Happily Ever After All
A Mystic Prequel
By: A J
(Standard Disclaimer Applies)
Author's Warning!: This work of fanfiction is a long-term look at the relationship of two adults, and as such, I'm not gonna pull any punches. This means Language, Nudity, Violence, and Sex! If any of those are not for you, turn back now, and read some of the gentler fictions by others and myself. For those with some fortitude, let's get on to the story.
Chapter 2: Taranee and Nigel, First Part
Susan was right; the girls ambushed Will that weekend for a belated birthday bash, and at one point during the afternoon, Irma the irrepressible asked whether Matt had given her anything special. Will's blush threatened to outshine her hair, and the other Guardians all stared at her, speechless.
"Oh my god. Will, c'mon. Tell us everything," Irma demanded. Looking around at the expectant faces of her teammates, the teens' leader sighed in defeat. So Will told them.
She told them about Matt calling her from his job at Smarty-Mart during his break, telling her he'd meet her at the Olsen's Animal Clinic after his shift, and that he'd bring them both a late dinner from the deli. She told them about finding bliss not once, but twice in his arms, after their meal. Then she told them of Nancy Olsen's interruption of what promised to be a third round, blushing all the harder when her friends all laughed quietly at her and Matt's totally transparent excuses about studying.
"Thanks, you guys, way to show your support to your leader in her hour of need."
"But you did pass the test, didn't you?" Taranee asked with a knowing smile. Will nodded with a grimace.
"Barely. I guess being under the same roof as the history teacher is good for something after all, huh?"
"And how did Matt do?" Cornelia added with a smirk. She already knew; she was in the same history class as Matt and Will. She just wanted the others to be as well-informed. Will gave her an aggrieved glare.
"He … didn't," she moaned, dropping her head to the table in misery. "He walked me to Dean's, and went back home, and he said he was gonna try to get up early to study before class, but if he did, it didn't help, 'cause he fell asleep in the middle of the test and ended up with an incomplete." She looked up at Cornelia again. "I convinced Dean I tired him out cleaning up the clinic the night before, and asked him to give Matt a make-up test. He agreed, but Matt has to take it on Monday, his next day off, as a detention. I was so tempted to ask him to let me retake it too, just to get a better grade, but Jim Olsen already asked me to come back to the clinic right after school to help him with the next pet supply delivery truck."
"Wellll," Hay Lin began, leadingly. "That's after the weekend. D'you two got any other plans together for tonight and to …" She never got to finish the pointed question, as the five Guardians all became aware of the plaintive chiming of the Heart of Candracar from under Will's blouse. "Aw, mannnn, and Eric and the rest of the band were supposed to meet us for dinner." The Air girl pouted as they all stood up, and everybody threw some cash at the table to cover their hasty departure.
"You guys seriously planned to spend all day here?" Will asked as they took off for the door, admiring the design of the combination diner/arcade as they made their way out. 'I suppose there are worse places to spend a birthday,' she thought. 'Like some backwater swamp in Meridian.' She shuddered, remembering last year, when her mother had spent a wonderful evening dinner at home … together with her daughter's Altermere.
"Yeah," Irma stated sadly, looking at her wallet again before she tucked it away. "Hey, did anybody ever figure out how often we end up just straight out overtipping whenever we have to run out of places like this?" Taranee and Cornelia both gave her weird looks while Hay and Will were both calling their respective boyfriends, giving them the capsule edition of the girls' abrupt change of plans. "What? I was just asking," Irma continued, with a glare of her own. "Not everybody here has rich parents or a regular paying job."
"Our afternoon is now our own," Will interrupted. "Matt and Eric are letting the others know we'll be a little late getting here after all, so let's go save the universe."
"Again," Cornelia added with a wink. Will opened a fold, and the Guardians stepped from the side alley behind the new Dave & Buster's of Heatherfield to Candracar Temple in the heart of infinity.
w.i.t.c.h.
