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 3: Taranee and Nigel, Second Part

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?"

Taranee shook her head. "Better. We bring all the stuff for a camping trip, and instead of staying at the Dragon, we spend the weekend in Meridian. Nigel and Eric never have gotten the grand tour, and Cornelia wanted to see Caleb." She left the rest up to the other girls' imaginations, crossing her fingers under the table and returning to the giant dinner salad she was calmly splitting with Nigel.

They all ate in silence for a few moments, letting the oblivious band members carry the conversation around them. Then Irma stood up suddenly, her eyes squinting inscrutably. "Powder check, ladies," she said, with a nod of her head to the restrooms on the far side of the diner section. The Guardians all just filed after her, half of them still in shock from Taranee's … Taranee's of all people … suggestion.

Once inside, Taranee and Hay checked all the stalls, and as soon as they were sure they were alone, Will Quintessenced the door lock to stick shut, and Hay sound-proofed the room. Cornelia rounded on the Fire-mistress at once. "You're serious about this idea?" Taranee only nodded, grinning. "Wow, and here I was thinking you didn't have the guts when not all Guardian-ed up …"

"Wait, this idea didn't come from you first?" Irma snapped, whirling to face Hay Lin. Even without her Astral Drop-induced mania, the Air Guardian was still a regular nymphette, and a pretty clever one too, having admitted to the other girls recently that she and Eric would sneak off to the darndest places to 'get their freak on', as the current saying went.

"Nope!" Hay smiled as she looked over at Taranee. "It's all her!" The Chinese girl sounded almost proud, and Taranee hung her head, blushing slightly.

"I don't know about this, you guys," Will started. "I think the Congregation would have a fit if we stoop to using our powers for a 'booty call'." She used her fingers to make quote marks in the air for the last two words, and Cornelia snorted.

"I was originally gonna ask if you could just send me to Meridian so I could visit with Elyon. Talking to Caleb again would have been a perk, and an iffy one at that. You know we didn't split on the best of terms, right?" The other girls nodded at Cornelia, and she continued. "The rest of the plan, 'booty call' notwithstanding, does have some basic merit. And we really could use the day away from home, Will."

The door shook just then, and they realized they'd been in there almost three minutes. "Aargh! Okay, to be continued," Will swore, unlocking the door while Hay popped her Air-bubble. A trio of very familiar little old ladies came stumbling in through the door when it unexpectedly opened before them, and hurriedly straightened themselves before the Guardians.

"There you go, Hazel, I told you it was just stuck … Oh, hello, girls! My, we do meet in the strangest places, don't we?" The bright-eyed woman with silver hair in front stepped away from her companions. The young women couldn't believe their eyes. 'Bawdy Maude' seemed to be everywhere lately, her two equally chipper companions right behind her. Hazel made her excuses and rushed into the first open stall, while their tallest friend Daphne (Who the teens had discovered over Christmas break was Dean Collins' widowed mother!) went over to the sinks to apply a bit of rouge to her paling cheeks.

The other girls all looked at Irma, who just made a strangled 'peep', before she walked purposefully back out of the ladies' room. Maude and the rest of the Guardians just eyed each other amusedly for a second, and then Hay cracked up laughing. She couldn't help it. Slowly leaning over the sink next to her, she let the whole situation go in peals of laughter, while the others followed suite, if with a little more decorum. Taranee stepped forward and gave Maude a hug, while Daphne and Will leaned into each other for a European kiss to each cheek.

"What kind of trouble are you three getting into tonight?" Cornelia asked Hazel Hale (no relation) when she made her way out of her stall.

"Oh, just seeing what the young people are doing these days," she answered, with a wink. She seemed to be having difficulty with her skirt, and turned her left side to Cornelia. "Could you be a dear and get this, it seems to be stuck." Cornelia looked down past Hazel's hefty waistline, to see she was fighting with the zipper. The problem was immediately obvious.

"Just a loose thread, Hazel," she said, telekinetically pushing the offending string back out of the zipper's path, and giving the tab a firm yank. It slid up easily.

"Thank you, dear," her honorary extra aunt said with a smile. "We couldn't help noticing you were all here with that band from the party. Which one are you dating, Cornelia?"

To the other girls' amazement, Cornelia actually blushed. "None of them," she admitted. "I'm still with Caleb." 'At least I hope I am,' she added to herself. "He's away on family business right now, and Dom and I are just along for the company." She knew the older ladies didn't need to ask who the others were seeing, their seating arrangements, and their interactions so far tonight, were obvious enough clues, and very little got past these ladies.

