When Magnus Met Nikki

"Are you planning on buying the store out?" Magnus asked the young woman as she walked close to where he stood, pretending to admire zombie makeup when really it was atrocious.  Looking ugly was not something that Magnus was into remotely.

"Huh?" She gave Magnus a rather adorably confused look.  The kind of look that made him wonder what her other emotions would look like on the adorably expressive face.  With currently chestnut brown hair - though he was sure that wasn't the natural colour - and hazel eyes best described as a green-blue with a grey tone-down that changed in the light, she wasn't his usual type yet she was compelling.  He realized she was looking him over and wondered what she thought, if she was analyzing through her confusion.  His hair was slicked back instead of in spikes, but he was dressed in a flowing blue silk shirt and tight black leather pants, a sparkling crystal pendant in the shape of an M hanging around his throat.

"I wondered if you were leaving any glitter for the rest of us," Magnus did his best to sound serious and at the same time flashed her a wink that sent the opposite message. He noticed she was looking far too exhausted in his opinion, and not in a way that suggested she'd been out partying.

The young woman gave a silvery laugh, the kind that had a hint of bitterness to it. "This is the only time of year I can find it, and well, there's times when I need more than a little bit of sparkling in my life, so I hoard." She gave a self-deprecating shrug and turned away, then looked over her shoulder. "There's plenty left for you, you can buy it all though, I won't tell a soul if you do." She walked away without looking back.  Magnus actually felt slightly miffed.  He hadn't sensed any admiration or appreciation, yet at the same time, she'd felt something strange in her response, as if she wasn't quite there.  His eyes followed her to the checkout and when she dropped her keys, cursed and grabbed them he noticed that without realizing it she'd dropped a crumpled piece of paper. Struck by an inexplicable urge, he grabbed the paper on his way out of the store. Smoothing out the scrap, Magnus was very disappointed to see it was a grocery list and all he could figure out was that this woman ate eggs, spinach, steak and grapefruit. 

Magnus was finding most people in this city to be either so uptight he figured they had iron rods up their asses or mentally deficient.  It wasn't somewhere he'd visit again. This wasn't too unusual for Magnus, most cities weren't the greatest.  They were worth a visit, a few days at most, then it was time to move on.  There seemed to be a somewhat tragic rule of thumb that the more he liked a place, the more likely it was something unusual would happen, and the Council of Warlocks would call him to task.  So far, he'd only been banned from Peru and Antarctica and the latter wasn't of interest to him anyways.

He was alone this trip, and no travel companions meant that it was very easy for him to leave when he chose.  The problem was, he wasn't in the mood right now to go back to Brooklyn. Packing up to leave this very boring place, his eyes alighted on the grocery list.  Well, he could always see what the one misfit he'd met was up to...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter Two

Tracking an ordinary mortal took little to no effort on his part, and as luck would have it she was at a local pub, The Unicorn.  Wondering why he was bothering instead of going back to Brooklyn, Magnus shrugged, dressed up in more magnificent style with a sequined black satin shirt, blue glittery spiked hair, plenty of eyeliner and black jeans and went down to the pub.  He made sure the glamour on his cat eyes was updated and slid onto the barstool next to the woman, who looked almost ethereal in the light.  When he ordered a specialty fruity cocktail from the bartender, she turned, blinked, then flashed a smile that half-dazzled him, making him curse his weakness for what was fleeting and fragile.

"I should have saved more glitter for you, I suspect you go through more than I do," she commented, giving Magnus a perfect conversation opening.

"If you aren't going to wear it, why buy it, I would ask." He gave a feline charming grin.