"Remind me to stay away from chocolates, then," Ivy replied dryly, although she really had no idea why a chocolate would turn Rachel into a pixie. At first she'd thought that Rachel had done it deliberately for a mission, and it was a relief to hear that it wasn't. The thought of Rachel doing runs by herself was not a pleasant thought, knowing how her runs usually turned out.
Amid Rachel's flitting and praises, Ivy knelt down and scooped some of the soil up from the carpet, directing a vaguely apologetic look at Rachel. Despite herself, she couldn't help but draw back slightly when Rachel was hovering in her face - Ivy was beginning to go cross-eyed trying to look at something that close. She'd been about to reply as to how the plant stayed healthy, when Dean was mentioned.
A frown flickered over her expression, but Ivy forced it down. She'd have to have a talk with this Dean. So, instead, she tipped a corner of her lips in a smile at Rachel. "Getting a corner of the yard sounds good. I guess, this being a magical castle, everything would grow well?"
Ivy didn't know anything about plants, so it came out more of a question than a statement. "Anyway, I couldn't get much, but I managed to get this for you," she smiled, dusting her hands off. When she next spoke, it was with more than a little demand. "Anything else you want to tell me about, other than the sudden... pixiefication?"
Anything else I wanted to? Hell no. Shaking my head - probably a bit too vigorously - I tried to smile. "Nope. This is about it. It's been quiet."
Subject change! "Oh, yeah, the soil here is amazing. I was out there yesterday and..." In typical pixie fashion, I blathered on for a good five minutes at a high pace about soil types and conditions and where would be the best spot for planting. "And the best part is, there aren't any other pixies or fairies or anything! The garden will be totally ours!" I rested my hands on my hips and grinned broadly, far too pleased with the state of things.
If there were such a thing as conversational whiplash, Ivy was sure that she'd have it right now. She knew Rachel could change topics like nobody else's business, but by the Turn, that was sudden.
So she waited through long minutes of babbling about soil, one eyebrow arched in patient amusement. Personally, Ivy was surprised that she wasn't freaking out more over the whole pixie-thing. Maybe it would happen once it finally hit her.
At least Rachel hadn't been out on any runs. Or, she said, she hadn't, which was probably a lie. Ivy could do her own conversational turns. "Oh, there's a couple of things I need to get from the front entrance, wanna come with? 'Things' being my motorbike," Ivy grinned. She'd missed her motorbike. And she wasn't above lying to Rachel - the surprise would be worth it.
Doing a quick loop around Ivy's head, I nodded. "Sure!" No need to tell Ivy that my time outside of my room had been severely limited - when you were four inches tall, doors were an issue. Only places openly accessible were possible. Thank God I'd left my window open, or Turn only knew where I'd be sleeping.
Landing on Ivy's shoulder, my wings blurring and brushing the hair from her neck with a faint breeze, I tugged on her earlobe. "Mush." Hee, this was way more fun to be the rider.
Despite her relatively good mood, Ivy frowned, raising a hand in an aborted attempt to swat Rachel off her shoulder. She never actually tried, because she paused mid-movement, and remembered who she'd be swatting. Jenks was bad enough when one of his wings was damaged, she didn't want to have to deal with Rachel doing the same.
"Not a husky," she commented firmly, one eye twitching as her earlobe was tugged. It was a very good thing she'd fed recently.
As she pushed the door open, Ivy furrowed her eyebrows in realizing that Rachel wouldn't have been able to open it. And where had she been getting food? Was it warm enough in her room? What would have happened if it was too cold? Shoving those thoughts from her mind, Ivy stomped half-grumpily down the hallway. "I hope you've at least been careful," she muttered. "Have you even tried to change yourself back?"
It was amazing - I had no fear of Ivy. Instead of worryingly checking her eyes for pupil dilation, I simply grinned cheekily up at her. "Fine. Onward, ho." This was...strangely freeing. I settled back on her shoulder, kicking my legs slightly. "So, getting a motorcycle takes a month?" Oh, yeah. I was smooth.
