"Lovesong", The Cure

I leaned towards Aidan. "Are they... talking?"

He raised his eyebrows. "It sounds like it."

Sonia and Carlos were inspecting the mansion in order to plan a magical protection for the shelter. We needed both their expertise, but I had anticipated a lot of curses and cigarette smoke. And even if the atmosphere was indeed thick, nobody was screaming. Yet.

"Do you think things are better between them?" Aidan asked.

"I mean, it is hard to tell with them. There is a lot of love for sure. I wish they could be friends even if they are divorced."

"Twice," Anna interrupted our whispers.

Both our heads snapped towards her. "What?" We said at the same time.

"They got married twice. Once when they were very young. It was over after just a few months. And then years later. And they divorced again."

"Sonia told you that?" Aidan asked.

Anna snorted. "Are you kidding me? No, Carlos told me. He was so cute. Sheepish as hell, and it's so clear he's still smitten."

"She is too," I nodded. "For Sonia, looking annoyed is a love language. And she looks really annoyed with Carlos."

"We're shipping them, right?" Anna said with a smirk. "We totally do. I mean, I love them both."

"Definitely, but we have to be more discreet because they are looking at us, right now," Aidan warned us.

I plastered an innocent smile on my face and walked towards them, hearing Anna giggling behind me.

"So what is your verdict?" I asked the magician and the sorcerer.

Sonia squinted her eyes and got rid of her cigarette. "We have a plan."

I looked at Carlos, who had a big smile on his face. "I'm going to take care of the sorcerer side of it of course and we have some ideas for the different magics not to create a short-circuit. Ikshan has some objects that can help us."

"Fantastic."

I turned towards Sonia and her lips curled slightly upward in agreement.

"We just need some rehearsals," Carlos added. "We want to be sure that the spells will be done safely. These things can be dangerous. Sonia has incredible control over her magic, but I would not want to mess things up."

I opened my mouth to reassure Carlos, but Sonia beat me to it. "You won't mess up. You could do that in your sleep."

Carlos' eyes widened, and I stayed silent to let him savor this moment. After a second, Sonia seemed to realize the effect of her words and added: "If you can just focus for ten seconds in a row of course."

I could not help but smile, and Carlos rolled his eyes. "I can focus, thank you very much. Do I have to remind you of the seven hours in Prague? All of it because you had to take a cigarette break at the worst moment."

Sonia huffed. "And why did I have to take a cigarette break exactly? Yeah, let's not forget this part."

"Oookaay," I interrupted. "You are both incredibly talented. I have no doubt in my mind that the shelter will be the safest place in the world with your help. Thank you both so much."

Carlos' face relaxed, and he smiled. "Don't mention it."

Sonia nodded, and she casually came back to her technical discussion with Carlos.

When I left them again to join Aidan and Anna, we all kept watching the riveting Sonia and Carlos show from afar.

"We should have brought popcorn," Anna said.