Trash Panda

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

As he pulled out of his driveway, Paxton began sorting out what he would say to Emily White if his wish had come true. Unfortunately, it seemed like smooth words weren’t part of being a great lacrosse player because he couldn’t think of any good lines… or any lines at all. Maybe just asking her out again would suffice since he was supposedly the most talented player in the school? Emily didn’t seem like the type to care much about how she was asked, so long as the person who did the asking fit her high standards.

Paxton was so busy mulling this over that when Mirajane suddenly appeared beside him, he nearly jumped out of his skin. He swerved slightly, almost grazing the car on his left, and shot the other driver an apologetic look. The man just glared at him and muttered something to himself. Whatever he said, Paxton could guess the man wasn’t complimenting his driving skills. He looked away embarrassedly and slowed his car to let the man pass him. What a fine way to start off the morning.

He shot Mirajane a glare, but the genie seemed completely oblivious to his blunder, as she was busy exploring his car. Paxton bit his lip. He had been about to admonish her for startling him like that, but it really wasn’t her fault. She probably couldn’t tell where she was from inside the lamp, so she wouldn’t have known he was driving. Plus, he was the one who overreacted when she appeared beside him. He made a mental note to remember that she could leave her lamp without his summons.

“If I may ask, just what exactly is this?” Mirajane said suddenly. “How can such a large metal box, even one with four wheels, move itself so quickly?”

Paxton found himself smiling at her curiosity, “This ‘large metal box’ is called a car, and if I were to explain to you exactly how it works, we would be here for an hour or more. In a nutshell, though, it’s powered by an engine that uses gas and electricity. I control it from inside. There’re two pedals on the floor that I press with my foot to make the car stop or go, and I change the direction with this wheel.” He paused. He had no idea how long Mirajane had been sealed away in her lamp. From the sound of her question, she wasn’t familiar with cars at all, which would mean that she hadn’t seen daylight since before the twentieth century. He glanced at her a bit sheepishly, “Um, does that make any sense?”

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Serix nodded thoughtfully as he listened to Cassie’s explanation about the marshmallows. She watered it down like it wasn’t a big deal, but he was still impressed that the humans engineered artificial foods like that. Was there anything they couldn’t do? He still had to wonder why they would make something so sweet, though. Humans really did have a strange taste for sugar if they enjoyed foods like the marshmallows they had showed him at the bonfire. He much preferred the natural fruits they grew in their farms.

When they got back to their room, Cassie immediately went to lie down on the bed, “Tonight was really fun.”

“It was,” Serix agreed, sitting down next to her. He had enjoyed the night as well, because it was the first time he had really felt accepted by the humans. He knew there were probably still some who were giving him hostile looks at the bonfire, but he had been too distracted by the friendlier people to notice. This was perfectly fine. He had never expected every single human to like him, but there were finally enough that the caves were almost beginning to feel like home.

Well, there was still the annoyance of Ryan’s persistent advances towards his mate, but Serix could handle that. It was Hunter who continued to cause the faint flutter of worry in the back of his mind. He still couldn’t shake the feeling that the human was stalking him like prey. It was unsettling to know that even if Hunter was plotting something, he wouldn’t be able to know when or where it would happen. He wished he could just take a quick peek into his mind to see what was going on in there, but he didn’t know how to do it without Hunter knowing. Only the highest ranking Lunairans learned how to read thoughts without giving their mental presence away to the target, and Serix was never one of them. So for now, he would just have to hope that Hunter really had given up and focus on the ones who were friendly towards him.

Serix laid down next to Cassie with a sigh, “You know, these humans aren’t half bad once you get used to them. I think we’re finally working out a mutual tolerance of each other.” He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and smiled playfully. “And who knows? Maybe I can use my natural charm to build off of that tolerance and win them over like I did you.”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

“Night,” Paxton said when the genie withdrew to her lamp home. He sighed and leaned back on his bed. She might have still been cold towards him, but at least he didn’t have to worry about finding her a place to stay in his room. It would have been a hassle to steal a sleeping bag from the garage without making his family suspicious, and he doubted he would have been able to sleep at all while knowing there was a girl in the room with him, even if she wasn’t human. So in the end, it was probably for the best that Mirajane rejected his offer this time.

