And please say to me / You'll let me hold your hand (magica x donald)

[blackmagicduck]

 Well. This was going to be awkward.

Magica had once more thrown herself into her magical studies in order to get revenge on Scrooge McDuck and his family - so she told herself, when the real answer was to make a desperate attempt to get over her break-up. It was impossible to really admit it, as it was essentially saying she gave up vengeance for love, and honestly, what kind of sorceress would do such a thing?! With that, she bottled up her heart, and began to explore the wide open world to find more power. There had to be some sort of spell, curse, hex, potion, what have you, to destroy what Donald had done to her and then she'd be pure Magica again, all darkness. She'd gone halfway across the world in her quest, and instead of finding a cure...

... She found the disease. She found Donald - and then wondered what she had done to make the gods so pissed off at her. (Aside from the usual stuff.) Not only that, he was alone, injured, and without some help, he was a dead man. To be fair, the worst part of her reasoned, if you did leave him like that, he'd die and then you'd be free of him. There was no logical reason to do anything about it.

There was also no logical reason to pick him up and take her to her temporary place of residence - and yet she found herself carrying him away and mentally swearing at herself with every step. For all her magical prowess, she really knew nothing about healing magic. After all, she was an evil sorceress, why would she have wasted time learning how to heal people? So she had to do it the old fashioned way, with gauze and bedrest, while flipping through ancient texts to find anything of use.

Still, she knew she had to brace herself for when he woke up. No doubt he'd accuse her of kidnapping, hostage-taking, or any number of things. (Which you could do, the worst part of her tried to reason again, use this to your advantage! but she knew she wouldn't.)

This was going to be a long, long day.

Comments

[allthebadluck]

"A day...?"

That meant he had been separated from Scrooge and the boys for over a day. That meant that they could also be hurt or in trouble for over a day, and he wouldn't even know about it.

"Is...Is there any way you could find them?"

[blackmagicduck]

Magica rolled her eyes. Here he was, at death's door, at the behest of his enemy, and still making demands. Still thinking of others.

"Fine, but that's the only request you get today." So he better shut his trap about wanting anything else. With a bored wave of her hand, a cloud of black smoke suddenly swam from her fingers, swirling around until it formed a black hole - and showed a vision inside.

It showed a campsite, built by Scrooge and the boys. They were worried, but trying to pretend everything was okay. Donald was smart and brave and strong, surely he was fine, wherever he was... they'd just like to know where "wherever" was.

[allthebadluck]

He sat up a bit when they came into view, though he winced as it sent another wave of pain through his body. He studied the image, taking in everything he could. They looked all right, at least, tired and worried but none too worse for wear.

Breathing a soft sigh, he lay back, finally able to relax a bit more. "Thanks," he murmured.

He wished he could get a message out to them right now, but he would have to settle for this until he was better. As much as he hated to agree with Magica, he knew she was right about not being able to move him with his injuries. And even if he thought Magica would reach out to them, that would probably raise even more concerns.

For now, he would just have to wait until he was better before getting back to them.

[blackmagicduck]

"Whatever." She didn't like being thanked. But if he was up, he probably wasn't going to fall back asleep so easily.

She rolled her hand around, and one of the walls began to turn, flipping out a small table with bread and water. Nothing terribly fancy, but given his condition, it was best to keep his meals simple for now.

"Don't eat too much or too fast. If you get sick, I'm not cleaning you up."

[allthebadluck]

He eyed the bread and water, and he couldn’t help feeling a bit wary. While he knew that she wouldn’t kill him if she hadn’t already, he wasn’t entirely convinced that she wouldn’t try to use a love potion on him.

Still, seeing the food now reminded him that he hadn’t eaten in a while, which his stomach began to loudly protest to. Somewhat embarrassed, he took the bread and tore it, slowly eating a small chunk of it.

[blackmagicduck]

At least he stopped talking. Now she could concentrate... as much as she could, with him in the room. She silently read, trying to locate anything that could speed up the healing process without making things worse. But even that wouldn't be easy - she couldn't exactly afford to experiment on him. If she got it wrong, what if she killed him - or worse?

She grumbled quietly, another page turned. Why did mortals have to be so flimsy and weak, anyway? That was their own fault.

[allthebadluck]

Taking a sip of water, he glanced up at the sound of her grumbling.

"Not finding anything?"

He wasn't sure why he felt like pushing his luck, especially with trying to have a conversation with her. Maybe he was just bored and needed something to do.

It wasn't like he wanted to talk to her, not at all.

