Brigitte beamed bright and care free, then leaned against his side, sipping her drink happily. "I like it when you are not being mean to me."
Malvor glanced at Annie with a mock wounded expression. "I am never mean to her."
"You put a frog in my bed for my birthday!" Brigitte pouts at him.
"That frog had a tiny tiara and sang lullabies. You are most welcome."
"I still hear him in my dreams." Brigitte pretends to be angry.
Malvor's laugh was genuine, deep and warm, full of affection. Annie felt it ripple soft and caring through their bond. He truly adored Brigitte. Not in a teasing way like he did most others, not even in the semi flirtatious way he loved to play with every one else. With her, it was different. Gentle. Pure. Protective.
She was the Pantheon's for ever teenager, and tonight, she had chosen to lean into that light, bubbly version of herself. Malvor did not just accept it, he cherished it.
Brigitte turned to Annie, her wide eyes sparkling. "You look so pretty tonight. You are totally giving sea princess but also secret villain energy."
Annie blinked. "I... thank you?"
"It is a compliment," Brigitte nodded sagely. "If I ever go evil, I want to look exactly like you."
"She does look unfairly good tonight," Malvor agreed, raising his drink. "Do not encourage her. She needs no encouragement to be evil or to look that good."
"Too late," Brigitte said brightly. Then she dropped her voice into a low conspiratorial whisper. "Hey, Malvor? You are not going to break her heart, are you?"
Annie froze. Malvor did not.
He looked down at Brigitte with an expression Annie had never seen on him in front of others. Soft. Real. Quiet.
"No," he said, simple and true.
Brigitte studied him for a moment, then grinned and patted his arm. "Good. 'Cause if you do, I will curse your dreams."
"You already do," he replied dryly. "There was an entire week where I dreamed in multiple cupcake flavors. I will say the plain flavors were good but my favorite was the glittery pink one."
Brigitte's laugh sparkled like her dress. "That was a gift, not a curse. The glittery pink one is the flavor of being a girl. Sugar and spice and every thing nice."
And just like that, she twirled away again, her curls and laughter dancing behind her as she disappeared toward a nearby glowing sculpture of jelly fish lights.
Annie watched her go. Then she looked at Malvor.
"You love her."
"I do," he said simply. "She is one of the only people in existence who makes chaos feel like innocence."
Then, ever himself, he smirked. "Beyond that, she is the only one who can out shine me in glitter. That deserves my respect."
Annie still watched the girl's glittering figure disappear into the crowd, her curls bouncing as she twirled toward a glowing cluster of floating lanterns. She was so bright, so effortlessly light, that it almost did not seem real.
"Is she always like that?" Annie asked quietly, sipping the last of her drink.
Malvor's smirk softened into some thing more thoughtful. "Brigitte is… complicated."
"Complicated?"
"She is ageless," he explained. "Not just immortal. Not like me or Luxor or the rest of us who have seen a thousand empires fall. Brigitte is… stuck."
He glanced in the direction she had gone, a fondness in his gaze.
"She is not a child. Not really. But she plays one some times. Other days, she wakes up wanting to be a teenager. Moody. Over dramatic. Some times she acts like a woman older than all of us combined. You never quite know who you are going to get. And the only rule, the only thing you have to do, is meet her where ever she is. If she wants to be sixteen today, then today, she is sixteen. You do not argue with it. You respect it."
Annie raised an eye brow. "So what is she really?"
Malvor shrugged slightly. "She was born with power most of us still do not understand. Her realm is not just healing, it is life. Every spark, every cell, every living thing. Brigitte can knit flesh together with a whisper. She can bring some one back from the edge with a touch. But the opposite is true too."
His voice dropped, reverent and low.
"She can unmake a person just as easily. Stop a heart with a look. Kill a field of crops by sighing the wrong way. She does not like that part of her self, so she rarely shows it. But it is there. All that sweetness, all that sparkle? It is covering a storm most of us pray never wakes."
Annie looked back toward the jellyfish lights. Brigitte now spun beneath them, collecting a handful of glittering bubbles and pretending to juggle. Her laughter echoed, bright and innocent.
"She is… terrifying," Annie murmured.
Malvor smiled faintly. "Yes. But also precious. One of the only ones I trust with the worst parts of me. She sees every thing. And still chooses kindness."
He glanced sideways at Annie, brushing a lock of hair from her shoulder with deliberate care. "She loves you, you know. Already. She does not say it, but she does."
Annie blinked. "Why?"
"You have not run," Malvor said simply. "And Brigitte knows how rare that is."
They stood in silence for a moment, watching the girl twirl and laugh as the sea of blue shimmered around them.
Then Malvor raised his drink again. "Now, if you will excuse me, Sea Bunny, I believe I promised you mischief and another cocktail that might make me forget my own name."
Annie rolled her eyes. "Gods help me."
"They will not," he said brightly, "but I will. Probably. Maybe. No, I will not either."
And with that, he swept them back toward the glowing bar, his chaos trailing like a glittery tide behind him.
