinor."

What ran through Blaise's mind at that point was approximately this: 'Oh My Gawd! Da's here and he's asking about Hal and I don't know what to say and he looks really peeved which is weird 'cause we were just talking; it wasn't like we were smooching- DOWN GIRL! and and and why me, and you're being silly, Blai- er, Elessi, 'cause there's no smooching of Hal 'cause he's dead and incorporeal and so, nothing to smooch, so it isn't that, and I think I'm hyperventilating, because Da and Hal are starting to look worried, and I think I should calm down.

...

Oh, heck with that!'

"I WANT MY MUMMY!!! *WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!*"

Her father was instantly at her side, hugging her close and rocking her gently, murmuring gently in Sindarin. Haldir made do with looking and feeling concerned for Blaise, even though he had a distinct urge to join in the hug.

For Haldir, being, for all intents and purposes, a ghost, really, really stank.

Aww, look, he's pouting!

And lookie here, Blaise just spotted him pouting!

Feeling particularly determined, Blaise started slowly but surely maneuvering her father towards Haldir, even as her hysterical sobbing continued unabated.

Once close enough, she quickly moved hers and her father's clasped arms closest to Haldir and looped them over his image, thus giving the appearance of his being included in the hug.

Aww, Group Hug!

^_^

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About fifteen minutes later and lots of babbling, explaining, and hugging concluded, Blaise had managed to make her intentions as far as the whole Haldir incident was concerned, Haldir himself adding various forgotten points to make it a unified, cohesive whole. Most importantly, she had sheepishly revealed her reasons for learning about Astral travel in the first place.

Legolas was rather touched by his daughter's concern for his emotional well-being, as well as proud of her accomplishments at such a young age, using talents that were almost universally rare. He rather assumed, as well, that her aptitudes for such things were probably derived from her mother.

Speaking of which, Death had mentioned something about stopping in this evening to meet Blaise, or rather Elessario.

It was a rather good thing that the memorial service was winding down, and all that was left was to see their guests out the door and clean up. They would probably end up eating leftovers or something of the sort.

Blaise was particularly adept at taking leftovers and turning them into components for rather tasty meals, though so far she seemed focused on turning things into sandwiches. Her peanut butter and sliced strawberry sandwiches were particularly good, though when asked why she didn't simply use jelly or jam, Blaise would give them her "I Can't Believe You Actually Need To Ask That; Are You a Moron?!" look of incredulity and say that jam and jelly both were disturbing to her as far as the mixture of textures went, and that if she wanted fruit flavoring, she had better be biting into something at least recognizable as fruit by its shape.

So there.

In any case, after the house was put back in order, father and daughter ended up plunked down in the family sitting room after they had changed out of mourning garb and into something a touch more comfortable, though black remained a prominent color choice, reading in companionable silence.

Which was precisely when Death decided it was safe to pop in.

"Hey Legolas. It's been a while, huh?"

"*GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!*"

Blaise ended up in an awkward pile on the floor, limbs twitching occasionally, promptly after having been surprised by the sudden and completely unexpected sound of her mother's voice. She had jumped about four feet in the air, lost her center of balance, and tumbled.

Death leaned over the back of the chair, her head cocked to one side as she stared down at her only child for the first time in sixteen years.

"Gee, Legolas, and here you were always going on about how Elves are naturally coordinated," she said, jet-black eyes somehow managing to twinkle in amusement. It was just too darn fun to rile the father of her daughter up.

And too easy.

Before Legolas could do more than stand up stiffly, looking like he was about to say something, Blaise interrupted.

"Normally I am. Must be something I get from your side, huh? By the way, I've fallen and I can't get up."

Both of her parents gave her a /look/.

"What? I may do yoga, but I don't think this is a position the human, or elven, body was meant to be in." She pouted cutely. "I fall down go boom, Daddy."

Legolas continued to stare down at her, relatively certain that she could get herself out of this. He crumbled when she let loose her ultimate weapon.

Bambi Eyes.

Death's eyes started to get moist and shimmery as well. "Aww, how cute!"

Well, that settled it in Legolas' mind that both of his daughters had inherited their abilities to get their way from their mothers.

Dammit.

Sighing, he looked over at Death, nodded towards Blaise, and both of them reached down and took a hand of their mutual child, giving a slight tug to propel her upwards.

