Fantasy Delusion Tax (Max&Michi)

[Michi]

The smile slipped from his face as he peered at the man once more. "I don't like you. And I am not answering any of those questions. You are being a nosy little busy body and don't actually care for any of the answers."

The same girl as before had come over once more asking if they needed anything else. Her emphasis on the word anything clued him in that she was not talking about drinks or food. "No, I'm fine. But actually my friend here. He's been telling me about how he thinks your boobs look amazing in that dress. And he would just love to stick his face between your boobs." Cedric informed the woman as he motioned to Aidan.

The woman's attention immediately shifted to Aidan and she leaned on the table close to him. "Well if you really want to, I wouldn't be against it. What's your name, handsome? You can call me Genevieve." She spoke huskily as she stuck her cleavage out at him. "It's usually five for an hour, but you're cute so I'd drop it to three for you."

 

[Maximillian]

“Oh, daddy, you’re always so forward, but too polite to just be candid,” Aidan said, smiling, before leaning conspiratorially toward the woman, “He’s all about threesomes and since I apparently have taken interest in you he always wants me to be happy, such a good man he is. Pays for everything, makes his boy-toy happy. Here,” Aidan stood, smiling widely at the woman and Cedric, “I’ll let you two work out a price while I go freshen up, bye-bye honeybun, don’t keep me waiting~”

Aidan blew Cedric a kiss before taking off across the room, throwing himself up the stairs and to the door of the where they were staying, opening it and slamming it behind him.

“Cedric is going to kill me but it was so, so worth it,” Aidan informed Wyntr, eyes bright and laughing.

 

[Michi]

Cedric didn't come into the room until a few minutes later. Opening the door he smiled, "Are you ready for her baby?" Stepping inside the room, the girl had followed. He walked over to Aidan taking both of his hands slowly. "I explained to her all about us. You know, that I can't get it up? I told her about how I can't please you anymore. But she understands, don't you Genevieve?"

Wyntr gave a snort and shook her head with a laugh, "Wow. That's escalated quickly. Don't mind me."

"Oh I don't. You can watch too. I do love an audience." Genevieve walked over and Cedric offered Aidan's hands to her. "He's such a sweet and understand guy. I wish my boyfriend was like him. You're so lucky." She squeezed Aidan's hands before stepping forward and pressing herself against the front of his body. "We can go as slow as you'd like. And yes, I am totally fine with butt stuff." Releasing his hands, she brought her arms up around his shoulders and leaned in to give him a kiss.

Cedric smiled, "All for you baby. I hope you enjoy her." Grinning he moved to take a seat in an old chair across the room. Crossing his legs he leaned against his hand on one of the arms of the chair.

 

[Maximillian]

Aidan shot Cedric a look of pure surprise and a little bit of horror before he was being kissed. He responded, if only to save this poor woman from an awful kiss and leaned back, try not to licking his lips free of her strongly sweet lipstick.

“Let’s… go talk in the corder a second,” He said to the woman before quickly walking to Cedric and leaning over the chair, shifting his weight so it looked like he was flirting when he whispered, “I’ll see you in hell motherfucker.”

With that said he pressed a kiss right onto the man’s lips, smearing the remaining lipstick across his mouth before leaning back and walking to the woman before motioning to the door.

He was in the corridor for a few minutes before he walked back in, alone, and shut the door behind him, dark blue eyes bright and his mouth quirked in a half smile.

“You really are a bastard, you know that, right?”

 

[Michi]

When Aidan left the room, Wyntr turned to Cedric to laugh, "You two have the weirdest sexual tension I have ever seen. Come here." She held up a knife as she was putting the finishing touches on whatever it was she was working on.

"Yeah no." Cedric shook his head wiping off the lipstick onto his palm before he wiped his palm on the arm of the chair before he stood and walked over to her. Taking the knife from her hand, he swiped the blade across his palm, and picked up a small beaker like vial, squeezing his blood over the opening for a moment, filling it about a quarter of the way. Handing the vial over to her he wiped the blade on his pants and picked up a small jar of salve, smearing it across his palm before wiping away the excess with a cloth and wrapping it around his hand, tucking the end in to keep it in place.

