1 The Magical Girl and the Human

Morticia could feel her legs going numb as she struggled to open the door to the student dorms. She forced the key into the slot and heard the deadbolt move with a satisfying click. She sighed with relief, but panicked as she felt her energy fading away. She walked into the dorms, her room in sight, just as she turned the knob she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned, purple-cosmic wings exploding from her back and horn protruding from her head.

"I KNEW YOU WERE MAGICAL." a triumphant voice exclaimed.

A few days had passed and things were normal, Morticia had been texting Cole non-stop about what happened on Kluse's birthday. Morticia had accidentally over-exhausted herself and Kluse may have seen her wings. She freaked out because no one had ever seen her wings, and no one was ever supposed to. Her wings only ever came out when her body was in distress or if she was lacking in energy or nutrients. It was like a built-in defense mechanism to protect her body when it was in danger. Morticia was even more excited that she was getting a new video game, and she hadn't seen Kluse all day, she wanted to play a little trick on him.

Kluse would play games with Morticia, but when she asked his opinion on scary ones, you could see it in his face that he hated them. It was weird to Morticia that a guy like Kluse could be scared by a video game, but maybe it was just weird because Morticia doesn't get scared easily. Ever since she had been with Kluse she had been feeling something new, she didn't know what it was and Morticia wasn't exactly the type to just accept unfamiliar things.

After talking to Cole about it she had concluded that it was something called happiness. Morticia had read a countless amount of things about happiness, but she didn't think that that's what she felt. Every time she sees Kluse her palms get sweaty, her heart begins to race, and her stomach turns into a knot. Morticia was good at not caring, she liked to keep to himself, and she was good at being alone. Not because she had to be but because she liked it. She was never really fond of humans but only because humans were never that fond of her. She was always told to hide her abnormalities from them. Recently Morticia had been wanting to see Kluse more and more, but since she didn't hang out with people, she didn't know how to ask someone to hang out, she typically just said come over and that was that.

Later that night Kluse came over and as usual Morticia was on her computer. "Can you do me a favor?" Morticia said in her normal monotone voice.

"What do you need Morticia?'' Kluse asked. Morticia got up and pushed Kluse towards her desk, sitting him down in the chair. "What is the point of this, didn't you just get a new game?" Kluse asked, genuinely frightened.

"Yes I did, but I want you to play it." Morticia answered evenly.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, this is a trap." Klues muttered nervously.

"Just do it!" Morticia said to Kluse as she turned the chair so it was facing the desk, and she handed Kluse the controller. "Just play it then tell me how it is." After a while Kluse finally gave in and started playing the game, it wasn't long after he began playing that he realized that it was too good to be true. Kluse ended up getting super freaked out and Morticia took pity on her poor excuse of a boyfriend. She only got into video games because it was an escape from reality, Kluse usually played with her because it was the only thing she was interested in but this time was not like the rest. Even after turning off the monitors, he was still uneasy.

Kluse was still shaken. He got up and sat on the bed next to Morticia. "Are you ok? You don't look so good." Morticia said as she reluctantly put her phone down.

"N-no, not really, I didn't like that game as much as you thought I would. I'm kinda freaked out." Kluse was breathing heavily and looked like he was really about to freak out. Morticia knew he wasn't a fan of scary things but she didn't know it was this bad. Kluse started to take more shallow breaths and he began turning red, he had hunched over gripping his chest trying to speak. " I- I can't, I can't, air, Morti- ." Morticia put a hand on Kluse's back and tried to calm him down.

"Kluse calm down, just breathe, it's not real. It's just a game. Ok, it's not real, calm down." Morticia got up quickly and turned his computer off completely and grabbed Kluse's hands making him stand. "I'm gonna do something ok." Kluse shook his head as he struggled to form words to give a proper response.

Morticia pulled Kluse into a hug. "It's ok, it's just me and you, calm down. Just breathe ok. One breath at a time, in and out." Morticia spoke softly, which was unusual because Morticia never really spoke at all. Yet her voice was calm and had gentle undertones. She cared, she cared enough to let Kluse invade her personal space, she cared enough to say more than three words. Her voice was like a siren's song, calming, bewitching. With only a few words she had pulled Kluse's mind out of the darkness and sent him into a state of euphoria. It had gone just as fast as it came. Kluse's breathing settled and he just stayed quiet for a minute. Eventually, the silence was broken by a shaky, uncertain sound.

