Becoming monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission

  This idea comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.

  —

  Chapter 19: Sunrise and Sunset

  “Welcome to BuckStar, can I take your order?”

  It was very, very easy for Justin to remember why he had been burning out, in the time before Abbey. Yesterday had been adventure compounded on adventure. Hospital recovery, college drama, demon attack, the dinner, the Werebear baby… it was hard to believe that was one day. Now, just about eighteen hours ter?

  “Sure, I’ll take a rge double-mocha chocote chocote chip whip. “

  Justin had woken up, drank some coffee, hugged Abbey, gone to school to turn in the work he missed and sit in two csses, and now he was right back to the barely-above-minimum wage he had been making. He took the cash for what his customer wanted, enough to buy an hour and a half of his time here, and got to work putting it together.

  I should be at the Guild Hall working on my apprenticeship. I should be on the beach with Abbey. I should be starting to make my sword again. I should be pnning what to ask the Coin for next time. I should be working on my homework and studies for my degree. I should, I should, I should. Why am I here? Ah, right, the whole thing about being able to afford that wonderful life.

  It was maddening. The customer wanted to be trendy, so she deposited a Copper Coin as a tip instead of standard cash. It was te enough that he was working solo, so after a quick gnce to confirm it was real he pocketed it. No sense leaving it out in case of an accident. Granted, the LAST accident was awesome, but he didn’t think he was going to get handed a second Genie’s magic coin any time soon. Not that he knew what he’d even do with it, the concept of having a second girlfriend just didn’t sit well with him. No, all he could do for now was do his best to think things through and write down stuff he thought up which might be important, while pacing behind the counter like a tiger in a too-small cage. Eventually, he’d be able to do something about it. Just not now, while he was waiting for the shop door to ping again with another customer making another request.

  It would have been only a slight relief to him to know that, two blocks away, Abbey was feeling much the same way. Sure, her paycheck was better, her clientele more entertaining, and her degree was done, but it still was just the existence of a wage sve. Another desperate attempt to reconcile the life she knew she could have with the fact that it was just barely out of reach. Another man left, a rather handsome Padin with fluffy white wings and a glowing halo. Odd for an Angelic to be here this te in the evening, especially asking about other branches in the area, but she was gd she could help.

  Her pocket buzzed, shaking her out of her reverie. Who could be sending a text at this time of night? The buzz pattern wasn’t the one she set for Justin, and her coworkers were, to put it mildly, all right here. She gnced around. The lobby was empty, though it might not stay like that for long. Just enough time to look at her phone and see.

  When you get the chance, call me. -Dad

  Abbey’s eyes widened. She hadn’t talked to her dad in a while, and to be honest it was probably her own fault for it. A lot had been happening. She should have made the time before now, but it was too te for “should have.” She waved at Brittany to come over. “Hey, I have to call my dad. Can you hold down the Coinage counter for fifteen minutes or so?”

  “Go! Family’s important, Dee! Or should I call you Abs, now?”

  “Let Justin keep that one for a bit!”Abbey’s smile and blush were all Brittany needed to know the joke was on target as she hastily made her way through the door behind her to the staff areas. Past the temporary storage for the Coin Vault, take a right, and there was the small employee break room. Usually used for a few moments at a time, just enough to warm up some food in the microwave, sip some coffee, or just recover from a particurly nasty customer. Nobody else was here at the moment, understandable due to being down to a skeleton crew for the evening. Perfect for making a call.

  She had to redial once after the first one went to voicemail. His hearing was starting to decline, and he was stubborn enough to not want to admit he needed hearing aids. Still, he eventually picked up. “Hello? Dee?”

  “It’s me, Daddy. You said you wanted me to call?” No matter how grown she would ever be, no matter how long it had been since she was home, Abbey doubted she would ever stop calling her father by that well-earned title.

  His voice was rough, the result of half a lifetime of cigarettes followed by a lot of yelling for the first few years of the Change. “I’m gd you called. Your mother’s gettin’ worried, young dy. We haven’t talked in three weeks! You didn’t get your Coin stolen again, did ya?”

  Oh. Right, that. She’d st called her mom about a day and a half before she’d accidentally paid the cute barista with her soul. Life had been slightly distracting since then. “Oh! No, that’s not the problem. I mean, yes, someone has it right now, but he’s sweet. We’re dating.”

  “He didn’t make a wish to turn you into his girlfriend, or anything?”

  “That’s not it… I mean, yes, he did, but it was an accident and I was thinking of asking him out even before it happened anyway.”

  There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, and Abbey could quite clearly visualize the man pinching the bridge of his nose, right between his bushy eyebrows. It was a gesture he’d made a thousand times… probably literally… over the many occasions his only daughter had added to the count of gray hairs on his head. “Abigail Denise Williams.”

