Happily Ever After All
A Mystic Prequel
By: A J
(Standard Disclaimer Applies)
Author's Warning!: This work of fanfiction is a long-term look at the relationship of two adults, and as such, I'm not gonna pull any punches. This means Language, Nudity, Violence, and Sex! If any of those are not for you, turn back now, and read some of the gentler fictions by others and myself. For those with some fortitude, let's get on to the story.
Chapter 7: Firelight & Frustrations
Sundown came with a rainbow display that all the teens watched with awe, finishing their fish dinner. When Nigel asked about the naggingly familiar seasoning Caleb and Hay had used for the coal-baked filets, the pair exchanged a grin and pointed to the trees they were all camped under.
"The leaves of the Southern Trafallia vines," Hay said with a titter, pointing to the tiny flowering vines climbing up the palm-like trees. "They've been a secret ingredient of Lin family cooking for years. Grandma keeps a couple in a mini-greenhouse on the roof, ever since she discovered them when she was a Guardian. They taste kind of like saffron, grow like weeds, and love the tropical heat."
Cornelia reached up to pluck a leaf to examine. "Ouch!" Pulling her hand back, she could see where the tiny serrations of the plant had given her micro-cuts across thumb and forefinger. "Okay, how do you harvest the little buggers?"
"How else?" Hay grinned. She waved a hand, and a sudden gust brought her a handful of leaves. With another wave, she suspended them in the air before her, and with a twirl of her fingers, the leaves were shredded by a miniature tornado right before their eyes, to sprinkle into the teens' campfire. The kids all inhaled appreciatively as the Trafallia crisped in the flames, releasing their scent.
"Hmm," Nigel murmured, getting closer to the fire for a second to get a better whiff. "Somewhere between saffron and lemon-grass. No wonder it's so good on fish." He grinned up at Hay. Taranee giggled.
"You sure you're dating the right Guardian? Sounds like you two have more in common than we do." He leaned away from her, hand over his heart in mock-mortification.
"Taranee! My heart … my soul! You wound me! Are you trying to get rid of me already, having had your wicked ways with me at last?" He gasped, hamming it up, and the others all laughed.
"Wicked ways, eh?" Hay said salaciously. She leaned in to Taranee. "I guess I could take him off your hands," she stage-whispered. "Is he any good?"
"Much too good to give up this easily," Taranee answered airily. She wrapped her hands around Nigel's arm, still across his chest. "Maybe when I'm done with him." She gave a naughty wink, and the others laughed harder.
"Hay-hay! Do I mean nothing to you?" Eric cried, getting in on the act, and going to his knees beside her. He held one hand towards her, and threw the other arm over his eyes.
"You mean everything to me, qingren. But a girl does like a little variety." She gave him a wink of her own, then tackled him into the sand, smothering him in kisses amidst giggles. "How about it? Can ya show me some?" she breathed out.
"Let's find out," he countered, surging to his feet with her lighter-than-air body slung over his shoulder. Eric took off for the distant ocean running. Hay's piercing "WHOOOO!" echoed as they went.
"Oh, boy," Taranee chuckled as she settled back into Nigel's arms. "That girl …"
"Hey, just remember, T," Cornelia said from the other side of the fire. "This trip was your idea." She was sitting on Caleb's back, giving him her promised massage as he lay next to the campfire.
"For which we're all thankful," Will said, burrowing into Matt's arms carefully. They each were taking their burnt shoulders stoically. He kissed the top of her head, and leaned back against the front of their tent with her. "Just remind me next time to bring some sunblock."
"Poor Willie," they heard from the edge of the circle of light. Hay scampered into her and Eric's tent, naked and dripping, to emerge a second later with a box they all could recognize, and a spare towel. She gave them all a grin and a wink, and disappeared again into the night. Matt swore quietly.
"What is it?" Will asked.
Matt pointed after Hay Lin. "She just reminded me of something else I forgot to bring," he muttered to Will. "Protection." He frowned after the Air Guardian, and she gulped.
