Forty-two.
Forty-two hours. How had things already gone so sideways?
Though she'd been exhausted when they got back to the rental, Bloom couldn't fall asleep. Her mind jumped between worrying about what a day of waiting around in a small house with Baltor would bring (probably more drinking), and what would happen the day after, meeting another (in all likelihood) shady individual in a group that was somehow managing to steal energy from the stars of the universe. A shady individual in a group Bloom now realized Baltor knew very little about. A shady individual who could ask her to do god knew what to prove her loyalty, and Bloom would more than likely have to do it to keep herself alive.
And of course that line of thinking led her right back to thinking of Ayin. Bloom hated how clear it was in her mind, and she had a sinking feeling it would stay that way for a long time.
When she did finally fall asleep, her dreams held the same kind of chaos her thoughts had. One minute she and the Winx were running through the streets of Gardenia fighting a lava monster, and the next she found herself in the gardens of Solaria, drinking tea with Stella and her mother without a care in the world. It was nice to be worrying about normal things for a while - or at least, things that seemed normal in Bloom's world of universe saving - though there were threads of her current situation running she kept picking up on. The Winx in her dreams seemed to pick up on her unease, and whether it was Bloom's own subconscious or knowing how they would act in real life, they stayed at her side until the dream morphed, taking them away.
Instead of the Winx, Sky walked alongside her, leading her off bustling city streets and into an apartment Bloom didn't recognize but knew was fine to be in. It was simple and comfortable and so unlike the last few days that Bloom sank into it without any hesitancy, losing the threads that reminded her she was dreaming. Her mind seemed to reward her for that, and before she knew it Sky was leaning in close and kissing her.
It was surprising what little details her mind could recall; how soft Sky's skin was when his fingers brushed against her face, the way his hair felt when she threaded her fingers through it, or the muscles in his arms that dug into her as he pulled Bloom close. She savored the slow build of both the kiss and the sensuous feeling in her chest, spreading out and making her limbs tingle in anticipation.
She sighed as his hands finally reached up to pull her shirt off. Bloom reached out to return the favor but Sky refused, spinning her in his arms before reaching up to unclasp her bra, his lips trailing open-mouthed kisses along her neck. She moaned, lost in the familiar sensations that had been so close as of late, but so different without him.
So lost that she didn't realize the fingers that came back to trace her spine were longer and more callused. Or that the back she was pulled against was broader and more lean. Bloom didn't care - if anything she liked it more. When the lips at her neck disappeared she reached back blindly, desperate for more contact.
And then a voice, far too deep to be Sky's murmured into her ear; "That's it, good girl, Bloom -"
Bloom jerked awake, wincing at the sunlight streaming in from the bedroom window - late morning based on the shadows being cast. There were a few blissful moments of confusion before she realized where she was and what she had just awoken from. Bloom groaned, pulling the covers over her head and waving a finger. The curtains pulled themselves over the windows, blocking most of the sunlight out, though it did little to help her pounding head.
She laid in bed for several minutes, cursing every deity she could think of and debating whether she should punish her mind for betraying her like this or continue down the path her dreams had been so keen on to try and take the edge off things.
I'm perfectly comfortable with you going back over those memories, should you find yourself with the desire to.
In the end she decided on a cold shower, not trusting where the alternative would take her.
After changing into comfortable clothes and gnawing on one of the energy bars she'd stashed in her suitcase, Bloom found her headache was lingering. She couldn't tell if it was a result of stress, alcohol, bad sleep, or (most likely) a combination of all three, but it was enough to force her out of her room to look for alleviation.
"Have you found any aspirin here?" Bloom asked Baltor in lieu of a greeting as she shuffled into the kitchen. She didn't even bother to look over to the living room couch first, an assured feeling telling her he was there.
Sure enough, the man in question glanced up from whatever he was reading. It gave Bloom pause - something about the look was far too pleasant considering the previous night's events. "Top drawer by the sink."
She followed the directions, coming up with a bottle of ibuprofen (or whatever it was called here - so long as it worked Bloom would call it anything). "Magic release capsules, thank god. I'm starting to think that Leonnates creep spiked my drink."
