"Wake up!" Bloom's eyes opened and with a jolt she landed back in the common room she shared with the other girls. Around her, Stella and Flora were rubbing their eyes and Musa looked ready to murder their rouser who (being the only one left) was Tecna. The computer whiz put her tightly clenched fists on her hips and glared at them all, "Do you know what day it is?" She asked, her voice dangerously low.
"Um, Sunday?" Flora answered, rubbing her eyes and squinting through her lashes at the pink-haired girl.
"Yes," Tecna replied, "Sunday. We have exactly five-and-a-half days to prepare for the mid-term."
"Big deal!" Stella said, leaning back against the couch and rubbing her cheek (she'd fallen asleep with her head on the coffee table and numbed that side of her face), "You didn't have to wake us up."
"It's six AM!" roared Musa, jumping up and tackling Tecna, "Six AM on a Sunday!"
"Shut u-up," groaned Bloom, feeling a headache coming on, "Musa, stop it. Tecna, is there any legitimate reason for waking us all up? The world ending, maybe?" Flora giggled and got up, Stella following with a sigh.
"Our mid-terms decide where we're placed next quarter," said the girl over Musa's ranting, "Even if we ace the term's finals, they don't count it unless you take a whole bunch of personality tests and fool them into thinking you have the aptitude for where you are now."
Bloom stilled. Suddenly, the ache in her neck seemed to go away. "I have a C in potions," she said hoarsely, calculating the amount of studying it would take to climb out of the hole she'd dug herself into. No way would she allow herself to be separated from Flora-the-Botanist – the girl was the only reason she had a passing grade now. Nevermind the fact that she had the patience of a saint and was the only person willing – not counting Baltor, but he was an exception to nearly everything where she was involved – to explain half the theories to Bloom six times.
"So do I," Musa said, looking at Bloom from her place on top of Tecna (who looked a little more than pissed).
Half a second passed.
"I call Flora!"
"Dammit!"
"Will you get off?"
[-M-]
Bloom gasped, hooking her ankles together around her lover's middle and breathing an exclamation into the still, warm air of Baltor's new apartment.
He hadn't exactly spent his time away from her decorating (or cleaning; dust motes floated dreamily in the sunshine around them) as the only thing that seemed to have changed from the apartment's original state (not that Bloom would know; she hadn't been there before now) were the comically tall piles of spellbooks and boxes of clothes and furniture he'd brought with him from their home back on Earth. She'd commented on the fact that it seemed like he was moving the two of them here permanently, but he'd only 'Hn'-ed in response and gestured to the rickety table he had set up for their study session when she'd called with her emergency.
"You'll never pass that test if we keep doing this," he breathed, nibbling on the flesh exposed by her bra (she had no clue where her shirt was and didn't care).
"Fuck the test," she hissed, pulling his face up to hers and engaging in a rough kiss, her hips grinding harshly against his (a side-benefit of which informed her that he was enjoying this as much as she was, if it was anything to go by). He moaned into her hair, gripping her hips and pressing feverish kisses against her throat, trailing down her collarbone, into her cleavage, down her bare stomach and biting the small amount of fat below her navel.
She pulled harshly on his hair and, for a moment, thought she'd been too forceful. That passed, however, when his thumbs pressed insistently on the dips inside her hip bones, causing her to squirm beneath him, extremely ticklish, and him to smirk at her half-laugh-half-groan. Eager to fight back, she pushed her hands up his shirt, smiling triumphantly when her fingers found his ribs and he shuddered. She found that his eyes had darkened, the gold changing to amber and staring at her frighteningly, his entire demeanor seeming possessed.
His breath came like hers, in ragged, uneven pants that ghosted over her skin and made her flush brightly. He sighed her name into their kisses, fingers tightening on her wrists and numbing her hands with their insistency. She called out his name dizzily, eyes sliding shut at the sensation of his teeth where she'd thought there was denim before, and hn-ing, though it was maddeningly different from the way he did it, and he shut his eyes at the sound, tongue flitting out to taste the perspiring skin of her thigh and trying hard to calm down before he lost himself completely.