Though when Aidan walked back in Cedric couldn't stop the grin from crossing his face. Best two hundred he'd ever spent. Totally worth it. "Hey, I was just calling your bluff. You said you wanted her. I was just obliging."

 

[Maximillian]

“You’re insufferable,” Aidan chuckled before looking at what was going on and noticing the bandage on Cedric’s hand.

“You realize it’s dumb to let blood from your hand right?” Aidan said, walking over and standing next to the man with a raised brow. Aidan rolled up his sleeve and pointed at a few small scars on the side of his wrist near the bone, “If you take it from near the bone it doesn’t bleed enough to kill you but enough to get a good puddle, also doesn’t end up making it hard to grab things and use your hand.”

He shrugged, pulling down his sleeve again, “We made a lot of blood packs as kids, like, it was super ill advised and that’s what happens when you put a bunch of teenage boys in a cabin together for six weeks. Blood packs and satan worship.”

He pulled up a chair and looked between the two witches, with wide eyes, “Anything I can do to help? Actually, what is this we’re doing?”

 

[Michi]

Cedric made a face, "I'm sure that's not all you got up to at camp. Don't worry about my hand. We're witches. That's not Neosporin that I put on my hand, dude."

Wyntr shook her head when Aidan asked if he could help. "No, it's Blood Magic you have to be careful and really know what you're doing. Would you rather drink it or wear it? Drinking it is more secure, can't lose it that way. But I don't know if you'd like that very much. I will need to know in a bit though. You can think about it."

"Since it's blood magic that got us into this mess, it's gonna take something just as strong to protect you. Are you using that Fae crap?" Cedric suddenly turned his attention to Wyntr who was slapping his hands away.

She looked at them both and huffed, "Can you not crowd me right now? If I do this wrong ya'll could die. I'd rather not have to explain that to the Inn Keeper. Go. Sit. Hush. Go away."

 

[Maximillian]

“I’ll drink it, I guess?” Aidan said, before turning his eyes back on Cedric, “I heard that camp comment and you’re right… I also roasted marshmallows.”

He backed up quickly when Wyntr ordered it, and sat himself on the edge of the man’s chair, looking at him with a mild expression.

“You’re eclectic,” Aidan finally said, leaning to get a better look at the man’s face and really study him, “You act like an asshole but you have a good sense of humor and your friends seem to be loyal to a fault. Is it just younger guys you hate? College kids? People with blue eyes? Or maybe it’s good samaritans. Also, what did you put on your hand? Can it heal anything? Like, bullet wounds or stab wounds?”

He leaned closer, peering at the bandaged cut, “Can I see it? Is it healed yet?”

 

[Michi]

When Aidan leaned in, Cedric leaned back. "Oh no, don't be mislead. I'm totally an asshole. I hate everyone equally. It's just healing salve." Again with all the questions. Cedric sighed.

"You talk so much. Can you not just relax?" He sighed leaning on his arm against the arm that Aidan had not sat on. "It can heal any minor wounds. As long as it's shallow it can heal it, it wouldn't be able to heal around a bullet. As long as nothing vital was hit it should work. The deeper it is the longer it takes. No it's still healing."

Unwrapping his hand, he held it out for Aidan to see. It was about halfway healed, it didn't heal it instantly or anything. Just boosted the healing process. Sped it up a bit. Something shallow like this would only take around five minutes. It didn't look nearly as magical as the movies made it seem.

 

[Maximillian]

“That’s really cool!” Aidan said, leaning over the hand with a look of awe on his face, “My mom’s boyfriend smashed a Scooby Doo mug over my head when I was like 12 and it took months to heal, if I had this shit my life would have been so much better. All the baseball games I missed because I had a messed up face and you can just slap on some goo and it’s healed.”

Aidan sighed, leaning back, “Y’all gotta get me the hookup to all this stuff, it must be great being able to just magic your way through life.”

The man then turned and looked at Cedric with his lip worried between his teeth, “So, if you can heal anything why don’t you heal the dark circles under your eyes because damn those bags are Prada Cedric. Also can the goo heal your shitty attitude or are you stuck with it?”

