Disclaimer: Hey hey hey. Let me tell you something really shocking and something you had no idea was true. Flamecom doesn't own Winx Club and most likely never will.
Alright. Originally this and chapter 13 were supposed to be the same chapter. But after reading through the part that ended up being chapter 13, I decided to split them up. The two parts have so different themes that I feel like they should be their separate chapter. And besides I had done the chapter 13 part months ago, so I wanted to upload something. Anyway this is still a good full length chapter. The original was just going to be longer. Now back to the story alright?
After the talk with Icy, I came to a conclusion. Lying wasn't good and I need to stop doing it. No matter how many times Icy says lying is good for a witch. And I was going to start with Sky. I promised myself that I wouldn't tell the guy a single lie in whatever our conversation is going to be.
Before the meeting would begin, I spent a lot of time window shopping around magix. Most of the items were beyond my budget. My new outfit had eaten up almost all of my gathered allowance. And the few items I could afford, weren't worth it to spent last bits of allowance I had left. I also called my parents during waiting. I promised them I would call twice a week. And while I was failing miserably in that promise, that didn't mean I shouldn't try to live up to that promise.
I arrived early to the cafe, me and Sky had agreed to meet at. I still wanted to give him a good impression of witches. The trix aren't exactly the best representation of our kind. After 5 minutes Sky arrived with his hoverbike or whatever they are called. I waved at him and he eventually picked out where I was.
He approached me and started to look at my new outfit. "H-hey. Nice outfit." He complimented. "It's different but it's still you." He continued. Now I remember why I had such a crush on him. He was such a gentlemen, which makes sense considering his royal upbringing.
"You look different too. Nice jacket." I said and pointed at his new light blue jacket, which he wore instead of his blue T-shirt.
"Oh you noticed? At the start of the year me and the other specialists decided to update our wardrobe." He said while sheepishly rubbing his head. "Anyway shall we" He said and invited me to join him at the cafe. I off course took his offer.
We entered the cafe and went straight to the counter. I looked at the various kinds of coffee and treats they had. Some of the coffee were interesting. They had plenty of coffee that was even the same name as the coffee on Earth. But they also had some unique blends, that had to be exclusive to magical dimension. "Can I take your order?" The barrista asked.
"Yeah I'll have a latte." Sky said.
She turned to look at me. "I'll have.." I tried to say the name of the unique coffee but I decided against it. My prononciacion would probably butcher it. So I just pointed at the coffee. "Oh and also a brownie." I said finishing my order.
"Cash or card?" The barrista asked while the ammount was on the register. I reached for my purse, so I could pay for my part but Sky beat me to it. He used his card to pay for both of us. I didn't protest it, after all my allowance was running low. And him being prince and all meant, that money probably wasn't an issue for him. But had he not done that, I would have paid for my part. I didn't want to seem like a gold digger.
We then found ourselves a nice table near the window, while we waited for our coffee to come. "So Bloom what took you so long to contact me? I know now, that I wasn't imagining things at that party." Sky asked me starting what would probably be a long conversation.
I gave a big sigh before I would begin. There's going to be lots of explaining from both sides tonight. "Well for two reasons. One is that I didn't have your contact information. But that's more of an excuse since I could have easily found a way to contact you." I began with the lighter far less personal reason. "No the real reason was, that I wasn't sure how you were going to react, that I was a..."
"Witch." Sky finishe the sentance for me.
"Yeah that's why. I feared that you would hate me for being who I am. And that's why avoided you and the winx." I finished my explanation.
"So why did you finally contact me?" Sky asked the second question, while leaning forward eager to hear my answer.
I sighed again. "Well I recently reunited with Flora. And then our conversation turned to you and I realized I needed to talk to you again. She got me your contact information and I guess here we are."
Sky was satisfied with the answer but soon asked an another question. "So have you done this with anyone else yet? You know other specialists or the winx."
I shook my head at that. "No. So far only you and Flora even know that I'm back. So I guess welcome to this exclusive club." I said and did a purposfully overexaderated fake cheer.
"Lucky me I guess." Sky said and then responded with a similar cheer.
Just then a waiter came to our table and brought our coffee and my brownie. We thanked her and turned to our new beverages. I was eager to try out, what the unique magical dimension coffee would taste like. I was sorely dissapointed. In fact I almost spat out the coffee. It was incredibly bitter. Sky had an amused look on his face, like he knew that this is what the coffee tasted like. I wasn't so amused.
