Birthday Walk Around
It was unfortunate that Vincent's birthday landed on Valentine's Day. The day for love. Gross. Vincent had purposely went straight to the museum after school because he had overheard the small party his step-mother was planning. Despite him being explicitly clear that he had no intentions on having a party. He didn't hold it against her, Vincent wasn't all bad in overcrowded events, but he didn't like it whatsoever.
The museum isn't as crowded as he was expecting. Vincent is fond of this late night endeavor. He just enters the security room when McPhee pulls up.
"What are you doing?" he sounds deplored at Vincent's appearance here.
"Just, doing my job that I don't get paid for," Vincent gives the man a finger salute, "I'll see you later, boss."
"No, what are you doing here, on your birthday."
"Not celebrating?" Vincent shrugs his shoulders like it was obvious. He shakes his head, "I don't like parties. I get it from my father."
Larry enters the room and goes to his locker. This doesn't deter McPhee, "But you shouldn't be here. You should be out with friends. Sneaking into bars or whatever you kids do nowadays," McPhee was an odd man. "As much as I don't approve of such behavior, that's better than going to an unpaid job."
"It's your birthday?" Larry enters the heated conversation about nothing, "I'm going to have to side with McPhee. You should be having fun."
"Maybe I like hanging out with you, Larry," Larry gives a hard look, "Or maybe these wax and fluff guys are my only friends," Vincent holds up his hands and stares off for a second, "That makes me sound like a loser."
"It does," the two men agree.
"Right, well, I have friends. I just don't like celebrating another year closer to death," Vincent shrugs. "My bones already do that for me. It must really suck being fifty years old," he looks between McPhee and Larry.
"Ha ha," McPhee looks at his watch and sighs, "If you really don't have anything better to do, then I suppose you can stay here," Mcphee starts walking off, "You're home by twelve!"
Larry waits a second to speak, "Shall we get started then?"
Vincent pulls the top of Ahkmenrah's sarcophagus off. The man himself, covered in his wrapping like a preserved baby, took Vincent's offered hand. He steps out from his sad excuse of a bed, and begins taking his wrappings off. It was the same thing they did every night; nothing would change.
"Good evening, Ahkmen," Vincent and Ahkmenrah begin walking out of the exhibit, nodding at the Anubis guards on the way out.
"Good evening, Vinny. How was your day?" Ahmenrah had his full attention on Vincent.
Vincent would have answered if not for the loud speakers. "Everyone to the front, please," Larry's voice crackles loudly, "I repeat, Everyone to the front, please."
Vincent sighs. The two begin slowly walking toward the front, "Vinny?" Ahkmenrah asks, "Do you know what's going on?"
"I have a good idea," Vincent really hoped it wasn't what he was expecting.
They were the last ones there. Larry drags Vincent to the information desk and makes him stand there.
"Alright," Larry sighs and looks around. Dexter climbs up onto his shoulder, "Good, you're here," he begins to speak loudly, "It's Vincent's birthday, and I think he's owed the Happy Birthday song."
Vincent purses his lips and freezes in uncomfortable patience. Those who know the song sing, and the rest mumble, sway, or grunt with everyone else.
Vincent claps awkwardly once everyone finishes, "Thank you, everyone. This is well appreciated."
Everyone one wanders off, leaving Vincent tense in the information desk. A cool hand grabs his much warmer hand. He turns to look at the culprit.
"I did not know it was your birthday, Vinny," Akhmenrah lifts his hand and kisses it.
If he isn't already red-faced from the embarrassment of being born, he is surely a deep crimson now. "And," Larry sneaks in, "It's Valentine's Day, too."
Larry left, off to do whatever tasks he was avoiding by singing to Vincent, "Valentine's Day?"
"It's a day about love and couples," Vincent sticks a thumb down and blows a raspberry. "Though, I associate it more with Canadian coal miners and psychedelic music," he mumbles.
"A day of love?" Ahkmenrah asks, "Well, the night is still young," he proposes.
Vincent laughs, "For what?" he looks out the doors, "There are some shops open. I could take you to one and get you heart-shaped boxes."