"Well … um …" she pondered. "Okay, so … aw, Chock-o-clock!" Will swore by her personal deity, the imported chocolate spread she'd been secretly addicted to since she'd been four. "I so did not come all this way to spend the night sunburned and frustrated." She pouted, and Taranee, Nigel, Cornelia and Caleb laughed. "Not helping," she added, making them laugh louder.
"We'll think of something to do, Babe," Matt whispered to her, nuzzling her neck. He blew a gentle, cool breath over her roasted shoulders, and she shuddered with a sigh.
"You're way too good for me," Will murmured back, and looped her arms around his neck, sighing again as he rubbed gently down her back, then up her front. She squirmed and giggled when he hit her ticklish spot, and he went back to it with an evil smirk. "Ha-ha-hee … Hey! No fair!"
"Didn't Nerissa warn you about our long game?" Matt asked, dropping his voice a register to Shagon's level. "We'll defeat the Guardians not with hate, but with tickling!" he gloated.
"Help! Guardians! Your Leader's gonna die laughing!" Will squealed.
"What a way to go," Cornelia murmured, shucking her bra and laying her bust against Caleb's back. He grinned up at her, and they twisted together to kiss.
"Augh! Taranee-hee-hee! Corny's been subverted by the enemy! Help us!" Will laughed, while she and Matt wrestled against their tent.
"Can't. Busy," Taranee said, in between kisses with Nigel. "You 'kiss' know? 'kiss' I'm 'kiss' glad 'kiss' I 'kiss' thought 'kiss' of 'kiss' this. 'kiss' And 'kiss' look! 'kiss' Dinner 'kiss' and 'kiss' a 'kiss' show!" She locked lips with Nigel again, and the other Guardians could hear the two mentally laughing as they tried to hold the kiss as long as possible.
With a groan, Cornelia and Will met gazes. "We're gonna have to move the tents farther, aren't we?" Will sent, while she and Matt paused for breath.
"Oh, yeah." Cornelia smirked. "Aside from everything else, including her 'jump 'em!' aura, Hay's a screamer."
Will sat up, shoving Matt back with her Guardian strength to gawk at Cornelia. "Okay, I know how I know that, but how do you?" Cornelia blushed, and under the Earth-girl, Will could see Caleb shaking with suppressed laughter. Will's eyes grew wide, and all she could say was "OH."
Matt and Nigel both asked "What?" in confusion. With an embarrassed look between them, the three Guardians all just said "Hay-hay Hell." The band members just nodded. They could both live without any more details of Hay Lin's sexual misadventures.
Caleb rolled over unexpectedly, dumping Cornelia in a windmill of limbs and sand, and swiftly pinned her underneath him. "Let's move the tents now," he said, with a meaningful leer. "While we're all still able to think about it." He kissed her savagely, and Cornelia threw her arms around his neck. She refused to let go even as the pair stood awkwardly and walked, still facing each other, over to their tent. Cornelia let him go long enough to help tow their tent a dozen yards further from the campfire, to the other side of the next knot of trees. Then with a wave goodnight, the pair disappeared inside, ostensibly for the rest of the night.
Will, Taranee, Nigel and Matt all got up reluctantly from the reassuring glow of the campfire, and each couple moved their tent in different directions. Matt and Will went further back from the shore, until they found a clear space devoid of any undergrowth. Matt was headed back to gather their clothes and towels when Will, who'd stayed to make sure the inside liner was flat across the bottom, let out an almighty shriek.
"Quintessence!" she shouted, scrambling out of the tent butt-first. The whole thing levitated under her magical command ten feet straight up, and Matt and the returning Guardians, including a soaked Hay, could see a larvek hanging out of the bottom of the tent. Will flashed the Heart of Candracar back to one hand while using the other to keep the larvek airborne. "Guardians, Unite!"
In a flash, the four girls transformed and took to the air. Caleb, seeing the giant carnivorous worm, whirled back to his tent, and brought both staves and his sword. "Eric! Nigel, catch!" He cried, tossing a staff to Eric and his sword to Nigel. The late-arriving boys each grabbed the thrown weapons from the air while closing on the floating menace.