I started to eat the brownie to cover up the bad taste of the coffee. Once my mouth was filled with the taste of chocolate rather than bitter coffee, I was satisfied. Well expect it did make me little thirsty. But I couldn't give into that. Since the only liquid was the horrible coffee. Finally I decided to continue our conversation.
"Enough about me for today. How about you Sky? What has happened to you and the specialists since I left." I asked him the easy question, before I would ask the hard ones later.
Sky took a sip of his coffee before answering. "Well for one the mister grumpy pants Riven isn't in the group anymore. Shortly after you left, he decided that we weren't cool enough for him or something like that." Sky began and this answer truly surprised me.
"Really? I mean, I know Riven was a..."
"A douche. I know." Sky finished my sentance for the second time today. "He found a witch girlfriend. And unlike you, this witch wasn't a cool one. She's your typical everyone else is a loser but me witches. I think she influenced him to quit." Sky finished describing this rather not nice witch. I hope I don't have to bump into her anytime in the future.
"So anything else?" I continued asking him.
"Well we got a new member quite recently actually. His name is Helia. Salladins nephew." Sky said surprising me once again.
"I think Flora mentioned this guy before. Sounded like a nice man, from what she said. I can understand why she has a crush on me." I finished and Sky let out a laugh.
I gave him a questoning look. The 'what's so funny?' one. "Sorry about that." Sky apoligized. "It's that Helia also has a crush on Flora. It seems like she is the only thing, he is talking about half the time." Sky continued.
So they really were compatible. "Just a shame Flora is too shy to ask him out. If it's true that he likes her that much. They really seem like a match made in heaven." I stated.
"Yeah Helia has the same problem too. He's not that aggresive of a guy. And he's always afraid if Flora rejects her. But hey with this info, hopefully I can push him into the right direction. Those two really deserve each other." Sky said and I just smiled at him.
I then finished up eating the brownie and decided to ignore the coffee. While Sky drank more of his coffee. Now was the time to ask the hard question. The whole reason why I had set up this conversation in the first place. I prepared myself mentally for the possible bad answers Sky could give me.
"Sky." I began catching his attention. He clearly noticed my more serious tone this time. "I need to ask you a really important question. In fact that's really the reason why we are even doing this whole thing."
Sky nodded approving of me asking my question. Though he seemed to be little unsettled. "Flora mentioned many things. Stuff that you hadn't told me while we knew about each other." I said but was unable to formulate how to continue.
"I guessed that much. Since you called me Sky rather than Brandon."
Sighing I gave him an understanding nod. "Well I want to hear your perspective of those events."
Sky nodded in return. "I mean. I had to explain everything to the winx at least 3 times. So I guess I can explain it to you as well." He responded with some degree of humour. "So where do I start my side of the story?"
"From the begining. Why you did it and how everything unraveled." I said.
"Well first of all, it wasn't my idea." He said raising his hands defensively. "There are people who are not exactly fans of the royal family to put it lightly. So my parents thought it would be good to switch mine and Brandon's identities to protect us, just incase those tried to assasinate or kidnap me, while I was in red fountain." For the first time since I learned of this, the reality of situation hit me. I learned a long time ago that this magical world wasn't all smiles and rainbows.
"Now I won't say that I was opposed to it. Not just for the safety it brought, but because it would allow me to feel like a normal person. Before coming here I didn't have any true friends besides Brandon. Since you never knew if they were my friend, for me or to be in good graces with the family. People would always treat me well... like a royal." He said with him seemingly becoming more tired having to explain this. "I hope that doesn't make me a bad person." He finished off.
I shook my head at that. No he wasn't a bad person for wanting to know what it is like to not be a royal. "I understand your reason and I understand why you didn't tell me. After all we only had know each other for what 2 months if even that. But why you didn't tell the others. Especially Stella who by the time she found out, knew you and Brandon for over a year."
"I'll admit I should have told them sooner. But I most likely didn't, just because I wanted to avoid the conflict that would have come from it. So I delayed and delayed the explanation until they found out. And also because I wanted to look out for Brandon. He was afraid that Stella only liked him, because she thought he was a prince. So he was afraid if I told everyone the truth she would leave him. And for the matter of fact she did leave him, after she found out the truth. But they got back together like they are now."