Rolling my eyes at her grumbling, I poked her with one finger. "Easy, Tamwood, or I'll pix you. Jenks showed me how." But beneath the words, I recognized the fact she was probably just trying to wrap her brain around pixie!me. Hell, so was I, still. "Of course I tried. But I have no idea how the hell it even happened. And besides, not like I can do any magic." Some of the frustration and fear that had been so easy to hide behind the pixie natural high spilled into my voice and my legs stopped beating lightly against her shoulder. God, I wasn't a witch anymore. I couldn't even invoke an amulet, much less fix this. I was a pixie. Completely changed.
All the poking and the beating of legs against her shoulder felt lighter than feathers, so Rachel could do all the fidgeting she wanted and Ivy would barely notice. Her mind was too busy, anyway, half focusing on ways to help Rachel return to normal, and half on the anticipation of revealing that she'd brought everything from the church.
She grinned wryly at Rachel's sarcasm about her motorbike, mentally cataloging the slight differences in personality. It was fascinating, really, and were she in the right frame of mind Ivy would love to study, and... okay, maybe not. It was only interesting (and weird) because it was Rachel. And her own blood certainly wouldn't work on amulets, so she'd have to think of other options.
A vampire trying to do magic - that was a laugh.
"Only one or two, huh?" Ivy commented lowly, and were Rachel human, Ivy would have stopped and fixed her with a stare. As it was, she wasn't going to try twist her head to glare at Rachel, so she continued stomping down the hallways, opening and closing doors harder than she probably should. "With Dean?"
Oh, here it went. And here was the part where I blew that off, changed the subject, and smoothly avoided a fight.
"No. I can't talk to him."
Shit.
Not 'I haven't talked to him' not 'I won't talk to him' but 'I can't'. And she was going to pick up on that, because it was Ivy, and then what? Great job, Rache.
"No, seriously. Why are you practicing?"
It was a sign of how stupid I was that I would rather poke Ivy into talking about why she started drinking blood again than tell her I'd summoned and made a deal with a demon. If I had any brains at all, I'd just go ahead and squish myself and save her the trouble.
Ivy did indeed pick up on the specific use of the word 'can't', and for a moment, she wondered at that choice of word. Had something happened to keep them apart? Maybe Dean had left, but that still wouldn't prompt the use of 'can't.
With a light snort, Ivy shook her head slightly, and decided she didn't care. Anything that kept them apart was fine by her. Not that she wanted Rachel to be unhappy, but humans could be idiots sometimes.
"Well, if you'd rather I abstained from blood and looked at everybody like Happy Meals all the time, then I'm sure I can go right back to not practicing." Ivy barely stopped herself from snapping - it was a touchy subject. Practicing didn't make her feel good about herself, in any way. But it was a better solution.
Shutting the last door behind her, Ivy loped down the steps leading from the castle entrance and towards the truck parked just outside. They really needed to find a topic that they could both talk about with clamming up.
A small breath of relief left me. The bullet I had just dodged was huge and I had no idea how that had happened, but I was thankful nonetheless. Blinking a little, though, at her tone, my wings drooped and I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
"No. I just..." God, what did I want? That was a whole topic I very determinedly did not think about. "Sorry." My voice was quiet and I huffed out a breath. Damn. She was practicing again. The whole idea was... It was. That was a good way to put it. "You were just gone a long time. I was worried." About Piscary and Kisten and how she was dealing with everything... Yeah. There was a whole heaping boatload of things I'd worried about, in the middle of the day when I couldn't sleep. Fun.
Then, with a quick blur of wings, I rose up from her shoulder and hovered in front of her, keeping pace. I had gotten a lot better at the flying thing over the past couple of weeks. Not a skill I'd ever thought I'd need. And God, I wish I could forget it.
Mollified by Rachel's apology and admittance of worry, the frown left Ivy's expression. She probably shouldn't have been sarcastic, she knew it was a big deal to Rachel. And to be fair, it was a big deal to Ivy, too, but she tended to try and cut down on the self-loathing by using sarcasm and pretending it wasn't serious. Sometimes it didn't have the wanted effect.
For a brief moment, she watched Rachel fly along beside her, an amused smile quirking her lips. Right now, she just wanted it cured and to have regular-sized Rachel back, but Ivy knew that later it would be a hilarious topic.
