Michelle had been taking flight classes since he was two. His sister had always been an especially skilled flier, and she'd be taking flight until she graduated The Academy when she was seventeen. In the mean time, their mother had to shuffle her back and forth from her class lessons, which were held after school and on Saturdays. Occasionally – right now, actually – the class would perform, a display of what they'd learned since the last air show.
Once a year, in the middle of September, a competition would be held between the divisions of the classes, but this was not one of those events. This was a regular show, and the families of the fliers were sitting in the garden stage center, watching the students go through their routines, intricate maneuvers that were similar to any normal dance routine, save for the fact that their feet never touched the ground. Lucas sat there, between his mother and father, a wingless boy just shy of one hundred. He watched the fliers, engrossed in the show and in awe at their performance, but every so often something would catch his eye – he'd snap back to reality for a moment, and see the soft designs of their gossamer wings as the flew overhead, particularly close to the crowd. That's what made it possible, the wings. He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably at the though; just thinking about it, the light blue down on Lucas's shoulders burned, itched. He craned his neck back to watch his sister, wings batting against the wind as she ascended, far above ground, into the sunlight. His seat rocked back on two legs as he tried to get a better look, to keep eye contact with the purple blur against sky blue that was Michelle. The boy's heart skipped a beat as he tipped too far back, teetering for a moment before his father steadied the chair, putting him back on all fours and he sighed a breath of relief. Tracy chuckled, leaning towards his son. "It's something, isn't it?" he asked, lightly. "I'll tell you what though, I felt the same way. You and me – we're not flyers. That's okay, mate." He said, draping an arm over the back of the boy's chair.
Lucas heard his father's words, understood them and knew that Tracy didn't want him to feel disadvantaged or inadequate. Far from it, the young boy was in awe, purely fascinated by his sister's flight.
Suddenly, the fairies above the crowd stopped mid flight, hovering overhead. It was Michelle and two other fairies, much older than herself, that hovered in the middle of the others, forming a triangle within the circle of flying onlookers. The boy gasped as the three folded in their wings, falling slowly from their post above before they gathered speed, hurtling towards the crowd below. Those who were positioned in the circle around them spiraled down with them, surrounding them as they fell.
There was a collective gasp from the crowd, cheers as each young fairy re-opened their wings like parachutes, letting them glide safely back to the stage that had been set up.
Tracy knew that such maneuvers, such an intricate air show would not prove useful, but it was all just a part of advanced flight training, and Michelle was a brilliant flier, he knew that much. He stole a glance at Lucas, seeing how the younger boy was staring up at the performers. Tracy's heart sank, because he recognized that look; that was the look that he'd often worn, a wing envy that he'd held almost his entire life. Granted, it was less, now, but to see that look on Lucas's face – he shook the boy's shoulder, snapping his attention from the aerial show. He looked up at Tracy, who just smiled down at him.
"Must be proud of her, huh?" he asked, looking away. How could he not be? She had wings. Michelle was the only one in the family who was truly socially accepted.
Tracy reached down and ruffled the boy's hair, catching his wife's eye. "Of course I'm proud of her," he said, as the show began the next movement. "But not because she's winged. I'm proud of her because she's good at what she does. I—" he stuttered for a moment, changing the direction of his sentence. "Between you and me," he said quietly, leaning in. "Put her in front of a can of invisibility spray and she's useless! You though! You're brilliant in your classes, on the field—"
"I would be," Lucas cut across him, "If I had wings."
"Oi," his father said sternly. "Let's not forget who we're talking to. If you really want to work the field, after The Academy, no one's stopping you. It's not going to be as easy for you as it will be for the others, the ones with wings, but if I can do it, by Mab, I know you can. And if that's what you want to do, if being a Caseworker isn't your thing – and you might be surprised! You meet so many humans, and that's always interesting. Just, a lot of paperwork, y'see? But if being a Caseworker isn't your thing, I don't have a doubt that you'll make a great Tooth Fairy." He said, and he could see the boy's eyes light up as the crowd cheered on the performers, their routine coming to an end. "Having wings doesn't make you a proper Tooth Fairy. In fact, there was this one bloke I worked with, had wings. He was human, of course, but that doesn't matter. Point is, he was the worst Tooth Fairy we'd ever seen. Wings don't make you a Tooth Fairy. You do. You've got to want it."
"I want it," Lucas said, with conviction in his voice. "I'm going to be a Tooth Fairy!"
Tracy laughed. "Don't go getting ahead of yourself, mate. You've got to finish you classes first, all of them. They won't let you apply for a permit right out of The Academy, either. You've got to take extra classes, learn how to be a Case Worker. And who knows? Maybe you'll even like it." He chuckled, as the performers flew from their places on the stage, back to their families.
Michelle dropped from the air, to land in the empty seat next to her mother. Lucas turned from his father, leaning forward to talk to his sister. "That was really good, Shell!" he exclaimed. "That dive was amazing!"
The girl's smile only widened at this, as she thanked him. Of course that move hadn't been easy, and there had been a few nearly broken wings during practice, but she and the two other students (Daisy and Puck) had been the only ones to pull it off. For Lucas to tell her that it was amazing – a word that he most closely related to the mechanics of shrinking paste – was a high honor for her.
Rae smiled, watching her kids. They would never admit it, but they looked up to each other. Perhaps Lucas was more than half a century younger than her, but school was his strong suit, where hers was flight. Where one lacked, the other was quite able, and they played off of each other well, they looked up to and respected one another, and that was more than any mother could hope for siblings.
The crowds began to shift, filing out of the garden, and their family found themselves caught up in the wave of people, shuffling out the gates.
They sat in the trees, where the leaved turned silver, side by side. She'd carried them up there on her wings, and she was responsible for getting them down safely. She kept her arm around his waist at all times as they sat and laughed and kicked their legs hundred of feet above the ground, always making sure that he wouldn't fall. Their laughter dwindled slowly, and Lucas stared at his feet. "Shell?" he asked quietly, embarrassed. "What's it like to fly?"
The question took her by surprise and she herself nearly fell from the tree branch. She plucked a leaf from the wood and stared at it for a moment, pretending to be fascinated by the shine of the foliage, before shredding it in her hand and tossing the bits to the wind, watching them as they disintegrated into a fine magic dust before they hit the ground. "What's it like… to fly," she repeated, heaving a sigh. "It's… hard to explain," she said lightly. "It's not much different from walking, really. There's… just a lot more concentration involved." She laughed nervously, a habit she shared with her father. "I know a lot of the kids, they make it seem like it's really something. But unless I'm performing, the wings aren't… special."
Lucas hummed in acknowledgement. "They tell me that I… That wingless fairies are…"
Michelle could hear the discomfort in his voice. "I know what they call you; what the called Dad." She said gently. "They're wrong, and most of those kids will never be half the Tooth Fairy you can. They're just jealous," she nudged him gently, "because you know more about being a Tooth Fairy than they ever will."
Rae called them in, and she looked at Lucas. "Ready?"
His smile widened as she jumped from the branch, suspended in the air with the steady beat of her wings. He felt himself lifted into the air by his sister and they hovered there for a moment before she lowered them gently to the ground, releasing him. As she turned to go back inside, he grabbed her arm, stopping her momentarily. "Thanks, Shell," he said warmly.
She laughed and smiled, throwing and arm around her little bother's shoulders as they walked back to the house.