Heaven help to fool who falls in love

1

A gentle fall breeze carried orange and red leaves through the crisp air, littering the surrounding street and front lawns. The temperature fell, not too far, but just enough to require a jacket. Not that Aaron mined, though. Growing up, he’d grown accustomed to the sudden cold spots that came with his state, and his time at military school hardened his resistance to much colder conditions. That wasn’t to say he enjoyed such weather, only that he could tolerate it better than most. 

He entered his home, plastic bags full of groceries hanging off his arms. At his feet, Celestia yips excitedly, hopping back and forth and nearly sending poor Aaron to the ground. He managed to catch himself, though, gently chiding the hyper dog as he pushed past her and settled down his belongings in the kitchen. Alexander hobbles over, his body old and slow. A frown pulls at his lips when his gray eyes watch the way the poor thing struggles to climb the stool their food usually rested in.

“Hey Alex, guess this ol’ thing is too high for ya,” scratching behind his soft white ears, Aaron takes the metal food bowl out of the elevated stand and sets it down on the tile. Alexander, now pleased with the easier high, happily eats the kibble. Celeste barks, staring demandingly at the werewolf until he retrieved a can of wet food from one of the many bags that littered the table. Once feeding her, Aaron turned his attention back to the food in front of him, starting the long process of putting all of it away. 

As the minutes ticked by, and the food found its respective place in the kitchen, Aaron drifted from the open space of their downstairs area. His feet lead him to their bedroom, messy as always, with an unmade bed and several of their pillows and Aph’s stuffed animals spilled across the hardwood. He huffed, affection spreading through his chest at such a ridiculous sight, and he quickly set to tidy up the place. Of course, by tidy he really only made the bed and threw himself onto the rumpled sheets, grabbing the latest volume of Kiss him, not me, a manga Travis had recommended him. He opened to the page he’d left off one and grinned, allowing himself to get lost in the pages. 

So lost, in fact, that the startlingly loud ringtone of his phone nearly sends him out of his skin. He fishes the device from his coat pocket, too busy frantically pressing answer before it can go to voicemail to check the caller ID. 

“Hello?”

“Hey A-ron,” Lucinda’s voice crackles from the other side, upbeat and happy as she usually happens to be. Feeling his shoulders sage with relief, Aaron forgoes lazing around entirely.

“Hi, Lucinda. Do you need something? I’m pretty sure Aphmau said she was headed over there maybe half an hour ago.” He related the information calmly, confused to the reason for the call. Unless Aph never made it, he couldn’t see a reason for Lucinda to give him a ring. 

“Oh yeah, Aphmau is right here, don’t worry,”

“I wasn’t worried,”

“Anyway,” she continued on like he never said anything in the first place, though he was quickly able to identify the nervous chuckle. “There was a magical mishap over here, and Aphmau happened to be the unlucky smock who got caught in the crossfire.” He blinked, slowly turning the words over in his mind like a hot dog heater in a 7-11.

“What the fuck does that mean,” his brain very helpfully supplied him once it caught up, and the shock of it all destroyed his filter. Biting his lip, Aaron pushed back the already spiraling. There would be time to bruise himself over stupid, impulsive sentences when he was not on the phone.

“Well, she accidentally drank an unfinished potion I had lying around, and somehow it rearranged her genetic code a bit, and altered her physical appearance.” Lucinda explained quickly, mumbling something who he could only assume was Aphmau in a tone too quiet for him to make out. When Aaron could only stand there in a confused silence, the witch sighed loudly. “Basically, she’s a male now.”