A buzzing over to the side alerted Bloom to the fact that her phone was going off and she was pulled less-than-gently out of the pink haze that had descended over her mind during the tryst. She was surprised to find her skirt bunched up around her knees and noticed, with some irritation, her partner's apparent relief at the interruption. The ache that came along with heated moments like that was subsiding slowly, like it was determined to draw out the torture of pondering what may have happened had they continued, had she been just a little more insistent…
She scowled, yanking the damn thing out of her bag and growling a greeting into the receiver.
"Woah," Musa's voice came through, dissipating the last trace of arousal she'd had and forcing her back into whatever niche in her mind she'd been in before they had started, "What's got you all hot-and-bothered?" The suggestive lilt to the musician's tones told the redhead the girl knew exactly what had Bloom swallowing large mouthfuls of air and she stuttered out a 'How d'you know?' to the snickering teenager. "I can recognize that hitch on anyone," the fairy responded, "I was gonna tell you Tecna wants some info on the prehistoric magical creatures of Callisto 'cause your BF mentioned them yesterday at lunch, but I'm guessin' she'll have to wait."
"Uh, yeah," Bloom said, glancing over at Baltor who was gathering his hair back into an organized ponytail, "But I'm coming back tonight, if there was any debate about that, so she'll get it then."
"'Kay," Musa said, "See ya'."
Bloom hung up and stowed the device with the rest of her things, then faced Baltor with a bit of a frown, "You know, if there's any doubt that I want to sleep with you, it shouldn't exist. I'm not squeamish."
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck in a weary manner, "It's not that, necessarily, it's just…I'm used to being the one who protects you. Taking your virginity on the floor of a ratty apartment in Magix goes against the grain."
"So this is about your chivalry?"
"'This'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her, "I wasn't aware that there was a problem with my performance."
"Well, you looked pretty happy when we stopped," Bloom said, realizing with some trepidation that she was taking it where she didn't want to.
"That's not the issue. It was enjoyable – or did you not get that?" he asked, his irritation showing through.
"Sorry," she muttered, getting up and looking around for her shirt.
She raised her brows when his arms came around her unexpectedly and he pulled her down, both of them crashing against the hard floor and knocking a pile of books off one of the boxes lying around. "I thought I was rather good," he murmured into her ear, a chuckle rumbling in his chest and sending excited shivers down her spine again. Her cheeks reddened and she felt, rather than saw, his arms tighten around her torso, crushing her to his chest.
"Yeah, well, don't let it go to your head," she mumbled, spotting her green-and-white garment a ways away, hanging haphazardly off Introduction to Magic. She made a move towards it but was stopped by Baltor who shifted and tugged her down onto the floor with him, so that they were lying, legs tangled, on his nondescript carpet.
"In case you were unsure," his lips moved lightly over the shell of her ear, "You were pretty good, too." And then he was at the table, though Bloom wasn't certain if he'd gotten there by magic or if he'd taken the time to crawl out from underneath her and walk over (the latter not lacking probability, as she'd been busy with re-playing certain moments from their 'work-out', as instigated by his comment, and was likely spaced-out).
"So," he said, lifting a textbook and smirking at her expression, "Shall we?"
[-M-]
It was nearing evening when Bloom walked back onto the grounds of Alfea, toting nearly eighty pound's worth of spellbooks and other reference materials and cursing Tecna's evidently limited database.
"She ought to find someone else to do the info-collecting," huffed the fairy, jaw set as she lugged the bag up another flight of stairs, "'Cause my spine's so out-of-whack by now that I doubt I'll even be able to - " She froze, recalling the spell Flora had taught her and executed a perfect facepalm before altering the weight of the messenger bag and walking calmly back to the dorm as if she hadn't just wasted a spectacular amount of energy.
"Hey," greeted Musa, accompanying her next phrase with an eyebrow waggle, "How was your study date?"
Bloom blushed hotly, "It was fine," she managed, "Where's Tecna? I have half an elephant's weight in books to throw at her."
"Shower," answered Musa, "She nearly strangled Stella today."
"Yeah?" Bloom said, setting the bag down at the entrance and rummaging through to find the cage that she'd guilted Baltor into preparing with her for Kiko, "I'm introducing someone into the dorm next weekend."
"Kiko?" Stella asked excitedly, sauntering into the room and looking excited at the prospect of seeing the bunny again.
