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Description
So Close
By Invader-Hime

It was a seemingly standard gala.  Hundreds of well dressed men and women of varying species mixed and mingled.  Though the guest list had been composed months in advance and security forces were stationed at every possible exit or entrance, that didn't impede the arrival of party crashers.   Well, it stopped the sloppy ones...the amateurs.

Two party crashers, specifically, who were doing their best to not look like party crashers...and were doing an excellent job of blending in with the crowd.  A little glamour and an old Plumber's Badge went a long way.  No one even looked at them twice.  The pair looked as though they belonged there, rubbing elbows with galactic diplomats and honored officers.

The young man knew the right things to say and do.  He smiled pleasantly and talked to people as though he had known them for years even though none of them could actually recall meeting him before.  Still, he spoke of things so precisely that it seemed impossible for him not to know them.  His dull blue eyes were focused and everything from his perfectly coiffed blond hair to his well tailored suit indicated he was a well bred person of importance.

The young woman on his arm  had piercing blue eyes and short, platinum blond hair that seemed to hug her chin.  Her dress was a dark purple with a swirling trail of bead embellishments that snaked up the side of it in a manner that mirrored the curves of her body.  She didn't say much, rather, she smiled, nodded, listened, and peered around with an intense interest.

All in all, Darkstar and Charmcaster were both quite pleased at how their infiltration worked out.   Though Darkstar wished Charmcaster would attempt to appear social and Charmcaster wished Darkstar wouldn't talk so much.

The two politely excused themselves from a conversation when the band began to play a classical dance song from Noa Progruta, which caused many couples to rise to their feet and begin elegantly swirling around the floor.  Darkstar instead leaned forward and spoke softly into Charmcaster's ear.

"Well, Lovely, it appears that we have made it to the party on time without any glitches,"

"Did you expect anything less?  Let's not forget that we're on a time limit here, Chatty.  My glamour spells only last so long," she added, artificially blue eyes narrowing knowingly.

"Oh, yes.  That 'you must be home before midnight' element does make things more...exciting,"  Darkstar responded, purposefully speaking slowly in a manner that Charmcaster found excruciating.  His pace slowed as well and the witch had to force herself not to tug him along faster.
Charmcaster suppressed a huff when he stopped to flag down a server carrying a large tray of bubbling drinks.  He seemed to inspect them one at a time before he finally selected one.

"Would you care for some refreshment?" he asked smoothly, offering Charmcaster a glass of bubbling purple liquid that he plucked from the waiter's selection.

The mana witch regarded him with an analyzing gaze as she gently shook her head.

"No thanks.  I'll get my own drink," she added cooly, scooping a glass from a nearby tray before adding: "No offense, I trust?"

"None taken," he answered.

Neither of them were trustworthy, after all.

Both downed their respective glasses and never broke eye contact as they did.  Darkstar couldn't help but notice his heart beat significantly louder in his ears when she did things like this.  Charmcaster was always testing him in one way or another and he relished the challenges she forced on him.  He had a few tricks up his sleeve that he had been itching to demonstrate.

Their current mission might provide him with a few choice opportunities to do so.  It had been years since he had actually wanted to impress someone and his ego driven brain delighted in the idea.  The witch was nearly impossible to please and was a ruthless as he was.  All in all, she was an equal that he could respect...and regarded as something other than an ally or an enemy.  She was a little of both and on trips like their current engagement, Charmcaster could be his best friend or his worst enemy depending on how she felt.

The central event of the gala was the unveiling of a new taedenite fueled power core that supposedly used the life energy from one of the galaxy's rarest living elements to generate a new form of electrical plasmic energy.  It was a lot of technical gibberish, but the overall usefulness of said living gem was grossly underestimated by those who had fashioned the power core and the mana witch and the mana leech were determined to use that to their advantage.

Something buzzed in Darkstar's skull and he couldn't quite place what it was.  It hummed in his ears and vibrated behind his eyes.  The room seemed to be in soft focuse, all of a sudden.  Lights were framed with hazy halos and the line between things became less definite.  He looked at Charmcaster out of the corner of his eye, thinking the mana witch must have something to do with it.  Strangely, she seemed to be giving him the same look.  They regarded each other with a quiet intensity before moving across the room to view a few taedenite samples that were illuminated under glass.

