Verboten
Chapter 21

Friday, September 25, 2009

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club. I do own Andy's real name though. And Asta Stryker, Chandra Bisette-Richelieu and Artos, too!

Fore Note: Um, I'm not really experienced in writing the male point of view because namely, I am not a male. So, Andy's view is a little typical, I suppose. Feel free to comment on how the scenes should have gone.

Bloom now sat in his kitchen, staring at the plate of eggs and bacon as if she did not deserve it. She looked ready to decline but he cut her off before she could say anything.

"Eat."

Bloom gave him the saddest pair of blue eyes that he had ever seen in his life. They were wide with disbelief and she seemed unsure of what to say. She had not said much since she had arrived either.

"Just eat."

Bloom began to cry again and it broke Andy's heart to see her like that. What now? Andy stood awkwardly at her side. Was he supposed to comfort her? And how? Could he hold and hug her? Would it be too far?

He opted to hug her.

She fell into his embrace readily and they both fell to the floor.

He ignored the pain and let her curl in his arms.

What was he supposed to ask? What was he supposed to say? Shouldn't it be Sky comforting her? Not him; least of all, him.

This was wrong. This was not supposed to be him. This was supposed to be Sky's job. Why was Bloom here with him? She was supposed to run to Sky, not him. What had Bloom done to make her run to him?

She held him tightly as if he would be pulled away from him while she cried into his shoulder. Andy held her in her arms and let her curl up in his lap.

Shhh…" he whispered soothing words into her hair. He cradled her like a baby. "Bloom, what's wrong? Tell me," he said gently.

"No…" she sobbed.

"Com'on, Bloom."

"No! I don't want to."

"Bloom, you have to tell someone who else or it'll get worst."

"No…it will on-only get wo-worst if I do…"

"Bloom, you have to do something. Just tell me what happened," said frustrated. It was like trying to pull words out of a mute.

"No! Someone will get hurt if I do! I don't want you to get hurt! He could kill you!"

He? Something clicked. That bastard fiancé of hers. "Is it Sky?"

"NO!" Bloom screamed poignantly. "No, no, no, no, no, no! It wasn't him!" She cried even harder and moisten Andy's t-shirt. Her hands clawed into his arms uncomfortably.

This proved it. It was him. He knew something was wrong with the guy the moment he first saw him.

"It was Sky, wasn't it?! What did he do, Bloom?" Andy held her by her shoulders and shook her.

"No! You'll get hurt!"

"Bloom, you have to tell me what happened! I will fucking beat the fucking crap out of him if it he hurt you!" Andy roared.

"No, don't!"

"I'm calling the police." Andy squared his shoulders and tossed Bloom. He stood up and went to the phone.

Bloom's teary eyes widened when he plucked the phone off the receiver. "No, they'll only make things worst!" She grabbed for his wrists and tried to stop him from dialling. They struggled with the phone.

"Let go, Bloom! We have to do something! I don't know what happened but I know he did something wrong! The police will take care of it."

Bloom tried to pry his fingers but suddenly, the phone went flying out of his hand into the living room.

"They can't do anything! They wouldn't believe me! Please Andy, don't call them! Please Andy, don't. It'll only make things worst!"

"Bloom, what are you talking about?! Stop acting like a child. If Sky did something, you have to call the police?"

"It just won't work!"

"Then what? Wait here 'til he starts asking about you at work?! Honestly, what can he possibly do? Kill me?"

"YES!!!"

Andy's eyes widened and his nostrils flared out of anger like a bull. Bloom sat herself on a chair and lowered her head into her lap and began to hiccup.

What had happened to brave and righteous Bloom? Where had gone the fiery person who had stood for all that was just and fair during high school? Where had her faire gone? This was not the Bloom he knew. The person in his kitchen was merely the physical shell of someone he had admired in high school. In his kitchen was someone completely different. Weak, pitiful, cowardly.

Had her adventure in Greece done this to her? Had Sky done this to her? What had brought about this change? She had seemed fairly fine when he found her at Love&Pet. She had radiated happiness being surrounded by friends, pets and customers. She had good friends, a mysteriously successful business and was engaged and all of this in four years. That should have been seen as a tremendously good accomplishment.

"Please, Andy, just don't get them involved," she wailed.

Andy bent down to pick up the fallen phone. He stared at it temptingly when it begun to ring.

-

Love&Pet was closing. They had decided to have a closing sale the next day after Asta came in telling them to pack up. They were going back to Magix by force or not under Sky's orders. Tecna spread the word on the official website and automated phone calls to everyone who had an appointment at the shop. They were swamped with business and many of the customers rebelled against the closing of the shop in outrage. Everyone was squished like sardines in a can and jostled for space. There were lines outside that went on for a couple of blocks. Bloom was still gone.

