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"So, okay. You're a fairy?"

"A type of fairy," she corrected, stowing the air tack, replacing it with rods more appropriate for pulling a wagon. "I felt your eyes undressing me."

My face heated up—ridiculous! "I was trying to figure out how you flew your—"

"My air taxi." She tightened a knot, then jerked the wheeled vehicle out of the mud.

"Without wanded magic."

"So you stared at my—"

"Did not— I'm a woman, too!"

"And I'm a fairy."

That made a difference? "Um. Okay, look. My roommate's father, Dr. Sheaves, taught me to read magic flows. Take a person's outline, draw bundles of squiggling electric blue lines through it. That's what I saw. You looked beautiful."

"Me?" Her breath caught. "My magic?"

She sounded...

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'd say both, but you'd likely misunderstand."

"Try me."

She sounded open. I nodded. "I almost tickled out the casting, got hints of the buoyancy equations I might weave into a working. It's something intrinsic, I think. You /are/ the wand. And, alright—! I looked." I coughed, looking from the woods into the empty street, lit by gas lamps. "It's healing magic. I looked inside you. I healed your tired muscles while I was at it!"

Her silence made me turn.

I added, "You were the one who launched us off a cliff. I screamed. Of course I looked. You're lucky I didn't pee all over your '"taxi!'"

"Thank you." She gave a wane smile. She was a messenger, a gopher for the Boss. She cinched the tarp over the illegal weeds we'd traded for and smuggled, by air, into the city. "I'm a fairy."

"A type of."

"Doesn't bother you?"

"I'm a 'find the pages of the book more interesting than the cover' girl."

"Book nerd."

I grinned, tapping my temple. "My brain thinks differently than everyone else's. I've had to learn how to read people, even their expressions, to understand what they mean, to interpret what most people take for granted. It's fun. People are so... interesting. You, too."

She blinked. I was one of the Boss' enforcers, but I didn't beat people up, or kill even if they deserved it...

After a minute, she lifted her long dress to reveal...

Vestal transparent wings along her calfs. I knelt to look in the cliffside-moonlight. Like a lacewing, possibly green. "May I?"

She nodded.

Humid, but like waxed paper. She lifted the dress further until...

"You're a guy." Rather average, too.

"Both."

"Versatile."

"I'm a fairy. Since, with most people, I present as female..."

"If somebody stupid hassles you, point me at them."

"Um. 'Guys' or 'ladies', it usually works out, but, yes, thank you. I will, I mean, that's very nice of you."

I pointed to the street. We bumped over the sidewalk, heading toward Oldtown. "I prefer guys myself. I selected one to teach me how the plumbing worked; the women I knew approved of him. For a previous boss, I sometimes used it to project the boss' power when they thought they could control me instead. Men and women. I learned it's just nerve endings and connections. It still feels good."

"Your 'previous boss' is the blackmail he has over you?"

"I really want to attend the magic academy without my past returning to kill me. Yeah."

She whispered, "Back home, presenting as a girl didn't get you taken seriously when entering the hauling business. Thought I could start an air taxi here. Boss' goons got me a loan, got me to help on a job where a politico got hurt."

"Maybe hurt?"

"Who knows, except for pictures, maybe a 'witness?' I'm saving to ghost the gang, go home—"

"—start your own taxi service? Good for you."

Her face colored, lit by the light of the liquor store. "You don't find me—" /Disgusting/ was the word unsaid.

"I told you I think you're beautiful. Objectively. Intrinsically. Magically. And," I tapped my temple. "We're different and we're alike. I like learning about people. 'Blackmailed' isn't a bond, or maybe it is—"

A delicate hand cupped my chin. I looked at her. My breath caught as I suddenly felt my heart beat.

She flinched back her hand. "If you don't want—"

Consideration. Asking first, or admitting trespass worked for me. I brought her hand back to my chin, holding it there, feeling the warmth until...

Her body language shifted—for me.

He was a fairy. No, they were.

I held on to our wet kiss that became unsure, enjoying how it drifted from tentative to relaxed to expectant, to coy. I smirked at how they had difficulty walking when I led toward the drop point. Between my roommate, her father, this cute fairy—I was growing a family, again.

The Boss had other plans for our tonight, none of which would end well for any of us.

[4 hrs. Author retains copyright.]

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