---

“Who writes an eight-hundred page book on how to make sure cauldron bottoms shine with a mirror finish without affecting the potions inside?”

The last few days have made me reassess Al’s priority’s in life a little.
It turns out that I’m.. that HE was a bit of a packrat.

Half the books in the ‘too dangerous for anyone to ever see again’ shelves are practically useless.

I mean.. okay.. maybe not USELESS.
From that ‘cauldron bottom’ book, I just learnt a spell that can cover any surface with a thick layer of magically non-reactive silver that’s buffed to a mirror like shine.

If I take the lines used for that spell, convert them into a spell matrix, apply a few runic translations and filter out the useless bits..
I could probably make a pretty devastating runic trap that, when triggered, would turn anyone or anything standing on it into a life sized, magically resistant silver statue.

My POINT is, the book doesn’t tell you how to do that!

MY twisted mind worked out how to do that, in theory at least.
The book is just a book, a book about ‘shiny cauldron bottoms’ written by a rather enthusiastic female mage called ‘Clearwater’..

I don’t get why Al would have put it on these shelves?
I don’t REMEMBER why I.. why HE put it on these shelves?
Hell, I don’t actually remember even getting the book in the first place!

I’m not sure if that’s just because I.. HE picked it up randomly and didn’t notice or if my memories of being Al are somehow.. slipping away?

I.. I don’t want to lose those memories..

I know I’m not technically Al.
I’ve calmed down about it a bit over the last two days of being in ‘deep research’ mode, but the fact remains that I’m not Al.
I’m the next incarnation of Arista, I just happen to have my brain wired in such a way that for all intents and purposes I might as well have BEEN Al, up to the point he died at least..

Since then my emotions, thought processes, even just general likes and dislikes have shifted dramatically through several extremes.
They’ve settled to a degree now, somewhere in the middle, but I’m still not the same person I was just over a week ago.

I.. I don’t like not knowing myself properly..
In an effort to counter all the problems that came with my- DAMN IT! -with HIS faulty awakening, Al learnt everything there was to know about himself.

I.. He.. ugg, pronouns are so annoying!!

I can’t keep doing this!
I don’t think of any of my other past-incarnations as ‘me’.
For some reason my brain is deeply entrenched with the idea that I AM Al!

While I know that my awakening wasn’t exactly normal either, being triggered by old magic and not requiring a rebirth, it still doesn’t-

I froze.

The head of steam I’d been building up over the ‘Al issue’ disappeared in an instant.
Something just..
..was that..?

THERE!
There it is again!

I climbed cautiously off the mattress and made my way into the next room.
The kitchen to my left was empty, from what I could see so was the toilet on the right.
Where could it..

THERE!

I almost broke into a sprint progressing down the hall past a few of the disused bunk rooms I sealed off years ago and towards the end of the hallway.
I’m sure it came from here.. I just..

The knocking sound came one more time.
My breath hitched a little as I finally realised where it was coming from.

The door!

How the.. I sealed that bloody thing up!
You wouldn’t believe how much hassle it was to get enough cement to fill the old stairwell leading down into this bunker without leaving an obvious paper trail!
In the middle of no-where Russia too!

There’s so much cement outside that door even I would struggle to clear a path out of here.
It would be easier to just blast a hole in the wall, dig sideways until I hit dirt and then dig up!

I held my breath and waited for the next knock to come but it seemed to be taking forever.

Without warning the hallway right in front of my face flashed with a bright blue light.
I could vaguely make out a humanoid figure inside the blue light but that didn’t help much.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I panicked.
I AM ashamed to admit that I screamed like a little girl, shut my eyes tight and swung out a fist in fear.

The blue light I could still see through my closed eyelids died out almost instantly.
There was a grunt, a rather masculine sounding yell of pain and something hit the old cement floor heavily.

All my training, all the hard work I’ve put in for the last two days disappeared for a moment.
I should be able to do so much to protect myself now but all I could manage was a whimper of fear.

This is MY bunker!
I’m meant to be safe here!

“For powers sake Hannah, why’d ya hit me?”

The voice from the thing on the floor felt familiar but sounded annoyed.
It took my panic idled mind a moment to register where I’d heard it before.

My eyes flew open and I stared at the crumpled body glaring up at me from the floor clutching his nose in obvious pain.
With a gasp that was part relief and part surprise I sunk to the floor, leaning heavily against the wall to catch a ragged breath.

I stared at his red nose and grumpy face for a moment more before letting out a slightly manic laugh of relief.

John!
Of COURSE it’s John!

If anyone was going to find me in the one place I knew was truly secure and safe from everyone it just HAD to be John didn’t it?!

“What the hell are you doing here John?!”
He glared at me a little more and rubbed his nose almost sulkily.

“You disappeared for a few days without warning, what did you think was going to happen?”
He sighed and dropped his hand from his nose to lay in his lap awkwardly.

It really looks red, I must have got a real good hit in on him there.. I.. I’m not sure why I’m conflicted between feeling sorry for that and just laughing at him instead..

“Trudy rushed to your house in a panic. She set Sarah off, who set your Mum off. Your mum contacted her family, Sarah contacted her big butter-ball friend Tor.”

I winced and diverted my eyes down to stare at my feet guiltily.
I didn’t think they’d react THAT badly..

“It wasn’t until I went around your house to check on you yesterday morning that they thought to mention you were missing to me..ME,you know.. the ONLY person who has a unblockable way to track you anywhere?..”
I winced again and had to resist the urge to move my hand down my back to self-consciously scratch the ‘don’t lie about your feelings’ brand he put on me in the temple.

“I’ll give you points for creativity. I got in this.. can you call this place a town?.. I got here last night but it took me a while to work out just how the hell you were apparently several meters down underneath a plain concrete floor in an abandoned tower block.”
He winced this time and glanced up a little at the ceiling.
“Can’t say much for your neighbours, a load of druggies and drunks.. all spoke Russian too. In the end I got frustrated and mesmerised the lot of them into leaving.”

