And I Wish That It Would Never End

[missrecalled_mods]

I wish, my wish

The snow had finally been cleared from the room, the window fixed. And the snow outside was slowly following suit. It was still almost painfully cold outside, but the snow was no longer actively falling, and the more adventurous could find ways outside through upper floor windows. There was no way to get to the shore or anything, but there were odd glittering things in the perfect fairytale snow. The first time someone would touch one, it would grow brighter and brighter until the light exploded outward. The shards of light flew into the school mostly, but some went elsewhere, over and past the tangles of stuff.

When the light resolved, it and the other glittering things - both in the snow and now in the school - would prove to be small magic lamps. Each would have the name of one of the Missrecalled currently in Auradon, and a colour scheme that suits that person. It might be the one who picked it up, or someone else. When the person for whom the tiny jewelry sized lamp was for holds the lamp and makes a wish, that wish might come true. For a short time.

The wishes would only last the weekend, but What a glorious and bittersweet weekend that would be.

Comments

Spark/Gar | OTA | Guest Starring CRAU Adrien - I got permission!

[death_from_above]

OTA - the first Wish

Gar was so glad to be able to go outside finally. Even if it was cold enough that any fish he found would count as frozen food. He bundled up in his new cowtfit and headed out. He planned to try to find water, any water. Just so he'd know where it was.

Something shiny and orange caught his eye. He picked it up, a small magic lamp looking thing with the name SPARK on it.

Oh this was too good to be true. He queued up a bunch of puns to make at whatever genie came out, and rubbed the lamp. But nothing happened.

Gar sighed and resumed walking, holding it in his palm. Just as well, he would have wasted the wish on puns when he knew what he really wanted. More than anything. "If only this stupid lamp were real.... I wish it would bring Adrien here..." He missed Adrien so much. He...

Was hallucinating, clearly.

"G...Gar?"

Hallucihearing too.

"Adrien...?"


"Where... Where are we this time?" He started to ask more then looked down at his hand. Saw his ring, closed his hand around it relieved.

Gar tackle-hugged Adrien, knocking them both into the snow. "I have SO MUCH TO TELL YOU!!!!" he said, half laughing and half crying.

Adrian laughed too. "Okay but maybe inside? Somewhere warm?" He wasn't exactly dressed for the snow.

Gar nodded and got up, and helped Adrien up. "Yeah. Inside."

Adrian stood with help brushed snow off himself, then stopped and stared at Gar's outfit. "You... outdid yourself this time."

"It wasn't me, this was a gift! Okay the nose ring and bell are me, but the rest..." he gestured at his cow themed outfit with its cow pun on the hoodie. "Wait till you meet Mallia, she made it for me, she's very amoozing!"

Adrian laughed. "Alright then, let's go inside and meet her, and you can fill me in."

"Yeah! Just... one person you should meet first...."

Locked to Gabriel

Gar hunted around and found Gabriel after filling in Adrien. Adrien had used Bending to make a plush of Spark to hold onto.

After spotting the room Gabriel was in, thankfully alone, he glanced back at Adrien then walked into the room. "Um... Got a minute...?" he asked, while Adrien waited in the hall.

[papillion_de_resistance]

Gabriel had been sitting in the home ec room, drawing in a sketchbook with a mug of coffee- by that time cooled to room temperature- nearby. Hardly an uncommon sight since his arrival, but this was not a common day, as he was about to discover. At Garfield's entrance, he looked up from his sketching. "Hmm? Of course," he said. "Did you need something, Garfield?"

[death_from_above]

"Um... There is someone here who needs to see you..." he said, nervous and unsure now that the moment was here.

[papillion_de_resistance]

He looked mildly puzzled, but nodded, marking his place with his pencil before closing the sketchbook and setting it down on the table. "Alright," he said. "Who is it?"

[death_from_above]

Gar stepped back out of the room, then came back in with his arm linked into Adrien's. "Spark" was curled in the crook of Adrien's other arm.

Adrien took a deep breath then met Gabriel's eyes with level ones of his own. He was no longer the Adrien of Paris. Or rather, not just as he had been then. This Adrien had spent time with the Doctor - several of him - and Rose. He had broken a few times and built himself back into a stronger person. One who no longer cowered when his father glowered. One with confidence in himself to a degree he hadn't had in Paris.

Still, he was polite, and he was as nervous as Gar though he showed it less.

"Garfield says you're like another reality's version of our father, and that you have no memories of the living city. Is... Is that actually correct?"

[papillion_de_resistance]

Well if Gabriel hadn't set his sketchbook down he might well have dropped it when he saw who walked in. This was unmistakably Adrien, but he carried himself entirely differently than the sullen distant boy his ow son had become. he recovered quickly though. "So it seems," he said. "I don't have any memory of any other world besides this one and my native one, and certainly no memories of any 'living city' other than a few vague mentions made of it by Garfield."

