Wish - Chapter 2

THIS IS MY 700TH POST, HOORAY!!!

II

“It's midnight!” The voice announced a bit ominously, tearing Sarita from her slumber.

“Huh?” She murmured sleepily.

“It's midnight!!!” The voice practically shouted. “Give me a form already!”

“Huh?” Sarita mumbled again, digging some sleep from the corner of her eye.

“You are officially 13, and your power should be active now! So give me a form and let's get started already!”

“I'm too tired,” Sarita groaned, rolling over in bed and getting comfortably snuggled under her blanket. “Wait until morning...”

“No!” The voice cried out. “You have no idea how badly I want a body!”

“A body?” Sarita questioned, gulping in dismay. “Like a zombie?”

“No! Please Gods no!”

“Then what?” Sarita wondered, her mind already drifting back towards sleep.

“Anything you want. A toy, a watch, a locket, a hairpin. Just anything that you can carry with you at all times and not look weird.”

Sarita yawned, honestly trying to come up with something, but unable to think straight. She murmured sleepily. “I've always wanted a cat, but dad is allergic to them. Plus, it would have to be a tiny cat so it could sit on my shoulder... like a purse dog...”

“What in the world is a purse dog?!?!” The voice asked in confusion.

“A really small dog that can be carried around in a purse, but I'm not really the type to carry around a purse, and besides, I want a cat... a flying cat that can turn invisible! And get bigger so I can ride on it when it's flying. And maybe it can glow in the dark. With green eyes... and a fiery sun...”

“What are you describing?!”

“My super tiny purple panther...” Sarita whispered, a soft snore erupting from her a moment later.

“Are you talking in your sleep?” The voice demanded. When it received no answer but more snores, it sighed heavily. “Fine...”

With a soft glow, the magical essence that was her familiar coalesced into the shape of a cat. It was a perfect replica of a kitten, with extraordinarily soft blue-gray fur and green eyes. As a familiar, he would have the power to aid her as necessary, but because she had listed some fairly zany qualities, he'd have those abilities even when he wasn't helping her.

“Flying could be fun,” he murmured to himself. In a very cat like gesture, he sat to groom his short fur. “Although this glow is a bit distracting.” He referred to a very soft glow that emanated from his fur. It was a cool blue color – like his fur – and probably wouldn't be noticeable if there was even a digital clock or a flashlight on. With a contented sigh, he lay down and went to sleep.

In the morning, Thomas knocked on the door before opening it. He knew she was still asleep, which was why he carried in a tray. It was a sort of tradition in their family to serve a person breakfast in bed on their birthday.

“Hey, are you hungry? Ack! What are you?!” Thomas exclaimed when he saw the tiny blue gray kitten on her bed. Their father was allergic to cats, so kittens were definitely taboo in their house.

“Why are you shouting?” Sarita asked sleepily. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Hooray, breakfast!”

“Explain this kitten!” Thomas insisted, pointing to the furry culprit.

“Huh?” Sarita murmured, looking at it. “An extremely lifelike plush toy?” She replied very slowly, honestly not sure if he'd believe her because she wasn't entirely sure if it was a real kitten.

“Hmm,” Thomas harrumphed. “Whatever, just keep it far away from dad when he gets home.”

“I will,” Sarita promised, then shoved her breakfast into her mouth with relish.

“Such a pig!” Thomas teased her, pushing on her nose lightly with his pointer finger.

“Am not!” Sarita roared in outrage, and then shoved more food in her mouth just to be perverse.

“Are so,” Thomas stated with a laugh. He then stroked the kitten curiously. “So where did you find this little one?”

“Don't know,” Sarita replied with a shrug. “He just followed me home.”

“Must be fate then...” Thomas murmured, staring at the kitten with slightly unfocused eyes. After a few moments, he blinked and bit his lip in thought. Then he stared vaguely in Sarita's direction for a few moments.

“Something wrong?” She asked in concern.

“No... Just... I just have something on my mind,” he murmured evasively. Shaking his head, he sighed. “Happy birthday little piggy! Enjoy your breakfast. I'm going to go get ready for my date with my girlfriend.”