"More than likely he just poured heavy. Vallistan alcohol can be rather inebriating to people who aren't used to it. It's the highest proof in the dimension next to Popularus."
"I see you spent a lot of time raiding spell vaults and liquor cabinets," Bloom deadpanned, filling a glass from the kitchen faucet to swallow the pills. "You're not hungover?"
"I am not," he replied, and the bounce in his voice added to her unease.
Bloom finally stopped ignoring her intuition and wandered into the living room. The first thing she noticed was the coffee table, now covered in packets and official papers she didn't recognize. Certainly none of it had been there the night before. "Whoa. Where did all this come from?"
Her gaze shifted to Baltor himself, and she was immediately concerned with the look he gave her. Namely that sly, shit-eating grin Bloom had come to recognize meant bad things for her. "This was delivered this morning," Baltor motioned to the open box on the floor. "Postmarked Magix - not surprising, since everything comes through there. I figured it was some sort of supply order you'd put in last night."
Bloom could only guess how mortified she looked. It must have been very, because the smirk got wider. "Imagine my surprise when I found this instead," he continued, holding up the book he had been reading. The one Bloom had last seen buried under lecture notes on her desk at Alfea. "Understanding Demonic Forces From the Universe's Creation. Not what one would call light reading."
"Give me that," Bloom surged forward, but not fast enough. Baltor was up and across the room before she was within three feet of the couch.
"Nor was the other included book - Symbiosis With Dark Magical Energy. Now, I didn't spend very much time in Alfea's library, but Cloud Tower's? That collection is one I'm very familiar with. What's a goody two-shoes fairy like you doing with two of my personal favorites?"
"None of your business."
"Oh you may think that, but there are quite a few people who think it is my business. Or so they said to your higher-up friends."
The implication wasn't lost on Bloom. She turned back to the coffee table and picked up the nearest file, hoping she was wrong.
She wasn't.
Inside was an official complaint filed with the Magix Council five years ago. But unlike the redaction-filled photocopy of a photocopy she had been given after months of hounding Faragonda and the Council liaison, this was a pristine page devoid of black lines.
While we respect the crown princess of the (former) planet Sparx, it is not difficult to believe she would align herself with the only other living being from said world, regardless of his status. Therefore, we demand a full investigation...
Bloom stared at the words she had read dozens of times before, then up at the information box. The complainant had been from Solaria, somehow the most surprising piece of new information. She always thought Diaspro had written this one. "They're all here?" Bloom found herself asking, even though she already knew they were.
"The nine complaints filed against you when I broke out of Omega, and the sixteen filed over the last year. All citing concerns that you were in league with me."
Well, she had asked Tom to send all the relevant files. She just hadn't realized all relevant files included hers.
"Of course all of my information is here as well," Baltor sauntered past her back to the couch once he realized she wasn't going to go for him again. "Arrest records, interviews, letters from planetary governments demanding my execution, etcetera. But in the middle, almost as if it was thrown in at the last minute, those books. Which of course piqued my curiosity enough to go digging until I came across the files regarding both of us. Really, I'm flattered. I had no idea we were so deeply intertwined."
His tone snapped Bloom out of her own self-pity. She expected the embarrassment, maybe even the biting remarks that started forming in her mind. What surprised her, though, was the anger that quickly bubbled up from her chest. "You had no right."
Baltor just scoffed at her. "Oh no? Whose name is on the front of eighty percent of these documents?"
"Which means you should have left the other twenty percent alone."
"Call it creating an even battleground."
"Oh no, we are not even in any sense of the word. That's why I have this," Bloom held up the red stone necklace, "And you are going back to Omega at the end of the week. Remember?"
"How could I forget, considering how often you bring it up? Isn't there a saying that people who constantly have to remind you how powerful they are aren't actually powerful at all? Maybe the current situation is a bit more even-keeled than I realized."
Blood rushed to her cheeks, but Bloom refused to acknowledge it. She grabbed the nearest complaint from the table. "I'm powerful enough to defeat you twice. And unlike you, I didn't do any of the things people accused me of! I wasn't a spy or a puppet, and I never helped you."
"You're helping me now."
