AN: Not technically Bethan (or is it?) but this was very enjoyable to write. I love old, Medieval, Renaissance, Victorian, etc themed stories, and there is so little of it, especially Bethan fics, I just had to write one myself. I tried anyway. It was originally called "A Whimsical Life" but I think I'll save that title for another time. More at the bottom, enjoy the scandal in Whitechapel. (:
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The town of Whitechapel was small, relatively modest and mostly peaceful. The people there were lenient and easy-going - for the most part - and it was rare that they experienced any war, draughts or plagues. It was because of the people who lived there, and the company they kept.
Some say that the people of Whitechapel had rather odd customs, and maybe they were right. They themselves were certainly struck with the oddest of worries from time to time.
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"Ick!" Benjamin Weir exclaimed in disgust as his leg slipped even further into the muck. Oh, he could just feel the supernatural filth in the mud and water...years and years of contamination from monsters and corpses and magical experiments gone wrong. Soaking wet, reeking of swamp and shivering, Benny looked back to see if his best friend was still following him.
"I knew this was a bad idea!" Ethan Morgan huffed, wringing out the front of his thin tunic with quite a bit of force. He too, appeared to be soaked to the bone by now, and his breath came out in little puffs of vapor. "Benjamin Issac Weir, if we don't make it out of this-"
"You'll take a hatchet to me while I sleep, I know." Benny waved him off, beckoning Ethan closer. "Well, here's the fork in the path."
"Yes, but which did we exit through?" Ethan squinted, his eyes narrowing as he peered through the dense fog. Benny could hear even in the considerable noise of the swamp that his teeth were chattering. "I could've sworn there were only two paths through this undergrowth when we first went through- now there are four."
"The obvious choice would be the middle." Benny said slowly, edging a little closer to the nearest path, making the water slosh around him. "We came from that general direction. But there is no middle, is there? You can never trust these parts not sneak around and relocate the moment you turn your back."
Ethan rubbed his eyes, unknowingly rubbing a streak of mud across his temple, and lurched forward. "We need to go about this carefully. One wrong move, and we could end up smack in the face of a crocodile-"
"Or worse, a swamp hag." Benny shuddered. "Grandpa and I stumbled across one's den when I was around eight. Worse ten minutes of my young life."
"Exactly my point, we wouldn't want a repeat of that, would we?" Ethan walked forward with careful, quiet movements until he was at the beginning of a path. "Stay there, Benny! I'll be back in a moment, just wait here."
"Where are you going?" Benny asked nervously. "Those rocks look treacherous E, maybe you-" He winced as Ethan slipped.
"I'm already up to my eyeballs in this filth!" Ethan grunted, heaving himself out of the murky, green water. "Just as well make no attempt at keeping sterile now, it's useless. Look, I'm just checking for any familiar marks, I'll be back in a minute. Don't leave without me."
"You're telling me!" Benny grumbled, crossing his arms and then thinking better of it as his lamp burned unpleasantly against his hip. "Ethan-"
"Just a minute!" The fog had swallowed up Ethan moments ago, but the spellmaster could still hear his friend sloshing around, muttering curses to himself every now and again. He could only imagine what his grandmother would say, if she heard those words leave Ethan's lips...then again, E had to be under some stress. They had never been this truly lost in about two years.
It was then that Benny seen something rather odd down the leftmost path. Floating some ways down was what looked to be a light...a boat light? Couldn't have been from a candle or a torch, could it? In fact it looked an awful lot like a lantern, and before Benny knew what he was doing, he was walking down the narrow, rocky path through the swamp.
"Benny!" Ethan's voice met his ears a moment later, accompanied by a hand coming down on his shoulder. "Where were you going?"
"Huh?" Benny blinked. "Oh! There was a lantern down this path! Someone with a lantern- maybe even a boat or a shack, we're going to lose them-"
"Bog spirits, Benny." Ethan chastised gently, squeezing his shoulder. "Hinkypunks, I think is the word, or...something."
"Cursed ghouls." Benny's face screwed up in a grimace. "I would've ended up following them forever, wouldn't I've? They'd have led me to my death."
"Can't have that, can we." For the first time in a while since they'd been out in the swamp, Benny seen a smile grace his best friend's lips. Tugging the taller boy gingerly by his sleeve, Ethan set off down the leftmost path in the vegetation. "Let's go, Ben. This way. I think I've found a marker."
"My legs are shaking." Benny couldn't stop himself from complaining nearly twenty minutes later. Ethan half threw him a look and a raised brow over his shoulder and continued down the path, much more gracefully than Benny was capable of at the moment. "It's like dragging lead. E, I keep slipping."
"Oh stop whining, Benny." Ethan shook his head slightly as the path took a rather sharp turn. "We'll be home soon, we can't afford to stop now."
Ethan winced as he heard a surprised and pained yelp from just behind him right before a wave of cold swamp water soaked him up to the small of his back. With a guilty expression, Ethan turned to see Benny kneeling in the water, spitting green stuff out of his mouth. Judging from the look on his face, he could tell that Benny just wanted to sit there and maybe fall asleep in the chilling muck.
"Oh Benny." Part of him felt guilty for being so insistent that they carry on without rest, and another part was annoyed not for the first time that Benny had managed to drag him along on one of his adventures again...but what else could he have done? The fool would've wandered off at any interesting sight along the way without him to be the voice of caution. Still...an even larger part of him wanted to comfort his friend. "Come on, Ben. I'll help you."
"Why did I suggest this!" Benny looked thoroughly disgusted with himself, and accepted Ethan's reaching arms with a look of dejection and icy hands. "I think I have a cut on my leg from this sinkhole."
"Well, that's because you keep missing the stable rocks, don't you?" Ethan asked and didn't have to force too hard to summon a smile. With only a slight hesitation, Ethan wrapped a steady arm around his friends' slim, cold waist. "Careful now."
"I'm sorry I drug you along on this stupid quest, E." Benny mumbled miserably, walking with a pained right step. "All for an exotic flower, the nerve of myself.."
"The story of your life?" Ethan grinned despite himself and pressed his side closer to his friends. Absently, he took note of a familiar and unusual looking red rock shaped roughly like a spade. "You didn't force me Benny."
"I might as well have." Benny mumbled, trying to walk normally so as to not tire Ethan too much. The thought struck him that he might've sprained his ankle as well, and he hope to god that home wasn't far. He would be useless in a fight, if worst came to worst, and he wasn't sure how long he could continue walking, even with E's support. He supposed he could try a healing charm, but he was so exhausted that something might go wrong...
"Stop your fretting, Benjamin, it helps nothing." Ethan chimed from where he stood under Benny's arm. The shorter man looked up at him and Benny was relieved to see his brown eyes glowing a stunning white. "In any case, we're almost home."
Thank god for Ethan, Benny thought gratefully as the seer continued to help him along the path home. When they'd finally reached dry and solid land, Benny gave a cry of relief and near collapsed from the sense of safety that the sight of a few loitering people, horses, houses and lamplight provided. He might've pressed a few affectionate kisses to Ethan's face on the way back home- a product of immense relief and gratitude, but from then on the townspeople looked at them a little differently. Some seemed to shrug and say that they'd known it would probably happen sometime or another, while others scoffed that it was about time the inevitable happened. After all, those two had been attached at the hip since they were born.
Incredibly, this belief that the people of Whitechapel held wasted no time going right over the duo's heads.
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Four or Five Months Later
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"And that, milady, is how you tell a shifter from an ordinary family pet. It's foolproof." Ethan Morgan smiled at Mrs. Price from across the well-worn countertop. "What you have here is definitely a blood hound and nothing more. You can keep that silver ring, by the way, if it makes you comfortable."
"Oh, thank you dear!" The woman, who was really only four or so years his senior, smiled brightly up at him and Ethan got the vague feeling that she was only just restraining herself from pinching his cheeks. Mrs. Price settled for a pat on his cheek as she slipped the ring around her middle finger, right beside her wedding band. Her dog trotted off to go and lie in the sunshine just outside the door. "So kind of you to take time from your stocking and sorting to pay any mind to my silly requests. I've been worrying over the littlest of things since that unpleasant brood came into town last week. Lord knows they leave something nasty behind every time they visit."