However, before they could reach them, the band struck up and a singer began to croon something melodramatic, yet melodious.  Out of nowhere, a few dozen other pairs of people seemed to appear and begin to dance around the room, blocking the direct route to the mineral samples.
Darkstar momentarily frowned before quickly taking one of Charmcaster's hands in his own and putting his other hand on her slender waist.

Artificially blue eyes blazed in a tangible rage and he felt the witch's energy signature become sharp and agitated.

"What do you think you are doing?" she growled.

"Dancing.  Keep your voice down, Lovely, people will stare," he said, trying to sound calm and collected as the dull buzz continued in his ears.  It seemed less aggravating and more soothing, all of a sudden.

That silenced her, though her energy still seared.  Her hand felt hot in his and he felt the teeth in his palm shudder at the proximity to something so powerful.  His heart skipped a little, as if excited by something.  Charmcaster's cheeks flushed as she seized his hand, squeezed far to hard, and attempted to drag him across the room.  Instead, Darkstar planted his feet firmly on the ground and refused to follow her.

"Let me lead," he insisted.

It was a mistake to say such a thing without fully explaining the concept of Earth dancing to her.  He knew it the instant the three words left his lips and he could see magenta sear behind blue glamour.

"In your dreams you-" Charmcaster hissed through clenched teeth.

"For the dance, Lovely.  Just the dance.  On Earth, the men lead while dancing. I'm just helping us blend in," he quietly reassured the witch.

"The day I let you lead anything is the-"

"Relax.  It is just to get us closer to what we both want.  Going with my idea doesn't make you any less...whatever you like to think of yourself as,"

Charmcaster huffed, took a deep breath and held it for a few tense seconds before exhaling and nodding once in consent.

It was ridiculous.  He could not pinpoint where frustration and snark had given way to fondness and affection.  If anything, it served to illustrate just how maladjusted his human side was.  He'd actually been enjoying the presence of someone who made no secret of her mistrust of him, but was willing to use him to her own gains.  She might use him, but he used her.  She tried his patience and infuriated him beyond reason...sometimes with just a look.  Still, he practically went giddy inside whenever he managed to impress her or catch the witch off guard.  Theirs was a peculiar, symbiotic relationship that Darkstar found himself enjoying more and more with each passing day.    He could not locate the exact place where frustration ended and delight began, but he found that he cared less and less with each passing moment.

It felt so strange, almost surreal.  Here they were, decked out in all the best glamour and finery that their combined efforts could muster.  An absurdly appropriate song was playing and Charmcaster was actually following his lead in graceful steps that made her even more otherworldly and exotic than he already perceived her as.  Her body was warm and smooth where his hand touched her hip.  The hand in his felt like it belonged there...like...it fit there.  Darkstar couldn't remember properly fitting anywhere in his entire life.  It seemed ludicrous that now, of all times, he should be sentimental.  At a particular sweep in the music, he made a sudden dip and pulled her closer to him.
   "Don't go," he found himself whispering in her ear.

He could sense a burst of energy within her.  Her whole body tensed and she stared up at him with wide eyes whose artificial color seemed to flicker away for a moment and their pure magenta stared back before being engulfed in her disguise again.  Well, now he had gone and done it.  He'd come across as needy and desperate, something hr knew she could not tolerate.

"Or let me come with you...just...don't leave and never come back.  I don't want you to just disappear.  After this mission, you won't need me anymore and I won't need you...but I don't want you to go away.  I want to stay with you,"

"Michael..."

Both of them froze at that.

He couldn't remember the last time she'd used his proper name, if ever.  It was always some variation of "Darkles" or "Sparkles" or some such title her mind had come up with.  Charmcaster's hand clamped over her mouth and she just stared at him with wide, blue eyes, her head shaking from side to side.

Well, now he had certainly done it again.  He decided to explain himself as best and as quickly as his seemingly painfully slow mouth would allow.