The bar sparkled like liquid star light, casting glimmers over Annie's dress and Malvor's suit as they returned, laughter lingering in the air. The androgynous bartender welcomed them back with a wink, already concocting some thing glowing and suspicious.
"This one is called Moon in the Undertow," they purred, sliding Annie a glass that swirled from icy silver to midnight blue with each breath she took. "Flavored like memories you almost forgot."
Annie sniffed it. "It smells like sugar and secrets."
"Perfect," Malvor said approvingly. "And this?" he added, pointing at his own drink as it was delivered, a deep, ominous shade of black with a blue flame dancing on top.
The bartender smirked. "Depth Charge. Do not sip unless you want to hear the stars scream."
"I absolutely do," Malvor declared, lifting the glass to toast. "To bad decisions and dancing with gods."
They clinked glasses and drank.
Moments later, Annie blinked and whispered, "I think my knees are laughing."
Malvor swayed on his feet slightly, smiling like someone who had just remembered all the naughty things he was planning. "Perfect timing, my little ship wreck. Shall we dance?"
With out waiting for an answer, he pulled her gently to the center of the dance floor.
The music pulsed, deep bass, oceanic rhythms, layers of shimmering sound that rippled through their bodies. The floor beneath their feet shimmered like starlight on water, shifting with every movement.
Annie started hesitant. Then the drink hit, her body loosened, her smile grew, and she fell into rhythm with Malvor, their steps effortless, swirling through glowing currents of dancers and magic.
He spun her once, twice, laughing when she stumbled into his chest.
"I think gravity is drunk," she murmured.
"No, no, that is just me, Sea Glass," he grinned, resting his fore head against hers.
They kept moving, their bodies closer with each beat. The music surged around them, melting the world away into color, heat, and motion. His hands slid along her back. Hers curled into his shirt. Their fore heads pressed together, breath shared in the smallest space.
"You are stunning," he whispered. "Have I told you tonight that you are devastating?"
"You have," she whispered back, her voice husky, "but I would not mind hearing it again."
His hand slid to her waist, pulling her flush to him, and he murmured against her lips, "You are devastating, irresistible, the reason I am seriously considering misbehaving in a room full of gods."
"Then you better behave, Chaos."
He smirked. "Unlikely."
She laughed, but it caught half way out of her throat when he kissed her, long and slow and deep. The kind of kiss that made the rest of the world flicker like a broken illusion.
Around them, the club pulsed, throbbed, came alive.
But all that existed was his mouth on hers. His hands. Her racing heart. And the way they moved together, perfectly out of sync with every one else, and yet some how more in rhythm than ever.
When they finally broke apart, breathless and buzzed, Annie stared up at him with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes.
"Remind me what was in that drink again?"
Malvor licked his lips, dazed. "Poor decisions."
She laughed again and pulled him back into the dance.
They were a mesh of bodies. A mixing of souls. Moving as one. Like waves in the madness of the ocean.
The music surged to a new high, sultry, rhythmic, seductive. From the center of the dance floor, waves of magic pulsed in time with the beat.
Yara emerged like a crashing tide.
Her dress shimmered like ocean spray, clinging and sparkling as if it were poured onto her skin. Her hips swayed with a natural, unapologetic rhythm as she glided across the floor straight toward Malvor and Annie, who were still tangled together from their last dance.
"I hate to interrupt," Yara said, her voice a silky purr, "but it is the day of my birth, darling."
Malvor laughed softly. "Of course it is."
She slipped between them without waiting for permission, twining her arms around Malvor's neck as the music shifted once more into something deeper, liquid seduction turned into sound.
Malvor did not pull away. He let Yara take his hands and guide him into her rhythm. It was fluid and showy, full of dips and dramatic turns, nothing like the quiet intimacy he had just shared with Annie.
But it was fun. Yara is always so much fun.
Yara was all movement and sparkle, laughter and flirtation. She twirled under his arm, pressing her body close again, running her fingers up the back of his neck with practiced ease. He grinned, meeting her energy beat for beat, their chemistry explosive and theatrical.
At the bar, Annie slowly sipped her drink, some thing cool, blue, and slightly fizzy. She watched with a calm detachment, her eyes following their movements. She did not feel jealousy twist in her chest. She did not feel bitter or wounded.
She was too old for that.
Too tired.
Too experienced.
Too sure of herself.
Instead, she smiled faintly, quietly nursing her glass as the god of chaos spun with the goddess of oceans. He was laughing. Really laughing. And that… that was some thing rare.
She liked that look on him. He looks good happy. He looks younger. More care free.
She let her self simply enjoy the sight: two divine beings lighting up a dance floor in a burst of blue and gold, shaking the heavens with their presence. Let them burn bright for a moment. Let them have the attention.
Let them have fun.
Annie leaned back on the bar stool, one leg crossed over the other, swirling her drink and letting the beat of the music wash over her like a wave.
He would find her again.
He always did.
And when he did… she would still be there. Smiling. Waiting. Untouched by any thing but the quiet knowledge that she was the one he always came home to.