Chapter Text
It took several mintues before things calmed down and Icy looked very smug about throwing the room into chaos.
Griffin was a bit proud she had managed to do it without casting a single spell.
But also she wanted to get this fucking over with so she could hunt down the ones who dared threaten her coven bond.
"They’re friends. They are well past the point where they could still reasonably pretend otherwise. Bloom knows this. Icy won’t say it out loud, but she knows this. Stormy does. Darcy does."
"Witches have covens and sisters. Not friends. Especially not with fairies." Griffin interrupted herself to pull a face and Faragonda smacked her for that.
"You know that's a lie. We've been friends since school!" Faragonda chided and Griffin shot her a smirk.
"You're a fairy witch hybrid. A dark fairy or light witch. You don't count and we've been coven since school." If their memories were right at least and she hoped, prayed that they were right. She didn't want to...couldn't, lose that.
"That does not make waking up sprawled out next to her groggy and exhausted and worn and, weirdly, comfortable, any less awkward.
Icy radiates cold. Her sheets are silk or whatever. Bloom’s pretty sure her magic has been working overdrive to compensate, and so has Icy’s, and so - temperature wise, they’re comfortable. But she still feels sore as hell and her magic feels drained.
Icy shifts next to her, just a little, and lets out a deep breath. Awake then, too."
"Did you stare at her as she slept?" Stormy asked in disbelief and amusement and Bloom was blushing but scowling.
"I apparently just woke up, was groggy and noticed my magic was drained! I didn't have the brain power to do anything yet!" Bloom defended herself and then she looked at Icy and smirked.
"Besides. It's a nice view." Bloom said and Darcy slapped a palm to her face, Riven let out a laugh, the other fairies whooped or whistled and Icy blushed.
"They’re alone. The dorm window is open - Riven probably came in and out through it. Darcy and Stormy probably went to class."
"Probably." Riven shrugged and Griffin narrowed her eyes. She was going to keep a closer eye on that and put up some spells around windows.
"What’s your plan for Alfea finding out?” Icy rasps. Bloom closes her eyes and exhales."
"Just... cuddling and plotting." Stormy snickers and Icy nudged her with her foot not hard enough to be a kick but still...
"She does not believe Daphne lied to them. Which means she has the Dragon Flame. Which means the very power that created the known universe resides within her.
Bloom doesn’t think it’s a power of creation, not like she’s used to conceptualizing them. But it’s still an unimaginable power. And she can’t think of a single government that wouldn’t do anything to possess it."
"Fuck that's true. Most would and have killed for that kind of power." Stella said sighing heavily and yay they were back on the heavy shit.
"More than you know." Daphne said and she was solemn as she recalled all those who wanted her power when she had been priestess. Now that her sister bore the flame in its entirety?
"The Magix Counsel’s kinda like your UN, right?” She asks quietly.
“I have no idea what that is. It’s a governing body of the entire dimension, sort of. Every homeworld and some inhabited planets have a representative on its board. The major colleges all do as well. They don’t officially have the power to enforce their rule. That doesn’t stop them.”
"Yep. The UN." Mike nodded in agreement there and Vanessa sighed heavily at that.
"And they are based in Magix. Magix, where Alfea and Red Fountain are.
She’s pretty sure Red Fountain’s involved. The boys wouldn’t be dealing with Helia - who is wild, why the actual fuck they’d choose him to spy is a question Bloom desperately wants answered - otherwise."
"Yeah that is a good question...but also...can I learn a baby wizard spell? I wanna see how they're different from witch and fairy magic!" Bloom said brightly and Helia smiled at her and Saladin perked up but Riven...
He grabbed her right off the couch and sat her on the floor beside him.
"I'll teach you what ma showed me. Not the same as they learned but probably better." Riven said and he glared at Helia while Bloom beamed at him.
"Alfea and Red Fountain wouldn’t have had the kind of dimension-wide reach they do if they weren’t working with or controlling the Magix Council, though.
And last night - this morning? -’s conversation comes back to her.
Daphne had nothing to lose. She has everything."
"The only thing I had left to lose was you Bloom. Saving you? It meant I won. And I am so so happy that you were safe this entire time." Daphne said and she smiled softly at her little sister who gave her a shaky smile in response. Daphne pretended not to notice the way Musa was eyeing her.
“I need to warn my parents.” She says quietly.
“Right. But what’s your plan for Alfea finding out?”
“Grab everyone and go to Zenith.”
“…Mother would be willing to go to war?”
"They tampered with and sabotaged mother. War is already started for Zenith." Tecna said coldly and she sparked again at the reminder of what someone had dared do to her mother.
"War’s already started.” Bloom sighs, and then rolls onto her side to look at Icy proper. She’s scowling.
“I want to tell Griffin about all this.”
“You don’t think she’s involved.”
From everything Bloom knows about witches in general - she’s pretty sure Icy’s right, even before the woman nods.
“I have no idea why but she trusts Saladin and Faragonda. The way she talks about them…”
"Because they're my coven." Griffin said and she gives the two such a worried look that they squeeze closer to her and Faragonda nudged up under chin while Saladin is under one arm.
"I'm just glad the girls can trust you with this. You'd help them." Faragonda said and she was so sure of that because she knew it was true. Griffin would help the girls as much as she could and do whatever she could for them.
“After I warn my parents. Put some…contingencies up or something.” She promises.
“Contingencies for what?” Icy asks, and turns her head to squint at her. Bloom chews on her bottom lip for a moment.
“Alfea’s bigoted as hell towards Earth. But it’s also - ah. Full of itself. It has a very particular image and it does a lot to maintain that. Fairies are benevolent and all, you know? So I don’t think they’d kill my parents. I do think they’d fuck with their memory or threaten them, or watch them.”