He must have caught my frown despite the fact that I was purposefully not looking at him because he scoffed and folded his arms defensively over his chest.

“Oh please, they were wasting their lives here anyway! I added a compulsion to avoid narcotics of any kind for the next few years too, so it’s not like I didn’t help them in exchange!”
He shifted his eyes away from me and huffed to himself.
“.. I knew you’d get annoyed if I didn’t..”

My lips twitched a little despite myself.

He did that for me.
I know Max and I know John too.
Neither of them would normally have bothered trying to help those people, especially if he was already in a bad mood.

“Thanks for not hurting them..”
He scoffed again and glared at me but there was no heat to it this time.

“You can thank me by coming home quickly. I promised that sister of yours I’d bring you back by tonight, she’s pretty scary when she wants to be.. for a non-mage at least..”
I didn’t bother trying to hide the giggle that slipped out at the idea of Sarah threatening John over me.
It felt silly in concept but I could easily see it happening.
Sarah’s got a pretty healthy fear of most mages, which is completely rational, but she DOES tend to forget to be afraid of things if she’s angry enough.

“I was going to come home today anyway.”
He paused and stared at me hard for a moment.

“Why’d you run off like that?”

I hissed in a breath between my teeth and nervously fiddled with my hands.
I really don’t want to explain it to him.
I barely understand everything that’s going on in my head at the moment and I’m not sure how John will handle me telling him that I’m not technically ‘Al’ after that big speech he gave about losing his best friend the other day..

“I don’t have to tell you..”
He shot me an almost playful glare this time which is a step up at least.

“You want to though. You never say you ‘don’t have to do’ something unless you already know that you WANT to do it.”

His damn smug smile annoyed me for a moment.
It wasn’t Max’s sharp smug look, definitely more of a ‘teenaged John’ look.
The same look he used to give me when he thought he’d outsmarted me in some way.

“I want to do a lot of things when you’re involved but I resist them all the time, this can be one of them.”
I perked an eyebrow up at him challengingly and my lips twitched into a hint of a smile.
He smiled back.

After a moment he gave a dramatic shrug in return.

“Have it your way..”
He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“So.. there are a lot of ‘things’ you want to do involving me huh?”
I caught the potential double meaning a second later and blushed so hard it felt like my ears were burning.

“..Pervert..”

He waggled his eyebrows again.
His smile was kind of infectious, I found myself copying it, just a little.

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a man appreciating true beauty when he sees it..”
It felt like he was quoting someone there but I have no idea who it could be if he was.
It didn’t help my blush anyway.

..Stupid, traitorous new body!..

I should in NO way find it flattering to be complimented on my looks considering this isn’t even my face!
The fact that it’s John is even worse, and slightly creepy considering the way he acted before.
..Try telling my blushing cheeks that though!..

I didn’t say anything to argue the point though.
Knowing John, he’d only take it as a challenge anyway.

We both settled into a light, comfortable silence for a second and smiled awkwardly at each other again.

The moment was broken when a heavy clump of what sounded like cement crashed to the floor outside the door.
We both jumped a little and turned to stare at it in surprise.

“ah.. sorry about that.. second time this week I’ve broken through the front of a building to reach you faster.. this is quickly becoming a bad habit.”
He sniggered at his own joke and I felt a giggle bubble up in response but squished it as best I could.

It took me a moment to get this suddenly appearing, annoying, new ‘giggle reflex’ firmly under control again.
When I managed it I fixed him with a semi-serious stare.

“This was my favorite hiding place, ya know? It’s pretty much useless now. Someone’s bound to come investigate where all the ex-druggies came from if nothing else..”
He shrugged a little and shot me a grin that I think he intended to look in some way endearing.

Needless to say it didn’t work.

“We can move your stuff into one of my places, for storage, until you have a new hiding place at least.”
I frowned at him and shot a cautious glance back at the main room.
I know we’re trying to do this whole ‘trusting John’ thing and all.. but.. some of those books..
If Max got his hands on some of those books I dread to think what could happen.

It’s nice to think that there’s this big divide between them where John is a completely separate person from Max but it’s simply not true.

As far as I can see, John is what happens when Max is calm and feeling playful.
I’ve seen nothing indicating that I’m wrong in that opinion so far.

“I take it you have a ‘library of the forbidden’ back there huh?”
I shot him a dirty look.

..mind-reading asshole..

“Oh please, every awakened mage has a ‘library of the forbidden’ somewhere. It’s like a rite of passage as you get older”
He pushed himself to his feet and jogged off deeper into the bunker.

I clumsily scrambled to my feet to chase after him.

“Damn it John, leave my books alone!”
He just laughed and disappeared around the doorframe into my study room.

By the time I’d caught up to him he was already half way down the second shelf running his finger along the titles with an amused look on his face.
The moment he spotted me he started speaking his thoughts aloud.
His tone of voice made it pretty obvious that he was in some way mocking me.

“Got it, got it, got it, I have the original print of this one!.. got it, got it..”

He paused for a second and cocked an eyebrow in surprise as a wide smile spread across his face.
Before I could work out what amused him so much he yanked a book from the shelves and brandished it at my nose like a sword.

“The modern mages guide to sex, maximum female pleasure edition?”
His grin looked almost painful as he stared at me, his eyes demanding an answer to the unspoken accusation.

“Give me that!”
I snatched it from his hand and tossed it over onto the mattress.
Even knowing that he was doing it on purpose to get a rise out of me I couldn’t really fight down the blush that seemed determined to turn my face into a tomato!

“Get out of here John.. and leave my damn books alone!”

He gave a non-committal grunt but he’d already turned back to the bookshelf.
This time he seemed to be trying to take it all in at a glance.