 

[Michi]

"It's a healing salve. Not a miracle maker. It doesn't fix deformities or anything. Just heals non threatening wounds." And then Aidan was insulting him once again. "You're an ass. Wyntr. Wyn. He says I look and act old! Will you tell him that I don't look so bad?"

"You look like shit." She stated without even looking at him.

And with that Cedric stood and pointed at both of them hatefully for a moment before he stormed to the door, leaving and slamming the door behind himself.

Wyntr was quiet for a moment before she turned in her seat. Standing up she walked over holding out small dish with a small amount of thick amber liquid on it. "He'll get over it. He's just butthurt. He doesn't sleep much. Magic doesn't always bless. Some are haunted by things." She waved the glass in front of his face for a moment, "How does that smell to you? Good? Bad? Bitter? Sweet?"

 

[Maximillian]

“And he says I’m dramatic, look at that big baby,” Aidan said before a mixture was being waved under his nose and he recoiled, “Smells sickly sweet, what did you put in that? Five pounds of sugar? Jesus Christ.”

He quickly took the chair Cedric had vacated, leaning back and watching the woman work, it was interesting to see.

“So, is this like fight club, like, rule one never talk about fight club?” He asked, brow raised, “Like, can I come and go now that I know about it or do I need like a card or key or crazy necklace. Also, can you teach me how to set people on fire, there’s this one really annoying professor at my college and I’ve been wanting to set his pants on fire for about a year now.”

 

[Michi]

"Sickly sweet, okay alright overshot that." The woman asked as she made her way back to her seat, "What's fight club? We can talk about it if we want. But it's iffy. Some get like you. All questioning and wanting to know if they can do it too. Others wanna burn us at the stake for being devil worshipers or shit like that."

She mixed a powder into a thick clay bowl and stirred it with a small glass stick. "Is there any water? I need to dilute it." Giving a sigh she looked out the window. "Let me know when it starts to smell appealing." She requested as she began to shred a few brown leaves dropping them into the clay bowl and stirring them in as well. Once it was all blended she poured it into a glass beaker, and set that beaker over a small candle to allow it to set. "I need to know the second it starts to smell appealing to you. Otherwise I have to start all over."

 

[Maximillian]

Aidan waited a few minutes before motioning to it, “It smells pretty good now, like, pumpkin spice latte’s or something… is it suppose to smell like that?”

He moved closer, looking at the concoction and waiting for it to glow or sparkle or something, making sure to stay out of Wyntr’s way in case he caused the whole thing to go wrong and two witches were mad at him.

“So like, do I drink that or…” Aidan asked, looking at the door and absently wondered where Cedric was. Had he gone back downstairs or had he left the inn entirely. Was he going to be safe alone, seeing as people were actively hunting for all of them.

“Also, shouldn’t drama king be back by now?”

 

[Michi]

Nodding, Wyntr stepped away from the potion to dig in the box, pulling out a second vial. "Good good. But it's not ready yet. You'll know exactly what I mean when you smell it. You won't be able to describe it. It's just going to smell like the best damn thing in the world. Sucks cause it's different for everyone."

"Oh, no don't worry about him. He's a big boy. He just needs to lick his wounds and all that. You've hurt his feelings." She offered the vial and the knife to him. "I just need a bit. A quarter full. And then put that salve on it. It'll heal pretty fast so no worries. Don't worry about Cedric. Really. He's fine. He's stronger than he looks and smarter than he seems." She said with a smile. "It has to set overnight, but it'll be ready in the morning." She began cleaning everything else up, and packing it away into the box. "And tomorrow afternoon, you can be on your way and I can go home and be away from this mess of whatever all this is."

 

[Maximillian]

Aidan took the vial and the knife, making a quick cut in his wrist and watching it drip into the container. The weirdness of the entire situation hitting him again and he chuckled, handing the vial over when he was done and wrapping up his wrist.

“So are we all like, staying here for the night?” Aidan asked, eying the couch set back in the living area of the room “Because if so, I call couch, those beds look kinda iffy. Like bedbugs and black light reactive stains iffy.”