"And you're clearly Adrien, but just as clearly not the one I know. You're wearing a good deal less eyeliner, for one thing." The last sentence had a note of wry amusement.

[death_from_above]

That got Adrien to blink as he set "Saprk" down. "Eyeliner?"

"Guyliner," Gar said, snickering.

"I don't know, I think you could pull it off better than me," Adrien teased.

"No way, you're the model child. In all ways. I'm the disappointment." Gar seemed to have forgotten they had an audience and who it was. He hadn't but he seemed to. But Adrien never stopped watching Gabriel, as though more wary.

[papillion_de_resistance]

"You're hardly a disappointment, Garfeild," he responded almost immediately. "And I hope I having given you the impression that I thought so."

The note of wry amusement returned, though as he addressed Adrien. "And yes, eyeliner. My son has been going very heavy on the makeup since-", he abruptly realized what he was about to say and course corrected slightly, "-er.... in recent months. Though your hair is actually far more telling. He's been wearing his cut very short on one side, and longer and straight on the other."

[death_from_above]

Him saying Gar wasn't a disappointment clearly startled Gar. Adrien was playing his cards closer to his chest, but this version of their father raised in his estimation because of it.

"Even in this outfit?!" Gar blurted.

Adrien seemed to be fighting a small smile at that. Fighting and losing. Then he touched his own hair, almost protectively. "Not sure I could see myself cutting it like that."

[papillion_de_resistance]

"Your taste in clothes is certainly... unique,"-ly cringe inducing, "but that's not a reflection on you as a person. How ever much my career is partly built on convincing people otherwise."

"As for my son's current look, it surprised me too, at first. Though I suppose everyone deals with things differently. I can't tell if his tastes have actually changed, though or if he'd just looking for attention. I'm afraid I've been rather caught up in my work, recently, back home, and haven't really been able to spend nearly as much time with him as I should."

[death_from_above]

"Well that is consistent at least," Adrian said, dryly. "And now that you're here? And Gar is here?" he asked, almost challenging. "Are you just ignoring him in favor of work here?"

"Adrien...." Gar started. This... was not what he had intended. He didn't think there would be a confrontation like this. At least... not so soon.

But Adrien remembered their brief time together while Gar was on the Train. And having been told about how Gar had arrived here, and how that was different from how Adrien had... Adrien suspected he wasn't here long. So he needed to make sure that Gar was taken care of while he was still here to do it.

[papillion_de_resistance]

He had the good graces to look guilty, at least. "More than I should, I'm afraid," he said. "There was a fashion show I put together recently, so making certain everything was ready took up a great deal of time." He sighed. "Which I know is no excuse, but it seems that even being transported to an alternate universe doesn't cure a man of bad habits. Fashion has always been... easier for me than relationships."

[death_from_above]

"When you became a parent you gave up that right," Adrian said, a bit coldly. "There is always a fashion show. There is always a deadline. There is always another project. But you're supposed to be the adult. Not us. And if you're anything like the version of our father I know best? You're the one who decides to do the fashion show. The one who sets the deadlines. You control the schedule, but we're the ones who keep getting rescheduled."

"Adrien... why don't we find Spark..." Gar said, regretting this, so much. This wasn't why he had wanted to show Adrien this version of their father. This was supposed to be a happy thing! Not a confrontation! Even if he had been afraid he'd be shoved aside for Adrien at least then Adrien would have been happy and dad would have been happy. But this argument... this hadn't been the plan!

[papillion_de_resistance]

Perhaps to Adrien's surprise, this time it was Gabriel who half-flinched at the accusation. If only he could tell them the real reason he'd been so busy back home. But no. Even then, Adrien was absolutely right. Back home, it was sadly all but unavoidable, but still wrong. Here, however, it was simply his own awkwardness getting in the way.

"You're right," he said with a sigh. "I know I'm at least partly to blame for the distance between myself and my son back home. And between Garfield and I here. Old habits die hard, and bad ones especially so, it seems."

A bit more hesitantly, he added, "I don't suppose you have any suggestions as to how I might change that? Some sort of activity we could do together, or something similar? I know Garfield has mentioned fishing- though I forbid either of you to keep using your cat as bait-, but we're still somewhat stuck inside for the present, so that's not really an option."

[death_from_above]

"Cat as...." Adrian started, confused.

"I told him how Spark prefers to fish," Gar said, glad for a safer topic.

"Oh!" Adrien said. And here was where he was clearly Spark's idea of Adrien rather than actual Adrien - not that Gabriel would know this - because he smiled and shook his head. "Spark's not the bait. He's more like the hook. He used to go jumping into the water to fish but then would get into trouble because he'd forget to keep swimming once he got a fish. So we tie a rope around him so we can pull him back."

Gar nodded, remembering the first time the Deegans realized they had to find a way to help him come back. Adding Death From Above to that had only made it more fun! Gar was grinning at the memory.