"I will personally burn anyone who fucks with my parents alive until their skin melts like a fucking candle." Bloom said and her voice was dark and her eyes balls of fire as she glares around the room as if to warn them all.
"I'd help you." Darcy promises thinking about her dad and what she'd do if someone fucked with him.
"Icy nods slowly.
“And you have a plan for dealing with that?”
A thought strikes her, and Bloom sits up. Between the two of them, they’ve kicked off most of Stormy’s blankets, but she still ends up frustratingly tangled in the sheets.
“You guys sent monsters to Earth to attack us, right?”
“…Yes?”
“Interplanetary travel is strictly documented, right?”
“I see where you’re going with this. And no.”
“What if you come with me? We’re skipping today anyway.”
“And what’s your cover story for that?”
“Slept. Bad dreams. Griselda was about ready to tranq me anyway.”
"From the way you were described to look in the last few chapters? I'm surprised I haven't already." Griselda said although she looked worried as she looked at Bloom who shot her a smile.
"She answers a touch too quickly, because she’s not about to let Icy waive this off, and the witch gives an appropriately loud and long groan of exasperation before sitting up herself.
Bloom raids Darcy’s closet for clothes,"
"At least she has good taste." Darcy said smirking and Stormy sticks her tongue out while Icy didn't seem bothered.
" and makes out with a swishy thigh-length skirt, one of those weird cage bras with the straps that make a design on that her mother never let her buy, and a sheer black button-up."
Vanessa is giving Bloom a look that her daughter is resolutely trying to ignore while the witches seemed pleased.
"We'll make a witch out of you yet." Lucy smirked slightly and Icy was staring hard at Bloom now and envisioning that outfit.
"Darcy has fantastic taste in clothes, because she has clothes that are fun. Icy just wants sexy shit. Stormy is great because she likes comfortable shit.
Icy, predictably, throws on her usual min-skirt and crop top and then flings open a wardrobe Bloom does not remember being there a second ago. She proceeds to send boxes of what look like potions and ingredients and books floating out of it, and then the back of the wardrobe straight up disappears."
All three of the Trix avoid looking at their headmistress who stared at them for a moment before sighing.
"Does Cloud Tower know about this?”
“Cloud Tower likes us.” Icy sniffs, and then Bloom has to scramble before the witch abandons her. That, she assumes, means not only a yes but that Cloud Tower gave the witches its blessing."
"Helped us set it up even." Stormy admits and Griffin was going to have a talk with her school later about this.
"There’s a cramped staircase that leads into what is basically a basement even if they’re absolutely not below-ground, filled with all sorts of weird shit. Glass tanks with little creatures in them - Darcy’s - and shelves filled with various enchanted items and books. Grimoires.
It isn’t that everything there is special or powerful or anything - it’s that everything there is theirs, Icy and Darcy and Stormy’s, built and cultivated and bred with their own hands and their own magic and -"
"Wow Icy just really like you if she's letting you in there." Stormy notes and Darcy stares at Icy who flips her off. Bloom beams from where she's still trying the wizard like tricks Riven is showing her.
"Icy grabs her shoulder and shoves. Bloom has a split second to recognize that she just stumbled into the middle of some intricate chalk work, and then she’s wincing and blinking as early afternoon sunlight blazes down at her.
She’s - she knows this place.
This is where she met Stella.
There is a quiet pop and Icy is suddenly at her shoulder.
“So it’s a fixed point?”
"That is so convenient. It's...it's literally a few roads down from the house." Bloom gapes in disbelief at that and Mike hummed. He'd have to get the guys to keep an eye out on that spot just in case he suddenly forgot.
"Regrettably.” Icy sighs. Bloom digests that, and then nods, and starts marching. They aren’t far from her parents’ house. The park is only a few blocks away. Convenient, if a little unsettling.
“Have you ever been to Earth before?” Bloom asks, and she - well. It’s a pretty blatant attempt at conversation. And at a dig - she watches Icy roll her eyes like a hawk. But the witch doesn’t sneer or curl her lip or anything like that - not anything more than usual, anyway."
"Anyone else would be sneered at or slapped. Maybe cursed." Darcy said dryly and Bloom smiles at Icy who just kind of nods at her but there's a small smile playing at her lips.
"No. Griffin said it’s a fun place to play, though, and after all your little study sessions Stormy’s frothing at the mouth to visit.” That, Bloom decides, is Icy Speak for I want to go too, which is fantastic, because -
She spins around and beams and Icy flinches back.
“Halloween’s coming up!”
"Yes! I can drag all of you there!" Bloom beams at that and everyone looks confused.
"Ah the one day of the year I can walk around Earth without any glamours or illusions." Griffin noted and that was an implication and a thought and Bloom beamed brighter. Her hair catching on fire in excitement.
"I'm gonna drag the teachers I like with me!" Bloom whispers and its ominous and yet harmless and...and no one disagreed with her so apparently they were all going.
"I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s an Earth holiday! The fact that you don’t have it anywhere in the magic dimension is a fucking war crime.”
“You’re not explaining anything.”
“We celebrate all the spooky and scary shit. Dress up like monsters or fictional characters or whatever, and run around threatening to prank people in exchange for free candy.”
"The perfect witch holiday." Saladin teases Griffin who grins at him. Darcy and Icy look horrified though as Stormy visibly brightens.
"Earth candy?!" Stormy was sparking in excitement.
"Icy runs through the five stages of grief the minute the word candy leaves Bloom’s mouth. Stormy is in love with Earth candy, courtesy of care packages from Bloom’s parents. She and Musa and Riven are the only people Bloom shares it with - too sweet for Tecna, too artificial for Flora, too unhealthy for Stella - and of all of them Stormy is the most enthusiastic of it. It’s fun to share with her - and more than that, it’s just nice to share her home with someone that doesn’t scoff and curse it on principal.