"I'd miss you.  I'd miss your wit...and your talent...and...your sense of humor and that smile you have when you are plotting...and the way you breathe while you're dreaming.  I like your drive and determination and your uninhibited tendencies to openly mock those you care about," he added, without really understanding why he had decided to bear his feelings to her at such a highly inopportune time.

"I don't want to go without you, you fool.  I...I want you there...always.  I like...I like the way you get so upset about everything...and I like what you can do...what we can do together...and the way the air whistles through your nose when you sleep...and the way...when you're there...things are...just more fun,"

He saw fear in her eyes then.  He was familiar with it by now.  A deep rooted, paralyzing fear seemed to cripple her, freezing her joints and putting her aura on edge.  She slammed her mouth closed and bit her lower lip.  The witch then glared up at him.

"How are you doing this?  How are you making me say these things?  What kind of low trick are you using?"

Her voice was sharp and desperate.

"I was about to ask you the same question, in not so many words, that is," Darkstar responded.

"I'm not doing anything," Charmcaster insisted.

"Neither am I," Darkstar whispered.

"You expect me to believe that?" the witch snorted, careful to keep her voice low.

"Not really, but it is true," Darkstar said dryly, shrugging.

Charmcaster raised an eyebrow.

"Well, then, if you aren't doing it, who is?" she asked.

As if in an answer to her question, there was a sudden explosion of screams and shuffling that drowned out the music and provided a thankfully merciful break in the amount of soul bearing that had been going on that both the leech and the witch were thankful for.

There were a series of plasma gun blasts, snarls, and screams that were so disorienting, that Charmcaster hadn't noticed her companion has disappeared until after he came back.  Darkstar seemed to pop up next to her before taking her hand and calmly turning around and walking out of the room.

"It appears the situation has gotten a little too hot for us to handle, Lovely.  I think it best we take our leave,"
The mana witch agreed.

"I sure don't want to get caught up in whatever mess these fools have made for themselves,"

Without another word, the two of them slipped out of the chaos and into the night and no one noticed they were gone, or that they had taken something with them.
>>>>>>>

After they had arrived back at their current hideaway, a small, abandoned beach house, the witch and the leech had time to collect themselves, though Charmcaster was quite curious about their respective outbursts at the gala.

"So, what was that in there?" Charmcaster asked sharply, once Darkstar had re-emerged from his room and was toweling what little remained of his hair dry.

"Apparently, the Plumber signals are all spouting a lot of information.  Elaborate planning for them, though.  It says that there was an assassination planned for the engineer behind that core we were going to check out.  Turns out we played right into a classic game of intrigue and espionage...which explains our respective little...outbursts,"

The mana witch cocked her head.

"What do you mean?" she questioned, feeling uneasy all of a sudden.

"Well, in order to flush out the assassin, the authorities used some rather...underhanded methods.  Are you familiar with the Alaic Berry from Peptos VIII?  It is a small, unassuming berry, that, when fermented, creates a chemical that makes you tell the truth.  Even truth you never intended to share.  Though, now that it is out in the open, we might as well make the best of it,"

With that, he offered her a velvet drawstring bag.  Carefully, Charmcaster took it and ran her hands over it.  Underneath the soft container was something cold and hard.

"What's this?" Charmcaster inquired, an eyebrow quirked.

"A show of good faith and a...token, as it were.  I liberated it from our friends back there at the start of the skirmish.  Lovely, I know you were meant to have it.  I am certain that you can think of much more interesting things to do with it than those fools.  Besides, people are supposed to give trinkets and things to those who...are at varying levels of what they are with other people,"

He stopped then, as if unsure of what else to say, so instead he said nothing.

Curious, the witch pulled the bag open and her eyes lit up when she felt the familiar cold buzz of living stone against her hot hand.  Without another word, she tugged the contents of the bag and found a large, pointed fragment of a fuschia spiral of taedenite, one of the galaxy's rarest specimens.  So that's where Darkstar had disappeared to at the gala!

Charmcaster smiled, running a filed nail over the jewel's faceted surface.

"I am sure that I can and I anticipate you helping out with that...and I look forward to it," she said smiling, her painted lips pulling into a sinister, impish smile.

