Prompt: Wings.
The rain beat down on the window loud enough to waken her. She wanted to sleep the day away, but the crackling of the sky had other plans for her. Anger didn't touch her as she emerged from a sleepy fog because though she liked to sleep, she loved the rain. When the sky cried, the people below it did too. Everyone except for Shimba. Grey skies meant grounded fairies. Grounded fairies are grumpy fairies. The rain puts everyone on Shimba's level, they could bear with her feelings for a few moments of time. She loved it.
Shimba hopped out of bed to dress and head into town. The bars would be nothing short of hopping and she didn't want to miss a minute of it.
"I don't know how you do it girl! I'm fricken mental right now. I haven't touched a cloud in what feels like days. This sucks." The evening shadow donned fairy yelled at Shimba, drunk on weevil blood.
"Byro, it's been raining for an hour. Sixty minutes. The womp you took in the toilet before the sky fell is probably still warm." Shimba rolled her eyes as she sipped on her cicada cocktail. The liquid danced through her veins in an attempt to warm her icy, hidden parts.
"Byro, do you...do you know what it's like to be me?" Shimba clenched her jaw.
"Miserable I'm willing to bet on that lot. Shimba, you're a fairy that can't fly. I mean, what's the point?" Byro's eyes filled with bewilderment.
"Are you asking me to justify my existence? Is that what we're doing right now? Mental you are." Shimba inhaled the remainder of her drink and slammed the glass down, shooting out of her seat. The anger inside her wiped out any semblance of drunk dizziness.
"Uh, Shimba, your tab?" said the bartender, uncertainty lining his voice.
"Byro's taking care of that tonight, aren't you mate?" Shimba glared at the fairy before giving him the finger and storming off. Of course there was an audience and of course Shimba didn't care. She's had an audience her entire life.
The bathroom air reeked of unicorn urine and vomit. It was thick and charged, matching the atmosphere outside. The thunder rolled and the lights flickered, but Shimba didn't care. She tossed her sleek, lengthy, red hair and applied more bronzer to her mint green skin. The mirror was her friend today.
"Can I wash up or you going to be here all night?" a stranger's voice echoed into the room.
Shimba refrained from breaking her own gaze at the sound of his voice.
"I'm almost done. You'll survive. The rain's almost gone anyway" she said with the stroke of her makeup brush.
"Don't care about that, just wanna wash my hands." He said matter-of-factly, inching closer towards the fairy.
Shimba stopped touching up her face to take in the fella who she was finding to be quite peculiar. Shock dressed her face as her eyes landed upon a creature whose skin wasn't any variation of blue.
"Yea, yea, I know, I'm a fucking wizard...in the land of fairies...the last of my people for thousands of kilometers..." he rambled on, used to the reaction by now.
"I'm Shimba" she cut him off, outstretching her hand for a shake. A frown crept upon her when the wizard didn't partake in her gesture.
"Did you wash those?" he said, pointing towards her hands.
"I didn't have a tote or a womp in here, I'm just doing my makeup" Shimba's frown grew.
"I wouldn't care either way, you're in here, so you need to wash up" the wizard said, shaking his head.
Shimba's frown slowly flipped into a smile as she tossed her makeup into her satchel and washed her hands.
"Again, I'm Shimba. And you?" she took both his hands in for a shake.
"I'm Lemur. Shimba, you do realize your makeup isn't even on both sides?" Lemur scanned her face.
"Who cares?"
"Uh, I'm not sure, I couldn't name names, but..."
"Let's go drink Lemur" she giggled as she pulled him out of the bathroom.
"So let me get this straight, you're a fairy, that doesn't have wings?"
Shimba nodded.
"And a fucking vegetarian? In this economy?"
"Lemur, have you ever had buffalo cauliflower bites?"
"No, I can't imagine..."
"Lemur, you'd kill yourself for missing out for so long; they're delicious." Shimba took back her seventh shot of the hour, surpassing the bar maximum, but no one was there to stop her. The rain was gone and the fairies were in the sky.
"The combination sounds like it'll lead to a watery womp. I'm not here for it. I just can't. Why wouldn't I just eat actual buffalo wings? Hell, I could go for some right now" Lemur looked down at his hands, drawing Shimba's attention there as well.
