Ash, sorry this took so long. I kept forgetting I that I had this in my documents.

A Midsummer Night's Scheme

Summer was coming to an inevitable end and Kasey couldn't be happier about that. The past three months in the blazing sun had been brutal. There were days where he had to spend hours re-watering his crops just to keep them from wilting from dehydration. But his efforts paid off in the end after he counted the profits that his crop had made. He was so successful that he decided to add on to all of his buildings before Autumn began. Between getting that farm and ranch off the ground and jumping through hoops to ring those bells, he was exhausted, but tonight would be a fun getaway from his grueling career.

Or at least it was supposed to be.

He had been sitting in Flute Fields for half an hour and still no sight of Kathy. Of course, this happened again. This was the second time that she had no-showed on a date. The last time she did that, she said that she "forgot", but he didn't believe that at all. Still, he was too nice of a guy to get openly mad over that. Of course, he realized how much he was getting played, now that he was sitting alone in the middle of field with a blanket and a picnic basket full of food that he'd probably stuff back in his refrigerator. What a great night this is turning out to be. At least the starry, moonlit sky was clear and the last of the fireflies were floating in the black.

"Ugh, what am I even doing here?" he questioned himself.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," chimed a bubbly voice.

Kasey turned to see none other than the Witch of Fugue Forest, smiling mischievously at him. Though Castanet was full of colorful characters, nobody stood out like her. As always, she was dressed in one of her black corsets and a short, black, cape-like shawl that hung over her shoulders. Underneath her tall, pointed, black hat, her long, silvery-white hair fell. But the one thing that always stood out to him was her eyebrows. The way those thin eyebrows were slanted over her gleaming, orange eyes always made her look like she was up to something. Knowing her, she probably was.

"Seriously," she continued, "I've been around for a long time and I've never seen a human having a picnic during the night, all by himself." She paced around the blanket in an almost strut. "But again, why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Witch," he played along. The way his night was going, he'd try to find humor in anything. "You rarely ever leave those woods." It was true. He had officially met her in late May after the Wizard and he reversed the spell that had turned her into a frog and ever since that day, he had only seen her leave the woods a handful of times. She was pretty self-sufficient, not needing to rely on anybody else in Castanet to survive. That was just the way she liked it.

"Well," she sang out, "I decided that it had been awhile since I had seen the fireflies. Now that I have, I guess I should be going. They look the same as they have the last few centuries." She extended one of her fingers to allow one of the glowing bugs to land. As always, she was very in touch with nature. But when the bug flew away, she decided to sit down on his blanket instead of leaving. Showing now regard for his possessions, she opened the picnic basket and began to poke through the contents. "There's a lot of food in here. Do you mind if I have some?"

"Sure, why not?" he offered, smiling. Nobody else was going to eat it now anyway. He was glad that he at least had somebody to talk to.

"Thanks, but I was going to take some regardless," she reminded him as she unwrapped and took a bite of one of the sandwiches. "You know, I miss talking with you, human. You used to come and visit me all the time, but now, I'm lucky if I get to see you once a week. Where have you been?"

"Busy. Harvest, you know?" He took out the bottle of wine that he had brought and twisted open the cork. Might as well share it now. "And what have you been up to?"

"Witch things. They're way beyond your understanding," she teased, reaching out and tapping him on the nose. She knew that he wasn't crazy about being talked down to like that, but she was too stubborn to change her ways. Noticing that he opened the wine, she held out one of the glasses for him to fill. "Either way, you should come by more often. Not even the lumberjacks wander that deep into the forest. It gets pretty quiet."

"Aw, do you miss me?" He joked, placing his hand against his heart. "I'm touched."

She laughed and waved him off. "Don't let it get to your head. Out of all the humans here, you're the least annoying and petty. I hope you're proud of that."

"Wear it like a badge of honor," he replied proudly, taking a sip of his drink. It was true that they did spend quite a bit of time together after she returned to her true form. She was usually pretty fun to chat with when she was in a good mood.