"Not to worry about it, Mrs. Price, you're not the only one." Ethan shrugged and pulled off his leather gloves. "After all, I am the only able apothecary in town, it seems, and I've been swarmed with people looking for holy water and garlic. What with my family being out of town, my colleague busy with a project, and my faithful grandmother taking some self-declared, much needed downtime-"
"I'm old, Ethan! Give it a rest." Ethan rolled his eyes as Grandma's voice rang out from the back of the establishment. "If you ask me, you could use the work. Last I checked, some of those kettles and crystals you've got lying around the back could stand to be updated."
"Well, that's a little true." Ethan relented, washing his hands clean from a foot-powered water pump in the corner and then drying them on a towel. He began taking dried roots and herbs out of a large crate and resumed cleaning and sorting them while Mrs. Price looked on with interest.
"Is there anything I can help with?" Mrs. Price asked suddenly. "I'm afraid I can't help with the crystal part, but I do have more than a few extra pots and pans, if you'd like."
"Oh, that's alright." Ethan smiled over his shoulder. "The kind she's talking about are special. They require at least a few day's travel in any direction...hard to come by, unless you know a person."
"I see." Mrs. Price nodded thoughtfully and then gave Ethan a wink. "Perhaps you could give me a reading sometime, Mr. Morgan? I've been curious ever since my cousin told me how you predicted that winning lottery number."
"Shh! That lottery was rigged anyway!" Ethan grinned, though his cheeks tinted pink a bit. "Don't let Lady Weir hear you, or I'll be caned."
Mrs. Price giggled, just as someone else walked into the apothecary. Tall, lean and wild-haired came a harassed-looking Benjamin Weir, barely staggering into the shop before flopping himself down on a bench against the wall. He gave Ethan a wild grin and nodded his head politely to the lady across the counter.
"Laura Price!" Benny smiled widely as he caught his breath, seeming to have forgotten that he had ash and a clunky pair of goggles plastered to his face. "Pleasure as always. Funny, I just met your husband on the other side of town, and we don't see you two apart very often since the baby. Lovely day out."
"Hello Mr. Weir." Mrs. Price nodded politely, running an absent hand over her lightly protruding belly. "I'm afraid my husband and I have separate business today."
"Just as well. Everyone's been fluttering about since the chaos Jesse and his posse caused the last time they were in town." Benny scowled, then, lifting an eyebrow as Ethan bustled by, and it was just then that Laura noticed a peculiar bandage almost completely hidden beneath the collar of his shirt. "This one been keeping you on your toes?"
"He's been very helpful." Laura Price smiled fondly, knowing it would be a bit of a personal question, were she to voice her curiosity. Was Mr. Morgan injured? Was he well? There was only one thing she knew for sure to cause one to bandage their neck.. "Quite a man you have there."
"He thinks so."
"Benny, would you mind running into the back and getting me a paring knife?" Ethan's brown eyes glared from where he stood at the shelves. "Or are you otherwise occupied?"
"Never too busy to run your errands, E." Benny said in a too-cheery voice before winking to Mrs. Hemmings and disappearing into an open doorway leading to the back of the shop. Meanwhile, Ethan returned to the front counter and gave the hesitating woman a smile.
"Maybe we'll get around to that reading another time, Mrs. Price. I need to run and see the bookkeeper, and I'm going to be swamped, I'm sure, once high noon comes around. I should finish restocking."
"Of course." The lady gave a kind smile before exiting the establishment and almost running straight into someone else coming in.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Mrs. Hemmings gasped as a number of small colorful pumpkins went rolling across the deck.
"Completely my fault." Came the reply from a surprised looking blonde whom she recognized to be a friend of sorts to Mr. Morgan. His eyes, blue as the sky, were wide and full of rare worry. "Forgive me, miss, I didn't see you on your way out. Didn't hurt the baby, did I?"
"Not to worry- just startled me is all." She smiled. "Hard to believe you could see anything what with all those pumpkins your carrying. Need any help?"
"This is no trouble." The blonde replied and gave a quick and cheery smile. He wrinkled his nose, and Laura abruptly found herself in a whirlwind of blonde, orange and white before the teen once again stood before her, this time with his arms full of the pumpkins he'd just dropped.
"Ethan's stocking up on garlic again." He said almost gloomily and Laura smiled just a bit. Then, he began heading into the shop. "My nose and eyes are already burning- wonder what Sarah's gonna do. Sorry again for scaring you, Mrs. Price, good day to you!"
"You as well." Laura smiled and collected her hound before setting off into the gently bustling streets. That was the name- Sarah. The town's head bookkeeper. A vampire. She supposed that the girl was friendly enough- very friendly, as a matter of fact, and good with children...educated, too.
It wasn't merely the thought of the girl that made the slight unease stir within her chest. It was the thought of the two, Mr. Morgan and Ms. Fox TOGETHER that didn't sit right. Those bandages on Mr. Morgan's neck...
After all, Ethan Morgan did have himself a fine husband, didn't he? Sure, he might've had more than a few hiccups with those spells of his, and his magic may have been a bit underdeveloped still, but everyone knew that Benny Weir meant well...mostly. Those two had been inseparable even before they had moved with their families to another home when they were very young. They had still been side by side when they'd moved back, seven years ago and have been legally married now for the past two years.
Spotting her husband across the street, Laura Price set off, wondering not for the first time why a man like Ethan Morgan would choose to go behind his spouse's back. However, as her own husband and sister-in-law have told her many times, it was no business of hers to ask.
"Could you have some courtesy and not do that whilst I'm standing two steps away?" Rory hissed and backed up as Benny continued to chop garlic in front of him.
"Sorry Ror, no can do." Benny tutted as he merrily added the garlic to the number of other vegetables going into the slowly brewing vampire-tonic. "Between Ethan and my grandmother, I barely have time to breathe. I'm supposed to be working on restoring that barn I damaged a few weeks ago, and I'm almost out of time! If I don't have it done by Thursday, Mrs. Hicks'll have my head."
"That sweet old lady?" Rory shook his head, now plugging his nose with two fingers, squinting with bloodshot eyes. "Unlikely. I think I seen her talking to a rose bush on the way over here. She's rather harmless, don't you think?"
"The shrubbery would like company every now and then, if you really think about it." Benny mused, hurrying to mince more cloves of garlic and bits of long, green onion. The spellmaster's eyes were slowly beginning to water from the fumes and Rory glared at the offending vegetables spitefully as his own eyes feared up. "Plants are people too, as Grandfather Weir always used to say."
"If that's the case, this place truly is a slaughter house." Rory turned away. "I loved garlic once, that's the sad thing."
"My heart goes out to you, friend." Benny said sincerely, clearing the cutting board as he swept it's contents into the boiling pot on the fire to the side of him. This part of the apothecary was made of stone, so as to be less flammable. "But if you would like to put yourself to good use, you can start clobbering those nutshells over there. Vampire strength might still prove itself useful in this town for things other than lifting carriages and frightening foreigners."
"The only thing I'll be clobbering is you, you loon." Rory puffed out his chest. "I have things to worry about other than your silly repairs and cooking. For example, I hear my mother yelling for me- must've lost one of the cows again."
"Good luck with that." Benny waved the blonde off, and the vampire sped away just as Ethan came into the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. Conveniently, Ethan happened to come in just as Benny was taking a two-moment rest from chopping and paring.
"Get much done?" Ethan peered into the pot while Benny wiped his eyes. "You and Rory always distract each other."
"I've done a great job!" Benny defended himself, glaring with one red eye at his best friend. The other one, he couldn't quite stand to open. "As well as I can do with all the fumes in here- I can barely see! Where did these hell onions come from, anyway?"
"Ask your grandmother, she arranges for the fresh produce." Ethan shrugged before dusting himself off and setting off for the front room of the shop. "Mind keeping watch on the place for a few minutes while I go see Sarah?"