He back up toward the couch, ready to fling himself on it so he could claim it incase the woman tried to fight him on the request. Not that he thought she would he was just used to having to stake his claim in strange, strange ways.

 

[Michi]

Wyntr shrugged and made her way over to sit on the bed. "Yeah sure. Whatever makes you happy." Stretching out on the bed she pulled off her glasses tossing them to the table beside the bed where they slid across and then clattered loudly to the floor. "So tell me about yourself oh chosen one."

Climbing up and curling up with one of the pillows she closed her eyes for a moment. "What are you going to do after all this is over in a few days? Gonna finish school? Have a family back at home waiting for you? Gonna enjoy this little all expense paid vacation? C'mon chatty cathy. Don't get all quiet now."

 

[Maximillian]

“A family?” Aidan laughed, looking away, “I’ve been on my own for a few years now, naw my plan is just to finish college and not have to become a hooker in the end. As crazy as this all is I can’t change my life plan because of it, though being a witch sounds so cool. Y’all gotta teach me at least one spell, just a small one.”

He turned, his face pressed against the back of the couch, “And I wasn’t chosen, I was being stupid and lo and behold now I’m cursed. My mom always said that would happen to me, or rather she said ‘one day someone’s just gonna shoot you Ai’. I don’t think she realized magic was a thing.”

The man shrugged his shoulders, listening for the door in case Cedric came back, “Honestly, I’m not very interesting. I have a pet dog named Cujo, he’s a corgi.”

 

[Michi]

"Curiosity killed the cat." She shrugged before picking her head up and looking at the beaker, her brow slightly furrowed. "Not ready yet? Hmm. Maybe I needed a larger candle. I didn't think about that before though." Speaking to herself out loud she rolled over and looked at him. "I don't know if I can teach you anything really. I'm not sensing any magic in you really. I wouldn't even know what to teach you, I've never taught children. I'm not much of a teacher. Maybe Cedric would have an idea. Except you keep insulting him so, not sure he'd want to teach you."

Stretching out on the bed she closed her eyes once more. "When it smells good, blow out the candle and leave it there. We should get some rest. Stop worrying about Cedric. We're actually pretty safe here believe it or not. Petty crimes don't usually happen here. And when they do, it doesn't take long for word to spread."

 

[Maximillian]

Aidan looked at her for a few minutes before shrugging and curling up into himself, lost in his own thoughts. After a while the mixture started to smell more than just appealing and he stood, blowing out the candle before wandering back over to the couch.

He’d mostly been joking about the magic, sure it would be nice to know a real card trick or some telekinesis but that didn’t mean he’d go asking Cedric for any help. Maybe he could find someone who was generally knowledgable about it and ask.

Whatever the case he turned his body toward the door, watching the light coming from under the crack. It was strange to stay out so late despite what the witch had said about him being safe.

He didn’t even know why he was worrying, he hated the guy.

With a huff he rolled over again and vowed he’d get some sleep in preparation for the day tomorrow.

 

[Michi]

The room was silent when Cedric finally returned. He had had his hair and beard trimmed, better fitting clothes that looked less like they'd been plucked from a dumpster. It wasn't the nicest clothes, he kept his terrible jacket, but under was a plain black button down shirt, and a pair of faded jeans.

He had been wounded by the comments about his looking old. He couldn't do much about the circles under his eyes. But it had hurt his feelings to be informed that he could pass for someone's father. He looked around the room, from Aidan sleeping on the couch to Wyntr on the bed. With a yawn he debated, he could rest for a bit. They'd need to leave soon, but that was fine. He couldn't sleep very long anyways. Anytime he did, the darkness came to haunt him.

Maybe that was one of the reasons that they had him watching the book. Because he was familiar with the darkness, and they knew he wouldn't be tempted by it so easily. He walked over to the bed quietly, laying down beside Wyntr and closing his eyes. Drifting off easily to sleep, he let the emptiness of sleep claim him if only for a short time.