"Uh-huh," answered the other girl, stretching and flopping down onto the couch. Bloom exhaled loudly, squeaking when Musa poked her leg nearly under her skirt. "What?" she asked the tomboy, feathers ruffled.
"Is that a hickey?" asked Musa, pointing with a barely concealed grin at what Bloom felt was a rawer spot on her skin on the back of her thigh.
"Huh," she said, fingering the mark, "I didn't know he left one there."
"Ya' sure it was him at all, space cadet?" Stella asked, ruffling Bloom's hair, "With the amount of daydreaming you do…"
"Hey! I was conscious!" Barely.
Tecna's laugh announced her presence and the group murmured salutations, repeating them when Flora entered the room. "Do you have the books I asked for?"
"Yes," growled Bloom, glaring at the taller girl, "And I don't understand why you can't just call Timmy and ask for his help with it." Behind her, Stella clucked in false disappointment; Bloom struggled to resist the urge to turn around and ask.
"Timmy has his own test to study for," Tecna answered with an upturned nose, moving to look through Bloom's things for what she needed.
"She's upset because he's clueless," Musa said, moving to lie on the couch with her feet up over the backrest and her head hanging off the seat, "If he was more adaptable, her grabbing him and kissing him would solve the problem, but neither one of them has the guts to do that."
"And what about Riven, hm?" Tecna said from across the room.
"You have lovebites all over your stomach," Musa smirked at Bloom.
"Changing the subject is Baltor's dirty trick, dear Musa," Stella said, poking the hip-hop enthusiast in the stomach, "You've been around him for one day and already you're picking up all his bad habits. Soon you'll be like Bloom – always smirking. She's been ruined."
"Hey!"
There was a long moment of silence where the only people not sporting dramatically frustrated expressions was Flora. The tension broke when the plant-loving fairy let out an extremely uncharacteristic snort, and the rest followed, cackling like what had just transpired was the funniest thing in the dimension.
"So," Bloom said, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, "What's with you, Flo'? You and Brandon were looking pretty chummy."
"Actually, I spent the day with him. We hit a café uptown and talked," Flora revealed.
"And you kept this from us?" Stella shrieked. Musa gestured for the fairy to go on.
"He's engaged to a girl back on his planet. They've dated before and like each other a good amount, he says. He said he was open to dating, but it couldn't ever turn into anything serious." Flora said.
"So? What'd you say?"
"I said I wanted to try it out," Flora responded, shrugging as casually as she could.
"Friends with benefits? That will undoubtedly become very complicated. Especially if his fiancée catches wind," Tecna said, quirking a worried brow.
"He's not really the type of person I'd fall in love with, y'know?" Flora murmured, lacing her fingers together, "I'm just doing it for the experience. Plus, it's nice to know that any mistakes will be overlooked, since we're not taking it anywhere."
"Hm," Musa said, sitting upright and looking thoughtful, "'Friends with benefits,' huh? Not a bad idea. Ya think Riven would be into it? – I don't think he wants to have a real girlfriend yet."
"If the way he teased you meant anything…" Stella said, crossing her arms, "But I stand by Tecna; it'll turn into a huge mess sooner or later."
"Well, I wish you two luck," Bloom said, getting up to put the cage into her and Flora's room, "Can't say I envy the drama you're about to put yourselves through."
"No drama," Musa said, smiling, "It'll be like testing him out."
"If he says yes," stated Tecna, "We can't assume he'll agree."
"Oh, he'll agree," Stella said, nodding sagely, "They always do."
[-M-]
The students were in a frenzy. Exams were causing an unprecedented panic (though the teachers took pleasure in awarding 'I-told-you-so's to any frantic girl looking to review the last month's study materials with their instructor) and every night the library was jam-packed with cramming fairies looking to stuff what they hadn't been paying attention to previously into their brains. Now, when Bloom called Baltor late-into-the-night with frantic questions, Flora was not only encouraging her to stay up late, but also asking the wizard questions of her own. Thankfully, Baltor was tolerant of their inquiries and even endured speaker-phone study sessions in which the five friends gathered around and listened to oral explanations of their worst subjects.
