Lost Destinies

↳ 28: Shut Up, Agnor!

Sunrise came with a cleared mind, the cool early-morning air brushing against the back of Ramona's neck as she loaded bags back into the car, plucking out a Fairy license plate to replace the current one. It would be sweltering within the next few hours. She looked up from where she was crouched to switch out the plates, coming face-to-face with Claude's black leather boots unsettling shimmering dirt as he walked over. That was another thing about Fairy, the way the dirt glittered in the sun.

His neat, high-collared black jacket was absent for the heat, which would make stealing less convenient. He pulled at the open collar of his short-sleeved tunic, frowning.

"How's your wing?"

Humans must have healed by some method that was far more complicated than how fairies did. Ramona had practically forgotten about her wing, more of a minor nuisance than anything else. She flexed both, testing the tension in her muscles. "Not so bad. How's Baby seemed?" she asked as she tucked the old license plate under her arm and went over to duck into the van, Claude following suit.

"He's... better than I would be," he admitted.

Ramona let out a breath like a weight gliding off her shoulders. "Good. I'm worried about him."

"I'm a little worried about you."

She performed that horrible, wolfish grin. "How adorable."

Claude huffed a slight laugh, rolling his eyes. "Don't look at me like a target, Duckie."

"Wouldn't dream of attempting to steal from my second-best pickpocket."

"Ugh, second-best." He didn't argue, though. Minerva had a sort of magic in the way she did it.

She finished reorganizing the dash and glanced sidelong at him. "You wanna drive?"

He shrugged and got behind the wheel, fiddling with the radio as the others filed in one by one. The first local station that came on was playing current hip-hop hits, making him yelp as Pinnochio's grating, slightly nasally voice filled the van. He switched it immediately.

"Hey!" Lindsay protested, narrowing her eyes and jabbing him in the shoulder. "You had no problem playing him last time."

"That was to annoy you," insisted Claude. "Pinnochio sucks. Can't rap to save his life."

Her jaw fell, and she jabbed him several more times until he successfully shoved her away. She turned to Ramona instead, excitedly pointing to her feet and showing off her sparkly new slippers. She was even wearing a red skirt and hair ribbon to match, which she must've dug out of the costume supplies buckets in the back because Ramona was sure Lindsay nearly always wore green. The new color palette was jarring, like when a character from a Saturday morning cartoon was redesigned for an inevitably inferior new reboot.

"Look! Aren't they pretty?"

Penny looked somewhere between disbelief and annoyance. "You got those after all that?"

Lindsay stuck up her perky little nose. "Of course. That witch had no business wearing these shoes."

"Bet it feels good to finally find slippers in your size, eh, Lindsay?" was Minerva's sly comment. Penny sighed. More Cinderella jokes. Lindsay's eyes went wide, and she turned and promptly smacked her upside the head with what was undoubtedly some poor sap's stolen wallet. Bear watched amusedly but provided no input.

Ramona leaned over the back of the driver's seat, which Claude was adjusting from whoever had been there last. "So we go to Central Fairy. We find intel on a day to plan. And then we treat it like a heist. Go in to rescue the queen. Come out with the crown."