"Happy birthday!" I exclaimed once we had walked down the stairs and approached their table. The restaurant was in the basement of the building, with low lighting circulating the room, tables illuminated by a single light coming through the exhaust fans hovering over each hot plate. 

Lukas's eyes went wide as I extended his present to him. "Did you get me something?"

I nodded, grinning. "Hope you like it. Ben helped me."

Lukas, bewildered, looked to Ben, who shrugged. "She insisted even though I tried to talk her out of it."

He peered into the bag, seeing the game title, a smile spreading across his face. "I've been wanting to play that one." He looked up at me. "Thanks Ollie. I haven't had a birthday present since... gosh. I don't even know. It's been more than fifty years."

My eyes narrowed as I took my seat between Ben and Erica. "How old are you now?"

"One hundred and forty-seven."

"You're ancient!" I exclaimed, a little too loudly.

Everyone around the table began to laugh though.

"There's many older than me, Ollie," he said.

"When was your dad born, if you don't mind me asking?"

"1702. And uncle Rüdy was born in 1650."

"No way," I gasped.

"You're adorable, Ollie," Erica commented.

My shocked expression turned to her, falling into the depths of her eyes. "No you're adorable."

She wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "Ben, I love her. Don't ever scare her away."

"I'm doing my best not to." His hand found my knee under the table and we shared a smile.

Erica leaned into my ear and whispered, "Are you two official yet? Ben has been fussing about how to ask you all day..."

Blushing, I gave a small nod.

As I looked up, Lukas's eyes caught my gaze. A warmth in his brown eyes that felt so friendly and familiar... But before I could pin where I had seen it before, it disappeared. "Many reasons to celebrate tonight then. Shall we get a round of drinks?"

Ben shook his head. "You know I don't drink."

"Ollie?" Lukas turned to me.

"I could go for one."

He called over the waiter and ordered a round of drinks for the table as well as some food.

"So Ollie," Jayce suddenly said. "We were wondering... do you know where in Ireland this activation circle is?"

"Jayce," Ben said in a warning tone.

"What?" Erica asked in her brother's defence.

"Leave her alone for once," Ben said.

Erica shook her head. "We've done nothing to earn your distrust. That was all you and Jade who messed things up. Besides, you know Ollie is going to be one of my best friends soon enough."

I threw her a raised eyebrow.

"I've seen it, love," she whispered to me. "I do predictions at the beginning of each month."

Smiling, I looked down. "No, I don't know where the activation circle is."

"Is there a way you can find out?" Jayce asked.

"Maybe?"

"Guys, lay off," Ben threatened again.

"You lay off," Lukas chimed in, a little grumpy now. He had been staying out until this point. "Ollie deserves to hear the full truth about everything and make her own decisions."

"Don't talk about her like you know her," Ben retorted.

"Like you do?" Lukas scoffed. "She doesn't need some boy making decisions for her. She's her own person and can make up her own mind on what she wants to do."

"And she is sitting right here," I said in a small voice.

Lukas looked up, a small apologetic smile, waving a hand to me to speak.

"I'm curious to hear what they have to say, Ben. I'm allowed to hear it."

Leaning over, hand on my knee once more, he whispered, "I'm sorry. I just don't want you to be overwhelmed by all this craziness. You've had to accept so many new things in such a short period..."

Smiling at him slightly, I said, "I know. But I am curious. This whole fairy thing has been following me my whole life... it's worth looking into." I turned to the group and said more loudly, "Look, I'm interested, but I wouldn't know where to begin."

"Do you have any of those books with you?" Jayce asked.

I shook my head. "They're all back in Australia. If they are still in that library that is too."

"Do you know anyone who could access them?"

Biting my lip, I responded, "I might. I haven't spoken to her for a while though."

"Well, if you can get her to look, get her to find the name of a place or even send a picture if there's drawings? We can try to go from there."

"And," Lukas said, "If you can't, we can just search all of Ireland until we find it!"

I shook my head and grinned at him. "That would take forever."

"Hey... better than searching somewhere like Australia."

"True."

At that moment, our drinks and food arrived. We began chatting about nonsense, drinking and eating.

"So Ollie," Erica started, putting together a variety of vegetables with ssamjang on a piece of lettuce. "I want you to tell us your life story so far. The abridged version. We all want to get to know you better." She then held the wrap up to my mouth.

My eyes went wide as I cocked my head.

"Say ah. C'mon. It's a friendly thing in my culture."

I opened my mouth, as she plopped the wrap into my mouth. How did she know not to put meat on it? I wondered. But then I went back to her statement... my life story. I wouldn't know where to begin...

"I can see you're nervous. I'll start, then. Jayce and I moved over to London with our parents from Busan when we were five. That was back in 1989, if you're wondering. We aged pretty normally up until we turned 13 when it began to slow down. First it took two years to age a year. Then three to age a year. So on so forth. Our mum and dad live in Brighton, and we moved to London when the school opened in the year 2000. And then I had the dismay of meeting this lot, and dated dumbo Lukas over there for a couple of years. And that's about it. Oh, and I studied a Bachelor of Business and am now finishing up my Bachelor of Design."

Lukas shook his head at her. "You left out all your other exes."

"Yeah but they never counted."

He gave her a small warm smile and then Erica leaned across the table, placing a piece of meat on his plate. I wondered if this was their normal... a wave of kindness that crashes with bitterness every now and then in the wake of their separation. I wanted to ask about that, but I knew it wasn't my place.

"So your story?" Erica asked, turning to me.

"Born and bred in the tropics of Australia in a regional city. Um, dad died when I was two. From the Big C."