"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod," Taranee muttered as she collapsed into her chair at the large table the Guardians and 'Cobalt Blue' were sharing. The band had recently changed their name in an effort to attract a label-agent's attention. With the inclusion of Eric and the strong base of soulful ballads the boys had as a repertoire, they figured playing up the blues in their band name couldn't steer them wrong. With a handful of paying gigs since the start of the schoolyear under their new name already, they were pretty hopeful. Now all the guys turned to see what was so wrong that Taranee was reduced to almost swearing.
"What is it, mon cher? " Nigel asked. Worried that more might have gone on with the girl's newest mission than they regularly dealt with, he placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. He was equally gratified and mortified when she spun in her seat to burrow into his arms, sighing in relief. The other boys all traded worried looks with their girlfriends. Taranee wasn't usually the clingy type.
"Just … traffic," Taranee hiccupped, trying to fight down a wave of fresh sobs. Now that the Guardians' mission was over with, her usual 'on-the-job' bravado was bleeding off fast, and her borderline psychoses were all threatening to cross the line at once. She'd had a similar episode a few months before, but that had been her Astral Drop, and she was worried now that the poor duplicate's problems had just been a terrible foreshadowing. It didn't help that the Big Bad this time around had been another run-in with their determined foe Lemagrag. The Guardians had twice stopped him from entering Earth from his home dimension of Learza with his ravening hordes of Frums, and now he'd tried to take over Metamoor's southern third continent.
Elyon and her loyal allies had been able to keep him out, but an unusual backlash between Elyon's magic and Lemagrag's had pushed him and his ugly blue goblinoids into a world that hadn't seen the touch of magic in millennia. Candracar had summoned the Guardians to send Lemagrag back home again, and they'd succeeded … but not before the dark wizard had collapsed a stone tower around Taranee as she tried to rescue a trio of civilians caught in the crossfire. Her near-death face-to-face with one of her many phobias was still keeping her nerves on edge. She telepathically told Nigel she'd tell him the truth later, and just contented herself with snuggling with him for the time being. He nodded his assent against her forehead so she'd notice, and she giggled at the scratch of his five-o-clock whiskers.
"Awwww," Hay Lin murmured, giggling and grabbing onto her boyfriend Eric's hand as the tableful all watched Taranee slowly slide into Nigel's lap. Just then, their server showed up.
"Alright, now that the rest of your party is here, do you want to order some drinks?" He looked up expectantly from his pad of paper to see the tangled pile of limbs in one chair. "Hey, none of that in here, you two. Take it home."
"It's not what you think, Brian," Irma said, reading his nametag and thinking fast. She was fully prepared to lay her magical 'whammy' on him if she had to, but many years of being under the spotlight had shined her silver tongue to perfection. "She had a really bad scare driving over here, and he's just trying to calm her down, that's all." She waved a hand in Taranee's direction, who shivered convincingly. "Now, we're well known for exorbitant tipping to the well-deserving," Irma continued, grinning devilishly. "So let's see if you're up to the challenge, Brian."
"Damn, she's good," Cornelia sent to Will in frank admiration of their radio star. She was the only Guardian who was dateless for the evening, since Caleb was back in Meridian. It had been almost a month since she'd seen him, and she was beginning to worry whether the argument they'd had at Christmas was the final one she always dreaded. She had hoped he and Elyon would make it for Will's un-party, but now Elly was too busy with the invasion cleanup, and she'd apparently left Caleb behind in charge of Meridian City while she fought off Lemagrag.
The band and the girls all ordered drinks, and Brian left behind a giant stack of menus to peruse while he went to get them. "Finally," Hay Lin sighed, leaning into a heated kiss with Eric, and practically climbing into his lap as well. "Think we could get away with the same excuse?" she murmured, her hands running through his hair. "I was in the car with her." She buried her head in the crook of his neck, whispering random innuendoes as they occurred to her.
"Somehow, I just don't think you'll be able to fake being a nervous wreck successfully," Will laughed at her, as Hay pouted back. "Especially if you keep doing that in plain view." The redhead nodded at where Hay Lin's hands were headed, digging into Eric's belt in full sight of the rest of the table.