I found that answer satisfactory. I didn't see a hint of a lie and I could understand his reasoning. Which made me more hesitant to ask my next question about the thing. The whole arranged magic thing. When I came here, I wanted to just scream at him. Because how in my view he led me on with his knowledge. But now I'm not so sure.
In the end I went with a safer round. "I heard you are in an arranged marriage." I stated and Sky visibly uncomortably nodded. "Do you love her?" I asked after that.
Sky almost froze on to the seat. I seemingly made him very uncomfortable. "It's complicated." He answered once he could finally speak. "She clearly has affection for me and has been basically bred to be a perfect wife. But I just can't find the connection, even though I want to make it work."
That was enough for me. I didn't want to push him any further. "Well when it comes to you and me. How about we pretend we didn't know each other at all last year. Lets intruduce ourselves like we just met." I suggested him trying to get rid of this akward interrigation, that we just had.
"Why not." Sky shrugged. "How about you start."
"Well my name is Bloom. I'm seventeen years old and I am from Earth. Right now I am a first year Cloud Tower witch, but one of the nice ones. My hobbies include painting and practising magic." I said reintruducing myself.
"My name is Sky. I'm seventeen as well and I come from Era..." He said but stopped and was clearly looking out of the window. "Oh great. Just great."
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's none other than mr Grumpy Riven outside, with his witch girlfriend. And looks like they spotted us." He said and I turned to look at them. And as soon as I saw them, I was filled with dread when I saw the couple. Riven was accomponied with none other than Darcy, because off course she had to be the witch girlfriend. And she and Riven were looking at us through the window. And judging from Darcy's expression, they were up to no good.
"Great just great." I burried my head in my hands, as I heard the door open. Off course I couldn't have had a nice saturday without more Trix added to the mix.
Both of them then sat on the seats right next to us. Why didn't I pick a two seat table. I thought to myself as I gritted my teeth. "Well well well. What do we have here?" Riven asked with a mocking voice and looked at both of us. "If it isn't our favourite spoiled prince and the expelled pixie." I fought off the urge to correct him on the pixie part. No us in that.
"Our little firstie just couldn't fight off the urge, to jump to her fellow prince charming wouldn't she?" Darcy continued eyeing at me with a smirk on her face.
"What. Do you want?" Sky said while trying to hide (and failing) the annoyance in his voice.
Darcy mockingly raised her arms. "What? I can't come to check up on my protoge?" Darcy says and squuezes my jaw like I was her child or something. I shake her arm away but it was clear I wasn't winning this one. Sky raised an eyebrow at Darcy calling me her protoge.
"Besides Bloom aren't you glad to reunite with one of your friends?" Darcy continues and motions at Riven. Who in question turns to look at me with indiference.
Deciding that I should play ball for now, I give Riven a light non genuine smile."Hi Riven! Long time no seen." I say to him with a clearly exaggerated enthusiastic voice. So much so it can be seen as mocking. I also give him a very wide smile, while I say this.
It did have the intended effect as Riven certainly became much more akward. Hopefully that gets him off my tail.
But then I realized something. This easily I had broken the rule I said about this meeting. No lying. But I said that in a way it was so obvious, and it as just to mess with Riven not Sky. That's how I justified it to myself.
Sky wasn't having any of it. "Can't you two bother someone else. We are kind of in the middle of something."
"And where would the fun be then?" Darcy asks back no longer even bothering to hide her intentions.
Sky responded to this by standing up. "I don't know about you Bloom, but I'm not going to stand up this for any longer." He said and started walking off. Sseeing this as an opporunity to escape from having to spend a second longer with the gloomy couple, I followed Sky out of the door, leaving behind the horrible tasting coffee.
"But we were just getting started!" I hear Darcy say as I'm leaving.
Once I'm outisde I look around for Sky. He is stomping out of the cafe in a not good mood. I catch up to him and try to calm him down.
"Sky don't let them get to you." I tell him while we are walking. Sky seemingly doesn't want to listen to even me. Knowing that just talking to him won't calm him down I put my arm around him. "Look Sky they were just trying to piss you off." I told him in an effort to calm him down.
Sky responded to this by sighing. "I know I know. Still I can't help but get frustrated. Ever since Riven and Darcy got together, Riven has been trying to get on my nerves." He explained.
Riven's tendancy to try to annoy us and be grumpy brought back memories of him a year ago. "Wasn't Riven always trying to annoy you though?" I asked him remembering all the stuff he did.
