Should Sabrina be surprised that Puck's voicemail begins with an earthshaking belch? No. Is she surprised anyway? Somewhat. (She's getting better at it.)

"Hola Señora Stinkpot," Puck continues after his almighty expulsion of gas. "We're in México 'cause Jake wanted to find out about some big ball of feathers and scales. Rhymed with 'pretzel' but I can't figure out what it is. Anyway—"

Somewhere in the background, Jake yells at Puck to get off the toilet, because his life is worth less than that phone and the roaming charges if he drops it in.

"He cut me off," Puck whines. "Anyways, duty calls. Heh. Duty. Smell you later, alligator." The voicemail ends after a grand total of twelve seconds, and Sabrina snorts lightly as she falls back onto the pillows of her bed. Dork.

She has to wonder though, where have they been and what have they been doing? They visit as often as they can, and they came home for Christmas one year, but it's been 427 days, 16 hours, 19 minutes, and 43 seconds since they've set foot in this house. But who's counting? Not Sabrina.

Daphne thrashes in bed next to Sabrina and flings her blanket over Sabrina's face. "It's so hot," she groans, sticking her face out the window. "Red's room is always nice and cool, but she wanted to meditate tonight so I came here."

"Pull your neck back in before it gets covered in mosquitoes," Sabrina says. Daphne complies, rearranging the pink netting to cover the window. "Puck left a voicemail, wanna hear it?" Daphne scoots closer in response. She plays back the audio and laughs.

"Same Puck, different place," she remarks. "Is it midnight yet?"

"No, why?"

"Red said I could come back after then if I wanted. No offense sis, but—"

"Yeah I know, it's hot in here," Sabrina says, slapping at a mosquito who evaded the net.

"And you kick a lot in your sleep," Daphne jokes. Sabrina rolls her eyes. Says her. Daphne sucker-punches people in her sleep and Sabrina frankly considers it a miracle that all her teeth are intact. "Goodnight, Sabrina."

"'Night."

Sabrina doesn't lie back down after Daphne shuts the door though. It's hot and it's muggy and ridiculously humid even for New York summer. It feels like the air is holding its breath, not daring to reveal its darkest secrets.

A tree rustles outside her window and a branch snaps, followed by a loud, indignant sounding thud (can thuds sound indignant? This one certainly did). She cranes her neck but sees nothing, and concludes that it's just an animal—a fat raccoon, maybe. She flips her pillow to the cold side and lies back down, only for her cheek to turn it warm again. I'm going to have Daphne charm this thing to be perpetually cold, she thinks.

She faces the window and watches the stars wink at her. How strange that pulsing balls of gas from hundreds of lightyears away give humans such comfort.

A loud fluttering sound comes from the window, almost like a giant goose has decided to terrorize the house. She jumps to the window and pulls away the netting with her fists up, ready to deck the tresspasser in the face. She peers around, looking for an intruder, when something (someone?) zooms in, grabs her face, and kisses her square on the mouth.

"Puck!" she yelps as he falls down on top of her, smothering her face in kisses as she giggles and tries to fight him off. "It's twelve in the morning! Where's Uncle Jake?"

"He's boring and took the front door," Puck says thickly, inhaling and kissing Sabrina's temple. "He's going to sleep on the kitchen counter and scare the balls off your dad when he comes downstairs for a midnight snack."

"And you almost gave me a heart attack by flying into the window and eating my face," Sabrina teases. "I thought you were some strange man coming to kill me until I remembered most murderers smell better than you."

He pouts. "No 'welcome back' kiss? If I'm not going to get a kiss, I should really get something better like hot steaming—"

"—scrambled eggs," Sabrina finishes, sitting criss-cross-applesauce on her bed and folding her hands in her lap.

"That wasn't what I was going to say, but I wouldn't object to scrambled eggs either," he admits. Sabrina punches him lightly in the shoulder and snuggles up to him so they sit with their backs to the wall.

"What's been going on, flyboy?" she asks him, tucking her head under his. His hands are pleasantly cool as he clasps her warm ones between his.

"Not much. Ran around looking for magical gizmos. Missed you a lot," he says, kissing her forehead. She laughs and pushes his face away, and he looks hurt. "I'm so offended. It's been more than a year and I don't get a proper kiss."

"It's been more than a year and you haven't taken a proper shower yet."

He sniffs his pits in outrage. "For your information, I took a proper shower just yesterday! It lasted seventy-two whole seconds!"

"That's a record."

"Yes it is!"

"Shut up, doofus," she whispers, pressing a kiss to his jaw. "There. Did I kiss your ego better?"

"Maybe a few more will do the trick," he teases, gently pulling her closer to him so she's practically on his lap.

"Abstinence is a virtue," she says sagely, shuddering as his kisses move southward from her cheek.

"You'll be considerably less virtuous once I'm done," he murmurs, breath hot against her skin. She keeps her hands clenched in fists at her side, willing herself to resist the feel of his flesh on hers, and feeling her resolve melt like chocolate between their lips.

"I hate it when you're right," she mutters, grabbing a handful of his curls.

"I love it when I'm right."

[mushu voice] I LIIIIIIIIIVE. i've been so absent from the sg fandom rip in pieces im sorry but i got sucked back into star wars and i wrote two new fics for anakin/padme (coda and come with me) so...im sorry? a little bit? i missed you guys. oakex refuses to watch the original trilogy of star wars until i've posted something for sg, so here you go NOW GO WATCH THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY i just made you watch the prequels because i hate not going in numerical order.

also if you were kind enough to leave a review that i never responded to, i most definitely HAVE seen it, i just havent replied. either i forgot or got busy or...excuses excuses. my point is, i love you all and i'm extremely grateful you left a review. bless you.

anyways please accept my apology fic for being away for so long, i missed you guys so much it's unbelievable. love u

every time someone reviews, a puppy smiles. make the dogs happy.