Benny opened his mouth, but Ethan didn't wait for an answer as he pulled off his worn apron and hung it on a hook on the wall. "Thanks, Ben. Make sure to watch that stew, and I have a tonic brewing for Ms. Clovers out back- it still needs hibiscus and peppermint! Oh, and Councilman Fine will be visiting soon to collect his request for Wolfsbane tea and fresh orange-blossoms."
Benny scowled and was muttering to himself in Latin about orange blossoms and slave-drivers when Ethan stuck his head in the door. His eyes were a ghostly white.
"If you're going to insult me in low tones, at least have the decency to mutter in anglicus." He raised an eyebrow as the light in his eyes died down and they returned to their normal brown. "Mrs. Jones is on her way, thought you should know...and so is Erika. She doesn't look too pleased."
When did she ever, really, but that was definitely not something Benny was looking forward to. Apron on, sweaty and smelling of onions, he'd rather be somewhere- anywhere else. He made it no secret that he was sweet on the beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed vampire, and let her know it every time the opportunity presented itself. The thing was, Erika would have nothing to do with him.
Now she and her mother were on their way into his family establishment. He could just imagine the way her hair would gleam in the morning sun, like spun silver with a hint of gold...
How her nose would wrinkle at the very sight of him more than the garlic scent tainting the air.
"One can only try." Benny sighed, and hurried to add the flowers and mint to that tonic Ethan went on about. With a bright blue flash of his palms, the ladle in the stew was stirring itself and he was clean and well groomed.
"Magic for personal gain isn't good for the soul, Benjamin!" Called his grandmother and the spellmaster rolled his eyes, knowing full well that she wasn't so innocent herself. He'd heard many stories about her wild adventures as a young witch. Absently, he wondered what had happened.
"Neither is wasting away looking into those crystal balls and tea leaves, grandma!" Benny called back, and with a huff ran a quick hand through his hair messily and threw some wheat flour on himself as to reduce his freshly-bathed and dressed look. He understood the personal gain part, but this was really all for Erika! What harm could come in looking presentable for the girl he was going to marry?
"You're always telling me to clean myself up a bit." Benny grumbled, beginning to carefully bottle the tea that had been brewing. The ladle continued to stir, as Benny was sure Ethan would yell at him if he let the stew burn. "Can't get away with anything."
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"A little to the left." Sarah smiled up at Ethan, who was teetering precariously atop a high ladder. "I've been planning to get that gap between the books filled soon. Maybe the next time I go out of town."
"We are expanding quickly." Ethan agreed, climbing down from the ladder on its wobbly steps. "More people are coming to appreciate all the stories we have to offer. Maybe some herb and environmental journals as well, we could do with another helper or two in the apothecary."
"You don't seem to be doing to bad on your own."
"Lot of business, though. I left Benny in charge of the brewery while I was gone, but I guess Grandma Weir is just in the other room, if there's any trouble."
"I'm sure he can hold down the fort while you step out to breathe." Sarah smiled kindly, her brunet hair cascading behind her in soft curls that reached the small of her back. "Surely won't burn the place down by the time you get there."
"You never know with that man." Ethan gave a small, fond grin as he settled down into a comfy library chair that Sarah normally used when she did light reading. He picked up a book on the nearest table- surprisingly, a book on palmistry. "One second there's a finely built chicken home, and the next second there's a pile of smoking boards and feathers flying in every direction. I had scrabbled eggs in my hair for a week."
"You can hardly blame the eggs." Sarah smirked. "What with that mane you strut around around under. When will you let me give you a decent haircut, Ethan? You could stroke out from all this heat, and then what?"
"I'll have some much-needed bed rest?" Ethan asked and felt a faint tinge of satisfaction when Sarah came to sit beside him on the love seat unbidden, almost touching him, but not quite. He took the opportunity to slip his hand into hers, and for a moment, she seemed to recuperate his affections, grinning brightly at him until she spotted something just behind him.
"Mrs. Fine!" She exclaimed, surprised as she quickly stood up, releasing Ethan's hand. "My apologies, I didn't see you there." There was a rosy tint to her cheeks from being caught in a moment, and Ethan averted his eyes, pretending to be studying the palmistry book. Absently, he wondered if anything in the thin book was actually correct.
"Oh, hello Sarah!" The tall woman in green- one of the town's school teachers, greeted with a small smile. In her hands were three books and a basket. "It's been quite some time, hasn't it?"
"Just a month or so since I've had you browsing my shelves." Sarah gave a small grin. "Which, by your standards, is a while, isn't it? Have anything for me, today?"
Ethan tuned them out as he skimmed the book, nodding in some places and widening his eyes in others. It was times like these when he thought that maybe he should try his hand at writing books himself, but quickly dismissed the thought. There were more interesting things he could be doing...come to think of it, right now he was feeling that certain tingle he always got when Benny was doing something foolish. Which really meant that it was a constant thing.
Waiting for a break in their conversation, Ethan politely excused himself, picking up the stack of empty journals Sarah had been kind enough to retrieve for him when she'd left town for a week. Flipping through the empty pages left him mourning over the fact that they would probably never be filled...well, not with anything that anyone would actually want to read. With notes and smart remarks about his findings in the apothecary. Although, he'd already written down many upon many household guides for (mostly) the women around town.
"I don't know what happened!" A shrill voice came from inside the apothecary. With a start, he recognized the voice as Erika's- he'd only heard her sound that way once or twice before. "She just dropped! Mother!"
"It's okay!" Ethan heard Benny's voice, trying to sound light but having an undertone of worry. "Let's get her sitting up-"
"I will do that, thank you!" Erika's voice was sharp, and Ethan hurried up the creaky steps just in time to see the blonde vampire set her mother down on a table near the back set for just this reason. Erika began tapping her mother's face lightly with her fingers, shaking her shoulders. "Mother?!"
"What happened?" Ethan asked, immediately on alert as he took in the upset basket of laundry on the floor and an overturned flower planter right next to it with what looked like glass shards and ashes...and were those feathers?
Ethan didn't mean to immediately glance accusingly at Benny...it was reflex. As it turned out, Benny did look a little guilty, and a lot embarrassed.
"Oh, Erika, I never meant to upset her!" Benny was looking worryingly down at the blonde lady lying on the table in front of them. "Honestly! I don't know how that could've happened, I used magic after she fainted, I swear! It was only supposed to provide a soft landing!"
"Lot of good that did! Goose feathers!" Benny winced. Erika's face was flushed with agitation, her shoulders and posture tense as she held her mother's face in her hand. Her mother's face, which was so much like her own, with the exception of laugh lines that came with age Erika would never know. "I don't need your petty excuses, Benjamin! My mother is injured!"
"Okay, okay, relax!" Ethan had finally gotten a hold enough of himself to stop his head spinning and stepped over the mess to examine Mrs. Jones. "Everything's going to be fine."
Ethan didn't know for sure, of course, but he'd seem much worse in his years working in the apothecary. Sometimes patients were brought into the apothecary instead of the infirmary for special cases or for injures that needed immediate, magical treatment. In any case, Ethan would know in a moment; he'd just set his hand on Martha Jones' forehead.
"Is she okay?" Erika's distressed voice came from somewhere far away, but Ethan's eyes had already clouded over with the gift of second sight. Every vision was different, and some were stranger than others, but right now he could see quite clearly an ornate vase of some purple flowers and then the vision went kind of crazy. Right before the vision ended, he was facing the ceiling of the apothecary, which began to spontaneously color itself with bright spots.
When he came out of it, Ethan blinked and his expression was one of confusion before it settled into something like annoyance. Well, that had been helpful.
"What is it?" Erika asked, glancing nervously from Ethan to her mother.
Instead of saying anything that might've upset her, Ethan opted for silence. Every vision was different of course, and they varied in intensity and detail with the situations. Sometimes his visions showed the most useless things- but that had always meant something. What did this mean? Something about the flowers? What about the ceiling? Had he seen Mrs. Jones fainting?
He glanced at the un-spotted ceiling, over to the broken vase on the floor- something he was sure he'd have to sweep up himself later- and then over to Benny, who was looking more worried by the minute. One moment away from calling for Grandma- and Ethan was almost ready to call for her himself.
