DISCLAIMER: All characters and situations to belong to a bunch of different people and companies who are not me. Also I'm making no money off this.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To procrastinatingsith[at]gmail.com
SPOILERS: White Witch, Black Curse
M is for Misunderstanding
By Jaina
I'm shaken and dazed, gasping for breath as I stagger to my feet. That last spell had come thisclose to ending me - permanently. If I hadn't gotten that circle up at the last possible moment, I would have been so much Faerie fertilizer.
Footsteps pounded toward me and turned, wobbling on unsteady legs to face my attacker. But it wasn't an attacker - it was Ivy. She threw her arms around me and buried her face in my neck.
"Thank the Turn you're okay," she breathed. "I was so worried." She was stroking my cheek now, in my dazed state making it even harder for me to think straight. "How could she let you..." Ivy just shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I couldn't see it, but it came so close."
I could feel Ivy shaking now and realized just how terrified she had been. I opened my mouth to say something but she was still talking.
"I thought I had lost you. I'm so sorry," she murmured.
And then she was kissing me, not hesitantly, not briefly, but deeply, pouring everything she felt into it.
I gasped at the feel of her soft lips pressed against mine. It wasn't the first time Ivy had kissed me - I hadn't been expecting it then either - but this time I wasn't nearly so hesitant. I kissed her back, responding to the almost bruising pressure of her lips, tangling my fingers into the silky strands of her hair and surging forward, kissing her just as soundly as she kissed me.
Until she shoved me away from her none to gently. "Rachel?! What the Turn are you doing? I thought you were... Where the Turn is Glenn?"
Oh. Right. That. She'd thought she was kissing him. Him, not me. Such an idiot.
"Rachel." Ivy sounded pissed. I couldn't blame her.
I swallowed hard and tried to steady myself, swaying where I stood as adrenaline began to drain away from me. "He's in the alley around back. He wanted to make the arrest himself, but I knew he'd be toast if he tried."
"So you took his place," Ivy said flatly.
I shrugged. "I thought if they were suspecting some cookie FIB officer, it might give me an edge."
Ivy's expression didn't change. "You kissed me back," she accused.
"I know," I said, unable to help the smile that tugged at my cheeks. It had felt good. So good I almost didn't want to think about it.
"Why-" Ivy bit her question off and just shook her head at me. "I have to go check on Glenn," she said, dropping my gaze and starting to walk past me.
"Ivy," I said, reaching out to touch her arm, stopping her before she could flee. Turn it, I had finally allowed myself to accept what I felt for Ivy and now she was running away. It wasn't fair.
She couldn't even look at me. "We'll talk when I get home."
It was less than I wanted, but more than what I had thought she would give me. I would take it - for now. "Okay," I said simply. Just as long as she came home.
She didn't sound happy, but then I knew something she hadn't mentioned. She might not have known it was me when she came running up to me, but she had known when she had kissed me. And that was no peck on the lips. It had lingered and clung and made me feel things...I swallowed again.
The spells that I had used might conceal against sight, sound, and scent, but it was hardly impervious to taste and touch. Ivy had known it was me the moment her lips had touched mine - and she had kissed me anyway.
It might have begun as a misunderstanding, but we had kissed and this time neither of us would be running away in fear and denial. I would make sure of that.
The End