I stretched in bed, keeping my eyes firmly closed against the sun shining through my thin curtains.
I held myself up slightly to look across at my bedside clock. It was either nearly 6am, or half past 11. I couldn't remember which hand was which. Never a good sign.
Why on earth would I wake up before 6am?
Must be half eleven then. I sighed and let myself fall back into bed, turning face down in a soft pillow where I was more comfy. It would be so easy to just fall back asleep here. Warm, comfortable, safe...
A groan escaped my sleepy mouth and I wiggled further under the duvet in protest as I realised I had a full house of protection spells to check. Soon. A whine of protest vibrated in my throat as I threw myself back onto my back, pulling the quilt off to try and give myself some motive to get up and dressed.
I hate mornings. No, strike that - mornings are fine. What I hate is getting up.
You've spent hours getting comfy, working the bed up to the perfect body temperature, found the exact right position to stop the bruises and achy parts from hurting; then you have to get up and start the day again. It's no fun. Laying in the comfy spot till you need too pee too badly to hold it any longer. That's fun. Getting up, coming back and slipping straight back into the comfort zone. That's fun too.
Getting up and forcing your stiffening muscles to get on with the day again. That's no fun.
Despite the healing work Lee had done for me yesterday my back still ached. It was that healing ache that you get though - just towards the end of your bruises. Not the 'boy this is going to look a right mess' kind of ache you get before they come out.
I caught sight of my torso as I stripped off to go for my shower. My skin was a pale mess of light green. I looked like some kind of reptilian alien life form. It wasn't pretty - but I should have been an interesting deep brown all over, with patches of mottled green seeping from the dark smudges. It was definitely an improvement. Not that it mattered, since no one ever sees my torso unless I'm wearing my backless ball gown (which is practically never) or an old top to do the cleaning in.
A few months back it had bothered me that no one seemed interested in my body, but since joining circle whack-jobs-'r'-us it hadn't seemed like a big deal any more. I'd lost the urge to dress in anything other than decent trainers, jeans or jogging bottoms, and a t-shirt (and a bra I could run in too). I was tempted to take up running as a hobby - a little practice would go a long way to keeping you alive when there really were people out to get you.
I should really check the spells before showering, but I didn't particularly care right now. I needed a shower. I needed hot water to wash away the sleep and the soreness - not to mention the smell. Let the monsters come; I was too tired to give a rats ass. I would be no good at repairing defences until I felt more human anyway.
Logic. It's normally just an excuse to do what you wanted in the first place. That's what reasoning was invented for.
Think about it - if no one had ever wanted to do something selfish or arguably bad, we'd never have needed powers of persuasion. You wouldn't have to reason why you were doing something, it would be obvious to everyone.
After a good half hour in the pounding hot water, and a thorough scrub, I was ready to face the world.
My shoulders didn't ache half as much any more. The heat had finished off the work Lee had started, easing all of the kinks out of the battered muscles.
Downstairs, the kitchen was still a bit of a mess.
We had decided on having a roast dinner after all, and after cooking for two hours, eating for half an hour and laughing for a few more, we just hadn't felt like cleaning up.
The kitchen was piled up with pots and pans, gravy covered plates still sat on the side. My task for the day. Fun.
I flicked the 'on' switch of the kettle down and left it to boil as I finished my rounds downstairs.
I'd taken the sensible route and checked upstairs before coming down to the mess. Nothing. Not even decay since yesterday.
The most complicated spell was on our front door, and I was in the middle of poking it with my mind when the stairs creaked.
We don't live in a creaky house; it's nice and new. Our stairs only creak if you step on the fourth step just to the left...
I had spun around before my mind was completely out of the spell, and I felt it react to my fear. It moved forward and around me, mixing in with my own defensive spells before my eyes even adjusted to the threat.
They were starting to clear as I raised my hands - the spells fully formed and ready to fly.
"Jeeze Lilly - what the hell are you doing up th-" Lee stopped mid sentence and stared at me.
The spells recognised him before I did, and started to hesitate.
I'd got him to take these spells apart and put them back together yesterday, they were as much his as they were mine now, and they didn't want to hurt him.
My vision cleared fully, allowing me the view of a half dressed Leigh-John stood half way up the stairs, mouth hanging open. He was just frozen there - like a deer in headlights.
I hadn't even checked to see if he was in the house.
How asleep had I been this morning to not check the house for presences??