"Oh, pooh," Hay blushed, and withdrew from her boyfriend, sitting on her hands to keep herself under control. Ever since her infamous Astral Drop incident, she'd constantly had to fight her newly-overt sexuality. It had led to a string of increasingly wild encounters over the course of a week and a half just before Halloween last year, and she was still finding it hard to keep her hands to herself. While Joel and Dominic didn't have a clue as to the real reason for Hay's problems four months ago, they were conscious of the problem itself, and did all they could to try to help. Within reason, at least; Dom was still trying to live down the fact that he was one of the guys Hay Lin had seduced during her difficulties, and his friendship with Eric was still strained.
Will, watching the byplay between the three just then, had to look away as well, and found Matt staring at her knowingly. He may have been the first guy she ever had sex with, but he hadn't been her first lover, at least indirectly. Will's Altermere 'Mina had been another willing victim of Hay Lin, and she had all the memories of that fateful encounter, if none of the soul-searing physical reminders.
Shaking her head to get off that verbieten subject, she smiled up at him, and grabbed a menu, to find that aside from Taranee (who was just glancing at the one Nigel had spread before them,) and Hay (who was sharing a menu with Irma and still sitting on her hands,) she was the last to nab one. She worried just how long her inadvertent drift down her psychic 'sister's memory lane had taken, but Matt just reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before returning to the 'surf & turf' combo platters list.
"How's that look?" Nigel asked, pointing out one of the dinner salads to Taranee.
She nodded and said, "Don't forget to get extra chicken strips." Since becoming the Fire Guardian, Taranee had found her required daily calorie intake had doubled, and was almost triple on those days she had to use her powers for extended periods, like when she'd burned her way out of the stone rubble an hour before. She was already feeling shaky now, and knew she needed protein and carbs soon. Nigel's accepting nod was his way of telling her he knew why she asked, and she thanked the Guardian's lucky stars that had led him into the old warehouse to witness the girls' first go-around with Lemagrag. He'd found out the truth that day, and though it had led to some rocky times in their relationship, she wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world.
The band started chatting about all the new VR games Dave & Busters had gotten lately, and that sparked the usual round of bragging and teasing among them. "You get the feeling they hang out here a lot," Cornelia said to the other Guardians telepathically.
"Where do you think the idea to have dinner here came from?" Taranee returned, giving Nigel a smile. She kissed him and slid out of his lap back to her seat, feeling almost calm now that the conversation was closer to normal teen-dom.
Even as she was thinking that, Irma had to go ruin it. "Seriously, what is that jerk Lemagrag's problem, anyway. We've been to Learza. There's nothing wrong with the place."
"Maybe that's what's wrong, Irma." Cornelia crinkled her nose as the fizz in her soda hit her face. "Maybe he's one of those high-strung Type-A personalities who needs problems in his life to make himself feel better." She set her glass back down and smiled serenely around the table. "How's that for a theory … Will?"
Will sputtered her mouthful of cola all over her side of the table, and the rest of the group laughed, if not all at the same thing. "Maybe he just couldn't get a date in his home dimension," she retorted, eyes gleaming in challenge. It was hitting below the belt, but at this point, she and Cornelia needed an Earth excuse to dump the last of their adrenaline from their adventure in … darn, she'd have to remember to ask the Oracle the name of that newly-visited dimension later.
Cornelia stiffened at Will's jibe, but recognized it for what it really was, Will relaxing around her enough to finally join in the never-ending spats she usually had with Irma. But since this was Irma's first date with 'Cobalt Blue's drummer, Joel, she had called a silent truce with her longtime sparring partner. Some things were just more important than random teasing.
Will and Cornelia stood at the same time, identical manic looks lighting up their features. Having listened to the band boys before, they knew which game they were headed for first. "Jedi Duel, Corny?"
"You know it, Wilma," the Earth Guardian responded, and the two took off like ten-year-olds, laughing as the others watched them leaving, dumbfounded. Brian returned, driving the antics of the pair out of the others' minds, and they all placed their orders, Taranee and Matt giving Cornelia and Will's choices.
