Who: Presto and Vanessa Cleveland What: Breakfast and friends catching up When: Early to mid-May Where: A little cafe Ratings: None really
Presto was glad to hear from Vanessa again and so he set out the day of their meeting to see her and hopefully enjoy a nice day of it. He wasn’t sure what was planned, but he had an idea to just relax with his friend and chat. He teleported to the address she had given him, then checked around, cautiously, before knocking on her front door.
He was grinning, wearing a pair of jeans, a t-shirt that said ‘Stormtroopers suck!’ on it in bright red against black, and some blue tennis shoes.
***
Vanessa had decided that she wasn’t going to let herself get so wrapped up in schoolwork again. This past semester - she’d barely had time for a social life because of her course load. But she’d learned from it and wasn’t going to load herself up that way again. She heard the knock on her door and shouted over her shoulder to wherever Penny was “Got it!” as she made her way to the door with a happy smile as she opened it.
“Custom shirt or lucky find in the store?” She asked when she saw what Presto was wearing.
***
“Custom, er, but I made it or my company did for me. I thought it would be a sentiment most of the OC could agree on..” He wiggled his fingers and grinned at her.
“How are you? You look amazing!” He admired her outfit, smiling.
***
“Definitely after this last bout of insanity. Next time Star Wars decides to visit us like that - I vote more R2 and Chewbacca and less stormtroopers and ships trying to destroy everything.” She told him stepping out onto the porch with him.
“I’m okay. Things are a little crazy around here with Penny crashing here because his dreams are giving him abilities too. There are no secrets that I can keep and it sucks at times.” She said shrugging slightly. “But...it’s nice having somebody here. How are you? I know you said life got in the way of school for right now.”
***
“That definitely sounds awesome to me. Lovely idea.” He smiled and held out a hand to her. “Its nice to see you.” He had missed her.
“Do you want wards? I could ward your bedroom, and that would be at least a secret place for you.” He cocked his head to the side and smiled.
“Yeah, too much work, and school, and just magic practice and… so I am on a break.” He nodded.
“Whenever you are ready, I can teleport us to home, or out to eat, either.”
***
Vanessa took his hand, squeezing it lightly. “And if R2 decides to stick around after - I wouldn’t hate having a droid around my apartment.” She joked. “I’ve missed you.” She told him getting serious for just a second.
“Warding my bedroom wouldn’t help very much since Penny sleeps in there with me,” she explained. “We’ve kind of settled on him just not commenting on my personal thoughts when he hears them. Not perfect but...at least I can pretend he’s not hearing them. How’s Destiny?” She asked, hoping to change the topic off her undefined love life.
“You know what? Why don’t you tell me what all you’re taking a break from over lunch? You pick the place since you’re teleporting us. And I am going to try not to be jealous of the fact that everyone gets useful things from their dreams. I get a necklace and can make parts of my body disappear. Normally when I want them too but not always. I actually started disappearing during one of my finals. Not fun.”
***
“Destiny is… good?” His own love life was a little undefined. He wasn’t sure where he and Destiny really were on things. He wasn’t good at the whole people thing.
He sighed. “Life is crazy. But that sounds good.”
He nodded at her words and concentrated, and he grinned as they popped out, then appeared at the backdoor of a cafe/restaurant he knew. A very nice one. He led the way in and soon they had a table, and a menu.
“Anything you want, this is on me. I need more friend time.”
***
Vanessa noticed that little hesitation in his answer but didn’t say anything, just squeezing his hand gently in understanding. She definitely got it. “I just want you to be happy.”
It took her a minute to get acclimated in back of the restaurant and then follow him in. She definitely needed to get some practice in traveling by magic with her friends. She thanked their server as she sat down, asking for a sweet tea to drink before they walked away.
“I get it next time. Deal?” She asked, looking at him over the top of her menu for a response before she started looking at the menu to figure out what she wanted.
***
“Thanks. I appreciate it. You’re a good friend.” He smiled at her. He made sure she was okay before leading the way in.
“Of course.” He waggled his eyebrows at her over his menu. He would probably remember that.
Probably.
“How have you been other than odd housemates lately?”
***
She laughed and shook her head at that eyebrow waggle. She was going to have to remind him of that next time. That it was her turn to pick up the check. She would just have to remember too. “I learned how to be a good friend from the best - you and Nasir.” She told him smiling at the server as they set her drink down in front of her.
“Honestly - Penny staying with me is the most normal thing going on in my life right now. I can turn invisible. And if I’m not careful - my nose will be on my cheek when I reappear. I was panicking the first time it happened because I woke up invisible. I knew that powers from your dreams were a possibility I just wasn’t expecting it to happen to me. But! You’re supposed to be catching me up on what you’ve been up to first.”
