The Way To A Girl's Heart...
WRITTEN BY: Jamie Jeans aka Jolt aka Big-Wired aka Lemon Ranger Blue aka the longest written name of an authour EVER!
Started: May 9th, 2005
Finished: May 12th, 2005

Legal Disclaimer: The characters of W.I.T.C.H belong to whomever owns them and not me. I'm simply borrowing them for a spell to write good fiction about. Don't sue, I have no money to give anyhow. ;p

All this? What you're about to read?

I blame Racewing for it.

Just letting you know.

This also takes place shortly after the events in episode 15, The Mudslugs.

"Taranee!"

Glad for something to take her mind off the questionable food in front of her, the dark skinned and glasses bedecked member of Witch turned in her seat to see a waving Hay Lin carrying a basket, of all things, with her.

"Come on, lets eat outside!"

Taranee again glanced down at the tray in front of her, and then to the grinning face of her friend before making her decision.

"Okay."

As it had been the beginning of lunch hour, the two actually had some time to find a nice place to sit. And thus it was on a bench near the empty football field that Hay Lin sprung her surprise on Taranee.

"... Chinese stir fry?"

"Yeah! I've totally seen the loathing looks you've been casting the food they serve here, not that I can't blame you. According to what I've seen on TV, it's all chemically boiled paste placed in molds with elaborate food colouring added in to simulate real food!" Taking out two takeout baskets of food, Hay Lin removed the covers and presented one to Taranee, along with a complimentary pair of chopsticks. "So I figured after all we've been through, why not treat ourselves to something good for once?"

Taranee smiled and gladly accepted the meal before something struck her. "Ourselves? Why not invite everyone along as well?"

"Because not everyone was almost eaten alive by a giant mother mud slug recently." Picking up one sauce covered sprig of broccoli, Hay Lin held it aloft. "Say ahh..."

"Ahhh...?"

"No, Ahhh... come on, it's delicious." And as Taranee bit into the offered morsel, Hay Lin let the other shoe drop. "And I cooked it myself! ... with grandma's help too. Well, plenty of help..."

Taranee wasn't really hearing her though, as she was simply enjoying the wonderful taste of the cooked vegetable. She said as much, then she chewed a few more times, swallowed, and repeated herself.

"Awww, thank you. I was really hoping that you'd like them."

Taking her own chopsticks, Taranee attempted to start in on her own meal of veggies, but no matter how she held the darned sticks, they just would not let her pick up the food. Sure, they had been over to Hay Lin's restaurant, she and all her friends, but Taranee was still having trouble handling the chopsticks.

"You didn't perhaps bring a fork along, did you?" she said after a few more fruitless attempts. "I don't feel like eating with my hands."

"Nope!" said Hay Lin brightly, and reached over, plucking up another tender morsel. "Here, I'll help. Ahhhh..."

Quickly, Taranee looked around and, spying no one, opened her mouth and was treated again to more of Hay Lin's wonderful cooking.

She sighed as she munched contently, swallowed, and was about to say more when Hay Lin presented a tasty looking mushroom. Taranee could only accept it, all the while hoping that no one was watching while wondering just what had brought on this particular bout of kindness from her friend. Sure, they all did things for each other, but...

"Hey, this isn't some big deal to get me out here alone with you, is it?" she finally asked.

"No! No no no well yeah okay, yes." Hay Lin chewed thoughtfully on a piece of beef.

"Oh, well it worked. Here I am, and here you are..." Taranee trailed off, wondering if perhaps she needed something more to prompt her friend and fellow Guardian of the Veil.

"We have to strengthen the alliance!"

"Uh... sorry?"

Hay Lin gave her a winning grin. "Us, as WITCH, as an alliance... after yesterday, we totally have to strengthen up! Thus, I brought you out here, as the brains of the group, to help me brainstorm and mind blizzard us an idea on how to do it!" She hefted up her plate of stir fry.
"And have something good to eat too. Next time, we'll bring Caleb along. He almost got eaten too."

"That explains it. But maybe we should wait a bit on it? I think everyone is still tense over what happened... Irma more than anyone else, I think."

"Oh? Why's that?"

Taranee blinked, caught up in indecision momentarily. "Uh... well, you know, because of how Will and Cornelia were fighting...?"

