Hidden Away

chapter 4

"So how was it? Fun?" I cover my face with my hands "aghghg, you..!" I lower my hands and sigh "he's just... a really nice guy, okay? The other day he saved me from an asshole of a guy and put his number in my phone. We used to be so close but I messed it all up cuz of my stupid heart. To him I'm nothing! And he even s-smiled at me like he, like he actually liked me again!" I chuckle a bit "n-not in that way, of course, I wouldn't even dare dream.." Lucien looks at me "Ah... but you are dreaming" I stop "I-" then he looks at me sternly "and that is why you have to go. Yeah... I get it. Your relationships are important to you. Just like a typical human being." Huh...? Wait.. does that mean... "Lucien? Don't... dont you have friends too?" The corner of his mouth quirked up a little. "the wards are designed to keep people out of my life, not bring them in" poor boy... "but... what about like other spirit friends?" I ask him, Lucien shrugged, scratching his hair. "Ehh. Nah. Alot of them are troublesome" what on earth..I finally found somone more friendless than ME? "Stop staring at me like that. It really isn't that bad here. I'd take a peaceful, boring existence over death anytime.. eh.. death seems fine too honestly" I look at him "..hey, Lucien?" He looks at me, "I... I don't have very many friends near me...actually, Kenna is the only one...s-so, if, um, if maybe w-we could.." Lucien's head tilted even more to the side, making me stammer even harder. "If-if we could be friends as well, I would be super happy!" Oh my god, I actually said it! "You seem like a good person, and you seem to really care for great grandma, s-so.." I was half afraid that he would go cold again, but instead... the crescent moon-like grin was back on Lucien's face. "Friends, eh?" He sighs "I dont assosiate with relationships with humans. Demons and humans just dont mix" I look at him sadly, "but-" he looks at me "you are my goddess as from now on. So you are my main priority" I stopped and looked at him confused, "What?" I tilted my head a bit, "you know, I'm you're offical familiar when you agree to the contract, I must take care of you and do everything you tell me to do..." I look at him "I don't really-" I gasp "..wait. wait wait wait wait wait wait" I smile "does that mean... you will do absolutely anything?!" He sighs "heh... not like I really have a choice,  do I?" I furrow my eyebrows, "but... I don't want you to do anything you don't want to, either.." He smiles a bit "oh, trust me.." rising to his feet, Lucien sauntered over to the large, plush couch in the corner. "There's very little In the world that I actually want to do right now... except this" he toppled over straight into the couch,  sending up a little cloud of dust. For a moment I thought the plushness had swallowed him up... and then a single blue eye peeked out from under the heap of throw pillows. "But, you know... I'll keep Angela's heir safe and happy, no matter what" the eye squeezed shut, curving up into a gleaming slit. "Angela and I pinky promised, after all." I walk over to him slowly "now what where you saying about a contract?" I ask curiously. Lucien stands up and walks over to a shelf by a whole load of weird looking liquids. He grabs a small box and comes over to me. Opening the box, two small, shiny golden rings sat comfortably on the cushion inside the velvet box. "Take one and put it on your right ring finger" obeying, I grab a ring and slide it onto my delicate, pale finger, it being a little too big for me. "Ehh.. Lucien?" Ignoring me, he grabs the other one and put his on the same finger mine is on. The rings began to glow red and it stretched out and emedtiently molded to the size of our fingers. In awe I watched as small sparks flew everywhere as the rings flew in sync, like they were singing to eachother. It was beautiful... so beautiful.