  Uh oh. That meant trouble. “Yes, Daddy?”

  “Your mother and I are going to put in for time off. We are going to come to see you, as soon as we can. And your boyfriend. If he can distract you for three weeks, and you cim it has nothing to do with your Coin, then he is either going to need my blessing or not deserve it. I will let you know when we are on our way, and we had better find you in Seattle young dy!”

  “Yes, Daddy. Um. We are living a bit south of the city right now.”

  “You’re LIVING with him and I haven’t met him yet?” She could hear her dad’s voice starting to rise in volume despite his best efforts. “We are definitely coming out there as soon as we can. Who is he?”

  “Justin is… really nice. He’s a college student and working at a coffee shop to help pay for it. That’s how we met, I take te shifts so I got a cup to get home safely.”

  “That hardly sounds like he’s in a position to help support a family.”

  “He’s also working on getting an apprenticeship, over in the Crafter’s Row of our local Guild Hall. It’s a big Dungeon, Daddy, he can do a lot there without needing to go in.”

  “Huh.” Her dad’s monosylbic grunt of surprise carried a lot of meaning. “I still need to meet him.”

  “I know he’ll like you. I can’t wait to hug you again, too. Missed you.”

  “We’re always a phone call away, sweetheart. Don’t wait so long that I have to ask next time?”

  “Yes, Daddy.”

  “Good. I’ll talk to you ter.” He hung up, and she put the phone back in her pocket. Eyes closed, she wondered for a bit. Justin’s dad was nothing at all like her own. How would he react to the man? No way to know, really.

  “Oh, I really hope that was your father and not Justin you kept calling ‘daddy’ on the line, there.”

  “I’d ask if you realized that it’s rude to listen in on other people’s conversations in the break room, Brittany, but I’m pretty sure you know.” Welp. No help for it, this one was going to be awkward.

  “And I thought you knew that if you needed to keep a conversation secret, the employee break room wouldn’t be the pce to have it.” The cute blonde woman walked over to the seat at the other side of the coffee table Abbey was at, then went ahead and sat down in it.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be on the Coinage desk?”

  “Technically speaking, no, you are. Also, I had to close it early since we got a Crystal Coin deposited to a Guild account, and the auditor will take longer to check it than we have left open. So what’s the deal?” Brittany was actually leaning in.

  Abbey crossed her arms “The deal is that I was talking to someone on the other line, who texted me asking to call, and all other contents of the conversation which might have been shared will instead be kept stubbornly top secret since you felt like listening in.”

  “Ouch. You wound me, madam! As if I would dare to eavesdrop, stalk, track, bug, or otherwise spy upon people!” So said the Spy.

  “Seriously, Brittany, you’ve already tracked us down and made clear that you trust Justin as much as you’d trust gas station sushi in Utah. I don’t care how good your thesaurus is, what gives?”

  “Dee. Abbey. Abs. Whatever else he’s calling you. I am your bestie and have been for a while. NOBODY is that good. There is not a person on Earth who can grab those Wishes and not go wrong. He’s two out of three and already mind controlling you plus committing property theft. What the heck do you think is going to happen when he makes the third one?”

  “I think you need to work on your spy craft. Seriously, Todd told you everything to your face two days ago. Maybe take notes next time?” Abbey stood up as Brittany tried to come up with a comeback to that one. “I know the counter wasn’t locked up properly, not if you were that quick, so I’m going to go take care of that before we go. If you want to be helpful, you can help with that.”

  Back at the BuckStar, another satisfied customer was leaving. A Red Slime girl on her way to start her own shift, which meant she was probably working at one of the more newly-legal kinds of pces. This one also left a decent tip, which Justin was starting to tabute up in his head. Could they hope to keep up with what he would need them to? No, not even close. If his traffic doubled and average tips with them, he’d still be an order of magnitude short. That went beyond wishful thinking and into the realm of things he’d need to spend his W…

  I can’t even THINK that word right now! The compulsion still hasn’t hit and I don’t know why, but any little thing could set it off. Last time I was practically disabled until I said what I wanted. Can’t afford that now.

  Still, the point stood. He had to get moving on stepping up, or all of this was for nothing. The store was empty, now. It was getting close to the end of shift. Abbey wasn’t here to help yet, but it was time for him to get cleaning. Wiping down counters and tables. Sitting chairs up so he could mop. It was after he dumped out the mop water that he noticed it. A scratch on the gss window in front of the shop. Honestly not the worst thing out there, someone had probably just leaned on it and dragged a carabiner of keys across the surface accidentally, but there it was. He was supposed to write up a work order so that the manager could put it in, but this time he had a different idea.

