James' panicked tone carried from the kitchen to Roxy's bedroom, where she'd sloughed off her coat to hang in her closet while her boyfriend took his time setting up a nice display for their take-out dinner. It wasn't often they'd see eye to eye on what the perfect after-work meal would be - Considering James loved all things healthy and Roxy ate like a bachelor - but tonight, for some reason he'd been craving some pizza and wings, so they swung by the local joint on the way back to 2-H.
"Someone's got to try really hard to fuck up a pepperoni pizza..." The witch replied, emerging from the doorway to stand beside him, taking in the nice spread he had created for them. Two sodas - One Peppy Cola and one Peppy Cola Zero - were popped open, straws inside, while the large pizza box lay open, displaying their piping hot meal. The delicious, meaty smell coiling off the pizza's surface was enough to make Roxy salivate... And everything about the pizza looked just fine, so he turned to her boyfriend and tilted her head in confusion.
With an exaggerated sigh, he flipped open a small box beside the main one, revealing their dozen buffalo wings.
Just the sight of the wings alone made his girlfriend's stomach growl; Everything looked just fine to her.
"They're bone-in!" He cried, pointer finger flying in the direction of their appetizer as though he was accusing someone of murder. "It's such a scam - There's so much less meat!"
Roxy took a breath. She didn't understand what he was talking about at all. Wasn't a wing a wing?
Maybe I'm too accustomed to using bones in my potions... Oh! I have to remember to save them after James throws them out...
"I'm sorry, James... I'll remember to double-check the order before we leave next time." She settled on, lacing her fingers between his. "Unless you'd like to drive back and have them fix it?"
The singer shook his head, long hair sweeping back and forth to match the movement. It was so nonchalant, but had Roxy's knees threatening to buckle regardless. That, paired with the adorable pout on his lips, made her want to forgo the meal entirely and drag him over to the couch and kiss him breathless.
God, he was so adorable.
"No, it's fine..." James assured her, bringing the back of her hand to his lips before letting go and pulling out one of the two chairs for her to sit on. "We've already wasted too much of our alone time to keep worrying about it."
He waggled his eyebrows up and down as Roxy moved in front of him, sitting down as he pushed the seat in.
"So ridiculous," His girlfriend mocked, catching his eye as he moved to sit across from her. The wink he shot her sent a shiver down her spine.
-
The pair ate quickly, breaking down the parts of the day where they were separated at work while he and the band had dance practice with Mr. X and she was stuck in the writer's room with Gustavo.
Oddly enough, the ravaged chicken bones remaining on her plate reminded her of her father; It had been quite some time since they'd spoken and the creamy, ebony shade standing out from her black plastic plate reminded her of the time she and Declan had tried to use similar small bones for divination purposes.
The Somersets were witches by blood. Their set of powers was very, very far off from those of diviners. Though they'd met many back home in Duluth, neither of them were ever able to emulate their strong form of magic.
But that certainly hadn't stopped him from trying.
Declan wanted to know if the Vikings were going to make it to the Superbowl that year and that felt like too dumb of a question to ask a real diviner, so he'd busted out his copy of the family spell book and searched the index to see if any of their ancestors had a section on divine magic.
Somewhere along the family tree, a distant cousin generations back had detailed a divination ritual using similar-looking bones; When dropped onto a mat, the position in which they fell could answer a yes or no question. If they formed vertical lines, their ancestor claimed this to be a "yes" and if they fell horizontal, that formed a "no."
That felt more like chance than divination to the young witch, but her father pulled some of his stash of bones for potions and threw them on the floor of his workshop. They all landed horizontally and that year, sure enough, the Vikings didn't make the Superbowl.
But then again, they hadn't made it that far since 1977, so...
"I still find it hard to believe you don't have a bone-in or boneless wing preference," James shared, pulling her out of her head as she finished off the last bite of her pizza crust. "You're sure you don't like one over the other?"
Wiping the corners of her mouth with one of the white paper napkins she had stashed in a holder in the middle of the small table, Roxy shook her head. "Nope... As long as the flavor's good. You won't catch me complaining."
She stood now, lifting her plate from in front of her and moving in the direction of her trash bin, before doubling back and taking James' as well. "It's nice to know you like boneless though, I'll keep that in mind for the future."
For a moment, the tops of his ears turned red, a smile quirking up on his lips. "We're going to be together for a long time, right? Those are important things to know."
Roxy's foot caught on the leg of his chair as he spoke, stumbling forward and sending the two stacked plates flying across her tiled floor. "Shit!"
Everything clattered to the ground in an unpleasant cacophony of sounds; Now she had a lot more to clean up than a few dishes.
In an instant, James was at her side, checking to make sure she was okay before he bent down to pick up what she had dropped.
As he did, a small bolt of energy zapped through her brain; Something unexplainable was alerting her attention to the floor. "Wait!"
James paused, raising his hands into the air, confusion written all over his face.
The witch hardly had time to take in his cute expression. Her eyes were too busy being drawn to where the chicken bones had clattered onto the gray tile. Each one of them had fallen to the floor completely vertically.
We're going to be together for a long time, right?
Her boyfriend's words echoed in her head as she continued to stare at the bones on the ground.
There was no doubt her face was bright red; James had straightened himself up to take her flamed cheeks into his hands.
"Aw, it's okay, babe! There's nothing to be embarrassed about! I drop things all the time." Quickly, he pressed a kiss to her forehead before pulling away and gesturing to the mess she'd made. "I'll clean this up - Wanna go find something for us to watch?"
All she could do was nod, despite her fixated gaze on the bones.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss this ritual...
