“I—the dishes?”
Will didn’t quite meet Sage’s eyes.He wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong, but his heart was speeding up, and panic was biting at the edges of his vision.Please don’t let me mess this up.Please don’t make him kick me to the curb.
Sage giggled.“Yeah, I see that.Focus on what you want and say: plates and forks come scrub, scrub, scrub.All stains and dirt, let’s clean you up.”
“Uhm, plates and forks…”
Sage mouthed rather than repeating himself.
“…come scrub, scrub, scrub.All stains and dirt, let’s clean you up?”
Will watched the sink and the plates in it.Nothing happened.
Sage pushed his own chair back and came over.He patted Will on the shoulder, but Will hadn’t been prepared for that, and he was embarrassed about his magic not doing anything, and so he flinched.Not a little.He flinched as if Sage had been about to strike him.He ended up cowering halfway to the floor.
“Whoa.”
Will felt his face heating.“S-sorry.I… Sorry.”
“All good.My bad.Should’ve warned you before touching.Okay, but watch though.”
Sage said the exact same spell, slower.He enunciated every word of it, and almost before he was done speaking, the plates started cleaning themselves, aided by a sponge that jumped into the sink from a small soap dish that sat next to it.
Sage leaned against the counter and just watched as the plates rinsed themselves.They moved through the water as if pulled by invisible strings to do that too, then moved over to the drying rack where they stacked themselves neatly.
Will blinked.“I thought the cushions were strange.This is so fucking cool.”
Sage beamed at him.“Household magic should never be underrated.You can get by without it if you have a dishwasher.”He motioned at the kitchen, which was old but clean and clearly well cared for.“No dishwasher here though.Okay, you wanna see if you can get the towel to dry everything?”
Will nodded.“What do I say?”
“I usually go with: dry, towel, dry.Come dry, dry, dry.Not super sophisticated, but it gets the job done.The less complicated the task, the less fancy your spell has to be, as a rule of thumb.”
Will nodded.He focused, trying to concentrate on how it felt when he did magic, when he touched herbs and ground them into a paste while focusing on the outcome he wanted.He desperately wanted this to work.He needed Sage to see he could do real magic.
Will said the words, repeating the “dry, dry, dry” bit over and over in his head.To his shock and elation, the white and blue striped towel that hung on a hook on the wall moved.It was awkward, nothing like the smooth, flowing movements of the plates that were still rinsing themselves, but it did move, fluttering over to the dishes to soak up the water.
“Good job.Keep repeating it out loud a few times until it’s done.Makes it easier for a newbie to keep the spell going.”
Will did that.And it worked.
The magic running through Will was like nothing he had ever done before, but it worked.The towel moved and did his bidding, and it was…amazing.Will was ready to dry dishes for the rest of his life with magic, because why would anyone who could dothisuse a dishwasher?
They finished the rest of the dishes together, and after, Sage showed Will how to clean counters.
When they got into Sage’s car to head to the mall, Will was tired, almost as if he’d worked out, but in a good way.Even the prospect of spending money that wasn’t his seemed less daunting.Magic was wonderful, and Sage was an amazing teacher.
7
Sage
Sagehatedthemall.He bought most of his stuff online.But he also knew the mall might be easier to navigate for Will, plus it gave the young werewolf a chance to get outside.Sage got the sense just going outside hadn’t been a thing for Will in a while, and the way the wolf had stared at, well, everything had confirmed that.
While Will anxiously looked at price tags in the men’s clothing section, Sage pulled out his phone to text Peter.
You want to tell me what shit Will went through?
That’s privileged.He did not run away like your cats, did he?
