Brutal Healing

ONE

I’ll give her this much, she was still the sexiest woman I had ever fucked. The kind of woman that somehow combined sexy and cute in the same package. I had met her at a bar on a warm summer night, and my first instinct upon seeing her was that she was way out of my league. But after a couple shots of “liquid confidence”, I had decided to try my luck.

“Hey, babe,” I said, sauntering up to her. “I hear the beach is nice this time of year. Care to catch a moonlight stroll?” Crap, could I have sounded more gay? I thought to myself.

She looked over at me, her blue eyes wide and somehow mixing innocence and mischief all at once. The color stood out all the more thanks to her dark hair, which hung straight to her shoulder.  At first I thought she wasn’t going to say anything and just turn away, but then she asked the barkeep to put the drink she’d ordered on her tab, then downed it in one swig. I sighed to myself, thinking I had just scared her out of the bar. But when I turned to leave, I felt her hand slip into the nook of my arm. “Okay,” she said, her voice sweet as honey, and her face slightly flushed from chugging her beverage. “Shall we go?”

Grinning like a fool, I led her outside to my car. “So,” I said. “You really interested in the beach, or did you have somewhere else in mind?”

“Oh, no,” she said. “The beach is perfect. I have a beach house I use for the summer, so we can use that. It’s a bit far down the road, but it’s nice and private.”

My grin must have widened, because I saw her smile broadly at my expression. “Ah,” I said, “So are you a summer resident?”

“Oh, no, I’m local,” she said. “But I usually live in the inner city, thanks to work. During the warmer seasons, I use the beach house on my days off, when I can get them.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a biomancer.”

My eyebrows went up at that. “Really?” I said. “That must keep you busy indeed.”

“Fourteen hour days, four days a week,” she said, with a sarcastically chipper voice. “Well, it helps when you’ve got magic to keep you fresh and energized the whole time, but once that three day weekend hits, I want to just crash most of the time. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten out. So what do you do?”

“Oh, I’m a lawyer,” I said. Then, a bit sheepishly, I admitted, “Mainly just traffic court. Nothing too exciting, really.”

“Hey,” she said with a smile. “Nothing wrong with that. Maybe after this is done, you can help me with my speeding ticket.” She winked and we laughed a bit. We continued to chat as I drove us to her place. It was indeed out there, about a ten minute drive past the city limits. She had me pull off onto a gravel road which went through a line of trees. Finally, we got to a small paved parking area, and just behind that was the beach house.

Pet Teacher

ONE

The clock ticked by slowly as Rachel sat in her English class, bored out of her mind. She considered it her easiest class; writing had always been her strong suit. Unfortunately, this led to an overconfidence which made her unprepared for her tests, which she didn’t bother to study for. She could bullshit her way through the essays easy enough, but it was clear to Dan Hadder, her young teacher, that she was only getting by on a minimum of effort.

When class was over, Dan called Rachel to stay behind. The freshman girl sighed, annoyed at the request, but not really surprised by it. She supposed she couldn’t just slack off forever; this was college after all, but honestly, how could she be expected to pay attention when she’d learned most of this stuff in High School already?

Dan sighed a little as Rachel gave him an annoyed look.  He couldn't keep cutting her breaks, however. If he didn’t learn to be firm with his students, his teaching career would be a joke. “Rachel,” he said, calmly, keeping his eyes on her face.  “Your performance in your school work has been lacking. I can see that you are very bright, and can easily grasp the material, but you don’t put in any more than a minimum effort. Just because you are bright doesn't give you the right to slack off. I've given you the benefit of the doubt thus far, but I can’t keep giving you a pass if you aren’t going to at least try.” Dan waited to see her reaction, hoping she wouldn't be as dismissive of his words as she was of her work.

Rachel watched him with a bored expression, her grey eyes glancing over him. He was certainly a cute one, which was really the only reason she even paid him even half her attention. When he paused, she pursed her lips together as she carefully eyed him over. “I don’t see what the problem is,” she said. “I do the work. Why isn’t that enough?”

“Because just doing the bare minimum isn’t going to get you ahead in life,” said Dan.

Rachel shrugged. “Why does it always have to be about getting ahead? Life’s not a rat race. Or at least, it shouldn’t have to be.”

The Pixie's Reward

ONE

Duncan had been driving home from the factory in the wee hours of the morning when he encountered a pixie. It smacked against his windshield with a rather loud “THWAP!” as he idled at a stop light. The pixie groaned as her form splayed almost comically across the glass. Duncan frowned and observed the small creature with that perfect deadpan look only those tired to the bones, yet not in a position to fall asleep, can master. He put the car in park long enough to step out and scoop the small thing up, before depositing it on the passenger seat. He then drove the rest of the way home, ignoring the impulse to question his sanity. Such lines of inquisition could wait for a better time, one when he wasn’t having to use most of his willpower to keep his eyes open and on the road.

As he drove home, though, he stole a couple glances at the thing he had rescued. It was the very image of a classical pixie: a fully grown, beautiful woman only six inches tall, wearing a simple green dress, with two sets of translucent, iridescent wings sprouting from her back. Her long red hair came down to nearly her ankles, and her slim, fit figure had a nice set of curves.

She did not awaken as Duncan pulled into the driveway of his small, one-story home. He cupped her gently with one hand as he went inside. Grabbing a clean hand towel, he set up a small “mattress” on the kitchen counter, and lay her down atop it. Then he plopped down on the couch, and turned on the TV. As the sights and sounds of late night programming lulled him to sleep, he wondered if his little hallucination would still be there in the morning.

He was assured of this when, eight solid hours later, he awoke to a tapping on his cheek. With a snort, he blinked awake and nearly leaped out of his skin as he saw the diminutive creature hovering right above his face. Still half asleep, he swatted at it, thinking it was some kind of large bug. She easily dodged his hand, floating up to the ceiling.

“Hey!” she called down, in a voice surprisingly normal sounding for one so tiny. “Careful!”