I'm so sorry for the wait, I got a to-do list five miles long and not getting any shorter.
Here's Chapter Three of Bewitched!
The girl's hair was standing so high on end that it looked painful and Cal was perched on Spencer's shoulder as he brought up the rear.
"I know, stupid bird just can't wait."
"Are we there yet? Not that I'm complaining since I'm in good company."
'Makes you wish there was a mute button on him…' Nix shook her head to rid the thought.
"We're nearly there, but Nix is going first regardless, she needs to be earthed before something bad happens." said Spencer, raising a hand to catch an empty drinks can flying at Nix's head. "Something much like that."
It was bad enough they had woken up the way they had. Somehow during the night they had shifted so his face was nestled against her chest, her arms around his neck and Bryan half hanging over the sofa. He had managed to detach himself before either woke up.
"Zapdoborg, stop it. Guys I dunno if me battling is a good idea."
"I've heard of a magnetic personality but this is ridiculous." said Tala.
"Tala, shut up."
"Dibs I battle Nix!" Tyson yelled as Nix walked into the dojo. He went to grab her when a loud crack sounded and Tyson jumped back, shaking his hand in pain. "What the?"
"Whoops, sorry."
"Nice one Nix." said Kai.
"What's going on?" asked Max.
"Static. I shocked Tyson."
"Ok…"
0o0o0o0o0
"Ready?" asked Max, Draciel poised to launch against Nix.
"Bryan I really don't know about this, Zapdoborg's been real funny lately."
"You'll be fine Nix. Everyone put all metallic objects in a safe place."
"Why?" asked Tala, taking off his watch.
"You'll see." said Bryan.
"Three, two, one!"
"LET IT RIP!"
Max's green blade hit the dish smoothly. Nix's white twitched off balance.
"Come on Zapdoborg." she pleaded, hearing the clack of a wobbling blade.
Electricity crackled around the white blade, it's engine gears whirring as it zigzagged around the dish.
"Nice moves." said Kai. "Bit basic though."
"That's cos I'm not controlling them. Zapdoborg, stop it!" Nix cried.
"Draciel, attack!" Max called out, Draciel weaved it's way over to try and knock it out of the dish, only for Zapdoborg to go ballistic and attack everything.
"ROUGE BLADE!" yelled Ray, ducking from the blade's path.
"Zapdoborg! If you want to attack anything, attack me! I'm to blame remember!"
The blade seemed to listen and focused on her instead, using something similar to Falborg's stroblitz.
"What? Nix you're insane!"
"Wait for it…" her milky cobalt eyes gone cold as the blade soared towards her again, her hands poised to catch it. "Congelo flax!" she yelled, diving and catching the blade.
Everyone stared at her.
"I'm so sorry." she gasped, chest heaving, her face contorted in pain as she jarred her ribs when she hit the floor.
"Nikita, you and I are going to have a serious talk later." said Bryan softly, picking up the blade and putting it in his pocket.
"I warned you… I WARNED YOU!" she yelled at him, staggering to her feet. "I told you it wasn't a good idea for me to battle but you wouldn't listen! Then you want to talk!" she felt around until she found his arm, punched it, again and again until she just collapsed in a teary state against him. "I'm so sorry."
"Hey s'ok. It's ok." he said in her ear.
"No it's not ok, she nearly fried your friends and I had to… oh, shit."
"Ray, have you got any lemon balm?" asked Kai.
"I think so, why?"
"Can you make it into a tea?"
"Sure thing."
Spencer had insisted he take Nix for a walk, to see if Zapdoborg had done any serious damage and to calm her down. Calcifer had perched on her shoulder, lightly mussing her hair with his beak.
Spencer looked to the Kuznetsov girl, head down and her hands limp by her sides. She had calmed considerably after drinking the lemony liquid, but seemed to sink in on herself. Bryan insisted on coming, but Spencer knew it wouldn't help her.
"Well you better look after her Spence or you won't see tomorrow." were Bryan's words to the blonde.
"I'm so sorry." her cracked voice reached his ears and pulled him out of his thoughts.
"It's alright."
"No it's not, I couldn't even control my own bit beast." she mumbled. "And I've disrupted your training since I got here. I'm nothing but a blind pain in the neck."
"Don't you worry about that, we get botched training days all the time. You just concentrate on getting better. And you're not a pain in the neck, blind or otherwise."