Description
So Close
By Invader-Hime

It was a seemingly standard gala.  Hundreds of well dressed men and women of varying species mixed and mingled.  Though the guest list had been composed months in advance and security forces were stationed at every possible exit or entrance, that didn't impede the arrival of party crashers.   Well, it stopped the sloppy ones...the amateurs.

Two party crashers, specifically, who were doing their best to not look like party crashers...and were doing an excellent job of blending in with the crowd.  A little glamour and an old Plumber's Badge went a long way.  No one even looked at them twice.  The pair looked as though they belonged there, rubbing elbows with galactic diplomats and honored officers.

The young man knew the right things to say and do.  He smiled pleasantly and talked to people as though he had known them for years even though none of them could actually recall meeting him before.  Still, he spoke of things so precisely that it seemed impossible for him not to know them.  His dull blue eyes were focused and everything from his perfectly coiffed blond hair to his well tailored suit indicated he was a well bred person of importance.

The young woman on his arm  had piercing blue eyes and short, platinum blond hair that seemed to hug her chin.  Her dress was a dark purple with a swirling trail of bead embellishments that snaked up the side of it in a manner that mirrored the curves of her body.  She didn't say much, rather, she smiled, nodded, listened, and peered around with an intense interest.

All in all, Darkstar and Charmcaster were both quite pleased at how their infiltration worked out.   Though Darkstar wished Charmcaster would attempt to appear social and Charmcaster wished Darkstar wouldn't talk so much.

The two politely excused themselves from a conversation when the band began to play a classical dance song from Noa Progruta, which caused many couples to rise to their feet and begin elegantly swirling around the floor.  Darkstar instead leaned forward and spoke softly into Charmcaster's ear.

"Well, Lovely, it appears that we have made it to the party on time without any glitches,"

"Did you expect anything less?  Let's not forget that we're on a time limit here, Chatty.  My glamour spells only last so long," she added, artificially blue eyes narrowing knowingly.

"Oh, yes.  That 'you must be home before midnight' element does make things more...exciting,"  Darkstar responded, purposefully speaking slowly in a manner that Charmcaster found excruciating.  His pace slowed as well and the witch had to force herself not to tug him along faster.
Charmcaster suppressed a huff when he stopped to flag down a server carrying a large tray of bubbling drinks.  He seemed to inspect them one at a time before he finally selected one.

"Would you care for some refreshment?" he asked smoothly, offering Charmcaster a glass of bubbling purple liquid that he plucked from the waiter's selection.

The mana witch regarded him with an analyzing gaze as she gently shook her head.

"No thanks.  I'll get my own drink," she added cooly, scooping a glass from a nearby tray before adding: "No offense, I trust?"

"None taken," he answered.

Neither of them were trustworthy, after all.

Both downed their respective glasses and never broke eye contact as they did.  Darkstar couldn't help but notice his heart beat significantly louder in his ears when she did things like this.  Charmcaster was always testing him in one way or another and he relished the challenges she forced on him.  He had a few tricks up his sleeve that he had been itching to demonstrate.

Their current mission might provide him with a few choice opportunities to do so.  It had been years since he had actually wanted to impress someone and his ego driven brain delighted in the idea.  The witch was nearly impossible to please and was a ruthless as he was.  All in all, she was an equal that he could respect...and regarded as something other than an ally or an enemy.  She was a little of both and on trips like their current engagement, Charmcaster could be his best friend or his worst enemy depending on how she felt.

The central event of the gala was the unveiling of a new taedenite fueled power core that supposedly used the life energy from one of the galaxy's rarest living elements to generate a new form of electrical plasmic energy.  It was a lot of technical gibberish, but the overall usefulness of said living gem was grossly underestimated by those who had fashioned the power core and the mana witch and the mana leech were determined to use that to their advantage.

Something buzzed in Darkstar's skull and he couldn't quite place what it was.  It hummed in his ears and vibrated behind his eyes.  The room seemed to be in soft focuse, all of a sudden.  Lights were framed with hazy halos and the line between things became less definite.  He looked at Charmcaster out of the corner of his eye, thinking the mana witch must have something to do with it.  Strangely, she seemed to be giving him the same look.  They regarded each other with a quiet intensity before moving across the room to view a few taedenite samples that were illuminated under glass.

