Vine pulled the charm out of her mouth with a slurp.It was whole and ready for duty again.She got a napkin and said, “I will just dry this off and clean it when I get home.”
Sable asked, “Did you just...eat my magic?”
“It’s fizzy.Like soda.Why?What did you think I was doing with it?”She glanced at the elf next to her.“Minimal mucus.”
He started laughing.
Sable didn’t know why it was funny, but she was smiling.Xao leaned in and explained a little of the reasoning behind the laugh.That was much funnier.
* * * *
Jenn watched her chosenfamily have a picnic with the guys that Xiroth brought along.“So, are all pixies into matchmaking?”
“We don’t want to be left behind, so now that I have found my mate, they are actually going to look for their own.”
“Wait, so you guys have been seriously not looking for partners?”
“Short-term associations only.Because we link to death, it is seriously serious.”He smiled.“This isn’t just attraction, this is looking at you and seeing decades with you at my side, our son growing up, finding his own partner, grandchildren, meetings with friends.More children running around us.”
She blinked away tears.“That’s sweet, but are you sure I am just going to live a human lifespan?Thatweare going to live human lifespans?”She gestured to the others.“What normally happens with mages?”
“Um, wow.I didn’t think of that.”
“Yeah, we don’t know either.I am guessing that as long as our link to our world isn’t severed, we are going to have a pretty good lifespan.Great grandkids might be in your future.”
He laughed and hugged her.“Our future.”
Vine was at her side a moment later.“Come on.Let’s go.”Her raspy voice was amused.
Vine looked at Xiroth.“Don’t squeeze the preggo in public.He’s sitting on her bladder.”
Jenn was embarrassed, but she let Vine walk with her to the restroom.
Vine was calm and understood the discomfort in a way the others didn’t notice.One of Jennika’s greatest fears was peeing herself in public, and Vine respected it and took the heat for being a bossy friend.It saved Jenn from having to admit that her body’s signals had been mixed up for the last month.Vine gave her a charm to tell her when she needed to go when she was at work.It didn’t use light; it used a hard, sharp sound with a violent vibration.Just once was enough to get her to declare she needed five minutes.“Take five, chef,”became tradition at that time.
It was nice when family cared, and her coworkers at the hotel were definitely family.
Now Xiroth wanted to get into the mix, and she was going to make room for him.She knew that her friends would; it was what her friends did.