"My bike's around the other side," Ivy said absently, giving Rachel an oddly pleased look. Flipping the catch on the back of the truck, she let the door roll upwards, revealing the rest of Rachel's things, stacked neatly along the walls. "Surprise," she grinned. "And Happy belated Summer Solstice, I guess."
I was so shocked that my body dropped along with my jaw as I forgot to keep beating my wings. I landed on the floor of the truck, taking in everything with wide eyes. "Turn me and burn me," I breathed. A slow, giddy smile worked its way across my face. It was everything. All of my things. My pots and pans and plants and books and CDs... It was home. The rest of home that hadn't been brought over when Jenks and Ivy showed up, at least.
If I had been myself, I'd have hugged Ivy. All I could do now was go to sit on her shoulder. "Thank you." Was I choked up? Maybe a little. "This is amazing, Ivy. I can't even..." There really weren't words. "God, how did... Why did..." Nope, nothing to say.
Flitting back over, I went slowly among my belongings, trailing longing fingers along the tools of my trade. My former trade. A life I might not get back. "Oh, God, my Takata CD. Finally, some decent music."
Suddenly a little sheepish in the face of Rachel's shock, Ivy shrugged slightly and sat down on the floor of the truck, letting her legs dangle over the edge. She wasn't a person that did things for the sole reason of making people happy, but Rachel was worth it. For so many reasons.
But she didn't need to think about that right now - mostly because the matter at hand was still the fact that Rachel was a pixie and she needed to turn back. But right now, watching pixie-Rachel explore her old stuff was enough.
"Hey, what's a witch without her tools, right?" She said lightly, turning a little to examine Rachel's CD collection. Whoops, that had sounded a little derogatory. "Well, I just thought you might want it, and..." Ivy trailed off, running a hand through her hair. "It was no trouble."
"Not a witch anymore," I said lightly, hiding my worry behind a smile. In truth, having all of my things back, all these touchstones of my real life, only made my current predicament that much more glaring. I was a freaking pixie. I was four inches tall and had wings. Nothing in my life had prepared me for this. Everything I was before was gone.
Okay, so I was slightly freaked out. But fat lot of good it would do me to let Ivy realize that, so I landed on her leg, looking up at her. "I do want it. Thanks."
The realization also came that, even though I had the supplies, now, that I might need for just about any spell to restore myself, there wasn't anyone here who could invoke it. Oh, God. I hadn't thought of that before - I was so focused on finding an answer that I'd forgotten that no one here could help me with it, even if I discovered it.
"I guess you'll have to cart all this stuff upstairs by yourself," I told her, trying for a teasing tone. "Hope you've been working out."
It was seriously strange to have to look down at her leg to address Rachel, but Ivy smiled nonetheless, flicking her fingers in a warning gesture an inch away from Rachel's wings. "Careful, I'll have you know I have been working out." Damn, she probably would have to cart all this upstairs by herself. It wouldn't be too hard, hopefully. Minus the plants, seeing as they'd be taken to the corner of garden they were going to steal.
That thought - that they were going to steal a piece of a garden - brought a softer smile to Ivy's expression, a kind of affection without the bloodlust that she rarely felt these days. It was a nice feeling.
Bracing her hands on the floor of the truck, Ivy leaned back, shaking her hair out of her face out of habit. "As long as I get some kind of compensation," she teased. "Breakfast in bed, maybe."
...The coffee and waffles kind, obviously. Really.
The only headway I'd made in the whole 'turning back into a witch' thing had been a quick letter exchange with the bitchy Defense Against the Dark Arts professor (who had also been the one to patch me up post-demon encounter) in which I'd been told that the magic chocolates usually just wore off on their own. So helpful. Really.
"Oh, yeah," I grinned up at her. "I'll get right on that. One breakfast in bed, coming up."
Except maybe it had been. Because, as I considered pixing Ivy just to warn her away from flicking at my wings, I suddenly felt a strange, prickling sensation sweeping across my skin. One second I was staring up at Ivy from her lap, the next second I was straddling her, full-sized again, my arms instinctively going around Ivy's neck to keep myself from falling off.
