Real Magic

Real Magic

A Trixie Lulamoon in the Vogonverse Story

Chapter 2 - Okay, but where do I sleep?

(Boulder Colorado - 2061 - Wilkin’s House of Magic)

The decision of what to do about the… about Trixie wasn’t much of a decision at all. Zachary flipped on the switch to the magic shop as he entered. The lights flooded on, and around the pair was several glass cases containing cards, silk hats, capes, magic wands, and other odds and ins often found in a magician’s arsenal of fun. He could hear her hoof-falls as they walked. The sound of her breathing was close, and so was the warmth that flowed off of her.

“Where is this?” she asked.

“This is Wilkin’s House of Magic, my Grandfather owned this shop, and then my father, and now me. I don’t do any of the day to day parts of it, but I do live over it,” he replied.

Following him toward what looked like a simple section of the wall he held out his hand and moved it up the wall until it was resting on a slightly worn out piece of the paneling, “I speak of the true magic that resides in us all. I speak of the seasons that see our lives, and I speak of the immortals who watch us with glee. I speak because I am a conduit of magic, and a slave to its power.”

No sooner had he spoke the words then there was a rumbling sound and the wall separated revealing a staircase. He started to walk up it, and looked back toward her. She followed, uncertain of where it led, but trusting that he was indeed a decent sort, despite the earlier “miscommunications.” They walked up the stairs into a hallway. Unlike his grandfather his father had lived outside of the shop. He remembered his father raising him in an old ratty apartment, but when his father passed, and left him the shop, he found the old home up here. The only downside to it was there was only one bedroom.

He opened a door, and it revealed a large room, with a full size bed in the corner.

“Trixie sees only one bed. Is there another room with another bed?” she asked.

He shook his head, “No, I’ve only got the one room.”

“Then where is the Great and Powerful Trixie supposed to sleep?”

He sighed, not really feeling up to explaining everything, but instead he was ready to crash out on the couch, let her have the bed, and let sleep claim him.

“You take the bed, I’ll take the couch in the entertainment room. The bathroom is across the hall, it’s the only private bathroom in the building, so if you’re in it then shut the door. Otherwise I’m going to open it because I’m going to think that no one is in it.”

“Very well, Trixie shall ensure that the door is closed. Trixie is tired, and would like to go to bed.”

To accent her words she turned away from him, leaving him in the doorway, and he rolled his eyes. He caught a glimpse of her back as she shrugged off her cape. He watched as she undid the clasp that held the top of her dress together, and at that instant the lessons about manners, respecting a person’s privacy, and not being a creep came back to him and he turned around. Walking out of the room he closed the door.

Most people had a digital assistant that practically ran their homes. He had a digital assistant, Blackwolf the mutant wizard from the movie Wizards, but he didn’t depend on it. Instead most of the building worked exactly like it had for his grandfather. There were locks, voice recognition, and more traditional security measures, that were placed all over the building. He could go ahead and do the conversion. It wouldn’t be that expensive, and Blackwolf could run the building. With a guest in the house it might be a good idea.

“Do I really want to let him loose though?”

The question wasn’t without merit. Blackwolf was manipulative, impatient, and every bit as driven as his animated counterpart. Granted, he couldn’t do anything he wasn’t ordered to do, but just talking to the digital assistant often set him on edge. It was hard to explain, but he just didn’t like accessing him. Sure, it was little more than bits of code that made up an artificial intelligence driven avatar, but there was something malicious in it.

“If I decide to update the place maybe I’ll get a different Digital Assistant to oversee it.”

Leaving the thought alone he walked wearily toward the room that was the entertainment room. Opening the door he looked into the darkened room. An aging television set, an old cathode-ray tube set, sat on an antiquated entertainment center, turned off. Beside it sat an old VHS player, a DVD player, and the remains of a Beta Player. All of them had been owned by his grandfather, and from what he understood they still worked.

What called to him though was the couch. It was an old pull-out, one of those old hide-a-bed deals, something unfashionably convenient at the cost of greater comfort. He had the choice, pull out the mattress, have a mostly full sized bed, or settle for a semi comfortable lying spot. In the end, his tired mind and weary body won out and he just slumped down onto the couch. He felt it sinking in, taking his bulk, and conforming to fit him. He let out a yawn, and then felt sleep take him.

Zachary wasn’t sure how many hours had passed, but the light shining into the room from outside slowly worked to wake him up. He opened an eye and saw the room washed in a soft golden glow. The sun was up, shining, and letting the world know that the day was ready to begin. He groaned, slowly standing, and felt the new tightness in his back. He tried to stretch, only feeling the tightness getting worse.

