— 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬；𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐱 𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐚
— 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍 ：𝗂𝗇𝖿𝗈𝗋𝗆𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇 𝗂𝗇 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝗀𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗌

IT WAS BREAKFAST TIME IN ALFEA, and all the fairies and specialists of the sorts were piled up in the dining hall.

Chione Chang, being one of the fairies in the dining hall, was gathering all the food she wanted for the morning.

Seeing as she wasn't going to be residing in the cantina as of late.

Word had finally gotten out. People finally knew Bloom was a "changeling".

So instead of letting the fire fairy suffer the repercussions of the vile rumors, Chione decided to be a decent person and take some of the heat off of her.

Walking through the ample amount of people she met the left side of Bloom's passing figure and strode alongside her up to Aisha residential office.

Looking up at the girl Chione noticed Bloom's eyes moving across the walkway watching all the people whisper and stare.

"Adding fire to the fuel isn't a good idea. And I mean that sincerely not just because you're a literal fire fairy." Chione stated ceasing the girl's curious gaze.

"Thanks." Bloom muttered, knowing why the ice fairy suddenly started walking with her.

Chione didn't have to say anything else, she just kept walking alongside the redhead girl making their way up the stairs.

❄︎

Arriving at the now reinstated office of the former resident 'Callum', both Chione and Bloom entered the room, greeted by a waiting Aisha.

"You haven't found anything?"

"I've only been at Callum's desk for two days, Bloom. Also, kinda doing you a favor, so maybe try grateful." Aisha exclaimed, as she stood up to file away more documents.

"Oh, come on. You didn't take Callum's job for my sake."

"Actually, I think that's exactly what she did." Chione recalled, matter–of–factly.

"See, 'cause I distinctly remember you–"

"Making a helpful suggestion?" Bloom interrupted with her counter argument.

" – begging me to volunteer so I could snoop for info on your past."

"Yeah, that sounds like something I might do, but you also might jump at the chance to get brownie points with Miss Dowling."

Faking a cough or two, Bloom muttered "Suck–up". To acquaint her other statement.

"Forgetting the suck–up part, she's got you there with the rest." Chione agreed.

The two fairies' statements didn't quite go over well with the water fairy.

"Suck–up? Really? You know, suddenly, I've lost the ability to read the files." Aisha said, taking a step back from the documents to sit down.

"Hmm, seeing as the offense doesn't affect me, I think it bodes well for you to apologize Bloom."

Understanding that her not so subtle playful statements could cause her information, Bloom put a cheerful smile upon her face.

"Wait, did I say, uh, I say "suck–up"? I meant such a *cough* good friend who's smart and beautiful–"

"And isn't sure she can help?" Aisha interpreted knowingly. Quieting down Bloom's appraisal.

Clearing her throat, Aisha's hand hovered over a stack of papers.

"Ok, these files seem to go back to Miss Dowling's start as headmistress. Everything else must be archived somewhere."

"Or shredded because Dowling loves withholding information. Even if I can find a little bit about Alfea back then, I can maybe piece together why Rosalind left me in the first world–"

'And by association, why me and Bloom are drawn to the burned ones.' Chione thought.

"I'll keep looking, promise. I have to read all the files in the place anyway." Aisha reassured the redhead.

"If it makes any difference, I'll see what I can find in the old history books." Chione chimed in to say.

"And how do you plan on getting those? Most of the ones that actually tell us anything have either been redacted or destroyed." Aisha questioned.

"It's about that time of the week where I report back to my headmistress Aurora, and while writing about my recent accommodations to Alfea, I could ask her to send me the old history books from this place, because I know we have a copy of them in our library."

"That's actually not a bad idea."

"I never have bad ideas; sure, I'll occasionally have outlandish ones but never bad ones."

"We'll see, I've only known you for a short time." Aisha jested.

"And thanks for this by the way. I mean, since you're just using it as an excuse not to eat in the canteen, it's the least you could do." The water fairy stated, redirecting her statement back to Bloom.

"So, people are talking about me being a changeling. So what? It's not the weirdest thing about me."

"Mm, true."

"Definitely true."

"They don't know how bad you snore."

"Or how loudly you sing off key in the shower." Chione joined in with a laugh.

Facing the repercussions of getting granola thrown in their face by Bloom.

Hearing the door creek open, Chione turned to face it, noticing it was Musa who entered the room.

Changing her posture from a slouching position she sat straight up, none of this movement went unnoticed by Aisha.

"Hi." Musa greeted Chione, and the ice fairy smiled back.

"Sup." Musa said to everybody else.

Taking a seat next to Chione, Musa made herself right at home.

"Is Bloom still pretending she's not upset by the gossip?"

"You still pretending that you're not hiding your feelings for another fairy or two."

"Who's pretending what? Apart from Stella pretending that she's not dreading being outshined by her mum all day." Terra insinuated.