I opened my mouth to yell at him again but he spun back to me and raised his arms in surrender.

Almost too casually he made his way out of the room and into my little kitchen area.
“Homemaking for the hopeless? How to kill a dragon with a kind smile? Is it legal to get ‘familiar’ with your familiar?..”
He didn’t seem capable of wiping the stupid amused look off his face.

“Shut up..”
My ears feel like they’re on fire!

“Okay, I’ll admit it, you had me going for a minute there.. How long have you been planning this? You didn’t do this whole disappearing act just to pull a prank on me, did you?”

My head snapped up so quickly to stare at him that my neck hurt a little bit.
What is he..
..oh..
..oh that’s too good!..

..I’m not this lucky, am I?..

“The look on your face would have been worth it if I had, but no, I just needed to get away and clear my head a bit, ya know?”
He nodded as if he understood.

I had to resist the urge to sigh in relief.

That could have been embarrassing.
I realised pretty quickly in my ‘study’ time over the last few days that a lot of the books that Al considered dangerous or in desperate need of protecting from the world are a bit.. stupid?
Or embarrassing..
Or highly inappropriate..

I still can’t remember where half of them came from!

I think I-
I think AL used to just grab every book he could get his hands on when missions were over.
I’m pretty sure he never got around to actually sorting through them all at least.

I’d like to think I’d remember sorting through all of THAT lot if nothing else!

“Is it even worth moving any of this stuff?”
John picked up my coffee can and sniffed it disdainfully.
I sighed, self-consciously running a hand up to my hair and catching it a little in the messy tangles up there.
A yelp of pain came out of my mouth as I tried to pull my fingers lose.

After a moment I gave up and went for the easy option instead.
With a pull from my core and swirl of the built up magic in my body I let off a relatively small golden dome.

My control’s gotten a lot better over the last few days.
It’s hard to concentrate on reading when you’re bubbling over with excess magic, so after the first time I ended up wasting a few hours blissing out on the mattress, I spent a while focusing on giving off smaller, more regular bursts of magic instead of the big overwhelming ones.

On the plus side I’ve worked out the approximate thresholds for the different effects I seem to produce with the diversion so I can decide what should happen..sometimes.
The burst I just let off is enough to clean me and my clothes up in general.
I wanted it for my hair obviously, with its new length I get atrocious bed-head in the morning now. It’s nice to be able to clean myself without going all out or leaving myself a quivering pile of joy on the floor.

John watched me with a bit of surprise as my hair smoothed itself out into silky strands.
I pulled my hand out of it just in time to feel it fluff up with body and light curls.

“That is possibly the weirdest spell I’ve ever seen..”
He didn’t seem to notice my glare, he appeared to be stuck on staring at my hair in slight awe.
“It’s like a healing spell but there’s.. I don’t know.. it’s WEIRD..”
My glare went up another notch.

I do NOT like being referred to as being in any way ‘weird’!

“My hair was a mess.. drop it!”
My voice must have dropped an octave or two into something scary because he quickly leaned away from me and nodded hard in agreement as if I’d threatened him.

“Back to the topic at hand, you’re right, most of this is junk. I have a few bits I want to take with me and I’m keeping the books too..”
My glare matched my tone, almost daring him to argue the point.

He didn’t argue.
His hands went up in a ‘surrender’ gesture again.

His lips still twitched slightly in amusement at the mention of the books though.

As much as I don’t want to admit it, he’s made his original point pretty well.
After thinking about it a little, my collection of books isn’t THAT impressive or dangerous.

It’s not surprising that he owns all the useful and non-stupid ones already too.
He’s had a lot longer to build up his collection, better sources to get books from as well.

When it comes to ancient and forbidden knowledge, it pays to be on the wrong side of the morality and sanity sadly..

“Make a bag of holding and we’ll head back to Klamath Falls then.”

I glared at him for that one, who does he think I am?
We don’t have the TIME for me to make a bottomless bag strong enough to hold all my books without having the enchantments rip themselves apart after a few minutes!
It takes DAYS to make that sort of thing.

He must have seen the disbelief on my face because he sighed heavily.
Picking up my coffee can again he took it over to the sink and washed it out.
When he deemed it clean enough he placed it on an open palm and ran two fingers of his other hand around the rim of the can.

As usual when John’s nearby I had my basic magic senses open.
I let out a gasp of surprise as I felt a build-up of power in the coffee can that seemed to come from nowhere.

He finished the circle around the rim with a flourish and gently flicked it with a single finger, making the can ring out a little.
I almost wish I had my magesight active, the power I felt building up faded to near nothing with no visible signs of why.

“Here.”
He sounded so casual as he held the can out to me.
“Put your books in there. Much better than a bag of holding, no-one ever thinks to check the coffee can.”

He can’t just!.. How the HELL did he!..

“What the hell?! You can’t just rub something and flick it to do an enchantment like that John!”
His face scrunched up in confusion.
“It’s against the rules of magic! ‘Method forms desire’, you can’t just push magic into something and make it do what you want!”

He stared at me with a look of total bewilderment on his face.

Why’s he so confused?!
HE’S the one that did something impossible!

You can’t just touch things and enchant them on the fly!
It requires time, effort and a lot of maths to get anything done with magic.
It’s one of the ‘Golden rules’.
You don’t get something for nothing.
The power of a spell is directly proportional to the method you use to cast it!

If you write out a ritual circle with crayon it will work but it will be barely a tenth of the power you would get from the same ritual if you wrote it using a specially blended chalk stick mixed with fluids specifically chosen to enhance the ritual!

‘Method forms desire’ is the short hand for it but the general point is that if you want something you have to build up symbolic connections and layer more of them on top of each other to guarantee the spell will go off well.

If that limit wasn’t true, why would we ever bother casting spells through our lines in the first place?!

Your lines are your body’s natural way of creating order from the chaos that is magic
While they help simplify things and make it easier to learn spells from others by offering a point of reference you can follow at first, they also limit the true potential of magic.

