World of Make-Believe: Chelsea's Story

A Home

His apartment was immaculate. Huge.

Antique.

"How-" Chelsea shook her head, hands up and waving before he could respond, "No, no. Don't. It'll just ruin... all this." The words breathed out, far more impressed than she meant to be.

Stained glass, floor to ceiling length. Wood details. Built in shelving units. Plush upholstered couches and mismatched chairs. She pushed past Devon in the foyer, annoyed to discover people still had foyers, to find her footsteps echoed. Echoed. Velvet drapes, a grand piano. Not even a baby grand. A full sized, custom stained wood piano with ivory keys.

"My God, Devon." Her fingers tapped absently, not playing a tune. "Why were you in my apartment when you had this?" Overwhelmed eyes swept up a gold trimmed curving staircase being devoured by ivy scaling the ballusters. "I-is that a faun?" Chelsea squinted, moving towards the stairs. "Oh!" Her toe caught on a small statue, "And this is a gnome?" She picked the statue up, ignoring Devon's groan from where he had been leaning, watching.

"Could you not nitpick my decor choices?"

"Did you fill your house with little fae creatures?" Chelsea smiled, poking at the stone statues dimples before gently setting him down. "Are there more?"

Devon waved vaguely, "I had years to stash them everywhere." He stood, stretched. "Not really the point-" He growled as Chelsea ducked behind the partition blocking the kitchen from the massive living room. "Please, mortal. You are getting on my nerves just a little."

"Have you seen your salt and pepper shakers?" Her voice peeled with laughter.

"Oddly enough." The fae snipped under his breath, "I fucking bought them you twit."

"They're fairies!"

Devon strode into the room, pulling out one of the wooden stools to watch as she busied herself around his mainly abandoned apartment, wondering how long it would take her to realize or mention.

"So," she added the armful of mermaid scale jars to the massive pile on the counter before taking a seat, "how long since you've actually lived here?"

"Ah you noticed." He twirled a flute playing faun half full of rosemary.

Chelsea snorted, "Uh, yeah I noticed." She held up a hand, "Do you see the layer of dust embedded in my skin? I don't think I'll ever get clean." She grabbed one of the containers and stood it upright. "Mermaid scales. Dragon scales." The colors clashed beautifully beside one another. "They're real." Tears welled in her eyes. "It's all real." She shook her head. "So what happened? Why haven't you been here?"

Devon rolled his eyes, pulling back, cradling the faun in his lap. "I was banished from the Seelie Court and... the Unseelie Court for a young fae to adjust to is..." He chuckled but it was dry and quick. "I came here to the mortal realm fast after some hard lessons. I had a plan, of course."

"Of course."

He paused to scrutinize the human, but Chelsea wasn't mocking him. "After a while..." He swallowed, looked down to his little figurine. "After awhile you get lonely." He grinned bitterly. "I filled my home with my family. With the ones I grew up with. Pixies and fauns and mermaids and dragons." His grip tightened. "Music and plants and wood and magic." Devon's gaze dropped, eyes roving everywhere but Chelsea, landing on anything but the human in the room. "Eventually the memories and reminders stop being comforting." He shrugged, setting the herb container back on the counter with the rest. "They just-"

"Hurt." Chelsea finished for him.

Devon felt his eyes narrow, gaze finally colliding with hers, but there was no pain there like there should have been. No revelations, no bonding moment as it should have been.