Instead, he asked: "Benny, what was in that planter? Some kind of purple plant?"
"Uh...yeah, actually." Benny looked baffled. "Well, not yet, I mean, they're supposed to be, but it would've taken them at least another few days to come to bloom-"
"Dwarf Iris'?" Erika's voice had taken on a squeaky quality. "Mother's terribly allergic to those foul plants! You fool!"
Before Benny could make to apologize, and before Erika could make the clumsy wizard feel worse, Ethan was checking the woman for swelling- but he didn't need to. Within the next half-minute or so, her throat could close completely and cut off any and all oxygen. She was already turning blue.
"Okay, cure-all." Ethan muttered, rushing over to the many shelves behind the counter, searching for one in particular. "Where are you?"
"Ethan!" Erika's voice was panicky now. "My mother is turning blue! What are you doing?"
"Here! Found it!" Ethan breathe a great breath of relief as he picked up a dusty and oddly shaped bottle with red coloring and a painted picture of a skull on the front. Emergency tonic- something Grandma had concocted just for these occasions, but the last time they'd had to use it was Halloween last year. Funny, they were making it a habit, weren't they?
"I suspect the magical qualities the plant possessed made the essence much more...potent." Ethan struggled for the right words, gently prying Mrs. Jones' mouth open with one hand while dripping the tonic in with the other. Just a few drops of the stuff should help immensely. He winced at the site of a lady so laid out and vulnerable this way. "The scent and such would've been all over the place...Erika, I think you should remove your mother from the shop immediately after she's recovered, the flower's essence is likely still hanging in the air."
"That plant's growing as we speak." Benny sounded appropriately miserable as he got up to remove the flower from the room. "Erika, I had no idea-"
"You couldn't have known, I suppose." Erika cut him off stiffly. "Still, I'd advise against sending an apology gift. I might have to stir some trouble, then." She looked to where Ethan was gently massaging her mother's throat and glands. She usually treated Ethan with a little more respect and attention than Benny- as did mostly everyone in the town - but with a little more now that he had done her mother a service. "What was that? It looks like it's working."
"Emergency Tonic." Ethan replied softly, not wanting to make the situation worse by bad attitude. He felt for Benny- here was the beauty if his dreams, and she was acting as though she detested his very presence. Benny's ideas were sometimes childish, and his plans weren't always the best thought out, but he would never intentionally hurt someone like this. He had only been trying to win her affections."It's great to have around during incidents like this, but desperately delicate in composition. One extra drop of this or that, and the whole place could go up in flames. It contains vampire blood." Ethan added the last part as an afterthought, wondering who the blood could've came from.
"Oh, mom!" Erika breathe her relief, helping her mom to settle down when she started to stir.
Ethan smiled and sat back, corking the bottle again and turning back to where Benny was sulking behind the counter. Though his face was neutral in expression, and Ethan could see that his friend already had an apology ready on his tongue, he could also see how down his friend was. It only got worse when Mrs. Jones recovered to near great health and assured him over and over that it wasn't his fault. Yes, she was definitely much kinder than her daughter, who shot glares to the sheepish spellmaster the entire time. The Jones' left shortly after Martha had woken- very shortly, since the small of the flowers still made her throat hurt.
"I can't believe I poisoned Erika's mother!" Benny cried long after the pair of blonde's had left the apothecary.
"Everyone knows you didn't mean to, Benny." Ethan winced at the deeply dejected look on his best friend's face. "That's what matters."
"Tell that to Erika!" Benny mourned and kicked at a pile of goose feathers. Benny didn't need to say it, and Ethan didn't need to hear it- but it was clear that the spellmaster thought Erika would never talk to him again. And if Ethan were being honest, he had to agree.
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"I can't believe I poisoned her mother." Benny said for the umpteenth time since the incident yesterday.
Slumped over and bleary-eyed, Benny hung over his morning tea. His breakfast of toast, eggs and milk sat untouched just in front of him on the well-loved table, along with about a dozen construction plans and a dozen more strange tools and metal parts. Ethan might not have gotten it, but Benny was all for these new age contraptions, even if he didn't completely believe in them. Still, he had to be honest- he was getting tired of all these extra projects. He got himself into enough trouble as it was without having more responsibilities and expectations piled onto himself.
"Okay, time to stop sulking." Ethan sat down next to him in front of their open window and shoved over all of Benny's work piles. To this, the Seer received a mild glare but only responded with a slight grin. "The sun is shining, the birds are singing and one of the wheels on the Brunner carriage has already come loose. It's time to get up and about, Benjamin. "
At Ethan's use of his full name, Benny but raised an eyebrow and took a huge bite of his food. "Now we're making progress!" Ethan clapped him on the back before pulling a scroll from the pile of designs, shaking gently from the breeze coming in, and unraveling it. His eyebrows frowned disapprovingly at what he saw. "Hey Benny, what's all this I see about enchanting teapots?"
At his best friend's raised eyebrow, Benny just shrugged and tried hard not to look completely transparent.
"I just thought it would bring a little more excitement to daily life, you know? Like, do we really need to pour our own chamomile every day and night? I could think of a lot more useful things I could be doing with my time-"
"Do we really need boiling water spewing all over the place?" Ethan gave a stern look as he looked over the plans some more. "Besides, I make your tea for you every evening anyway, Benny. You have no cause for complaint...and these are some suspicious incantations. Half of these I haven't even heard about from that grimoire of yours. Don't tell me your trading notes with that horrid gypsy Serena again."
"She isn't all that horrid." Benny replied innocently, although he did grimace lightly as he slathered raspberry jam on his toast. "It's not her fault she has such an unsettling voice."
"It's unpleasant enough that she's getting on your good side." Ethan scowled. "She's unreliable and unstable in the simplest of matters, so what makes you think she'll be any more reliable in magic? Are you sure she even has any real magic? That these are genuine?"
"Oh, don't get so jealous, Ethan." Benny teased, leaning in close and throwing an arm around him, causing Ethan to hiss from the contact of Benny's arm to his wounded collarbone. His skin throbbed under the exposed bandages. "So insecure. You know you're the only Seer in my life."
"Don't do that!" Ethan pushed at him lightly. "There are already rumors going around that we're married! This is getting ridiculous, Benny. I can't afford-"
"Can't afford the shame of being married to someone like me?" Benny asked, but he was grinning, and only pulled Ethan closer by the neck when he attempted to squirm away. "Get over yourself, E. Those rumors have been flying for years now- if someone had a problem with it, they would've said so."
"A problem with what?" Ethan glared as Benny made kissing faces at him and stood to slam the shutters closed against any prying eyes. "There's nothing to see!"
"Then why are you slamming the windows?" Benny grinned with a mischievous glint in his eyes that Ethan hated because it had only ever meant trouble. "Come on, Ethan, nothing to be ashamed of. Why don't you..."
Still grinning, he pushed the shutters so violently open that they slammed loudly on the wall outside. A few villagers out roaming the roads looked their way curiously.
"SPEND SOME QUALITY TIME WITH YOUR HUSBAND!"
Beyond words, Ethan snatched at the shutters, batting at his best friend's grabbing hands and letting out an unmanly shriek when his behind was pinched. Finally, the blasted shutters came crashing back into their fitted positions and Ethan turned with a flushed face on his best friend, who had lost himself in full, crazy, laughter. So much that he couldn't even suck in a complete breath, only managing to gasp a few words at a time.
"Should've...heard that...sound you...Mrs. Green..." Benny was absolutely choking on his laughter, collapsed in a kitchen chair, and it was such a welcome yet completely obnoxious sight that Ethan had to turn away and cover his eyes with his hand, biting his lip against the grin and his own laughter threatening to break through. Benny seemed to have given up on trying to communicate, because he didn't attempt to speak again until he had caught his breath. It didn't help that every time he had looked at Ethan, caught in his own small laughing fit, he had started up again with a renewed wave of mirth.
"Are you done?" Ethan asked sometime later, grinning but slowly sobering, and Benny was quieting down.
"I don't know." Benny laughed again and fanned himself with a paper from the table. "I think so."