That’s why wild magic is so dangerous.
There are no limits to what wild magic can or will do at any one time, even when it’s being shaped or controlled by a mage!

======

“Breath Hannah..”
His words jolted me out of my near panic like a bucket of ice cold water.

I had to force my chest to heave a little until a breath finally burst out of me, leaving me to pant and try to recover from the lack of oxygen.

I stared at John with wide, lost eyes.
“How did you do that John? You.. I.. you BROKE magic!”

He laughed.
The asshole LAUGHED at me!

“It’s not funny!”

He sighed and fixed me with a serious look that stalled any more yells I could think to throw at him.
“You really have NO idea about magic do you?”

I glared at him hard.
It almost hurt to hear him say something like that.
Of course I know about magic!
I’m a mage too damn it!

I’m a locus point as well, even John can’t claim to be as powerful as that!

“I’ll let you in on a little secret Hannah..”
He moved into my personal space a bit and fixed me with that same unsettlingly serious stare from earlier.
“If you’re powerful enough.. the rules don’t apply..”

He stared hard into my eyes.
I flinched a little and took a step back.

That can’t be right.. magic.. magic has rules.
Stupid rules at times but they’re still rules!

“I’ll get your books, than we can get you back home.”
John seemed somehow disappointed by my reaction.
He trudged past me and into my study without another word.

After a moments pause I followed him.

He ran a finger along the spines of the books on my shelves casually.
As he moved along, the books he’d touched started moving from the shelves and slipping into the coffee can.
I didn’t think they would fit honestly.
Most, if not all of the books on these shelves are bigger in both width and height then the rim of the can.

That didn’t seem to matter though, the books came up to the can’s opening and seemed to almost shrink as they sank into it.
Within a minute he’d gathered all of the books while I stood by watching in awe.

“Anything else to add?”
I jumped a little at his voice but quickly moved around the room.

I don’t really feel comfortable at the moment.
I don’t understand how he’s doing this trick with the coffee can and it’s got me a little on edge..

I grabbed the photo-frames from the side table and watched as they slid into the coffee can without a fuss.
A few pieces of Al’s old discarded clothing joined them a moment later.

Out of curiosity more than need I grabbed the pillows and comforter from the mattress.
They didn’t even get slightly caught on the rim as I pushed them in, all without a hint of resistance.

John seemed to have gained back his earlier humor watching me test the limits of his strange coffee can ‘bag of holding’.

“Done?”

I glanced around the room once more and sighed to myself loudly.
I think that’s everything, everything important at least.

I guess.. it’s time to face the music?

“How annoyed is Sarah?”
His wince said more than an actual explanation could.
“If things kick off, are you more likely to help or make it worse for your own amusement?”
He tried to look offended for a moment but quickly gave it up to offer a naughty grin instead.

“I promise to act as a peacekeeper between both sides if things get bad.”

Huh.. better than I was expecting?..
At least he won’t actively be trying to make more trouble for me.

“That’s surprisingly mature of you.. thanks John.”
He shrugged and waved off my thanks as if they weren’t needed.

..I’m still not used to this side of him anymore..

“How are we getting back?”
He walked out into my kitchen area and cleared a space on the floor.

“Bulla warp, I set up a temporary marker just outside the ward line of your house.”

Good thinking.
Bulla warps are nice if you remember to prepare them.

Bulla is Latin for ‘Bubble’; they’re named after the way they work.
Unlike a normal warp they create a ‘bubble’ of magic around the caster before actually starting the warping process.
It’s a lot more stable and reliable in practice.

The only drawback is that you need to place down a marker before using it.
The marker you form will only work for you and they tend to fade after a few days or disappear after a single use.
You can’t have more than one active at any point either or else you can get confused and end up sending half of your atoms to one waypoint and half to the other one.. not a nice situation..

I tend to forget to put a marker down most of the time, it’s not hard to do but it’s also something that you have to be pretty paranoid to do often unless your planning for a quick return journey.
The last time I DID remember to place one down that actually came in handy was in Sarah’s hospital room before we went off looking for the ‘el diablo’ that turned out to be John.

I kind of wish I’d thought of it when I was at home, it could have made escaping the handy man a lot easier.
Yet again I was comfortable and didn’t see the need to bother.. sloppy rookie mistake..

“Hold on tight.”

He put the coffee can into my hands and draped an arm around my shoulders.
Normally I’d get angry at him for doing it but Physical contact with anyone you’re bringing along in a Bulla warp helps a lot.

He squeezed my slightly tighter.
I took in a gasp of breath and held it hard.
It helps to fight off motion sickness at the other end.

For a moment a nearly invisible bubble formed up around us and then the world turned blue.

======

“Ugg..”

The world came back together leaving us in a tree lined area I vaguely recognise as being down the hill from our house, closer to the resort.
I think I used to take a shortcut through here to get the bus in the morning.

My knees gave out and I ended up staring at the ground, trying not to throw up.
I HATE being the passenger while warping.

It’s one of the few things that brings on my motion sickness these days..
Well.. that, riding on a Gryphon, airplanes in general and Sarah’s insane driving..

I’ll admit it doesn’t SEEM like a short list when you put it that way, but it’s better than it used to be when I was little at least!

“You want to take a break?”
I shot John a sideways glance.
He wasn’t being sarcastic, despite the amusement in his voice.

“I’ll be okay.”

I vented a little magic from my lines, just enough to take the edge off the ill feelings.
John frowned at me but didn’t say anything about it.

“When we get to your house I’ll go in first. If you go in without giving some kind of warning Sarah’s likely to try to strangle you or something.”
His lips twitched up a little.

I’m not sure if he was joking or not sadly.
Knowing Sarah as well as I do.. she’s just about as likely to smother me in hugs and kisses the moment she sees me as she is to strangle me at this point.
She’s never really been predictable with her reactions to stress, especially when I’m involved.