Meanwhile, the missing two Guardians were causing a sensation at the Jedi Duel virtual reality game. The line had been amazingly short, and they only had two other combatants to face instead of the maximum ten the facility usually welcomed. The two girls spent their time in line trying to ignore the blatant ogling of their pair of soon-to-be opponents, who rivaled Martin Tubbs at his worst for nerd-dom.
"You sure about this, Red?" Cornelia asked, certain the skinny guy behind her was going to start drooling on her perfect posterior at any second.
"We could always wait for the others, Gold," Will responded with a smirk, using their new codenames from Phobos' last escape attempt. The jerk had tried to use a magically-upgraded breed of mogriffs to split up the Guardians, and had nearly succeeded thanks to Hay Lin's problems at the time.
"What, and watch you and Matt team up on the rest of us? I think not," the Earth Guardian retorted with her habitual hair-flip.
The two girls climbed gratefully into their individual VR pods, and scrolled through the character select screens, eventually settling on Jedi look-alikes of themselves. (Will's was male, but it had been the only red-haired Jedi to choose from.) Starting on the virtual hunt for Darth Vader and each other through the labyrinthine spice-mines of Kessel, the four contestants dazzled onlookers with their gaming prowess, and their frequent banter. Shortly into the game, Cornelia and Will put aside their differences and struck out to take down Darth in a refinery that looked like it had been bit-mapped wholesale from Bespin, and with the hit-and-run tactics of two veteran mystic fighters, beat back the Dark Lord of the Sith long enough for one of the two boys to wise up and join them to deliver the finishing blow.
They immediately finished him off too, of course, and then spent the rest of their fifteen minutes of game-time in a running fight with each other while hunting down the last poor boy. The first kid respawned right back where he'd died, just after Darth Vader reappeared, and spent his last few minutes wailing and running his character away from him. The two girls took a second try at Vader after they finished the other boy off once, then dueled each other to death. All told, they walked out with the high scores for the week, Cornelia's slightly higher because she'd figured out the controller code for the Kenobi Turn, a blocking move that put her character in just the right spot for a beheading strike at her opponents. They walked back to their table to much applause, grinning.
"Ghu, I haven't had that much fun in a while," Will sighed, dropping into her seat next to Matt. She stole one of his fries from the appetizer plate he'd ordered, and grinned when he slid the whole thing over to her. "Not hungry, Matt?" she inquired. It was still over half full.
"Yeah, but I'm saving room for rib-eye and shrimp kabobs," he answered. He gave her thigh a quick squeeze under the table, and stood up with a grin, along with Dominic and Nigel. "Now if you'll excuse us, ladies and germs, we've got to see if we can regain our titles at Jedi Duel. You two have just destroyed several weekends of practice in one fell swoop." Will and Cornelia exchanged surprised glances, then a high-five across the table with a "WHOOT!" Neither girl had the heart to tell the guys it was the first time they'd played that. Ever.
Taranee caught the thought from them though, and shook her head, laughing. She looked up to find that Eric and Hay were totally absorbed with each other, and Joel and Irma were busily comparing their 'favorites' lists, trying to find common ground other than 'all our friends are dating each other'.
Taranee wondered what Martin had said wrong this time for Irma to try her hand at dating again. It seemed that, every couple months, Martin would do or say something that would rub Irma totally the wrong way, and she'd spend a week ignoring him, only to fall for a fresh well-thought-out line from the poor besotted boy. The Fire Guardian wasn't even sure which way she wanted the two's relationship to go anymore, having witnessed the best and worst of their behavior first hand. Lord knew the Water Guardian would have to search long and hard to find another guy half as devoted to her as Martin Tubbs. He'd adored Irma since sometime before first grade, after she had saved him from a bully in summer camp.
Watching Irma and Joel now, she wished the drummer luck, but decided it was a moot point. Will interrupted her just then, asking for the condiment caddy, and Taranee determinedly tried to put her mind back on her own love life as she handed the wire rack full of bottles across the table. One look at her Air-powered teammate forestalled that.
