Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Brandon made his way to the joint living area to the dorm quad he and his squad shared and dropped bonelessly onto the sofa. It had been a week of sheer hell - mid season exams were fast approaching so almost every class was doing some sort of review and his brain felt fried. His dark eyes drifted about the room, trying to find something to help him relax. A wry smile crossed his features as he spotted the other figure in the room. "Yo, Helia," he said.

Helia raised his head from his sketchbook and offered a quiet smile to Brandon before returning to his sketch.

Brandon debated on whether or not he really wanted to move and decided that he better. "Can I see your art when you're done with it?" he asked, curious about the latest subject.

"If you want," Helia said slowly. It wasn't one of his best so he wasn't sure he wanted to share it. It was just a rough sketch of designs for that party the Alfea girls were going to host before it gave way to sketching out little bits of day to day life in the dorm.

Brandon made his way over and peered over Helia's shoulder. "I do like that one," he said, gesturing to the napping couple in the corner of the page.

Helia gave him a small smile. "I'm tempted to give it to them as an anniversary present. Thoughts?"

Brandon nodded. "Maybe add some watercolors to give it some oomph?"

Helia tilted his head slightly. "I was thinking about it," he admitted. "Just wasn't sure."

Chapter Text

Musa plopped down on Riven's sofa, her eyes staring upwards at the ceiling. Nope, no new dots for her to count had appeared since her last visit here - still coming in at over 9000. "So, what's the plan for tonight?" she asked, slowly turning her head to look at him.

"Dunno," Riven offered up. "You got one?"

A thoughtful expression crossed her features and then she sat up ever so slowly. "I got one."

"I'm all ears," he said.

Musa let out a dainty snort at his comment, recalling a recent incident.

"Oh, don't start," he grumped. "That cousin of yours.."

"Oh, hush, Kotone meant well," she said. "You did say you wanted to hear better."

"That didn't mean I wanted ass's ears," he huffed.

Musa gave another dainty snort and smirked. "But, since you are all ears, how about we rent a bad movie?"

"And the purpose?" Riven asked.

"To laugh our asses off?"

"Now that was just cruel, Musa," he muttered under his breath.

"Oh, come off it, Riven. None of your team saw that happen so your ego is still in one piece. But still, we need a hilariously bad movie to go mock."

Riven gave her a thoughtful look. "All right, but which movie?"

"Eh. Decide that at the store," she said, hopping off the sofa.

"Lead the way, m'lady," Riven said, mock bowing to her before he followed her out.

Chapter Text

Musa settled down on the sofa in the lounge, guitar in hand. She absently strummed it, trying to see if it was even in tune. Well, it was passable - she'd have to replace the G string soon, which meant a shopping trip. She'd just have to let Stella know that this was a quick trip and that no she didn't need company since all she was going to was the music store. She glanced up at Tune, who was sitting (hovering really) with a small tea cup in her hand, sipping it slowly. She smiled and beckoned for her pixie to join her.

Tune set the tea cup down on to its saucer and fluttered over, settling down on Musa's shoulder. It had been a surprise to have been this woman's bonded pixie, especially when she first met her, but as time had passed, the two had grown in ways neither had predicted. "Was that a new song?" she asked politely.

Musa chuckled soft and low. "Nope, just seeing if this thing was tuned. Strings are old so I'll have to replace them."

Tune nodded. "Will I be accompanying you then?" she asked, wanting to get out of the school and get some fresh air.

"If you want," Musa offered. She saw Tune's eyes pick out something and she chuckled again. "See something that interests you?" she asked, knowing that she knew what Tune was looking at.

"I know it is the height of rudeness to point, but what is that?" she asked, floating over to examine the instrument.

"It's an erhu," she said softly. "My maternal grandmother was trying to teach me it before she passed away." Her eyes took on a wistful glow before she got up and sat down behind it. She picked up the bow and gently guided it over the strings.

Chapter Text

Digit pouted as she sat midair. The power was out so that meant no video games - how dull. Not to mention she couldn't watch TV. How was she supposed to keep up on her soaps [not that she would ever admit to watching them] if there wasn't any power? "Tecna, I'm bored," she said.

"Hmm.." Tecna murmured as she tried to recall where Bloom said something was. Ah, the closet. She made her way over to the closet and opened it slowly, praying that she picked the right one and not the one overflowing with Stella's clothing. When no avalanche overtook her, she let out a relieved sigh and began her search. Ah, there it was. "Found it!"

"Found what?" Digit asked as she floated over. "Trivia Pursuit?"

Tecna nodded. "It's an old Earth board game. I figured between the two of us, we can learn how to play it quickly..."

"Then cream the others when we play against them," Digit chirped, enjoying that plan. She waited as patiently as she could for Tecna to set up the board so they could begin.