"But really, what are you doing out here?" She looked at the food again and then at him. "There's a lot of food here. Almost enough for two or three-" Suddenly, her eyes widened as she immediately understood. "Oh Kasey… again?"

"Yeah, what else?" He didn't say it angrily, but he definitely let the frustration through as he turned his head away from her. He wasn't as angry as he would have been if he was a bit younger, but still.

"No, really, that's actually…" She sighed and shook her head in disgust. "Why do humans do things like that?"

"I don't know, not all humans do that. She's…" He searched for the right words, not wanting to paint Kathy in too bad of a light. "She's nice, but I guess she's a bit careless or inconsiderate. Maybe both. I don't know."

"You said that twice. Not even sure why you would give her a second chance after what she did that to you the last time," she scoffed. "Why would you even try again?"

He shrugged his shoulders as he searched for the answer. "Uh… companionship? A lack of eligible women around here?... Because I want to get laid?"

The last part of that sentence made the Witch laugh, which made her look adorable. "Typical, human male. Well, do you want to know why nobody would ever stand me up?"

"Because nobody would ask you out to begin with?" That was a bold thing to tease about with a witch, but he knew he could get away with it. At worst, she'd cast a minor curse on him that she'd remove later. Luckily, that didn't happen.

She shook her head "no", a small, subtle grin on her face. "One of these days, I might poison you," she said in a cute, sly manor, and he could only hope she was kidding. "Anyway, nobody would do that to me because I wouldn't accept an invitation or ask out one of you humans to begin with. Insufferable, all of you. There's a reason why I live alone."

"Yeah, well… I'm glad you showed up. It would be such a shame for this food and this night to go to waste." By now, there were so many fireflies above them that it was getting difficult to distinguish them from the stars.

The Witch crossed her arms and smirked. "So, what are you going to do about her?"

"Who, Kathy?" He shrugged. "I'm not going to ask her out again, that's for sure. But I'm done wasting my time. Other than that, I'll probably call her out on it if she brings it up, but-"

"That's stupid," the Witch coldly interrupted. "Don't you want to get back at her?"

"Get back-" He raised an eyebrow. "You know, you'd think that somebody who has been around for centuries would be wise enough to suggest turning the other cheek."

The white-haired witch just rolled her eyes at this. "Don't get biblical with me. You and I both know that you want to see her suffer. What she did was rude."

Kasey cringed at that word. "Suffer is kind of a strong word for-"

"Whatever. But if you're not going to do it, I will," she stated, still crossing her arms indignantly. "I haven't pulled a good prank in ages and now I really want to do this."

"Aw, you'd do that for me? That's so swee-"

"Shut it, human. Consider this karma that just so happen to be in your favor." She stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "Clean up this stuff and let's go. Time to make somebody pay."

Finding Kathy wasn't difficult. It was a Sunday night, so the bar was closed, but inside, Kasey could see Kathy and Owen sitting on the bar together, drinking straight out of one of the bottles and chatting flirtatiously with each other. They were the only ones there by the looks of things.

Great, just what I needed to see. This makes me feel sooo much better. Thanks, Witch. Now he was actually kind of mad, but he still had reservations about pulling a prank on them. Whenever the Witch pranked him, she "took it easy on him", but even then, she often got carried away and didn't know when to quit. He figured that he had to be there because if he wasn't, his friend could easily hurt her targets much more than he would have liked.

Afraid that he'd be seen, he stopped looking through the window and crouched with his back against the wall so he could keep an eye on the street. "So, what's the plan?"

"I have a good one," the Witch mused proudly, clasping her hands together. "I'll cast a scent charm on their clothes and then summon all the rats and mice in town to go to this building. They'll scream as the rats-"

"Stop."

Her face soured. "How dare you interrupt-"

"That could contaminate the bar." He thought of how proud Hayden was of the old place. "Hayden is a good guy. I don't want him to pay for what we did."

"You mean what Kathy brought upon herself?" the Witch tried to correct him, but Kasey shook his head.

