The Alchemists

After the event, Caspar invited Jean and Billie to chat and have drinks in the penthouse. Both agreed after they went out for a while to become the photo object of paparazzi waiting outside the hotel.

When they returned to the penthouse, Finland already found their faces plastered in several prominent gossip column websites.

"Gosh... weren't you only out for about 10 minutes? The gossip is already there!" She showed her cellphone to Jean and Billie who immediately checked their photos on the TMZ* and Nickiswift* pages.

"Wow... it was a good idea to wear that hat," Billie commented, "They'll think that you're trying to disguise yourself, so you don't get recognized... ahahahaha..."

"High five!" Jean raised his palm, and Billie immediately responded by meeting his hand. The two immediately laughed hard.

"Now Jean and Billie will become a hot topic in the entertainment industry," Finland said, "By the way, are you two aware that your names match...? You know Michael Jackson's famous song, 'Billie Jean', right?"

She showed a big headline on the TMZ website that referred to Jean and Billie as "The Billie Jean Couple".

The three laughed together.

"Jeez... I didn't know. Those journalists are very good at creating nicknames," Jean said with a cheerful mood. He walked to the cabinet and asked Caspar, "Can I take anything to drink?"

"Of course, the wine on the bottom shelf is the best, you can take one of those," Caspar answered. Jean nodded and took out a bottle of red wine and a few glasses then poured the contents. Lauriel, who had just come out of his room, approach them and joined in the conversation. His mood looked good, because for the second time that day, he was willing to join people for a talk and drink.

"I'm impressed by all of you..." Billie said suddenly. "Your friendship is very inspiring. I don't have friends like this..."

Jean tapped her shoulders, "Jeez... what do you take me for?"

Billie smiled faintly and shrugged, "You're not a friend... you're 'my boyfriend', remember?"

Both of them laughed and clinked at one another and bottomed up their wine.

Finland was very happy to see the interaction between the two. She thought about the time when she first saw Jean and Billie together. Jean, who had a good relationship with Billie's manager, came to Germany to accompany Billie to her concert at Aldebar's party because her manager was sick.

They then became friends and Billie asked Jean to star in a video clip for her new song, even though it didn't go through because Jean was hospitalized and was in a coma for 8 months.

Finland was happy because it seemed that the friendship between Jean and Billie was developing into something more, especially after Jean moved to Los Angeles. Finland secretly hoped that her two favorite people would have feelings for each other and then fall in love.

How wonderful it would be!

Caspar, who seemed to read Finland's mind, only smiled thinly. He would be very happy if Jean were to fall in love with another girl. He would be more at peace, because there was no need to be jealous of the friendship between his wife and the handsome young man.

Now... if only Lauriel could find someone too .

The atmosphere that night was very warm and pleasant. The five people really enjoyed chatting while drinking. Lauriel was even willing to share some of his adventure stories that drew the admiration of Jean and Billie. Of course, they all hid the fact from Billie that the three men were part of the Alchemist clan who are immortals.

"Thank you for this very pleasant evening, I haven't talked to very interesting people like you lot for a long time. When you go to LA, please stop by my home. I would love to meet you again..." Billie handed her name card to Finland. On it, written in beautiful letters, was her personal telephone number. The time was 2 o'clock in the morning and it was time for them to all rest.

Billie and Jean went down to their respective suites, while Caspar and Finland said goodbye to Lauriel and returned to their mansion. They would come tomorrow afternoon to pick up Aleksis.

When he closed the door, Lauriel's face didn't look as sad as usual. He took a long breath and smiled. Inwardly he felt the same way as Billie, he had not had a such a good night with interesting people for a long time.

***

Caspar and Finland spent the weekend relaxing. They picked up Aleksis from Lauriel's place and spent the whole afternoon visiting the Museum of Modern Art and walking in Central Park.

On Sunday they could not go out because it had already started to snow. Finland, who rarely saw snow felt very happy when she woke up and saw white snowflakes floating down from her bedroom window.

During their stay in San Francisco, Finland never experienced snow in the winter, so seeing snow at winter like this made her so excited. She hurried down to the first floor and woke Aleksis in her room. Aleksis had never seen snow before, and Finland felt that the little girl would be very happy to see it, like she was before.

Sure enough, when Aleksis was brought to the terrace and saw the falling snowflakes, she shrieked excitedly and tried to run around in the backyard to catch the snow.

"Gosh... I was shocked to hear my girls screaming this early. I couldn't figure out what could be wrong..." said Caspar, who had just come out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee. "Apparently it's just two tropical people seeing snow..."

He laughed at Aleksis' behavior.

"It's weird! Her tolerance to cold temperature is really high. It is very cooooold out there..." Finland muttered to herself as she watched Aleksis run and dance and chase snowflakes. Her own body was shivering, and she hurriedly went upstairs to get a blanket, a thick wool sweater and a coat. "Aleksis!! Let's put on your coat first."

She was amused to see how excited Aleksis was playing with snow. Finland was happy because their mansion had such a large backyard that their daughter could play freely like this.

"I will invite Lauriel to come and have lunch with us. Maybe we can play cards or Go game. If it snows like this, we'd better do indoor activities," Caspar picked up his cellphone and called Lauriel.

Lauriel came at lunchtime and brought his Go board with him. He was teamed with Aleksis and played against Caspar and Finland. Of course, Aleksis and Finland were just cheerleading their respective partners because they both didn't really know how to play Go.

The atmosphere at the Schneider family mansion that day was very warm, even though the outside air temperature had dropped to below zero.

***