The cool composure in Baltor's voice caught Bloom off guard. "This is different."
"Is it?" Baltor stood up in a single fluid motion, grabbing a different file from the table. "You were chosen to accompany me because in the mind of the Council, you are the person closest to understanding me. They decided we would work well together. And haven't we so far?"
If Bloom wasn't blushing before, she certainly was now.
"And if these are anything to go by," Baltor waved the file in his hand pointedly in her direction. "They were not the only people to think that."
"They're wrong."
"Not anymore."
He was right, on a literal level if nothing else, and it turned her anger into a borderline rage. "Screw you," Bloom spat, turning on her heels and walking towards the kitchen. Upon seeing the small crystal resting on the sill above the sink, she was hit with an idea that at the moment seemed necessary.
"Don't go undoing any spells," Baltor said dryly as she picked the crystal up. Bloom could feel his eyes on her. "Wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impression."
"Who said anything about undoing?" Bloom recited a spell in her head, nodding when the crystal flashed and powered up.
"Then humor me, what are you doing?"
"Taking myself out of the equation. Before I do something I regret."
Baltor looked unimpressed. "You're Princess Bloom, gifted hero of the Magic Dimension. You don't kill people."
She ignored the comment, stalking past Baltor to the door. She slipped her shoes on. "What I did was hone the barrier around the house to only let me in or out. If you try to leave before I get back, it's ten thousand volts of electricity to the heart."
He sat up at that, looking more concerned than he'd been all morning. "And what do you expect me to do here all day?"
"Not my problem. But look on the bright side - this is way roomier than your cell in Magix was. Or your ice block in Omega is going to be. If I were you, I'd enjoy it while I had the chance."
The look Baltor gave her was deadly, but before he could retort Bloom was out the door. She didn't even bother locking it behind her.
Bloom spent a good hour wandering aimlessly around the city, following twisting side streets to different town squares. Most of the nighttime spots were closed, but in their place were hole-in-the-wall restaurants, trinket shops, and little boutique stores selling expensive swimwear. Vendor carts seemed to be everywhere as well, offering ice cream and even snorkeling equipment down by the beach. It was busy, too, even as radios in several shop windows started reporting a thunderstorm moving in from the north.
It all reminded Bloom of Earth and Gardenia, in a way that made her chest ache. She really needed to come back to Littus for fun at some point, if the next few days didn't ruin it for her.
The streets became less packed as clouds began gathering in the sky, and the anger in Bloom's chest dulled into something hollow. She knew, distantly, she shouldn't have gotten so upset. If for no other reason than it gave Baltor something else to use against her. Not that he needed confirmation to know he was right - Bloom had been pointing out their power imbalance too much. It wasn't because of her confidence anymore, it was to make up for the lack of it.
Eventually she ducked inside a coffee shop on the boardwalk for something to drink. The large 'No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service' sign on the door left the inside mostly empty, which Bloom was grateful for. She was still worried about being recognized, especially in a place with so many tourists.
While the barista got to work making her drink, Bloom's eyes drifted to the television on the far wall. It was switched to a news station reporting on the construction of a new silicon factory near the capital. The ticker at the bottom of the screen informed her it was a dual project, being set up with a different planet whose name she had missed.
She didn't wander long however, because in the next clip Daphne's face came up, smiling as she shook hands with Princess Varadna.
Bloom blinked in surprise, and the image changed. Not just Daphne - Thoren and her birth parents were there too, in what had to be the Vallistan royal palace. They were sitting around a table, answering reporter's questions while laughing with one another in between.
The barista caught her staring, and scoffed when she saw what Bloom was looking at. "Ridiculous, isn't it? They've been running that segment all day."
"Why would they go in together on a factory?" Bloom found herself asking, even though she wasn't sure the other woman would know the answer.
Surprisingly, she did. "Sparx is building a sporting arena so they can put a hosting bid in for the Magix Games. Show the universe they're just as powerful as they used to be. I guess the royals have been talking about it for years."
"Right." Bloom couldn't remember a single time either of her parents had brought up the Magix Games. Though to be fair, they didn't really discuss any political things with her. Not since Daphne had gotten back.
