Trash Panda

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Serix walked with Monty and Jake as they led him roughly down the tunnel that descended into the hold. They said nothing, but he could tell by the looks on their faces that they believed Hunter’s every word. But then, why should they have doubted him? Hunter was one of them. It was much easier to assume that the outsider betrayed them rather than think that a human purposefully led another Lunairan into their home. Even he was still baffled by Hunter’s plan. Where had the human found the Pilot? How had he gotten him to cooperate? Hunter hated Lunairans and the Pilot hated humans. It seemed impossible that they could have formed an alliance at all.

Yet here they were.

As the three continued to descend deeper into the tunnels, Serix noticed that the number of fluorescent lights lining the walls grew more infrequent. As a result, the farther they walked, the darker the corridor became. Sometimes there were even short stretches where the tunnel was completely shadowed. He suspected that the humans didn’t keep these deeper tunnels lit because they didn’t have a reason to come down here often. Either that or they were kept intentionally dark to depress the prisoners they kept locked up.

After a while, the group turned a corner and entered another cavern. Serix looked around, taking in the place that was to be his new home. Like the tunnel that led up to it, the room was dimly lit. It had a low ceiling and was lined with what looked like eight makeshift cells, all of which were empty. They stopped beside the first one. There was a brief moment of shuffling as Jake stepped over to a nearby table and Monty took over holding onto both of Serix’s arms, keeping him tightly pinned as if he expected him to try to break free.

While Jake was rummaging through a drawer in the table, Monty leaned over Serix’s shoulder, “How do you like your new home, alien? I think it suits you: dark and unwelcoming; a place no one wants to be around. It’s a perfect waiting room for your execution.”

“What are you talking about?” Serix said levelly, keeping his gaze pointed straight ahead. He wasn’t going to give the human the satisfaction of even a sideways glare.

“You don’t expect us to keep you in here forever, do you?” Monty gasped in mock surprise. “You heard Ryan. He told us to put you in here until he decides what to do with you, and after that little stunt you pulled with your alien buddy, there’s no way he’s gonna let you off the hook again.”

“I already told you,” Serix said, fighting to keep the frustration out of his voice. “I had nothing to do with that. It was Hunter. I don’t know how he did it, but he must’ve gotten the Pilot to cooperate with him somehow.”

“Yeah, right,” Monty snorted. “Hunter would never team up with one of your kind. You better come up with some more believable excuses, or else you’re not gonna last here another week, alien.”

“Monty,” Jake said, walking back over to them. “Stop talking to the prisoner.”

“Fine,” Monty rolled his eyes.

Jake returned with a key, which he used to unlock the cell door. Monty began to shove Serix inside, but then he stopped. The sound of pounding footsteps echoed through the small cavern. All three of the males looked up as a fourth person entered the room. Serix’s eyes widened when he saw who it was. “Cassie?” he said, attempting to step towards her. Monty held him back with a sharp tug, but Serix was too focused on his mate to care about the human’s irritable gesture. “Cassie,” he said again. “You don’t have to—”

“Go back to the others,” Monty interrupted, nodding his head at the tunnel. “We’re just locking up the alien. No reason for you to stay down here. He’s the only guilty one.”

Curse of the Shadow [Jones Sparrow + Summer]

“I’m on a cross-country road trip,” Danny answered Raymond’s question. “Just a little post-college adventure. Come on, I said I’d show you around town. Walk and talk.” She waved a hand, gesturing for him to follow her as she exited the coffee shop. They passed another dreary customer on their way out the door, to whom she nodded politely and from whom she received no response. She just shrugged and kept going. After three days of living with the emotionless townspeople, she was used to their weird habits.

“Let’s see,” Danny mused, looking around the little shopping center. She scrambled to think of something interesting to show him, but Terry Town really was a boring place. There wasn’t much beyond the small stores and plain buildings, and she doubted Raymond would be thrilled to visit any of those. She couldn’t let him go just yet, though. He was her first real shot at getting out of this place, and she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“You know what?” Danny said, struck with a sudden idea. “Why don’t you decide what you want to see first? I know you’ve never been here before, but is there anything you might want to look for? Maybe a souvenir store or a recreational stop? There has to be something.” She looked up at him, hoping he would take up her offer. “You’re the boss. Just name the place, and I’ll find it for you.”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

True, but he won't give up anyway XD
Now he'll feel obligated to show her around, too, which will lead to some fun scenarios and maybe a paradigm shift for Paxton ;)

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

I know, but it needed to happen in order for Paxton to understand Mirajane's frustration :)
Being kind of oblivious, he didn't know why she was so bitter until now. He thought she was mad at him specifically

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

“I didn’t mean—” Paxton started and then stopped. His cheeks were flushed with anger and embarrassment. What was he supposed to do? She was right: In all technicality, the wish fulfilled exactly what he had asked for. She had just granted it a way that he hadn’t expected. Her haughty attitude wasn’t helping anything either. He let out his breath and rubbed his forehead, trying to calm himself down so he could think rationally. “Okay, fine. That was a cute little trick, but I want you to reverse it. Put things back the way they were before I made my wish.”