However, before they could reach them, the band struck up and a singer began to croon something melodramatic, yet melodious.  Out of nowhere, a few dozen other pairs of people seemed to appear and begin to dance around the room, blocking the direct route to the mineral samples.
Darkstar momentarily frowned before quickly taking one of Charmcaster's hands in his own and putting his other hand on her slender waist.

Artificially blue eyes blazed in a tangible rage and he felt the witch's energy signature become sharp and agitated.

"What do you think you are doing?" she growled.

"Dancing.  Keep your voice down, Lovely, people will stare," he said, trying to sound calm and collected as the dull buzz continued in his ears.  It seemed less aggravating and more soothing, all of a sudden.

That silenced her, though her energy still seared.  Her hand felt hot in his and he felt the teeth in his palm shudder at the proximity to something so powerful.  His heart skipped a little, as if excited by something.  Charmcaster's cheeks flushed as she seized his hand, squeezed far to hard, and attempted to drag him across the room.  Instead, Darkstar planted his feet firmly on the ground and refused to follow her.

"Let me lead," he insisted.

It was a mistake to say such a thing without fully explaining the concept of Earth dancing to her.  He knew it the instant the three words left his lips and he could see magenta sear behind blue glamour.

"In your dreams you-" Charmcaster hissed through clenched teeth.

"For the dance, Lovely.  Just the dance.  On Earth, the men lead while dancing. I'm just helping us blend in," he quietly reassured the witch.

"The day I let you lead anything is the-"

"Relax.  It is just to get us closer to what we both want.  Going with my idea doesn't make you any less...whatever you like to think of yourself as,"

Charmcaster huffed, took a deep breath and held it for a few tense seconds before exhaling and nodding once in consent.

It was ridiculous.  He could not pinpoint where frustration and snark had given way to fondness and affection.  If anything, it served to illustrate just how maladjusted his human side was.  He'd actually been enjoying the presence of someone who made no secret of her mistrust of him, but was willing to use him to her own gains.  She might use him, but he used her.  She tried his patience and infuriated him beyond reason...sometimes with just a look.  Still, he practically went giddy inside whenever he managed to impress her or catch the witch off guard.  Theirs was a peculiar, symbiotic relationship that Darkstar found himself enjoying more and more with each passing day.    He could not locate the exact place where frustration ended and delight began, but he found that he cared less and less with each passing moment.

It felt so strange, almost surreal.  Here they were, decked out in all the best glamour and finery that their combined efforts could muster.  An absurdly appropriate song was playing and Charmcaster was actually following his lead in graceful steps that made her even more otherworldly and exotic than he already perceived her as.  Her body was warm and smooth where his hand touched her hip.  The hand in his felt like it belonged there...like...it fit there.  Darkstar couldn't remember properly fitting anywhere in his entire life.  It seemed ludicrous that now, of all times, he should be sentimental.  At a particular sweep in the music, he made a sudden dip and pulled her closer to him.
   "Don't go," he found himself whispering in her ear.

He could sense a burst of energy within her.  Her whole body tensed and she stared up at him with wide eyes whose artificial color seemed to flicker away for a moment and their pure magenta stared back before being engulfed in her disguise again.  Well, now he had gone and done it.  He'd come across as needy and desperate, something hr knew she could not tolerate.

"Or let me come with you...just...don't leave and never come back.  I don't want you to just disappear.  After this mission, you won't need me anymore and I won't need you...but I don't want you to go away.  I want to stay with you,"

"Michael..."

Both of them froze at that.

He couldn't remember the last time she'd used his proper name, if ever.  It was always some variation of "Darkles" or "Sparkles" or some such title her mind had come up with.  Charmcaster's hand clamped over her mouth and she just stared at him with wide, blue eyes, her head shaking from side to side.

Well, now he had certainly done it again.  He decided to explain himself as best and as quickly as his seemingly painfully slow mouth would allow.

