Blue Fairy

AJ Wonkette

Disclaimer ('cos I forgot it in the first one! I knew something was missing.) I got the certificate of legal ownage, and I ran right home to show Edward, and he sorta accidentally...shredded it. :(

So no, to answer your question. I do not own it.

A/N: Chapter two! And my computer still kinda liveth! Lol.

Darlene: THANK YOU! You are my one reviewer. You rock and get a giant hypothetical cookie! And thanks for the bit about the gate. I did get to watch it again at my friend's house and I did notice that. I wasn't sure if I could trust my memory on painkillers though, so I just put that to make sure.

So yes. Onward we march!

Chapter Two: Mandy Meets Ed

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After what seemed like an eternity of climbing, Mandy reached the top of Castle Hill. She opened the Inner Gate and slipped inside. She stopped dead, shocked by what she saw. There were gorgeous, snow-covered topiaries all over the place. Lions and roses and spaceships and people. . . strewn about the lawn like an art gallery of some sort.

"Of course he'd be good at topiaries." Mandy whispered to herself, shaking herself out of her amazed trance. "He's got scissors for hands for goodness sake!" She continued her journey, coming to a large topiary in the center of the courtyard, the largest of all. It was a human hand, palm facing towards the heavens, holding a small mound of snow all its own. Mandy paused to pull out Levi's camera and snap a picture, making a mental note to add that particular shrub into her journal later on. In her mind, it was significant. She walked around it to the front doors. She took a deep breath and pushed them open.

"Edward?" She called, stepping inside. Her words echoed throughout the cold, empty house. Mandy shivered, suddenly glad she had her System Of A Down hoodie on over her t-shirt, even with her coat. It looked like it was going to be a long, cold night.

Mandy walked into the large hall, shutting the door behind her. She took out her flashlight and looked around. What seemed to be old, dusty machines were scattered here and there, covered in cobwebs and years of dirt and grime. To one side was a staircase, also dusty and cobweb-covered. Mandy decided to see where this would take her, though she noticed several other inviting doors. The stairs, however, interested her most. She set down her bag and took out Levi's camera again, and snapped a couple shots of the hall.

"That ought to do it for proof." she said to herself, putting the camera away. She picked her things up again, and turned toward her desired course. She began climbing the stairs. And she climbed. And climbed. And climbed. And climbed some more. The higher she went, the more nervous she got, though she had no idea why she was so nervous. She began singing to ease her nerves. Her "sopralto" voice echoed eerily off the stone walls.

"Saw my old lover at the grocery store. It was a snowy Christmas eve. Saw her standin' in the frozen foods. And I touched her on the sleeve. Didn't recognize my face at first. Then her eyes flew open wide. She w–." Mandy stopped, her breath catching in her chest. She had reached the top of the stairs. And there was a door. And it was open. Just barely. With her heart in her throat, she took a cautious step forward, and pushed the door all the way open. Her blue eyes widened. She was standing in an attic. Or what was left of it. The roof was broken in many places, leaving only open sky. But that wasn't what took her breath away.

Inside the room, all over the floor, were about a half dozen ice sculptures. There was a larger-than-life snowflake, a crescent moon, a roaring tiger, a howling wolf, a wilting rose, and a ballet dancer, her graceful hands facing the heavens, just like the hand in the garden. Mandy gazed at them in awe for a moment. She played her flashlight over every single sculpture, watching as the light made them sparkle. She put the thin barrel of the flashlight between her teeth and pulled out the camera once more. She had to get pictures of these beautiful sculptures. She began clicking away, turning slowly as she did.

Suddenly, her light hit something that wasn't ice. She froze, then took a cautious step forward, peering through the digital screen of the camera instead of looking up. A face came into focus. A pale, scarred, shocked face. Mandy slowly and carefully pushed the button, snapping a picture of the face. Then she looked up, also slowly. She slid the camera into her pocket, and removed the flashlight from her mouth. She took a careful step towards the face.

"Hello." She said softly, her voice barely over a whisper. She took another step. The face jerked backwards fearfully, the dark eyes wide.

"Hello." A soft, almost child-like voice said in return. The voice was uneasy, full of fear. Mandy stopped, almost three feet in front of him.

"Are. . . are you Edward Scissorhands?" she asked breathlessly. The face crumpled in confusion.

"My name is Edward." He said slowly, as if unsure how to answer her. "A-and I do have scissorhands." Slowly, almost hesitantly, he held up his hands. Mandy could not hold back her gasp of surprise. His hands were indeed scissors. Edward flinched at her gasp, drawing back into the shadows, and dropping to the floor. Mandy didn't seem to notice. She let out a delighted squeal.