"Umm- Morticia, you can let go of me now, I'm fine it's over." Kluse's arms had remained at his sides, limp like wet towels.

It took a moment, but Morticia responded. "Can we just stay like this for a bit longer, it's not entirely unbearable, to be… this close to you." Morticia's grip around Kluse tightened, sending Kluse's heart into a flutter.

He wrapped his arms around Morticia and took every bit of joy in saying "We can stay here as long as you'd like."

The next day at school they had checked the weather forecast for the day and of course, it was going to rain. Morticia hated the rain, it always made her act weirder than usual. The rain was the only thing that triggered real emotional damage in Morticia's dark and twisty heart. She had bad memories of the rain and Kluse knew some of the stories, but he never really got why it was the rain that made Morticia so unusual. A few hours had gone by and they had a free period before lunch, Morticia normally napped or played video games during her free period but today was different. Morticia was being weird and Kluse decided to go look for her, after a relentless search of the entire school he finally tracked her down.

Morticia was sitting in the corner of a dark isolated classroom at the end of the hall. The lighting was pretty dim thanks to the rainstorm outside, the only thing visible was the dark blue gaming console she held in her lap. She was mindlessly mashing the buttons with a soulless look in her eyes. Morticia had always thought she was alone during these storms, pulling her knees to her chest. She tried harder to focus on the game sprite on the screen. But the loud scratch of the door threw her off guard, her naturally steady hands had shock causing her to drop the console, as her eyes shot up only to see Kluse illuminated as her eyes adjusted to the fluorescent in the hall shining into the room.

"Found you," Kluse said as he tilted his head, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.

"Kluse…" Morticia whispered weakly, her voice cracking as her body filled with displeasure as a loud clap of thunder echoed through the room.

"You shouldn't run off during our free period, everyone's wondering where you are," Kluse said, trying to level his voice so he didn't sound as worried as he was. Closing the door behind him Kluse made his way over to the corner Morticia was sitting in and sat down beside her. Before she could complain, a loud roll of thunder sent Morticia into Kluse's grasp, Morticia clutched at Kluse's shirt in distress as her wings shot out from behind her and her horns began ejecting from her head. Kluse wrapped his arms around Morticia, grasping her frame. "It will be over soon, I promise, where is your game console." He asked Morticia as she pointed to where it was on the floor, Morticia unborrowed her head from Kluse's chest and grabbed her game, sitting back as she began to push buttons. Morticia blushed slightly as Kluse adjusted his arms moving them around Morticia's waist pulling her back into his chest. "I don't think I've ever seen you with this much emotion. '' Kluse said as he attempted to get a meaningful and honest response out of Morticia. Morticia didn't respond but Kluse felt her get tenser, in a pathetic attempt to make her more comfortable, Kluse leaned down and rested his head on Morticia's shoulder in his attempt to restore the mood.

''It's not like I want to." Morticia said pretty emotionlessly, though her head did fall a bit she maintained her nonchalant composure.

After a few moments Kluse's voice broke the silence "Can we go to lunch now? The storms finally letting up."

"I'd rather stay here….. with you. " She added quietly, causing Kluse to blush and force out an answer.

"s- still not calm enough?"

"I'm calm now, this is just better than being surrounded by people." She answered evenly.

"You know you can tell me if you're scared right, I can tell you're trying to hide your emotions again." Kluse said as he poked Morticia's cheek trying to regain her attention. Morticia turned her head only to find their faces just a few inches apart, Kluse searched her eyes, inadvertently moving closer to do so. The rose-like color on Morticia's cheeks became very apparent, causing a small smirk to spread across Kluse's face.

"You know I always find you during these storms, I don't know why you still hide." A flash of light entered the room illuminating their faces allowing Kluse to see the fear in Morticia's eyes as her emotionless mask began to crack.

"Kluse...?"

''I'm right here," he said softly as he leaned forward causing their lips to just barely brush. His half-lidded eyes watched Morticia for any signs of discomfort waiting for her to make the next move. Closing her eyes Morticia leaned forward into the minimal space between them, connecting their lips in a small kiss. When she pulled back, even only a small distance she couldn't help but notice the bright pink tints that brushed across Kluse's face as he snapped back into reality. "Your blushing"

"No, I'm not" Morticia didn't bother to believe Kluses' indignant response quickly. "So are you" he added frantically

"Hush Kluse"

"Morticia'' Kluse sighed, feigning exasperation, though a quick peck on the lips fixed that.