There was no doubt in his mind that he had slept wrong on the couch. The simple answer would be to take a hot shower, let the water relax his back, and just go on about his day. He walked out of the entertainment room, toward the bathroom, and found the door just barely open a crack. He’d told Trixie that not shutting the door meant no one was in the room. He opened it, heard the shower, saw the glass door, and the Azure body behind it.

His eyes widened as he stood there, transfixed on what he was seeing. She was curvy, her figure was something to behold, and he was unable to look away from it. Then there was her voice. She was singing, and it sounded amazing. He could see her working her hands into a lather, trying to get her hair, or would it be better to say mane, clean. He finally stopped, and tried to turn around, but his uncertain step caused him to bump into the sink.

Before he could stop himself he let out a curse at the sink, and of course the glass he had sitting on it for rinsing his mouth out after brushing them fell to the floor and shattered. He saw the figure behind the glass door stop moving, he no longer heard singing, and instead he saw the door open, and the same set of violet eyes he had seen yesterday, but they looked surprised, and angry. Yes there was some anger there. He stepped back, hoping to avoid making a situation any worse, but that plan had completely went out of the window.

“Trixie is taking a shower!”

“I said to close the door.”

“Trixie closed the door! Trixie closed it, and you came in to look at Trixie!”

“No, it wasn’t closed, it was closed over! That’s not closed!”

There was a faint azure glow that covered him, and he felt himself being lifted, and then thrown out of the room. He landed, once again on his ass, against the wall, and watched as the door closed. Slowly, he got up, unsure of what exactly transpired, and walked toward the small kitchenette that his grandfather had added when he made the apartment over the shop. The unfortunate business of being denied his hot shower had turned his attention to a cup of hot coffee. Perhaps it was a poor substitute, but at least he would be able to enjoy it without being thrown out of the room.

He turned on the electric burner, grabbed the antique coffee percolator, and began the process of making coffee. He considered just making a couple of cups worth, but then the thought of his guest entered his mind. He wasn’t sure if she would even drink coffee, but it would be rude to not offer it. So, instead he mixed enough for the entire eight cups the percolator would hold. The course ground coffee had a strong smell to it, something he found that he liked. It wasn’t the most expensive brand. Hell, who was he kidding, it was just Chock Full O’ Nuts, but his grandfather had introduced him to the coffee, and he did enjoy it.

He started to smell the brew as it began to percolate, and he grabbed a couple of mugs. It wouldn’t do any good to have coffee with no food, so he opened his refrigerator and found some fruit, potatoes, eggs, and some left over coffee cake.

He took out the coffee cake, a few eggs, the potatoes, and began working on a proper breakfast. First thing was peeling the potatoes, running them through a grater, and then putting the finished product into a pan. It joined the Percolator on the range, and soon that pan was joined with another that had a few cracked eggs in it.

He was busy enough he didn’t notice the azure mare behind him. He didn’t see her muzzle twitching. She walked closer, and stopped.

“Trixie smells something.”

He turned around to see her wrapped in a towel. Thankful that she wasn’t making her horn glow he relaxed, “Yeah, I’m cooking some breakfast. If you want some it should be done in a few minutes.”

“Trixie would enjoy that. Trixie would like to know if Trixie can borrow some clothes.”

“Okay, sure, and seriously please, don’t keep referring to yourself in third person.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, “But Tri… I’ve always done that.”

“I’m sure you have,” he said as he stirred the eggs making them scrambled, flipped the hash browns over, and checked the coffee, “But you don't have anyone to impress here. Since it’s just us what do you say to keeping it first person?”

She nodded, “Trixie, I, will try.”

He nodded, stopped what he was doing and rubbed his chin, “In the room you slept in last night there’s a closet. On the left side of it is some of my old sweat suits. Go ahead and borrow one of them. We’ll figure out something else for clothes for you a little later on.”

She walked out, and he watched as she left. He didn’t like crowds, but it was often lonely here alone. She was company, and maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Besides, if nothing else she was very nice to look at. He thought about seeing her in the bathroom, nude as a blue jay, and nearly as soon as that thought entered his mind he stopped it. She was a guest in his house, someone with nowhere to go. The right thing to do was to help her, be a friend, if she wanted one, and that was it. With that decision he went back to the breakfast he was preparing, and smiled.

“Sometimes the greatest things in world come from Friendship. You told me that Grandpa, and let's see if you’re right.”