"Well, don't let us keep you, girls, I'm sure the boys are anxiously awaiting your return," Maude said with a ribald wink. As the Guardians went past them, she gave Hay Lin an unexpected swat to the backside. "And you behave yourself, young lady. There'll be plenty of time for that kind of shenanigans when you're our age. Right ladies?" Hazel and Daphne both cackled at Hay's furiously flushed cheeks, and the girls scampered back to their seats, to find Irma was telling the boys about the Guardians' previous meetings with the three little old ladies in detail.

"…and Daphne seems like the quiet one, I know, but get a little champagne in her, and watch out! Aren't I right, Will?" Her leader could only nod numbly, remembering the antics a very drunk Daphne had gotten up to at the Collins' New Years party.

Matt took her hand to help her back around to her seat, and kept hold of it afterwards. "So what was the conference for, Babe?" he asked telepathically. She blushed looking up at him.

"Taranee had an idea for tonight, so we can spend some more time together." She looked furtively around, sure the other girls could tell what she and Matt were talking about from her blush alone. "Something about meeting up at the Silver Dragon and spending the weekend in Meridian camping." She couldn't believe she was seriously thinking this over. But one peek at the hungry look that crossed Matt's face reawakened some tawdry memories of her birthday a few days earlier, and she gulped, suddenly breathless.

She distinctly heard Hay giggling as the Air Guardian told Taranee "That's three!" telepathically. The pair both looked at Irma expectantly.

Irma just glared at her fellow Guardians surreptitiously. "And what am I getting out of this trip?" She was being facetious of course, but the other girls knew where she was coming from. Her and Martin were constantly breaking up and getting back together, and he was the only one of the Guardian's boyfriends who didn't know the truth. Joel was alright, and he'd been Matt's friend and bandmember since before the girls had become the Champions of Candracar, but she was pretty sure he wasn't the one for her, either. She definitely didn't want to be the one to drag a potential new boyfriend off to Meridian, expose them all, and then not have things work out with the guy.

"You know, Irma," Hay said with a naughty wink. "Aldarn's always liked you …"

Irma stared at her best friend since … forever! "And when did you find this out, Hay Meiying Lin?" Hay Lin blushed until she matched Will's hair.

"Th-that first Saturday after …" She never had to finish the sentence. The other girls all gaped at her, along with Eric, Nigel, and Matt, included in the conversation by contact with their individual sweethearts. They all knew when Hay was talking about. The probable circumstances behind what must have sparked such an intimate conversation between the Air Guardian and the Meridian blacksmith were painfully obvious to them all.

"Oh … my … God, Hay Lin. You … and Aldarn?" Cornelia accidentally asked out loud, but thankfully, Joel was in the bathroom and Dominic was saying something band-related to Nigel. Or so they thought.

"Whoa, wait. Who's Aldarn?" Keyboarder and Bassist both asked, while Eric looked at Hay like she'd gone insane all over again.

"Caleb's best friend back home, kinda like I'm Hay-hay's," Irma said, trying to defuse the conversation before Joel got back. "He was visiting Caleb for Halloween last year. The guy in the green Darth Maul outfit," she added, seeing the two's blank confusion. Nigel nodded suddenly, catching on to who she was referring to, and then looked at Dom as well.

"Green Darth Maul … Hey, wasn't he the guy who couldn't dance?" Dominic vaguely remembered a tall guy with green skin and a ring of horns on his head at the Halloween party who'd gotten dragged out to the dance floor by two of the girls, only to end up doing something that looked like a very jerky, fast-paced waltz to 'We are the Champions / We Will Rock You' with … Will and Irma! He looked over at Hay Lin. "You slept with him, too?" As she hung her head, her blush now taking over her whole upper body, he whistled low. "Damn, girl, who didn't you go after?"

Nigel and Taranee both coughed distractingly, (they hoped,) and Eric gave Dom an unmistakable 'Drop it!' glare. The keyboard player held his hands up in surrender, just before Joel came back to the table.

"Guys, the line for the john is unbelievable. So … what'd I miss?" he asked, but everyone busied themselves with their plates simultaneously. Joel shrugged and dug back into his half-rack of ribs, dismissing the odd behavior in favor of hunger.

"Hay-hay, just how bad did it get that week?" Eric asked privately. He didn't want to end up in Meridian and having to defend her in an Honor Duel over something she'd had no control over. If she could 'fess up now, they could put the whole thing to rest without it becoming an even bigger issue later.

"Are you sure you want to know?" she sent back, worrying her bottom lip. He nodded, more worried for her than about any surprise she could spring on him at this point. "Well, after Friday night, we went home, and I didn't see you all weekend because we were helping Elyon in Meridian, trying to recapture her stupid brother Phobos. You know how that ended, so I won't tell you that part again." She burrowed into his side again, now miserable about reliving the memory of her 'Week in Hell' and worse, having to admit the whole thing to him. "We got separated on Saturday tracking possible leads, and Aldarn and I ended up getting chased into this maze of tunnels that didn't connect to the Infinite City. We got lost, and ended up … well, kinda like we did that second night, qingren. But we got interrupted by Cedric, who captured us, and when he took us back to where he and Phobos were hiding out, he thought he'd torture the location of the other Guardians out of me by … continuing where Aldarn stopped." She looked up at him, her almond eyes haunted.

