Finding Fae

When I woke up, Mal tried to explain the things I had been doing. None of it made any sense, but he did say that, until whatever happened after the house was invaded, the use had been small and reflexive, which wouldn’t have done much of anything as far as the Awakening was concerned. It was the larger things that were the issue.

I hate to admit it, but I cracked again. I had been helpless to stop what I did. I didn’t have the nerve to ask and Mal didn’t say what had actually happened to the men that had broken into my house. Shortly after waking up, while I was sobbing and snotting all over Mal’s shirt, Nando, Ben, Blaine, and Zane showed up. The breaking I had felt, that I had been feeling since I first got here, finally broke when I saw them all standing in the doorway looking lost and ashamed.

It was cramped, but all six of us ended up sitting on the bed. Me, being a complete mess, and having at least one hand from the five others on me somewhere. None of them left, but food somehow ended up tickling my nose some time later and my stomach growled loudly.

I was sent to get cleaned up before we all went to find Nando’s mother in the kitchen and Blaine and Zane’s parents putting platters of food on the table while Ben’s parents entertained the smaller kids that came with Nando’s mom.

I was raw, but no one seemed to mind as the house filled with noise as people laughed. Slowly, the house emptied of the adults, leaving the six of us alone.

“What now?” Nando asked, breaking the heavy silence.

“We move forward,” I answered before anyone else could. “Mal’s right. We’re already hard pressed as it is. With school out until after the new year, and my birthday getting closer, we need to stop winging it. It’s time to get serious and take off the kid gloves.”

Ben, Blaine, and Mal smiled, in varying degrees of mischievous glee, Nando nodded, likely already planning out the next few months of herb lore, but Zane scowled.

“If we push too hard, it can hurt you,” he said.

“I’ve bare knuckle boxed with a freaking Demi, Zane,” I rolled my eyes. “Granted, at the time I didn’t know that, and I’m more than convinced he pulled his punches, but I still got my butt kicked and still ended up with fractured bones. I’m alive, though. That’s what I want to keep doing. I don’t care if it hurts, but I don’t want to die. I haven’t even lived yet. I don’t have a drivers license, never had a crappy job, never had an actual date, and it’s against the rules to so much as peck the cheek of anyone for any reason. I want to do things, Zane, and I can’t do any of it if I’m dead.”

And that’s how the topic of Gary’s rules became a thing. They were all surprised when I told them about the no kissing rule, though Mal seemed to hide it better than the others. When I told them what happened the only time I broke that rule, Ben and Blaine almost seemed thrilled.

Apparently, my harmless peck on the cheek had enthralled my friend and turned him into the obsessive mental case he was before Gary found out. I don’t know what he did, but it seemed to fix the problem a little bit and we left right after, Gary yelling as he scolded me the whole time. According to Ben and Blaine, it wasn’t common, typically showing in mermaids and, their more land friendly cousins, sirens.

I had hope for a few minutes before Mal said, “She can’t swim”, and blew all hope I had away. To mermaids and sirens, swimming was natural, not learned. Even if I had been suppressed by whatever drug Gary had been giving me, there would still be signs. I had no urge to go to the sea, I didn’t have asthma, which was the common excuse for their occasional lack of proper breathing when land bound, and I couldn’t sing too well. I wasn’t horrible, but I wasn’t about to hit up American Idol anytime soon.

After that, I shuffled off to my room, leaving the five guys to continue talking as midnight came and went and exhaustion hit me. Starting the next morning, bright and early enough to make me swear like a sailor, Mal woke me up and we started a new training schedule.

I was sore and knew I would have at least one or two bruises, all from my own mistakes than anything Mal, which I found amazing that he was able to control himself to that degree. After three long hours, I was sent to shower before breakfast, then it was off to the rather impressive library.

I thought the one Blaine and Zane had was huge, but it felt like comparing a flea to a blue whale. Nando was first, breaking out the books on herbs and plants as well as their uses. Then Ben and Blaine happened, teaching me on the darker side of fae. The ones that were more malicious than benign, which had me wondering again, what Blaine was. Then, oddly enough, Zane and Mal brought up the end of the day with the lighter side.

I was taught etiquette when meeting new fae, how to introduce myself in the formal and slightly less rigid informal ways, should I ever meet a fae from the Sidhe. I was taught diets, characteristics, any and everything I could possibly thing to know and then some about any fae that was deemed common enough to need knowing about right now.

It went on like this for two weeks before Mal showed up to dinner looking livid.

“Did Zane potty in your garden again?” I asked then looked at Zane. “Do I need to get a water bottle or a rolled up newspaper?”

Zane growled, but he grinned while he did it, taking my teasing in good humor as Ben and Blaine roared with laughter.

“My father and step-mother are coming back tomorrow,” Mal snapped, making us all fall silent for several moments. “They know that you’ve all been here pretty much the whole holiday.”

“It’s a problem, isn’t it?” I asked.

“My father could care less, since he’s rarely here, but Bianca has stomped her feet and got her way,” Mal said. “Pack your bags, everyone. We’re going somewhere else first thing tomorrow.”

“Where, might I ask?” Blaine asked in an uncaring tone, like he was asking about the weather.

“Anywhere but here,” Mal said and stomped away.

“He has no clue, does he?” Ben asked and Zane sighed. “I know a place.”

------

“Are you insane!?” Zane gritted out as he grabbed Ben by his shirt and jacket and slammed him into a wall.

“A strip club? Seriously?” Blaine shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes.

“Out of business strip club, thank you,” Ben shot back.