That the witches are more accepting of her background than the fairies is a source of constant, bitter amusement for her."
Everyone winced because damn. That...that was irony right there.
"You say that like I should be excited for it.”
“I told Stormy once - Earth is much more familiar with witches than with fairies or almost any other magical creature. So on Halloween, a lot of people choose to dress up like witches. But - I will outright ban you from the planet if you guys don’t get actual costumes. You’re not allowed to just show up. I’m not gonna let the girls transform, so I have to hold you to a higher standard too.”
"Hell yeah! I'll fight you if you try! You need to put actual effort in!" Bloom said and the witches scoff but Stella smirks.
"It's okay if they don't darling. They know we'll have better costumes anyways." Stella said and there's a challenge there and she knows it.
"The fuck you will!" Stormy immediately takes the challenge and Darcy and Icy sigh. They were going to get dragged in now no matter what. Mirta is bouncing eagerly and Lucy shoots her an exasperated fond look. Guess they were dressing up too.
"She’ll outright fight them if they try, not that she thinks it’ll be a problem - she’ll get a chance to work on outfits with Stella, so she can flex her artsy muscles and Stella can dictate what looks the best. It’ll be fun.
“Right. Stormy didn’t tell me that but I assume this was the same conversation you decided to tell her about the mass murder of witches in.” Icy says dryly. Bloom’s shoulders hike up to her ears before she can help herself."
"Salem witch trials." Bloom hurriedly says, referring to what she had talked about earlier where any magical would have been killed in those times.
“I take no responsibility for anything you suffered as a result of that conversation.”
Icy throws her head back and barks out a laugh, and Bloom smiles, and then they turn a corner and crash right into something.
Someone.
Oh.
For a fairy with, supposedly, God her fucking self inside of her -
How can nothing, nothing at all, go her way?"
Everyone tenses and Bloom sighs.
"I think I know who I crashed into." Bloom seems tired now and annoyed and Icy...Icy slides off of her couch to sit beside her on the floor.
"I'll kill her for you." Icy promises casually and there's choked noises at that. Darcy looks so done.
"Thanks." Bloom shoots Icy a smile and leans against her a bit and Icy just nods and looks unbothered as she looks at her headmistress who gives her a bemused look.
"Well it'll give us warning at least? And we'll be able to be a safe house and know about the target on our backs." Vanessa said sighing and yeah she knew this probably wouldn't end well but they dealt with having an obviously not fully human daughter well enough.
"And now, as if that alone isn’t a task monumental in scope, she has to feel Bloom go tense and rigid against her while some idiot little Earth girl coos out Bloom’s name in a voice so nasally an shrill Icy has to tamp down on the immediate reflex to cast a counter-curse, because they’re on Earth and thus that has to be the girl’s natural voice."
"Yep that's Mitzi alright." Bloom said and her friends eyes narrow and they glance at each other. Stella writes down a reminder to go and fuck up Mitzi for daring to mess with their friend later.
"Bloom’s taken the entirety of Magix degrading her for her place of origin in stride. She’s made passing comments about being used to the bullying, to the bigotry. It’s not hard to put two and two together.
“I’m not here to waste time playing nice with all your little pets, sweetheart. We have things to do.”
Bloom goes slightly red at the words but the rest of the room whistles and Icy smirks a bit.
"Fuck her up!" Stormy calls and Darcy smirks at that idea while Daphne leans forward a bit.
"If you don't I'll find a way to earth and do it myself." Daphne says and Icy smirks and Bloom giggles and Stella is already planning several things now that it's been all but confirmed that this bitch is the one who was the bigot to Bloom.
"Icy says coolly, and shoots the girl still sprawled on the ground a disdainful look. She doesn’t remove her hand from Bloom’s arm. The fairy’s not afraid - Icy would feel that - but she’s certainly not happy about their little run-in. As the dark-haired girl pushes herself up, gaze flicking across Icy head-to-toe, she can’t really blame her.
“Wow, Bloom. I knew you were a freak and all but bringing your delinquent friends to Gardenia with you?”
"Did she just call one of my girls a freak?" Tecnas voice is cold and calculated and all the more terrifying for the lack of emotion in it.
"Stella-"
"Oh I'm going to fuck her up so bad." Stella interrupted Flora whose eyes glint darkly.
"Give me a notebook. We're planning this out properly."
"Oh shit Flora is mad." Bloom whispers kind of awed and kind of terrified, she hasn't forgotten about the whole Bio-terroism thing her friend and roommate apparently had done.
"Del -
Actually. That is almost flattering. Icy turns, angles her body to face Bloom directly. Bloom looks absolutely confused.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Mitzi?”
“Gardenia’s resident fuck-up gets sent away to some reform school and you think we wouldn’t find out about it? Please. I’m just shocked it took your parents so long to realize what a failure their daughter is!” The girl laughs back. Actually, literally, laughs."
"If her house catches on fire I never heard the call." Mike said and his voice is angry and he's gritting his teeth and Vanessas face is carefully blank.
"I wonder if I could sell her some poison ivy...or perhaps Belladonna." She wonders aloud and the whole room is bristling in fury and rage and Rivens magic is sparking a bit.
"Girls." Griseldas voice is calm and cool.
"Ma'am?" Musa asked despite how she was damn near vibrating angrily.
"Fuck her up."
It took three minutes for them to continue reading.
"What the fuck…?
