Lovely Days
By Shahrezad1
Summary: A series of RedXCricket one-shots. Chapter 1: When an Elemental Mage of Air finds a near-starved urchin on the street, he thinks of her as nothing more than another patient. Until the young woman shows signs of magic. AU because OUAT is a living AU. XD RubyXArchie.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. XD Lyrics, characters, even original fairy tales. They all belong to Disney or ABC or the generations of story tellers that have shared their tales over the centuries. I only own my imagination.
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Chapter 1: Azure Eyes
"I would paint for you every little thing, you see in your dreams, when you turn me in the morning. You will come for me in my hour of need, wrap me up in my favorite blanket, and oh, oooh, oh-oh, oooh..."–Every Little Thing, The Good Lovelies
The rain dripped with a miserable steadiness characteristic of their little island. It was unsurprising given that it was the season for it—if season indicated most of the year—and if the rain clouds seemed oppressive then they were far less stifling than London's usual charcoal smog. The stuff was a kind of black clay which filled the nostrils and lungs, clogging the breath and shuttering the heartbeat.
Being surrounded by such an environment was especially difficult for an Air Mage like him, able to feel the pollution in his very capillaries as the toxic waste attached itself to the oxygen in his blood. Not to mention the waste that filled the streets and the sewage which ailed the sluggish river Thames. Why, he would have shied from this place if he could have. Most magical folk did, especially from the Earth and Air strains. But he had a Purpose and that was enough to stifle squeamishness, steady uncertainty, and placate discomfort.
For there were others in need, which far superseded his own requirements. And perhaps in the process of his sacrifice he would be able to do some good.
Ffffair weathhher fffollows, a zephyr of a Sylph whispered in his ear from within the relative comfort of his umbrella, barring them from the cold.
It was an old artifact, inherited from his longtime friend and current business partner, weather beaten but well-loved. Much like himself, he liked to think. But the air spirits which frequently trailed him from task to task in his office loved the thing, as it allowed them to accompany him on his jaunts through the city, dry and warm as they helped him search out those in need.
For that's what the good Doctor did.
The single child of corrupt tavern owners, he'd decided at a young age that he wanted to remove himself from that scene of wretchedness and impiety and do some measure of good in the world. He'd apprenticed himself off with a local midwife, Eleanor Bleu, who'd turned out to be an Air Mage herself (a hedge witch to locals, really) and, seeing the good in him, had taught him about himself and his abilities. Then when that was done she had shown him how to heal others and had sent him off into the world.
He'd been a local doctor for a while, helping villagers with their animals' health as much as their own, while simultaneously protecting the simple folk from traveling swindlers and overeager leeches.
That is, until he'd run into a case that he couldn't handle. The wife of a friend had died in childbirth and it had been his fault. He'd come too late, he hadn't caught what was wrong in time. And as an Air Mage with empathic abilities, he'd physically felt the woman die before him.
Humbled and lowly, he had returned to Lady Bleu, but all she'd done was send him back. He would have to start over again, first by rectifying his mistake. Feeling smaller than a pebble, he'd returned to his best friend to beg forgiveness and had found a man as broken as himself. But Rocco Giuseppe, simple Earth Mage, had also been respectful and grateful. For both of them needed the chance to start over and possibly, in the process, find a way to heal.
The next five years had been the result. Moving into the very heart of London's foulest slums, the two men had worked diligently to create a home and hospital for the hopeless. They sought out the bruised, the broken, the poor. Those dying of addiction and starvation, or the cursed few which were trapped by their environment, their poverty, or the expectations of their gender. Then the two men nursed them back to health, provided opportunities for growth, and sent them on their way. All under the eye of the counsel of Elemental Masters.
After all, what reason had they to interfere with the work of two lowly Mages? Especially when their cause involved battling the ills of the world from the bottom, up?
They would take turns combing the streets, led willy-nilly by the magical scent of pain or the assistance of their elemental friends. Then with a hansom on hand, each would carry them home. To his hard-working friend of wholesome home remedies and a healing environment while he, himself, provided any stitching, setting, or surgery. It worked well for the both of them. But…a part of him still felt unredeemed. As if there was something more that he needed to do, tugging at his heart and sighing on the edges of his mind.
It was a difficult balance, working his hardest while knowing he could never be truly forgiven. But he tried to retain his cheer despite the ever-present red in his ledger.
He was abruptly yanked from his melancholic introspection as a forceful tug pulled his head upward. It felt like the equivalent of a magical firebrand, piercing its way in between his eyes. And once the initial shock of awareness had passed the rest of his abilities took over. First within the element of Air itself, the sudden smell of copper caught by the man's nose. His empathic abilities were able to pick up the feelings which marked it, the telltale scent edged with emotional lines of sorrow and loss.
Fear followed closely behind, striking out at him through his abilities, and without a thought the unassuming doctor took an immediate left turn, his Sylph following close behind. Then a right, down a shady alleyway, and once more to the left. He could tell that he was close by the vividness of emotions surrounding him, and frantically the gentle doctor's eyes sought out the outlet for pain.