My hands lowered, along with the spells. Their energy sank back into nothingness and I took a second to centre myself.
In that second Lee was down the stairs and stood less than a foot away from me.
"What the hell was that?!" he almost yelled.
I flinched.
"You surprised me..."
"Surprised you?! You were nearly floating Lilly!" there was an edge of fear in his voice now. "Your hair was blowing around you for crying out loud! Your eyes were white... pure white!"
Now I was blushing.
"My magic reacted..." I mumbled.
Part of me was actually wondering why his hadn't flared in reaction to the threat.
"Your magic reacted" He gripped my arms - though I'm not sure whether it was to force me to look him in the eye or to keep his balance. He didn't seem to be taking this well. "To what!?"
I shifted uncomfortably again, unable to meet his eyes.
This was the reaction I'd been afraid of all along. The reaction Circle White Dawn had first had to me. Fear.
They'd told me it was just because I was untrained... but Lee wasn't either - so why hadn't his powers reacted like mine always did?
"To you... to my fear... I don't know." I moved away, trying not to cry.
See - getting up is always a bad idea.
I stood very still with my back to him, arms clutching my sides as if hugging myself, and he didn't move.
For a moment we just stood there. Neither of us sure what to do or say.
Then he stepped forwards and placed a hand on the door.
I felt him reform the protection spell there. I must have still been connected to it in some way though - because it pulled on me in an aching way; snapping off as he placed the last seal.
His hand lingered on the door a moment, and he sighed in that defeated way that says "I'm going to regret this" or maybe just "I'm in way over my head now..."
The sigh was what made me turn to him.
His head was resting against the wood of the door, and he looked more tired than I felt.
Lets face it, it had been a long couple of days. And the poor sod had work today.
"I'm sorry." I said, touching his arm. He didn't pull away or flinch. "Cup of tea? The kettle's just boiled..."
"Sounds good."
I moved towards the kitchen and listened to him follow, padding behind me on bare feet.
There were two cups on the draining board, but I reached in the cupboard and brought out the biggest ones we owned. One was blue with star signs on, the other green and red with a dragon curled around it.
Lee lifted himself onto the kitchen counter behind me, and rubbed his arm in a sleepy gesture.
As I turned to him with a steaming mug of tea his right hand was resting on his left shoulder, his chin resting on his wrist and forearm, his eyes far away - lost in thought.
He didn't even seem to wake from his thoughts as his left hand took the mug and cradled it against his legs, the rest of his body never moving.
Normally I would sit opposite him and wait for him to say something, but I just wasn't awake enough to do that today. My own mug held against my chest, I wedged myself between his legs and rested my head against his arm where it crossed his chest. Screw boundaries. Screw patience. I was tired, and more than that, I was tired of tiptoeing around him.
I'd been tiptoeing around him for months because of Circle White Dawn. Enough was enough.
He lifted his arm over my head and rested his cheek on my head, hand moving to my shoulder instead of his. The rest of him stayed immobile.
"What would that spell have done to me?" He asked, quietly, as if scared to hear the answer.
I didn't honestly know. The spells had almost taken on a life of their own - something they didn't do very often any more. My defensive magic was as instinctual as his healing magic.
"I'm not sure..." I replied hesitantly, "I wasn't particularly thinking. It was just a reaction... but there was something incendiary in there. Fire's one of the only thing that works against anything, so my auto-cast normally includes it..."
I wanted to shake my head, but at the same time I didn't want to dislodge Lee. I settled for taking a sip of the hot tea. It didn't burn my tongue much - even though I hadn't thought to cool it.
"Incendiary..." he replied, still not moving.
I slipped my spare hand round his waist.
"It was part of the door spell too... I was submerged in it when I heard you on the stairs. It kinda reacted with me."
He stilled further. I think he was holding his breath.
We both knew what that spell was for. Extinguishing life. It wasn't just a ward - or a protective buffer. It was a killing spell - meant for demons and evil - and it had been directed at him.
The muscles in his whole body tightened with the thought, and he swallowed. I fought the urge to do the same.
I had just nearly killed my best friend.
Maybe Circle White Dawn was right to treat me as a loose cannon. Pointed in the wrong direction I could do some terrible things.
Yet still they didn't understand why I wanted to be disarmed.
I had begged Tanya to bind my powers before they destroyed something, or someone - but she had refused. They wanted to teach me to use them. Or so they said. Maybe they just wanted to aim me at their opponents and set me off...