At first Bloom had been relieved. Of course in the general sense of having her sister back, but also in terms of the throne. Years of princess lessons with Stella and Aisha had only taken her from complete royal disaster to mild royal disaster. As much as Bloom tried, she just wasn't very good at diplomatic speaking or figuring out taxes. A fact her birth parents had been well aware of. They were still proud of her, of course, but Bloom knew there were plenty of conversations behind closed doors, advisors asking what they were going to do when the time came to crown her Queen. Sparx's primogeniture was absolute. The title would always be hers, whether she married Sky or the boy she'd had a monthlong fling with her first semester back from defeating the Wizards of the Black Circle (what was Jordan up to these days, Bloom wondered).
But then Daphne came back. Her selfless sister who slipped back into the role of princess with no hesitation and only minor setbacks. Even twenty years as a disembodied spirit couldn't slow her down. She was compassionate, clever, and above all good at being royalty. None of the advisors on Sparx worried about the throne after that, especially when Daphne and Thoren got married later in the year. Someone with direct (but not too direct) ties to another monarchy who had studied how to rule. Together they would be the perfect couple to usher the planet into a new era.
And that left Bloom. The now spare princess people either examined under a microscope for unroyal behavior or passed over as Eraklyon's problem, soon enough.
Her family on Sparx loved her. Bloom knew that. But she also knew they fell into the latter category and had backup plans for her life written out in detail should anything go wrong with Sky. It was how their world worked, and they had known nothing else. It wasn't personal.
It felt a little personal.
"Of course the media's all happy about an economic boom, but they keep forgetting it'll be Sparx wages. Barely enough credits to cover bills. Just what we need, right?" The barista rolled her eyes and passed Bloom her drink. "More royals who have no idea how the real world works."
"Yeah," Bloom replied after a second, relieved when the news switched to discussing an expansion of the south pier. "They really don't. Thanks."
She sat at a bar top by the front door, watching people go by until her drink went cold. The sky went from light to dark grey, sunlight doing its best to get through the cloud cover. Eventually another worker came out of the back to complain about staying open in a storm, and in the reflection of the window Bloom saw him staring at her, shifting to try and get a look at her face. She took it as her cue to leave.
Outside, Littus had turned into a ghost town as tourists and street vendors alike headed inside. Bloom went a few blocks away from the café to get takeaway from a restaurant with a window for beachgoers to order from. If she came back with food there was a chance Baltor would be less annoyed with her (if he wasn't already passed out drunk).
Halfway back to the house the sky opened up, scattered drops turning into sheets of rain in under a minute. Bloom put a shield up to keep dry and spent the rest of her walk trying to convince herself things were going to be fine. They always were. This wasn't any different.
Or so she hoped.
Something was wrong the moment Bloom stepped back inside.
A rainy night could warp a person's perception of a space - nice little cabins in the woods became rickety death traps if there were thunderstorms (or so Bloom remembered when going to visit her Aunt Caroline and Uncle Scott in Montana). There was some of that as Bloom shut the front door and let her shield drop. The sound of rain pelting the windows was muffled but audible, mingling with the taps of branches being blown against the side of the house. It was something that could easily be classified as spooky.
But it was the only noise.
Only the hallway light was on, illuminating enough for Bloom to see the couch was empty, all the files from earlier packed neatly into the box they'd arrived in. The kitchen didn't appear to be occupied either. Bloom went and flipped the light on there, and blinked in surprise when she saw the liquor cabinet was closed.
"Hello?" She called, setting the takeout on the counter and looking around. She could feel the barrier around the house still pulsing with activity, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.
No one answered her.
She went down the hallway to the bedrooms, pushing the door to Baltor's open. It too was empty, the bed made and the clothes from last night thrown onto the seat of the armchair. His jacket, which Bloom had last seen folded over the back, was gone.
"Shit," she muttered under breath, getting louder as her heart rate started increasing. "Shit, shit, shit!"
Bloom went back to the kitchen, trying to keep herself from spiraling into a full-blown panic attack while also debating how thoroughly fucked she was going to be when the Council found out she'd left the world's most dangerous wizard alone with nothing more than a protection barrier and an unlocked front door. She was seconds away from getting her phone before she noticed the sliding glass door in the kitchen - the one that led to the back balcony - was unlocked.