"You moron!" Ethan shook his head, still smiling and trying to get his thoughts together as he buttoned up his blue shirt, which had previously hung open. "I'm indecent!"
"Oh, I'm sure no one minded." Benny replied, with that same goofy grin still on his face. "You've really got to loosen up, E. I don't think it really matters."
"I think it does!" Ethan ran a hand through his unkempt hair.
"E, if you're talking about a certain bookkeeper, I'm sure anything we do or any rumors won't affect how she sees us. Really, I'm surprised anyone in this town actually believes that we're coupled." Benny shook his head as though just the thought was ludicrous. "The people of Whitehapel are supposed to be a little more intuitive than that. Anyone with a brain can see that you only have eyes for Sarah Fox."
"Well, we do spend a lot of time together." Ethan mused, wondering how on earth he or Benny could've let this situation get so out of hand. Before, he'd just smirked and thought it was kind of funny...so, a few people thought they were married...big deal, right?
Only, it hadn't just been a few people after a while. Heck, even the Council of the town, even the elders and the children seemed to think they were an item. Soon, it would begin to affect legalities and...
"And, legally, we are married." Benny chimed from his seat at the table.
"That's ridiculous!" Ethan brushed it off. "No one actually believes it, do they?"
"Well, yeah E." Benny gave him a funny look, with realization slowly dawning in his eyes. "Ethan, I thought you were the one who was all concerned about town traditions and the law! How could you forget!"
"What are you talking about?" Ethan's voice had rose an octave and there was a nervous look in his eyes that was making Benny a bit nervous. "What law?"
"Well...there's this one law, apparently that two people who've been living together for more than five years are maritally bound. According to Whitechapel law." Benny winced at the look on Ethan's face.
"We've lived together for seven years."
"I know." Benny began, and stood up, trying to soothe Ethan's anxiety before it ran away with him. His best friend had a habit of freaking out over such trivial things... "But come on, E! It's nothing but a technicality-"
"A technicality!" Ethan rubbed his hands over his face in stress. "That's almost worse than the alternatives! Benny, we're married!"
"Ethan-"
"Oh my god!" The Seer had his hands fisted loosely in his hair now, a look of diluted horror in his eyes. "Do you know what this means?! Benny, we're married!"
"It's not that big of a thing!" Benny was saying, but Ethan was talking over him.
"Oh god, Sarah!" The shorter brunet mourned, sounding as defeated as Benny had been when Erika had shot him down yesterday. "It's no wonder that she's never expressed any real interest. She must think I'm a joke! I've been making a fool of myself for years."
"Don't think like that, E!" Benny stepped up to Ethan and gently shook his shoulders. Slowly, finally, warm brown met deep, greenish hazel and Benny smiled as gently as he was able. "You're the best person in the world, and it doesn't even matter if we're legally married or not. It's not as if it's...binding.."
"But it is, isn't it?" Ethan deadpanned, searching Benny's guilty face before giving a sigh. He reached up and gave his friend a quick pat on the cheek and stepping away to go and change into presentable clothing. "You're right, it's not that big of a deal."
"We could have the marriage annulled, if you want." Benny sounded distinctly uncomfortable. If truth were being told, it would've mad him quite sad if Ethan said yes- it wasn't that the marriage had actually been initiated by one of them... It was just that, if Ethan and he went through all the trouble to get this marriage annulled..he might've felt as though he'd lost something. Granted, something he never really had, but it would have been as if it were a great shame to be bound to him.
Silly, he knew, to be thinking like this. There had never been anything romantic about his or Ethan's feelings towards each other anyway, so it wouldn't be as though they'd actually lost anything. Still, the idea sat ill with him, up until the moment that Ethan sighed and gave a little smile, shaking his head.
"No, it's fine Ben. We should leave it, at least for now." He sighed again. "Best not to rushing into anything...you're right, if someone had a problem, they would have spoken up long before now. Anyway..." He scowled. "I shouldn't be freaking out over it now; it's old news. It's not like I was doing an overly fine job of courting Sarah anyhow."
"So does this mean it's okay if I plan us a romantic evening on the town." Benny winked cheekily. "We missed the Samhain Festival, but the seasonly masquerade is just around the corner, Ethan and they have that dance to celebrate the end of winter every year-"
"Alright, don't get carried away." Ethan laughed and turned away from Benny's waggling eyebrows and impish grin. As he began unbuttoning his shirt, however - hadn't he just buttoned it UP? - his eyes glowed a sudden white. Benny caught sight of his best friends eyes for just a moment, and was even more intrigued when a faint blush came over Ethan's face, staining his cheeks pink.
"What is it?" Benny asked a few moments later, when Ethan resumed motion.
"Nothing." Ethan assured quickly, but Benny noticed that he didn't quite look him in the eye and he was still flushed. "You'd better get an early start on those teapots then, Benny. I think Grandma's coming over later to see about that trip you two are supposed to take to Golden Falls."
"Wait a second, don't change the subject!" Benny protested, following Ethan until a door was slammed in his face. "What is it?"
Later that day, when Ethan did look him in the eye, it was because he was glaring at him, and Benny swore that daggers could have shot from that stare. Granted, it was his fault- he had his arm slung around Ethan's shoulders and was walking with him at such close proximity that Ethan was actually shying away.
Well, serves him right for avoiding him all day, and acting so distant. That wasn't his fault.
Was it?
"Benny, do you mind?" Ethan muttered, giving a light shrug of his shoulder to jolt Benny's arm. "I'd like to make it home without any further incident. I'm too tired for this."
"Oh, lighten up Ethan." Benny said and Ethan couldn't even count how many times he'd heard those words. "It's not like-"
"I know, it's not like anyone cares." Ethan rolled his eyes. "I get it, but that doesn't justify your adding fuel to the fire." He looked around at the people who still milled in the streets, even as it was nearly dusk, and was pleasantly but disturbingly surprised to see that many of those who looked at them also smiled, not at all looking surprised themselves.
"People are looking." Benny murmured, close to Ethan's ear as they set off toward home. "They're smiling."
"That's only because everyone here is so unusually happy, all the time." Ethan shook his head but couldn't resist smiling himself, finally succeeding in throwing Benny's long arm from around him. "Including you."
"I think you're just grumpy." Benny smiled. "You know how the townspeople really are, they're wolves. Of course they're happy all the time, as long as they have something new to gossip about."
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that." Ethan looked around as discreetly as he could, seeing that the lights were off in the town's library- though that didn't necessarily mean no one was inside.
"I would." Benny murmured as the two walked in silence for a few moments more. They were nearly to the edge of town, where the lanterns became fewer and night poured down on the surrounding plains when he spoke again. "I heard something new today."
"What's that?" Ethan asked, still thinking about Sarah and how he would approach their next conversation- too preoccupied to pull away when Benny took his hand in his own. Benny's long, slender fingers intertwined with his own, and simple as the act was, it felt intimate as well, and made the shorter man flush lightly. Blinking up at his best friend, Ethan was concerned suddenly. "Is everything okay?"
"Someone came by the weaponry earlier." Benny started, looking rather uncharacteristic with his eyes focused directly on the ground in front of him. The playful look had gone and been replaced with a look that told Ethan he was doing some deep thinking. "I guess they didn't see me behind the racks or something, but just by chance, they were talking about us."
"What were they saying?" Ethan asked, and took half a moment to debate before squeezing Benny's fingers back, very lightly. "Nothing bad, I hope."
"Oh, I don't think so." A smirk lit Benny's lips then, but it was only half light-hearted. "I don't think it was meant to be insulting in any way, but at the same time...they were talking about your "affair" with Ms. Fox."
"Ah." Ethan tried not to wince. "That again..."
Benny only nodded. Again, it was a long while before he spoke again, and by then they'd made it to just less than a stone's throw away from their home. The night was just starting to get chilly, and because it had been an unusually warm day for the month of November, the lightning bugs were still flickering their way across the worn path. No one knew for sure why the fireflies stuck around Whitechapel for so long, when they'd already left the surrounding towns- but it could be inferred that it was for the same reason as all the other oddities. Magic.
