As the four incubi brothers sat out back and puzzled over how to rescue Erik, Malix and Mika sat at the dining room table inside, discussing their own plans.
“I am… so sorry,” Mika groaned into her hands. She sounded like she wanted to cry. “I really thought… I really thought they would try to accept you!”
Malix tapped his cigarette ashes onto a saucer he’d swiped from the kitchen. He was waiting for her to tell him to put it out but she hadn’t yet.
“After that confrontation, they all seemed complacent and- and willing to try–”
“Ain’t you said yourself how Rae’s real good at makin’ deals and puttin’ on a good face and shit? You know he got that from his big bad pops, right?”
She fell silent. Mika dragged her hands over her face, exhausted all over again.
“You’re right,” she muttered. “You’re absolutely right. He’s always been natural at sweet-talking his way through everything… fuck me… Would he really have put up a façade at me…?”
Malix didn’t comment. He had nothing else to say. Mika had connected the dots the first time after all. His fingers would still need to stop trembling so he could grab his cigarette, though. He didn’t have proof.
“God…” she let her forehead hit the table, her hair spilling over her waiting Grimoire. “This is so much deeper than I thought… what about Sam? Has he been going too far with the roughhousing, or… like…”
“Forcin’ my ass open? Nah.” Another drag. “He ain’t on Rae’s level if I’m bein’ straight, he knows when I really want him off me. Still fucks me over, but, y'know.”
She laughed, but it was bitter and dry. “No kidding.”
He breathed, nibbled his cigarette butt as grey swirled from his nose. She crossed her arms on the table and buried her face, just catching her breath.
“So… uh…” Malix leaned forward in his seat and took a good look at the Grimoire’s cover. “Anything in there for makin’ shit float?”
“What?” She peeked up from under her still-ratty hair. “Why– Erik. Right. Shit.”
Malix snickered, flashing his teeth on that cigarette. That was a little spark of smug he could keep all to himself; Mika got so upset and pissed on his behalf that she forgot about her flower boy.
“This isn’t over though, I fully intend to drag them by their damn ears.”
“Jes’ lemme listen in on that party and I’m good.”
“Hah! I’ll see what I can do.”
Mika tossed her hair back out of her face, pulled the Grimoire up closer and opened up to one of her many tabbed pages. Diagrams for various circles and anchor points, some of which Malix actually recognized. She flipped through to other categories of spells, hastily scribbled in with appending notes in margins, each page more stiff and rippled and yellow than the last.
“Mmh…” Mika furrowed her brow and flipped faster.
“There’s gotta be something. He wrote all sorts of spells in here; I find it hard to believe there isn’t one that can slow a fall or grant flight or… something.”
“How have I never thought to make one!? C'mon Mika, you made a damn Squeak Toy spell but you never thought to fly?”
Malix paused and stared at her. “Sorry a what now?”
“Don’t- don’t ask, it doesn’t matter.”
“Nuuuhnunununununuh.” He plucked his cigarette from his lips and leaned in, waving it at her. “I wanna hear this. What’s a squeak toy spell do.”
Mika closed her eyes and hung her head. “It… if you cast it on something, then… it’ll squeak every time something else touches it.”
“I was watching Sam and Matthew fight and I thought it would be funny if Matthew sounded like a squeak toy when Sam grabbed him!!!” She threw her hands up. “It seemed hilarious at the time!! And it was! I stand by it! But you cannot tell them because that shit is my Magnum fucking Opus of pranks and they haven’t caught onto me yet and I refuse to let it be ruined.”
A fleck of ash fell off the tip of his cigarette. Malix coughed on a grin, and erupted in a full-body cackle. Head on the table, kicking the floor, swatting the nearest object over and over. Mika found herself giggling too.
“HOOOOOLY SHIT THATS GREAT!! Holy shit, fuck, fuck that’s the best fuckin’ thing I ever heard, makin’ that li'l guy squEAK!!! HA!! Fuck me Mika I love you. I didn’t say that.”
She covered her mouth, but her rosy round cheeks gave her away. “Say what?”
“Fuck yes,” Malix held his forehead and caught his breath while propped against the tabletop. Grinning ear to ear, he couldn’t stop giggling at the image of Matthew being poked and squeaking.
He just, don’t need to think about what else he said there and he’d be good.
She cleared her throat. “Heh… so uh. Yeah. By the looks of this…”
She grabbed a bunch of the Book’s pages in one hand and flipped through them for Malix to see.
“… there’s no flying, floating, hovering… or anything that could help. This isn’t looking good.”
He shut his eyes and chewed his cheek. He’d been afraid of that.