She raced to the window. There was a figure standing outside.
Relief flooded through her, and before Bloom could think about how it would make her look she shoved the door open. Without the streaks of water on the glass there was no mistaking Baltor.
"Jesus Christ, don't scare me like that! I thought you left."
Instead of a smirk and something snarky, Baltor just glanced over his shoulder, turning back around almost immediately. "Sorry."
She stepped onto the balcony, shivering at the fat raindrops that immediately began peppering her. Based on the way Baltor's hair was hanging in wet strands around his face, he'd been outside since it started.
"What are you doing?"
He looked...lost, almost. Trying desperately to remember something, but at the same time resigned to the fact he never would. "I needed to feel it."
"All you're going to feel is the beginning of the flu if you stay out here much longer." It might have been a subconscious projection - Bloom had gotten cold enough on her walk back and was ready to relax in a hot bath. "Seriously, come on. You're not going to be any help to me tomorrow if you're doped up on cold medicine."
Baltor still didn't move, and after a few moments Bloom gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, I'll bite - what do you need to feel?"
She watched him drum his fingers against the railing. "It occurred to me as the clouds gathered that this could be the last time I get to feel rain. The droplets on my skin, combined with the sound of thunder and the taste of electricity in the air…"
"Why does that matter?"
"I was created in a rainstorm."
Bloom blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected that.
Baltor looked over his shoulder to make sure she hadn't gone back inside. "It was a long time ago now," he said like he was beginning a story, and Bloom stepped closer to hear him. "I awoke on Ignis, an island in the South Sea of Sparx. The Ancestresses were looming above me, but mixed with my apprehension was an awe at the world. It was raining just like this, thunder roaring in the sky - lightning, everywhere. A true testament to the raw power of nature. I knew it before I knew my own."
Bloom stopped a few feet short of the railing. "...The island of Ignis was destroyed years before the Ancestresses started attacking Sparx. Miriam...Mom talked about her grandfathers picking up wreckage when they were teenagers. Some sort of earthquake thing."
Baltor just raised an eyebrow, and after a few moments Bloom understood the implication. She shivered.
"How old are you, anyway?"
"Older than anyone you know. My essence has existed for hundreds of years, inhabiting dozens of bodies. This current one, however, is average in age."
The sincerity in Baltor's voice made it obvious he was telling the truth. Bloom turned and looked up towards the forest, desperate for more information but unwilling to push her luck.
"You really thought I left?" Baltor asked after a few moments, sounding surprised but more like himself than before.
She sighed, knowing better than to try lying. "I wouldn't put it past you to know a way around protection barriers. And the house was empty."
"Interesting. So it's faded for you, then?"
Bloom turned and raised an eyebrow. "What's faded?"
"Our connection."
Her first instinct was to say they didn't have a connection, but Bloom knew that wasn't true and Baltor would call her on it. They had one - still had one. Some sort of force made up of various strings - their planet, their powers, their previous battles - all tied up in an intricate knot incapable of being undone.
"I didn't know Sparx was back," Baltor continued, staring out past the balcony towards the warm glow of Littus. "When I...came back. I always thought I would be able to - the Great Dragon connecting all of its wielders together again."
"Is it supposed to?" Bloom asked, because she genuinely didn't know. It wasn't the first time she'd heard of their people connecting through their power source, but she'd always gotten the impression it was just a story people repeated because it was ingrained in the culture, and not because they believed it.
"It was before the war." Baltor leaned on the railing and tilted his head up to the sky. "That's why everyone was there, when the planet fell. It was like...birds, migrating for the winter. Something in your gut would just pull you, nonstop until your feet touched the ground on Sparx. You had to go back, it couldn't be ignored. Trying to made you anxious, and your heart...Arcadia, it felt like it was breaking into billions of fragments."
Baltor sighed, and in that moment all Bloom could do was watch him, positively enveloped. "The Ancestresses wanted to break that bond - I think they did, on some level. Maybe that's why the Flame called everyone home in the end. It thought keeping its wielders in one place would make up for the bond that was lost."
