Chapter 48: Must You Tease Me?

Arietta tapped the magic item with her wand again and smiled. "Okay, now say the password so I can be sure it worked." Talori did as she said and the recording began to play. "Excellent! I'll bring this along with me tomorrow. Your brother will get it soon and know you're alright."

More tears welled up in the mermaid's eyes. "Thank you so much! I'm so glad to have heard from him, even if it was indirectly. I hope he's doing alright."

"I'm sure he is," Brennan said as he clapped a hand on her shoulder.

"You're right. Knowing him, he's probably working on his plan right now. I'm sure I'll see him sooner or later even if he isn't able to respond to my message. I don't want him to worry."

"That's a good attitude to have. Come on, let's go get dinner. And more water since you dehydrated yourself."

Talori sniffled and nodded before addressing the witches. "Thank you again! I truly appreciate this."

"No problem!" Arietta said cheerfully. "Happy to help."

Harmony barely refrained from rolling her eyes. She only did this in exchange for getting to read that mermaid research. She wasn't being altruistic at all.

At least that was one thing taken care of. She glanced at the clock and yelped, realizing that Castian was supposed to be at her apartment in about twenty minutes. "I have to go! See you!"

She rushed home and her hair was still frizzed up from an experiment earlier in the day. She was sweaty from running too and generally looked a mess. Fantastic. Just what she needed to ruin the mood on their night.

Castian was used to seeing her dress more casually these days but she had never looked this bad in front of him before. It was embarrassing.

Harmony didn't end up beating him there. He was leaning against the wall next to her front door when she arrived, panting.

"I'm so sorry! I had to help Talori record a message for her brother."

Castian raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware she was able to contact him. How did that end up happening?"

Harmony launched into the explanation of what happened as she unlocked the door and got herself a much-needed drink of water. When she finished she plopped down next to him on the couch in defeat.

"…and that's what happened. Again, I'm really sorry. Were you waiting long?"

"Only about five minutes. Not a big deal, Harmony."

She let out a heavy sigh. "I'll make it up to you. What do you want?"

"Believe it or not, I don't have any homework to do this weekend. I want your undivided attention tomorrow so we can go somewhere," Castian said simply.

Harmony cracked an eye open to look at him curiously. "What do you want to do tomorrow that requires another fae?"

"You'll see."

"Vague but I'll bite. And this is an all-day thing?"

"Yes."

Hmm. Countless ideas flitted through her head but she couldn't settle on a single guess. Castian was a workaholic. What could he possibly want to do outside of work or school that would take an entire day?

"And you won't give me any hints at all?" Harmony asked, sitting up properly and batting her eyelashes at him.

Castian shook his head. "No. It's a surprise."

She pouted since her tactics weren't working on him. "You can't give me one teeny tiny hint?"

"No matter how cute you are, you're not getting anything out of me."

That threw her off to the point that her heart nearly stopped. "Wait, you actually think I'm cute? I was just messing with you."

"How could I not? You're the cutest fae I know," Castian said casually, belying the pinkness tinging his cheeks and ears. This wasn't the first time she had caught him blushing in the past few months. What was up with him?

Harmony hadn't thought elves even had a concept of cuteness. She would have to file that information away for later. Right now it was far too tempting to tease him.

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She leaned over so her face was only inches from him and blinked at him innocently. "That's quite a statement, Castian Reycan. You've met an awful lot of fae over the years, haven't you?"

Castian flinched and his blush grew more prominent. "Yes…and?"

"And even among all of those fae I'm still the cutest? I find that hard to believe."

"Well, it's true."

His face was more red than pink at this point. Harmony decided to let him off the hook. She laughed so hard that she had to lean into his chest for support and looked up at his face with a grin.

"I didn't think it was possible for you to blush that hard!"

Castian sighed. "Must you tease me?"

Harmony got a hold of herself and sat up in his lap. She caressed his cheek and smiled more softly at him. "Sorry. You make it too easy. Not gonna lie, you're pretty cute when you get all flustered."

His red face turned even redder and she let out another laugh. He buried his face in his hands and didn't seem like he was planning on coming out anytime soon so she decided to see how many little braids she could put in his hair before he collected himself. She ended up being able to do seven.

"…what are you doing?"

"Passing the time. Sorry if my braids aren't as good as yours. You probably have a lot more practice than me. I've kept my hair short for more than seventy years."

"I'm sure they look fine. Besides, short hair suits you," Castian said, seeming more like his usual self now that his face was no longer on fire.

"First you say I'm the cutest fae you know and now you say short hair suits me. Where are all of these compliments coming from today?" Harmony asked with a raised eyebrow. It used to be so hard to get him to say that she looked nice when she specifically dressed up for him.

"My apologies. I suppose I should compliment you more often so they're less surprising."

That wasn't the answer she was expecting. He sounded so serious about it too! She had never really expected compliments because that wasn't the sort of relationship they had. It wasn't like it had bothered her or anything.

"Don't force yourself."

"I wouldn't be forcing myself. You are a beautiful woman, Harmony," Castian said plainly, nearly giving her a heart attack.

A beautiful woman not a beautiful witch? There was a difference! Elf women obviously existed or the race would have died out. Both elf men and witches forced themselves to be together to propagate the witch race but it was general knowledge that neither party was particularly thrilled about it. It was all business.

Harmony had heard that most elf men found elf women more attractive. They said things like "she's pretty for a witch" when referring to their witch partners. So why wasn't he?

Now it was her turn to blush but he wouldn't be able to tell because her skin was too dark for it to be visible. "I am?" she squeaked.

Castian nodded. "Beautiful, smart, interesting to talk to, and you give great massages."

Harmony knew he was only in it for the massages! Or at least he had been. She shook that thought free. "I'm going to die from shock if you keep complimenting me like this. Maybe try to spread them out next time."

"If you insist."

She decided to hide her embarrassment and try to get a hold of her racing heart by getting off of him so she could give him that massage. It didn't help as much as she had hoped. She remained wired until they were done and she had been lying down for a while.

Castian was asleep at this point but she had too much on her mind. She squinted at him in the darkness.

"What's up with you lately?" she whispered, not expecting an answer.

If Harmony didn't know any better…she would say that he actually liked her. But that was impossible. Elves and witches never had long-term relationships. They were together long enough to have a child and that was it.

Castian hadn't shown any degree of interest in her until about six months ago and they had been together for more than twenty years. That was standard. It was how all of the other witch-elf relationships she knew of went. So why had hers changed?

It all coincided with Talori's arrival. That had been the catalyst. Harmony originally intending to skip out on him and him deciding to invite himself along to help instead.

She didn't regret getting more involved because she truly enjoyed spending time with him but she couldn't deny that she also dealt with a lot more confusion. She didn't know what was going through his head and that bothered her.

Maybe she could get a better read on him tomorrow with whatever he had planned for the two of them.. With that slightly comforting thought, she was able to curl up next to him and try to fall asleep.

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