Amid Rachel's flitting and praises, Ivy knelt down and scooped some of the soil up from the carpet, directing a vaguely apologetic look at Rachel. Despite herself, she couldn't help but draw back slightly when Rachel was hovering in her face - Ivy was beginning to go cross-eyed trying to look at something that close. She'd been about to reply as to how the plant stayed healthy, when Dean was mentioned.
A frown flickered over her expression, but Ivy forced it down. She'd have to have a talk with this Dean. So, instead, she tipped a corner of her lips in a smile at Rachel. "Getting a corner of the yard sounds good. I guess, this being a magical castle, everything would grow well?"
Ivy didn't know anything about plants, so it came out more of a question than a statement. "Anyway, I couldn't get much, but I managed to get this for you," she smiled, dusting her hands off. When she next spoke, it was with more than a little demand. "Anything else you want to tell me about, other than the sudden... pixiefication?"
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Subject change! "Oh, yeah, the soil here is amazing. I was out there yesterday and..." In typical pixie fashion, I blathered on for a good five minutes at a high pace about soil types and conditions and where would be the best spot for planting. "And the best part is, there aren't any other pixies or fairies or anything! The garden will be totally ours!" I rested my hands on my hips and grinned broadly, far too pleased with the state of things.
Attention span of five seconds? Check.
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So she waited through long minutes of babbling about soil, one eyebrow arched in patient amusement. Personally, Ivy was surprised that she wasn't freaking out more over the whole pixie-thing. Maybe it would happen once it finally hit her.
At least Rachel hadn't been out on any runs. Or, she said, she hadn't, which was probably a lie. Ivy could do her own conversational turns. "Oh, there's a couple of things I need to get from the front entrance, wanna come with? 'Things' being my motorbike," Ivy grinned. She'd missed her motorbike. And she wasn't above lying to Rachel - the surprise would be worth it.
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Landing on Ivy's shoulder, my wings blurring and brushing the hair from her neck with a faint breeze, I tugged on her earlobe. "Mush." Hee, this was way more fun to be the rider.
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"Not a husky," she commented firmly, one eye twitching as her earlobe was tugged. It was a very good thing she'd fed recently.
As she pushed the door open, Ivy furrowed her eyebrows in realizing that Rachel wouldn't have been able to open it. And where had she been getting food? Was it warm enough in her room? What would have happened if it was too cold? Shoving those thoughts from her mind, Ivy stomped half-grumpily down the hallway. "I hope you've at least been careful," she muttered. "Have you even tried to change yourself back?"
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Rolling my eyes at her grumbling, I poked her with one finger. "Easy, Tamwood, or I'll pix you. Jenks showed me how." But beneath the words, I recognized the fact she was probably just trying to wrap her brain around pixie!me. Hell, so was I, still. "Of course I tried. But I have no idea how the hell it even happened. And besides, not like I can do any magic." Some of the frustration and fear that had been so easy to hide behind the pixie natural high spilled into my voice and my legs stopped beating lightly against her shoulder. God, I wasn't a witch anymore. I couldn't even invoke an amulet, much less fix this. I was a pixie. Completely changed.
"Yeah. Careful. Only one or two runs, anyway."
Shit.
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She grinned wryly at Rachel's sarcasm about her motorbike, mentally cataloging the slight differences in personality. It was fascinating, really, and were she in the right frame of mind Ivy would love to study, and... okay, maybe not. It was only interesting (and weird) because it was Rachel. And her own blood certainly wouldn't work on amulets, so she'd have to think of other options.
A vampire trying to do magic - that was a laugh.
"Only one or two, huh?" Ivy commented lowly, and were Rachel human, Ivy would have stopped and fixed her with a stare. As it was, she wasn't going to try twist her head to glare at Rachel, so she continued stomping down the hallways, opening and closing doors harder than she probably should. "With Dean?"
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"No. I can't talk to him."
Shit.
Not 'I haven't talked to him' not 'I won't talk to him' but 'I can't'. And she was going to pick up on that, because it was Ivy, and then what? Great job, Rache.
"No, seriously. Why are you practicing?"
It was a sign of how stupid I was that I would rather poke Ivy into talking about why she started drinking blood again than tell her I'd summoned and made a deal with a demon. If I had any brains at all, I'd just go ahead and squish myself and save her the trouble.