He spent a short while getting ready for bed and then turned off the lights, climbing back on top of the mattress wearily. The weight of everything that had happened that day finally came crashing down on him. He had been publicly rejected by the most popular girl in school, he had gone to a creepy magic shop and found a real genie, and said genie didn’t seem to have granted his wish. In all, it had been a thoroughly exhausting day, so he had no trouble passing out that night.

--

Paxton went through his morning rituals with unusual haste. He wanted to get to school as quickly as he could to see if Mirajane’s claims were true and she actually did make him the best lacrosse player in the school. As the reveal grew closer, his cynicism was beginning to give way to hopefulness. He had to keep reminding himself that there was always a chance that the genie lied to him, but still, his optimism persisted. He finally had a chance to win Emily over at last, even if it was a slim one.

He stuffed Mirajane’s lamp into his backpack before he headed out the door. He wanted to keep her with him just in case she wasn’t being completely truthful. He also didn’t want to leave her in his room for someone else to find. In all of his confusion the day before, he had forgotten to ask if other people could summon her by rubbing the lamp. It would have been bad if one of his parents accidentally discovered the genie while he was away at school, so he decided to play it safe and bring her with him.

Paxton climbed into his car, dropping his bag into the front passenger seat, and headed out.

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Serix threw Cassie a quizzical look when she handed him a bent strip of metal with a puffy white thing speared on the end. He continued to watch her while she proceeded to stick her own metal strip into the bonfire until the ‘marshmallow’ began to change colors. Then, she withdrew the strip and held out the brownish thing to him after letting it cool for a moment. He looked at it curiously. It was edible? He had never seen a food like that before. He wondered if it was part of some exotic plant on Earth.

His eyes widened when he took a bite of the marshmallow. He hadn’t been expecting the bland-looking thing to taste so sweet, but it was even more sugary than the Earth fruits he had tried. In fact, it was almost on the border of too sweet for his pallet. Humans had an incredible tolerance for sugar if they ate many foods like this. Still, it wasn’t bad, so he nodded at Cassie who was awaiting his reaction, “It’s… different from anything I’ve ever eaten before. We never had anything nearly this sweet back on my people’s ship. Plants on Earth must produce much more sugar than the ones we saved from Lunair to produce a taste like this.” He stuck his own metal strip into the fire to cook the marshmallow, but he overestimated the amount of time it would take for the food to turn brown. When he moved to pull it out of the flames, some of the fire continued to glow around the now-black marshmallow. He quickly blew it out and looked over the charred thing curiously. Well, no point in wasting food. He shrugged and ate the whole thing in one bite, and then turned to Cassie with a grin, “You know, I actually like it better this way.”

“Hey, the alien likes junk food, too,” Sarah laughed, walking up to them with Jerry and Quincy. She glanced at Cassie and beamed, speaking to her in an odd accent, “Oh, honey, you look darling.” She laughed and switched back to her normal voice. “Makeup suits you. You should wear it more often.”

“She’s trying to say you look pretty,” Jerry snorted and rolled his eyes. “She’s just not very good at it.”

“Oh, shut up,” Sarah replied with an equally sarcastic roll of her eyes. She sat down next to Cassie and dug through a bag of marshmallows to stick on her metal strip. She and Jerry continued to bicker good-humoredly and Quincy crossed over to kneel by Serix. The male leaned in close to his face, staring at him with an unreadable expression. Serix shifted his weight, uncertain about what the human was trying to do. While his people didn’t have as much of a need for “personal space,” the humans always seemed to avoid getting too close to each other. This was the first time one of them had gotten this close to him—apart from Cassie, of course, but even she had been uncomfortable with his space-less behavior when they first met.

“Do you have an off-switch?” Quincy said suddenly.

“A what?” Serix frowned in confusion.

The human tapped the spot between his eyes, “For the glowing thing you always do when it gets dark. I’ve always wondered about that. Is it automatic or something? Or do you manually turn it on and off?”