"Will! I got it!" Cornelia cried, calling a swarm of the razor-edged Tafallia vines from the encircling trees to wrap around the squirming larvek. Will used Quintessence to set the remains of their tent a short distance away, and turned back to face the monster.
"Soooo … do we show off, or let the boys impress us?" Hay Lin asked the other girls with a wink. Taranee and Cornelia laughed, but Will was still taking the larvek's attack personally.
"Soon as this thing gets loose, give it a lift, Hay. Taranee, give it heartburn the second it tries to spit web. Cornelia?" Will glanced back at her, still keeping an eye on the worm from the corner of her vision. "Has Elyon ever mentioned if these things can swim?"
"They wriggle enough, so they're probably like earthworms," the Earth Guardian answered with a shrug. "You'd have to send it pretty far out for it to get tired enough to ... Wait. You're not seriously thinking ..?" She shuddered at what Will's stern nod implied.
"Angel, no …" Matt said, from behind her. He hadn't transformed, he hadn't even picked up the long stick he'd been using to maintain their fire. He was simply standing on the edge of the clearing, watching Will. "Come on, Babe. Think back. What did you tell me? What did you promise me? What did you promise 'Mina?"
"That I'd never let myself become Nerissa …" Will was interrupted by the larvek, cut and bleeding its green-grey blood from the Trafallia leaves, finally slithering loose from the vines. Hay lifted it with a whirlwind, keeping it off the ground and away from them all.
"Will?" Cornelia and Taranee asked, the latter with a finger pointed and primed with a miniature fireball.
"Just … send it down the beach a couple miles, Hay," Will said, with a tremulous moan. She settled to the ground in front of Matt, and he wrapped his arms reassuringly around her.
"Huh? Oh. Okay … uh, right or left?" Hay asked, lifting herself and the larvek higher. It tried to spit at her, as the only nearby target left, but she whipped the glob back into the thing's eyespots with a countercurrent. "Left," she decided, sending it flailing away from her on a miniature weather-front of its own into the dark distance.
She settled back to earth with a satisfied grin, only to be bum-rushed by Eric and Caleb, both of who hugged her in congratulations.
"Nice toss, sis," Caleb said, ruffling her hair. Even in Guardian form, she was still shorter than he was. She grinned up at him.
"Thanks! I've been practicing with Frums," she said.
Eric nabbed the second staff from Caleb, and nodded behind the trio. "Great save, Hay-hay. You caught it just above the ground," he said as Cornelia came up behind them. Thanks to Eric's warning, Caleb wasn't caught off-guard as she grabbed him away from Hay's embrace, and bopped him on the arm.
"And where's my thank-you hug?" she teased. "It was facing your way when Will pulled the tent off its head, Oh Great Hero."
"Well, I was going to wait and thank my personal Guardian in private, but since you insist …" Caleb nabbed Cornelia around the waist, and pulled her into a sweeping kiss, bending her over like he'd seen in the girls' favorite musical movies. She gave an "Eeeeph!" before her eyes fluttered shut, and she snaked her arms around his neck again, hanging on for breathless dear life. Hay clapped in delight, and Nigel, Taranee, and Eric laughed.
Matt and Will were too preoccupied with each other to notice the byplay nearby. Will was starting to shake in reaction from all the adrenaline, and Matt kept his arms around her, holding her close. "It's okay, Angel," he murmured over and over into her hair. Finally, she sniffled, and leaned up to kiss him in thanks.
"Thanks for keeping me here," she sent telepathically, her hands still clenched between their bodies. He kissed her back, slowly and thoroughly, until her hands smoothed out across his chest, then slowly migrated up and over his shoulders. He winced, and she sent "Sorry." Concentrating for a second, she held her hand micrometers over his burned shoulder, just where she could feel the heat radiating from his red skin. Breaking their kiss for a second, she whispered "Quintessence," and he felt a jolt like static cling across his shoulder.
"Ow," he murmured against her lips, and she kissed him again in apology.
"Better?" she asked, setting her hand on his shoulder again. He prepared to wince in pain, then looked at his shoulder in surprise when there wasn't any.