..Oh well, no use worrying about it now..

I needed some time away to clear my head a little and gather together some trump-card spells in case of emergencies so the trip was kind of unavoidable eventually.
I just happened to pick a bad time to freak out and decided to use the chance while I had it.

I’m nowhere near done yet.
Improving yourself has to be a constant job, the moment you stop improving your skills you get comfortable and then you get sloppy..

Ignoring the slight frustration I could feel building up in my chest for having allowed myself to get ‘sloppy’ lately, I glanced around us to get my bearings.

“Lead on MacDuff!”
I waved past John through the trees in the general direction of our house.

He snorted in amusement but didn’t argue with me.
I know the phrase is wrong and it’s actually misquoted from Macbeth but the phrase has a meaning of its own these days.

I have no doubt it was a mistake at first, probably used because someone messed up the original line and didn’t want to admit it.
That tends to happen a lot with language if you live long enough to see a few generations worth of changes go by.

“Lady’s first..”
He lifted his hand ahead of us and tucked his other arm behind his back like a nobleman of old.
After a moments consideration I gently slipped my hand into his and gave a curtsy worthy of the French courts.

We lasted a few seconds of formality before we both smiled at each other and dropped the act to walk side by side up the hill instead.

It’s nice to have someone who not only gets my weird moments but understands where they tend to come from too.
I got the curtsy from Anise’s memories, I have no doubts he got the nobleman pose from Max’s too.

Without moving my head I shot a glance at John.

He seemed to be relaxed and content as we walked up the hill in silence.
I shifted a hip slightly and bumped him as he took his next step forward.
For a moment he wobbled but eventually managed to stagger back into some form of stability without landing flat on his face.

I’d expected him to glare at me or something but, if anything, he just seemed more amused.
He cut his eyes over to me and let a hint of a smile cross his face.

..It really is nice to have someone around that gets me, to some degree..

======

“Stay here”
I opened my mouth to argue but ended up closing it with a huff.

We agreed that he would go in first.
I just don’t like being treated like a semi-obedient puppy..

John disappeared into the house for a moment.
I’d barely managed to shift my hips into a more comfortable position to wait for him before the door burst open again and Sarah came sprinting from the house.

For a crucial moment I hesitated.

The look on her face was really confusing.
I couldn’t work out if she was happy or angry, I don’t think she could either at this point honestly.

My hesitation came back to haunt me when she hit the path in front of me and kicked off in a diving tackle that threw us both onto the grass.
Luckily instinct, and some remnants of my training, kicked in because I managed to roll us with the movement to avoid too much pain.

We came to a stop slightly down the slope of our garden with me on top.

Sarah panted hard for a moment and then gave an almighty heave to the left.
I let out a yelp as my back hit the ground again and she shifted her legs to keep me pinned underneath her.

“What the HELL did you think you were doing huh?!”
Her voice came out as an angry growl but her eyes looked more sad and worried than anything else.

“I had to get away for-”
The glare that bloomed on her face made my weak defence trail off into silence.

“Twins protect Twins! You go running off somewhere, you take me with you damn it!”
I flinched a little at her yell but couldn’t exactly move away from her with my arms and legs pinned under her larger frame.
“You.. you scared me Han.. I had no idea WHAT was going through your head?!”
Her eyes seemed bright with unshed tears.
“Don.. Don’t EVER do that to me again!..”

She gave up all presence at that point, her arms gave out and she landed heavily on top of me.
She shifted and pulled me into a tight hug.

She cried for a while and held on to me as if I’d disappear the moment she let go.

With my arm’s now clear I shifted a little and cautiously moved them up to pat her on the back.
I’d hug her but I’m still stuck underneath her which makes that a difficult proposition.
Sarah settled down from full on crying into sniffles pretty quickly after that but didn’t let me go in the slightest.

We just kind of lay there on the grass, I think she needs the comfort that physical contact is providing most at this point honestly.

======

“Arista Hannah Margaret Cooper!”

..Uh oh..
When did I gain another middle name??

“Just WHAT did you think you were doing young lady?!”
Mum stamped her way out into the garden, hands on hips and face set in a fierce scowl.

“You disappeared! For DAYS! No call, no note, no.. no ANYTHING!”

Sarah eased her death grip on me and rolled to the side to get out of the line of fire.
Never let it be said my sister is dumb, she knows when to run away from danger.. most of the time at least..

“YOU are GROUNDED Missy!”

..what?..
..No seriously.. what?!.

“No TV! No phone calls! No books! No magic!.. for.. for a month!”
Mum stumbled over her words a little at the end there for some reason.

Is she seriously trying to ground me?!

I’m an ADULT damn it!
She can’t GROUND me!

“Don’t give me that look! Your sixteen, I know you think your know better but you don’t!”
Her hands balled into angry fists on her hips.
“I’ve been too lenient with you lately; I never would have let Sarah get away with all the lies and hiding things that you’ve been trying to pull off lately!”
She finally came to a stop in front of me and glared hard.
“Well that stops NOW! You’re going to get your butt in that house, pack your bags and be ready to leave within the hour!”

..what?..
Is.. is she kicking me out?.. again..

Not again!
Not now.. now that we’ve finally started reconnecting in some messed up way!.. not-

“We’re going to the farm early, I called your Grandma for help finding you and she’s just as angry as I am young lady! You just WAIT until she gets her hands on you!”

Oh.. oh.. that’s..
Well, it’s not ‘good’ but at least she isn’t.. ya know?..

“Get moving!”
I jumped at her final shout and instinctively scrambled to my feet.

With a cautious look back at Sarah, who seemed to be trying to blend into the ground somewhat unsuccessfully, I trudged my way towards the house under the watchful eye of mum.

John stood near the backdoor with his arms folded.
Judging by the slight upturn to his lips he found the sight of me being treated like a child somewhat amusing.