  Justin looked left and right. Nobody was walking up. He could feel the chill of the te evening air upon his cheeks as his heart rate started to climb upwards. He stepped towards the window, taking a slow breath to steady his hands. Just like Abbey had helped him learn, way back in those memories he treasured but which came from a reality three steps to the right of the one he lived in. Reaching out, he touched the gss. He could feel the scratch, just a tiny ridge against his fingertips. So small, almost insignificant. He wondered, briefly, if the person who did it even realized it happened. Or, if they did, if they realized how much impact it was about to have.

  Justin focused, calling upon his power. He used his Shaping ability to gently take hold of those fine edges and fold them back down. To pull out the line of dust that had infiltrated the scratch, to smooth over the surface, to polish it back to be like the rest of the pane he looked out of every day he worked here. The process took seconds. If he had wanted to, he could have patterned the entire window or carved his name into it. Instead, when he drew his hand back, it was as if the scratch had never been there.

  Justin stood and stared at the spot. He had done it. Again. Last time it was a knife, this time was a window. Maybe he could tell his boss? See if he could get paid a contractor’s rate to do this? Heck, he’d do a discount, since he would be here anyway. Maybe it could help him close that unimaginable gap between what he was making and what he needed? He shook his head. No, not only would his boss refuse that, the opposite would probably happen. They’d cite some obscure piece of his employment paperwork to insist he do it for free. They’d empty his mana pool every time he came, fixing every random ding and chip in every solid surface and every tool in the shop. That wouldn’t be the solution. He walked back inside, making sure one table and one piece of the countertop remained avaible for if a customer came in during the st hour the pce was open tonight. He ducked back into the manager’s office, grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper, and began to write.

  The ringing of the door chime broke him out of his focus about thirty minutes ter. “Welcome to BuckStar, can I… oh, hey Abbey!”

  His blue beau walked in, yawning. “About ready to pack it up, love?”

  Justin gnced at his watch. “In about ten minutes, yep. Want me to whip something up while you wait? That yawn was a bit of a doozy.”

  She giggled a bit. “That sounds like a good idea. You guys just got a coconut cream thing, right?”

  He smiled. “You’re good. Haven’t even put the signs out yet. Want the shop’s first collector’s cup with it?”

  “That would be lovely.”

  Justin rang up the order with his employee discount and got to work. This recipe wasn’t all that bad, all things considered. Bit light on the actual coffee, bit heavy on the fvors and creams, but not like that was anything new around here. The funny bit was the collector’s cup, when he pulled it out of the back. Specifically, it was a coconut with a hole cut in and the lip smoothed out a bit, plus a company logo on one side. Not even a ft bottom to set it down, he just poured the mix in, added some whipped cream, and a little paper umbrel. It was around this time that Abbey started giggling uncontrolbly. Justin understood, it was kind of funny, but her ughs kept going a bit longer than he thought the moment really deserved. “Uh, Abs? You okay over there?”

  That ughs continued for a bit until Abbey could get her feet back under her to come accept her drink. “I’m sorry, Justin, but in the st hour I’ve had not one but two people express determination to learn everything about you and uncover your deep, dark secrets. Then, I come here and you whip up a coffee in a coconut? The whipsh is unreal!”

  He grinned… then focused. “Wait. I know Brittany has it out for me, but who’s the other one?”

  She took a sip of her coffee. “I got a call from my dad. I’ve… ah, kind of forgotten to call home since we got together. My parents got worried. I can’t bme them, either, the st time I went silent for this long it was because…” she drifted off, looking guiltily at Justin.

  “Let me guess. Because st time someone got your Coin and made you do some things that either kept you quiet or out of the loop for a month?”

  Abbey nodded in a small way before taking another sip. “This stuff’s good, I’m going to have to remember to order it again. Anyway, I accidentally let slip that we’re living together, and Daddy’s mad that we got to that step before he got to meet you. Or even talk to you. They’re taking leave to come here and fix that as soon as they can.”

  “Oh, sweet! Can’t wait to meet them, really. Your dad’s probably right, we did kind of skip a few steps while we’ve been figuring things out. Where are they coming from?” Justin was moving around, wiping the st few things down to close up shop.

  “Um. They live in an RV in the Texas Panhandle. Dad helps herd cattle and occasionally fights something small that escapes the Wandering Dungeon.”

  Justin paused. “Not exactly sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. How’d you end up going to college for business administration?”