"Yeah!" he answered. He looked back at her. "How ..?" She smiled.
"Well, Quintessence is life-energy, so I figured it should be able to heal pretty well, if directed properly. And since sunburn is just surface-level, I thought it should be easy to take care of. Notice mine's gone …" she said, and wiggled so her top's shoulders slid down, showing her creamy perfect skin.
"In other words, if I had transformed …"
"Yeah, but you didn't, and now you don't have to. At least, not to heal …" Will looked up into his eyes, and his heart, already hers, melted all over again.
"Let's … ah … save that idea for later, Babe," he stammered, and pulled her back in for another tight hug.
"Aawwww," Hay said, looking at the two. "They are just too sweet, aren't they?" She leaned back into Eric's embrace, and he chuckled.
"Some camping trip," he said quietly.
"I know, huh?" She noticed he still had both staves, and grabbed one away with a titter. "Care for a rematch?" she said, flitting out of his arms, and swinging her staff at him. He blocked distractedly, and countered.
"Wow, after seeing you running around in the altogether all day, that outfit's almost more distracting, amante." She gave him a growl, and swung harder. He winced at the impact he barely managed to block. She'd put a lot more of her Guardian strength behind that second blow. "OW, Hay-hay! Hey, I said almost …" At that, she tackled him instead, bussing him soundly.
"That's easy to fix," she giggled between kisses. "Hey, Will. G-mergency's over. Wanna change us back?" Hay called out, and the other two girls, who'd been taking advantage of their enhanced strength to move their tents where they wanted them, grinned and sighed resignedly.
"Yeah," Will said distractedly, still lost in Matt's eyes and arms. She summoned the Heart, and transformed the four of them back into normal teenagers.
Or, not quite back to normal, the other girls noticed, as they reverted to their undie-wearing selves (save Hay, who'd spent pretty much all afternoon skyclad,) but kept their Guardian heights and builds.
"Uh, Will?" Cornelia started to ask. The others all looked back at their Leader, who was still entwined with Matt, the Heart of Candracar dangling between her shoulder-blades just under her hair. Caleb leaned in and whispered something in the Earth Guardian's ear, and she smiled, forgetting all about having Will fix their partial transformation … at least until much later, or even tomorrow.
Taranee and Nigel, suddenly the same height just like Caleb and Cornelia, grabbed each other's hands and headed into their tent, only to emerge after a few seconds with a radio, a lantern, and their towels, and headed back to their private spot on the beach. Minutes later, soft country music could be heard playing from the cove where they'd started their journey of erotic discovery together.
Eric and Hay watched them go from where they were still tangled together with their staves. Then Eric became aware of something new to Hay's body, pressed against him as she was. "Am-amante? You've grown." Hay looked down, giggled, and ground her freshly-enhanced chest against his, along with the rest of her. He groaned, and she giggled again.
"Why, so I have. And look!" She reached a hand between then and encircled his growing member. "So have you!" She gave him an extra-friendly caress, and sprang up, her Guardian body supernaturally limber. She glanced back to see that, no, she hadn't gotten to keep her wings. She supposed that particular experiment would have to wait for another time, and shrugged. She twirled her staff lazily, and planted it between her spread feet, leaning over his splayed form with her new accessories dangling invitingly. "You want 'em? Come get 'em."
Eric staggered to his feet, using his staff. As he got upright, Hay tapped his staff with hers. "Hmmmm … I think you'll have to beat me, to get me." She stepped back, spinning her weapon slowly. "I suddenly feel like playing hard to get." Her grin was sheer deviltry, and he smiled slowly in return. Here was the chance he'd always looked for, to prove to her once and for all that he was good enough to be hers, for now and always.
"Should I call you Atalanta?" he asked.
"I suppose, but you'd better hope this doesn't turn to racing. I have the feeling I could outrun Will right now, Melanion." She smiled her trademark megawatt grin, and he applauded her. They were studying classic Greek mythology this semester.
"How do you keep so much trivia in that cute, twisted mind of yours?" he asked, swinging first. She parried, riposted, and the two started sparring in earnest.