[blackmagicduck]

Magica closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Maybe a sleeping spell wouldn't kill him...

"If I did, I would have done something already, obviously. This is an entirely new kind of magic. It's like... if you spent your entire life perfecting the study of the ocean, and now all of a sudden you need to be an expert on plants, and they are two different things!"

[allthebadluck]

That had him tilting his head. “Are those books you already owned?”

[blackmagicduck]

"I wouldn't be caught dead with these a week ago." She admitted, holding one up - it was a green tome that smelled of the earth and looked like it was being held together by bark and leaves. "But I had to... get them, so I did."

She totally stole them.

[allthebadluck]

He suspected how she managed to get ahold of the book, but decided not to say anything. Whatever got him healed up and back to the boys faster.

He should just roll over and go to sleep...

“Seems like it would’ve been Abby’s kinda thing.”

....or just stick his foot in his mouth, that works too.

[blackmagicduck]

"We. Will not talk. About Abby." Her voice cuts through sharp as a knife, as if debating whether or not just to dump him outside.

[allthebadluck]

He hesitated, not even sure why he brought that up. Maybe it was not being able to talk about the truth with anyone back home, too embarrassed to admit Abby’s true identity. Or maybe it was something he wanted to talk about, to put it to rest.

Or, most likely, he just wanted to see her hurt as much as she did.

“Why? Did I strike a nerve?” he retorted, some venom dripping in his tone. He knew he was really pushing his luck, but he really didn’t care right now.

[blackmagicduck]

"What is wrong with you?" Aside from the obvious. Now she was on her feet again, fingers digging into the book so tightly there was a chance she was ripping the delicate paper.

"What, you want me to say I'm sorry? You think if we just talk it out, I'll turn over a new leaf and we can live happily ever after with your uncle's blessings? I, AM, NOT, A, GOOD, PERSON." Understatement of the goddamn century, punctuating each word by pointing to herself.

"She wasn't real, so what happened with us wasn't real!"

[allthebadluck]

That should have been enough. She admitted that what they had wasn’t real. He should have left it at that.

Instead he sat up some, despite the pain that flared throughout his body. Right now, the anger overshadowed everything else.

“You think I don’t know the kind of person you are? I know you’re terrible! You were always attacking my family, and then you did...that! I know you'll never change! But don’t tell me that it wasn’t real, even if only for a bit!”

He wasn’t sure what he was even sayin anymore. Maybe he just needed to know that he hadn’t been the only one heartbroken from it all.

[blackmagicduck]

Was he actually going to aggravate his injuries and make them worse just to justify their "relationship"? Frustrated, she stormed over to his side, trying to force him back down again. "I'm not going to have you kill yourself just because you can't get over a bunch of lies!"

She'd chain him down if the temptation was strong enough.

"I used you, I tricked you, you were nothing but my pawn!" Hands on his shoulders, trying to get him back down. "You should have nothing in your heart for me, except for hatred! You should want me dead!"

[allthebadluck]

He grabbed one of her wrists, glaring up at her. "What's it matter to you? If I was nothing but your pawn, why do you care if I live or not? Why even bother helping me?"

[blackmagicduck]

"Why are you questioning it?" She refused to answer, trying to snatch her wrist free. "Why do you always have to have an answer? Can't you ever just shut up and accept things?"

[allthebadluck]

"Why should I just accept it?" Despite his injuries, he had a pretty strong grip. "You lied to me before. So why should I trust you now?"

[blackmagicduck]

"Because you don't have a choice!" Magica snarled, her eyes almost glowing in their anger. "You're a mortal, I'm the magical sorceress, I'm the one in charge, not you!"

[allthebadluck]

He snorted. “You may have been lying when we were dating, but you should know me better than to that. I’ve faced a lot of things that are scarier than you.”

[blackmagicduck]

Magica's eyelid twitched. "You've got five seconds to let me go."

[allthebadluck]

He waited about four seconds before he finally released her wrist, if only to lay back more to keep his head from pounding more than it was.

Maybe aggravating her wasn’t the best idea, but it made him feel better. At least when his head wasn’t hurting so much.

[blackmagicduck]

Magica rubbed her wrist, and sat on the bed, looking away from him. "Why did you always have to be so stubborn." But it's a depressed mumble, acknowledging this was one of his worst, and best, traits.

[allthebadluck]

He gave a snort, opening his eyes to look at her. “Must be a genetic thing.”

Because they both knew being stubborn ran in his family.