"What am I supposed to do if she needs a spa treatment?"

"Where do I get the shampoo and soap?"

"What about outfits?!"

The ridiculous complaining grated on Flora's nerves and Helia promptly pulled the white curtains closed on the medical station. The noise did not abate but made it easier to focus on the task at hand. Artu sat in the corner uninterested in the aliens' conversation. On Flora's worktable sat an orange tiger pixie pet with a green face. The owner, Angelica, a fifteen year old girl with concern painted all over her face, hovered over the retching kitten.

Flora poked and prodded the kitten methodically. Helia casually observed with Artu. "Has he been injured recently? Eaten anything strange?"

"Um, the usual. I give him regular cat treats. Is that okay?"

"Oh, of course." Flora scrutinized the kitten. She began to message the tiger kitten's stomach and the kitten started coughing. "Are you sure he hasn't eaten anything unusual? Human food? Chocolate? He's still an animal after all."

"I give him crackers. Is that okay?"

"Of course. Is it only you who feeds him? Maybe a sibling giving him treats that aren't good for him?"

"I don't know. My sister sometimes feeds him when I'm gone to my mother's."

Flora gave her a curious look and then sighed. "We're going to have force him to vomit, Angelica. He might have eaten something."

"Is it going to hurt him?!"

Flora walked around the table and reached into a cabinet for a small pill container. The powdery blue bead-like pills jiggled in the plastic container. "I'm going to put this in his mouth with tweezers. Once it touches his tongue, he'll start puking. Hold him down tightly. Angelica, turn around. I'm going to need your help for this," Flora encouraged softly.

Angelica nodded palely.

Flora pulled out a pair of tongs and rubber gloves. The little procedure was rather simple but the end result was something one was not inclined to see very often. The frightened girl Angelica held the little tiger down until it was lying on all fours and Flora placed a blue tablet between the small tongs. She held it up to the kitten's mouth who bit down on it hard. It began to puke bead-like objects when its tongue came into contact with the pill. Flora took the pill out and threw it in the biohazard bin.

It was ten minutes later when Angelica left with orders to carefully watch what her tiger ate for several weeks. Flora closed the curtains for a ten minute break.

"Beads," Helia said shaking his head.

"There are so many hazards for the pets by just being small. I had to stop Coco from getting walked on once." Flora squared his shoulder tiredly and rubbed her eyes.

"Are you okay?" he whispered concerned and wound his arms around her as she leaned on him. They silently revelled in each other's presence.

"I don't want to leave Helia," she said into his chest. "I don't want to. We just found Roxy and with everything going on…this is wrong. We've only been here for a month and a half. Klaus is in the hospital, Roxy is in a coma…and now the shop is going to be closed!" And Bloom is missing, she thought the last part to herself.

Everything was falling to chaos. Sky was about to buy the shop at the end of today. Asta was busy working with Tecna trying to locate Bloom on a virtual map of Gardenia. Stella had taken to being curt and silent. Musa was doing her best to put with all the drama and Layla, who had taken roll of leader and pushed aside all the hormones of the other girls, ran the shop as best as she could.

"Helia, this isn't fair! Why? Bloom didn't mean it. Even I didn't sense anything from the ring!"

"That isn't the point, Flora," Helia cooed. "What's done is done. Roxy almost died and Bloom didn't have the forethought to check the ring with Sky. We can't have people like you here. You don't know how we work and that just makes a bigger gap between us." The artist swept a hand through her brown hair.

"It'll be an even bigger gap when we leave!"

"That's not what I mean and you very well know it."

"Helia, you're supposed to be a pacifist! Bloom didn't know any better! How would you feel if—"

"Don't, Flora. It doesn't change the past."

"But it's still not fair!"

"Life isn't always fair."

Flora began to weep into his shirt.

"I don't want to leave, Helia," Flora sobbed. "I don't want to leave you. What will I do when I get back? When will I see you again? Who knows when all of this ends?!" She cried in earnest and held him tightly like he would slip from her hands. "I don't want to leave! Can't we talk to Sky or something?!"

"Flora, this isn't my decision to make. Sky is the one with all the resources."

"B-but—!"

"Shhhhh…" Helia pulled her closer and ran a hand through her hair as comfort. "I came here because I wanted to tell you something, okay? Just listen," he whispered into her ear. "Life is bittersweet. I don't know when this mission will end or if I will even make it to see the end."

"Don't say that!"

"Finding you was one of the best parts of my life so far. It was sweet. However, I must be able to take the bitter parts too. I have to be able to let you go."