“Do you need her alive?” Icy asks, maybe a little louder than necessary. She’s already done with the girl, and she’s already having to clamp down very firmly on her magic. It won’t do to turn the bitch into a popsicle in the middle of a public street. Or a pincushion. Or a hyena."
"Do it!" Came the call from every corner of the room and Icy smirks and the air around her is frigid but Bloom seems content as her magic keeps her warm.
"I - uh, no? Why would I - wait Icy no - “
For all her bluster, the Earth idiot goes pale in equal parts fear and outrage and scrambles back. Leaps back, nearly taking out a short blond woman in her haste. She’s not very coordinated. Icy endures Bloom grabbing her arms while she watches, while she stares unblinking and still sneering at the girl’s retreat."
"Icy...was going to kill her for you." Darcy said slowly and she looked at Bloom.
"Yes?"
"And she didn't because you grabbed her."
"Yes?"
"Shut up Darcy."
"And she didn't freeze you for it?!"
"Shut. UP. Darcy!"
Stella made a whip cracking motion where Icy couldn't see and Darcy just stared at her sister who was glaring at her.
“And here I thought I’d never meet anyone tackier than Stella.” She says airily. Bloom wheezes.
“Okay look I’m not going to pretend I can stop you guys from fucking murdering people but can you show a little tact please?” Bloom’s voice isn’t loud enough to be heard by the other girl; given that Bloom is now ignoring her, the girl’s fear melts into white-hot fury and she spits out something too vitriolic and high-pitched to properly hear before sweeping her hair over one shoulder and stalking off.
All in all, the encounter takes mere seconds.
“She acted like she had power over you.” Icy notes, the moment the idiot is out of earshot."
"Yeah sure that's the only thing that pissed you off." Darcy rolled her eyes.
"You know Icy. She doesn't like it when someone acts like they have any power or authority over what's hers." Stormy said smirking and Bloom blushed at that and Icy freezes Stormy and Darcys socks for that.
"Bloom peels herself back and rolls her eyes. That alone is - a relief. Bloom doesn’t let anything Alfea says hurt her; if she were to let this lesser creature do so that would have been insulting. Bloom’s damn near a witch, in spirit if not in name - she’s better than that.
“Ah - yeah. I dunno. Back when we were younger I told her I was bi and she outed me to the whole school. Which I guess could’ve been…something to hold over me. But she’s been like a dog with a bone ever since.” Bloom shakes her head, eyes dark as she tracks the girl’s retreating figure, and then she turns to Icy with a smirk.
“She called you a delinquent. That’s almost offensive, I’m more punk than you right now.”
“Yes, the eye-bags really give you a criminal flair.” Icy says dryly, and Bloom’s smirk turns more natural, softer. She promptly latches onto Icy’s wrist and starts towing her back down the street; Icy allows this, and lets the fairy chatter aimlessly about her city as they walk."
"Just...letting her drag you along and listening to her ramble."
"Fuck off Darcy."
"Icy you're acting gayer than Lucy right now and I didn't know that was possible."
"Hey what the fuck?!"
It took five minutes for the witches to stop arguing over who's the gayest and it only stopped that fast because-
"I think Griffin has you all beat." Saladin said amused as he saw neither Griffin nor anyone else was going to stop the argument between the girls.
"Oh yeah? What's the gayest thing she's ever done?" Stormy challenges and Faragonda smirks.
"Me." There is dead silence for a long moment at that and then theres whoops and whistles from the fairies as the witches gape at their headmistress who doesn't meet their eyes.
"Did you have to tell them that?" Griffin asked and Griselda is trying not to snicker at the look on Griffins face. It took another two minutes before everyone calmed back down enough for Griffin to read again.
"The technology on Earth is comparable to that in Magix, if far more primitive. Icy doesn’t particularly care all that much, except that the air is rank with city and pollutants and gross, and she can never say a word about it or the Linphea fairy will never let her live it down. It isn’t Earth’s fault, necessarily - the magic dimension handles things better only because it has interplanetary communications and trade working with it. Earth’s done remarkably well for itself, given that it has been left to drown by the wider community.
Which is. Concerning."
"At least you give us some credit!" Vanessa said smiling at Icy who nods to her.
"Because Earth is still alive. It’s an anomaly - Icy isn’t aware of a single other planet that has had its soul destroyed but still retains life. If something interfered in Earth’s eradication - what was it? And why did it not help every other dead planet cluttering up the cosmos?"
"Hmm that's a good question...but maybe whatever it was couldn't leave the planet?" Brandon offers and that...that made sense damnit.
"Like a homeworlds heart." Flora said and there was a ringing silence then because why...why did that make so much sense?
"But - Icy forces herself to breath and focus on the quaint little house Bloom is dragging her towards.
It’s small and brightly painted, with a similarly small but vibrant lawn - not the plain, boring grass so many of its neighbors sport but a garden bright and varied and lush enough to put Bloom’s suite room to shame. A graceful path of stones snakes its way up to a front door from a driveway."
"Homey." Mirta said and it's a soft smile on her face and no one could disagree with that.
"I love how that implies you've been in Blooms suite enough to notice the plants." Stormy snickers and Icy doesn't so much as blink.
"We apparently broke into their dorm before we were all buddy buddy."
"Do you mind if I come visit? I'd love to see the natural plant life of earth." Flora asked sweetly and Vanessa smiled at her.
"Of course honey. You're all welcome to come by whenever you like. I can even show you my flower shop if you like!"
"It’s worn, lived in. Like Darcy’s house, with a brighter coat of paint and more plants. Bloom knocks out a rhythmic pattern on the front door with her free hand, bouncing excitedly on her toes.
“Have you not been home yet?”