0o0o0o0o0o0
As Spencer busied himself with the kettle his mind kept trailing back to Nix, he had heard Tala's reaction the night she came and in a way he had to agree, she was a good looking girl. But he couldn't help thinking she was a little thin when he picked her up after she stumbled on the way home.
Maybe she hadn't been taking care of herself very well because of her bit beast…
"She's not making herself ill on purpose, is she?" he asked out loud, a wing around the head answered that. "Sorry I asked, she's trained you well Calcifer." he smiled.
"Where the heck have you been?" Tala demanded as he stepped in the door, to see Spencer in the kitchen and breaking said blonde from his thoughts. "Bryan's been doing his nut!"
"Sshh! We stopped by the river after a while, Nix wanted to feed the ducks." said Spencer in a hushed voice, remembering Nix's smile when she heard ducks squabbling over the bread. "Then I thought it better she came back here after this morning."
"Feed ducks? You bunked training to feed featherbrained ducks! Oh I've heard it all now!"
"Will you shut up?" Spencer hissed.
"What's with all the whispering?" asked Ian.
"And where's Nix?" asked Bryan.
"She's in the armchair, just keep it down."
Frowning, the four Russians went into the living room to see said girl curled up in Kai's armchair, fast asleep.
"How long she been like this?" asked Kai.
"Last couple of hours. I just thought it best to let her sleep."
"After this morning it's the best idea."
"So, err, what was that about this morning?" asked Ian.
"Yeah, she kept saying something was her fault so Zapdoborg attacked her instead of us." added Spencer.
"I don't know, you took her out before I could ask her. I should've listened to her when she said battling was a bad idea."
"It's not your fault Kuzzy." a croaky voice told them as milky cobalt eyes opened.
"How're you feeling?" he asked her, sitting in front of her cradling her face in his hands.
"Like I've been stroblitzed." she smirked.
"You sure you two aren't twins?" Kai asked Bryan.
"She's two months younger than me. I'm sure." he replied. "Nix, what happened back there, you usually work so well with Zapdoborg."
"Remember when you were staying with me I told you about a guy named Corbin?"
"Yep, that weedy little snot thought he had a chance with you."
"Hm, that's why, when I publicly and politely declined his advances, he decided to force me into a relationship so he got to me where it hurt. Zapdoborg. Now she doesn't trust me because I took so long getting her back, I had to use every trick in the book to get her back and that took a while. In turn costing my sight."
"But why is Zapdoborg quiet is Bryan's pocket where earlier she was trying to launch cans at your head?" asked Spencer, trying to digest the information.
"Falborg is her brother, she trusts him." she replied.
"You trust me enough to go out to dinner with me?" Tala asked smugly.
"Tala, I'm not looking for a relationship with anyone after what Corbin did, so please, stop it. Come on Cal let's go do some training." she called to her bird and left the room.
"You're shoes are by the door." called Spencer.
"She'll do it in bare feet." Bryan shrugged.
"She went for a walk with Spencer!" cried Tala, outraged.
"I'm not trying to date her." the blonde replied curtly.
Tala was brooding in his room that night, feeling particularly sour that Nix had given him the elbow. A knock at the door broke him from his thoughts.
"Enter if you dare." he growled. The door opened timidly and Nix stepped in, wearing black pyjamas with white broomsticks. Calcifer perched on her shoulder.
"Hey." she whispered.
"Hey yourself." he grumbled.
"Aww, don't be like that Tala." she pouted, feeling around and sitting on the edge of his bed.
"You ever been rejected?"
"I have, more times than I care to count. It bites I know but you can't just force yourself on a girl, it doesn't work like that."
"I… guess I've been a little in your face, but I dunno what I'm doing, I mean I've been in a bloody abbey full of boys the majority of my life."
"Hey, it's ok, it doesn't help when I'm on edge when it comes to guys, and Bryan's the only one I know I can truly depend on at the moment."
"That's… understandable I guess."
"We're still friends though right?" she asked him, balancing Calcifer on her hand.
"I suppose, yeah."
"Good, because I think once you come out of your shell a bit more, you'd be a good person to have a laugh with."
"You think?" he asked, stroking the bird's crest with a unsure finger.
"I know." she reassured him before bidding him goodnight.
Thanks to The Black River for giving me the idea of Spencer waking up the way he did lol, and everyone else for reviewing, do it again and make my Christmas? Pweease?
Congelo Flax... I think I'll do a translation page at the end, unless you can guess...
Toodles!