Chapter Text

Aisha stared blankly at her mother and then gestured downwards with her left hand. "How long were you gonna wait to tell me about the whole I-actually-have-fins thing?" she asked, her voice somewhat strained. Well, this was the perfect capper to a perfect day [and she could just feel the sarcasm bubbling up].

Niobe merely flushed and clasped her hands in front of her. "Well," she began. "We weren't sure this would even happen."

"Oh?" Aisha asked, arching a brow.

"Well, your father never expressed a triton side and well.."

Aisha let free a sigh. "So, how long am I stuck like this?"

"We.. just don't know," Niobe reluctantly confessed. "Your father is contacting your uncle now to see if there's a way to ..well.."

Chapter Text

Brandon rubbed the back of his neck as he made his way to the dorm's attached kitchen. Today had been one hell of a day and he was hoping just to make a simple sandwich and just spend the rest of the day in full blown slug mode. His left eyebrow arched slightly at the sight of ..was that Riven.. in a pink apron? "Does Helia know you stole his apron?" Brandon asked.

"Ha, ha, very funny, very funny," Riven said, turning to point a spatula at Brandon. The fact it said 'fear the dubstep' on it was something that was making it clear it was a gift from Musa. "Musa's birthday is soon and I figured I'd give her a homemade cake instead of one of those crappy store bought ones but it's looking more practical, as Timmy would put it, to just buy the damn thing."

"This may sound dumb, but did you try following the recipe instead of pulling a Stella?" Brandon asked.

"Don't even make a joke like that again," Riven said, shuddering.

"Here," Brandon said, giving up on the idea of making his sandwich for now. "Move over and let me show you how it's done."

Chapter Text

Darcy grumbled slightly as she made her way down the streets late at night, heading for a destination that if her sisters knew would have them teasing her about it for the next month - which was why they were never going to find out if she had her way about it. Stupid residual feelings for that blasted Specialist - she thought that she was over him after that first attempt at trying to take over Magix, but it seemed that something still lingered and she really wish it didn't. A powerful witch like her didn't need this fluffy little emotion called love, right? Still, she thought, and she prayed she wasn't blushing - a witch like her did not blush, it wouldn't hurt to check in on him, just in case she could find a use for him again. Really, that was all.

There it was - his apartment. She mentally huffed before fishing out the key [that he never asked her to give back since he found out she was using him - what the hell did that mean?]. She quietly unlocked it and slipped inside. A soft smile crossed her features before she quickly schooled them to her usual expression - she was not going to show him that she still loved him. (Loved him? What the devil was she thinking? He was just a pawn in their plans and yet..) "Riv?" she called, that rare trace of affection clear in her tone.

The answering sneeze told her all that she needed to know. She headed to the kitchen first, looking for those sport drinks he loved and snagged one from the fridge. She padded her way to the living room where he was lying on the sofa, looking utterly miserable.

"Darcy? What are you doing here?" he asked, praying he didn't start coughing again - it was starting to hurt.

"I'm looking after you because you're ill and that's that," she said, bustling about. She set the drink close to his hand and adjusted the half on-half off blanket.

"But.."

"Shut it, Riv," she huffed, a heady blush staining her cheeks.

Riven just gave her a small smile and settled down. Did feel kind of nice to know that on some level she still loved him. Besides, there were days when he just didn't feel good enough for /her/.

Chapter Text

Lunchtime at Alfea - the one event Griselda dreaded with a passion. If she had to listen to another student complain about "oh, I can't eat that, it's not on my diet" she was going to either scream or spell that child so she would eat because who wanted to look like a damn stick figure. She took a cleansing breath and took a savage bite out of her sandwich.

"What did that sandwich ever do to you?" Palladium asked, shying away from his pissed off tablemate.

"The conversation pissed me off," she gestured, knowing he could hear it.

Palladium took a sip of his soda, mulling over what he heard. "I suppose you have a point." He rolled his eyes and took a bite of his sandwich. "So, think it'll be a quiet year?"

Wizgiz glanced over at a table, then back at Palladium. "The Winx are still here..."

DeFour just groaned. "So much for quiet years."

"Two more years," Griselda sighed. "Two more years."

Chapter Text

Flora blinked as a rather large bouquet of flowers - a breed of roses that she hadn't seen outside of a few magazines if she had to be honest with herself - randomly appeared on her desk one morning. She stood there, silently trying to logic out where they possibly could have come from. There hadn't been there when she left last night ['was it last night?' she wondered for a moment. She had stayed so late grading papers for that course she was teaching under the direction of Palladium, her former professor and current occupational mentor, that for all she knew she could have fallen asleep at her desk and wa-poof, there were flowers when she woke up]. She massaged her left temple, trying to work the ache - never mind the fact that her powers were screaming at her because of the deaths of those poor flowers. She'd have to remind the gift-giver that her powers were almost always active when it came to flowers and giving her murdered plants was not a good idea. She whipped around at the sound of someone clearing their throat and a shaky smile crossed her features. Just Helia. "Are those flowers for me?" she asked, gesturing to bouquet.