Of course he wanted to use all three wishes to try and woo Emily White, but it wasn’t fair to everyone else if he left them to suffer from the first one. He had to use the next wish to make things right. But what if the third wish turned out just as badly as the last? He would have no way to reverse it if something went wrong. He would have to take the time to think his final wish over and find a way to word it so that Mirajane couldn’t twist it into something undesirable.

Paxton suddenly recalled the note taped to the counter in the magic shop where he had originally found the lamp. It had said that ‘all magic comes with a price.’ At first he had just laughed it off as some catchy little gimmick to attract customers, but now he was finally starting to see just how true it was. He sighed. He should have just left the lamp and walked out of that store. It would have made his life a whole lot easier if he had.

“Do you make all your masters miserable?” Paxton sat down tiredly in a chair and drummed his fingers on the desk. “Or am I just special?”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Haha, yup XD Paxton's definitely gonna be more specific with his wishes/questions in the future!

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Though he would never admit it to some of the humans, Serix was beginning to enjoy working for them and helping them keep their underground society alive. His pleasure went beyond just performing the jobs to fit in. He found that he looked forward to his time in the fields, growing and harvesting crops for their meals. He also realized that he missed living in a community. Like humans, Lunairans were social creatures and, while he loved his time alone with Cassie, there was something about being part of a group that was just so fulfilling. The brief moments of casual banter with Quincy and Jerry were what made him feel accepted in the caves above everything else. So, when Serix and Cassie walked hand-in-hand to the dining hall for dinner, he didn’t get the usual twinge of anxiety in the pit of his stomach when any of the humans glanced at him. Even the gazes of the more hostile members of the society didn’t faze him.

Serix and Cassie sat down at a table with their usual group. The others were having a light conversation, so he just contented himself with eating and listening in silence. It wasn’t until Jerry mentioned Hunter’s name that Serix looked up to pay closer attention. The volatile human was the only one who still set him on edge. There was just something about Hunter that made him reluctant to trust the human.

“You know, Hunter’s been quieter than usual,” Jerry said. “Not that I’m complaining. Usually he just causes trouble when he opens his mouth, but it’s still weird.”

“Yeah,” Quincy nodded. “I wonder if Jake pulled him aside and scolded him.”

“Could be,” Jerry said between bites of food. “By the way, have you seen him lately? He disappeared halfway through work after lunch.”

“I told him to get some water from the river,” Sarah spoke up. “He’s probably slacking off and taking a bath or something. The guy stank to high heaven.”

The others just laughed at her comment, but Serix was still uneasy. He had been letting himself get too comfortable lately. How could he not have noticed Hunter go missing during work? And the fact that he was still missing bothered him. Hunter didn’t seem like the type to ditch work for an early bath. But if he wasn’t doing that, then what was taking him so long to get back?

Serix’s thoughts were interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream from one of the tunnels. Everyone in the dining hall froze and turned towards the sound. Gunner drew a gun from his belt and held it up, his finger hovering over the trigger. Connor shifted so that he stood between the potential danger and Emily. Jerry did the same with his mate. Everyone else in the room was silent as they stared at the tunnel, waiting to see what had caused the scream. They didn’t have to wait long, because in the next moment Hunter appeared from the tunnel, dragging something behind him. Serix’s blood ran cold when he saw what, or rather who, it was.

“Hunter,” Ryan gasped. “What is this?”

Hunter threw the Pilot down on the ground in front of him, keeping a gun trained on the back of his head. The Lunairan was a bloody mess. He didn’t even try to get up as Hunter kicked him roughly in the side and looked up to address his stunned audience, “I found this hiding out by the river.” His eyes swept over the crowd. “It got in through an unmarked passage that leads up to the surface. As we all know: There’s no way an alien could get in here without help, but guess what?” His eyes fell on Serix, giving him such a potent look of malice that he cringed. “This alien confessed the identity of its partner in crime.” Hunter kicked the Pilot again. “Go on; tell them what you told me.”