"I would like that," Ahkmenrah smiles.
The two sneak into the security room and borrow Larry's clothes. He isn't going to be needing them until tomorrow anyway. Ahkmenrah changes, and Vincent opts to not look in fear of blushing himself into a fever; he hadn't not seen Ahkmenrah's defined abs, but he was used to not looking lower than his face, he really didn't want to chance it.
Ahkmenrah isn't bad looking in modern clothes; he wears a solid colour t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and a zip-up jacket. Vincent catches himself nodding in approval at the man. He shakes his head and grabs Ahkmenrah by the hand.
They sneak out the back entrance and walk down the alley and to the sidewalk. Vincent knows what shops were around, so he decides a candy shop would suffice his late night shopping trip.
It smells heavenly, leaving a large grin on Vincent's face. The candy shop was bright in colours, and held many shelves of sweets. Most notably, as Vincent directed toward it with Ahkmenrah still attached at his hand, is a large gathering of heart-shaped boxes.
Vincent laughs, "This is one of the big staples of Valentine's Day," he grabs a box, "I don't think I've ever had one before."
"What is in the boxes?" Ahkmenrah asks as they wander around the shop. Vincent grabs many varieties of sweets.
"Assorted chocolate- Oh! Would you look at that," Vincent grabs a bag of rock-hard candy hearts, "Another important expression for lovers."
Vincent pays for the sweets, seeing as Ahkmenrah doesn't have any money on him. "You two look cute together," the cashier hands the bag of sweets over to Vincent.
"Oh, uh," Vincent flushes a bit, "We're not- uh- You see-"
"Well, you two would certainly make a cute one," they smile. "Get home safe you two."
Vincent smiles and nods politely. They walk out of the shop and laugh at the odd occurrence. Vincent walks Ahkmenrah to another shop. This one is a gift shop (of sorts). Vintage books and new candle smells were held here; along with many other trinkets.
Vincent spots a necklace. It has a gold chain and dangling on it is a jade gemstone in a sharp-edged cylinder. He knows he has to get it for Ahkmenrah, no matter the cost. He tells Ahkmenrah to browse, leaving him to bring it up to the store owner and have it wrapped.
The two walk back to the alley, tired of shopping around already. Ahkmenrah changes back to his old clothing and puts the clothes he borrowed back in their original place. They walk to the Egyptian exhibit, ready to indulge in the sweets they had just bought.
Vincent is surprised Ahkmenrah didn't die from all the sugar and preservatives; quite the opposite actually, he enjoys the sweetness a lot. He giggles at the small candy hearts and shows Vincent the phrase on it before eating it, a handful of which were "Kiss me"
Vincent's phone goes off, the same beginning of "Funkytown" like usual. They had ten minutes left. He grabs a box and shows it to Ahkmenrah.
"For you," Vincent grins, "A late Valentine's gift."
Ahkmenrah takes it. He opens the box and sees the necklace, "It's wonderful, Vinny," he smiles, "but you didn't have to."
"Nah," Vincent waves his hand, "It's the least I could do. Think of it as the present I wanted."
He pulls it out and puts it on, "I only wish I could have gotten you something."
"Hanging out with you is more than enough," Vincent stands up and grabs the bag of sweets, "I'll see you tonight, then."
"As you wish," Ahkmenrah smiles.
Vincent looks for his father when he gets home, he wants to apologize for ditching his party; then again, he was rather giddy from his, what he presumed, high sugar intake. He knocks on his fathers office door. There is no answer.
Vincent shrugs and opens the door, he knows, more than likely, his father is asleep, but it was worth a shot. The office is illuminated by the small amount of light let in from the thin curtains. He walks over and opens them, blinding himself. He could see dust particles twirl in the air and around his body.
He looks at the leather swivel task chair behind his fathers large wooden desk; it was a soft looking chair. Vincent sits down in it; it is very much soft. He kicks his legs up onto the desk and looks to the bookshelf on his right. It was full of encyclopedias, binders, and law related books. He grabs one of his drawstrings from his hoodie with his thumb and index finger, twirling it in subconscious boredom.
click
"The hell?" Vincent looks toward the sound. His father had taken a picture of him.