"Yes! I was right! I was right! You're real! I knew you were! I found you!" She exclaimed, unable to contain her excitement any longer. She took a deep breath, then looked around. "Woah, wait, where'd you go?" She held up her flashlight until she found him, scooted way back against the wall of the attic. She walked over and sat cross-legged in front of him. She placed the flashlight on the ground between them, facing upwards so it shed light on the both of them.

Mandy looked across the circle of light at Edward. He looked very frightened. His knees were pulled to his chest, and his scissor-hands were crossed defensively over them. He watched her warily, as if he were afraid she would attack him.

"I'm sorry." Mandy said in a quiet voice. She took off her coat and moved so she was sitting on the fluffy material. "I didn't mean to scare you. I guess I'm a little overwhelming after you've been up here for so long." She cocked her head to one side. "How long have you been up here, anyway?"

"I don't know." Edward replied in his small voice. He didn't move from his defensive ball. Mandy frowned.

"Hey, I won't hurt you." She said gently, reaching out towards him. He shrank back against the wall.

"Don't." he whispered. Mandy stopped, her hand halfway to him. She pulled back and placed her hands in her lap.

"Why are you afraid of me?" she wanted to know. Edward didn't answer. Mandy shrugged and pulled out her camera once again.

"Do you mind?" She asked. Edward frowned, but he shook his head, wild black hair falling this way and that. Mandy snapped a few pictures, zooming in on his scissorhands, then on his face, then a full-shot. She couldn't wait to get these onto her computer so she could study them. Plus, this would be proof once and for all that Edward Scissorhands did indeed exist. Levi, she knew, would have a fit. So would Brendan. And she had to show Brian. Her pictures were definitely proof enough for him.

"What is it?" Edward asked, making Mandy jump. It had been so quiet, even his soft voice seemed loud.

"A camera. Haven't you seen a camera before?" She asked. Edward shook his head. The cameras he remembered were large and made bright flashes. This wasn't anything like those. Mandy, however, didn't know this. She was surprised he'd let her take pictures without even knowing what she was doing.

"Wow." Mandy remarked. "I hope you don't mind me taking pictures of you."

"Why?" Edward asked curiously.

"Um, duh, because it's wrong to take pictures of someone if they don't want it. And I don't want to do anything you don't want me to. I mean, hello. . ." Mandy trailed off at Edward's confused look. Suddenly, it dawned on her what he meant. "Oh, wait, why do I want to take pictures of you?"

"Yes." Edward said. Mandy wondered briefly why he kept making monosyllabic answers. She returned to her current problem.

"Um, well," Mandy paused. It was one of those times where 'I'm your BIGGEST fan' sounded just too cheesy. "I've kind of always wanted to meet you. I mean, people have told me all about you, except they told me you didn't exist, and now I know you do, and I'm just happy to finally see you. I. . . don't want to forget this moment." Edward stared at her for a few minutes.

"Why me?" he wanted to know. Mandy noticed as their conversation began to blossom, he became a little more relaxed. His legs fell into a mirror of her own, and his arms fell to his sides.

"Well, I don't know. 'Cos you're Edward Scissorhands. As long as I can remember, people have been telling me stories about you. You're famous, you know. Here, I know." Mandy dove into her bag and found her journal. She hesitated, trying to remember what all she had written about him in there, but decided it didn't matter. He had a right to know what people said about him. Including her.She held out the notebook to him. He looked at her and a longing expression crossed his pale features. His nearly purple lips parted for a moment, but then he lowered his head and held up his scissors.

"I can't." the ghost of a whisper floated across the silence. Mandy blinked, shocked by this suddenly helpless gesture. She ran a hand nervously through her dark hair.

"I-do you. . . do you want me to read it?" She asked, the idea coming to her at complete and utter random. Edward lifted his head and the sad look was gone, and in its place was a hopeful one.

"Please?" he said, sounding once againlike a small child. Mandy smiled warmly at him and opened the notebook. She started reading. At first she was self-conscious of the things she had written, her own thoughts and assumptions. She kept looking up to see what he thought. But all she ever saw on those pale, thin features was a sort of hesitant smile, as if he wasn't quite sure he remembered how to do it right. Her fear faded at his attentiveness, and soon she was even adding her own commentary to things she'd put in, remarking about how she'd found out one fact was false later on, and someone else contradicted another one. At the back of her five-section notebook were the newspaper articles. She went ahead and read those, too. They were from years and years ago, when he had come down to Suburbia. The last one was an interview with Kim Boggs, who had supposedly witnessed Edward's death.