The Lunairan weakly raised his head to first shoot Hunter a venomous glare, and then turned next to Serix, “Him. He is part of my patrol. His orders were to infiltrate your barracks and gain your trust, all while finding a secure passage for me to bring the rest of my patrol and eliminate the rest of you pathetic Earthlings. Of course, this plan is nullified now that I and the rest of my patrol have been wiped out. Your work here is done, Scout.” He met Serix’s eyes and Serix felt his final, chilling words in his mind, If I am to die here, then I swear I will take you down with me. Come, join me in the netherworld, traitor.

“Is this true?” Ryan said sternly, whirling around to glare at Serix. “Were you working for him?”

“No,” Serix turned to him, wide-eyed. “Well… I used to, but I left him long before I came here! I disagree with his ideology. I don’t think we need to kill off every single human in order to live on Earth.”

“Ryan,” Quincy spoke up. “He has an alibi. He’s only left Cassie’s side once since they got here, and even then he was with the rest of us in this room.”

“Wait,” Monty said from the other side of the dining hall. “I remember seeing him wander off to the hills last night.”

“Me too,” a few of the others murmured, looking at Serix warily.

“I did,” Serix admitted reluctantly. “But I was with Charlie. He wanted me to help him look for Sally.”

“I didn’t leave the fire,” Sally said slowly, looking confused. Charlie nodded.

“Then…” Serix fumbled for an explanation, but he could already tell the humans were turning against him. He was beginning to realize all too late that Hunter had planned all of this out somehow. He must have told Charlie to take him into the hills the night before so he would look guilty. Just how long had he been laying the snares for this trap?

“I should have known this would happen,” Ryan growled, raking his hands through his hair. “This is what I get for trusting one of them. Someone could have gotten hurt, or worse.” He turned to Hunter. “Take this one outside and dispose of it.” When Hunter dragged the Pilot back out of the room, Ryan turned next to Serix. “Someone take that one to the hold. I’ll decide what to do with it later.”

“Wait,” Serix took a step back, holding up his hands as Monty and Jake moved towards him. “I swear I had no part in this!”

“Hurry up,” Ryan snapped at the two humans who were slowly moving towards the Lunairan. He moved to stand by Cassie in case she tried to stop them while they seized hold of Serix’s arms and pinned them behind his back. He dug his heels into the ground as they tried to drag him towards one of the tunnels, “I had nothing to do with this! My old leader is just trying to get revenge because I left him. He even said so—err… well, he said it to me telepathically…” He faltered, knowing how fake his explanation sounded. He gritted his teeth in frustration. Hunter had planned everything out too well. He had no way out of this trap. He stopped struggling against Monty and Jake. At this point, his best option was to comply with them and hope they would realize the truth on their own. He looked at Cassie as they pulled on him again to force him towards the tunnel, “I love you.” He added through a quick mental link: I’ll be okay. We’ll get through this somehow.

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Paxton nodded reluctantly at Mirajane’s explanation. He had no way to verify if the genie was telling him the truth, even when she said she couldn’t lie, but she sounded earnest enough. Besides, he didn’t have time to sit around and think it over. His first class started in less than twenty minutes and he still had to get his books from his locker. He also wanted to find Zach and ask him if anything had changed on the lacrosse team. He was curious to see how Mirajane might have granted his wish. Did she change everyone’s memories so he was always the best player in the school, or did no one else know it yet? Either way, he couldn’t wait to find out.

Paxton climbed out of his car and grabbed his backpack from the passenger seat, slinging one strap over his shoulder. He closed the door and locked it behind him, and then started walking to the school. As he got closer to the building, however, he began to take notice of Mirajane’s silence. It was strange, but it almost seemed like she was waiting for something. He wondered all too late if she knew something that he didn’t. The genie might not have been able to lie, but she could definitely keep her mouth shut if she wanted to.

Well, so long as Paxton got his wish, she could keep her little secrets to herself. He pulled the front door open and stepped inside the building. Instantly, he could tell that something was wrong. The hall was buzzing with gossip as the students walked with their friends. None of them sounded happy. He spotted Zach among the crowd and hurried over to him, “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Pax,” Zach turned to him, sounding surprised. “You haven’t heard? Something weird happened at the end of practice yesterday. We were scrimmaging and everything was going great, but then all of us started making amateur mistakes all of the sudden. I mean, it wasn’t just the new guys. It was like all of us forgot how to play.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Man, we have a game this Friday, too. Coach is furious.”

“Wow,” Paxton said in astonishment. “Um, I’ll be right back.” He pivoted on his heel and headed for the nearest empty classroom. Closing the door behind him, he dropped his backpack on a table and glared at Mirajane as she floated over it. “What did you do?” he hissed, trying to keep his voice low to avoid drawing the attention of anyone who might walk by.