Hesitantly, Bloom stepped forward until she leaned on the railing next to Baltor. She kept space between them, but not nearly as much as she would have even the night before. "I believe you," she said quietly, looking sideways at him. "But what does that have to do with our connection?"
"So you admit we have one?" he tilted his head to face her, and for the briefest moment Bloom understood how people could have recklessly followed him into battles knowing full well they would die. How could they have said no, if he looked at them like that?
"Of course we do." Bloom found herself saying.
"Which leads to my previous question. Has it faded?"
"It's...different, right now. I think because you don't have your powers. But before that...no. Why?"
"That." Bloom didn't even flinch as Baltor reached out and tapped the red stone at her throat. "I may not be able to cast spells, but my own essence is still made up of the Dragon Fire. Enough for you to seek out. The Council can do a lot, but without divine means, a person can rarely be stripped of all their magic."
The words reminded Bloom of being a teenager, encased in a block of ice in her townhouse living room while the Trix used the Whisperian Crystal to steal the Dragon Fire. Against the odds she found herself smiling a little. "Yeah, I think I know what you mean. You still feel a connection to me, then?"
Baltor hummed, barely audible over the rain. "When I first came back to a physical form, I went to Sparx. I didn't believe Argan when he said you resurrected it. I stood in the city square at the equator of the planet, the closest I could humanly come to connecting with the entire population's magical aura...and it felt like a lightning bug compared to how I feel right now."
She openly scoffed. "You just said you were hundreds of years old. You expect me to believe you've never felt a magic connection like ours?"
"I haven't."
The openness of his words was the only thing that prevented Bloom from laughing outright. She stared at him, at the raindrops sliding down his face, distantly realizing she probably looked the same by now. Light momentarily illuminated his face as lighting struck somewhere in the mountains. Several seconds later, the thunder rumbled.
"Why are you telling me this?"
A small smirk appeared on his face, though there didn't seem to be anything malicious behind it. "I don't know."
The openness with which Baltor discussed his own past and the history of Sparx was enticing. She had read plenty of history books - both on Baltor and Sparx - but unless she directly asked, no one seemed willing to explain her planet's past. Not even her own family.
Baltor took note of the probably grim expression on her face. "Ten credits to call if you explain it all?"
"On Earth we say penny for your thoughts."
He raised an eyebrow instead of answering, and Bloom sighed. She didn't know why she had an urge to return Baltor's honesty - it was a terrible idea. Maybe it was because she had followed through on so many other (more likely worse) terrible ideas over the last few days and this one had to be the least dangerous. Or she was so focused on short-term danger, she could excuse any long-term repercussions opening up would have.
"You don't know what it was like," she finally said. "Dealing with the Council after you...died? I don't know - the first time we really thought you were gone. I was stuck in that building for almost fifteen hours, answering questions about how I did it and things you said to me. They went over those months with a fine-toothed comb, and it didn't do any good."
Baltor turned his head, looking thoughtfully at her. "They didn't believe you?"
"Even when they finally let me out. One of them kept swearing it was all a ploy. You'd be back in a month pillaging spell vaults, and I'd be helping you." Bloom chuckled humorlessly. "I remember being so relieved when he died and Tom took his place.
"And then you came back. And sure the focus went right back to defeating you, and everyone was saying the Winx can do it, they did it before, but when they looked at me...I knew they were wondering. If every single rumor they'd heard about me was true. It's why there are nearly twice the complaints about me this year then when you first broke out of Omega. It's why the Council sent me here." She finally met his gaze. "And it's why I got so upset earlier. It's...hard, coming to terms with how little the world trusts you."
"And the books?"
"I asked Tom to grab them from my room at Alfea. Griffin knows I have them - hell, she had to sign a waiver to let me check them out since I'm not a CT student. I thought if I could explain to everyone how I didn't help you come back or keep you hidden, it might make them leave me alone." Bloom sighed again, lifting the hem of her shirt to wipe raindrops out of her eyes. "Not that worked, because I'm here and the Council had to see those to send them. God only knows what they think of me."
