Losing the Future

Chapter 1: New Neighbors

Musa and Riven had just moved into an average sized house in an average sized neighbourhood on the west side Magix city. It was perfect as far as Musa was concerned. It had three bedrooms - one for her and Riven, one for her to use as a recording studio and one spare. There was a big fireplace for when it got cold and a vegetable garden out back - believe it or not, Riven had a bit of a green thumb.

The neighbourhood itself wasn't too close to the downtown, so it was pretty quiet, for a city at least, and there were a few trees dotted around.

It was nice. Really nice.

They had arrived late last night and the moving van had yet to arrive with their things, so Musa had headed down to the nearest coffee shop to get breakfast.

She was on her way back now, enjoying the peaceful morning as she went. She smiled as she spotted three young kids, a girl and two identical boys, playing in the yard in front of a duplex. The girl, who looked a little older than her companions, had long dark hair and eyes the color of a blue jay's feathers. The identical twins had curly black hair and dark eyes. As she watched, the kids started arguing and snatching a certain toy from each other. Soon they were on top of each other, wrestling in a playful manner.

Musa was almost passed the place when the door on the right side of duplex opened to reveal a disturbingly familiar brunette woman with amber eyes.

"Kids!" She called. "That's enough!"

The children stopped right away and moved to sit in a row facing the woman. Musa had to raise an eyebrow at their obedience.

"We's sowy aunt Darcy." One of the boys spoke up.

Musa's jaw dropped. Darcy? Surly she'd heard wrong! That was impossible! Right?

"We's was just pwaying." The other boy said. "We wasn't being mean!"

The little girl got up and ran up to Darcy. "Mama! Can I's come inside and see Dusky?"

"Of course you can honey." The woman smiled, before turning back to the boys. She pointed to fingers at her eyes and flipped her hand to point them at the twins in an 'I'm watching you' motion.

"Be good you two!" She warned.

The boys agreed and went back to playing, and the woman, Darcy, followed the little girl back inside, closing the door behind them. Musa was about to continue, when the door on the left side opened and another woman, obviously pregnant and with curly purple hair pulled up in a high ponytail and teal eyes appeared.

"Boys!" She called. "Time to come in and get cleaned up before your cousins get here!" She called.

The twins seemed to consider this before jumping up and running to their mother. "Are they's gonna be here soon?" One of them questioned.

"You bet! That's why you have to come in and get ready." Their mother replied.

The boys ran inside and their mother pulled the door closed, staring straight at Musa as she did.

At this point Musa's jaw had damn near hit the ground. Not only were the trix somehow returned from the legendarium world, but they had kids? My Dragon! What is this world coming to? She hurriedly continued down the sidewalk back towards her new house. And they're our neighbours! How ironic!

o0o

Later that day, after the moving van had arrived and they'd unpacked their meager belongings, Musa was crouched at one of the bedroom windows. She was watching the duplex across the street like a hawk. It seemed to be a busy place that day. The 'cousins' that were coming turned out to be Icy, a guy Musa could have sworn was Tritannus and two little girls. The girls and the three other kids were running around the house, full of energy and excited to see each other.

As she continued to watch a car pulled up and two guys got out, one that Musa didn't recognize and one that was none other than Jared, a guy from Red Fountain who'd had a crush on her back in her first year.

The kids came running around the side of the house and upon seeing them, they ran up and crowded around them, squealing with excitement.

"Musa? What are you doing in here?"

She whipped around in surprise, the binoculars she was holding disappearing in a flash of magic. "Riven! I was just, uh, checking out the view!"

"Really? Cause I could have sworn you were creeping on our new neighbours." He raised an eyebrow.

"That's ridiculous." She said, but she didn't sound to convincing.

"What's the matter with you?" Riven asked. " Do you have a problem with them already?"

"Ugh. . . lets just say we're old acquaintances that. . . Didn't exactly hit it off." Musa replied.

"Seriously? Do I know them?" He questioned.

"Uh-"

"Only all to well." A new voice interrupted.

They both turned, their eyes wide. For there, standing in the doorway was none other than Darcy, with the little girl Musa had seen earlier by her side. Her hair was no longer ankle length, but hung down to her waist instead, she still dressed in purples and blacks and she still wore glasses similar to the ones Musa remembered seeing her with years ago.

"What the Hell!?" Riven exclaimed, shocked.

"Raven and I noticed you were spying on us."she said calmly. "We decided to drop by and welcome you to the neighbourhood."