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

“And you,” Serix smiled in response to Cassie’s flattery. “Are an amazing mate. I couldn’t ask for better.” He wrapped one arm around her as she curled up against his side. “I love you, Cassie.” He yawned tiredly and closed his eyes, enjoying her warmth as they lay together. Being as comfortable as he was, it didn’t take long for him to drift off to sleep.

--

Serix slept through most of the night, but there was one point at which he did wake up. As there was no external source of light, he could only guess at what time it was, but he did know that it wasn’t yet morning. This was the first strange thing he noticed in the fog of his weariness. The second thing he noticed was the noise. It was muffled by the rock walls that surrounded their room, but he could hear what almost sounded like shuffling, uneven footsteps.

He lay still on the bed, keeping his eyes trained on the curtain door. Who was up this late at night? He took slow, shallow breaths as he strained to hear anything else from outside. The dragging footsteps sounded like they were getting closer. He tensed, his heartrate picking up. Was it finally happening? Was someone trying to ambush him in his sleep? There was only one exit point from the room. He had no way out if one of the humans decided to attack him now.

Suddenly, the footsteps stopped outside his curtain. Serix heard a whispery voice, speaking quiet words he didn’t catch. Then another voice responded to the first, equally as soft and indistinct. He held his breath. There were two of them. He prepared himself to jump up if the curtain shifted, but there was no need. After another moment the footsteps continued on, fading as they grew more distant until he could hear them no longer.

Serix watched the curtain for a few more minutes, but it seemed like the two people really were gone. He let out his breath again in a silent exhale and closed his eyes. It was probably just a couple of humans making a late night trip to the bathroom. There was no reason to worry. He forced himself to relax, focusing instead on Cassie’s comforting presence until he eventually managed to forget about the midnight voices and sink back into the arms of sleep.

--

In the morning, Serix woke to find himself still in the room with Cassie curled up by his side. Nothing seemed to have changed since they first went to bed the night before. Perhaps he had just dreamed up the footsteps? He wouldn’t have been surprised when considering what he had eaten at the bonfire. The high amount of sugar in the marshmallows likely could have affected his sleeping patterns since his body wasn’t used to it. Well, whatever the cause of his vivid dream was, it didn’t matter. He and Cassie were still safe.

“We should probably get up soon,” Serix murmured to Cassie, although he made no effort to move. The bed was wonderfully comfortable and he was still tired from the busyness of the past two days. He wanted more than anything to sleep in that morning, but of course there would be no chance for that. After just a few minutes, he heard the curtain to their room slide open as someone stepped inside.

“Wakey wakey, lovebirds,” Quincy’s amused voice interrupted the tranquil silence. “There’s work to be done. We can’t let you two start slacking off on your third day.”

Serix groaned and rolled over, “Just give us ten more minutes.”

“Come on,” Quincy said. “You two have already slept an hour longer than the rest of us. Get your lazy ass outta that bed, and I’ll see you both at breakfast in five minutes.” With that, the human exited the room and slid the curtain shut again.

“They just can’t leave us alone for one day, can they?” Serix muttered, forcing himself to sit up once Quincy was gone. He raised his arms over his head in a long stretch and glanced down at Cassie. “I guess we should get up though, huh?”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Paxton laughed when Mirajane phased through the dashboard of his car to take a look at the inner workings. Her childlike intrigue was amusing, but it was also nice to see someone who was interested in anything he owned. His car wasn’t fancy like the richer kids at his school; it was just a humble old Toyota with close to two hundred thousand miles on it. Nothing to brag about by any means. So, even if the genie was only fascinated because his was likely the first car she had ever seen, he still enjoyed watching her marvel over it.

After the initial novelty seemed to wear off, Mirajane turned back to him and asked, “Where are you going, exactly?”

“School,” Paxton answered simply. “You were the one who said to ‘see for myself,’ so that’s what I’m going to do. I also have regular classes and… some other things I have to do today.” Somehow, he didn’t feel comfortable sharing his attraction to Emily with the genie. She already seemed to think he was an idiot, and he didn’t want to encourage the idea. Of course, he didn’t think his crush was stupid. It was everyone else who continued to tell him it was pointless to keep chasing after her. He had a feeling that of he told Mirajane about Emily, she would just chastise him like all the others.

Arriving at the school, Paxton pulled into the parking lot and turned the key, shutting off the engine of his car. Before getting out, however, he turned to look at the genie skeptically. She claimed that she was only tangible when she sprouted legs, but how did he know this was true? He wasn’t sure if he could explain her away if someone saw her floating out of his backpack during class. He glanced up, meeting her eyes, “So… you are invisible when you’re like that, right? If someone saw you hovering over my shoulder, they might have a panic attack.”