Zeph Malston: The Aether Mage

After using the weird password Alex told her, Ivy entered Zeph's room. She was a little nervous because it was the first time she would be entering a boy's room. Not to mention, it was the room of the boy she liked. Looking around, she was surprised to see it as neat and tidy as it was. The room was well organized and could probably pass for a living room if it wasn't for the large canopy bed on the back wall.

Ivy walked passed the couch and chairs in the center of the room, glanced curiously at the computer desk, and read a few of the book titles on the bookshelf on the wall. The distractions helped her calm down her beating heart as she approached the sleeping boy in the back. When she arrived next to him, she couldn't help but stare for a while. A small giggle escaped her lips.

Zeph was sleeping peacefully with a gentle smile on his face, but Rin was sprawled out on top of his head. Her little paws were dangling on his face while her head was nose down sleeping on Zeph's forehead. Ivy reached out and decided to wake the furry familiar first.

"Rin. Wake up Rin," she whispered while petting the kitten softly. Rin mewled and started purring, but refused to wake up. Ivy started scratching her ears. "Rin, if you wake up I'll let you play with Ethris." It worked. The kitten's eyes slowly opened and it looked at the half-elf by the bed. With a slow stretch, Rin moved off of Zeph's head. Then Rin looked at Ivy expectantly.

Ivy summoned a magic circle in the air and Ethris started to materialize. The moment it finished manifesting, the ball of light was tackled by a furry blur. After wrestling with Ethris for a few seconds, Rin ran to the door and looked back, waiting for Ivy's familiar to give chase.

Ivy watched the two familiars leave and smiled. Now she was alone with Zeph in his room. After a long absence, her Zeph induced blush returned full force. The half-elf had to shake her head to get rid of her less than innocent thoughts. She imagined herself waking him up with a kiss, and it took more willpower than she'd like to admit to keep from doing just that. Instead, Ivy gently called out to him, but he didn't budge. It looked like she'd have to gently shake him awake; because she didn't think yelling to wake him would be well received. His bed was pretty large and he was sleeping in the center, so Ivy had to crawl on it to reach him.

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Zeph's was roused by something shaking him. He grumbled. It's been a long time since he slept so well and so deeply. Alex was right, the mental stress was building up and sleeping in late was awesome. He started to remember the lazy weekends he used to spend in his past life. It made him smile. The shaking started again, but it wasn't enough to fully wake him. He was in that drowsy semi-awake state that demanded him to stay in the sweet embrace of pillows and blankets. The only problem was the rude intruder trying to pull him from that sweet bliss. "Just a while longer Rin," he grumbled, "Go bug Semmy or someone." It wasn't the first time the little kitten tried to get him out of bed.

The shaking stopped. 'Aaah, that's better. Now where was I,' he thought. Then he fell asleep again. Ivy was surprised. She didn't think was that deep a sleeper. She didn't realize that it wasn't that Zeph couldn't wake up. It was that Zeph refused to wake up. He was taking a break and it was the weekend, so there was no reason to get out of bed until he was good and ready. 'I can't believe he's so out of it that he thinks I'm Rin,' Ivy thought. Deciding it would take more effort, Ivy hopped into the bed so she could put both her hands on Zeph and shook him harder.

The young lord was disturbed again and felt pretty annoyed. Usually, Rin just wanted to play in the mornings, but if he gave her some attention, the kitten would settle down. Out of habit, he reached up until he could feel something soft and fluffy then pulled it down onto his c.h.e.s.t. "There, now be a good girl and let me sleep," he said before falling asleep again.

Ivy was shocked. In a half-asleep state, Zeph pulled her into his c.h.e.s.t and was hugger her head against him. Now, she had two choices. Either she could wake him like she was supposed to, or she could just enjoy the moment and milk it for all she could. Obviously, Ivy took option two. After a few moments of being overwhelmed by her happiness, Ivy wiggled around to get herself more comfortable and raised her position. This way, she could look at Zeph's face. His arms were now wrapped around her shoulders, and Ivy was living out a dream that she had a few times. The only thing missing was sunset on a beautiful beach.

Ivy started to feel tired while she was enjoying the warm embrace and decided that it wouldn't hurt to take a quick nap. Soon, she was asleep as well. As her breathing started to even out and deepen, a whispering could be heard near the door.

"That worked out better than I thought it would," Bianca quietly said to her friend standing next to her.

"Yeah, we should probably teach them how to resist a sleep spell. I can't believe we forgot about that." Semara whispered back.

"I'm glad we did though. Otherwise, I wouldn't have this cute picture." Bianca pulled up the scene of the two in the bed on her Holo-pendant. "In fact, now that they're asleep, we can get a better angle." The mischievous fox-kin quietly walked into the bedroom. "Time to get some more blackma -er more precious memories."

Semara sighed as Bianca's inner thoughts leaked out. Then she smiled at the thought of Zeph's face when he eventually wakes up. She got her pendant ready to record. "So, how long do you think they'll be out?"

"Shouldn't be too long. It wasn't a long lasting spell. I only made it strong enough so we could get a good show." Bianca was walking around the bed taking pictures. Sometimes she would summon a small ball of light to get the picture lit just the right way. Her favorite one so far showed the Zeph and Ivy cuddling as a few rays of light shined down upon them. It was so sweet, she almost thought she'd get a cavity.

Semara saw Bianca pull up an app and put the picture on it. With a small alert, the wolf-girl opened up the group message that Bianca posted. Underneath the picture was the subtitle #Cuddle Buddies. The wolf girl chided her friend, "Really Bibi, a hashtag?"