"WHAT?!" Flora screamed and pushed herself away from him. Her face was wet with saline tears and her voice was hoarse. Was he trying to breaking up with her? Why?! Had she done something wrong? Was it because of Bloom? Sky? Erendor?

"Flora, listen to me!" Helia grabbed hold of her arms. "It's very well possible that this mission could go on for years and from the looks of it, it might. If the word gets out about Roxy's existence, wars will ensue and no doubt mad doctors would like nothing better then to cut her open. I can't keep you with this hanging over my head. I can't have you waiting for me at the end of this madness. That might be years or decades or more from now! I'm not going to let you waste your life waiting for me, Flora."

"Helia, I love you!"

"I love you, too!" Helia brought a hand over his eyes as tears glistened. "But will you love me a year from now? Two years? Ten? I'm a hopeless romantic when it comes to these things but I have to be realistic, Flora."

"Then why don't you quit now and come with me to Magix or Linphea or Adquistes?! I'm sure they won't mind!" Flora grasped at possibilities that were quickly put out by Helia.

"Flora, I have a minimum three-year contract. I can't go AWOL without penalty. Please understand, Flora."

Flora quickly sank to the floor and leaned against the counter. She brought her knees to her chest and began to shed more tears. Her shoulders trembled and her throat seized up to let out more wails. Helia kneeled down to somehow comfort her. He reached tentative hands towards her.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed." Just go away!"

"I can't leave you like this, Flora."

"Just leave me alone, you jackass!" she screamed even louder.

Some moments later, Helia stood up. "Artu, let's go." He left with slumped shoulders. Flora curled into a ball on the floor and wept even more.

-

Andy emanated unfounded anger. He went through the grocery store throwing this and that into his basket as he walked. Cherries, cucumbers, zucchini. His mother had phoned him to do the groceries while he was at home. The nerve! Fury rode him as he tried to process what Bloom had said. He needed to be alone to leave himself space to think. He had left her at his home and extorted a promise from her that he would call the police if he had her not at home when he came back.

Frig, he wanted to throw something. At somebody. Anyone! Andy was drowning in a sea of confusion and land or the truth was nowhere in sight.

Something was definitely wrong. He could feel it deep in himself that something unnatural was happening. He had no reason whatsoever why but he knew intuitively that something was happening. Fuck, if only he had a name for it now. Strange things were happening in Gardenia and not all of them started with the appearance of his ex-girlfriend. There was the sudden appearance of a mysterious group of women dressed as strange avant-garde fairies flying around trying to (badly) save people and believe it or not, they could actually fly with those brightly coloured wings of theirs. There were people claiming that they were magical. Magic! What a load of garbage! Andy was willing to believe that these were some delusional anime fans and hardcore Harry Potter fanatics with too much time on their hands.

However, that still did not disprove the fact of how Stella had stolen his microphone. Andy shivered while remembering the scene. It had been another regular business day at the Frutti Music Bar when Mitzi came sauntering in with Shilly and some other crony to cause trouble. For some unfathomable reason, Mitzi had decided to serenade Brandon, on break, with a song of all things. Mitzi's singing was not horrible. In fact, it was rather nice and he let her go on. It was until he picked up a second microphone when it started to glow a orange and went flying straight out of his hand into Stella's! He had not thrown it at her that was sure!

And then the two started to have a singing war of sorts that left him befuddled and gaping. How did that microphone end up in Stella's hands? It had freaking flew! As in defied the laws of science! Of the universe! Who the hell were Bloom's new Greek friends?!

That was the second hint that made Andy realise that something was wrong in Gardenia. Microphones did not fly and fairy superheroes were not real. Maybe in some creative American comics or in Japan when people dressed up but that was it.

There were also strange weather reports where parts of the sky would turn purple or waves of explosive force could be felt down streets and triggering off earthquake detectors sending everyone into a panic. Strange radioactivity in other streets was detected by nuclear sciences students at the local university. Some streets had been effectively sealed for fear of a bomb or nuclear radiation. Even electricity and radio communication was cut off some times at the strangest times.

Of course, there was absolutely nothing magical about the state of panic the city was in.

To add to all of that insanity was his ex-girlfriend, Bloom was who currently and hopefully still at his house. Andy walked passed several aisles until he got to the dry goods section. Coffee his mother had specified. Andy bent down and picked up the brand his parents liked. He turned slightly to arrange the things in his basket.

Ho shit!