"Ethan, you know it wouldn't be that much of an ordeal," Benny began. "If you wanted to annul the marriage. Between us, that is." The spellmaster looked directly at him then, and his white smile, albeit somewhat forced, gleamed in the twinkling lights of his magic as he flicked his fingers towards the porch lamps. They lit themselves and a soft yellow glow illuminated the two of them when more lights went into the keyhole of their front door, shifting the tumblers and swinging it open.
"I thought we'd been through this before." Ethan smiled gently in thanks as Benny allowed him in first. "I don't need the marriage annulled, Benjamin, and I don't particularly care to go through all the trouble. Unless you want to, of course, but as it is, it'll only stir up more controversy."
"Well, we are a hot topic, it seems." Benny smiled, letting a bit of sadness slip into his smile when Ethan turned away. "But that's just it, isn't it? No one will ever look at your relationship with Sarah respectfully when you're betrothed to another. Especially someone like me."
"Now what do you mean by that?" Ethan quirked a brow as he looked back at his friend, still shrugging out of his boots and relieving himself of the discomfort of his belt, in favor of the drawstrings underneath. "I might not be getting anywhere with Ms. Fox anyway, Benjamin, it hardly calls for a divorce. In any case, you're a wonderful person. I'm not ashamed."
The seer threw a smile of his own over his shoulder, gentling his expression when he saw the kicked-puppy look on his friend's face.
"I just don't want this to affect you're future, E." Benny confessed, not quite wanting to meet Ethan's eyes, and was spared the act when the seer turned away to tend to the fireplace, where a pyramid of wood sat waiting to be lit. "The sooner it's done with, the sooner it'll blow over, right?"
"Do you want it to end?" Ethan asked neutrally, the wood in front of him nearly ablaze already as the rapidly disintegrating scrap paper did it's work. "Is that what you want?"
"Well, not exactly, no." Benny blushed but decided to be honest, and crossed his arms out of habit. "It doesn't bother me in the least, it's just that-"
"Then I'd say it's settled." Ethan stood. The fire was now on it's way to full mast, and it bled light into the room, spreading warmth as it went. Ethan set a kettle of water over it that had been sitting on a side table since earlier that day. Picking out some herbs from the cupboard next to the furnace, Ethan said nothing more.
"What about-" Benny started and then bit back his words. Ethan had stated quite clearly that their phony marriage was fine for the time being, but what about the seer's future? Everyone loved Ethan, and he knew Ethan would gladly love someone back one day, be it Sarah Fox or otherwise. He'd always known that E wanted a family for himself one day, and although they were young still, people have gotten married as early as sixteen. Ethan deserved more than to just live with him like this, allowing his schemes and foolishness to hold him back.
"Okay, Benny..." Ethan turned towards him, smiling reassuringly- as though he knew what was running through the spellmaster's mind and knew the turmoil that weighed on him. The seer walked his way, holding a handful of several herbs and a couple jars of spices. He transferred all the items to one arm and reached up towards Benny's face, running a hand through the taller man's hair.
"Don't think so hard. Don't worry so much." Ethan felt oddly sentimental at that moment, soothing Benny with his touch as the spellmaster sighed and leaned in. Ethan's hand went down the side of Benny's head and down his neck until it nearly rested on his shoulder, thumbing softly at his friend's pulse point. "It doesn't suit you."
"I should have told you about the marriage earlier, but I thought you knew. We should have talked about it." Benny closed his eyes, relaxing, and letting of his stress with a sigh. "I just want you to do what's best. Before it's too late."
"I know what's best for me." Ethan responded, eyeing his friend with gentle curiosity and a slow-growing almost shy grin. "And right now, I don't have any other interest than working at the apothecary and living in this house, venturing into the unknown with my best friend. Don't you trust me?"
There was a spark of mischief in Ethan's eyes, and, finally letting go the better part of his worries, the spellmaster leant down forward until their foreheads were touching.
"Of course I trust you." Benny grinned and pushed against him playfully as though to initiate a kiss. Both males flushed, even as Ethan laughed and leant back, having to clutch Benny's shoulder for support from the angle he was in. Leaning in more and making kissy noises before clicking his teeth together rapidly, Benny wrapped his arms around Ethan's waist and reveled in the sound of his best friend's laughter, even as he was pushed back.
"Get off! I'm going to drop everything!" Ethan scolded, pushing against Benny's shoulders.
Laughing to himself, Benny let go and then began shrugging off his own shoes, outer shirt and tool belt.
"What's it look like tomorrow, E?" Benny asked offhandedly a minute or so later, still smiling and starting to pick up things that had fallen on the floor earlier. Tossing a stray black hat in the air and twirling it around before placing it on his head, he began pulling vegetables from the cupboards. "Fair? Warm like today?"
"How about the first snow of the season?" Ethan called back, twisting herbs and throwing them into the kettle, flinching when something shiny spontaneously flew past him from the shelves above the fireplace and then back to it's original spot. "Rain? I have premonitions of the supernatural, Benny, not the weather."
"What about Mrs. Jones yesterday?" Benny's eyebrows rose as he peeled and chopped turnips into cubes with a large cooking knife. "You knew somehow how she'd been poisoned."
"Well, indirectly, my visions could include her." Ethan shrugged, though Benny wasn't facing him to see it. "Her daughter's a vampire. But besides that, it was you're magically conjured flowers and goose feathers that I think really allowed me to see. The apothecary might have had something to do with it as well, god knows we've got more magical items in there than we know what to do with."
"But if you really tried," Benny went on, "Do you think you could see just about anything?"
"You know, I'm really not sure." Ethan smiled as he walked by to grab two mugs from the cupboards directly behind Benny, placing them on the counter. "I haven't tried. One thing I have seen, however is that you've yet to undo the enchantments on those wretched teapots."
"How do you figure-" Benny started, and then ducked as a teacup flew right past his face, narrowly missing his nose as it crashed into the far wall and broke into pieces.
"That." Ethan nodded towards the den, where things had begun to act up, flying this way and that, crashing into things and narrowly avoiding the two men as they ducked and dodged. "The whole tea set, Benny? Really? Those were a gift!"
"I can fix this!" Benny defended himself quickly, yelping when a flying spoon knocked his hat off his head. "Just let me-"
"No more magic after this!" Ethan stated firmly, exclaiming in surprise and pain when a pair of silver tongs scraped him across his cheek and left a great welt in it's wake. "Ow! Benny, stop this!"
"Why is it happening now?" Benny stared at his friend's wounded face for a moment before near yelling the incantation that would stop the ruckus waving a hand both to cast the spell and to defend himself from hurdling porcelain.
"There." Ethan huffed, satisfied and tired when everything had stopped flying this way and that. "Was that so hard?" Granted, there were shards of finely crafted cups and saucers everywhere, and the silver from the set were likely dented and bent, and his cheek throbbed hotly, but he supposed he couldn't ask for everything. He stepped gingerly over the sharp remains of a particularly shiny cup and was surprised when he felt a hand catch his wrist.
Benny was looking at him with concern etched across his face, and Ethan couldn't help but wince when a hand came up to his cheek. Instead of touching though, Benny simply hovered his fingers over the cut, which had begun to bleed ruby drops of blood, and then blowing carefully. Where his breath made soft, misty contact with Ethan's skin, the wound closed and the seer's blood vanished. Ethan closed his eyes against the sensation, and only opened them when the magic had done it's job and left only clean, perfect skin in it's wake.
"I thought I said no more magic." Ethan narrowed his eyes, but smiled ruefully when Benny continued to have the same curious, gentle look in his eyes.
"Well, that wasn't just any magic." Benny defended himself lightly. "This time was different, see? Did you see any sparks?"
"Close enough. There was some kind of fog." Ethan touched his cheek. "So what kind of magic was it?"
"Uh..." Benny grinned lightly. "Love?"
Ethan laughed, but his eyes were happy when he turned away from Benny to get their tea for them. "Alright, Benny. I hear that."