“Not in person, no. Tecna found out how to let me call home and Stella uses her ring to let us throw shit at each other ‘cuz Timmy and my Mom have this weird book club thing going on and Dad sends me Earth stuff but it’s not -”
There’s a muffled shriek from inside, and the door is yanked open. It’s only Bloom’s grip on Icy’s wrist that prevents her from falling straight onto the girl who opens the door.
She’s got short dirty blond hair cut into a bob - and by cut, Icy is being generous, she probably did it herself with a pair of safety scissors - and the same big eyes as Bloom, but brown. She’s got a frankly terrifying grin on her face, teeth barred, and flings her arms around Bloom with a truly impressive cackle.
“Selina!”
"Selina?" Bloom looks baffled at hearing who was there and Mike and Vanessa frown a bit and tilt their heads.
"Wasn't that like...your childhood friend or something?" Mike asked scratching his head.
"I haven't spoken to her in years..." Bloom trailed off and she's so painfully confused.
"Bloom!”
Oh, realms. There’s two of them.
They separate almost before Icy can finish her little horrified realization, and Bloom lets go of her to clutch at her - friend? Sister? - ‘s shoulders.
“Okay what the fuck did Mom and Dad tell you about my college?”
“That Swedish bullshit? Yeah, I know they’re covering for you. Uncle Mike looks constipated as shit whenever it gets brought up.”
"I haven't talked to her in years I don't think. Why would we tell her about your college?"
"And mom why let Dad lie? We know he sucks at it."
"I don't know dear."
"Icy raises an eyebrow, because Bloom looks relieved at that. She’d have thought keeping the whole…magic thing under wraps would’ve been a bigger concern, even if Bloom wasn’t aware of the laws surrounding keeping Earth in the dark.
Bloom turns to her, then, and the other girl’s focus snaps to her. Icy grimaces automatically.
“Selina, this is Icy. Icy, this is my cousin Selina. We’re gonna tell her everything as soon as we can find Mom and Dad.”
Selina’s beam turns shark-like. Icy’s grimace deepens. She should’ve brought her sisters."
"Time to meet the parents." Stormy snickers and Darcy snorts and Icys gone bright red now as she freezes their shoes and socks and puts frost on their hair for that.
Griffin hurriedly reads before her girls could retaliate.
"Selina leads them inside and straight to a kitchen. Bloom immediately beelines for the cupboards, and Icy remembers that they haven’t yet eaten, which is unfortunate because she immediately feels her stomach ache.
“So, Icy, you go to the same - uh, wait, are you actually going to college?”
“Technically yes. No, Icy goes to like. The rival college.”
“That’s certainly one way of putting it.” Icy snorts. Rather than moving on, Bloom’s cousin raises an eyebrow. Icy leans slightly to peer over her shoulder. Bloom catches her eye and shrugs, in the middle of preparing what looks like half a loaf of bread, so - well.
“Cloud Tower is a school for witches. Alfea is for fairies.” She waves a hand as she speaks, sending brilliant fractals of ice scattering across the counter top.
Bloom’s cousin freezes. Then slaps a hand over the ice. And then gasps. She whirls on her cousin. Bloom hesitantly lifts a hand and snaps her fingers; a cheery orange flame pops into existence at her fingertips. Selina gasps again, louder, and launches herself at Bloom. Icy pointedly looks away - if the idiots start a fire, she’s not helping."
"You would help if Bloom asked you too." Darcy says as if it's just a fact and Icy shoots her a chilling glare, almost literally.
"If you’re lying to me I’m gonna fucking disown you.”
“I - hold on I can transform. Icy - do you want some toast?” Bloom doesn’t wait for an answer before slamming a plate piled with toasted bread on the table; her cousin’s already yanked out various toppings and cutlery. Icy spreads jam across a slice without touching the knife; Selina’s eyes get brighter.
“Do you not transform?”
“Fairies have wings.”
“Like - “
“Don’t ask about the biology! I freaked out so hard when it first happened I threw up!”
“You were drunk.”
"I can handle alcohol. Limbs bursting out my back? Fuck no." Bloom said and she still looks ill at the thought and Icy hums.
"You haven't grown them yet. Could still be a witch." Icy notes and Stella pouts.
"Stop trying to steal my best friend!"
"I can handle my alcohol! I can’t handle spontaneously exploding limbs out of my back!”
The cousin starts bouncing. Icy takes a bite of her impromptu breakfast, and bodily turns around to avoid the glitter-bomb that is a fairy transformation. There is another gasp.
“Why the fuck do you not have pants?”
“I’m working on it, okay!”
Icy turns back to survey the chaos, and something catches her eye.
There is a fat green snake wiggling its way straight towards the counter. An even fatter yellow snake is sprawled unmoving on top of it; the green one is thrashing itself free with a single-minded determination that Icy can admire."
"Snakes?" Mike doesn't look happy about that but Vanessa hums.
"Snakes would keep the mice out of my garden."
“I thought you had a rabbit.” She says, and the two girls stop and look at her. Selina’s the one to look down and beam at the sight of the reptiles; she reaches down and scoops the yellow one up, and the green one shoots itself across the kitchen tile and disappears around the other side of the counter.
“These are mine! This is Eldora, and the fast little danger noodle you just saw is Acheron.”
"She has snakes now?" Bloom seemed curious and confused and Musa was snickering.
"Danger noodle."
“…Hey, Selina. What are your snakes doing here?”
“Dad kicked me out. I’ve taken over your room.” She says it plainly, simply, and that - shocks Icy. Nearly makes her drop the toast in her hand. Judging by how quickly Bloom masks the raw fury and outrage the statement causes her - this is…normal. Or at least not unexpected.
"He what." Blooms voice is almost as cold as Icys now and she looks furious.