Hay was behaving herself as well as possible in light of the public area. Still sitting on her hands, she was leaned in against Eric, and he was sharing his large salad with her a bite at a time. Every few bites, he'd spear a cherry tomato up and hold it between them, and the two would share it in the middle of a kiss. With a grin, Taranee reached over the table and rested a finger on Eric's off hand.
"You know, that's really not helping things," she sent to him, and he could only nod back, blushing. Hay, having 'heard' the exchange through their mutual contact with Eric, grinned back.
"Oh, but it is," she responded telepathically, and her grin turned predatory as she let her hands loose long enough to loop them around Eric's arm in a proprietary fashion. Taranee shook her head again, and blushed at the look Hay sent her next. Too much information, that was for sure.
Dom, Matt and Nigel came back, crestfallen expressions on their faces. None of them had come even close to beating Will or Cornelia's scores. Matt had gotten closest to the girls of the three, but without utilizing his Regent's powers, he'd still made a distant, sorry showing for third place. Will pulled him in for a conciliatory kiss, and gave him back the last few of the fries he'd left her. The guys settled back into their seats just as their food orders arrived.
Everybody 'Ooooh'd and 'Aaaah'd over what everyone else ordered, and there was a good minute of friendly fork-trading before they all settled down to their own dinners. Taranee saw Cornelia gazing off into the distance, and asked her telepathically what was up.
The Earth Guardian gave a look in Will and Matt's direction, then in Eric and Hay's, and Taranee realized the poor blonde girl was trapped in the corner between the two most 'together-y' couples of the Guardians, and without Caleb. "Think I'll ever see him again?" Cornelia wondered, and sighed into her chicken Marseille.
"I guess that all depends on who said what last, Cornelia." The other Guardians knew about the fight she and Caleb had just before Christmas, but none of them had been brave enough to listen in. "And how soon you two are ready to say you're sorry," Taranee added with a sympathetic smile. Cornelia sighed again, and gave Will another furtive look.
"Then I guess I'll have to get an express ticket back to Meridian tomorrow. Or do you think I should go back tonight, right after dinner?" She looked torn up by the decision, and Taranee gave it a serious moment's thought.
"Tell you what, Cornelia, why don't we ask the others when we're done. Somehow, I don't think I'm the best girl to go to for relationship advice." Taranee smiled in self-effacement; she'd only had one boyfriend so far, and it had taken Nigel six months to ask her out originally, and another year before Taranee had relaxed enough around him to accept more than a hug, let alone a kiss. Cornelia did her best to hold back a snicker, until Taranee caught her eye again, and the two girls enjoyed a laugh together while the others all just looked at them, confused. "Later," Taranee told the other Guardians, knowing they would pass it on to Eric, Matt and Nigel.
"Girl, why don't you just jump him and get it over with?" Cornelia asked her, a shameless smile lighting up her face. "We're teenagers. We're supposed to give in to our hormones." She knew Taranee was the only one Hay Lin hadn't 'initiated' one way or the other during her sexual meltdown, and was actually feeling almost sorry for the African-American girl. It certainly wasn't like she didn't want Nigel. She just didn't have the guts to be the one to make the first move … normally. But maybe with a little bit of encouragement …
"You know I can hear you plotting and scheming loud and clear, right?" Taranee countered with a grin of her own. The conversation wasn't exactly new, and she herself had asked the other girls for advice once back in December. The chance to act just hadn't presented itself, yet … Then it hit her. Yan Lin was gonna want to strangle them when she found out, if Mira didn't get to them first. But the means, motive, and the opportunity, (she snickered quietly to herself at that one; she'd spent too long watching CSI and Law & Order with her father again, apparently,) were all present. "Hey, gang, I propose a sleepover at the Silver Dragon tonight. And … we ask the boys to crash."
The other four Guardians all dropped their current forkfuls, staring at her in open shock. Will was the first to recover. "Beads, you aren't proposing what I think you are, are you?"