When he turned back around, Benny was right there, not a foot away. The spellmaster leant in and smiled sweetly as he brought them in close, so close as to nearly nuzzle the seer, his silence speaking volumes. Saying all that needed to be said without words. Taking in the sweet demeanor of his friend, Ethan sighed, and without knowing what he was doing, pulled Benny in to embrace him.
"I thought you said it was going to snow." Benny commented as the boys stretched out on their front porch. Ethan had the day off of work (though he'd likely stop by at some point during the day anyway, as he was prone to doing) and Benny had decided to take it easy and work on something more practical- updating all of his magical discoveries thus far into one of several journals he'd stored away for the occasion. It was all very relaxing.
"I said nothing like that." Ethan denied, sipping a mug of steaming, lightly sweetened tea from where he sat opposite Benny on their porch bench. Habit had woken them before the sun had even come up, and the two weren't particularly surprised to see that a fair few other townspeople were already on the move at the first light of dawn, raking through the last of the fall harvest and tending to the livestock. "In fact, I remember specifically telling you that I don't predict the weather."
"Ah, you're crazy either way." Benny smirked, slipping a loose button-up in a charming shade of green over his shoulders as the sun rose and it became more and more apparent that both men were topless. "What good is it to be a seer when you can't even predict something as mundane as rain or shine?"
"Spare me." Ethan rolled his eyes, obviously having had this conversation a fair few times. "Premonition is a waste of talent in this town. I can tell you anything that's happening, anywhere within three leagues as we speak. The exact same things happen every day, Benjamin, just in different scenarios." He sipped his morning tea thoughtfully, as though actually entertaining the notion. "It doesn't take a seer to predict the future of Whitechapel."
"A prime example," Ethan went on, his lips twitching up in amusement as he nodded to the semi-distant figure of Councilman Stern scrambling around on his rooftop, seemingly trying to repair a drip or lose board himself. Why the poor, daft man had wanted his new house built within screaming distance of he and Benny's residence, he would never know. "There's Councilman Stern, repairing his roof again. Wasn't he just nailing down a new set of roof tiling a few days ago?"
"Well, you're right about one thing." Benny grinned as well. "It doesn't take a second sight to predict that. So, other than your help in extreme cases such as accidental but severe allergic reactions to innocent flowers, what purpose does your magic serve?"
"As though your ability to cast spells is any more useful." Ethan scoffed. "Child's play. Good for enchanting silverware and good china to fly into the walls, that's for damn sure."
"That was completely unintentional." Benny replied coolly, sipping his own brew, watching as the morning mist began clearing from the ground, driven away by the first golden rays of sun.
"My thoughts exactly."
Straightening himself indignantly, Benny glared at a smiling Ethan and pulled his tunic tighter around him as more people began coming out of their homes and out onto the streets.
"Ah, there we go." Ethan smiled wickedly, nodding towards a scene towards the outskirts of town where a few men and women were chasing down an albino stallion. "The Edwards chasing down their prized Stallion because they didn't tie him up tight enough last night."
Benny opened and closed his mouth, fighting against the urge to chuckle and the annoyance about his best friend once again being right about everything.
"Just another day in Whitechapel." Ethan continued, smiling a bit more softly now as he descended the steps of their porch, pulling a faded red tunic over his head and tucking it into his work trousers, where he also tightened a belt.
"I'll show you how useful my magic is." Benny smiled, and was suddenly at the bottom of the steps himself with his arms raised mysteriously, next to a half-startled Ethan. "I will show all how valuable a sorcerer's magic can be! I wasn't gifted these abilities for nothing you know!"
"Benny, that isn't necessary!" Ethan tried to redirect the spellmaster's focus on a different subject. These sudden bursts of excitement, although endearing, also usually meant that Ethan would spend the better part of his day -or week- tending to a new magic-induced mess. "Why don't you accompany me in the crop cellars? I could use your expertise in selecting a new batch of moonshade for-"
"Oh hush!" Benny waved him off and Ethan sighed, resigned. "Are tea and tonic always the only things on your mind? Take a risk, E."
Whatever happened next, Ethan was suddenly peeking with the beginnings of a smile through fingers shielding his face and Benny was propelling flickering streams of light from his palms. The greenish orbs shot across the clearing between their house and the others, seeming to head straight for the Edward's horse.
"Here we go." Benny beamed with bright eyes as the orbs gained momentum, changing direction and dodging the few obstacles in the way as they sped towards the evasive animal.
"Good lord." Ethan bit his lip in just a bit of stress, though he had to admit, he was interested to see where Benny's magic led them this time. "I hope it doesn't hit Mrs. Edwards, didn't she just have surgery the other week? What in the world is she doing on her feet anyway?"
"Just watch." Benny reassured, seeming much too smug for someone who'd just shot a great ball of magic in the general direction of a Councilman's new home.
The grumpiest Councilman in Whitechapel or in any of the surrounding towns. Legend had it, the man hadn't smiled since he'd lost his own prized horses over two decades ago, in some sand blizzard...which in a way, Ethan guessed, was to be doubted, as they were near no particularly large bodies of sand, but the man had given Ethan no reason to believe otherwise. He may as well have frost gathering around the trims of all his formal day-clothing, for all the coldness he conveyed.
"It's only a simple stunning charm after all, any fool could cast it." The spellmaster was looking entirely pleased with himself.
Just then, Joseph Stern, son of the Councilman Stern, rounded the corner from behind their grand home, rolling a rather large and wobbly wheel barrel, piled high with yellow hay. As it happened, he rolled forward just in time to block the current path to the stallion- and for the orbs to bounce off of one of the thick iron castings of the large wooden tool.
Ethan's eyes widened a bit behind his fingers. "Oh-"
"No." Benny breathe agitatedly and in disbelief as the orb redirected backwards and up, and then tried to steer itself back on course- shooting into contact with the first live being it could find.
Councilman Stern.
Benny froze in place as though he had just been stunned himself, and Ethan's mouth hung open- not able to believe what was happening even as he was seeing it with his own eyes. A suddenly sparkling Stern had gone ramrod straight- and impressive show, for all his lower back problems- and had tipped over backwards. Was now rolling and falling sideways off the roof of his house and straight into the hay in his son's wheel barrel.
"You hit No-Smile Stern." Ethan stated the obvious just as they could hear Joseph Stern confusedly yell "Dad?!"
A second or so later, a stack of shingling that had been sitting atop the roof fell also and hit the burly man subsequently on the head- once, twice, and then eventually six times before Joseph had gathered wits enough to shield his father from the debris. The young man, just a few years older than themselves, looked around frantically and then zeroed in on the spellmaster and seer.
"You think he knows it was us?"
"Who's this us? It was your blasted charm!"
Despite his words, Ethan broke into somewhat of a jog- though he was still struggling internally with himself. Was this more funny than it was distressing? The man looked like he could've actually hurt himself for how high his roof was, and how hard those wooden tiles had hit him.
But he might've had it coming, right? After all, he wasn't as sparkly clean as he liked everyone to think. A secret wizard, the gall of him to hide his own magical roots and then look down on others...
Back in front of the porch, Benny looked on with half affection for his friend and half amused disgust for the town "elder"- if that sort of emotion was possible.
"Do we have to help him?" Benny debated with himself after he'd come to his senses. "After all, he has called me a hell-raising hooligan on several occasions, and he's only an honorary council member..."
In the distance, he could hear Ethan now apologizing profusely to the Councilman and his son, promising that the charm would wear off momentarily, and no, this wasn't a regular occurrence, so where was the need to call a Council to discuss it further? If Benny hadn't known Ethan better, the seer would've sounded almost completely sincere.
"That's my Ethan." Benny grinned as he set towards his best friend at his own leisurely pace, happy and comforted in the knowledge that no matter how unreasonable or ridiculous the situation, his best friend would always be there to catch him when he stumbled.
As Ethan helped to heft Stern out of the hay in the wheel barrel, he looked over his shoulder and flashed Benny a small, sarcastic smile that somehow still seemed genuine, complimented by eyes that were brightening from rich brown to a glowing, hypnotic white. A supernatural hue that so very few people had the opportunity and grace to see- the pure, manifesting magic of a seer.