"Might want to go check on her when we leave here." Mike murmured and Vanessa nodded and neither one looks pleased
"And you let him?”
“Well I prefer to stay alive, so yeah.”
Icy does throw her hands up then, toast be damned.
She’s got a lecture on the tip of her tongue and half a dozen of her favorite lethal spells ready and raring to go when there is the sound of someone at the door, and a tall, willowy dark-haired woman steps into the kitchen."
"I will help you kill him." Icy said her own voice cold and Darcy and Stormy both look equally ready to go.
"Appreciate it."
"They all blink at her; she blinked at them. Then her eyes narrow at Bloom. Bloom, whose wings flutter in anxiety and spray sparkling cerulean magic across the tile at her feet.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing playing hooky, young lady?”
X
Icy is the most infuriating goddamn witch Bloom has ever had the misfortune to meet, and Mom loves her. It doesn’t help that Icy hasn’t stopped looking impressed since Mom walked in the door. She’s a fucking suck-up."
"She's gotta score those parent points." Stella snickers and Icy scowls at her but doesn't freeze her, almost admitting she was right then.
"Dad speeds home after Mom sends him an SOS, and the four of them - six, if Bloom were to count Selina’s snakes - are settled only a little awkwardly in the living room as they wait for him. They’re lucky today is a slow day, for him and the boys. Her assorted adoptive uncles had all offered to come back with him, and god did that sound wonderful but she doesn’t want to endanger them and this is -"
"The guys would be pissed to learn you were in danger and we didn't tell them." Mike said looking at Bloom who sighed and nodded.
"We can tell them the fairy thing and ask them to keep an eye out. That way if someone magical does show up and start shit they can help handle it." Bloom said and her parents seemed pleased with that and Sky was desperately hoping that by then she'd forget or forgive the whole... identity swap thing.
"But Selina’s here. And that’s. Oh so much better than she’d hoped.
“Sorry about, uh. Not telling you.” She offers, finally breaking the banal chatter they’ve been engaged in for the last few minutes. Selina’s grin is all teeth, and Bloom - de-transformed now, thankfully, Mom had also been severely unimpressed with her lack of pants - cuddles Acheron closer to her chest on instinct.
“I was honestly leaning with being kidnapped by aliens as an explanation - why do you have that look on your face.”
All of them are mouthing aliens and looking at each other. Half of them look amused.
"Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Icy mouth the world aliens. The idiot looks amused.
“It’s all on other planets. Not like. A different dimension or whatever. When I said I was on another world I meant it literally.”
“You can’t spot Magix from Earth though, dear. Mike got so excited to dig out his old telescope before Tecna told him.” Mom says sagely, casting a thinly disguised glare at the dusty pile of equipment stuffed behind the armchair."
Mike looked disappointed at that and Vanessa sighed and kissed his cheek.
“So when can I go?” Silena asks. Bloom shoves Acheron at her, and ignores the squirming in her stomach.
Just in time, the front door flies open and Dad skids in. He freezes when he sees them. They make eye contact. The front door slams shut behind him.
“I owe you twelve bucks.” Bloom says flatly. Dad throws his hands up in victory; Mom lets out the most done sigh she’s ever heard in her life."
"What?!" Everyone looks baffled and confused and Mike is grinning at Bloom who pouts at him and throws her wallet at him. Vanessa just gives them both an exasperated look.
“Mike, honey, that’s not a good thing.”
“Wait wait somebody explain - “
“It’s some uppity rich kid school for fairies, Vanessa! And it’s secret! It’s bound to be shady and untrustworthy!” Dad cries, and flops halfway across Mom’s lap. She sighs and shoves him off onto the floor. Icy is staring up at the ceiling. Selina looks affronted."
"He has a point." Mirta said grinning slightly and Griffin is trying not to snort at the look on Faragonda and Griselda faces.
“Dad bet me Alfea would be like, some bullshit evil government thing before I left.” Bloom says after a heartbeat. He’d looked her dead in the eye too, told her to have fun and fuck shit up if she needed to but she’d best be bringing him his money back too. She’d be more irritated about him being right if everything wasn’t, you know, on fire. Metaphorically."
"Fucking shit up is definitely going to happen." Stormy and Musa agreed on that and grinned at each other and Mike whooped.
"Send me a picture or video of you fucking shit up! And if any of you get wanted posters I want copies so I can put them in a frame!" Mike said and that was indeed aimed at the room at large and there were snickers and snorts and yet there were nods as well.
"I can send you a picture of when I blew up the lab last year?" Stella offered and Mike grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up.
"Good!"
“Wait so your magic school is evil?”
“So fucking evil.” Bloom breathes. Mom reaches over and sympathetically pats her knee; Dad knocks his boot against her ankle.
“Isn’t that one of the witches that blew our front wall out?”
Icy gives them a small sheepish smile and shrug. They wave it off with smiles.
"Knut wasn’t a very good employee.” Icy deadpans, but she looks appropriately pained. Bloom doesn’t actually expect her to apologize, doesn’t need her to.
“So you’re not trying to murder each other anymore?” Mom clarifies. They both nod, and she relaxes.
“I leave you alone for like four months.” Selina breathes, and Bloom goes to snark back but restrains herself. They have an emergency family meeting to commence."
"She's been avoiding me for a year?" Bloom wonders confused and that's alarming on several levels but...
"She very gentle plops Acheron into Selina’s lap, where Eldora is already snoozing, and leaps to her feet - dancing awkwardly over her father until she’s standing in the middle of the living room.
