Note: This is a special chapter set from a few years go when Alaric and Celestia first met!
"Uh Tia?" Alaric timidly asks as he watched me pick out a few pumpkins and take them inside. "What are you doing?"
"I thought about carving some pumpkins since it's fall." I answer cheerfully as I carved the top off of one pumpkin and started to dump out the seeds. "Do you want to help? You can clean out the insides and separate the seeds out of the pulp into this pan while I heat up the stove."
Alaric nods, scooping out the guts of the pumpkin as I opened up the next pumpkin and used magic to pull out a jar of apple cider I had made earlier.
"Try this Alaric." I poured some into a cup before passing it and a cloth for his hands over to him.
"What is it?" He cautiously take a sip and paused for a moment before greedily gulping down the drink. "It's so delicious!!"
"I'm glad you like it!" I chuckled as I sat down across from him, lightly waving my hand to have the jar pour out more cider into his cup. "Apple Cider is a must during the fall. You can drink both hot and cold."
"It's really good Tia." Alaric drained his second cup and held it up for thirds. "Thank you!"
I found myself continuing to chuckle as I pulled over one of the pumpkins and examined its surface.
"What are you doing now?" Alaric paused in his work as he looked over at me.
"I'm thinking of what face I want to carve onto this pumpkin." I absent mindedly answered, using magic to mark the places where I wanted to put the eyes, nose, and mouth.
"A face?" He cocked his head to the side as I carefully cut through the pumpkin, setting aside the pieces then sat back to admire my handiwork.
"How's it look?" I asked as Alaric looked it over.
"Looks great!" He smiled at me. "But what is it supposed to be?"
"It's called a jack-o-lantern." I created a small fireball and lightly tossed into the pumpkin as I got up to put the pan of pumpkin seeds onto the stove. "You carve a pumpkin with a face and put a candle in it to scare away evil spirits during the fall just before winter."
I looked over my shoulder. "Do you want to try?"
"Sure." Alaric tried to act indifferent, but his eyes were shining as I handed him a pointed stone with its tip filled with magic to outline his pumpkins face and quickly drew out its face.
****
"Wow. Good job!" I patted him on the head as I looked over the pumpkins he had done. "Have a piece of candy."
Alaric quietly ate the candy as I lit up the pumpkins and put the tops on them. "What are you doing now Tia?"
"The two best looking ones will be placed in the windows while the rest will go outside. Now which ones will be inside?"
"These two!" Alaric picked out his first attempt and my pumpkin. I raised an eyebrow but didn't say a words as he carried out the rest outside.
"Make sure to put two at each door!" I called out to him as I took out the pumpkin seeds and bit into one.
'I wonder if he would be interested in costumes?' I mused as I started thinking about the different types of costumes.
"I'm done Tia!" Alaric walks in.
"Thank you Alaric!" I smiled at him. "Do you want to try something else?"
"Like what?" Alaric sat down next to me and timidly bit into a pumpkin seed.
"Wearing a costume?"
Alaric gave me a puzzled look so I had to give him a quick explanation and afterwards he agreed.
"Okay, hold still." I held my hand over his head as I started to think of what kind of costume he should wear. I immediately thought of a prince since he was the future Emperor and started to use magic.
But as I looked down at him and saw him squeezing his eyes shut and slightly shaking, I was reminded of a similar animal and accidentally released the magic.
Pooffff!!!!!
A puff of smoke appeared, covering Alaric for a moment before lifting.
"Oh... My... Gods...." I stared wide-eyed as Alaric shook his head in confusion, twitching his new cat-like ears on top of his head as a long black tail could be seen behind him.
"Tia?" Alaric reached up to his head freezing as he felt the soft looking animal ears before quickly twisting slightly to look at the tail now attached to him. "What is this?"
He turned to look at me with large round eyes as I internally screamed from how adorable he was.
"I'm sorry Alaric." I finally say after managing to grab ahold of my sanity. "I accidentally gave you cat ears and a tail....."
"Are you okay?" Alaric tried to meet my eyes as I avoided looking at him. "Are you scared of me?"
"NO!!!! No, no, no!" I quickly reassured him. "You just look so cute!"
"Cute?" Alaric seemed taken aback for a moment before grinning. "You want to pet me?"
"W-what? NO! I mean yes- but No!" I found myself stammering as Alaric cornered me into my chair and sat on my lap, rubbing his cheek on my shoulder.
"You can if you want to." He looks up at me as he wound his tail around my arm. "I don't mind."
********
Years later
"Tia?" Alaric calls out to me as I poured over a book, handing me a cup of apple cider. "What are you doing?"
"I was doing some more research on de-" I started to take a sip of the cider as I answered and looked over at Alaric before choking on the hot drink. "W-w-what are you?"
"Like it?" Alaric lightly tugged on his black animal ears on top of his head. "I remember you really loving it a few years ago."
I blushed hard as the memories from a few years ago reappeared to haunt me; I had cancelled the magic on Alaric when he had climbed onto my lap and never casted glamor's on him again after that.
But it looks like Alaric had remembered.
The Alaric now was no long cute and adorable, but lean and sexy- I found myself swallowing hard at the sight of him.
Alaric chuckles at my reaction, curling his tail around my arm as he caressed my face with his hand.
"I don't think you will be able to continue working for today." He purrs into my ear causing me to shiver before pulling me up from my chair.
"No. This is cheating." I weakly protest as I allowed myself to be lead out of the room.
"I'll happily cheat any time then." Alaric closes the door behind us.
Next Chapter will take a bit so might be sometime this coming week or next week!
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How the Emperor trapped a Witch
Fantasía"Did you really think that it was going to be easy to get rid of me?" he raises an eyebrow as I was pushed against the wall. "There isn't anywhere you can go without me following you." I was isekai'd into my little sister's novel as the evil Witch t...