When she lowered her shirt Baltor was looking at her very seriously. "I already told you what happened. You destroyed my physical being, leaving my remaining life force in limbo. The people I work for called it back to existence."
"But why didn't I destroy that, too? Your life force?"
Baltor rolled his eyes as if she'd asked a basic math question. "For the same reason that stone doesn't - though apparently just for me - hinder our connection. To destroy any essence of the Flame takes almost inconceivable power."
She rested her chin on her hand and gave him a suspicious look. "So why bother trying to kill me in the first place? Could've saved us a lot of headaches."
The sarcasm must've bled into her voice, because Baltor matched her gaze. "It's a bit harder to take over the universe without a physical body."
"I wouldn't know," she shot back, breaking eye contact as lightning struck near the top of the mountains. There was only a few seconds of silence before the thunder followed.
When she glanced back Baltor was leaning in close, wet sections of his hair thudding against her chest and dampening the remaining dry parts of her shirt. "Obviously not. So that begs the question; why are you telling me this?"
Bloom inhaled sharply, but didn't back away. That tense feeling was still settled in her bones, but there was something else now. Something about the dark look in Baltor's eyes that gave her the smallest, strangest flicker of excitement. "I don't know. Maybe I'm re-evening the playing field."
He huffed at that, but didn't come closer. "Don't offer things you're not ready to give, Bloom. No Vallistian alcohol for you to hide behind this time."
"Trust me, I'm not worried if the Council knows that you know they don't like me. Besides," she shrugged, trying to appear unperturbed. "There wasn't much left to the imagination, was there? You knew the moment I walked into your cell."
Baltor smirked at her again with the same predatory look, but against all odds, also with the slightest bit of pride. "You know, I think when this is over I might actually miss you."
She opened her mouth, but the logical part of her brain cut off her tongue before it could make the first words she'd thought of. "T-There's food in the kitchen," she managed to say instead. "Some fish place by the boardwalk I found walking back."
"Hmm, but what if I don't like fish?" His tone was innocent, but Bloom didn't miss how his gaze flickered over her, taking in their proximity and soaking clothes.
"Well you could just stay out here then," Bloom found herself saying. "Wait for lightning to strike you."
"I think I've done a decent job avoiding deadly electric shock today. I'd hate to ruin my streak."
Bloom saw his hand moving out of the corner of her eye, up towards her face. She expected Baltor to go for the necklace again, but instead his hand continued up, past her lips and cheek to her forehead. He fingered her wet bangs, brushing them to one side and tucking them delicately behind her ear. Despite the temperature outside and how long they'd both been in the rain, his fingers were still warm.
Oh, don't be afraid. We're old friends, you and I. Don't you remember?
"Then I guess you'll have to live with fish." Bloom's voice sounded intrusive to her own ears, as if it couldn't possibly be involved with those memories or anything right now.
With that Baltor finally stepped back, creating a more respectable distance between them. He looked far more like himself than he had when Bloom came outside, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "I suppose so. Though as long as I don't have to eat another apple you won't hear me complain."
Bloom felt instantly colder without his touch, but did her best not to show it. "No apples. If you go take it all out of the bags I can find some towels to start drying off."
"Hmm. Consider it a dinner date."
She rolled her eyes as Baltor turned away to head back inside. "And leave the liquor cabinet alone!"
There was no response that she could hear over the rain, but she could see his shoulders rise and fall as he chuckled.
"Ten credits to call if you explain it all": a shortened version of the phrase 'I'll give you ten credits to call home if you explain it all to me first,' often used in the dimension when one was in trouble and needed credits to call home via payphone for assistance. With the rise of cell phones in the Magic Dimension, phone booths have become mostly obsolete, but the shortened phrase still exists.
Random Winx Club English dub #5: lol Baltor's 1,000
Me: motherfucker no! ….but how can I make it work here (even though he isn't 1,000 here
Also also staying from the 4Kids dub: Popularus, which I guess is a 4Kids exclusive planet? It gets a free pass since it's from Miss Magix, the only episode of Winx Club that is objectively better in the 4Kids dub (and yes, because they got rid of that scene)
Bloom's ex Jordan also gets a shoutout, for all you comic fans out there.