It felt strange to be going back to school after the life-changing events of the past day or so. Like the fact that I now had a new... life companion? Animal buddy? Magic mentor? I still didn't quite know what to make of the marble fox curled up in my lap. He's been there for the entire journey, soft and motionless and utterly silent.  His claws dug into me, as if he was bracing himself against the outside world. Mom and dad think I picked the fox up because I wanted to be like great grandma. Not entirely inaccurate. Lucien was my only link to great grandma's secret life as a witch, after all. But seeing him like this, so small and still..."..you really miss her too, huh?" The ball of fluff didn't respond or you could also just be asleep, I guess. sighing, I gently ran my hand across his back, not sure if I was trying to soothe him... or myself. "You said something, sweetie?" My mom asks and I shake my head 'no' "just talking to the fox, mom" mom just laughed slightly. "Alright then" as the car drove on, I drifted stubbornly between waking and dreams. All of a sudden, I felt Lucien nuzzle the top of his head against my hand. The motion was so slight, I wasn't sure if it really happend. But for some reason...that one small gesture felt so comforting, I was finally able to fall asleep. It had been an exhausting week, in more ways than one. And our work wasn't even nearly over. The first thing we did when we got back to the house from my parents checking with the vet if Lucien was healthy, was to set up a protective magic circle or more like, set up wards while Lucien lounged about on the windowsill of my room nibbling on jerky and pointing out every single little mistake I was making. "...you know, you should probably erase that little bit right...there.." He waved his strip of jerky at a part of the circle that I had just crafted. "Id rather not spend the next decade or so in the lair of a tentacle monster" he comments "what? But I...I just spent fifteen whole minutes on that.." my back was aching and cold sweat was beading on my forehead.  "Yeah, it's not gonna work. fix it" throwing my arms up in frustration, I kicked the house of cards apart and set about. Lucien even managed to stop sunbathing long enough to walk me through the process. Urghh...I know I should be impressed by how much he knows about this, but.. "if you know so much, can't you help me out with this even a little bit?! I'm at limits here!"  Lucien just gave me a long sigh and got up and grabbed me, putting me onto the bed "pathetic witch." I would've thrown a pillow at him if he wasnt busy linking the circle components for me. "What kind of familiar are you?! Aren't you supposed to help your witch out with learning stuff like this so I can become better?" I spat at him "you should be grateful that I'm doing this for you in the first place, you have zero experience. You'll learn eventually" He growls out a bit angry "Huh? I..." He sighs "just because I have knowledge on what to do doesnt mean I didnt have to learn things on my own" He says "I never knew that.." I comment, he looks away "well, everything is easy for you! I'm a newbie at this, give me a break!" Lucien shrugged as he continued to work on the barrier. "and besides, remember how magic works?" He asks " It's powered by the witch's emotions " I answer "the witches emotions, yes. Not anybody else's emotions." He says "so if I were you, I'd be focusing on working on channeling your feelings before you can use your magic. Yip" I look at him shocked "..what are you doing?" Lucien tilted his head, his ears twitching as he worked on the protection spell "I'm yipping. Does this not inspire you to want to try doing this, yip?" I smirk "No,  my heart can't take this! Call the ambulance!" I act like I'm dying "Hmm. .. what if I do this?" Tilting his head even further to the side, he bopped me in the arm with his little nose. I couldn't help but burst into laughter. "That's not how you do it, Lucien! Here, let me show you something..." I reached over and pulled open one of my drawers. It was my prized collection of quality fox boy anime, manga and otome games. "Read these, and you'll know exactly how to conquer my heart, Lucien" he smiles at me "is that a challenge?" I giggle a bit "maybe..." I smile "just thought you'd get a laugh out of them, really" he smiles back "eh, maybe" I nudge them closer to him "Did you really think I wanted you to conquer my heart?" I laugh at him "I want you to conquer that protective circle" he adds and hands me the rest of the work "r-right! Gotta focus.." He sighs "I would rather not get molten by holy water in the middle of the night" I look a him "I didn't need that mental image, Lucien, thankyou very much!" Jeez...now I have to try to work on my emotional focus... I took a deep breath to calm down and steady myself, just as great grandma's grimoire taught me to. Then I started to visualize, at the very core of myself, someone that I wanted to protect:

The little arctic marble fox,
Lucien.