Cai Finley Aies Hall May 16th,20XX

Mei raised an amused eyebrow at my verbal slip and the shaky authoritativeness in my voice but unlike Finley, who was easily embarrassed despite spending more time with her than I did, I didn't react to her expression and continued to speak.

“Could you help me do a 'scrying'? Someone I know in the human world went missing and I fear it may have been the actions of someone here. I thought my earlier warnings would be enough but some people just have a hard time listening.”

Jake turned alert at the sudden viciousness in my voice but I needed to make it clear to Mei that my trying to find Sparrow was only because I disliked the thought of someone overstepping my boundaries and not for any other reasons.

Her large eyes almost imperceptibly narrowed at my request but didn't let her suspicion show as she asked.

“It depends on who it is. A friend from the human world?”

She directed the last part to Jake, an unexpected weak link.

The emphasis on the word friend did not go unnoticed but I quickly dismissed it and was about to put any misplaced jealousy to rest when Jake, who was usually a pretty perceptive guy, chose to break character.

“I don't know what she is to Cai but I think they at least know each other pretty well. He blanched like he lost a gallon of blood when he found out she was missing.”

The good-natured expression fell away and the sharp corners of her lips decisively slanted downwards. Her wings slightly flared and her eyes dulled as she began to speak in a light but cold tone.

She was furious.

“It never occurred to you how irresponsible it was to ask your fiancée to help you find your little friend?”

At this point, I was pretty torn between worrying about clearing up the misunderstanding or enjoying the fact that she liked me enough to be jealous of someone she’d never met.

Jake paled at the word fiancée and put up his hands to his mouth as if he had said something he wasn't supposed to, which only served to worsen Mei’s impression of what was going on. Finley began to stir in the back of my mind but didn’t take over, even though I had no intention of resisting.

Bleeding coward.

Fine then, you won’t come out to deal with this yourself? Then I’ll do what I want then.

I squeezed out the most adoring smile I could manage and flew over to her side, gently laying a hand over her clenched fist and fluttering my eyelashes at her, feeling Finley die a little with every blink.

“Calm down Mei. Sparrow is not my mistress or whatever you called her, she’s just someone that helped me out a bit in the human world. I mean, it’s preposterous to compare a fairy to a human! Never mind you to anyone else!”

She remained silent as she absorbed my words, but she didn’t push me away either. I tightened my grip on her arm and turned her to face me, feeling emboldened by the fact that she didn’t resist.

“I would never even dream of having anyone else! Politics aside, who- would compare to you? Don’t you believe me?”

I silently thanked my unofficial teachers, the actresses on television that had found themselves in similar positions. It took a lot more mental strength than I’d thought to be able to act like this, more so with an audience.

The corny words choked halfway up my throat but I still pushed them up and into the air. Whether they were true for not, I would leave that to Finley to decide, but for now, my objective was to get out of the swamp Jake had dug me into.

Speaking of Jake,

You have no right to be looking at me like you've lost all respect for me after what you just did. I don't think you realize how much my future happiness and status of life relies on this one woman.

Mei finally softened completely and pinched me on the cheek maybe just half a degree harder than she needed to.

“I’m not sure who told you how to act like that, but it isn’t bad. You should try it more often.”

Over my dead body.

She then wandered out of the room and began to personally gather all the materials needed for scrying, leaving just me and Jake behind.

The second she left he barely hid a laugh and began in a strangled voice,

“Who would have thou-”

“Speak one more word and I’ll seal your tongue to the roof of your mouth and glue your knees together.”

My… encouragement for him to shut up came out a little more murderous than I’d intended it but I didn’t take it back or say anything to soften the threat. Although I couldn’t do anything fatal to him, nothing was stopping me from making him extremely uncomfortable.

He took a step backwards as I flew an inch forward.

“Look, I'm sorry okay? If I’d known I would have watched my words a little better.”

I edged the corners of my lips into a wide smile and narrowed my eyes to prevent the ill intent from seeping through.

“How could I possibly still be angry about that? I just wanted to look you over a bit. After all, you can’t possibly go around this world looking so…human.”

He looked down at himself and then back up at me and slowly began to back up. Laughing nervously as he did so.

“No, I think I’m fine. I don't plan on going anywhere.”

It was too late though; my wand was already out and the closet Akseli had insisted I placed in the garden opened up to reveal a full wardrobe.

Jake was a little bigger than I was but the clothes were loose by nature, it shouldn’t be too tight a fit.

“Weren’t you going to come with me to find Sparrow? I mean you already crossed worlds for her, whats a change of clothes?”