 

[Maximillian]

Aidan blinked when he opened his eyes, in a type of mood that could only mean he was still in and out of sleep, a man was sitting at the bottom of the couch. He seemed to be of average height, with skin as white as paper, hair and eyes as black as ink. Red tattoos in a strange language were scrawled all over any bit of exposed skin except for his face.

He stared at Aidan before leaning forward, “Sunt, te mea novum custos?”

Aidan blinked pushing himself up and scrubbing at his eyes, trying to fight through the haze to translate what the man was saying. It was latin, that was for sure.

“Are…new keeper? New guardian…” He mumbled before it clicked, the man was asking if he was his new keeper. For some reason he was not intimidated, he didn’t even call out for Cedric or Wyntr but rather tried his hand at responding.

“Um… sunt tibi..ah, librum?” He bumbled out and the man looked at him with a bemused smile.

“Non sum liber. Ego sum, quid est signati in. Ego protegam te, ut habeo in omnibus aliis. Tolle manum meam.”

Aidan blanched, not understand a whole lot of what was said but catching ‘Protection’ and ‘Hand’. He frowned, before reaching out and clasping the man’s red written hand. The dark eyes twinkled, “Excitare, et scire te sunt, non solum.”

Aidan jerked up, the covers falling from his lap as he looked around. The bustle that had calmed through the night had seemed to picked up again and he rubbed his eyes, wondering what kinda of dream that had been.

“Wyntr? Cedric?” Aidan called, turning to look for the two witches.

 

[Michi]

The two of them sat up almost simultaneously. Cedric's face alert but exhausted, Wyntr's alert and questioning. Both sets of eyes focused firmly on Aidan. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger that they could sense. Morning had come, the sun shone brightly. They would need to get on their way.

Wyntr stood, grabbing her glasses from where they had fallen on the floor, and putting them on her face. "My work here is done. I leave him in your capable hands." She commented before grabbing the box of items and making her way to the door. She had no doubt that the two of them would be just fine.

Cedric's eyes were red as he seemed to glare at Aidan for a moment before his face evened out and his eyes looked more focused.. "We should go. It's not safe to stay still too long." Standing, he left the bed and went to the table where the two vials of blood sat along with the beaker of the liquid that had settled into a nice shade of cream. He grabbed both of the vials, pouring the contents of the beaker between the two. Sniffing them both before pocketing one in each pocket. Turning his attention to Aidan he dropped the beaker into the trash, "Are you feeling okay? Are you ready to leave?"

 

[Maximillian]

Aidan went to say something about his dream but suddenly he changed his mind, feeling a phantom hand on his shoulder, “I’m wonderful, where are we going next?”

He moved forward, looking at Cedric before smiling, it was bright, lighting up his face, “You were right you do clean up nicely. I’m sorry if I was rude the other day, I should learn to try to be more tactful.”

He then turned, gathering his backpack and pulling on his shoes, looking over the man to see black eyes and a pearly smile peering from behind Cedric, the man from his dream, a man apparently only he could see, was lazing across the sheets, like a mirage, dissipating before shimmering back into view.

Aidan raised a brow before he shook his head and stood. It probably wasn’t a big deal, the man seemed to be harmless after all.

 

[Michi]

"You're in an awfully good mood." Cedric noted raising his eyebrows. Opening the door, he motioned for Aidan to lead the way out. "Fitting though, seeing as it's our honeymoon darling. And if we dally much longer, we shall miss our train." He gave a taunting smile, and wrapped his arm around Aidan's waist protectively.

The trip to the station was a fast one. Once out in the alley with the crowd, they walked until they reached a large archway with a few doors standing at the end. Going to the second one from the left, Cedric opened the door and lead the way through. It lead to an alley that once walked down, ended up at the main street of town just a few blocks away from the train station. Leaving the other male to hold the bags, he went to grab the tickets. They took their seats towards one of the rear carriages, Cedric putting the suitcases away before taking a seat.

Cedric sat beside Aidan, leaning in as he spoke quietly. "I actually really love trains. You get to see the most beautiful scenery on long trips on trains." He gave a smile as he stretched out, putting his feet on the seat across from him. "And just think, soon you won't have to worry about that book anymore. They'll be able to figure it out. Some way to help."