Mandy looked up at the end. She looked at Edward, but he was looking past her. He looked as though he were in pain, and to her great surprise a tear rolled down his lean cheek, followed by another and another. Edward Scissorhands, the great man of legend, was sitting in front of her, crying. Mandy inwardly gasped and unconsciously reached towards him, wiping the tear from his face. He jumped at her touch. Mandy gasped and drew back. She looked at her leg. In his surprise, he had ripped straight through her pants and nicked her leg. He noticed this and drew back against the wall again, his eyes wide with dismay.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. . .I'm sorry. . . " he whispered in horror. Mandy looked up at him. This time he was not crying, but the sadness and fear she saw instead was even worse. She suddenly understood why he had been so afraid before. He hadn't been afraid of her hurting him, but of him hurting her. Drawing all her courage together, she gave him a grin, the one the Levi called her "Evil Virus Grin"because it was so large and friendly that it was simply contagious. She usually used it to make people do things for her, or stop being angry with her. Which was why Levi called it Evil.

"It's okay, Edward. I know you didn't mean to. That was my fault. I freaked you out." She said. "Don't worry about it."

" It always happens." Edward said, this time his voice was more audible. " I don't mean to hurt anyone." Mandy realized it was the longest thing he'd said to her all night. She nodded.

"I know. You're not a bad guy at all." she said. She reached out. Edward's eyes widened and he shrank back further. Mandy didn't stop this time. She touched his face, and ran her hand along one of his scars. Then she grinned humorously and gave his wild hair a tug, extremely amused by the look of shock on his face.

"See?" She said. "I'm fine. You just owe me a new pair of pants." She laughed, and Edward seemed amazed by the sound. Mandy looked at him for a moment, but couldn't stop giggling. Somehow the tense mood had lifted a bit. She turned and reached into her bag.

"You know what? I'm hungry. You hungry?" She asked, while digging through the few things she'd brought along.

"I don't eat. Usually." Edward said, watching her curiously. Mandy looked up, pausing in her rummaging.

"You don't?" she asked in surprise. Then she smacked her forehead. "Oh yeah. Not human. Right." She continued in her search, not seeing the hurt look that passed across Edward's face. A moment later she pulled out what she was looking for. She smiled at Edward, holding up a can.

"Check it out! Alphabetios!" she exclaimed triumphantly. Edward looked confused.

"What?" he asked. Mandy's face fell a little bit, his reaction not at all what she was looking for, but she brightened instantly, a mockingly patient smile touching her lips.

"Here, look." Mandy began rummaging around in her pocket for her knife. Suddenly she paused. She looked up at Edward.

"Hey." She said. "You think you could open this for me?" She held out the can. Edward bit his lip then nodded. He slowly reached out and cut around the lid of the can, successfully opening it.

"Yes! Thank you!" Mandy crowed in delight, pulling a spoon from her bag and picking the lid out of the alphabetios. Edward couldn't help but smile a little. It had been a very long time since he'd been useful. He missed being useful. His father had taught him to help people all he could. Helping people was good. And his father wanted Edward to be good.

"You're welcome." he said politely. Mandy noticed his somewhat pleased air, and felt rather pleased herself. She held out the can.

"See? Alphabetios." She said in a satisfied voice. He peered into the can curiously. Sure enough, alphabet shapes were floating around in a reddish sauce. It didn't look at all appetizing to Edward, but Mandy dug right in.

"Mmm." She remarked happily. "I'm starving!"

"You don't eat?" Edward asked in alarm. Mandy looked up. She almost laughed at his evident surprise and concern. Before she did, however, she realized he was absolutely serious.

"Of course I do. It's just, like, a . . .whatchimicallit. . .Oh yeah.A figure of speech or something like that." She explained. Edward's scarred face cleared in relief. He remembered Mr. Boggs explaining figures of speech to him, so many years ago. He thought they were silly. Why would people say things they didn't mean just to say something else completely? It seemed rather ridiculous to him. He wished his father could have explained it to him. His father had been good at making silly things make sense.

Edward's train of thought was interrupted by a loud burst of music. But it wasn't music as he'd experienced it. This was no classical music, or popish, 50's rock. This was some sort of chaos trying to pass itself off as music. Mandy, however, seemed to like it. She sang along to the tones as she dug in her large pockets.

"Hey man, lookit me rockin' out I'm on the RADIO! Aha!" Mandy triumphantly pulled a thin, silver device from her pocket. Edward stared at it, trying to figure out what it did. Mandy seemed to know. She flipped it open and spoke into it.

"Yo? Oh hi Mom. Yeah. I'm having fun. We were, um, reading. And eating. Oh. . ." Mandy's face fell and a worried look clouded her features for a moment. Edwardfigured outthe device was a telephone. A lot had changed in 50 years, he realized with a start. He wondered why Mandy looked worried all of a sudden. She must be hearing bad news.