“You're still with her?” Sarita asked incredulously. “You two go out so rarely that I thought you'd broken up!”

“Nope, still together,” he murmured with a shrug, and then left the room.

Sarita watched him go for a moment before it hit her. “I have a date today too!!!” She cried out, squealing happily and almost spilling her orange juice. She downed everything as fast as she could, and then set the tray aside so that she could jump out of bed and spin in circles.

“You sure are energetic this morning,” the cat commented dryly. Unlike her, he had been wide awake at midnight, and now felt tired.

“So you are the voice that's been talking to me for the last few days!” She exclaimed, picking him up and twirling him around as she spun in circles. She hugged him tight and squealed again. “I have a date today! My very first date with my very first boyfriend!”

“Ugh...” the cat groaned. “I think I'm going to be sick if you don't stop spinning me...”

“Oh!” Sarita burst out in dismay and set him back on her bed. “Are you okay?”

“I think so...” he murmured uncertainly. “So Sarita... now that you've given me a form, what do you plan to call me? And by the way, your dad won't be allergic to me, so you don't have to worry about that.”

“I have no idea. I've never had to name a pet before!” Sarita squeaked, feeling a vague sense of dread that she would somehow mess this up. “Kaya?”

“I'm a boy!” The cat growled angrily.

“Blue?” Sarita suggested with a nervous flinch.

The cat tilted his head side to side as he thought this over. “You seem to have no imagination...” he sighed. “Oh well, Blue is a good enough name, I guess...”

“Cerulean?” Sarita asked, trying to come up with something a bit better. “Navy Blue?” She chuckled wryly at that. “Probably not...”

“Navy Blue?!” The cat protested indignantly. “That's worse than Cerulean!”

“Indigo?” Sarita added with a shrug.

“Now that I can live with!” The cat exclaimed before she came up with something worse.

Sarita giggled softly and shook her head.

“What?” Indigo asked curiously.

“It's just a movie I watched with my dad...” Sarita murmured, and then giggled again. “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!”

Indigo smiled as much as a cat could smile. “I've seen that movie in a past life. It was funny. Okay, now that I have a name, we need to come up with a plan for helping people.”

“Uh...” Sarita muttered hesitantly. “I insist that we wait until tomorrow. As much as I love helping people, today is my birthday and I am going on a date.”

“Yes, I know,” Indigo murmured. “Turning 13 is what triggered your power. You have to learn how to use that power or things could go badly wrong.”

“Like what?” Sarita wondered curiously.

“Oh... for example, say someone passed by you and muttered something like: Jeez! I wish he would just go jump in a lake!” Indigo licked his paw and then used it to rub his head. “If you don't know what you are doing, you might make the person being referred to actually go jump in a lake.”

“I promise that if at all possible, I will not grant any wishes today!” Sarita vowed. “Hey wait! Am I allowed to grant my own wishes?”

“Well, uh.....” Indigo was obviously reluctant to answer this. “You... can... but I wouldn't recommend it!”

“Why not?” Sarita asked with a frown.

“Because when people use the power for themselves, it's usually for stupid and selfish reasons. For example, say you wanted to pass a math test you didn't study for. If you are using your power correctly, you will grant a true wish rather than a impulse wish.”

Sarita, being smarter than she generally let on, understood this immediately. “Oh! Like the difference between someone wishing he'd go jump in a lake and someone wishing that their mom could be home in time for Christmas.”

“Exactly! More or less,” Indigo stated with a tilt of his head. “It seems you get the general concept. Hopefully that means you won't make too many big messes.”

Sarita rolled her eyes, thinking that it sounded like he was being overly dramatic.

“What is that noise?!” Indigo demanded in annoyance.

“Just my phone. I had it on silent while I slept.” Sarita grabbed her cellphone and held it up. “My best friend Talya just sent me a text wishing me a happy birthday. By the look of my notifications, I need to hop on my computer for a few minutes and check all my Facebook posts. My phone about blew up the other night when I posted that I was going on a date for my birthday with my boyfriend!”