He is looking down at the camera when he says, "You're very photographic, Vinny," he looks up with a smirk, "How was your birthday at work?"
"Surprisingly peaceful," Vincent stands and walks with his father into the kitchen. He starts on making waffles, "I didn't have to start until twelve, they said I shouldn't work on my birthday," Vincent is glad he could lie smoothly.
"I see," his father looks at the bag of sweets Vincent had so carelessly dropped on the counter, "Treated yourself to sweets, I see."
"Can't help myself," Vincent grabs some chocolate from the bag and splits it between his father. His father grabs some, "Neither can you."
Goodbye, Mr. Daley(636 - unedited)
Vincent was a few minutes late to the museum. He was never later than 4:30, as McPhee was gone by then and he liked to catch up with him when he could. It was 4:36 when he entered the museum, he had not passed McPhee, like he was expecting. He went to the security room and put his night guard outfit on.
By five, he noticed that Larry hadn't shown up. With a sigh, he did his job and closed the few gates that needed to be. Jed and Octavius had questioned the whereabouts of Larry, but with no definitive answer, they left their exhibits and drove around, hoping to find the missing man.
Vincent did what he had been doing for the past week; he wrote essays, letters, and long papers to send to colleges in hopes of gaining acceptance to at least one of them, and throwing on some music for the museum's inhabitants to be distracted by. Not a need-to-know, but a description as to what he was doing.
Few people had joined him near the front desk as he chomped on chocolate animal crackers (the superior animal crackers) and typed nonsense onto a word document. Many wondered where Larry was.
Larry didn't show for the next week, which wasn't a surprise when McPhee had told Vincent that he had quit since his self-named business, Daley Devices, was skyrocketing. Many of the exhibits, and Vincent, were angry that he didn't inform them of this action. He had just left them behind without a second glance.
Vincent types aggressively, bothered by loud cat videos playing to his right and the constant laughter. He wants to finish the rest of his letter so he could edit it tomorrow, but with meowing and loud "awe"s, he could only think slowly of words to fill the blinding white screen.
tap tap tap
Vincent sighs and looks at the revolving doors. It was going to be another person who wants to see if the museum is open, due to its lights being on, when there is a very clear sign of its open hours just next to them.
"Hey!" a mumble comes from the other end. It's Larry.
"Sorry!" Vincent yells back, "Can't let you in! You don't work here!"
"I need to-" the rest of his sentence is stuffy; the glass blocks most of it.
He isn't leaving any time soon. Vincent stands up and walks toward the doors, unlocking them and letting the familiar man in. The miniatures at the information desk were irritated, but they hold no malice in their, metaphorically, large hearts for Larry.
"Thanks," Larry nods at Vincent.
"What do you want," Vincent is unimpressed at his comedic timing.
"I wanted to give you guys an official goodbye," Vincent steamed off, it is rather kind of him to do that, "and-" he scoffs and shakes his head, of course there's an and, "-I left a few things here."
"Well then," Vincent gives a rather fake smile, "get your ass moving. You're out in five. You're lucky, you really shouldn't be in here past dark."
Larry is shocked at the abnormal man, but he follows the orders. He says his goodbyes and farewells to anyone he passes through the halls, his duffle bag swinging by his side with a hastful walk.
"Vincent," Larry stops at the revolving doors, "Goodbye. I really do hope we see each other again."
Vincent doesn't give a smile back to him, he was still feeling indifferent toward the man. "Goodbye, Mr. Daley."
Larry knows he's unwanted by the new night guard. With that, he leaves his found family for the glorious fame he attracts.
Vincent would go on to feel just the slightest regret toward the tone he used at Larry, be he did leave them.
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Edited
Word Count: 2308
Notes: I'm not sure if it came off, but Vincent's father, William, is a lawyer with an interest in photography.
*Canadian coal miners- My Bloody Valentine, a 1981 horror/thriller movie. Psychedelic music- My Bloody Valentine, an Irish alternative rock band most active from 1983 to 1997.