All he could find were crumbling steps and boarded windows, even the cobblestones beneath his feet long-cracked or shattered by some catastrophic event. Just as he was about to give up his search a sob sounded from beneath a set of wooden stairs, muffled physically yes as loud as a cannonball against his nerves. The ginger man nearly stumbled on his own feet as he scrambled to the tiny hollow beneath the sagging steps, and even then he didn't see anything at first.
Until his eyes adjusted and it all became clear. He sucked in a breath.
Matted hair and bare moon-white feet were his first impression, followed by the image of tear-stained cheeks. The tattered remains of what had to have once been a fine crimson gown barely covered a stained shift with fraying edges. A cut marred a pale forehead, but in the shadow of the stairs he couldn't manage the image of a face. Only the psychic shouting of a soul in pain, eating away at his feelings.
"H-hello," he began quietly, not wanting to startle the poor creature, "are you all right?"
It sounded like an inane question even to his own ears, but it did the job. The figure's chin jerked up in a mix of both shock and fright, and the female—for it must have been a young girl—scrambled back until she hit bare boards. And then brilliant green eyes stared into his, pupils dilated and horror-struck.
His mouth went dry at the sight. No, not a child. A woman, and one of the most beautiful he'd ever seen, regardless of her current state. But she was most certainly not 'all right.'
"I-I'm Nicholas James. A doctor. I…I can h-help you. If you'd like?"
Without any thought for the ramification of his actions the doctor threw up a magical shield, to protect any backlash, then sent out a tendril of magic to the woman. He only sought to soothe her emotions, but the instant their two souls touched his magical self was thrown back.
Fire. Burning. An inferno of volcanic activity, swirling around the heat of an Earthen core. And she was eating him up, taking in his Air abilities and growing ten times as large from the strength he'd fed her with. It felt like his entire being, his whole lifetime, was nothing more than a tiny pinprick of time within the universe. And with a single accidental brush with fate he was being shown a fuller, wider world.
For if the air within him was fanning the flames, then she was more than expanding his own talents. Filling the emptiness that had lingered since Rocco's wife's death as the two strangers stared at and into one another, pale blue eyes to green.
"A-are you an Elemental M-Master?!" the physician stammered out. Which appeared to be the wrong thing to say as her eyes began to well up with tears. But seconds later she launched herself at him, shocking the man enough that his arms went instinctively around her form, thereby dropping the umbrella. And within the choked sobbing that followed he could only understand a few muffled words.
It's you. The Azure Eyes told me to go to you. I knew that you'd find me.
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AN:
The World: This chapter is based off of the world found in Mercedes Lackey's "Elemental Masters" book series. They are basically fairy tales with element-based magic, and span from the mid to late 1800's all the way until World War One.
Most of them are set in England or France and have reoccurring characters, although one (that no one likes to admit exists) is set in America during the Great Fire of San Fancisco. Much of the influence for this was based off of "The Serpent's Shadow," a novel about a British-Indian (Eurasian? Is that the term?) woman physician living during the fight for woman's suffrage. It's great stuff. :D
Elemental Mages vs Masters: Both can control a specific element (fire, air, earth, water), but Mages are less powerful than Masters.
How Elemental Magic Works: On a diagram, each element is across from one another, similar to a North, South, East, West configuration. Each element gets along with the other elements on either side of it, and doesn't get along with the one across from it. This means that fire dislikes water, but is friends with earth and air. Air and earth have a hard time with one another, but get along with either water or fire.
However, earth and air get along better with one another than fire and water do. Hence the fact that Marco is earth and Archie is air, but they can tolerate one another. Still, there will always be some measure of friction.
Air, however, builds up fire. Quite successfully, in fact, which is what happened with Archie's magic here. And fire creates heat, adding upon air's abilities.
Empaths: People can feel the emotions of others. This is not a talent from the books, but I felt like it was a good choice for Archie/Jiminy. It's similar to telepathy, but without the sentence structure. XD
Eleanor Bleu: Eleanor means "Light", "clemency, mercy," in Greek. Bleu is self-explanatory. Yes, this is the Blue Fairy.
Nicholas James: The meanings of the two names don't have any purpose in regards to Archie. I just wanted something that could be turned into "Jiminy." XD
Rocco: German/Italian—"Rest". "The most common form (in America, at least) of the name of a popular saint who cured plague victims. He was especially venerated in Italy, which may be why this version of the name is the most common."—20,001 Names For Baby, Carol McD. Wallace, pgs 365
Giuseppe: Italian—"God Will Add, Increase." I know that it's mostly used as a first name, but I couldn't help myself…
Hansom: Cab with driver and horse.
Azure Eyes: I had hoped to include it in this one, but ran out of time/ability/plot. Et cetera. Azure (read: blue) Eyes is a reference to the Fire Mages/Master's elemental familiar. While Archie was interacting with a Sylph, those with fire magic have Salamanders as their companions. Salamanders are described as golden or orange-red, and have strikingly blue eyes. It makes sense that an untrained Fire Master might be led by an elemental familiar to someone already trained in a compatible magical element.