The vagrant king

Chapter two

Even with everything that was running through her mind, all the danger they were about to face, Stella had never felt so relaxed than how she felt now; lying in her bed at Alfea college. Her head was nestled comfortably between two pink decorative pillows and Brandon was laying across her, his arm around her waist and his head on her chest. Absentmindedly Stella was running her fingers through his hair as he breathed deeply, fast asleep.

It was the night before the new Company of Light would set out to find the retched false king who had killed so many. Brandon was sleeping over, as was Sky who was in Bloom's room, while Flora and Musa were still at Red Fountain with Helia and Riven. Mrs. Faragonda was probably not aware of their sleeping arrangements but even if she knew she probably wouldn't mind. Tomorrow they would all be traveling to Kanuse and tensions were high, they needed to be there for each other, and to be honest the rules were always a bit lax for the Winx and the Specialists anyways.

Two weeks had passed since the Winx and the heroes learned where King Mikahl had scampered off too. Security footage caught him boarding a bus headed toward Zenith. Tecna and Timmy are really talented when it comes to their techie mumbo jumbo but it would have taken them hours to have found that out if it weren't for the power in those catacombs. Stella would be lying if she didn't recognize just how creepy it was that The Kings power came from the sun, her sun. The Second Sun of Solaria. She was connected to that sun and sometimes it made her feel sick that the same power that had caused her friends so much pain, she could feel running in her veins.

No matter where he got his power from though, the Winx and the Specialists would tear him and his old fashioned duster to shreds. He would pay for what he did to all those fairies, for what he did to Bishop and Myrta, to Musa, and especially for what he did to Flora. Because of that self righteous, self declared king, Flora and Helia lost their child, and any hope they had to have any in the future. Flora was so distraught she even lost her powers for a while. Apparently, if a fairy experiences a trauma or her emotions are running too high, then she cannot transform. Stella and everyone was really worried for her but Helia never left her side and with everyone's support she's built her magic back up to the Enchantix level in just two weeks. In Stella's opinion she should just leave it like that since the Enchantix level had the cutest outfits anyways.

Brandon stirred in his sleep, groaning, and rolled to the side; his arms spread wide across Stella's bed exposing his bare chest to the air.

Stella leaned up on one arm and stared down at her prince. Sure he wasn't a real prince but he was her prince, and that was all that mattered to Stella. Brandon made her a better person and she loved him more than she loved anything, even shopping! Leaning down she rested her head in the crook of his shoulder and curled into him; sighing in contentment.

She was on the verge of falling asleep when thoughts of tomorrows mission started to trouble her. King Mikahl had bested them before, had almost killed them all... what if he did that again? Who would get hurt this time? Would they all make it back? Could they really defeat him? They didn't even really have a plan and they didn't even know where in Zenith that bastard was hiding; it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Stella looked towards her nightlight, focusing on that little ball of light that kept her safe in the dark, and squeezed Brandon tighter burring her face into the side of his chest.

"I love you Brandon" Stella whispered

"mmm... love you too Stell" Brandon replied still half asleep.

Stella peered up at him and noticed he was coming fully back to consciousness

"Hey" she said softly

After rubbing sleep from his face with his free hand he peered down at her.

"You alright Stell? You normally don't wake up in the middle of the night"