"Guys? I … I need some air. I'll be right back." Hay stood up, and started for the distant front entrance. "Eric?" she sent, having to open her telepathic signal up to the other girls as well to project it to him at that distance. He practically jumped out of his seat to follow her at the tone of terror in her mental voice. She welcomed his arm around her suddenly shaking shoulders as they continued out of Dave & Busters, pausing long enough to get their hands stamped at the door.

The two had walked out to Eric's beat-up Reliant K-car, halfway out across the giant parking lot, before she could stop shaking. She stood unnaturally stiff, though, and he could tell she was still fighting against some of her worst memories. "Hay-hay. You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. I just want you to be able to get past this, and usually telling somebody helps, y'know?" He pulled her in close reassuringly, and soon, she sighed and relaxed again.

"Thanks, qingren. But I really do want to tell you this. More, I think I need to tell you. Especially you." Hay looked up at him, her eyes full of tears. "Just … promise you won't hate me when I'm done, okay?"

Eric pulled her in for a long, tender kiss, feather-light enough not to start her on one of her downward spirals, but loving enough that she couldn't doubt what he said next. "I've already forgiven you anything your 'Drop could have done wrong, amante. Just, tell me so you're not carrying it inside anymore; tell me so you can stop hurting, yourself."

"O-okay, here goes, then," she said, boosting herself onto the hood of his car.

(Author's note: I'm not going to get into Hay Lin's story to Eric here. For those truly interested in her tale of woe, check out my companion story, "I just can't help myself …" It's an ongoing M-rated exploration of the darker side of Astral Drop mishandling, and will explain several things about this series and their sequel, "Mystic". Enjoy, read, and review. Catch ya on the flipside, A J.)

w.i.t.c.h.

Taranee had followed the pair out with her telepathy, and was distressed to find they had almost completely left her sensing range without even leaving the parking lot. God, this place was huge. She could tell Hay was calmer now, though, and told the other girls that their youngest Guardian was okay. They'd all gotten worried about her when she took off like that. Fortunately, Eric seemed to be good for her, and to her, in more ways than the obvious. She and Will both smiled at their respective dates in reassurance.

Irma sighed. "Don't worry, guys," she told Joel and Dominic. "Eric'll protect her." 'Even from herself,' she added privately. "That boy loves her like flowers love sunshine an' showers." Glancing over at Taranee, she grinned and sent, "They're probably making out in his car already."

"Doubtful, Waves. The guilt finally got to her. She's 'fessing up as we speak. To all of it," Taranee added, when Irma turned to stare right at her. Irma blushed, and Taranee nodded. "He may love her, but he might not speak to the rest of us ever again." Irma gulped and nodded back.

Joel had meanwhile noticed their silent byplay. "What're you two arguing about, Irma? Usually it's Corny we have to keep you away from."

"Don't call me Corny!" the Earth Guardian fired off venomously, and Will jumped nearly a foot next to her, proving that all the girls were still on edge about something. Even if they all pretended that Hay was fine, something else was going on ... but what?

"Hey Nigel, let's go see what's keeping Hay and Eric, hmmmm?" Taranee murmured low to her boyfriend. She cast a worried glance to Will, then stood up. Nigel followed her with a muttered curse only Dom heard as they headed towards the door.

Dominic had never mentioned his liaison with Hay to Joel, and he wasn't about to spill the beans now. Instead, he had merely alluded to her many passes as something he'd resisted with Herculean effort. It was mostly true, too; after her first seduction of him, his personal shame had kept his willpower from giving in again. Besides, (though he would never admit it to Eric out loud!) he was just as much in love with her, and the other girls, as Matt, Nigel and Eric.

Now, he realized the trouble Hay Lin had been in back in October must have been part of something larger, and the three guys and the other girls were still trying to protect the Chinese beauty. First they had to throw Joel off the trail though, and the blonde drummer wasn't making it easy.

"Matt, c'mon. I've known you as long as Irma's known Hay Lin. What's going on? What's wrong?" Joel asked, leaning forward over the table earnestly.

"Uh, look man, it's Hay's personal problem, and I just don't think I can really tell you about it without her say-so. Understand?" Matt exchanged a sorrowful look with Will, and she hung her head.