Every-so-often, this led to curious query about Baltor's identity being kept secret by Stella, who, after having the mysteries of Magiphilosophy explained to her by the man, wanted to immediately suggest him to Faragonda and demand that the sloppy excuse of an instructor who currently had the position immediately be thrown out. Baltor managed to explain that he would rather not face the headmistress due to a past indiscretion against her (which piqued Bloom's curiosity again, but she didn't press; she'd asked him to leave off on the cryptic hints unless he was literally about to tell her what seemed to be eating at him) and eventually Stella's protests (and Musa's occasional objection) were silenced.
The one thing Bloom was worried about was Tecna, who had only been reassured that Baltor didn't have something real to hide when he explained about having offended their headmistress, and still seemed a bit wary of the wizard. Bloom suspected this was due to years of online chatrooms and dozens of demonstrations on how unknown persons were untrustworthy. Bloom's reminder that she'd known him for years and hadn't been harmed did a lot to maintain the faith of the girl, though, (Tecna seemed to, like Bloom, have discovered a friendship different from others she'd had in the girls) and she hoped it had put the computer whiz' fears to rest permanently.
Slight dubiousness about Baltor's history did nothing to get in the way of their studying, though, and soon the girls were well on their way to knowing everything there was to know about Potionology, Metamorphosimbiosis and Magiphilosophy. Alarmingly (considering the countdown to the exam), Bloom found herself drifting off during class, missing key points in their newest unit. Thankfully, Tecna had a solution to this: a quick-fix draught that boosted cognitive thinking, energy and awareness. The catch was that it made you nearly hyperactive, and as nearly every girl was doing something to up their game this time of the year, the sounds of drumming hands, tapping pencils and wiggling legs knocking over stacks of books drove the professors mad. They couldn't exactly object to it, though, since every eye was on them, terrified of missing something important. Personally, Bloom thought they deserved it, coming up with something so cruel and unusual as a midterm.
Little by little, the days trickled by, like sand in an hourglass. Anxiety reigned over the roommates, each having to remind the others to go to sleep so that they'd had at least four hours a night. Stella, being the least functional without sleep, occasionally passed out without warning – each of them had perfected floating her into her room – and between them all, they'd started making bets on how long she would last, much to the huffy embarrassment of the blonde. The last night before the test was a rest night, which was to be used for sleep and only sleep. Which would explain Flora's ripping the phone from her hand and hanging up on Baltor, but that didn't mean the red-head wasn't a bit twitchy after she'd done it.
Bloom sighed and decided to call him back later, feeling exhausted herself, and crashed onto her bed, not bothering to change or even set the alarm.
[-M-]
The witch smirked to herself a little, feeling pride in a job well done as the numbers appeared one after the other on the screen.
One thing was sure: she hadn't botched the job. Icy's emotional outbursts hurt and they were steadily increasing as the fairies got more and more involved in what the three of them were doing. Had the Solarian princess not been so well-trained in combat – and how had she gotten so good? She shouldn't have, what with having bodyguards and all – she and Stormy wouldn't have had to put up with their sister's anger issues. But, Darcy supposed, it was only to be expected.
Icy had gone farther than Darcy had dared, dipping her toes in nearly every tainting level-up, enhancer and dark power source she could find. Her latest goal was something banned from even the foulest section of the library: the Army of Decay. As thrilling as it was to cause a breakup or public humiliation, the manipulative witch couldn't look forward to the insanity that the summons would undoubtedly inspire. Perhaps the blue-haired loose cannon had lost herself in the seductive crackle of energy, but she, Darcy, couldn't do it. There was a reason she liked schemes – she was always in control. And the magic that her sisters liked was mind-tripping in its ability; she wasn't about to let go of her hold on herself. Nevermind that emotions ran wild under the influence, addiction could start to take hold. When she wasn't shrieking insults at them for not coming up with plans to claim the magic ring, Icy was threatening them with everything she could think up, ordering them to find more books, more power-ups, more magic for her high. Darcy had dealt with Icy's crashes and trips, keeping them secret from Stormy, who was already complaining of shakes and escaping static
And, though she hid it well, Darcy was beginning to have moments like that herself, when the magic in the books whispered to her, wrapped around her, asked her to give into the pull. Tasting it was indescribable, but the private glimpses into Icy's lost control and the glances to two oldest shared when Stormy fisted her hands in frustration over something the weather witch had no clue about were enough to keep her from diving in too many times.