"What?" Bianca put the post on weshare but set some privacy settings. That way only Semmy, Alex, Keva, Bernard, and Eli would see it.

"You know they have no idea what means right?"

"Meh, force of habit." The fox girl shrugged.

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Bernard was working on countermeasures with some of his colleagues at Aether labs. Jonathan Avery's spells and doc.u.ments were exactly the breaks they needed to start going on the offensive. Soon they'd have the ability to track down the demons, their followers and end this whole mess. Then Bernard could finally go home and sleep peacefully. Then the only thing he'd have to worry about would be what trouble Zeph could get into.

His pendant vibrated, alerting Bernard to a new message. He opened it to see the picture of Zeph and Ivy hugging and sleeping. "Speaking of trouble," Bernard chuckled, "Zeph's not going to be happy about this. The old man's smile grew when he thought about how Zeph would react when he wakes up. 'I should expect something funny to happen to Bianca this week,' he thought. "I wonder why she put a # in front of Cuddlebuddies?"

The pendant vibrated again and a new picture appeared underneath the one of Zeph. It showed Keva and Alex cuddled on the couch under a light blanket. The old dwarf had a surprised look on his face. "Keva must have surprised him by taking picture," Bernard said to himself. While his mood was improving because of his family's antics, another buzz sounded out as his phone vibrated once again.

This time it was a picture of Relina and Eli lying on a hammock. Relina seemed like she was having the time of her life, while Eli had a stiff look on his face. The same subtitle was on all the pictures. Bernard couldn't help but laugh at the awkward expression on Eli's face. "I don't think he's ever going to get used to public displays of affection." Bernard pointed at the floating images from his pendant and swiped his finger towards a small crystal display at the corner of his desk. Suddenly, the photos were floating at the corner of the desk. It was Zeph's idea to use a smaller cv display to create magical picture frames. It did make the workspace a little brighter. Feeling mentally refreshed, Bernard went back to work.

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Zeph kept hearing a small familiar cl.i.c.k.i.n.g noise, but couldn't quite remember what it was from. It was waking him up, and he had to admit that he was a little upset about it. As per usual, he started to pet Rin so that he could start his day with a daily dose of fluffiness. However, something was wrong. The weight in his arms was too much. And instead of short fluffy cat hair, Zeph felt long silken hair. Sure there was a bit of fluffiness to it, but it wasn't what he was expecting. 'That's not my cat,' he thought. He slowly opened one eye and was met with the face of his half-elf friend up close. 'What the crap!?' he internally panicked. Quickly, he used his magic sense to make sure no one else was in the room. It would be really awkward and embarrassing if someone saw this. The sound of a click and his magic sense let him know that there indeed was someone extra in the room, a couple in fact. 'Of course,' he thought to himself. Bianca and Semara's presence explained everything. 'Well, I'm not going to give them the satisfaction of freaking out.' Zeph calmed himself down and opened both of his eyes and took his arm off of Ivy. "Are you two having fun," he said with an exasperated sigh.

"A whole bunch," Bianca giggled as she took some more pictures.

"Yup." Semara agreed. "But you are kind of ruining it by being so calm. Can't you react a little more? It's almost as if you're used to waking up with a woman in your arms." Semara teased.

"Nope, not gonna let you rile me up this morning. I had a good night's sleep. I'm comfy, and I don't want to stress out today." Then Zeph turned his head. "But make no mistake, I will get you two back for this."

"Wouldn't expect anything less," the two said together.

"Now wake up sleeping beauty, while we go get brunch ready. Y'now, since you skipped breakfast and it's not quite time for lunch yet." Bianca smirked.

"Oooh, that means we get mimosas right?" Semara asked.

"You bet," Bianca said. Then the two shifters left the bedroom in a happy mood.

"I should have left out mimosas when I was telling them about brunch," Zeph said to himself. Zeph turned his head to look at the girl in his arms. "I'm pretty sure you're awake, so can you let me have my other arm back," he asked her as he wiggled the arm pinned underneath the half-elf. There was no response. He tugged his arm a little harder but Ivy pulled herself closer to Zeph and hugged him putting her head on his c.h.e.s.t. "Ivy, I know you're awake. You're not fooling me, so can I have my arm back now?" Her head shook in his c.h.e.s.t. "You're not going to let me go anytime soon, are you?" A nod confirmed his suspicions.

Zeph kept trying to get Ivy out of bed so they could go eat, but the little girl was enjoying herself too much. "Please let me go," Zeph asked for the fourth time. Instead of an answer, he just felt Ivy squeeze him harder. He saw the tips of her ears peek out from her hair. They were bright red. 'I wonder if she won't let me go because she's too embarrassed to let me see her, or if she is just taking advantage of the situation.' After giving it a second of thought, he came to a conclusion. 'Probably both.'

Using magic, Zeph summoned a large ball of cold water above the bed. "Sorry in advance Ivy, but I have no other choice." Then the water fell on them and drenched the two. Ivy felt the cold shock all over and jumped out of bed on reflex. Zeph just rolled over calmly and started walking to the bathroom. She felt relieved that he didn't look back at her to see her blushing face or soaked appearance. As the door to the bathroom closed, she heard Zeph yell out, "I'll see you in the kitchen."

Ivy felt herself shiver at the cold, and looked back at the bed remembering what happened, Zeph's warm hug still fresh in her memory. Then she looked at her cold and soggy self. "Worth it," she said. She left Zeph's room using magic to dry off, and warm up. Today was already a great day.