Helia gave a wry smile. "See anyone else in this room who deserves flowers?" he asked, making his way over to embrace his girlfriend. It had been so long since he had last seen her - that diplomatic mission to one of the outer planets had been the longest the two had been separated and he was not looking forward to repeating it anytime soon.

Flora gave him a wry smile in return. "I suppose not," she said, lightly kissing him on the check. "Although, does someone know you've raided her garden?"

Heila smirked slightly, mischief a-twinkle in his eyes. "Well, we'll find out if she knows if she comes to seek vengeance."

Flora mentally groaned. Terrific. Hopefully she didn't notice a few missing stardust roses - she was not in the mood to deal with that particular headache any time soon.

Chapter Text

Stella stared at the khaki colored pants in her hands and then over at her boyfriend (read that as future husband if he ever finally got around to asking her that all important question! Bloom was already engaged, well.. sort of - Sky had asked her, she said yes, but nothing since then, no planning, no announcements, nothing!) "Brandon, sweetie, I think there's a problem."

Brandon slowly turned his gaze from the sports game he had been halfway following (it was more a way to kill the time whilst Stella got ready then him being well and truly following the game) and fixed it on his girlfriend. "Oh, pumpkin?" he asked.

She held up the khaki pants. "The style is cute and all but, khaki? With my skin tone?" Okay, so maybe the once was fine but ugh, definitely not her color and would *never* be her color if she had her say in things.

Brandon gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry, babe," he apologized. He knew that was the wrong color but Riven had sworn up and down that khaki was the currently in color (although, why Riven would be following fashion was beyond him).

"Don't tell me. Let me guess. Riven?" Stella asked, already feeling a headache forming.

"Yeah, he said that was the hot color this season."

Stella stared blankly at Brandon. "Brandon, khaki has *never* been the hot color of this season or any season. That's like saying bruise and burnt orange look awesome together."

Chapter Text

Sky glanced up at the cloudless blue sky, shading his gaze with his left hand. It was a gorgeous day and he was planning on enjoying it as best he could before something came up and ruined it for him. A stray moment of feeling like he was forgetting something sparked for a moment before he readily dismissed it. Nope, thinking of nothing but enjoying the rare perfect day.

-

Of course, his traitorous brain would jinx him. A small snarl escaped him as he quickly unsheathed his phantoblade and slid easily into position. "Getting really sick of your bullshit," he snarled at Icy.

"Kiss Bloom with that mouth," she taunted, shooting an icy dagger at him.

Sky tilted the blade quickly, knocking the frozen dagger harmlessly to the side. "Not any of your business," he returned, his blue eyes doing a quick sweep of the area, trying to plan out his next move. Icy's magic was fast, but could he be faster?

Icy smirked, noticing Stormy easily sliding into place. Good, everything was proceeding as planned. Hopefully Tritannus would be able to appear and well.. All good things came to those who wait - and she waited a very long time for this..

Chapter Text

Stella lay on her stomach, a blank sketchbook in front of her. She sighed and absently began to doodle something, anything. It was just one of those days and she just couldn't understand why. She never felt blah like this before so she knew something was up. She glanced down to see what she had been doodling and felt like her eyes were going to pop out of her head. Of all the people, it would have to be /her/. She let out a small growl and was ready to rip the page out and destroy it but she sighed. No, she was supposed to be more mature after all. Still, maybe the sketch was an indicator of something. She worried her lip for a moment and nodded. Well, there was only one way to find out.

~

Chimera settled on the edge of the dock, her expensive shoes sitting next to her [Mother wouldn't want them ruined - even if they hurt like hell and weren't even a style she liked]. She allowed her feet to hang into the water [well, the stockings were going to be wet and that meant the shoes would get wet. Still a win for her] She didn't know where the twins had gotten to - not that it really mattered [there was only so much she could handle of one starting and the other ending the sentence] right now. She did turn her head to notice the approaching fairy and she barely managed to hide the frown. "Come to gloat?" she asked dryly.

Stella gave an absent shrug. "Thought about it," she admitted. "But, I will confess, I don't feel like doing that."

"How mature of you," Chimera returned, her eyes darting up and studying the other female briefly. Still the fashion plate. "So, what brings you this way?" she asked, silently giving permission to Stella to sit down next to her.

Stella settled down next to her one time would be step-sister. "Well, we really didn't start off on the best foot, did we?" she answered.