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With a light snort, Ivy shook her head slightly, and decided she didn't care. Anything that kept them apart was fine by her. Not that she wanted Rachel to be unhappy, but humans could be idiots sometimes.
"Well, if you'd rather I abstained from blood and looked at everybody like Happy Meals all the time, then I'm sure I can go right back to not practicing." Ivy barely stopped herself from snapping - it was a touchy subject. Practicing didn't make her feel good about herself, in any way. But it was a better solution.
Shutting the last door behind her, Ivy loped down the steps leading from the castle entrance and towards the truck parked just outside. They really needed to find a topic that they could both talk about with clamming up.
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"No. I just..." God, what did I want? That was a whole topic I very determinedly did not think about. "Sorry." My voice was quiet and I huffed out a breath. Damn. She was practicing again. The whole idea was... It was. That was a good way to put it. "You were just gone a long time. I was worried." About Piscary and Kisten and how she was dealing with everything... Yeah. There was a whole heaping boatload of things I'd worried about, in the middle of the day when I couldn't sleep. Fun.
Then, with a quick blur of wings, I rose up from her shoulder and hovered in front of her, keeping pace. I had gotten a lot better at the flying thing over the past couple of weeks. Not a skill I'd ever thought I'd need. And God, I wish I could forget it.
"What's with the truck? Where's your bike?"
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For a brief moment, she watched Rachel fly along beside her, an amused smile quirking her lips. Right now, she just wanted it cured and to have regular-sized Rachel back, but Ivy knew that later it would be a hilarious topic.
"My bike's around the other side," Ivy said absently, giving Rachel an oddly pleased look. Flipping the catch on the back of the truck, she let the door roll upwards, revealing the rest of Rachel's things, stacked neatly along the walls. "Surprise," she grinned. "And Happy belated Summer Solstice, I guess."
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If I had been myself, I'd have hugged Ivy. All I could do now was go to sit on her shoulder. "Thank you." Was I choked up? Maybe a little. "This is amazing, Ivy. I can't even..." There really weren't words. "God, how did... Why did..." Nope, nothing to say.
Flitting back over, I went slowly among my belongings, trailing longing fingers along the tools of my trade. My former trade. A life I might not get back. "Oh, God, my Takata CD. Finally, some decent music."
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But she didn't need to think about that right now - mostly because the matter at hand was still the fact that Rachel was a pixie and she needed to turn back. But right now, watching pixie-Rachel explore her old stuff was enough.
"Hey, what's a witch without her tools, right?" She said lightly, turning a little to examine Rachel's CD collection. Whoops, that had sounded a little derogatory. "Well, I just thought you might want it, and..." Ivy trailed off, running a hand through her hair. "It was no trouble."
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Okay, so I was slightly freaked out. But fat lot of good it would do me to let Ivy realize that, so I landed on her leg, looking up at her. "I do want it. Thanks."
The realization also came that, even though I had the supplies, now, that I might need for just about any spell to restore myself, there wasn't anyone here who could invoke it. Oh, God. I hadn't thought of that before - I was so focused on finding an answer that I'd forgotten that no one here could help me with it, even if I discovered it.
"I guess you'll have to cart all this stuff upstairs by yourself," I told her, trying for a teasing tone. "Hope you've been working out."
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That thought - that they were going to steal a piece of a garden - brought a softer smile to Ivy's expression, a kind of affection without the bloodlust that she rarely felt these days. It was a nice feeling.
Bracing her hands on the floor of the truck, Ivy leaned back, shaking her hair out of her face out of habit. "As long as I get some kind of compensation," she teased. "Breakfast in bed, maybe."
...The coffee and waffles kind, obviously. Really.
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"Oh, yeah," I grinned up at her. "I'll get right on that. One breakfast in bed, coming up."
Except maybe it had been. Because, as I considered pixing Ivy just to warn her away from flicking at my wings, I suddenly felt a strange, prickling sensation sweeping across my skin. One second I was staring up at Ivy from her lap, the next second I was straddling her, full-sized again, my arms instinctively going around Ivy's neck to keep myself from falling off.
Oh, crap.
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