“Well, technically my eyes always glow,” Serix answered with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. “You just can’t see it when it’s bright out. But no, I can’t ‘turn it off,’ as you say. Back on my home planet, we didn’t have anything like your Sun. We had three moons, which reflected the distant stars, but everything was much darker than it is on Earth. So, to compensate for the lack of light, my people used natural luminescence. Many other life forms did, too.” He sighed thoughtfully. “From what I’ve heard, Lunair was a beautiful place because the forest floors were lit up with thousands of different-colored bioluminescent plants and animals. I wish I could have seen it for myself.”

“So, you’ve never actually been to the place where your people are from?”

“No, the migration happened long before I was born. There are only a few elders who still remember their days on Lunair. The planet is probably lifeless by now.”

“Then from now on, I want you to think of this place as your home planet,” Quincy announced, slapping him on the shoulder. “Earth may not be as snazzy as that glowing world of yours, but there’re still plenty of cool things here. Hell, you’ve even got yourself a girl! I’d say our planet’s scored more points than Lunair ever will. True?”

“True,” Serix couldn’t help but grin at the human’s optimistic attitude. If only the others were more like him, living with them would be so much more enjoyable. He spent a few more minutes conversing with Quincy and then turned to Cassie once they were done. “It’s getting pretty late. Do you think we should head back?”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Never! >:D

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

I figured she would be difficult in the beginning, but Paxton is really stubborn, so I think he can get through to her eventually XD

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Even after Paxton shared his name with the genie, she still wasn’t impressed. He lapsed into silence as he finished his food, merely nodding when Mirajane thanked him for the meal. Was there anything he could do that didn’t annoy her? It seemed like she was irritated simply because he existed, even though he was trying his best to get on her good side. He shook his head. It was just his luck that he would find a genie who hated him even more than his peers at school.

After he finished his dinner, Paxton collected the two plates and headed for the door, “I’m going to take these down to the kitchen. I’ll be back in a moment.” He slipped through the door, closing it behind him, and went down the stairs to drop off the plates in the sink. Fortunately, it was Jaelyn’s night to wash dishes, so he didn’t have to abandon Mirajane for too long. He hurried back to his room before his sister would have a chance to stop him again.

“Okay,” Paxton said as he locked the door again. “Now that that’s done, I shouldn’t have to leave again.” He somehow doubted Mirajane would care even if he did. He crossed the room to sit on his bed again, leaning back on his hands as he contemplated what else there was to do that night. He didn’t have any homework that was due anytime soon and it was Jaelyn’s chore day, so it looked like there was nothing. Normally, he would have just gone to bed early on days like these to try and catch up on sleep, but now he had a guest to entertain.

Thinking about sleep just led him to another question: Did Mirajane ever go back inside her lamp during the time she had been summoned? It would be kind of strange if she just stayed in his room throughout the night. In fact, she would be the only girl Paxton had ever had in his room this late. He bit back a sarcastic laugh. Who would have thought that first would go to a genie?

He was tempted to ask Mirajane directly if she went back inside the lamp at night, but he couldn’t think of a way to say it without sounding like he wanted to get rid of her or keep her cooped up, so he discarded the idea. Perhaps he could figure out the answer with a more roundabout question.

“It’s getting late,” Paxton said, turning back to the genie. “Do you want me to find you a sleeping bag or something? I’d offer you the bed, but it would be strange if someone came in and saw me on the floor for no reason—assuming they can’t see you, of course.” He paused as another thought came to him. “Or… do you prefer to stay in the tangible form?—Not that I have a problem with it! I would just have to find you somewhere less obvious to sleep in case someone comes in here in the morning. Maybe the far side of the bed?”

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

“Aw,” Serix frowned in mock disappointment. “You’re making me wait?” He broke into a playful grin and threw an arm around Cassie’s shoulders, kissing her on the cheek to avoid getting any more of the lipstick on his mouth. She just laughed and rested her forehead against his, “Well, I guess if you like it that much, I might have to start wearing it more often.”