I blinked the thought away.
"I'll be more careful. I promise." I whispered, blinking more than thoughts away.
He must have believed me because he hugged me close and placed a kiss on my forehead.
"Remind me never to sneak up on you!" he grinned and took a large gulp of tea.
My laugh was shaky, but at least I had an idea of why his magic reacted so much differently to mine.
Lee has always had more power than me - you can just feel it. Not only that, he picks things up faster. Just look at the warding spells on the house; it had taken him mere hours to learn what had taken me days. I just hadn't understood why his power hadn't flared to protect him as soon as I became a threat.
But it was like yesterday, when I tried to heal Bree. His instincts lead to healing... mine, apparently, lead to destruction...
Not the most pleasant thought to start your day on.
"What are you doing up so early anyway?" He asked again, running a hand through his short hair in a languid gesture that suggested he'd much rather be in bed than sat drinking tea in the kitchen.
"Woke up..." I shrugged, leaning back into his leg "I thought it was half 11..." I admitted, going a little red.
He laughed properly this time, shaking his head "Trust you!"
I retracted my arm from round his waist and used it to push him playfully in the chest.
"What time have you got work anyway, smelly?"
"Nine." He answered, taking a surreptitious sniff of his underarm as he stretched in a yawn and making a face - 'yuck'.
"Nine Was?" I asked, attempting a German accent.
He rolled his eyes and finished his gigantic mug of tea in a single, long, gulping swig. Patting my back to shoo me out of the way, he slid off the unit and round me to balance the dragon mug on the precarious pile of pots still waiting to be cleaned.
He'd already called shotgun on not washing up. House rules meant that if you added to the washing up after shotgun had been called it was tough - you were stuck with the washing till the pile was gone. I hated that rule... but I couldn't bitch about it since I'd been the one who came up with it one night after managing to call shotgun before taking my plate through.
When I added my plate Lee said that it was open for recalling; so I'd made the rule of no-recall.
Sometimes it's a pain... but in all honesty I'd never win the game if we didn't have it.
I sighed at his retreating back and took another mouthful of tea.
Lee had started to turn me to the way of the tea... it is apparently the magical cure-all that helps with any and all situations. I'd never believed him, but I was starting to enjoy the milky warmth it afforded.
I always felt so... British drinking it. But oh well.
The pipes gave a rattle, and I heard the shower start up overhead. An evil smile played over my lips as I thought Time to do the dishes then!
---
I didn't do the dishes till Lee was out of the shower and getting ready for work.
We weren't accustomed to being in each others way in the morning - mostly since by the time I was awake he'd have been at work for a few hours already. It made a nice change though, to be elbow deep in bubbly water while he made a sandwich to take to work with him, along with a pint glass of orange squash and toast and cereal.
Luckily the women at the hospital liked feeding him, otherwise I doubt we'd be able to afford to feed him enough now that I was out of work. His salary paid the bills fine, and my now tiny income paid for the food each week. Enough for a family of three... so nearly enough for the two of us.
For a while I hadn't understood why Lee got so hungry at work. But after a few minutes attempting to heal Bree and the exhaustion that had accompanied it, I was surprised he didn't need five times more!
He wasn't just running all over the hospital being bossed around, he was expending his life force on patients who weren't responding to treatment up to six or seven times a day.
"Hey Lee," he was slicing up all manner of salad vegetables for his sandwich.
"Mm hmm?" apparently it takes concentration
"Do you think you could teach me healing sometime?" I tried to make it offhand and disinterested, but I doubt he missed the longing in my voice.
"Sure."
Wow, early morning conversations were so deep and interesting in this house.
I turned and realised there was a large chunk of cucumber being masticated and he'd been talking around it. Ah; explanations.
"Cool." I smiled, rinsing off the last plate and pulling the plug from the sink.
I was still drying up when he slid his manwhich into his bag along with a bottle of juice.
"I get off around 4 today. You still planning on swing by and checking on Bree?"
I nodded "Want me to text you before I leave?"
"Sounds good." he kissed me on the cheek "See ya later."
and he was gone.
The pot in my hand reflected back my own smile, and I tried to remember the last time he left for work on such good terms with me.
I should nearly kill him more often...
Being open with him had cleared the air more than I'd realised. Things were really starting to look up...
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 6
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