The States

Two of Cups

2000

Evangeline mindlessly shuffles her tarot cards sometimes when she's bored or just isn't really focused, which happens a lot when she's between weddings.

They've been watching Charmed reruns, and in the past hour, Evangeline has gone from forcing her hair back into a hairbow to braiding Caden's hair to shuffling and reshuffling and shuffling again.

Caden watches the way she taps the cards against her knuckles twice before beginning to reshuffle them. Her charm bracelets jangling together as her hands move. It's a little mesmerizing.

He nudges her gently to get her attention. "Explain these to me, again?"

He's pretty familiar with tarot cards. They used to make up games to play with them- he'd shuffle them and then ask Evangeline to tell him what the nineteenth card in the deck was (she'd never been wrong) or Evangeline would modify the rules of a real card game for her tarot cards.

Evangeline brightens, and starts finishing out the shuffle. "You know the suits, right?"

Caden nods, and just to prove that yes, he does pay attention: "Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles, and the Trumps."

"They're actually called the Major Arcana, but yeah, Trumps works too. There are twenty-two cards in the Major Arcana, and the rest of the cards, the suits, are part of the Minor Arcana." Evangeline lays the cards out in a spread, face-up. "They have fourteen cards apiece."

She picks the suits out as she speaks, laying them in lines. "There are four Court cards in a suit. King, queen, knight, and-"

"Page." Caden finishes, holding out the Page of Swords.

Evangeline smiles, setting it with the rest of the swords.

She picks up the cards, tapping the edges until the deck is nice and neat. "The Major Arcana are the big cards, the turning points, major events and themes. The Minors are for subtlety, the details."

She offers them to Caden. "Shuffle them?"

He does. The first time Evangeline had asked him to shuffle, he'd dropped half the cards on the floor, unused to the size compared to playing cards.

He cuts the deck into two stacks neatly, folds the cards back into one deck, and passes them back to Evangeline.

She shuffles again, and then begins dealing cards, setting them down on the table.

On the tv, the Halliwell sisters chant latin. Evangeline rolls her eyes at it.

"I'll do a simple three card reading. The three cards will represent your past, present, and future."

"Ace of Cups represents my past?" Caden raised an eyebrow. "It's upside down."

Evangeline smile falls. "Yes, it's reversed. It's indicative of loss."

She doesn't elaborate.

Caden swallows and taps the next card. "Two of Cups?"

Evangeline changes the subject gladly. "Symbolizes relationships- platonic and romantic. In the present, it'd mean that a relationship is being formed or reconciled."

"So?"

"It means you've got to make a decision regarding your relationships."

Caden glances at Evangeline before he taps the last card. "This... this is the Fool, right?"

Evangeline nods. "It is. It's interesting that it's in the future position, but not particularly strange. I'd say here, it symbolizes new beginnings or opportunities, and since it's paired with two Cups cards, I'd say the opportunities would deal with emotions and relationships."

Caden stares at her. "Really?"

Evangeline raises an eyebrow. "When have I ever been wrong?"

Caden opens his mouth, already thinking of a few examples.

Evangeline huffs, and grabs the three cards off the table, sticking them back into the deck. "Don't answer that. I meant when have I ever been wrong about tarot?"

Caden looks at Evangeline. "Never." He settles back on the couch, and she sticks her legs in his lap, dropping the tarot cards back in her purse.

"Exactly." She beams at him, and Caden thinks about the Two of Cups and The Fool, thinks about possibilities and opportunities and new beginnings.

Evangeline starts ranting under her breath in French at the show, and Caden looks at her and smiles.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Author's Notes

So this is pretty open, but I do picture this as being pre-AR/LA so.....

hopefully i didn't completely mess up the tarot card meanings