“Wipe that smug look off your face Max, you’re coming too! My mother wants a word with the pair of you. Don’t argue, I already cleared it with Lily and Jim.”

I didn’t smile!
I felt amused enough by the stunned look that came over John’s face to smile but I didn’t, honest!

There are times when you don’t smile and this is one of them.
The last thing I need is Mum to notice.. she’d probably go off on another rant and ground me for life at this point!

..I can’t believe she’s GROUNDING me..

As I made my way upstairs to my new room my anger built up to a point that I could feel my magic bubbling away, begging to be let loose.

This is SO not fair!
She can’t GROUND me!
I’m twenty-four years old!

I needed to get away for a few days to calm down that’s all.

She can’t PUNISH me for that!
I’ve been doing it for years, just like this, and no-ones even batted an eyelash before!

By the time I reached my room I was stomping my feet, I could feel it, but I didn’t particularly care enough to stop doing it.

How DARE she ground me!

SHE kicked ME out!
She lost the right to ground me years ago!

I glanced at the suitcase she’d left out for me to use on the bed and, after a moments consideration, gave it a shove so it fell loudly to the floor.
I know it’s petty but doing something felt better than nothing at this point, no matter how small the act of rebellion was.

My hands snagged the expanded bag that Edith gave me the other day from the foot of my bed.
I tossed it hard onto the bed and yanked it open angrily.

‘No books’.. yeah right!

She doesn’t know about THESE books at least!
I’ll have to thank Edith the next time I see her.

I opened my top draw and started gabbing bundles of underwear from inside to toss into the bag.

When I had all my draws clear I glanced at the bag thoughtfully.
I shifted my eyes to look at my wardrobe and back at the bag again.

It seems a shame to have an expanded bag and not at least TRY to fill it up, right?

The moment I had the wardrobe open I reconsidered my plan for a second.
There’s a LOT of clothes crammed in here at this point.
I’m pretty sure Mum’s been adding things when I’m not looking.
I don’t recognise half of the girly crap in here!

My eyes settled on the jeans I’d fought so hard to get the other day, folded up haphazardly at the bottom under all the other neatly hung stuff.

..It would be petty..
A childish sort of revenge honestly.. but..
SHE’S the one who wants to treat me like a child after all.. right?..

I cautiously made my way to the door and checked that the coast was clear.
I know exactly where to look too.
Mum may have purged the house of all things ‘Al’ years ago in her anger but I don’t think she knows about the box of old stuff I had tucked away in the attic!

She wants to treat me like a stroppy teenager?
She’ll GET a teenager!

======

It still amazes me how light this expanded bag is, considering I’ve got enough clothes to keep a family of five from needing to do a wash-load for a week shoved inside it at the moment.

I know the magic principles behind it and could quote them from memory if needed, but like a lot of things with magic there’s a difference between when you know ABOUT something and when you KNOW about it.
Experiencing the effects of a pretty impressive charm like this first hand is far more impressive then knowing what laws of physics it breaks and how!

I let the bag thump loudly down the stairs behind me and shuffled my way towards the kitchen.

I didn’t make bad time, considering I spent fifteen minutes in the attic searching for the right box!

Just as I reached the clear area by the kitchen Sarah walked out of it.
She took one look at me and sucked in a sharp breath of surprise.

“Are you INSANE..?!”
She shot over to my side and tried to lift my sweatshirt over my head as if taking it off at this point would make much of a difference.

While the clothes were a bit musty from age, a brief flash of my ‘fix-it’ golden aura cleared them up good as new.
From head to toe I’m in vintage ‘teenaged Al’ clothing.

Admittedly I kept a pair of my new undies and a sports-bra on under it all but I put a pair of boxer-shorts and a vest over them so TECHNICALLY I’ve got everything on correctly.

My.. Al’s favourite sneakers are a little loose on my dainty new feet so I had to pad them out by wearing three pairs of his old thick wool socks on my feet until they felt snug.

His jeans are far too baggy and long, I had to make several new holes in the belt and tighten it to a degree even I think is stupid before the jeans would stop slipping off my hips.

The legs got a similar treatment, it feels like I had to roll almost half of the legs into thick turn-ups before they stopped dragging on the floor as I walked.

The T-Shirt is really baggy, it drapes down almost to my knees.

It’s one of my old ‘Klamath Pelicans’ baseball shirts.
I used to love this thing.. for the year I actually got to play on the team at least..

I didn’t hit a growth spurt by the year after and coach had to drop me for players who had.. ya know.. muscles and stuff..
..STILL.. the colors nice at least!

It feels like Klamath Union High School liked to show off their ‘patriotic’ red and white on everything they could.

Over the top of THAT I’ve got Al’s favourite old hooded sweatshirt.
It swamps me obvious, I had to roll the sleeves up and it almost looks like a rather tacky dress with the length but it’s comfortable!.. AND it will piss Mum off too!
Serves her right for treating me like a kid!

“Han, hey don-”
I wiggled out of Sarah’s grip and made a break for the backdoor.

The moment I got out into the summer sun I let out a sigh.
I placed a rough enchantment on the vest and boxer-shorts to help deal with the heat of wearing so many layers.
I’m glad they worked.
As an added bonus I shouldn’t have to worry about the heat on the ride to wherever this ‘farm’ place is either, it’s like I’ve got my own personal air-conditioner build in under my clothes!

Sarah tried to stop me again but I shifted away from her hand and sprinted onto the grass around the side of the house.
I’m glad the expanded bag is so light, if it was any heavier she would have caught up to me when I reached the hill leading to our driveway.

The moment I crested the hill John spotted me.
He froze half way through loading a suitcase into the back of mum’s station wagon and his mouth dropped open a little.