"I'm sure you did." Riven growled lowly.

"Oh, Relax." Darcy said. "I didn't come to hurt you. If I did, I wouldn't have brought Raven."

"So. . . Why are you here?" Musa questioned carefully.

"As I said - to welcome you."

"Right." Riven scoffed.

"Believe it or not, we've changed. We're not in the business of world domination anymore." She smirked. "I hope we can co-exist here. Civilly."

"We'll see." Riven growled.

"Good." She turned to Musa. "And do try to refrain from spying on us, dear. It's creepy."

Musa blushed. "I'll try."

Satisfied, Darcy took a step back. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have company."

She was about to teleport out, but stopped. "Oh, and Riven? Do watch your language around my daughter."

And then they were gone.

o0o

Musa couldn't help herself. She was just so paranoid that the neighbouring witches were planning something, and who could blame her? She'd spent six years of her life fighting them.

That was why she was crouched on the bedroom floor, peaking through the blinds with her binoculars, once again spying on their neighbours. She hadn't actually seen anything of concern yet, but still. She needed to be sure, so she kept checking. That was probably why Riven claimed to have seen Darcy spying on them from her upstairs window. She was getting back at them.

So Musa kept watching. This gave Darcy the bright idea to give her something to watch, so she got Stormy in on her plans.

And then, it was no longer neighbours being weird and spying on each other.

Musa thought the two witch sisters were being childish when they started sending enchanted paper airplanes into their windows. They made annoying plonking sounds when they made contact with the glass, while a select few would sail straight through the glass and into the room.

These ones usually had notes on them. One had a cute photo of Darcy's baby, Dusk. Musa didn't know why.

Riven then decided that if the witches were going to mess with them, then he would mess with the witches, so one day after work he sent his own enchanted paper plane to them with a very special note in it.

He told them Bloom was moving in next door with Sky.

The next morning when they woke up, there was a dead rabbit on their doorstep that looked suspiciously like Kiko.

Musa had to hand it to them. If she was to be completely honest, she had never liked Bloom's rabbit. He was annoying, and she thought it was creepy when he tried to act human.

After that, Riven decided to step it up a notch. He went over there in the night and rigged up a bucket of water over Darcy's front door that would fall on whoever opened it first. Musa just hoped it wasn't one of the kids. Luckily it wasn't.

Darcy's partner Don was the victim of that one.

This prompted Darcy to sneak into their house and steal all their light bulbs. Needless to say it was a very dark night.

The next morning however, the oak tree in their backyard was ready for Christmas.

It kept going back and forth like that until some of their other neighbours got wind of it and tried to shut it down. That only resulted in them getting tangled in it to. A few teamed up with Musa and Riven, a couple sided with the witches and some took sides of their own.

And then things really got crazy.

Riven 'borrowed' the battery from Jared's car, so Stormy, who couldn't use her own magic because she was pregnant, brewed some random, harmless potions in her front yard, just to freak the others out.

After that, some guy from a few houses down left an old newspaper (from when the trix were starting wars) in the witches' front yard, like dredging up the past was a good idea. Darcy got him back good.

Then, a fairy with a passion for pranks, gave the kids fake fairy wings and put levitation spells on them.

Yeah, bad move on her part. Darcy sent her some nasty nightmares that night, as a thank-you gift.

Someone, Musa had a sneaking suspicion it was Riven, put a 'for rent' sign up in front of the Witches' duplex, which was promptly turned into a burning effigy and left in place of their mailbox.

Musa sighed as she walked down the path to the sidewalk. When she got there, she waved her hand and the effigy disappeared, leaving the mailbox in its place. She looked around with her eyes narrowed. Suddenly Darcy appeared out of nowhere.

"About time." She smirked.

Musa rolled her eyes. "we are so childish. Starting a neighbourhood prank war like this."

"Hey. You started it, not us." Darcy replied.

"I was paranoid you guys were planning something!"

"And I warned you to stop spying." She pointed out.

"You say you're not childish, but your plan was to throw paper planes at my house if I didn't stop." Musa said.

"That was Stormy's idea, I swear!" Darcy exclaimed.

"Uh huh. Then why was there a picture of Dusk in one of them?"

"Just to confuse you."

"Heh, well, I put it on my fridge." Musa smirked.

"Of course you did."

Musa shrugged. "she's a cute kid. Even Riven thinks so."

"If you think she's so cute, I'll get you to babysit her sometime."

Thanks for reading! Hoped you liked it, and please review, I'd love to know what you think!