***
Presto flushed, and shook his head. He thanked the waiter also, and lifted his drink as he listened to her, raising it in toast.
“To magic, and hoping it someday makes sense.” he nodded, then sipped.
Then he sighed. “I kinda went all super work-a-holic and school-a-holic, and was starting to burn out. Literally. I detonated a fireball on my bed and barely rolled out of range. Y power has been growing exponentially, but not my control, so I sought out a teacher, and she eventually convinced me to take a break, which led to me choosing to take a much longer break, until fall.”
He rubbed his face. “I found a few people to run my businesses for me temporarily, that I trust. And I have been studying my magic, and trying to practice and rest from everything else. I kind of went off the radar mostly, because of that.”
***
Vanessa listened as Presto filled her in, blue eyes locked on his face and while she reached over to touch his hand lightly she didn’t say anything until he’d finished talking. “And I thought I was having bad times in bed with my power. I’m glad you were able to get out of the way of that fireball. And that you found somebody who can help you learn control.” She said pulling her hand back so she could close her menu when she saw the server looking their way. She’d decided what she wanted to eat even before he’d started filling her in, but she’d used keeping her menu open as a way to make sure they weren’t interrupted. “Yeah I can’t blame you for needing a break. I don’t think I’d be able to set a time to be back.” She told him honestly.
“But I won’t lie and say I’m not glad you’re coming back on the radar.”
***
“Thank you, Vanessa.” He gripped her hand and squeezed gently. “I appreciate it. And your friendship means a lot. It’s been one of the things I have thought of in all of this.” He looked at his own menu and knew he would order steak and eggs, mostly because he had a craving.
“I need to be here, too, I think. I need my friends and I need to not just be practicing, but living.” he wiggled his fingers and the flower at the center of the table bloomed again, healthy and pretty, and turned a startling purple color, instead of the red it had been before.
“This is who I am now.”
He ordered when the waiter came by, then turned back to her, and nodded.
***
“Your friendship is really important to me too. And I’m serious if you need anything - I’m there for you. We’ll figure it out. All else fails I call my dad and he gets one of his friends to do something that draws attention away from whatever weirdness is going on thanks to our dreams,” Vanessa told him half joking. There were benefits to having a rockstar dad and that was one of them - he always knew someone who had done something that could be used as a diversion.
She laughed at him using his powers on the flower. “Okay you are going to have to provide a distraction when we leave because I am taking that flower home with me.” She said ordering a pancake breakfast for herself. Some things were just too good to pass up at times - pancakes and sausage? Top of that list for her. Bonus when she didn’t have to cook it herself. The cooking wasn’t the issue - the cleanup was a nightmare.
She waited until the waiter walked away and then put her hand on the table between them, closing her eyes for a second in concentration as she made her fingers disappear and then brought them back. “And that’s who I am now.”
***
Presto nodded, eyes wide. Cool!
“An amazing friend, a beautiful woman, and a magical being all in one? Not a bad person to be.” He grinned at her, winking over his drink as he lifted it to sip. He enjoyed being around her, and wished now he had not forgotten that.
“We should do this more often, make a thing of it.”
***
Vanessa had almost forgotten how flirty Presto was at times, and how good it made her feel to flirt back with him. “Not bad just takes some getting used to. And so does having to keep clothes in every room in case I go full invisible and my clothes don’t go with me.” She told him with a little smile at his wink.
She lifted her glass at him. “To good friends and magical beings,” she said before taking a sip. “Bonus points when they’re also cute and funny. And we definitely need to make a regular thing out of getting together.”
***
Presto listened as she spoke and he chuckled. “Well, clothingless Vanessa could be fun too.” His cheeks were red, but he chuckled.
“My first few times teleporting I left my clothing behind. That took some explaining.” Especially as he had teleported into the wrong place both times.
“To good friends and magical beings.” He took a long drink and smiled.
“Sounds like a plan then. Now tell me more about what you’ve been doing.”
***
Vanessa turned red when Presto said that, almost choking on the sip of tea she’d just taken. “Depends on what kind of fun’s being looked for,” she joked, trying to get her composure back.
“I feel less bad about losing mine. Worst time was when I disappeared in the middle of watching a movie with Penny. I wasn’t even trying to do it - I just started vanishing,” she told him.
“More about what I’ve been doing...Well…” she started with what had happened when she’d started school back in January, her runin with the frat guy on St. Patrick’s Day (which yeah she got a little kick out of telling that story) and the practice and training she’d been doing at the gym and at home. The only details she held back were about exactly how she’d met Penny.
Before she knew it, both of them had finished their breakfasts and she was waiting for the server to be looking elsewhere as she took the flower from it’s vase and walked away with it in her hand.