"No, it's okay. Mom, I don't need to come home. I'll be fine. Yeah. Mrs. Perkins will make sure I stay warm. Yeah. I've got my hoodie! The warm one. Yes, I'll be okay, Mom. I'll see you tomorrow. Yeah, I'll be careful. I know! Yes. Power lines are dangerous. I know. Mom, I'm not a kid, okay? I'm okay. Yeah. Okay. Love you too. 'Night." Mandy closed the phone.

"Is everything. . . okay?" Edward asked. Mandy smiled at him. Edward initiated. He was finally getting a little more comfortable with her!

"Oh, yeah. My mom was just freaking out because of all the sn–hey!" Mandy stopped mid-sentence and leapt to her feet. She ran to the other side of the room. Edward scrambled to his feet, wondering what he did wrong. He looked at his hands. Was there blood? Had he hurt her again? But Mandy didn't look hurt. She stood at the broken bit of roof, staring out at the town, as Edward himself had done so many times before. Edward walked up beside her and peered out the hole at the familiar little town with their familiar little lights.

"What are you looking at?" he asked curiously. Mandy stared out at the falling snow, then at him, then back at the snow.

"It's snowing." She said, stating the very obvious. Edward nodded slowly.

"Yes." he agreed. Edward liked snow. It was so pure and beautiful. It reminded him of Kim, when Kim had danced in the snow, so many years ago.

"But. . . they told me. . ." Mandy turned to Edward with a sheepish grin. "I thought you made it snow!" Edward blinked at her, his body language clearly saying Me!

"See, they said that whenever you were making your ice-sculptures, it made it snow." Mandy explained. Edward frowned.

"They do make it snow, but I don't think I made all that." he said, looking out at the town again. Mandy laughed.

"Yeah, I guess that'd be kinda crazy, wouldn't it?" she admitted. Edward gave her his small, unsure smile.

"Yes." he agreed, though personally he thought it would be nice if he did make all the snow. Making snow was a good thing for him to do, wasn't it? It made everything beautiful and that madepeople happy, right? They used tolike it when he made thingsbeautiful, anyway.He realized Mandy wasn't standing next to him anymore. She had grabbed her flashlight again and was looking around at the sculptures. Edward followed her curiously. This girl was so strange to him.

"These are so pretty. I wish I could do stuff half this good. I mean, I can draw, but I've never been very good at sculpting. And the shrubs out front," Mandy whistled. "They're gorgeous. You're an awesome artist, Scissorhands."

"Why do you call me that?" Edward asked, frowning. People had called him Scissorhands before, but they had been angry with him or teasing him. Mandy didn't seem angry, but she could be teasing him. He didn't really like being teased very much.

"Call you–." Mandy stopped in horror, realizing she'd called him what she called him in her stories, to add drama to it. She hadn't meant to call him that to his face. "Oh. You don't like it? I'm sorry, Edward. I didn't know. I just thought it sounded neat."

"Oh." Edward said. But he didn't tell her why he didn't like it. Mandy wished he would, but she didn't want to ask just now. She was afraid that if she asked too many questions he would go away and stop talking to her. Or at least letting her bask in his presence. He really didn't talk much anyway. She felt very pleased that he'd spoken to her in a complete sentence.

"Besides," she said, her eyes lighting up with magic again. "It sounds cooler in the stories I tell."

"Stories?" Edward asked, his curiosity piqued once again. Mandy grinned and nodded slowly. It was going to be a very good night.

End Chapter Two.

Two down! Yay! A couple things:

Mandy's Cell Phone: In case you didn't know, the lyrics are radio/video by System Of A Down. I 3 them, if you can't tell!

Mandy's Song: The song I made her sing was Dan Fogleberg's "Another Auld Lang Syne" I love that song. . .

Sopralto: A cross between Soprano and Alto. That's what my dad calls me and my mom, his Sopraltos.

Alphabetios: A word I made up. See, there are Spaghettios, right? And there are Raviolios. But on the alphabet ones, it just says "ALPHABET SPAGHETTIOS" which is an injustice, I think. Hence Alphabetios.

The 50's: Okay, I have a distinct feeling that ES was set in the late 80's, early 90's or whenever it was filmed, but the whole movie made me think 50's so that's where I set it. 'Kay? And this way I didn't have to make it an odd future thing. I'm not very good at futuristic stories, you know?

That's all I can think of! So now it is time for you to review and make chibi-Eddie very happy. holds up an adorable big-eyed mini of Edward SURRENDER TO THE CUTENESS!

AJ & EddieChan