Serix and Cassie headed down to the recreational area after Sarah called them, however when they got there, he was a bit surprised to see nothing indicating a fire of any kind. He glanced up at the cavern ceiling. Of course. The humans couldn’t burn anything inside the caves without smoking themselves out. But this revelation only led him to another question: If they weren’t having the bonfire in their hideout, where were they going to go instead?

He was soon answered by Jerry, who explained that they were going to leave the caves in order to burn their fire safely. Serix shifted uneasily at the new information. The humans were taking a huge risk by bringing their entire population aboveground, especially if they were going to light a fire. They hadn’t been caught by his people so far, but smoke was dangerously visible against the night sky. Even if the Lunairans hadn’t sent patrols this way, they would be able to see the glow of the flames or the trail of the smoke from a great distance. On top of that, they were completely exposed in the wide open desert. They would have nowhere to hide if they were attacked. He kept these uncertainties to himself, however. Ryan must know what he was doing if he had kept the humans safe for this long.

The half-bloods moved out when Jake entered the cavern to tell them that everything had been prepared. Serix trailed after Cassie, still slightly uneasy about the idea of taking a group of this size out into the open air. Once they were outside, though, his worries were replaced by awe. He and his mate had been in hiding for so long that he had forgotten what the night sky looked like from Earth. It was like an enormous blue-black blanket, spotted with countless pinpricks of light that he knew to be stars. He didn’t recognize any constellations, having only been taught the ones he would have seen back on Lunair, but the sight was still breathtaking.

Serix brought his gaze back down to the activity that was happening around him on Earth. The humans had set up a massive heap of old boxes and other garbage that glistened with some strange-smelling liquid. They gathered in a ring around it while Ryan stepped into the center, raising a small, burning stick in over his head and shouting, “Alright guys, let’s get this party started!” The humans howled excitedly in response. Their energy was so infectious that Serix found himself joining them while Ryan tossed the burning stick into the trash. The resulting bonfire engulfed it with startling speed, causing the humans to call out even louder.

After the flames died down slightly, the crowd began to disperse as the half-bloods moved to socialize with their friends. Of course, Ryan wasted no time in searching out Cassie. He approached her with a proud grin on his face, “What do you think? Pretty great, huh?”

Serix continued to watch the flickering flames while his mate conversed with the human. Their wild dance was enchanting. He had never seen a fire this large before. In fact, every fire he had seen until this point had been the result of an accident, and each was quickly tamed before it could grow to anything nearly this size. It was clever how the humans manipulated the bonfire’s destructive power to help them remove their waste, rather than avoid it altogether like his people did.

Serix was interrupted from his thoughts when he felt a tug at the hem of his shirt. He looked down to see the young human, Charlie, standing at his side. The child looked somewhat annoyed.

“Hey, alien,” he said. “Sally’s gone and gotten herself lost. We were playing hide-and-seek over there,” he pointed at a nearby hill. “And now I can’t find her. I figured that with those glow-y eyes of yours, you’d be able to see her better than I could.” He huffed, as if he didn’t want to admit that a Lunairan could be better at him than anything. “I just want to find her before her big bro notices she’s gone. Will you help?”

Serix hesitated, thinking it over. It seemed odd that the child would come to him for help over one of the other humans, but he sounded earnest. Besides, he might be able to use Charlie’s request to put himself in better standing with the others. It would be a start, at least, and really, what harm could it do to help the kid out?

“Alright,” Serix nodded. Cassie looked like she was still busy with Ryan, so he squeezed her hand and whispered in her ear, “I’ll be right back.” He knew she didn’t want him to go off on his own like this, but surely she wouldn’t object if he was merely helping a child. He followed after Charlie as the young male led him around the hillside where he had been playing his game with Sally. On the other side, he could no longer see the glow of the bonfire, and the chatter of the humans sounded distant. He slowed his pace, his eyes flicking warily over the boulders and shrubs that surrounded them, “You two wandered pretty far from the group.”

“Well duh,” Charlie rolled his eyes. “The game doesn’t work if we can see each other clearly. It has to be dark so we can hide.” He turned and started to walk to the right. “I’ll look over here, and you can go over there, alien.”