It was... well, it was unique. The walls were black and red and the floor, at one point, had carpet or something, but was now straight concrete. There was a half oval bar on one wall, and secluded booth like areas that had doors on them, though they didn’t go all the way to the ceiling. Lap dance booths, I’d guess. I could smell old grease from a fryer so I knew there was something of a kitchen. The stage was kind of an eyesore, jutting out into the floor several yards, but I could see Nando turning it into an indoor garden in a matter of days. All-in-all, it had potential.

“I like it,” I shrugged, drawing five looks of shock. “Some serious bleaching needs to be done, but it’s not bad.”

“Seriously?” Blaine asked.

“Look around,” I rolled my eyes. “There’s plenty of space once the tables, chairs, and lounges are gone, a huge walk-in fridge, we can put Nando’s teas and some coffee on tap, there’s a grill and griddle so we can make anything we want to eat, not to mention a killer sound system and disco ball.”

“Are we really considering this?” Zane said as he slowly let go of Ben’s clothes.

“She has a point,” Mal shrugged. “It does need copious amounts of bleach, though.”

“And rubber gloves,” Nando made a face.

“A way to separate sleeping areas and something in the way of beds because I don’t care how much bleach we use, I am not sleeping on the floor of a strip club, out of business or not,” I said.

“Food and a heat source,” Ben added.

“Water and batteries until we can figure out how to get things turned on without anyone knowing,” Blaine said.

“Air freshener,” Zane sighed, knowing he was out numbered.

“I’ll start a grocery list,” I smiled.

------

Since it was no clear that I was still being tracked, I stayed behind while Mal, Nando, and Blaine split up to start buying things on the list I made. In the meantime, Ben, Zane, and I started by pushing the tables on the stage and stacking the chairs along a wall. Zane refused to allow me into the bathrooms, saying it would be best to wait until the protective gear showed up, so I went backstage. There were a few small showers and some lockers, like in gym class, but there were also huge vanities and several racks of “costumes” that made me cringe.

I went back to the main floor and smiled seeing Zane glaring at Ben as they swept the floors.

“There’s some showers back there and some toilets that are actually clean, so there’s a plus,” I said as rubbed my cold hands together. “There’s clothes racks, too, but we’ll have to ditch the stripper wear first.”

“I come bearing three of pretty much everything in the cleaning section at the store,” Blaine announced as he came in through a side door.

“I never asked, but how do you people pay for all of this?” I asked.

“Well, technically, Ben’s paying for most of it,” Blaine said and Ben cheesed a sheepish grin.

“Foxes are a touch shady when it comes to making money,” Zane said.

“We can’t just claim unexplained income on taxes, so we throw it around where we can, so long as we avoid suspicion,” Ben nodded. “There’s no records for cash transactions, so as long as we’re careful about who buys what from where, it’ll be hard for anyone to trace.”

“Which is good, since we’re trying to keep as low a profile as we can,” Zane said.

“Which brings up the biggest problem,” Blaine sighed. “We don’t know how much those guy knew or who they told. It would be safe to assume that going back to school in a few days wouldn’t be the greatest of ideas.”

“Yes, there is that,” Zane looked thoughtful. “Even if she went to school online, it would leave a trail. Then there’s the whole issue with her being a minor. She can’t just drop out.”

“I can fill out the paperwork and forge Gary’s signature easy,” I waved it off. “Getting the paperwork is another matter, then getting it where it needs to go.”

“I can do that,” Ben nodded.

“Don’t even think about it, Zane,” I said seeing the wheels turning in his head. “None of you are dropping out with me.”

“She’s right,” Blaine said. “If we’re trying to keep attention away from her, we need to go back to normal at school. If we start dropping out, not only will it put up a red flag, it’ll make our families targets in hopes that it would draw us, or Fae, out.”

“It would work, too,” I said honestly. “It’s best if all of you go on as normal after the holidays.”

“We aren’t leaving her unprotected,” Zane glared.

“We keep doing what we did at the house,” Ben shrugged. “One of us with Fae at all times.”

“What about school?” I said. “You can’t be missing so much, even if you all rotate.”

The four of us were quiet was we thought and jumped when Nando and Mal came in. As the guys finished bringing in the last bit of supplies, we all got started on disinfecting everything while Nando and Mal were brought up to speed.

“I know what to do!” Nando exclaimed excitedly as he shucked his gloves and went to one of the lap dance booths.

He did a few waves and said a few words I didn’t understand before dumping a line of powder a few feet from the door and stepping into the booth and closing the door.

“Someone come open the door,” he said and Ben shrugged before walking over the line of powder.

There was a small pop and a flash near Ben, making him shake his head and rub his eyes while the sound of an alarm clock came from the booth where Nando was. He opened the door and smiled, proud of himself.

“You burned my retinas, Nando!” Ben complained.

“Did not, you big baby,” Nando rolled his eyes. “Close your eyes and it’ll go away in a minute or two.”

“So, why didn’t we do this at the house?” I asked.

“I just learned it because of what happened,” Nando flushed and fidgeted.

“We all felt bad that we weren’t there when you needed us, Fae,” Ben said seriously. “It’s safe to say we’ve all been learning a few new things the past few weeks.”

“I don’t blame anyone for not being there,” I said.

“We know,” Blaine said. “But we blame ourselves.”

“We left so fast, if anyone else had been there, you would have been left behind and hurt, if not worse,” Mal said. “It was better that there was only the two of us there.”

“We’re not looking back, guys,” I said. “It happened and we came out on top. It was a close call, but we’ve learned. Now, we get back to serious.”

“Seriously living in a strip club,” Zane shook his head.

“Seriously cleaning a former strip club so I, at least, can live here,” I said. “Remember, we’re also doing low profile.”

“By living in a strip club,” Zane groaned.

“Shut up and scrub, beagle boy,” I laughed.