But now wasn't the time to be going over that. She had a job to finish; once the file had been stored, she had to save it and make sure the program gave them a sound connection to Stella's test. If this chance didn't go through, she wasn't sure how harsh the punishment from Icy would be, given that it was just about the easiest thing for the three of them to do without having to do battle outright (and the fairies were sure to lose, if they didn't have that man with them). She and the eldest had both looked for a face matching the one in their memories on the school's computers, but nothing came up. This wasn't unusual – there were millions of people milling about; they weren't all registered, but something didn't sit right with them concerning the man (and the fact that he very nearly made her blush didn't help).
The beeping slowed and Darcy zero-ed in on the manual screen, eyes narrowing and a scowl forming. Her spell was flawless. If it had been working perfectly up until then, what had gone wrong? She raised a glowing palm to re-new the hex, when a voice stopped her in her tracks.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
She whirled around, expecting Faragonda or some other professor, but instead she found him. The man. The smirk he'd donned when they'd seen each other last was still there, and Darcy wondered why he seemed cheerful if he was, as it seemed, on the side of the fairies.
"Why not? The aura surrounding you is just as dark as mine; what are you doing protecting Alfea students?" she asked, voice not giving anything away. She was an excellent actress, having practiced time and time again on their classmates for the amusement of her sisters, she knew what to say to get the information she needed, how to keep her own secrets safe, and how to challenge her opponent in just the right way. 'Let him think you're intrigued,' she thought to herself, 'Let him think you want to know him personally.' She may have wanted to, too, but with the attention he was giving the fairies, she couldn't.
His smirk widened dangerously, like hers was known to do when she discovered something pathetically vulnerable about a target and she felt the room grow colder a few degrees. He was powerful, just as powerful as Icy, if not more, if he could twist his surroundings without trying. "It is in my best interest to keep my ward safe," he said, voice cheery, "And I'm afraid that at the moment, her friend's safety ties into that."
"That might be a problem, then," Darcy replied, choosing her words carefully.
"What are you after?" He asked unexpectedly, tone suddenly serious, and, unbidden, the answer spills out of her:
"The Dragon Fire."
His eyes widened a fraction before his beguiling smile returned and he held up a gloved hand, "Oh? You mean this?" A flame roared to life in his palm and Darcy quickly summoned her Whisperian Crystal, bidding it to tell her if what he held so effortlessly in his palm really was –
And it was true. The feminine curve of the crystal beamed its assent. The man was holding the Dragon Fire in his palm. Targeting Stella was futile – he already had what they were looking for. Darcy took a weary step back, realizing that the knowledge, once relayed, would bring about another tantrum from her sister. His smirk at her surprise was wicked, and he chuckled before muttering the incantation that sent her forcefully out of the castle, no allowing her to fight back.
Darcy wiped the dirt from her chin and transported herself off-campus, back to the dormitory she shared with the other two. There was some hope, at least: they now knew to research any connections between the Dragon Fire and males, instead of women, as they'd been doing previously. With that comforting thought in mind, the witch curled up on her bed and fell asleep.
…
…
A/N: …And now you know why I changed the rating (and we're all overlooking the fact that his eyes are actually gray, m'kay?).
"You do know that that's not what midterms actually do, right?" Yeah, I know. I just figured since they made such a big deal about it, there should be a reason for it to be monumental. "What are you trying to do with the 'friends with benefits' thing?" I'm trying to make everything more complicated. Because that's what makes it fun. And no, Flora and Sky won't end up together, as I've said. There's a difference between this and that. And while we all wince when reading about our moral role-models-to-little-girls getting into such a risky business, we must remember that they're teens. Not adults and not children. "Baltor's name is known, but his appearance isn't?" Yes (and only by a few persons). Deliciously plotty, wouldn't you say? "Uh…Avona? Was your spell-check on while you were writing this?" The Winx Club Wiki has a list of the professors and what they teach – no way did I come up with those subjects. "Ahem! What the hell did Baltor just do?" He drew attention away from Bloom and her friends, of course (he was a bit drunk at the time, too – brooding can mess with judgement). Too bad that this will have some consequences…
Review!