“It's been a while since my last life, so... what does that even mean?!” Indigo demanded.

Sarita simply ignored him as she opened her laptop. A mere 10 minutes later, she was done replying to well wishes for the moment. As she closed her laptop, a text came in from Talya.

Have fun on your date! Hopefully, there'll be plenty of good pictures!

Sarita chuckled nervously, not sure she'd have the courage to ask Ianto for a picture. She fiddled with his necklace, and suddenly felt so happy that she could squeal again. Instead, she twirled in circles.

“I'd better get in the shower!”

Ianto showed up about 20 minutes after he received a text from Thomas saying: If you don't get here soon, she may well bake a 12 layer cake! It was only 11:30 – which seemed a bit early for a date to him, but he figured that early was much better than too late.

True to Thomas' warning, Sarita was in the middle of frosting a medium sized carrot cake with cream cheese sweetened with maple syrup.

“Hi Sarita,” he greeted her with a smile.

“Perfect timing!” Sarita murmured timidly. She blushed and forced herself to finish what she wanted to say. “After I'm done with this, we can each have a piece before going on our d-d-date.”

Ianto had been friends with Thomas long enough by now to know where they kept things in the kitchen, so he busied himself making her favorite tea. When he was done, she had finished her task and cut a few pieces out of the cake. Thomas grabbed one from her before she could even set it on a plate, and then took a huge bite out of it.

“Mmm!” He moaned through his full mouth. “Tashe-tee!” The word tasty came out slurred and muffled, but she could still understand him.

Sarita growled softly in frustration for a moment before remembering that her boyfriend was in the room. Deciding not to make a scene, she let the matter drop and cast a wan smile at Ianto. However, before Thomas walked away from her, she softly stepped on his foot and then leaned all her weight on it.

“Ah!” Thomas yelped and jumped back.

“Something wrong?” Ianto asked. Since he was on the other side of the counter from them, he hadn't seen what happened.

Thomas caught Sarita's glare and wisely decided not to complain. “Uh, nope! Just stubbed my toe.”

A couple minutes passed in slightly awkward silence as they ate, but then Ianto held out his hand to Sarita. “Are you ready to go?”

She blushed and nodded, hesitating for only a second before slipping her hand into his. Ianto led her out to a fairly posh car painted a sleek and shiny black. She inhaled in awe.

“This is your car?” She asked in astonishment since he usually came over on a bike. A regular pedal powered one.

“Well, not really. It's my grandpa's. He let me borrow it for our date,” Ianto explained. A moment later, he opened the front passenger door and held it open for her.

Their ride to the fair was mostly quiet. Sarita was too shy to talk, and Ianto ran out of things to say. Even so, neither felt awkward. Ianto kept trying anyway.

“I passed both of my tests with an A!” He announced with a cheerful smile.

“That's good,” Sarita murmured, smiling at him in return.

“It was a near thing with the history test though. I forgot a couple of important dates, but still, an A is an A.”

Sarita laughed softly and murmured just barely louder than a whisper. “I always get A's on all my tests.”

“Really? You must be one of the top students then!” Ianto said as if congratulating her.

“Not really,” she replied with a shrug. “I never do my homework unless I can get it done in class, so my grades are usually B's and C's.”

“Doesn't your dad get mad that you're not getting good grades?” Ianto wondered in confusion.

“Not really,” Sarita murmured. “He sees my test scores and understands that I am smart. He feels that it's the system that is letting me down by requiring so much useless homework when clearly, I don't need it. He also agrees that I shouldn't have to do busy work for no reason.”

“If that's true, then why doesn't he pull you out of school? Find a better one that will challenge you?” Ianto asked, thinking that this solution made much more sense than letting her just float through her education.

“He asked me if I wanted to do that, but I told him no. My best friend Talya and I made a pact that we would stay in the same school no matter what,” Sarita explained. “She's like I am... Smart... Except that she does her homework most of the time, so she really is a top student.”

