The Glass Scientists micro-fanfictions

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"What is it?"

"This, my dear," the man replied with a strange little purr to his voice, "Is your ticket to be free, to embrace all your most wild and delicious dreams! Tell me, will you be willing to embrace your freedom, or will you be content to walk the remainder of your days looking back at this moment as wishing you were willing to embrace all you could be? Come on now, I know you can see it, so take it, claim your ticket as your own and be free."

"No it isn't," came Rachel's response, letting out a little giggle behind her hand as she actively ignored the little 'gck' sound the man made, "That's a teacup."

"Okay, its a metaphor for a ticket then," Edward said from his perch on the countertop, one hand waving off her dismissal with a dismissal of his own, the other still far too busy with holding the teacup to do something silly like gesticulate, "You taking it or what?"

"Now really," said she, failing to sound completely serious as she fought against the impulse to laugh again, "If I was to be running around with teacups and things, who will finish these cookies I'm baking for Jasper? Certainly not you, I don't trust you anywhere near them," she paused, having made a pointed gesture to the cookie dough she had been about to roll out before Hyde had barged his way in, "And who would keep an eye on Mr. Doddle when he toddles on over to try and use our kitchens? I'm sure you know he's asking about the gunpowder again and still says he won't do it in his shop."

"Wait you said he he could?" the odd little blond creature asked, dropping into a not particularly comfortable but definitely less crouch-y sitting position, looking more than a little conspiratorial, his previous theatrics having been entirely thrown aside when he latched onto this one side point. 

"I said he couldn't do it here," corrected she, "What he does in his own confectionary shop is his own business, doesn't mean he's going to be able to actually get any gunpowder anyway though, Jekyll's done a good job of bribing everyone against giving him any. Something about the recklessness of candy that could explode or something."

Hyde threw his head back in a laugh that had so much force it was a marvel that he didn't lose what little centre of balance that he did have. Wisely, Rachel did not trust this all that much and so quickly moved to relocate the teacup from his hand before it ended up smashed on the floor or some equally undesirable location for things to be smashed. This was a wise precaution as she had first-hand experience of exactly that happening more than once in the past, and so had practically created a reflex for this. There were a great many reflexes that not only she had needed to develop to accommodate for the odd little creature, and while they really weren't always worth it in the immediate, they were always exceedingly funny in the long run. 

"Speaking of which, technically, actually," she continued, setting the rescued cup aside, "Did you hear?"

"Hear what?" he asked far too quickly to pass it off as nonchalant, flickering and fluttering his hands together in a way that meant his fingertips met their counterparts in a way that really did take far too much effort for the simpleness of this action, "I hear a lot of things, you will need to be more specific." He wanted to sound like he was more relevant and up to date with the general gossips that floated about the place than he really was. 

"I heard," she began, leaning in just a little despite the fact there was nobody there who could overhear, "And take this with a grain of salt because I heard this from Helsby, and you know how he likes to sensationalise things," she was trying to draw this out, and they both knew it, "But apparently it was Mr. Sinnett that caused the forest fire last week."

"No!" Edward exclaimed, throwing his hands up to cover his mouth in a way that was far too theatrical to look natural, "I had a thought that it could have been, but then he didn't say anything about it when I saw him afterwards, and since that seemed like the exact sort of thing he'd be bragging about but didn't, I thought then that it might not have been!"

"Yeah!" Rachel exclaimed with much the same enthusiasm, however with a great deal less theatrics of actions as she set about finishing the cookies she was working on, "Apparently he snuck out there to test whether something he had been working on, well, worked and apparently it worked far too well and, apparently, it exploded!" She emphasised the word 'apparently' for a safe amount of plausible deniability in case it turned out to be a baseless rumour.

"Exploded?" the man echoed, sounding altogether far too excited about the idea for his own good.

"Exploded!" the chef confirmed, emphasising her point with a mighty slap at the cookie dough, which worked wonderfully in her favour as this meant she had less actual work that she needed to do otherwise. 

"That is hilarious!" Hyde declared, each and every syllable of this shaking against the laughter that he practically barked out at the end of this.

Before Rachel was able to comment on this, there was a knock on the door. It was less that they were able to tell who it was that knocked because of the way they knocked, but rather because they knocked at all, which was not something that very many people there had the good sense to do.

"Guess that's my cue to leave then!" Hyde, still giggling, said as he rose to his feet on the countertop.

"Use the door! Use the door!" Rachel exclaimed, whirling her attention entirely to him, knowing him too well.

He did not use the door to leave.