Still working on cleaning out my files. Pretty sure this is the last one I can actually finish, though. Thanks for sticking around!

It's not super clear, but in this one Sydney lives in Palm Springs as a witch and Zoe was the alchemist sent into hiding.

Pies and... Stuff:

Adrian didn't know how he'd ended up where he was; however, that was usually the case. What made this occasion notable was that he was neither drunk nor hung over, and he was enjoying himself immensely. He didn't want to leave. Ever.

"Now, I think I'll sample the peach," he told the waitress, who'd just finished fitting the five other samples he'd ordered onto his small booth table. She glowered at him, nudging the plates. They clinked until there was room for one more.

"I'll be back with it soon." She said as pleasantly as she could. She was smiling, but those golden eyes betrayed her exasperation.

Adrian didn't care. He was-for the first time since her-completely content. He picked up his fork and surveyed his feast. Which to try first. The pecan? The blueberry? Surely, he couldn't make the key lime wait.

He closed his eyes and let the fork wander, like a dowsing rod. To his dowsing fork he said, find me the perfect flavor. He hoped it would land on pie and not dig into the wooden table top. The samples were only a mere fraction the size of their full-fledged counterparts, and thus very small. However, Adrian had wanted variety.

His wrist swayed and the silverware sliced through something thick. Adrian opened his eyes. Apple. Not bad, fork, not bad at all.

He finished it off in three measly seconds. Next he went for the cherry, which was equally satisfying. Almost enough to forget the mess he'd made of his life the last year. Rose, his mother's imprisonment, Jailbait in hiding. There was no reason to stay at court, but there was every reason to bum around in a pie restaurant while he waited for Jailbait and the others to get out of school. And after the cherry, it was the blueberry that rocked his world.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the first one to get there.

His fruit-filled mouth stifled a gasp—a gasp which almost turned into a choke—when he looked down. Dangling from his fork was...what was it? He brought it up to eye level. It wasn't any bigger than Adrian's palm, and when it wriggled in the light, he almost thought it was transparent. The mesmerizing spell it had cast broke when it squawked.

For such a beautiful creature, it made an awful sound.

Adrian dropped the fork and it clattered against one of the plates, adding to the disturbance. The lizard—that was what it had to be—scuttled off the table and disappeared. Adrian, in a vain attempt to catch it, dove under the next table. It jumped once, twice, and Adrian crawled after it. He almost caught it, too...

"What are you doing?" The waitress was back, in all her huffy glory.

"I could ask you the same thing." Adrian stood, careful not to bump his head on the table. "I just found a lizard in my pie."

"A-," her eyes widened and her hand went to her pocket. "I can assure you we didn't put it there. It is the middle of the desert, you know, so these things happen. "

It sounded reasonable, but Adrian had a keen eye, and he knew how to read people. Her hand still hadn't left her pocket—she'd been checking for it. "It was your lizard."

She pursed her lips. He could see her debating whether or not to admit it. Finally, she said, "Keep this between you and me, and the samples are on me."

"The samples are free." Adrian reminded her.

"Up to a point." The waitress allowed. "You've passed that point."

Adrian lifted a haughty brow. "I think you're making this up."

"You don't know our policy," her glare kicked the temperature of the room up a notch, and her free hand went to her hip.

He raised his hands in defeat, amused, and started back to his table. "All right, all right."

The waitress followed him, pushing in chairs and righting tables as they went. "You destroyed my restaurant, you don't get to use that tone with me."

"You put a lizard in my pie." He retorted.

"I did not." She insisted. Luckily for her, the restaurant was empty besides them. "Hopper has a mind of his own."

"Hopper?"

She hesitated, and he knew the look on her face. She'd been caught red handed. "That's his name," she said and crouched down low. Hopper made a reappearance and crawled into her cupped hands.

"Hopper." Adrian repeated.

"Yes. Is there anything wrong with the name?" She issued the question like a challenge.

"Not at all. I had a rabbit named Hopper, once." That wasn't strictly true, it had been more of an imaginary pet. But if he'd had a rabbit, that's what he would've called it.

"How lovely." She finished straightening the room, giving it a quick once over before turning to face him again.

"What kind of lizard is he?" Adrian nodded to the little guy.

"Oh..." she seemed at a loss for a moment. "I think he's a... sand. Lizard. But don't hold me to it."

"I think I'd like another sample of the blueberry, since your sand lizard ruined it."

xxx

Adrian returned to the pie place the next Saturday. That was a miracle, considering it was so far out he'd been sure he'd never find it again. He'd driven for an hour, actually, and had started to wonder if the place had been a mirage, something created by his hung-over, spirit tripped mind.

But he pushed through the doors, and there it all was.

There she was, leaning against the counter, staring absently at the elderly couple seated by the window, eating in silence. He made his way through the tables, and positioned himself in front of her. He cleared his throat, getting her attention.

She jerked, and she focused. "Oh. You."

"Me." Adrian agreed. His eyes were drawn downward by movement. Hopper, the lizard, from the last time. "That."

"Him," she corrected. "Hopper is a boy. Not a 'that'."

Adrian wasn't one for reptiles—he vastly preferred animals of the cute and fluffy variety—but he held out a finger, and was surprised when the lizard held still, letting Adrian touch him.

"He likes you," the girl said, evidently just as surprised.

He looked for a nametag and found it, clipped onto the strap of an apron he was sure was just for show. Sydney.

"He does," Adrian smiled. "Have you restocked on samples?"

Her own smile dimmed, and she rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Take a seat. Do you have any issue with me just loading it all on one plate?"