"Meiying remembers half of it, and I keep track of the rest," she answered, sliding under a wide swing of Eric's and trying to strike upwards. He leaned back from it, and she brought her staff down on his toes instead, then sprang back while he was still dancing one-legged.
"Ooooh, you're gonna get it now, Hay-hay. That's my driving foot." He thrust, she spun away, he planted his staff and spun around it in a two-footed kick.
She blocked it with her staff, also planted, then swatted at his while he was still returning to his feet. He tilted, but didn't fall, and swept back towards her with his staff. She blocked again, caught his in a spin, and sent him reaching wide while she tapped him on the shoulder. "Should we go with points?" she asked sweetly. "Or do we just play till somebody drops?"
"Oh, points, definitely. I wanna still have energy left for sex," he leered. He sprang forward, vaulting with his staff for extra distance, and swatted her on the ass as she spun out of the way. "That's one-one," he said. "What're we going up to?"
"Oh, I think five'll be plenty," she returned, spinning her staff between them again, looking for an opening. "I want to save energy for afterwards too."
"If we're both already looking forward to the sex, why don't we make it three out of five?" he asked. He jabbed, she countered. She swung, he blocked.
"You're both up one, how about two out of three, and you can get out of our hair," Matt said from where he and Will were now trying to save what was left of their tent.
Hay and Eric were about to agree when they all became aware of Taranee laughing from the beach. The four teens all traded curious looks, and Eric held his hand out to Hay. "To be continued?" He nodded at the beach, and she grinned and nodded back. They dropped their staves, and the four all went to see what had Taranee brightening up the night with laughter.
They got to the Fire-mistress and Nigel's cove, to find the two standing next to a pair of spread towels, listening to Nigel's radio and backlit by a lantern.
"What's all the hubbub, bubbette?" Will asked. Irma wasn't here, so somebody had to be bold and silly, she figured. Taranee laughed again, and leaned over to hit 'back' on the CD player.
"Remember how Nigel keeps calling me 'Firecracker'?" She waited for the other four to nod, then continued. "Well half of it is from our first night's adventure, when I turned Uriah's bottle-rocket before it made Will all red, white, and boom. The other half, well …" She hit 'play', and Josh Turner's 'Firecracker' blared out.
The six teens settled down to listen through once, and Will and Hay could tell why she was laughing as soon as the chorus started up. Matt and Eric, already familiar with the song thanks to Nigel, and aware he'd been waiting for just the right moment to play it for Taranee, just sat back with huge grins, waiting. When the line about the 'blonde bottle-rocket' rang out, they all looked towards Cornelia and Caleb's tent, then looked at each other and laughed. The song wound down quickly from there, and Taranee reached out and hit 'stop'.
Hay was still humming the chorus, staring into Eric's eyes. With a bounce, she jumped back into his arms, and the pair of besotted teens headed back to their own tent without another word to the others. Nigel and Matt looked at each other resignedly, and shook their heads, grinning.
"That girl …" Matt muttered. The girls both sighed as well. The two couples were just standing to separate when they all heard an almighty 'Crack!' resound through the beachfront. Matt and Will were about to go running back towards where the Air Guardian and her beau had headed as well when Taranee latched onto their wrists.
"It's just Hay and Eric," she said with a grin, as more cracks and clacks could be heard, then a squeal. "Seeing who gets the last point." Taranee let go of Matt, hanging on to Will long enough to send privately "Hey, Red. Be good tonight." As they separated, she pressed something into Will's hand with a wink. Will glanced down long enough to recognize the foil square in her grasp, and hugged Taranee with a microsqueal of her own.
"Thanks, Braids!" she returned, and grabbing Matt's hand with her free one, she started back towards their tent with a final wave and a giggle. "G'night, you two. We'll try to get them to keep it down."
Nigel turned back to Taranee after the others had gone. "So … dancing? Or do you want to go for another dip, first?" She leaned down and hit 'back', then 'play' again. The opening notes of her new favorite country song started, and she grabbed his hand.
"Why not both?" she said, and the two swirled and sashayed into the surf with the music playing behind them.