Upon regaining her feet, Blaise dusted herself off, tucked a few strands of hair that had gotten free from the loosely-woven braid it was in back, then smiled cheerfully. Resuming her Bambi Eyes, she adopted a rather forlorn expression, and quoted one of her favorite childhood books.

"Are you my mother?"

Death maintained a straight face for all of five seconds, then dissolved into laughter.

"Oh yeah, she's definitely mine!"

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The Next Day...

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"This is so frickin' COOL, Mum!"

Death grinned in pride at Blaise. Now THIS was a girl after her heart! And then there were other things that she already seemed to be getting used to.

Mum.

She had no clue how Dream could have stayed away from his son for millennia; after just spending an evening yaking and getting to know her child, she wondered how she had managed sixteen years away from her little girl.

They were, as of now, walking in Destiny's Garden, on their way to her brother's... house, for lack of a better word, to meet with the rest of the Endless.

Well, everybody but Destruction, of course. He'd left shortly after Orpheus' wife died.

Speaking of her nephew, she probably should stop in for a visit sometime soon. Maybe she should also visit her ex-sister-in-law, Calliope. She'd always been of the opinion that the Greek Pantheon was a bunch of jerks for the most part, but Calliope certainly proved to be the exception to the rule.

For that matter, Calliope and Blaise would probably get along well. The girl was, apparently, an aspiring author. It was weird just how many of Blaise's talents were similar to those of her family. But her personality, that truly marked her as the daughter of Death: quirky, curious, insightful, with a rapier wit that was sharper than one of Destruction's blades.

Dammit, now she was getting all wistful, thinking about her baby brother.

Will not cry, will not cry, will not cry...

"Mum? You okay?"

Ah, yes, the girl was definitely hers, but the father had left his mark as well. Quiet, thoughtful, intelligent, loyal just shy of a fault, and graceful. And that whole elven mysteriousness and delicate beauty would have poor Blaise beating boys and men alike off with sticks (and magic, and large blunt objects, and large not- so-blunt objects...) soon. She had come to that conclusion when she had insisted that Legolas take the glamourie that made her look more human off Blaise, so the girl could get used to what she really looked like. Blaise hadn't noticed her own gorgeousness; she'd been too busy gently touching her now-pointed ears with an almost awe-struck reverence. Legolas would start teaching her how to set the glamourie herself after Death dropped her off back at home tonight.

Death smiled at Blaise and said, "Nothing, just memories."

At the curious look she received, she smirked and stated, "I'll probably end up telling you later; wait."

Blaise simply pouted cutely, but was forced to turn her attention from her mother to the stairs they were climbing up to a massive column-supported hall, a circular table with seven seats in the middle, several paintings of men and women hanging upon the walls.

Waiting for them within was a figure garbed in a monk-like robe, the upper half of his face hidden by the shadow cast by his cowl. He bore chains upon his wrists, which were attached in turn to a large book, in which was written all that was, is, and will be.

This was Destiny of the Endless.

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About a half an hour later...

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"...And this is your...umm...Uncle-Aunt Desire."

Blaise blinked.

"..."

And blinked again.

"..."

Death moved her hand rapidly up and down in front of her daughter's face, looking for some sort of reaction.

"..."

Okay, now this was getting kinda scary, here.

"Blaise?"

"..." *blink*

Okay, back to blinking again. At least she didn't need to worry about the poor kid's eyes drying out and shriveling up like a raisin.

"Elessi?"

"..."

...Okay, this was getting boring...

"Elessario, if you can hear me, blink...twenty times."

Blaise got this ever-so-tiny mental smirk that had worked its way past the shock of meeting her gender-ambiguous relative, and decided to take up the challenge.

"..." *blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink- blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink*

Death gave a relieved sigh, then smirked and said, "You went over by one, you know."

Blaise, keeping her face in perfect Ice Queen blankness, let loose an elegant retaliatory raspberry.

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Several hours later...

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"Well, that was certainly interesting. And here I thought that Da and Dalla had the market cornered for non-average family-ness."

Death raised an eyebrow.

"In a good way, I mean! I'm definitely going to have to try to visit Uncle Dream sometime soon. The Dreaming sounds awesome! Absolutely spiffing, even!"