Ben's hand moved from my leg under the table, taking my hand, rubbing circles on my skin.

"Sorry to hear that," Jayce said. "Was it sudden?"

I nodded. "Mum said I was only six months old when he was diagnosed. And by then it was pretty terminal."

"Oh bless your mother," Erica said. "She must have had it pretty rough raising a baby just after losing her partner. And you must have hated growing up without your dad."

I shrugged. "I had mum. She was all I needed."

"And then what happened? What was school like?"

"Life was pretty normal until puberty made us horrible people. And by us I mean all my friends and peers I grew up with... Lots of drama, fights, this person dating that person. Then high school ended, I studied a year at uni, found out about the study abroad thing, packed up my things and moved here." I shrugged, trying to cut my story short.

"Any juicy relationships?"

Shaking my head, "I suppose?"

"Tell me."

I heaved a sigh. "Spent my early teens crushing on my best friend, never having the courage to confess."

"Why's that?" Ben asked.

I shook my head. "Fairly certain she doesn't swing that way."

"A girl?" Erica asked, a little shocked.

I shrugged in response.

"Your first kiss?" Lukas said.

I nodded. "You remembered?"

"And then what happened?" Erica asked.

"And then... I gave up on her and let myself get my heart broken by a couple of boys. One final ouchy to end them all and I swore off relationships."

"Until me," Ben whispered.

Glancing at him, I said, "Until you."

"Nope. None of that at the table," Lukas said, bringing my attention back. "What happened with the ouchy?"

I shook my head. "I'm not ready to talk about that." Not if Ben would hear it... he might not look at me the same if he knew.

"Any siblings?" Erica asked.

"Just me. Me, mum, and the cat."

"Do you have a picture of this friend?"

Nodding, I pulled out my phone, flicking through to her profile on Facebook.

"Marli... oh she is cute. Is she Aboriginal?"

"Yes. From the Tjapukai mob up near Cairns."

Ben leaned over to have a look. I could almost sense a hint of jealousy in his touch, but he was trying to smother it with false curiosity. "Is she the one who looked into fairies with you?"

"The very one."

I put my phone away and turned to Ben and Lukas. "Neither of you have told me your stories. Your turn."

"You know most of mine," Ben said in a low voice.

"You've told me pieces."

"There's not much more to know."

But Lukas wasn't having it. "Benny here was born in 1922 in good ol' Surrey. His dad, born in 1772, was from a pretty strong vampire line. But to his parents' dismay, he fell in love with a human woman in 1917, got married to her by the end of the year, then impregnated her with his vampire baby, our Benny."

My eyebrows furrowed. "Wait... she got pregnant right after they got married? Those years don't add up..."

Ben let out a sigh next to me. "Vampire pregnancies take as long as their aging..."

"No... She was pregnant for over three years with you?"

"Yup," Lukas grinned. "My mum had to wait a good six years to give birth to me."

"No way..."

"Yes way."

My eye twitched. Does that mean if Ben and I were to ever... Then I'd have to be pregnant for... I shook that thought straight from my mind. I was definitely getting ahead of myself there.

"Anyway, back to Ben. So bouncing, blood-sucking Ben grew up a happy boy until his mum passed in the late 40s just before he started school. Then all the mean kids bullied Ben during his next fifty years of schooling until finally the boarding school in London opened. And that's why Ben is so mopey because people were very mean to him."

I was feeling a little mad towards Lukas for the way he was talking down Ben's past. Ben was warranted for being affected by the rudeness of people. But as the anger in me began to swell, Ben gave my hand a gentle squeeze, sending me only warmth.

"But then I sat next to him at school and we've been inseparable since, haven't we?" Lukas smiled at his friend.

Ben nodded. "Lukas is like a brother to me," he said for my benefit.

Like a brother... so they always fight and tease each other. I eased up at that news, my bitterness towards Lukas subsiding. "And your story, Lukas?" I asked, already knowing part of it.

"Got a couple of years?" he replied, laughing. I wondered if he always laughed his discomfort away. "Born in 1870 to a really strong vampire and witch line. But my uncle was disappointed to find out through much trial and error that I did not possess even a shred of abilities from either parent, especially my mother. I am just mostly vampire with some magic. So after a hundred years of trying to get any ounce of magic from me, he threw me aside. In my angst, I moved to London for a while back in the 80s, avoiding the school system until the boarding school opened. Then I went there. Met the lovely Erica," he winked at her, "and then had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Ollie, too. I also did a Bachelor's degree in Business but now... I'm in between studies."

"Lukas was doing a degree in English up until last term, but then he dropped it after we found out about his uncle's plans," Erica intruded, rolling her eyes.

"Oh really? What university?" I questioned.

"Actually, the same as—" Erica started, but Lukas shot her a look and she went quiet.

Ben, for some reason, was unphased by this exchange so I didn't question it.

"How do you navigate the age thing?" I asked them.

"Fake IDs of course. Though ours are pretty strong replicas with the magic and all making them basically authentic," Lukas explained.

I leaned around to Jayce. "Are you studying?"

He nodded. "Currently studying education."

"So you all just switch degrees and interests all the time?"

"Not much else to do. We could work but... there's no point. So we'd rather learn," Erica explained.

"And when you run out?"

Lukas grinned. "The world will probably have changed so much by then. There will be so much more to learn."

I turned to Ben. "Have you done any study since school?"

He shook his head. "I'm not interested in anything." He looked at the table.

I understood partially where he was coming from. With all those years of schooling, mingling with the common human must seem like a scary prospect for him.

"Except you, of course," he said, mistaking my sadness.

I smiled at him in response.