She knew they couldn't keep Hay Lin's hormonal meltdown a complete secret; too many people had been inadvertently entangled with the Air Guardian's sexual misadventures. But to tell anybody the barest hint of the truth behind her bizarre behavior skirted dangerously close to exposure for all the Guardians. They had all agreed back during Hay's week of Hell that no one would ever be told the whole story unless they were already part of their inner circle.

Now they were using that very promise to Hay to fight off the curiosity of one of their best friends. It smacked of a horrible hypocrisy. Joel's simultaneously hurt and confused expression was just a sign of another victim of the madness.

"He's right, Joel. If Hay-hay wants us to know, she'll tell us. It's not like she could keep a secret, anyway," Dom told his blonde-haired friend. The other girls groaned, sharing a look of resignation. While it was true that Hay hadn't let on to any of the people she'd 'involved' herself with that week that her problem was anything other than loooong-pent-up hormones, (and her genuinely loving nature thrown into brutal relief,) that she had started to 'play the field' was a distressing rumor she was still trying to live down. The Guardians were just glad that they had thus far escaped undiscovered.

"Guess I'm just lucky I can convince Martin that some girls need a lot more time away from their guys than others," Irma sent to the other two, then her normally animated features became crestfallen. "Oh, God, I've done it again," she moaned, starting to pick at her vegetable alfredo forlornly. "Guess you're not the only one who needs to make facetime with her boyfriend, Corny … lia."

The Earth Guardian smiled at her Watery friend at the amended sending. "There, there, Irma. You'll get over it … eventually."

Matt and Will meanwhile were holding hands under the table, too nervous to eat anymore, but unwilling to walk out to check on their other friends at the expense of those still at the table. "Small talk time," Will told him telepathically, then sent out a question to Taranee, figuring the Fire Guardian and Nigel had had enough time to meet up with Eric and Hay Lin.

w.i.t.c.h.

The four had indeed caught up with each other. Hay was still sitting on the front of Eric's car, crying softly into his shirtfront as he embraced her. She had confessed every sordid detail of her week of wantonness, and now was decompressing noisily while Taranee and Nigel just stood nearby in silent support.

Will's mental query caught up with Taranee, and she sent back their current situation. Nigel walked them around to the back of Eric's Horizon, leaned against the trunk, and pulled her into his arms as well. Fending off the echoes of Hay's guilt and grief, Taranee relaxed slowly against him, sighing. "Think she'll be okay?" he murmured lowly.

"Someday," Taranee answered, giving her Airy friend an encouraging smile around his shoulder. Hay, having heard them both, smiled back shyly, and a pang went through the Fire Guardian at the reversal of their roles. With a great sniff and a final sigh, Hay settled her length firmly against Eric with a tremulous grin. And just like that, the Chinese girl was back to her vivacious self … or as near as she'd been recently.

Taranee gasped at the sudden surge of pure lust that Hay Lin emitted as she dug her hands into Eric's clothes, pulling his shirt out of his jeans and ripping the front of the button-up flannel open in complete disregard of the late January temperatures around them, the eyes of passersby, or his buttons. Then she burrowed her face into his chest, exulting in the roar of his heartbeat as she ran her hands around his back and down his ass to pull him closer.

The Fire Guardian was just barely cognizant of her mimicking of Hay's actions, only brought back to reality at the feel of hairy skin under her fingers and Nigel's gasp of shock at her uncharacteristic brazenness ... and the late January air.

"Holy shit! Taranee, please, don't tell me she's contagious …" He pushed her back to arm's length, giving her an extra shake to clear the superheated fog from her mind.

Slowly coming back to her senses, Taranee blinked up at him in shock, then glared over at the completely unrepentant Air Guardian snuggled into her boyfriend's coat with Eric. Hay had locked her legs behind his thighs as well, and Taranee and Nigel could see the bizarre mix of desire and discomfiture running over his expression.

"You have no shame left, do you?" Taranee teased, trying not to smile at the happy-cat look Hay gave her while shaking her head.

"The question is, do you?" Hay returned telepathically, with a nod at the Fire Guardian's handiwork on Nigel's shirt. Taranee flushed as she looked back at Nigel, who was re-securing the few buttons that had survived her copycat maneuver. Taranee, catching sight of his fuzzy chest through the large gaps before he tucked the ruins back in better, couldn't help but think back to the sensory memory of the feel of him under her hands. Her fingers itched to repeat the experience, and she looked back at Hay in aggravation.

"Not anymore, Hay," she muttered in freshly-realized frustration. "Come on, you three, we've got a camping trip to plan." Turning back to the restaurant/arcade, she wended her way unsteadily through the parked cars, fighting down the hot surges of sexual craving Hay had helped awaken in her. She was only vaguely aware of the other three following her at a slightly more sedate pace. This was going to be a long night.