Mother and daughter paused in their forward motion, looked at each other, and simultaneously burst out laughing.

"Bwa-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaa...hoo!" (In stereo!)

"/ hee! / ...Anyway, Mum, your family is all pretty darn cool, but I think Auntie Desp looked a bit uncomfortable."

"Auntie Desp" was Blaise's personal nickname for Despair, Desire's twin sister. The squat, obese entity had been rather caught in a dilemma, since she particularly hated when people referred to her in a manner that conveyed any less than the full scope of her realm of dominion. At the same time, she rather liked the fact that her niece wasn't scared of her, or intimidated. Nobody had ever gone out of their way to be nice to her.

"It was the clothes."

Blaise, looking confused, asked, "What, she's not a t-shirt and jeans sort of person?"

Death snickered and said, "No, it was the clothes, period."

Blaise still looked confused.

Death sighed, then explained, "Blaise, Despair normally doesn't wear clothes at all. Her favorite thing to do is to rip into her own flesh with one of those hooks she's always carrying. She claims that clothes get in the way, plus she / likes / feeling cold."

Blaise's eyebrow twitched. "So, what, this was the first time she's worn clothes?"

Death shook her head and said, "Yeah, but we tried to get her to for your cousin Orpheus' wedding."

*blink-blink* "Orpheus is my cousin?"

*nod-nod* "Yup. Dream's boy, though you wouldn't believe it, since they haven't talked since his head first washed up on the island of Naxos. Not for lack of effort on Orpheus' part, mind you..."

"Oh. That sucks." Pause. "Wait, his / head?! /"

"Yeah. The Bacchante got a hold of him. Gave him the choice of joining in on their party, or they'd dismember and eat him. Because of a favor he called in on me before he went to the Underworld to get his wife back, he can't die, so his head is still around."

"...All right, now I'm feeling bad for being all weepy and moany when Dalla died. That's beyond suckage." Blaise spun around and started heading in the direction they had come from.

"Elessi?"

Blaise called over her shoulder, "I'm gonna give Uncle Morph a piece of my mind! Whatever he and Orpheus were arguing about is nothing compared to that. They're family. He should act like it!"

Death appeared right in her daughter's path, blocking the way. No matter how Blaise tried to go around her, her mother was always there, stopping her.

"Dangit, Mum! Don't you care?! Doesn't it bother you?!"

*SLAP!*

Blaise grabbed her cheek, starring at her mother in shock.

Taking a long, deep breath, Death let it out slowly, and said quietly, "Of course I care. Of course it bothers me. But it's not my place to tell Dream what to do with his life." She held up a hand to forestall her daughter's response. "Elessi, I've known your uncle for a long time. Longer than you'll ever know him. Once he's set in a way of thinking, it'll take a whole lot to get him to change it. The only time I've butted in on his life was to speak up for one of his ex-girlfriends."

Blaise was silent, then asked quietly, "What happened?"

"Dream offered to make her immortal, his Queen. She rejected him, and he sent her to Hell.

"A few years ago, there was some major sh** going on, and I basically told him to get off his ass and forgive her. He did, and he freed her to be reborn.

"As for Orpheus, Dream does care about him. Went to the trouble of having a mortal agent rescue him when the French were planning on destroying his head during their 'Revolution'. They were obsessed with getting rid of anything and everything of a fantastical nature, and Orpheus' head had been brought to Paris at one point a millennium or so ago."

Death sighed, then concluded with, "Just because they don't talk, doesn't mean they don't love each other, kiddo. Hopefully Dream will get his head out of his ass and tell the kid he's sorry before the next millennium."

Blaise sniffled, wiping some tears from her eyes. "I still say that sucks."

Death reached over and pulled the girl into a hug. "I know it does, sweetie, but here's hoping things'll get better before they get worse."

They stood there for quite some time, just holding each other. Then Death pulled back, looked down (Hey, Blaise was pretty darn petite at that age, ya know! She didn't hit her ever-so-elfy growth spurt until she was almost seventeen!) into Blaise's eyes, grinned, and said, "Hey, you wanna go meet Orpheus? We've still got a few hours to kill before your dad's expecting us."

*sniffle* "Really?"

*grin!* "Really-really."

*grin!* "Heck yeah!"