“Alright so long story short I started having these weird dreams, there was this ghost lady yelling at me, and she’s some like, mythic hero in the magic dimension I guess? So I went to find her and I brought Icy with me and turns out Alfea - that’s the name of the school - had trapped her spirit in her violently murdered body at the bottom of the lake and also she knows me because apparently she punted me off our shared planet in the middle of a motherfucking genocide that Icy’s ancestor committed and accidentally shot me through time so I’m like, literally hundreds if not thousands of years old. Also god, as in actual literal god, does in fact exist, except she’s a dragon and she’s a she and also she’s inside me.”
"Hearing that all at once with no context...and you didn't have the book reading to give you any warning or anything..." Griselda shook her head slightly and she looked bemused as she looked at Bloom who didn't look them in the eyes with a jaunty whistle. Icy sighs heavily beside her and covers her face with her hand.
"Icy covers her face with her hands, and bends over in what Bloom assumes is a silent scream. Her mother’s eyebrows have damn near climbed off her forehead. Dad is frowning. Selina is staring perfectly expressionlessly at her.
Selina is the one to break the ensuing silence.
“Right well I’m not telling Great-Gran that.”
"Oh shit. No no no we are not telling great-gran." Bloom shakes her head in the negative. Her parents both shake their heads as well.
"Also turns out Brandon’s actually Sky because they switched identities or some shit and he’s fucking engaged and tried to cheat on his literal fiance with me and Darcy told me so the guys got into a fight over it and Red Fountain found out and stuck a fucking spy in their squad. And Alfea is apparently covering up the whole genocide thing and something to do with how magic works and something to do with the fact that there’s dozens if not hundreds of murdered planets floating around in space and - “
"You're rambling dear." Vanessa said amused and Bloom looks sheepish while Mike is glaring at Sky again.
"Did you ah have to tell them that part?" Sky asked awkwardly as he offers her parents an apologetic smile.
"They needed context, I hide nothing from them, and honestly just be glad you weren't there." Bloom answers easily and Sky nods, yeah that was fair he supposed.
"She’s afraid Alfea will take punitive action against you once they find out that we know, or that she has the Dragon Flame.” Icy cuts in smoothly.
Dad blinks at her.
“They’d do that?”
“We’re not technically supposed to do magic on Earth, which limits them. My best bet would be that they would erase any memory of your daughter from your life.”
"Anyone. Any. One. Tries to take my baby from me and they will wish that Bloom got to them first." Vanessa said calmly coldly and her voice is hard like a rock and it scares the shit out of everyone honestly.
"Mom goes pale at that, and Bloom has to close her eyes and try not to set herself on fire. Her stomach roils; maybe she shouldn’t have eaten that toast.
“They’re like. Super uh - planet-ist? Against Earth. I got into a fistfight - actually that was fun, it got me my wings and Icy helped out - because the fairies will literally sit there and spew nonstop insults for literal hours.”
"I'm always ready to beat the shit out of some fairies." Icy said shrugging and Stormy perked up.
"I'll help!" Stormy said and Bloom shot her a grin.
"Selina looks appropriately affronted.
“This is like a bad book. Alright. Well. Good news on the memory front.” She chirps, Bloom thinks she’s about to jump up but she’s still got her snakes on her lap and she doesn’t.
“How so?” Icy asks.
“I finally got a fucking job, and it won’t be hard to find a cheap apartment. I can move out, and we can set up regular calls or something. And then if Uncle Mike or Aunt Vanessa really just casually forget they have a kid, I can call you.”
“You’re cousins, surely they’d erase your memory too.”
"Cousins? But... Selina is...was...my childhood friend...not my..." Bloom looked confused and Lucy is the one to make a noise in her throat that got everyone's attention.
"The spell...the spell that makes everyone forget everything and shit? What if...what if they already used a weaker version of the spell on you and your parents? It's weaker cause they couldn't use the full thing for some reason so there's still...still a connection there but your memories are altered too?" Lucy said and it was...fuck it would make sense.
"But why alter memories of my cousin?!" Bloom asked and holy shit. Selina, her best friend as a kid, was her cousin. Her fucking cousin. And she...she had forgotten. Is that why Selina drifted away from her!?
"Hell if I know!" Lucy said and the rest were pale and Mike and Vanessa looked furious and Bloom was equally alarmed, confused, shocked and angry.
Griffin gives them a minute to collect themselves before she keeps reading.
"Selina’s grin grows teeth, but it’s a very particular kind of toothy grin, and Bloom gasps as she recognizes her cousin’s train of thought.
Selina stretches an arm out and scoops up one of the pictures framed on the end table beside her, and frisbees it to Icy over Mom’s protest.
“What am I looking at.” Icy says flatly. Bloom recognizes the frame, though - it’s one of a younger her and Selina and their respective parents and Grandma camping, smeared with s’more goo and dirt and washed out in the bright orange of the campfire."
"I remember that! I remember going camping and getting sticky and Grandma kicking me into the water!" Bloom said her eyes lighting up in remembrance. She didn't remember Selina being there but now that she thought about it Selina probably had been an it seemed to just fit.
"It's one of Mom’s favorite pictures because apparently she and Selina had been fighting all day and gotten so sticky that when they hugged they’d effectively super-glued their faces together and started screaming and Grandma had been the one to solve the issue by straight-up kicking them off the nearest dock and into the lake. Bloom remembers that; she doesn’t remember arguing with Selina."
"That's probably why you remember her as a best friend. Your pasts are so interconnected and you've got so many memories and evidence of her being close to you that they couldn't make you forget her entirely without using a lot more magic. Which would have definitely set off yours." Faragonda said and Bloom was going over all of her memories of Selina now with this new context and it fit. It fit so well.
"You’ve just unlocked some deep family lore.” Selina says gravely. Bloom throws herself back on the couch, anxious. Selina’s always been shockingly nonchalant about the whole thing, and on an intellectual level, Bloom knows she wouldn’t be offering if she wasn’t entirely fine and willing.
