All you beautiful liars - Marina, Percy

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

The cafe where Marina waitressed most days wasn't a terrible place. The pay was decent, her workmates were fun and none of them had revealed themselves to be massive bigots of any sort (yet), her boss was fair, and it wasn't too terribly far from her apartment. It wasn't her dream job, but how many people actually got to work their dream jobs? Marina, like most, was working a job to pay her way through life and fine with it meaning little. She didn't need much money anyway; Marina didn't really care about material possessions and she knew how to be thrifty.

She was lonely though. Although her workmates seemed fine, Marina still felt burned over her last close friendship: the one that had turned into a love affair. The one that had ended very very poorly. Marina wasn't sure if she wanted to make new friends after that. She went out drinking with people occasionally, went and did social things, but none of them felt all that real to her. The last few years of her life had been marked with connections stronger than any others: revealing to Giles, her first love, about her past history; the return of Deacon into her life in dramatic and sometimes horrible ways. These were real connections. These were connections written in blood. How did you start that right from the beginning?

Marina hated admitting to herself that sometimes she missed Giles. Was that a first love thing? Would she end up always missing that stupid selfish boy who'd hurt her so badly? If that was the case, then it sucked.

It was one of those evenings leaving work and thinking about Giles when she ran into his brother. It felt like a weird coincidence and for a moment her expression read only shock, but then she smiled. "Percy! It's been ages!"

And it had. She hadn't seen Percy since she quit the show, since he'd told her that Giles was at that moment getting married. It had been less than wonderful news, but Percy had only been the messenger and he'd always been good to her.

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[darkerartemis.insanejournal.com]

"Marina!" Percy cried out happily. He had missed her a lot since she had left the show thanks to Giles being a dick. He reached out his arms for a hug, grinning widely. "You look beautiful! How have you been?"

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"Good, I've been good," Marina said as she hugged him, having to reach up a fair way to loop her arms around his neck. "Haven't seen you since- well, ages," was what she settled on, a wry smile on her lips filling in the rest of what she'd been going to say. No need to bring up Giles' wedding if it could be helped.

"You look good," she told him with a nod, glad to see he hadn't fallen into some state of disrepair without her around the show. Hopefully they'd picked up another assistant who was just as bossy with the two of them, and hopefully who wasn't going to sleep with Giles.

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

Percy chuckled and ran his hand through his red hair. "Well thank you. We've been plodding along as best we can without you." She was just as delightful and beautiful as he remembered. "Do you have time to catch up or something? I would love to know what you've been up to."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"I'd love that, yeah!" Marina told him, loving the idea. It was a nicer idea to do something together instead of going home to her apartment alone. "There's a bar around the corner that's pretty decent? I just got off work, so maybe stay downwind of me." She frowned thoughtfully. "I think I smell of carbonara."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"I happen to like carbonara," he said as they headed towards the bar. "So you've been working at a cafe? Do they treat you well?"

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"They treat me good," Marina agreed with a nod as she began along the street. "Not as good a boss as you, of course," she teased, bumping his arm with her shoulder and giving him a grin. "How's the show been?"

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"No one is," he teased right back, his grin coming easily. Sometimes it took a lot to get Percy to come out of his shell, but Marina had always been very good at it. She just relaxed him and he could kill his brother for chasing her off and treating her like shit. She deserved so much more.

"The show's been great. No one can really replace you, but we found someone who works okay. I told my brother if he gets anywhere near her when we're not working, I would leave him chained up in one of the trunks for a few days and so far he seems to have gotten the message."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"You're right," she said, "you are obviously the best boss in London. I'll put out a notice about it." Marina knew that sometimes people found Percy a bit standoffish, but she also knew they just needed to get him in the right mood. She'd always found a way to do that, so it couldn't be too hard.

"She'll pick it all up in time," Marina said with a nod. "I'd never done magic when I started with you guys, remember? Giles admitted to me once that he'd encouraged you to hire me because of how good I'd look in that spangly corset? And, hey, I worked out." She thought about the girl getting involved with Giles and made a face. "Maybe you should tell him I'll punch him again if he does that."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"Oh, would you? Maybe I'll win an award," he joked, though he doubted he would be winning anything ever. Giles had won several awards for his illusions. He was always the one people recognised. It was hard living in the shadow of a brother who was kind of an asshole.

Remembering how Giles had convinced him to hire Marina made Percy sigh and groan a little. "That's right. I had forgotten. He's not allowed to have anything to do with the hiring any more anyway. I will tell him though, just to see the look on his face. I think he's terrified of being punched these days anyway because it might mess up the work he had done."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"How about I just buy you a drink instead?" Marina asked, hoping he'd settle for that beyond an award. Maybe she could draw one on a napkin.

Reaching the bar, she pulled open the door and gestured for him to go in ahead of her. "I can't believe what happened to him at that wedding. I didn't see it - I'd already taken off - but I heard about it in detail. Horrifying. Even Giles didn't deserve that."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"I think that sounds better anyway!" he said cheerfully.

He went in first, like she gestured for him to, and then turned to her as she spoke. "Deirdre's sister really went to town on him. I can't blame her, really, but you're right. It was a little excessive. May have scared him straight though, hopefully. Deirdre told me she talked to you. She's really nice. Had no idea my brother was such a dickhead."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"Deirdre's sister sounds more than a little terrifying," Marina said, considering what the woman must be like. She also considered that 'straightness' has never exactly been Giles' problem, but she knew what Percy meant. "Giles' ability to emotionally manipulate the people around him might be his greatest magic trick." Then she sighed. "Let's not talk about him. It's depressing and makes me feel like an idiot."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"You're not an idiot," Percy assured Marina, but he was happy enough to change the subject. "But fair enough. Any one new in your life?"