"None at all."

xxx

"I mean, I thought I loved her," Adrian despaired, a month later, over a plateful of samples.

"You did love her," Sydney said. "I mean, I've never felt like that myself, but the way you talk about her..."

Adrian sighed. "I did love her."

Sydney considered him. "Past tense."

"Past tense." Adrian nodded, raking a smear of cherry filling across his plate. "It wasn't a very good love."

"Why do you always do that?" Sydney sounded ever so slightly irritated. "Why do you play with your food?"

"It's not playing," Adrian clarified. "It's art."

She rolled her eyes, her head tilted, and, "I should really get back to the counter."

"Why?" Adrian asked. "It's not like there's anyone else to serve."

"This isn't professional."

"No one's watching."

"It still isn't right." She stood, sending one more look at his plate. "Are you going to eat that?"

"Of course!" Just because he'd mixed it together—enjoying the way the colors blended, and the way the textures clashed—so badly you could almost call it soup didn't mean he wasn't going to eat it.

"Alright," she shook her head doubtfully as she walked away.

With her back turned to him, he summoned a trickle of spirit, calling her aura into view. Yellow and purple, swirling, teasing each other. Inspiration struck.

"Sydney!" He called. "Can I get a blackberry and a lemon over here?"

She looked up, aghast. "Finish what you have in front of you."

He found he liked looking at her aura, and it was exactly like spirit had always been. Addictive. Once twice, multiple times a visit he called the spirit magic up and…there. Yellow. Purple. Red. Colors filled his vision until she would turn and catch him staring, and he had to drop it.

xxx

That was what made seeing her aura outside so disorienting.

"Sydney?" The word was out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

She spun around, her hands smeared in engine grease, a streak of it running across her cheeks. She'd been bent over the hood of a car, and he could see by how sweat soaked she was that she must've been at it for several hours now.

"I'm stranded," she threw her hands up. "At this rate I'll die here."

"Oh, you have enough pie for a couple months at least. If you ration. I suppose eventually you'll have to eat Hopper. Or else," Adrian thought on the lizard's voracious appetite, "Hopper might eat you."

"Hopper is…away." Sydney rolled her eyes.

"So you'll slowly spiral into insanity, out here in the empty desert. Empty, except for pie."

"And you," Sydney turned back to the engine.

"Anything I can do to help?" Adrian offered.

"No," she sighed. "Not unless your ride is willing to drive me."

"He is," Adrian nodded at the Jaguar across the parking lot. He'd found it in Clarence's garage when he'd finally broken down and gotten bored enough to go snooping. He could see the change in Sydney's face almost immediately.

First, disbelief. Her gut reaction, "That's yours?" soon gave way to a critical eye. She ran a hand over the glossy surface. Adrian doubted Clarence had driven it much, even in his glory days. And though it had gotten dirty over multiple trips through the desert, it still shone.

"Can I drive?" She finally said.

"Huh?" Adrian didn't know about that, but he soon found himself relinquishing the keys.

The pie he'd eaten almost came up when she hit 100 mph on the road back to Palm Springs. He fought the urge to hurl, and only the pure 'whoops' of excitement kept him from demanding Sydney pull over and let him drive.

"So," he tried to make conversation. "You live in Palm Springs?"

"Yeah. Me and my mom, we moved here a few years ago, after the divorce." Sydney said absentmindedly as she fiddled with the headlights. He didn't like the idea of her fiddling with anything while going so fast. "And you? I wouldn't want to take you too far out of your way."

"I'm staying with a doddering old relative, he lives on the edge of town. My siblings go to Amberwood Prep."

"Amberwood?" That caught her attention. "I know someone who works there. Jacklyn Terwilliger, in the history department?"

"Never heard of her," Adrian said, making a mental note to ask Jill.

"We could stop there. I was planning on visiting Ms. Terwilliger soon anyway, and you could see your siblings? It would be a shorter drive for both of us."

"Sure," Adrian shrugged. He couldn't help but feel a bit excited at the prospect. He wanted to see how Jill was doing, and he was already picturing pulling up to the school in Clarence's Jag. It could also be a fun way to mess with Micah, a human boy who'd taken to flirting with Jill. This way, Adrian could see if he was worthy in person instead of listening to Jill's dreamy assurances.

When they finally pulled up to the prestigious academy, they'd settled on a radio station that played 'oldies but goodies' and were engaged in a friendly debate about ACDC. Sydney was funny, he discovered, but most of her attention was still on the car. She almost teared up when she had to turn it off.

They'd meandered most of the walk to the main building by the time she worked up the courage to hand the key back. Adrian motioned towards one of the picnic tables in the shade. "There they are."

"Them?" She had a puzzled look on her face. Adrian tried to see what she'd be confused about—it was true that they didn't exactly resemble each other—but he looked enough like Jill and Zoe looked enough like Eddie that they managed to pull it off. Well, to anyone who didn't know none of them were even the same species.

"Yep. My little sister Jill, and my little brother Eddie. Oh. And Zoe, she's also my sister. Jill's twin."

"Twin." Sydney was blinking rapidly.

"Yeah, come on, I'll introduce you."

"No," Sydney herself seemed startled at the vehemence in her voice. Her eyes were locked uneasily on Zoe, but they flickered to Adrian when she added, "That is, I really have to be going. I'll catch you later, I work…. well, I'm sure I'll see you. Thanks for the ride."

"Go? Okay. Later, Sydney," But his goodbyes were wasted. She was already beating a hasty retreat.

Adrian pulled up the colors of her aura. She was sad. And she was scared.