But it still leaves something sour on her tongue.
“Selina I don’t want to - “
“I feel like a fucking master spy right now, Bloom. Don’t take that away from me.” Bloom throws her hands up in surrender.
“Firstly. My dipshit of a sperm donor actually married in, and his first wife died. He remarried. Second wife is my egg donor. I’m not biologically related, and if they run a name search or anything they’d be hard-pressed to find any connection, because dipshit moved away when we were in middle school. I’ve seen Bloom in person a handful of times since, and neither of us are big on pictures.”
"Fuck...fuck that fits...that's right when... And she did move away around that time and..." Bloom has her head in her hands and Icy gently pulls her into her side. Mike and Vanessa stare at each other and look lost but also as if they were starting to realize it too.
"Which is all true. Mom’s lip curls in disgust at the mention of Selina’s dad. Dad reaches up to pat her leg. Bloom feels less bad about the way her entire face has scrunched up.
“Secondly, any pictures and mentions of me still bopping around are from me pre-transition.”
"She transitioned? I don't even remember...oh...oh that must have been when..." Bloom looked up at that and Darcy and Stormy are looking at each other.
"I wonder if we can make her into a witch..." Stormy murmurs and Bloom perks up at that suggestion.
"Icy blinks. And then blinks again. And then sets the photo on the arm of her chair and leans forward, bracing her elbows on her knees.
“I call dibs.” She says flatly."
"Damn Icy. Wanting both cousi-" Stormy cuts off with a yelp as she avoids the snow ball her sister throws at her. Darcy yanks her feet up onto the couch to avoid her legs being hit with it.
"Keep it up. It'll be ice instead of snow next time." Icy warns and there's frost on her nails but Bloom is giggling against her and it takes away from the threat.
“What.”
“Your cousin. I have to put up with you playing at being a fairy, I refuse to let your cousin suffer the same way.”
Bloom’s eyes go wide. And.
Holy shit.
“Earth doesn’t have magic though, can you even teach her anything?”
“Not here. Not now. But all that magic had to go somewhere, didn’t it? And given what we’re looking into, we’ll necessarily have to look at why this planet is still alive even with its soul gone.” Icy doesn’t sound happy about it but -
Bloom blue screens for a moment. Selina’s still frozen, staring. Mom’s beaming. Dad is mouthing a prayer of relief at the ceiling."
"We have a plan. We're going to investigate. And we're going to fuck up. So. Much. Shit." Mike said and he's grinning wickedly and the others are absolutely looking forward to this.
"We can bring in my uncles. They can help and be on alert too!" Bloom was beaming and she had her arms around Icy in a hug and Icy was awkwardly still but patted her back a bit.
Griffin rolled her eyes but smiled. Her student was so smitten.
"Wait you’re gonna investigate with us?!”
“Stormy will murder me if I don’t at this point.”
Icy’s deflecting, like she always does, and her words send a jolt of pure electricity, pure adrenaline, down Bloom’s spine.
Sticking around for the Dragon Fire was one thing, but this is - this is Icy offering to help with all of it, even knowing the kind of danger it’s going to bring to them, and -
And she’s offering Selina the world too - not just the world, but the entire fucking universe, entirely unprompted and just because Icy likes her and -"
"You are so damn head over heel-" Darcy barrel rolls off of the couch to avoid the three snowballs shot at her.
"Thank you." Bloom said softly smiling up at Icy who looks away with a dusting of red on her cheeks.
"Yeah sure...whatever."
"I like her as an in law more than I would Sky." Vanessa murmurs to Mike who grins in agreement and Stormy is whooping and Musa snorted cause she heard but no one heard her snort but Flora and Tecna.
"She's just like you at that age Griff." Faragonda said amused and teasing and that was true if their memories were right that far back but also they weren't sure and were clinging to it as much as they could.
"How so? Her power or-"
"She's a gay softie with strong magic." Faragonda said and Griffin shoved her off of the couch for that but Faragonda laughed and made herself comfortable on the floor leaning against the witches legs.
"Fucking fairies."
"You have Griffin. Well just the one hybrid bu-"
Saladin was shoved to the floor next and he and Faragonda exchanged high fives as they snickered and Griffin cleared her throat and started reading to avoid anyone mentioning the way her cheeks were darkened.
"And god not being able to share this with Selina is - it’s not something she has to live through because Icy is saying it can be done and -
She pushes herself up, sits up like a proper human being, and looks at Selina. Catches her cousin’s eye. When she smiles, it’s only a little watery.
“Wanna learn how to be a witch?”
"You can be a proper human being?" Stormy asked and she's snickering as Griffin throws the book over at Mike and Vanessa while Bloom snorts.
"There's only two actual humans in the room who raised me and love me. Course I know how to be a human." Bloom said and her mom smirked and looked at the title.
"MIA."
"I'm guessing this means someone noticed I was missing?" Bloom offered with a sheepish apologetic smile to her friends who all huffed and shook their heads amused.
"You never told us where you were going or even that you were leaving. Of course we would notice you're missing sweetie." Flora said and Bloom had to admit that was a very good point.
"Next time leave us a note or something. Gone to hang out with Icy. Don't wait up." Musa teased and Bloom stole Rivens pillow to throw it at her but she was smiling.
"Or at least text one of us that you were going home for a visit." Stella chides softly and Bloom nods.
"Yeah we wanna officially meet your parents too! We need to earn parent points!" Musa exclaimed happily and eyes lighting up.
"I believe Icy will still have more parent points than the rest of us." Tecna said and she's smirking a bit but Icy looks smug.
"Course I will. It's a competition and I like to win."