I shot him a superior smirk and with a deft flick I perfected years ago I managed to get the hood of my sweatshirt to fly up and land over my head without touching it.
I let go of the expanded bag, shoved both my hands into the gaping pocket at the front of the sweatshirt and made my way over to him.
I could hear Sarah coming up behind me fast but the look on John’s face was just FAR too amusing to stop now.

“..Sup dude..”

For one long moment John’s eyes bulged a little at the greeting.
I’d grumbled those same words out as we met up outside school every morning for years.
He seemed to realise what I was doing pretty quickly because his face split into a mischievous grin.

He let the suitcase go, leaving it sticking awkwardly out of the trunk.
It shifted a little but to my surprise it didn’t fall somehow.

He closed the last few steps between us and rubbed his hand down hard on the hood, messing up my hair in the process.

I don’t mind though.
..Nostalgia can take away the annoyance from a lot of things it seems..

“Borrowing your big brothers clothes again I see?”
In any other situation I’d at least glare at him for that comment but I know why he’s saying it.
He used to tease me with that exact same phrase every time I wore some baggy clothes to school.

We shared a momentary smile as our eyes connected.

I know I’ve said it already, but I’ve missed this.
It’s nice to have someone who knows where my weirdness comes from and accepts it for what it is.

Sarah finally caught up to us.

“Get that off before Mum see’s you!”
She frantically tried to yank my sweatshirt over my head but she paused when she saw the Pelicans shirt underneath.

Her moment of indecision and surprise coincided perfectly with Mum making her way out of the garage, another suitcase being dragged behind her.

“Max can you fit this one in t-”
She spotted me and froze.
“ARI!”
She sounded offended and angry.

GOOD!
Serves her right!
She wants to treat me like a rebellious teenager, that’s what she’s gonna get!

“Mother!”
I snapped back at her, my jaw twitching in amusement.

She took in a long, slow, frustrated breath and let go of the suitcase to walk closer to me.
She eyed up my outfit for a moment and finally settled on glaring at me.
I glared back, the challenge written on my face.

Go on! Say it!
What are you going to do?
You already GROUNDED me!

“Get in the car.”
Her voice was lacking in any emotion but I could see a strange jumble of them flit across her eyes for a second.
I opened my mouth to argue but before I could her eyes hardened and her glare went up another notch.

“NOW young lady!”

My legs started moving before my brain quite caught up with them.
After a moment’s hesitation I carried on towards the car, my body slouched over moodily.
Turning back after she managed to get such an obvious reaction out of me would just look pathetic at this point.
Better to choose my battles.

I already won this round with the clothes anyway.

I know that SHE knows where they came from.
I know it’s probably annoying her every second that I’m wearing them.. annoying her more than the idea of being ‘grounded’ is annoying me right now at least!

I popped the door on the left-rear side of the car open and slid in, slamming it hard afterwards.
My body huddled up to the now closed door and I rolled down the window to let some air in.
With a huff that even I thought seemed childish I set my chin on my arm and stared out at the tree’s lining the road.

Everyone else seemed focused on getting stuff packed and loaded but I stayed in the car like I was told to.
It’s not like I can help much anyway, I’m grounded after all, no magic allowed.

They have John though, so it’s not like they NEED my help for that sort of thing right now.

======

The car rocked as John slammed the trunk shut.
He moved around to the right-hand side and popped the door open.

For a moment he peered in at me cautiously.

I shot him a disdainful look but couldn’t fight back the slight smile that came when he leaned back out of the doorway clutching his heart as if he’d been shot by my glare.
At least someone’s having fun with this whole mess..

I can’t believe I thought coming home after a few days ‘studying abroad’- Definitely NOT hiding, I was STUDYING damn it! -I can’t believe I thought I could just breeze back in with a minor telling off from Sarah..

I forgot about Mum.. well.. not so much ‘forgot’ as.. discounted her I guess?..
She’s not had a say in my life for so long and I’ve spent a LONG time learning to not think about her when possible.
It’s weird having to add her back into situations.

It’s even weirder that she actually CARES what happens to me now!

I know that she doesn’t really KNOW that I was Al before.. even if that fact in-itself is up for debate at this point.. but she’s still overreacting!
I bet if I was a boy she wouldn’t have even noticed!

..She never did when I was a teenager the first time around..

Half the times I did a ‘favor’ for Sarah as we got older it consisted of dressing up as her and killing an evening in her room under mum’s not-so-watchful eye while she was out doing whatever she was doing.

Mum never even thought, in all that time before we got caught, to question where ‘Al’ was.
She never seemed to go check on me, even if she did she would have found an empty room but she never bothered questioning that either..

..It hurts..

It hurts that she cares so much now when she didn’t before..
It hurts that she’s treating me like some stupid emotional teenager!
It hurts.. it hurts that she might have a point?..

I didn’t plan properly when I left.
I reacted emotionally to the situation and used my magic to escape without thinking.

I stayed away using flawed logic that was more an attempt to vindicate my decisions then it was ACTUAL logic!

I.. I don’t like this..

I miss being Al.
Everything was simpler when I was Al.
He never had these kinds of problems!

The only person Al had to worry about was Sarah, even then it was only enough to make sure she didn’t get herself killed!

I shot a glance over at John.
He seemed to be waiting for me to notice him again.
My eyes trailed over him for a second and, much to my frustration, I liked what I saw.

When he’s not being an arrogant, selfish, crap spewing idiot!.. just.. I dunno.. the understanding warm little smile on his face is reassuring, ya know?..

I looked away from him and stared out the window hard.
I could hear him shuffle in his seat a little but didn’t look back.

“Are you going to be okay?”
His hand rested gently on my exposed forearm to get my attention.

“..Yeah..”

I didn’t look back at him.
I know he wants me to.. but not right now.

The last few days have been so nice and peaceful.
All I had was my thoughts to contend with and they were easy to drown out if I read enough books.

I’m not used to him being here like this.. I was only gone a few days but it’s thrown me off completely with just how different everything is now..