"Other than fishing," Adrien continued, "there has to be something you like besides just fashion that maybe we might like too. But we wouldn't know what that is, because whatever it is, no version of you has ever shown us anything but fashion, work, business." And mourning. "Ever since..." he trailed off, took a breath. "I don't know how mom is... if mom..." he swallowed, tried again. "A little over a year before we wound up in the living city... mom vanished. We never saw much of our father before that without her being there too. Without her, it was like we no longer mattered, like we never had. Like he was just spending time with us because it was a way to spend time with her. You want something to do with Gar? Pick something. Because nearly anything is better than the nothing we usually get," that last was said more bitterly.

[papillion_de_resistance]

"However much Spark prefers it, it's still not a behavior you should be encouraging," he said. "As his owners, it's your responsibility to keep him safe, even when he's not especially happy about it, and there are much safer methods of getting a seafood dinner."

At the confirmation of what he'd suspected, he sighed, shoulders slumping a bit. "I didn't want to assume," he said, "but yes, Emilie is gone in my world as well. She passed away a little over seven months before I arrived here." Seven months, 5 days, and 14 hours, but who was counting?

"As for other things that we could do however, hmm..." He considered. "I used to fence, but I haven't seriously picked up a foil since before you were born. I do still enjoy jazz music though." A fond smile crossed his face, though not without a hint of sadness. "The first time I got up the courage to ask your mother on a date was at The Dancing Cat, a jazz club near the university we were both attending. I don't know if it's still there, but it was a fairly popular spot with the students at the time."

[death_from_above]

"It's plenty safe," Gar muttered.

"A good start," Adrien said. "Anything you can think of that shows you have any idea of who Garfield is, anything you think he might have interest in? Would your version of me be interested in those things?" he added, out of a sense of fairness.

[papillion_de_resistance]

"Well, Garfield is clearly fond of both animals and puns," he said. "And while I can't really get behind the way he wears and combines the two, I did make him a hooded sweater with cat ears as a gift for the holiday celebration that was held awhile ago. An attempt to meet somewhere in the middle between my sense of aesthetics and his."

"As for my own iteration of Adrien, I can't say he's displayed any particular liking or aptitude for puns, at least not in my presence. But I've actually been considering getting him a pet if and when I eventually make it back to my world. Questionable fishing techniques aside, I've become rather fond of Spark since I've met him, and I've found him very easy to talk to, especially about things that are awkward to talk about people; I suspect the fact that he can't actually understand has a great deal to do with that. And if both I and the two of you enjoy having a furry friend around, it's possible, even likely, that he would as well."

[death_from_above]

Adrien gave Gar a very loaded look.

Gar decided to jump on to a distraction instead of acknowledging it. Any distraction, really.

"You like puns too...?" yeah, even he could tell he was being pathetic.

[papillion_de_resistance]

Adrien's look didn't pass unnoticed, though Gabriel had no idea what it might mean. And was swiftly distracted, at least for the present, by Garfield's question. He gave a rather sheepish smile. "My sense of humor was always considered rather pun-ishing growing up, yes," he said. "And I still enjoy them now, but as an adult with a professional image to maintain, there sadly aren't many situations where that kind of humor would be considered appropriate."

[death_from_above]

"I know lots of adults that pun all the time."

Another warning look from Adrien.

Oh, right, those were Spark people. Well, too late now, so going with it. "They do just fine with it," Gar added.

[papillion_de_resistance]

Gabriel's smile became fond. Focusing on Garfield, this time he missed the look from Adrien. "I'm glad you have people who share your sense of humor in your world," he said. "In mine, when I was a child, it was seen as cute and amusing, but when I and those around me started to get a bit older, well... any laughter stopped being about the puns themselves. So I learned to keep them to myself for the most part. I think my friends believed I grew out of it."

[death_from_above]

"Actually they were from one o the other worlds we went to," Gar said to cover. "But I'm kinda lost on the you having actual friends thing."

"Gar...." Adrien said, warningly.

[papillion_de_resistance]

"It's alright, Adrien," he said. "Given how the two of you know me, I can understand why he might be surprised." He gave a bit of a wry smile. "Shocking as it may seem to boys your age, I was young once too. I went to school and college and had people I considered friends in both places. Though I think I meshed better with my college friends though; it was an arts focused school so there was no shortage of people with similar interests about."

"At the time, my closest friend was probably André Bourgeois. He was studying dramatic arts, while I of course was studying fashion. We had to be careful not to make it seem too collaborative of course, but my class ended up working on the costumes for a play André's class was putting on. That's actually where I first saw Emilie; I was fitting André's costume when she walked by, and got so distracted watching her I stuck a pin in his backside."

[death_from_above]

For all the Storms that had given Gar memories of Paris, it wasn't enough for him to know the mayor's name or realize this was important. But her knew Adrien's mom's name, and he had memories of loving and missing her, even if the memories were false.

"Did she notice you?" Gar asked, hungry for more information about her. And so Adrien didn't have to ask, because he knew Adrien would want to know.