"You could enjoy that a little less." Musa snickered.

"Could I? We'll have to see in the assembly."

"You know if there were ever anyone to outshine Stella's mother, I'd have to say it would be Aurora, added bonus Luna doesn't rule over the north." Chione stated, with a cheeky smile on her face.

"Speaking of Aurora, do you know if we'll ever get to meet her?" Terra asked, mixing her breakfast together.

"I'm sure she's just waiting for the right time to surprise me when I least expect it."

Terra hummed while she also took a seat in the rather crowded office.

Looking around the room Bloom gathered a conclusion.

"You guys don't have to do this. You don't have to rearrange your breakfast plans just to... sit with me like I'm some loser mess. I'm fine."

"That's great, truly. But I'm not here for you, I'm here because other people are annoying, and I can tolerate you guys."

"Well, don't I feel special." Musa joked.

"You're the specialist." Chione exclaimed, turning to look at her.

The two stayed facing each other till Bloom decided to speak up again.

"Honestly though, I'm really doing okay. I'm fine!"

Everyone gave each other knowing looks.

"I'm gonna go, uh, finish my poison paper before the assembly so... I'll see you guys later." The redhead said getting and walking out the room.

"For the record she's not fine." Musa noted, with the over dampening feeling of doubt and insecurity coming off of Bloom.

❄︎

Already in her room finishing up on her quick studies for her next class, Chione was now going through all the information she – Bloom and Aisha – had gathered on the school's past.

Though Bloom was looking for her mother, Chione wasn't.

Instead, Chione was looking for any type of information that retained a huge battle between two women. It was the battle she saw in her vision, though to her it was more like a repressed memory.

Flipping through the pages of an old history book that the school did have; Chione was interpreted when Aisha came tumbling through her door followed by Bloom.

Deciding whatever they had to say was "more important" than her research, and that it was also time for the assembly, she decided to put everything on hold till further notice.

"Callum is dead!" Bloom restated; not sure she heard Aisha right the first time.

"And Dowling said he left for a family emergency, so they're–"

"Lying." Bloom frustratingly, interrupted.

"Straight through their teeth."

"Yeah, shocker."

Walking down the stairs from the upper level of the school, Bloom continued to question Aisha while Chione just listened.

"You're sure she didn't shred those old records?"

"What?"

"The Alfea records that predate her. You're sure she didn't destroy them?"

"Are you kidding? That woman loves paper, I offered to start scanning the files into the computer system, and she looked at me like I had two heads."

"Maybe she's just a hoarder, you know those people have very serious addictions." Chione joked.

"Paper, seriously. Out of all the things she could hoard you think she chose paper – school documents at that."

"You never know what people love, and for her it could be just that."

"Anyways–" Aisha said, changing the topic back to the previous subject. "The records are somewhere."

"Maybe they're in the east wing." Bloom shared, looking in the other direction of the way she was supposed to be going.

"Bloom, the assembly is mandatory." Aisha reminded her.

"Which means everyone is distracted."

"Bloom."

"I'm not asking you to come."

"It's a bad idea."

"Now that I can agree to, and since it's a bad idea I will go with Bloom, so she doesn't get caught."

"No, actually a bad idea is going to that assembly room where everyone's gonna  stare at me like I'm a freak. I can't just sit and listen to people make stuff up about me, especially when I don't know the truth myself. I need to find answers."

"And I'm very good at helping people find their answer to their equation." Chione added to Bloom's campaign.

"Fine. You've had a terrible migraine and could barely stand up, so Chione stayed back to monitor you. Good?"

"Great." Chione said, giving a thumbs up before she and the fire fairy headed towards the east wing.

❄︎

"This looks like a place where ghostface would reside, plotting and scheming for his next victim. But if I had a say on which ghostface I would want to kill me it would have to be between Stu Macher, Billy Loomis, Mickey Altieri or Roman Bridger." Chione said, as she and Bloom wandered through the "empty" wing.

"You know a regular person would have one or two, not four different people."

"Well then, I guess I'm just not a regular person." Chione stated with a condescending smile.

"Of course, you're not."

Going down the base level on the east wing, Bloom opened the only door they both saw.

But it was suddenly closed, by a blonde-haired specialist.

Causing the two girls to jump in fear.

"Do you want to get frostbit, blondie?" Chione seriously questioned.

"You don't sneak up and scary people like that, especially fairies with polar opposite powers." Chione continued to say.

"What are both of you doing down here?" Sky questioned, ignoring Chione's statements.

"We're looking for the entrance to Hogwarts." Chione simply explained.

"Really?" Sky asked, furrowing his brows.

"No, you idiot, we're obviously looking for something else when you decided to pop up out of nowhere."

Though Chione didn't share what she was searching for to Sky, Bloom decided to tell him what she was searching for.

"So, what's the magic year?" Sky asked.