"Oh that? Yeah, I know... total surprise too. I mean, wow, and to think... Will suggested we go on too without her. But hey, we... we kinda had to too, since you know, saving the world and all that. No one else is going to dress up in those green and purple clothes. And besides, I LOVE to fly." Hay Lin's grin was a bit troubled now, and the sight of it worried Taranee too. These past few days certainly had not been a highlight of their Guardian career, what with the loss of their friend to the dark side.

"Well, you know... maybe if we did get together, did something fun, since all we ever do is either worry about something when we're together, or fight, it might help to clear up the air, clear our minds..."

Hay Lin grinned again and hugged Taranee. "You're right! See? I knew there was a reason I made you stir fry! Now, I've got a few ideas I'd like to run by you..."

Taranee pulled away a bit in the hug, but nodded when Hay Lin pulled back. She picked up her chopsticks and attempted to eat while she listened, but stopped when that proved futile.

There had to have been a class or something that Hay Lin took to figure out how to use those things.

"... no, no, not like that. Okay, here, look, one more time..." Hay Lin sidled in close to her friend and took her hands in hers, guiding them.
"Hold them together like this, then you pick out your food, and bring them together."

Taranee brought the trapped piece of food up to her mouth, and bit a little too hard on the wood at the smile Hay Lin gave her. "Yes,
perfect! See? No problem." She motioned to the tray. "Now, eat the entire thing just like that. It's getting cold," she added with a playful finger tap on Taranee's nose.

"... uh... your ideas?" Taranee prompted her, fighting down another wave of embarrassment.

"Right! I say we all get together and have some fun! Like... make over! We can dye our hair all KINDS of different colours!"

"One problem with that, Hay Lin."

"Yeah?"

"We'd be dying our hair all kinds of colour. It wouldn't get back to normal for weeks, maybe even months."

Hay Lin waved that aside. "No problem there. We'd just get Will to Witch us and back, and the dyed hair would be all gone. After all, we got back to normal when we were shrunk and tossed inside that giant plant thing."

"The terrarium. And we also needed to get back through the veil before we turned back to normal. Hair colour might not be something the change affects. And besides, we really shouldn't abuse the power like that."

Hay Lin sighed and slumped back in the bench, her idea shot down, before she jumped back up. "Right! New plan... we get everyone together at Will's house for popcorn, movies, and pop."

That actually seemed like a pretty good idea. Taranee mulled it over as she, much to her surprise, successfully gathered more food with the chopsticks and ate it. "That might work, if we can all agree on a movie, or get one or two that we know everyone will like."

"Yeah, yeah..." Hay Lin frowned. "So we grill the others for info on what they like without letting them know what we're doing!"

"Grill?"

"You know, get the information out of them..." Hay Lin gobbled up some more food, amazing Taranee with the speed and agility that she worked the chopsticks. "So we'll get them together at Will's place..."

"After we ask Will first," Taranee added.

"Yes, after we ask her, and get some pop, and chips, and other good stuff... we can do this tomorrow too!"

"No we can't, it's Wednesday tomorrow. We need to wait until the weekend."

"Oh." Hay Lin seemed defeated at having her plan delayed, but was back to her normal self in seconds. "See? I totally need you to keep my head on, Taranee. Between us, we'll have a big old super hero booster party in no time."

"Not a problem, I-"

Taranee's words were lost when Hay Lin suddenly darted in and kissed her on the cheek. "I can always count on you," she said with a grin, and giggled at her friend's wide eyed look. "Come on, better finish up. I think we've got classes again in ten minutes. We can discuss what else to do after class."

".. right..."

"Although I really wanted to do a make over... I think you'd look really cool with a new hairdo."

Taranee recovered her wits enough to place a hand protectively against the braid on the side of her head. "It's fine, Hay Lin."

"But you'd look much cooler with that hairdo from when we change! It speaks I'm going to kick your butt. And ohh, maybe we could trick everyone out of class, like that one time!"

"I don't think Cornelia would approve of you trying to use sleep tea on her, Hay Lin. Remember what happened the last time?"

"But we did get out of class, didn't we?"

"Not the point."

What can I say? I developed something of a bug for writing these two, and since Racewing has claimed full ownership of writing any and all Will/Irma fanfics, I've delegated myself to Hay Lin and Taranee.

Although damned if I can't get enough of Hay Lin's energetic nature or Taranee's fire handling skills.

Until next time, Bye!