John shifted on the seat again and his free arm gently moved down to go around my shoulders.
I went ramrod straight and shot my head around to glare at him.

The glare eased as I saw the open look on his face.
He wasn’t making a move on me or something stupid like that.
He was.. he was just..

I felt my eyes blur a little before I realised what I was doing.
My next breath came out in a ragged huff that made my lips tremble.

His hand on my shoulder squeezed a little and he gave me a soft pull towards himself.
That was all I needed.

I rolled my body into his hug and buried my face in his shoulder.
..At least like this he can’t see me cry..

I hate this stupid body.
I hate this stupid life!
I hate.. I HATE..

“shh..”
He rocked me a little awkwardly in the seat and squeezed just a little bit more on his hug.
“It’ll be okay. If the worst comes to the worst, we can warp out and make a break for Mexico.. I hear it’s easy to find a new life on the run there..”

Despite myself.. despite the tears and the frustration and.. and the pain..
I snorted out a little giggle at his words.

“There we go..”
His breath hitched in his chest for a moment.
He’s trying to hide it but he was silently laughing too.

A smile spread on my face and I couldn’t resist burying it back into his shoulder a little harder.
I don’t want him to see me smiling because he said something stupid to cheer me up.. he already knows it worked but it’s the principle of the thing!

We stayed huddled up together like that for a while.
I shifted my body into a more comfortable position and stretched out in the warm sunlight streaming through the car’s side window.
..I shouldn’t find this as nice as I do..

My head shifted a little more and John gently brushed a lose strand of hair back so it wouldn’t drape annoyingly across my face.. it was kind of sweet of him..

His magic feels nice too.. I’ve not felt him this calm and content before.
..He has really comfortable magic when he’s calm..

I sniffed in a deep breath and let it out in one long gust.

I’m not sure how long we stayed like that but I know at some point I drifted off into a nap with a smile on my face.
..The smile probably didn’t leave, even after I fell asleep honestly..

======

“That’s adorable..”

I jolted up in surprise at the sudden voice.
My head jerked around to stare out the window and I came nose to nose with Sarah.
She had her phone out, having obviously just taken a photo of us, and her eyes were bright with glee.

Before I could yell at her John grunted and gave me a tug.

I yelped a little when his tug pulled me off balance and I ended up crashing into him.
His nose met my forehead with a painful ‘thump’.

It seemed to take him a moment to realise what had happened.
His hand shot off my back and came up with his other one to cup his nose while he shouted out in pain.

“Ugg, damn it Hannah! What have you got against my nose?!”
I puffed up angrily and glared back at him.

“What makes you think it was MY fault?!”

He lowered his face a little, just enough that he could look at me through squinted eyes.
“Who else is it likely to be..?”
His grumbled words were flat.
I could hear the disbelief just pouring from his tone of voice.

“Argh!”
With a growled yell I shoved him hard so he ended up rocking sideways and falling across the backseat in a messy sprawl.
“You’re such an ASS!”

He didn’t get up straight away.
He seemed more focused on grumbling to himself and fiddling with his hurt nose.

Sarah snorted in amusement which really didn’t help things.

“Don’t YOU start either!”
She stepped away from the window and put her hands up in surrender.
She still looked like she found the whole thing funny though.

..Stupid Sarah!.. Stupid John!..

I huffed to myself and folded my arms over my chest.
After another awkward second I shifted my arms again so they were below my chest.
..stupid body.. can’t even fold my arms right!..

Sarah giggled quietly to herself and popped the passenger side door open so she could get in.
She tried to catch my eye in the rear-view mirror but I purposefully looked away from her and stared out at the trees.

Mum chose that moment to come out of the house.

She made her way around the car and slid into the driver’s seat with a sigh.
I could feel her eyes on me for a moment but didn’t turn around.

My arms tightened slightly under my chest and I grit my teeth down a little harder.
Let her stare!

I’m not apologising for wearing some clothes she disapproves of!
If I’m being petty and childish then so is SHE!

I could hear Mum sigh after a long moments pause, but she finally turned on the engine.

John groaned a little as the car shook into motion, I can tell he’s faking it at this point though.
He just wants attention.. most likely he wants me to apologise and baby him a little.

Here I was thinking I was the childish one!

Sarah made a noise from the passenger seat.
She seemed to be trying to get my attention too.

What is this?!
I go away for a few days and suddenly, look who’s the popular one everyone wants to talk to?!

..Yeah.. I know it’s not funny but I feel a bit better by making light of it all..

After a long awkward silence as Mum pulled us onto the street and started up the stretch to the crossing Sarah finally cracked.
She reached out and flicked the radio on.

Naturally mum had it tuned to some soppy ‘oldies’ station with a man crooning away about love or something but none of us really cared enough to talk about changing it.

As we turned right at the crossing and made our way towards the resort I shuffled a little deeper into my corner of the car.

This is going to be a fun journey!
I hope this ‘farm’ place is nearby.

Knowing my luck it’ll be on the far side of the moon AND Mum will want to ‘talk’ the entire way!

I shot a glare over at John.
He’s still moping about, looking for sympathy.
I pushed my foot sideways and nudged his leg to get his attention.

He looked up at me with hopeful eyes but they dimmed when he saw the unamused look on my face.
With a, seemingly monumental, effort he pushed himself up into a sitting position and shuffled over so he could belt himself in properly.

I KNEW he was faking it!

“..Asshole..”
It felt like I barely breathed the word but I knew he’d catch it.
His eyebrow perked up and he shot me an amused look.

“..Abusive Bitch..”

My face unintentionally split into a wide smile.
I shifted a little to turn my body away from him and cupped a hand over my mouth to hide the smile as I stared out the window at all the tree’s whipping by.

It’s nice to have someone who understands my kind of crazy again.
..Even if it HAS to be John of all people..