“I hate to say this… But… You might really be our best shot at getting Erik down.”
“Shit,” He snarled, dropped his cigarette onto the saucer and snapped his arm up since he couldn’t throw it as hard as he wanted to.
“But not our only shot. I won’t ask you to do this.”
“Gah…” He rubbed his face so she wouldn’t see how relieved he looked. “Thank you, god thank you, fuck, I owe you one.”
“With this stuff, you never owe me.”
“We could do a quick one on one'a their beds.”
“You don't– what!?” Though shocked, she was smiling.
“C'mon, no quickie? How ‘bout a li'l schmutz?” He used his thumb to wipe the corner of his mouth and flashed her his smug bedroom eyes; a gesture Mika remembered from the slums to mean oral.
(It had seemed to represent both a blowjob and cunnilingus while being more subtle than the America’s V or salt shaker shit, and she had found that extremely cool in its own way.)
Mika kicked his leg under the table, albeit giggling. “I’m just being nice! You don’t have to eat me out for that!”
“Yeah but I wanna. And I’m still fuckin’ pissed at the Dildo Squad out there.” He leaned over at her and opened his arms, hands splayed and gesturing to himself. “Maybe a guy thinks leavin’ the window open while he makes their girlie squeal would do 'em some fuckin’ justice, yeah?”
She snorts. “Goddamnit, you remember my kinks. I hate you.”
He snickered at her with that crooked smile he wore so well. On a whim, since he was leaning so close, Mika slid her fingers through his hair and stole a kiss. Malix didn’t see it as stolen though, opening up and rumbling as their tongues caressed. A bite, a nibble, another kiss, and they parted, foreheads touching, with slow, satisfied gasps.
Malix quirked a brow. “So whaddya say, girlie?”
She had to laugh. “I’d love to… but we gotta stay focused. Or I gotta. Not you.”
They stayed like that for a moment, Malix with his fingertips ghosting her jaw, Mika with her hand cupping the base of his head and leisurely playing with his hair.
Fuck… he really was in too deep.
He let his eyes drift shut. “Mmh… how 'bout later tonight?”
“I think I could be talked into that.” She stole one last kiss before sitting back up. “Although… if I’m going to get a spell made in time, I need to start researching asap.”
He paused. “In time for…”
“Rescuing Erik before he starves,” She stood up. “I know I’m not panicking right now but I will once everything up here catches up. I think I’m still in emotional denial.”
Malix blinked, then shot up and followed her. “Whoa whoa, you wanna run that by me again, girlie? How long’s it take to make a fuckin’ floaty spell?”
“The research depends on the kind of spell but for this I’d say, like, three to four days?”
They entered the kitchen and Mika moved with purpose to one of the junk drawers. “That’s being generous. After the research I need to test different casting styles and see what works best, test incantations, test the balance of power, and then I gotta practice that and make sure I can consistently draw the right energies in for the spell–”
She pulled a wad of lined paper and a pencil from the cabinet of cook books, then marched past Malix, him left staring, back to the dining room.
“–and all of that could take me weeks.”
Malix gaped. “For one fuckin’ floaty spell!?”
“For one fucking floaty spell,” She dropped the paper on the table and slid into her seat. “Heh. Supposing I do my research right. I had to scrap a whole month of work once because I went building off Arcane magics only to find out that that kind of spell needed some form of exchange to cast properly! Chapped my ass for a whole month! Still pisses me off actually. When I think about it.”
He stood in the doorway and stared at her.
“Ah, anyway, so… yeah if I do this right I might be able to shave a week off my time. But I’ll need to be laser-focused on it. Might need some coffee, too. Later.”
As she scooted in and pulled the Grimoire close, started reading and already taking notes, it hit Malix in full force just how serious she was. This was the only other way to get her stupid flower boyfriend down from his stupid tree and it might not even happen in time. And, as much as Malix hated the guy and wanted to cave his fucking face in… Mika still cared about him. Enough that she’d be wrecked if he did die… and she’d blame herself for not finishing this thing soon enough, she was like that. She wouldn’t get pissed at him for turning this down at all, would she. She wouldn’t even say it…
Damnit. God fucking shit damn hecking fuck fuck frick.
Well, Malix thought, he can’t very well cave Erik’s face in if he’s dead. Everyone in this damn house was gonna owe him and he’d hold them the fuck to it.
He walked as fast as he could out to the main hall and between the staircases to the back door. She’d probably realize he was lying in a minute but whatever.
Not wasting any time on hyping himself, he turned the knob and kicked the door open with a resounding bang.
“CHANGE'A PLANS, ASSHOLES!”