"A little help here Benny?" Ethan nodded to the groaning man in his arms. Joseph, who had been fussing over the welts on his father's head, looked up sharply with a glare.
"Sorry?" Benny asked more than apologized. "I can freeze a glass of water for that-"
"No magic!" Joseph growled agitatedly as Ethan bit his lip to conceal a grin. "No more magic, you fool! After my father awakens, you can expect an earful out of him, and my mother as well. The indignity! He's a councilman!"
"Like father like son.." Benny mused, and contemplated shoving Ethan into the now mostly empty wheel barrel and making a break for it. In the end, he resolved to just simper and apologize as genuinely as he could. It would be far less consequential that way.
"He chooses now to start thinking of his actions." Ethan muttered as the three men heaved the blabbering sorcerer up the glorious front porch of the house. If it hadn't have been for he insults already being hurled towards he and Benny (mostly the latter) he probably would've felt bad about stumbling and -accidentally!- banging Stern's head on the door frame.
A resounding and annoying knock once again rang through the Morgan-Weir household. Two groans then followed from somewhere in the inner rooms.
"A moment, please?!"
A minute or so later, the door opened a few inches to reveal what appeared to be a very disheveled Benjamin Weir, with his hair in an even more tangled mess than usual and what might have been flour dusted across his face. He wore no clothing on his upper extremities, unless a strip of cloth could be counted, hanging from his wild locks.
"Yes?" Benny asked, and those who stood on the porch watched with wide eyes and several flinches when what looked like an armchair spontaneously flew across the room behind the young man and crashed into a far wall. Other than this, there was no apparent noise within the home.
"How may I help you?" The brunet wizard asked as if there had been no ruckus just behind him. He didn't so much as blink when a great flash of light shined behind him, or even when a comet of smoke the color of roses rushed by and tousled his hair further, opening the door another couple of inches. In the background, there was a sound like a deep screeching and then what sounded like Ethan, speaking in a scolding tone, though none of them could make out what was being said.
"Um, yeah..." Rory blinked and looked about as taken aback as the ladies beside him.
"Dear, is everything alright?" Mrs. Jones asked in a hesitant tone. "We came by to inquire about our monthly order-"
A yelp broke the silence of the home, and there was a sound like furniture moving rapidly across the floorboards, and then a series of great cracks.
"Now that wasn't necessary!" It was positively Ethan Morgan's voice, and he sounded quite agitated, just on the boarder of angry. "I can hear you! This is my home you brute! Open this door!"
"Ou-our um, bimonthly order we placed at the end of September that hasn't come in, and to bring you this pastry my daughter so insisted on baking." Mrs. Jones blinked and Erika smiled wickedly from where she stood on the steps.
'I wouldn't.' Rory mouthed from off to the left of them and shook his head, looking away to feign obliviousness when the Jones' glanced at him.
Benny raised his eyebrows in suspicion and surprise and then forced a smile onto his face as a show for the ladies. After what had happened to this poor woman at the apothecary, this pastry was sure to be no less than poisoned, somehow. After all, Mrs. Jones may never have bore any grudge, but Erika was another story- and had known him since their toddler days. He had no doubt that she could've managed to gather a list of all the things he was allergic to himself.
Which was a very long list, regrettably. Probably made longer by additional substances only vampires knew how to create. Each species did have it's own secrets after all.
Goodness, he couldn't believe he'd poisoned her mother...
"Thank you, so much." Benny tried for a bit of grace as he opened the door hesitantly wider and then reached out to grab the glass container gingerly. Their assumptions had been wrong before- he did have a tunic. That is, if you counted the green strips and scraps hanging off of his left shoulder.
"I'm sure Mr. Morgan will appreciate the gesture as well." E had been studying rare toxic substances as of late, on and off. "You know that sweet tooth of his."
"Benny!" Ethan called, as though on cue, and even Benny flinched when the muffled but still striking sound of glass shattering met their ears. "I'm losing patience!"
"Right, Ethan!" Benny glanced back nervously, and then blinked as he looked to the odd trio on his porch.
"About the order." Benny began, shifting in place. "We'll have it ready in two day's time at the latest. Apologies, we're a little backed up as of late."
"You sound like you need a bit of assistance there, friend." Rory commented from the sidelines. "All I came for was to escort the ladies, after all- never know what dangers a wizard and a seer could have lying around."
A screech that could've been some unnatural beast and could have also been a chair being scraped too roughly across the floor resounded from the inner home.
"As is evident." Rory looked satisfied and Mrs. Jones shot him a strange glance. "My points exactly. What's in there anyway?"
"We don't know." Benny replied ruefully, and ignored the simultaneous disturbed and confused glances shot his way. Ethan must have been past his boiling point by then.
"I'm more than game if you need a little help." Rory offered as he tried to sneak a peak past the young sorcerer. Benny only shifted a bit so that the majority of his bare skin was once again hidden behind the well-worn door.
"Listen, Mrs. Jones." Benny addressed the blonde woman directly, as it also occurred to him to be a bit embarrassed that this lady and Erika had caught him in such a state. "I appreciate the pastry, and your coming to remind us of our duties, but I really need to tend to a certain issue-"
Crack!
"...presently." Benny's eye twitched and he nodded firmly.
Suddenly and without noise or introduction, Ethan materialized at his side with a tight smile and a hand on the taller man's bare shoulder.
"It's not that I don't love dealing with supernatural crisis' on my own." Ethan stated, speaking mostly to Benny, who looked a bit sheepish under his calm. "It's just that I have no physical supernatural abilities of my own, and my very capable partner is ignoring the situation."
"I'm not ignoring!" Benny gestured with his expression and his eyes to the glass down in front of him.
"Thank you for the sweets, Mrs. Jones." Ethan forced pleasantly, willing his lips to turn up at her and his eyes to lose their hostile gleam for just a moment. "If you would please excuse us for the time being, we can get back to you later on the matter."
Abruptly, Benny was pulled into the house and yelping when a couch pillow sailed overhead. Ethan stuck his face out one last time, heaving a great sigh and looking down steeply so as to avoid eye contact. However, the three on the porch had already seen- a brief glimpse of glowing white.
"Also, if you happen to run into Mrs. Stern at your card game later," The seer went on. "Please to tell her that we'll be happy to discuss appropriate punishments and damage compensations with the family later in the evening, or tomorrow morning perhaps. We're a little preoccupied for the time being."
"This has been a lovely visit." Benny smiled from the background, and suddenly the house was much quieter. Glowing balls of light were streaking to and fro from what could be seen of the interior of the house. "Let's do it again sometime?"
Leaving a slightly surprised and disgruntled woman, her bored and fang-y daughter, and a an equally fang-y, serenely smiling vampire on the porch, Ethan closed the door and resumed losing his temper.
"I hope that wasn't my dish." Mrs. Jones winced when another glass broke just beyond the front door. "Oh dear. I hope they're alright."
"Yes, it must be taxing having a husband as such." Erika drawled, examining her perfect finger nails.
"Which one?" Rory inquired, offering his arm to the older lady as they descended the steps.
"Both of them, I would guess." Erika shrugged. "Though mostly Benjamin, I would say. He seems like a handful and a half."
"Oh Erika." Her mother tutted, waving a hand carelessly. "Leave them be. They're fine young men...everyone blunders now and again. They deserve each other equally."
"Indeed, did you see how passionately they handled each other?" Rory did his best to hide a smirk. "You don't see that kind of familiarity within every household."
"How insightful of you, darling."
"If you say so."
.
.
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AN: Almost 14,000 words! I'd call that a win :D and it only took me the better part of a year and a half to complete. I've had the idea even longer than that, but yeah...life. Would anyone like to see more fics set in old eras? Thanks, of course, to anyone who reads, and I hope you review, because I enjoy any praise or constructive criticism you have to offer. Please feel more than free to correct my errors. I am an aspiring author, after all- do any of you think I'll make it as a real author? :D
Review! Possible sequel, with more romantic interaction. Tell me all of your thoughts. Until next time, and big thanks to my usual readers. xx Hope your year has gone better than mine has so far.
Uploaded 02.02.16