"I'd miss you.  I'd miss your wit...and your talent...and...your sense of humor and that smile you have when you are plotting...and the way you breathe while you're dreaming.  I like your drive and determination and your uninhibited tendencies to openly mock those you care about," he added, without really understanding why he had decided to bear his feelings to her at such a highly inopportune time.

"I don't want to go without you, you fool.  I...I want you there...always.  I like...I like the way you get so upset about everything...and I like what you can do...what we can do together...and the way the air whistles through your nose when you sleep...and the way...when you're there...things are...just more fun,"

He saw fear in her eyes then.  He was familiar with it by now.  A deep rooted, paralyzing fear seemed to cripple her, freezing her joints and putting her aura on edge.  She slammed her mouth closed and bit her lower lip.  The witch then glared up at him.

"How are you doing this?  How are you making me say these things?  What kind of low trick are you using?"

Her voice was sharp and desperate.

"I was about to ask you the same question, in not so many words, that is," Darkstar responded.

"I'm not doing anything," Charmcaster insisted.

"Neither am I," Darkstar whispered.

"You expect me to believe that?" the witch snorted, careful to keep her voice low.

"Not really, but it is true," Darkstar said dryly, shrugging.

Charmcaster raised an eyebrow.

"Well, then, if you aren't doing it, who is?" she asked.

As if in an answer to her question, there was a sudden explosion of screams and shuffling that drowned out the music and provided a thankfully merciful break in the amount of soul bearing that had been going on that both the leech and the witch were thankful for.

There were a series of plasma gun blasts, snarls, and screams that were so disorienting, that Charmcaster hadn't noticed her companion has disappeared until after he came back.  Darkstar seemed to pop up next to her before taking her hand and calmly turning around and walking out of the room.

"It appears the situation has gotten a little too hot for us to handle, Lovely.  I think it best we take our leave,"
The mana witch agreed.

"I sure don't want to get caught up in whatever mess these fools have made for themselves,"

Without another word, the two of them slipped out of the chaos and into the night and no one noticed they were gone, or that they had taken something with them.
>>>>>>>

After they had arrived back at their current hideaway, a small, abandoned beach house, the witch and the leech had time to collect themselves, though Charmcaster was quite curious about their respective outbursts at the gala.

"So, what was that in there?" Charmcaster asked sharply, once Darkstar had re-emerged from his room and was toweling what little remained of his hair dry.

"Apparently, the Plumber signals are all spouting a lot of information.  Elaborate planning for them, though.  It says that there was an assassination planned for the engineer behind that core we were going to check out.  Turns out we played right into a classic game of intrigue and espionage...which explains our respective little...outbursts,"

The mana witch cocked her head.

"What do you mean?" she questioned, feeling uneasy all of a sudden.

"Well, in order to flush out the assassin, the authorities used some rather...underhanded methods.  Are you familiar with the Alaic Berry from Peptos VIII?  It is a small, unassuming berry, that, when fermented, creates a chemical that makes you tell the truth.  Even truth you never intended to share.  Though, now that it is out in the open, we might as well make the best of it,"

With that, he offered her a velvet drawstring bag.  Carefully, Charmcaster took it and ran her hands over it.  Underneath the soft container was something cold and hard.

"What's this?" Charmcaster inquired, an eyebrow quirked.

"A show of good faith and a...token, as it were.  I liberated it from our friends back there at the start of the skirmish.  Lovely, I know you were meant to have it.  I am certain that you can think of much more interesting things to do with it than those fools.  Besides, people are supposed to give trinkets and things to those who...are at varying levels of what they are with other people,"

He stopped then, as if unsure of what else to say, so instead he said nothing.

Curious, the witch pulled the bag open and her eyes lit up when she felt the familiar cold buzz of living stone against her hot hand.  Without another word, she tugged the contents of the bag and found a large, pointed fragment of a fuschia spiral of taedenite, one of the galaxy's rarest specimens.  So that's where Darkstar had disappeared to at the gala!

Charmcaster smiled, running a filed nail over the jewel's faceted surface.

"I am sure that I can and I anticipate you helping out with that...and I look forward to it," she said smiling, her painted lips pulling into a sinister, impish smile.