Andy froze and looked out of the corner of his eye over a stack of cans of tomatoes for sale piled as high as a man. There was a gleam of blond hair—shit, Sky! The blond was carefully inspecting some bag of spices. He seemed to be talking rapidly to himself. Andy turned his head slightly to get a better view and found Sky was talking to a dark-haired girl who was obscured by Sky's body. An icy anger engulfed Andy. What the hell? It was that strange little girl from the bar who drank tea and flirted outrageously with everyone. They were reading the label of some spice like it was normal. They spoke in that strange Greek of there's intermixed with recognisable Italian words.

What hell was Sky doing here? Buying food, dumbass.

Andy heard bits of the conversation and understood them just barely. He recognized Bloom's name though and that alarmed him. Curious, he tried to catch who was the other girl. He had seen her at the bar but never really caught her name.

"—no, I am not letting you—Bloom. No question."

"God, stop being so—her. Drop the idiot."

"I am not. I am not listening—"

"She is weak. Leave her."

They were silent for a minute, pensive.

"Will this do, do you think?" the black-haired woman showed him a packet of leaves.

"Yes." He nodded and she tossed it into the cart.

"You have to do something, Sky."

"—that you're already doing something."

"Yes. I'm going to collect her."

"I suppose you. Just get Bloom back."

"—I kill her?"

"If you must."

Andy froze and hope to hell that he was interpreting everything right. Remembering Greek was such a major hassle since these guys had arrived. Who the hell was that other girl? She knew Greek and was avidly speaking it to Sky. Did that mean she was another of Bloom's friends from Greece? God, why the hell did they have such a strange accent? Andy turned and went walked around the grocery avoiding them like the plague trying to process everything.

What had happened to send Bloom to him in such a state? He needed answers now more than ever and headed straight for the cash.

"Oh, hey, Andy. Nice to see you."

Andy frozen and turned as the cashier scanned his items. "Hi…Sky." The musician put on a strained smile and tried to act cool. "What a coincidence. I never knew you lived so close."

Sky had those goddamn scrutinizing eyes of his on again and Andy was the subject and he felt…watched—in a bad sense. It just gave him the heebie-jeebies, okay?! The blond was pushing a cart full of food standing in the line next to his about to check out his groceries. It was packed with innocent-looking things. Andy scrutinized for who knows what. Something to kill Bloom with or to hurt her. There was milk, some spices, some soap, a couple of steaks and vegetables, all of which were innocent enough.

"Same here," the blond said. Andy noticed that the girl that had been with him was gone.

"So, how's Bloom?" Andy said poignantly. What the hell? Why was he bringing that up? Maybe to incite a reaction out of the blond; to see how he would react to him mentioning Bloom.

"Wonderful." Sky's face betrayed nothing.

Andy sensed a 'but.' "But?"

"She's disappeared for some reason,"—he sighed—"and I'm thinking I know where… We got into this awful fight, you see and we were both high-strung and she ran."

Andy stiffened.

Sky eyed him wearily. The man had bands forming under his eyes but he looked thoughtful and harmless. Yeah, right. "I think you might be able to point me in the right direction. I've tried her parents, her friends from high school…" Shit, he knows!

"Oh, well, good luck with that!" Andy said abruptly, took his change from the cashier and ran out of the grocery.

Latter Note: Let me make this clear: I have absolutely no experiencing in dating nor do I know how ex-boyfriends act. I'm saving dating until after boys grow up. Plus, all the ones in my class and program are dumbasses but hey, who isn't? (I mean boys in high school, not all males.)

As for Helia, I'm sure that there are HeliaFlora lovers who want to give me a good kick in the shin but if you think about logistically, the relationship has a 50%-50% chance of working with the constraints. Just to balance things out, I had her call him a jackass. Wow, that is the closest Flora will ever get to swearing! Yes, I know it isn't part of her personality which is why I put it there to make the point of how she feels about the entire situation.

By the way, I edited the end of Chapter 19 to include the 'Sky is buying the shop' drama. I just thought it was awesome (no, I had reasons which I will not divulge).

About this part: "There were also strange weather reports where parts of the sky would turn purple (Wizards of the Black Circle opening the Black Circle) or waves of explosive force could be felt down streets and triggering off earthquake detectors (Musa and Gauntlos/Gantlos, however you spell it. I prefer Gauntlos.) sending everyone into a panic. Strange radioactivity in other streets (Stella or maybe Bloom; duh, sunlight consists of UV rays which are harmful to our skin) was detected by nuclear sciences students at the local university. Some streets had been effectively sealed for fear of a bomb or nuclear radiation. (Stella or Bloom) Even electricity and radio communication was cut off some times at the strangest times. (Tecna and Timmy and maybe even Sky's warehouse?)"

Isn't that neat and scary at the same time? Just think about it for a moment.

P.S.: If you haven't figured it out yet, that was you-know-who in the grocery with Sky.