"No," Chimera admitted with a dry chuckle.

"So, I propose we start over. Fresh," Stella said. "Besides," she said with a slight tilt to her head. "If I see you've changed, I might pull a few strings.."

That had Chimera turning to look at her. "Really?" she asked quietly, not daring to hope so high. Could this really mean that she'd be allowed to go back to Solaria? Go back *home* to see the one woman that loved her without question, without wanting her to be something she wasn't? To finally see her grandmother again?

Stella nodded. "Yeah," she said softly.

Chimera gave her a watery smile before impulsively hugging Stella. "Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you."

Chapter Text

Christine glanced between the other specialists on her team and Lady (who, she was probably going to end up claiming as hers if this was a sign of things to come for the poor pup). Somehow, she wasn't sure what the hell happened. Wasn't quite sure she wanted to know what the hell happened. "Okay," she began slowly, dragging the word out as she looked at them. "Do I even want to know why Lady has a splat of periwinkle blue on her butt and the rest of you are covered from head to toe in it?" she asked, vainly trying to keep a laugh suppressed, and was starting to fail miserably.

"Well," Timmy started before glancing at the others, and reluctantly continuing since the others in the squad weren't venturing forth an answer. "Um... that is..."

Lady just gave the stink eye to Sky before settling down, front paws crossed delicately in front of her, next to Christine. She gave a steady "hnf" at her master.

W strolled by and peered into the room. "Ah, looks like the freshies got you," he said, a laugh clear in his voice.

"Freshies?" Christine repeated, turning to look at W, her eyebrow arching ever so slightly as she looked at the senior. Why was she getting a feeling that she wasn't going to be liking this particular explanation?

Brandon groaned and hung his head in despair. Wonderful, now the whole thing was going to spread like wildfire throughout Red Fountain. W's squad had a habit of not liking to keep anything a secret, especially with the team being the head of the Red Fountain school newspaper.

"Yeah, apparently the boys were running the freshies ragged so," W paused to laugh heartily. "One of the freshmen rigged the door to their dorm to drop periwinkle paint on them."

Christine brought her left hand up to her mouth in an attempt to hide her laughter, her shoulders shaking in mirth. "Oh, that's priceless," she said between peals of laughter.

"Even better, one of my squadmates caught it on camera," W said, grinning. "Care to watch the vid?"

"Let me clean up poor Lady and then I'll come join your squad to watch the vid. This I've got to see."

"Oh, c'mon, Chris, who's side are you on?" Riven called as he watched her walk off with Lady. The only answer he got was her merry laughter.

Helia shook his head. "Well, c'mon, time to go get cleaned up ourselves. And remind me never to listen to your asinine plans about training the freshmen again if this is what's going to happen, Sky."

Chapter Text

Bloom settled down on the grass, a small bowl of strawberries settled next to her. She picked one up by the stem and carefully examined it before taking a small bite, a soft moan briefly escaping her lips. Oh, she had forgotten how good strawberries were - especially when they were sweet and in season (okay, so, they weren't technically *in* season right now - but it did help that her dormmate was a nature fairy).

Sky glanced over at Bloom when he heard the moan, a blond eyebrow arched slightly. What was...?

Bloom took another bite, her eyes closed in pure bliss - unaware of how her reaction to strawberries was affecting her boyfriend. She licked her lips, the tip of her tongue wiping away the juice. She opened her eyes and picked up another strawberry, repeating the same process. She glanced up at Sky, wondering why he was fidgeting like that before she began to suck on her fingers to get the juice off of them.

Sky had to get away - damn pants were too tight. And definitely a cold shower was needed.

Flora glanced over at Stella as the pair peered out the window to see what was going on. She giggled quietly and turned to Musa. "Operation Strawberry worked like a charm," she laughed.

Chapter Text

"Well, this is awkward," Christine said, her left hand resting against her chin as she stared at the scene in front of her. Was that? No, couldn't.. Well, if.. No.. She tilted her head side to side, studying the scene in front of her. No matter which way she looked at it, she honestly could not make heads or tails of it. How did a team of skilled Specialists get tangled into a net like that?

"Would you stop staring at us and cut us down?" Riven groused, clearly not in the best of moods.

"I would, if I could figure out how you managed to," she paused and shook her head. "You know, I honestly don't want to know how you all managed to get tangled up in that trap. I honestly don't want to know."

Lady pranced over, clearly amused by the whole scene, and gave a bark that clearly was meant to be laughter.

Sky glowered at his dog. "If you would just let me bathe you, we wouldn't be in this mess," he muttered.

Christine glanced at Lady and nodded. Yep, the menfolk clearly *were* silly. "C'mon, girl," she said, walking off with the dog. "I'll be back," she called.