"I was born in 2004 so keep your eyes peeled for anything from then." Bloom informed.

"Not sure we're gonna find pictures of pregnant fairies, Bloom."

"Might be a little more subtle than that, like loose clothes, big sweaters, a girl holding a stack of books over her stomach."

"Just so you know none of those actually indicate that someone's pregnant, those are all mostly movie tropes. In general, some people just like to be comfortable, and others might be insecure, so don't just jump to conclusions about what a pregnant teen looks like. For all you know your mother could have been a proud pregnant woman and wanted to show off her baby bump because she had you in it. From her point of view during the time you could've been a miracle, Bloom." Chione digressed, disagreeing with Bloom's recent description of a pregnant teen.

"It's just... hard to keep it cool when people whisper as I walk by and just not scream at them for being assholes."

"If you take my advice, I'd scream at them because they are assholes."

"Yeah, well you wanna know the truth. It sucks, a lot."

"Well, I've gotta agree with Chione, people are assholes, Bloom. You just have to find the good ones."

While Bloom and Sky went on their flirting, Chione still looked for anything she could find on her research topic.

So enthralled with finding her own history documents she didn't notice Beatrix and Riven enter the room until Beatrix made herself known.

"Looks like we're not the only ones up to no good."

Chione rolled her eyes at the sudden appearance of the two. Seeing as the night before they decided to make fun of Terra.

Walking ahead of the group the ice fairy couldn't be bothered with the others at the moment.

Thinking it was a sign for all of them to move on, Bloom followed after Chione.

"Have you seriously been down here looking at dusty rubbish?" Riven questioned.

"People who think history is rubbish are rubbish."

"And people who think their opinions matter on the subject at hand are annoying." Chione added.

"Oh, come on, not you too. You're really offended about the Terra thing." Beatrix genuinely asked.

"If you can't see that things like that would affect me then you don't know me at all, but then again I have only been here for a short amount of time, so in hindsight you don't."

"Ahh, I see. Since you've been spending time with that mind fairy you've developed a wellbeing for others." Riven pointed out.

"The mind fairy's name is Musa, and me hanging around her didn't do anything of the sorts. You just haven't gotten to know me all that well."

"And since when do you know I'm with Musa?" Chione asked, recalling his statement.

"Is it a bad thing that I know who you hang with, or is that supposed to be a secret?" Riven questioned, coming to halt smirking at Chione.

"If it was a secret surely you wouldn't know about it." The honey–blonde said, before she continued down the stone path.

"You know, maybe they were down here for just a bit of foreplay." Beatrix added, trying to change the current topic.

"They are definitely not fucking, Bea. That would actually make, uh, Sky here interesting."

"Especially not with me down here, that's for sure.

"They're right. We aren't. But we were alone, which was pleasant."

"Agreed."

"Oh, an emotional affair. That's actually much worse." Beatrix stated, referring back to his current "girlfriend", Stella.

"Ooh, I love locked doors! I wonder what's back here?" Riven gandered.

"I don't know. But Silva's the only one with a key." Sky shared.

"So, then how do we get in?" Bloom asked.

"We don't."

"Or I could just freeze off the handle, it's worked out fine before." Chione suggested.

"Yeah, there may be stuff down there. That's the reason I – we, came down here."

"Next time I see him, I'll ask him."

"Sky we're–"

"The more you say no, the more she wants it. Give in." Riven divulged.

"That's never the case, ever."

"Do we need to have a talk about consent?" Beatrix simultaneously agreed with Chione.

"Why are you guys down here again?"

"Being on your side."

"That's very vague."

"I don't need help from someone who posted a video mocking my friend."

"See, Bloom here gets it."

"Look, I know the video was extra, but I didn't say anything. I was a bystander."

"You're still an accessory, you were there at the scene of the crime."

"If you really want to be mad at one of us, consider the douchebag who's been telling everyone you're a changeling."

"And somehow I'm not surprised."

"Not exactly the way I thought you'd screw me today, Bea."

"Is that true?" Sky questioned, walking up to Riven.

"Uh oh, the boys are fighting."

"Yeah. Look, if Saint Sky is about to start lecture time, I'm out."

"Sky, it's okay." Bloom assured.

"No, it's not." He quickly disagreed, walking after the retreating brunette.

"Look at that, just us girls. Finally!"

"Under the circumstances, this isn't the way I would want to be in a room full of girls." Chione muttered, more so to herself than anybody else.

LOVE SPEAK'S :

hey guys, it been 2 months since i've updated this book and for that i'm truly sorry. i was taking some time to myself to get back into my writing era, so know here i am, and hopefully i'm back for good.

if you haven't seen my recent tiktok , i finally found a face claim for chione's headmistress ( aurora ). actress , january jones. ( and some of you may or may not know her from the x-men movie ).

that's all for now , i hope you've had a great read and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!