"Try again."

"Okay, okay." She thought to herself for a moment on creating a new plan. Then her eyes lit up. "How about I just hex all the glass in the room to shatter in miniature explosions? That'll give them a scare. Hayden will think they did it and make them clean it up."

"That could also blind them, if not give them cuts everywhere. Again, property damage. I don't want to hurt them."

"Ugh, you are absolutely no fun," the Witch pouted, extending her lower lip. But then, her eyes glowed and her lips spread into an absolutely evil smile. "How about this: I curse their wine with poison. Then, when they're poisoned, you walk in, tell them that you have the antidote, and have them beg for you to give it to them."

She ended that plan with a shrill little giggle, but Kasey just looked at her, aghast, with his mouth hanging open slightly. "What the hell is wrong with you? Good Goddess, she only stood me up, it's not like she killed my mother or anything. Besides, then they'd tell everybody that I poisoned them!"

"Not if you let me cast a memory charm… or you just don't give them the antidote," she suggested, still smiling that sadistic little grin.

"I'm really hoping you're just messing around with me right now." The scary thing was that he couldn't tell for sure. "Can't we just scare them in a way that won't hurt them or incriminate us?"

The Witch let out a long sigh. "You are so boring sometimes. But fine. We'll play it your way. I have another idea."

Kasey and the Witch were now crouched by the door to the bar. They made eye contact and the she smiled at him before flicking her hand. In an instant, all of the street lights and bar lights went out at once, leaving them in complete darkness, save the light provided by the moon and stars.

"Shit, what was that?" they heard Kathy say inside, her voice slightly uneasy.

"Power went out," Owen answered calmly. "Do you have any candles?"

"Okay, go," the Witch whispered hastily. She twisted the handle of the door and after it opened, the two snuck in, crouched low to the ground.

"Who's there?" Kathy asked the darkness, receiving no response.

"It was probably just the wind," Owen suggested.

"The wind pulled the door open?" Kathy asked in a demeaning tone. "Yeah right. Let's just find the candles."

Doing his part, Kasey moved towards a chair and tipped it over. The thud startled the couple.

"Okay, that was definitely not the wind," Kathy said, her voice quivering. "Who's there?"

Another chaired tipped.

"Seriously, stop it!"

A third chair tipped.

"That's it," Owen announced, "whoever is here, I'm going to find you! I'm going to- Oof!" He tripped. That was probably the Witch's doing. Kasey inched closer and closer to the bar where Owen had stood up again.

"What the hell is going on?" Kathy whispered meekly.

That's when Kasey whispered loud enough for them to hear, "Run."

"GROOOOWWWRRR!" A deep roar was heard as the Witch (who had snuck behind the bar) cast up a white apparition above where she crouched. It had huge, jagged fangs, slanted, angry eyes, and it caused the whole building to shake slightly as if there was an earthquake. That got Kathy and Owen screaming at the tops of their lungs before they bolted towards the door, tripping over chairs as they scrambled to do so. Once their screaming voices faded in the distance, Kasey couldn't help but laugh. The Witch was already giggling again, pleased with her handiwork, but the celebration was cut short.

"Who's there?" boomed Hayden's voice from the back room.

"That's our cue. Let's go." Kasey felt the Witch's slender hand grab his and the two rushed towards the door before they were caught.

On the walk back, the two couldn't stop laughing as they recounted their favorite parts of the prank that they had just pulled. All the while, Kasey still held the Witch's hand. It felt so delicate and soft. Throughout their friendship, though the Witch had touched him several times, he had never touched her, especially not like this.

"You can let go of my hand now, human." The Witch teased him between giggles.

"Maybe I don't want to," he shot back coolly, but the Witch just rolled her eyes.

"Count yourself lucky. No mortal has ever gotten to hold my hand and I should turn you into a newt for doing so… but I'll humor your petty, human wants. I'm in a good mood."

"I can see." He sighed, looking up at the cloudless sky. "Geeze, that was so childish, what we just did."