  “After I wrecked the house in the Change, you mean? Wanted to make it up to them. Still working on that part, but a degree seemed like a good first step. Mom and Dad ended up selling off what was left once they could and the RV was cheaper in that area. Uh, Justin? What’s that paper?” A bit of wind from the fan had caught the one he was working on. When it fpped a bit, she noticed. Pin white printer paper practically covered in his untidy handwriting.

  Justin looked over his shoulder to see what she was talking about. “Oh. That. Um.”

  “Must be good if I get three monosylbles out of you on the way to the expnation.”

  “Yeah, I guess it is. Realized today that no matter what I did here, it wouldn’t be enough. Not for what we need.”

  Abbey sipped her coffee again, it was getting low. “We did know that already, Justin. Ever since we talked it over with the Dragon.”

  “Yeah, but I was still hoping. Still, it isn’t going to work. Made the decision about thirty minutes ago but I didn’t want to go through with it until I talked to you. That paper was going to be my two weeks notice, but I need to rewrite it from notes. It got messy.”

  Abbey was silent. She tried to drink some more, but found that her coconut cup was empty. “I… I guess it makes sense. If having the job isn’t going to give you the pay you need to live, why keep it? Supply and demand, or something in that lesson. But Justin, when your two weeks are up, do you have anything to fall back on? What are you going to do to stay ahead? I know the pay here isn’t much, but it’s way better than nothing.”

  “I’ll figure it out. If worst comes to worst I can hang out on Crafters Row sharpening knives and polishing armor until I can get my apprenticeship. After that it should pay enough to keep us going. Definitely isn’t going to pay any less.”

  “You’re not wrong. Just be careful, okay? You still need to heal and rest, you still need to keep your mana up.”

  “I know, love. Just… swiftly go the days, does that make sense? If I don’t do this now, or at least tomorrow, I might never get the nerve.” He looked around and didn’t find anything left to do. A gnce up at the clock said he was five minutes past when his pay stopped for the evening. “Shall we head back home? It’s getting te, and I do have stuff to turn in tomorrow morning.”

  The bus was quiet, the challenge of the night just staying awake to get to campus. It was a bit easier for Abbey, having just drank a good-sized dose of coconut coffee, made strong like Justin knew she liked. She could feel the moment that Justin, leaning against her and lulled by the gentle motion of the bus, lost the struggle to stay awake. Three stops ter they arrived at the university dorms, and Justin was not waking up no matter her best efforts. No matter, she could be strong enough for the two of them. This time, a bit more literally than usual.

  A whisper of power, and she was seven feet tall again. She gently picked him up and carried him. She brought him through the front door, past the people who recognized her by now, up the stairs, through his door with the combo she still knew, and through another one to the seaside mansion. Their home. Together. He was still gently snoring when she id him on their bed.

  Abbey, though, found sleep to be more elusive. Their guests were asleep. Presumably, little Alex had already finished his Werebear shenanigans and gotten himself tuckered out again. Abbey therefore found herself alone as she stood on the beach, gazing out on the pping waters under the bright light of the full moon. Her breaths were coming unevenly, it had taken more focus than it should have to shrink her body back to where she liked to keep herself.

  Everything should have felt like it was going well. Objectively speaking, really. She was living in an unbelievable home with an amazing boyfriend she loved and who loved her back. She had friends, she had her job and an offer of potentially another. Her parents were even coming to visit, and Justin was eager to meet them. Sure, there were some bumps in the road, it wasn’t all roses with their taxes and with Brittany, but that didn’t expin… this. This feeling of not-quite-dread. The feeling that everything was stitched together, but the seams were starting to pull apart. That there was no way to know if the thread there would hold through what they were being put through.

  Abbey unclenched her control and let the blue mists come forward. In a few moments she was once again six meters tall. Though she didn’t think about it often these days, this was her “true” form. Mighty in both size and strength, a force of magic that could tilt the fate of nations in the right (or wrong) circumstances. There were those who would fight and kill for the opportunity to get their hands on the key to her power. Yet here she was. She chose to be here. She was not a chained sve. Not this time. Despite the power Justin held over her, she knew if she asked he would use his third Wish on something easy and then part ways with a smile for having known her.

  Or… maybe he wouldn’t. He’d absolutely relinquish his hold on her, but if she left he wouldn’t be wearing a smile. And neither would she. And that was it, wasn’t it? She didn’t have to let the feeling of flying apart be a part of her life, but doing what made the two of them happy in the long term required that she willingly stay. She had to watch those seedlings turn to sunflowers. Happiness and tears would come as a package.

  With another deep, shuddering breath, she came back to her more standard-sized form. One that would fit inside the home. One that would fit on the bed, cuddled with her boyfriend. Resolutely, she turned and walked back to the bedroom. It was te, after all, and she needed sleep.