"Lemur, would you like to make honey with me?" Shimba said, a sultry tone taking control of her breath.
"Uh, wha-What?"
"My flat is not far from here." Shimba licked her lips.
"You don't even know me."
"I know that you're a wizard who hasn't practiced magic, of
all kinds, in...at least years. How long has it been, anyway?"
"Uh, two years, for uh, both." Lemur gulped.
"Hmm. You're a wizard who hasn't practiced magic in 2 years. You
love peppermint because God, that's the only smell on you. And you're kind, I know it" Shimba smiled.
"You think I'm kind?"
Shimba nodded.
The pair spent hours making honey.
They were interrupted and brought back to the now by an aggressive knocking on the window. Too loud.
Shimba and Lemur erupted into a fit of giggles, stopping only to smile and caress each other.
"Well beautiful, I sure am hungry. Anything in your icebox you want me to cook for us?" Lemur asked, rubbing his exposed belly.
"Lemur?"
"Yea?" he said whilst tenderly dragging his finger up and down her forearm.
"Lemur, will you give me wings?"
"Shimba, I-"
"I want you to do it. Seriously. Like now. I've been so isolated all my life because I don't have wings on my back. I'm not seen as a true fairy, but I
am. Could you help me Lemur?"
"Shimba, I don't think it's a good idea, I haven't done ma-"
"I want you to do it.
Please" she pleaded as she stroked his shaggy beard.
"Okay...uh, stand up?"
"You asking or you telling wizard?" Shimba smirked.
"Well off you go, stand up!" Lemur laughed nervously.
Shimba smiled and turned around, her back facing the wizard. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Wings." she said, pointing towards her own back.
Seconds that felt like years passed before she felt a shift in her world. There was no pain, no discomfort, but there was definitely something
different.
"Shimba?" Lemur's voice quivered.
"It's done yea? Ah, I'm so nervous!" Shimba's voice bounced.
"..."
"Lemur, how do I fly? Do I just think about flapping and it kind of just happens?"
"Uh, Shimba..."
"Lemur, do you smell that? What is that odour, is it buffalo sauce?" Shimba scrunched her nose.
"Shimba!" Lemur yelled, frightening his opposite.
"What's your problem man?" Shimba said, looking confused.
Lemur said nothing as he pointed towards the standing mirror on the other side of the room.
Shimba walked over to the mirror and the light that had visited her face just moments prior left quicker than it came.
"Oh for fuck's sake Lemur
BUFFALO WINGS???!!! Are you
mental?!" Shimba screamed.
"I-I..."
"Wings to fly Lemur! I'm a fucking fairy,! Fairies
FLY, we're not fucking appetizers on a bar menu!"
"I'm sorry! I'm hungry as hell and I kept thinking about you and your buffalo cauliflower bites and how rad it would be to just actually have some real fucking buffalo wings. Shimba, I'm so sorry!" Lemur said, while smacking himself in the head repeatedly.
"
Jesus. Lemur, just fix it. Just get rid of them, please." Shimba sighed, defeat lacing her voice.
"I can't" Lemur said, the matter-of-fact tone returning.
"
Excuse me?"
"I can't take it back, that's now how magic works, especially not for me. Shimba, I was trying tell you, but you just pushed! I was banned from my village because I'm shit at wizadry." Lemur said as his eyes dropped to the floor.
"So what you're saying...is that I'm stuck with chicken wings attached to my back?"
"Well yea actually, that quite sums it up... Shimba, you're amazing and this, this just adds to you!" Lemur said as he waved his hands frantically.
"Fuck me. Well, I can't stay
here, not another day. Lemur, let's runaway together, find our own land. A place where we can be different." Shimba said, her eyes widening.
"Okay."
"Yea?" Shimba smiled.
"Yea."
Although she was smiling, she couldn't stop the tears from flowing as she packed up her most important of things and prepared for the journey onto the next stage of her life. Lemur waited patiently, not wanting to step on her toes. Not wanting to touch things he wasn't sure he should touch. He leaned on the doorframe, watching the woman he was about to start his life with.
"Shimba?" Lemur said softly.
"Yea?"" Shimba wiped a tear from her eye.
"Do you think it'll hurt you if I took a little nibble?"