“So then, why don't both of you look into other schools to find one better?” Ianto asked.

To him, school was neither hard nor easy. If he did his homework and studied, he got good grades. Therefore he had never really thought about it before, but if someone really was so smart that they weren't challenged by school, then they should go to a more challenging school, right?

“Nah,” Sarita stated with a shake of her head. “Right now, we have it pretty good. School is super easy for us, so we have all that time that everyone else is studying and struggling with their homework to do the things we like to do.”

“Such as?” Ianto prompted, suddenly realizing that he didn't know that much about her.

Sarita turned to look out the window, shrugging.

Ianto nearly sighed in frustration when he realized that she had stopped talking again, but then he had a moment of clarity. She was too shy to tell him because she liked him. This gave him a secret weapon.

With a kind and patient smile, Ianto asked in a soothing voice: “Please tell me. I promise I won't laugh...”

“Well... Talya likes to sing. She's really really good at it too! So... I'll go over to her house and sing with her. She also loves photography, so she...”

Sarita blushed and buried her face in her hands. “Never mind!”

“I promised I wouldn't laugh, didn't I?” Ianto reminded her gently.

Sarita blushed profusely and looked out the window again as she forced herself to finish answering him. “She... Well, her biggest hobby is making clothes. Some are regular clothes but a lot are costumes. She loves nothing more than to dress me up like a doll and take pictures of me.”

“That sounds like it could be fun,” Ianto murmured with a grin, secretly wishing that he could see her dressed up in a cute bunny costume.

“It is!” Sarita assured him, looking enthusiastic for the first time that he could recall. “It's also embarrassing though! I mean, I am not very good looking, so me dressing up for pictures is almost mortifying, but Talya makes it so much fun! I almost think I could – ” The light in her eyes died completely and she looked down at her hands in her lap.

“Could what?” Ianto prompted curiously.

Sarita shook her head and refused to answer him.

Ianto thought about this in silence for a few minutes. Slowly, the answer came to him. “All around your house are pictures of your mother. She was a model, right? She must have been one of the best because in every picture, she looks so vibrantly happy...”

Sarita sighed softly. “I don't remember her at all...”

Ianto pulled the car into a parking spot and turned it off. He was technically at a park and ride – which was a big free parking lot for people who commuted by bus or train. Being a weekend, it was fairly empty.

The fair was a few blocks away, but he knew that the traffic would be terrible, and so wanted to avoid that. There was a well maintained sidewalk that they could walk on, which would give them just a little bit more time to warm up to their date. Ianto smiled at her.

“Is Talya the one who had you wear the pretty dress you're in?” He asked, to change the topic back to something happier. “It looks really good on you.”

“Actually, yes,” Sarita admitted. She nearly whispered the rest. “She made it just for me the moment she heard I was going on a date.”

“She sounds like a wonderful friend,” Ianto said because he couldn't think of anything else. Then he got out of the car and went to open her door for her. Only she felt stupid letting him do such things for her, so she opened it herself before he could get there.

Rather than be disappointed, Ianto smiled at her. “The fair is a couple of blocks that way. Would you like me to hold your hand while we walk?”

Sarita frowned very softly. The way he asked that sounded like he thought he was talking to a small child. In her mind, a boyfriend didn't have to ask such things. She held out her hand to him passively and let him lead her like she was a mindless doll.

At that moment, Ianto understood a lot better what Thomas had been talking about. Sarita really was the type of person who would do what others wanted her too whether she wanted to or not. Ianto felt bad about this information because he realized that she didn't really want to be holding his hand.

He stopped walking abruptly and dropped her hand. “We don't have to hold hands if you don't want. I...”

Sarita suddenly realized that he was just as nervous and embarrassed as she was! This made her feel a lot better. Smiling, she took his hand again.

“No I do,” she assured him. “I really do.”

Ianto felt so relieved it was like a bucket of cool water dumped over his head. “That's good.”

Neither talked the rest of the walk to the fair, but Sarita hummed ever so softly. She was clearly happy, and that made Ianto happy too. 

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