The next day was just as sunny and bright as ever. As always Kluse dragged Morticia out of bed and forced her to go get an education so she wouldn't rot out on the streets outside of some video game store. They went to school that morning like normal but just before they walked into the door Morticia stopped. "What's wrong?" Kluse asked

"I don't want to go in'' Morticia said very nonchalantly

"Are you still shaken up after the storm," Kluse asked in concern

"No'' Morticia paused it was silent for a minute until Morticia blurted out "5 seconds to say no" as she grabbed Kluse's hand and pulled him as she ran in the opposite direction of the school. Before he knew it they were at a park that Kluse didn't recognize.

"Where are we?" He asked

"We are at a park," Morticia said back looking around, scoping out a good tree.

"Yeah, I know that '' Kluse said back as he got annoyed.

"We are having a day of relaxation"

"I Don't need a day of relaxation. I'm going back to school.'' Kulse objected, Morticia grabbed Kluse's hand as he started to walk away

"No, stay it'll be fun. Trust me." After about 5 minutes of contemplation he decided to stay. They eventually found a spot to sit and Morticia pulled out her phone and asked Kluse what he wanted to eat, Kluse asked "Your ordering food?"

"Yes, what do you want?"

Kulse smiled. "I don't care, surprise me"

It was the following Thursday after their excursion in the park. It was a long day at school and Kluse just wasn't himself, he had been drowsy and stuffy all day. Morticia noticed a change in his behavior around the 4th period but she didn't think anything of it. When they got back to the dorms Morticia decided to go over to Kluse's room, when she got there Kluse didn't answer the door so she just walked in. When she opened the door she saw Kluse laying on his bed with a wet towel laid across his forehead.

"what's wrong? You look like crap." Morticia said as she walked over and sat at the foot of Kluse's bed.

"Thanks, I feel like crap too," Kluse said as he coughed

"Goodness how sick are you?" Morticia asked as she looked at Kluse with disgust

"Very, you should leave or you'll get sick too." Morticia thought for a minute and decided to mess with Kluse

"Ok bye" she said as he walked out of Kluse's room. Kluse didn't really want her to go but she was already gone, Kluse salked for a while and about twenty minutes later Morticia Came back with a large bag.

"I thought you were going," Kluse said semi relieved that she had come back

"I was but I decided to be nice, just accept it" She said, throwing the bag at Kulse.

"Well see, what's in the bag," Kluse asked, intrigued by the large paper bag sitting in his lap.

"Funny you should ask, I got a few things. I got you some cough syrup for that raspy hack you've got there, I got you some of that soup you like from the cafe down the street, I got some of these cooling sticker strips that are supposed to help with the fever, and most importantly I got you this cow plush that was more for me than you but let's not harp on the details."

"You didn't have to do all that" Kluse said as he grabbed Morticia's hand

"I know but I wanted to" Morticia took the cloth off of Kluse's head and put on two of the sticker strips, then he gave him the soup, while Kluse was eating he put the cough syrup on his bedside table and grabbed the cow plush as he clubbed into bed next to him with his remote.

"Did you come back just so you could steal my tv?" Kluseo asked as he ate the remnant of his soup.

"No, but consider this my compensation for my good deed, now be quiet and eat your soup you plagued rooster," Morticia said as he put on a movie.

"You're gonna get sick if you stay," Kluse said as he put the empty soup cup down and took some of the cough medicine.

"I know," Morticia said softly as she scooted closer to Kluse burying his head into Kluse's chest. Kluse put his arm around Morticia and continued watching the movie, they sat there all night watching reruns of all their favorite shows. Even though this wasn't the first time they had spent the night together Morticia was still getting used to sleeping beside someone. Every time he would move or shift ever so slightly Kluse's body would automatically contour to Morticia's. It was almost like it was second nature to him, Morticia would always keep Kluse flexible and Kluse would keep Morticia on track. That's why they worked so well together they kept each other balanced. Against all odds, the human and the bargain bin maleficent made it through yet another obstacle. They were the perfect combination of lazy and energetic, cool and nerdy, and of course optimistic and brutally honest. And magical or not no one was immune to the common cold, that night Morticia did end up getting sick and they had lied in bed all day, while Morticia complained but Kluse didn't mind, because he knew that no matter how angry and annoyed she sounded Morticia was just being Morticia, and deep down she was happy that they got to spend yet another day together.