"Yeah he did, but he has gotten worse ever since then. That's why he left the group." He explained.
"You know what. Let's just do something to forget those two." I said and it caused him to brighten up. "Let's go to the park or the movies or ride around with your bike or something." I suggested to him.
"That would be nice." Sky answered feeling much better than he did originally.
In the end we went for the movie. we decided to watch a comedic movie. It was just in case Darcy or Riven decided follow us. They would either think Sky picked the movie, which would have been an action movie. Or that I picked some romantic movie to watch. A comedy would be something that neither Darcy or Riven would expect us to watch and considering how gloomy they are, they probably would just determine it being not worth it anyway.
Unfortunately for me, some of the jokes went past me. The movie used lots of cultural references that I obviously haven't picked up. I guess that's the downside of being an earthling. Luckily I could still get a laugh out of many of the situations from the movie. So it wasn't that I didn't have fun, but it was obvious Sky had much better time than me.
"Did you see how he fell on his face." I remarked Sky chuckling as we left the theatre. What can I say? It was a funny scene.
"Sure I d.." Sky was about to say until he saw something. "Great juuust great."
"What is it Sky?" I asked him.
He then pointed at the state of the traffic. And yeah the traffic jam was horrible, with endless lanes of cars lined up and horning at each other. Looks like that is a thing even magic cannot fix.
"The rush hour has began. I'm not gonna like my journey back home." He said and I could feel him. Looking at the traffic it might take him more than an hour to get back to red fountain.
I ended up escorting him back to his bike that was parked near the cafe. He was about to get on top of it and say goodbye to me but I stopped him.
"Hey Sky there is one thing I need to ask you before you leave." I said to him who in turn nodded at my, allowing me to continue. "You see my 18th year birthday is next week." I began but an ounce of shyness was starting to overcome and threaten me to be able to ask the question.
Sky in turn patted me on the shoulder. "Congratulations. I'll still have to wait for few months." He said and I really needed to step up if I didn't want him to leave now.
He was just about to get on top of the bike before I stopped him again. "So I thought I'd ask you if you wanted to celebrate it with me?" I asked him finally inviting him to my birthday.
Sky responded with a smile. "Off course I'd want to." He said putting away all my worries.
"That's great." I replied with enthusiams. "Now it is a bit complicated how I'm going to do this. You see on Friday I'll go back to Earth, to celebrate my birthday with my parents one day early. Then in the afternoon on saturday I'll have a small celebration with some of my cloud tower friends and acquitances. Then finally I'll have a secret party late evening where a witch friend of mine Mirta and Flora have been so far invited. I mean I can understand if you don't want to come since it's late and it happens at a secret place."
"Don't worry Bloom just text me the time and place and I'll be there."
I responded to that with a smile, happy that he accepted my invitation. "I'll make sure to do that." I said to him as he put his helmet on and got on top his bike.
He then powered on the bike. "Alright Bloom. See ya then." He said and was just about to leave.
"Oh by the way. Happy birthday in advance." He said and left the scene.
Alright. This is done. Now I think this is going to be one of my shorter chapters. I mean shorter than chapter 9 but longer than chapter 4. I don't know haven't checked the word count. But you gotta remember this was not originally going to be it's own chapter. This and what and chapter 13 were going to be one giant chapter, but I decided to split them into two. So if this doesn't feel like a full chapter that is why. But yeah I finally got past the roadblock that was this chapter. Now the next chapter I also feel is going to be a somewhat of a roadblock. I'll give you one spoiler. It's probably gonna be the only chapter where Bloom isn't going to be around. Anyway besides that one more thing might delay it. You see my pokemon fic is a fic that nowadays I'll update about once a year on it's anniversary. But last year I missed that anniversary. So to make it up for this years aniversary, which is just 12 days away as of writing this up. I'm going to upload two chapters to that story. So since I'm gonna focus on that first, it will delay chapter 15. That is also why I'll upload this chapter at a later date. Most likely 20th of june, which is also the pokemon fics anniversary. Anyway now lets end this AN that is going to get too long and respond to the review.
Videocrazy: There's variety reasons why Icy is attracted to keeping Bloom around with power definately being one of them. Never knew about that definition of the name Bloom. But yeah if Bloom were to become an infamous witch (which she very well might become in this story) her name might become ironically dark and witchy.
Jean D: Good that you liked that part. I like to put Bloom doing mundane things in this story. Especially as things will soon heat up.
Viva out