"Oh shut up, you know you liked it. You had fun and nobody got hurt, just like you wanted." With her free hand, she twirled her silky, white hair. "Besides, she deserved it. Nobody does something like that to my friends and gets away with it."

"Oh, so we're friends now?" he joked, but what the Witch did next was unexpected. She stopped him and looked at him, suddenly serious, but with an unaggressive expression.

"Of course we're friends. I've considered you a friend ever since you helped reverse that frog spell." Her eyes widened slightly. "You don't think that whenever I say stuff, like when I… you know I'm just playing with you, right?"

"Yeah, I know, I just… I've never heard you call me your friend before." He had always assumed, but hearing her say it was so strange.

"I figured that you knew that already." They kept walking and the Witch kept talking. "It's so strange. Humans come and go, their lifespans being so short and all, so I've never spent much time getting to know any one of them individually. In turn, most of them just ignore me, assuming that I don't want anything to do with them. But when I heard about what Kathy did to you… I just got so mad. I just don't even… what is this?"

"That's what friends do, Witch. They care for each other. They have empathy for each other in good times and bad."

"Care…" she repeated, as if she had never uttered the word before. "I do care. You're a good human. You're honest, you're hardworking, you care about this town, the people around you... Kathy doesn't know what she's missing."

It was surreal seeing the Witch leaving herself vulnerable and friendly like that. Kasey wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the right words, so they just kept walking until they reached his house. But he hoped that he could reach this side of her again, though he knew that her difficult personality would make that task challenging.

"Well, this is your home," she said, almost somberly. "You should get some rest. You have a farm to run."

"Yes. I should." He was still holding her hand, but now, the pale moonlight touched her pale skin. She was beautiful. He had always known it, but tonight, she looked especially good and he couldn't tell why. "I can't thank you enough. You really made me feel better tonight."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll think of something," the Witch teased, finally smiling again.

"Yeah, I'll-" He paused mid-sentence. He did think of something. Instantly, he slipped his hand from hers before using both of them to pull her towards him by the small of her back so he could kiss her. The kiss only lasted a second and when he let go, he could see how taken aback she was, as her hands were raised and her eyes were open even farther than usual.

"What- what was that?" she asked him, breathlessly.

"It's a human thing. It's way beyond your understanding," he teased, reaching up with his right hand to move some of her hair that had fallen astray. It was softer than he expected, but he only touched it for a moment before the Witch moved his hand away.

"Okay… I'm going home now," she said, sounding completely out of sorts. She took a few steps away before turning her head towards him. "Promise me you'll come by tomorrow, alright?"

"Of course," he replied with a smiling nod.

"Good. Don't forget or I'll put a curse on you." She returned his smile, but it wasn't her usual confident, devilish smirk. Instead, her eyes looked softer and her smile was gentle.

"I'll remember that," he told her. For a few seconds more, they held each other's gaze before she disappeared into the distant darkness. Once she was out of sight, Kasey realized that he had been holding his breath. He let it out and sat down on his doorstep, looking into the star-covered sky. Oh lord, what have I gotten myself into? In all honesty, he was lucky that she didn't hex him on the spot for kissing her. But since she didn't, what would happen now? Maybe things would go back to the way they used to be? If not… He had only known her for a few months and they had become close, but would he be able to hold her interest? Though she looked and acted young, she was several centuries old at least, being a witch and all. As she had said, humans came and went, so would he be able to continue holding her interest or was he just a flavor of the month to her? Even if he wasn't the latter, he couldn't help but feel insecure. Yet somehow, he felt hopeful. Seeing the Witch show a vulnerable side of herself to him… maybe she would share more with him. Maybe someday, she would even tell him her name.

"You'll put a curse on me, huh?" As far as he was concerned, she already had. But for some reason, that didn't bother him. If knowing this witch was his curse, that was something that he could live with; maybe even something that he'd enjoy. Whatever the case, he couldn't turn back now. "Only time will tell if playing with magic is worth the gamble." But he decided that it was a risk he was willing to take.