“I have a name, you know,” Serix shook his head, but did as the child instructed.

As he searched for the missing female, Serix kept his guard up, frequently glancing over his shoulder for signs of movement. Even if Charlie had no malicious intents, he was still unarmed and exposed. Any other human could easily try to ambush him while he was alone. For a moment, he wondered if the child had been part of some larger plan to separate him from the group so someone could do exactly that, but he discarded the thought after he had spent a good ten minutes wandering the hillside and no one made an appearance.

After another five minutes, Serix sighed and turned back for the bonfire. He hadn’t been able to find Sally in spite of all his searching. Perhaps Charlie had had better luck on his side of the hill. If not, well, the young female would be in quite a lot of trouble with Ryan when he discovered her absence. He hoped his own child wouldn’t be so troublesome.

Serix rounded the corner of the hill saw Charlie and Sally chasing each other in circles around the bonfire. The child must have found her long ago and just never came back to tell him. He shook his head and sighed again, Kids.

Serix walked back over to Cassie and wrapped an arm around her waist, planting a kiss on her cheek as he did, “Sorry I took so long. It looks like he didn’t need my help after all.” He nodded at the two children running around the fire and then turned back to his mate. “Anyways, did I miss anything here?”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Paxton stopped in the doorway. When she was still half ghost, he hadn’t thought much about Mirajane’s appearance, but now that she looked more… well… human, she was actually kind of attractive. She had a pretty face, and her figure wasn’t hard on the eyes either. If she had been a girl at his school instead of a mystic genie, she definitely would have fallen right into the popular crowd with Emily White.

He blinked, realizing that he was staring at her, and quickly handed over one of the plates of food, “Here. It’s nothing special; just last night’s leftovers.” He closed the door, locking it behind him in case his nosy sister tried to make a reappearance, and walked over to his desk to sit down with his own dinner.

“So,” Paxton said slowly, uncertain of what else he could say to the genie. He still had so many questions, but he didn’t want to be a pest. She seemed to hate him enough as it was, and he was trying hard to keep her opinion of him from falling any lower. He frowned. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even introduced himself to her yet.

He turned back to Mirajane, “In case you were wondering, my name is Paxton.” He shrugged. “My friends just call me Pax, but you can call me whichever you prefer.”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

The genie could take on a tangible form? Paxton wasn’t sure why he was surprised by this, but now that he thought about it, it made sense that Mirajane would be able to use her magic on herself as well as on the master of her lamp. He offhandedly wondered if there was anything else she could do that she hadn’t mentioned to him yet.

“Um, I think you should stay up here,” Paxton answered her question. “And… try not to make any noise.” It would be bad news if one of his parents or his younger sister overheard Mirajane. Naturally, they would jump to the wrong conclusion if they discovered a girl in his bedroom, and he wouldn’t be able to explain her presence to them without sounding like a liar or a complete nutcase. It wasn’t like he could just say: ‘This is my new genie. She’s here to grant my every wish.’

Wow… That sounded like a creepy fetish, Paxton winced at the thought. Yeah, that settled it. Mirajane definitely had to stay hidden in his room. “I’ll be right back.” He headed for the door, closing it securely behind him, and walked down the stairs, making his way to the kitchen. Once there, he raided the fridge for the leftovers from last night’s dinner: cold fish with rice. He piled the food onto two plates. It wasn’t a five-star meal, by any means. He hoped Mirajane wasn’t picky.

“Come on, Pax,” he heard the sarcastic voice of his sister, Jaelyn, behind him. The girl stood with her arms crossed, “Save some for the rest of us, you pig.”

“I’m bigger than you, Jay,” Paxton rolled his eyes and slammed the fridge door closed with his shoulder. “I have a bigger appetite, too.” He picked up the plates of food and headed back for the stairs. “Don’t worry. There’s still enough left for you if you’re hungry.”

“Don’t blame me when you get fat,” Jaelyn called irritably after him. Thankfully, she didn’t press the matter, and Paxton was able to escape back to his bedroom without further interruption.

“Room service,” he said as he opened the door and stepped inside.