I rushed out of the parking lot, tires squealing as I made a left turn onto the main road. Anger coursed through my veins and I tried to calm myself with some method breathing. Ailis had gone too far. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the leprechaun's red hair hanging low as he hid, what could only be, a wallowing expression on his face.

"Miss, can I please come to the front seat?" He said the most proper voice he could muster. I shook my head, a slow hiss of air escaping from between my teeth.

"No." It felt harsh but honestly, I couldn't do this for more than a few days. I hated having a leprechaun, and I wished he would just go away. He slumped further into his seat, and I couldn't help but stare at his defeated frame. I knew he didn't mean to fall off of the counter, but what was he trying to rip out of the vending machine?

"Sorry." He mumbled once more. I glanced at him again before sighing.

"Okay get up here -- But only if --," I took a quick breath, his bright green eyes waiting for me to continue. "--you answer a few questions for me." It didn't take him long to process what I had said before quickly jumping to his feet. He made the leap to the center console before settling into the passenger seat. I would have otherwise chuckled at how cute he looked swooping through the car, but I was still too annoyed to break that easily.

"Anything." He muttered, It was almost like he was my husband and I'd just busted him cheating on me. The nervous tone, awkward shifts, and his obvious desire to make the situation better.

"First off, what were you doing to that poor soda machine?" My grip on the steering wheel tightened as I asked the question. There was no reason for Ailis to dig around in the back of a soda machine. He needed to learn that behavior just wasn't okay, and he couldn't just rip stuff apart.

"I was looking for gold." He mumbled under his breath like a child who was about to get punished.

"Gold... in a soda machine, didn't we already have this conversation! Just because it is golden and shiny does not mean it's gold. Anyways, isn't gold dull in the first place, why are you digging through shiny things." My rant was uninvited, but as it filled the air things got more tense. Ailis began bouncing his shoe against the seat making a tiny thump noise.

"I know." His response wasn't enough. It didn't justify any of his actions. He was still in trouble.

"Then why! That's all I want to know, why do you dig around in these places when you know gold won't be there." Ailis thought for a moment before speaking.

"Copper." That was all he said, and I wanted to smack him. He thought this was just a game. He wasn't too worried about what was going on, and he didn't care how he affected things. I could feel the anger boiling, and his short unhelpful answer weren't helping.

"Go on." I elongated every syllable, making sure he got my point. My teeth were clenched together and I'd like to think that it made me look more intimidating.

"Faeries love to gamble for copper." He shouted in frustration. I hadn't realized how much of a teenager Ailis was. I wondered who his parents were and how angry they must get with him at times. Did leprechauns have parents?

"So now you gamble?" I shot him a side glance before pulling into the driveway of my parents house. After my nightmare last night I didn't want to spend the night alone in a dingy dorm room.

"Rumple showed me." It took me a second to realize who he was talking about.

"Rumplestiltskin?"

"Ye," He responded, his thick accent making him nearly impossible to understand.

I opened the car door, jumped out quickly and slammed the door shut. Ailis jumped from his seat, watching me through the window. I turned to look at him, wondering why he wasn't out of the car already. His tiny face peered through the glass as his hands pressed against it.

"What are you doing?" I shouted just loud enough for him to hear. Rolling my eyes, I turned on my heel knowing that if he really needed to get out he could just use magic. I rushed through the living room towards my bedroom and shut the door behind me, I plopped down on my bed to destress from the date. If Nathan had been any other guy from shop class I would have been okay with just walking out like that, but something about Nathan captivated me.

My eyes fluttered shut for a moment and I slowly fell asleep. The day had worn my body out, making dreams come quicker than planned. I was almost fully gone, my body trapped in that limbo stage where you know you are asleep but you're still aware of everything around you.

In that moment, a tiny creature that had problems with personal space appeared quietly on the edge of my bed. I refused to open my eyes. I wanted to stay oblivious to the being that was walking closer to me. Once the creature was close I felt his tiny hands moving around my face. He was poking my cheek, trying to use my nose as a support, all while reaching for my shut eyelids. He tugged where my lashes were embedded in the skin yanking to the lids away from each other. Once he was staring into my eyeball I knew any chance of sleep was over. I whacked him, and he fell to the floor with a thud.

I felt bad for knocking Ailis off of my bed, but what the hell was he doing digging around in my eyes like that? I quickly sat up, ruffling the bed sheets.

"You're ridiculous." I said to the leprechaun before jumping up from my bed to snag my pajamas. Searching around the room, I looked for anything that would be suitable for sleep. My clothes were strung from one side of the room to the other. Ailis stood looking at me from his place on the floor. His eyes pleading with me like a kicked puppy.

"Mis--" He cut himself off, his tiny black shoes inched their way forward towards the leg of my bed. His small hands barely fit around it as he began his ascent.

"What?" I snarled at the frightened leprechaun, and he stopped in his tracks, body hung on the post like he was stuck in suspended animation. I rolled my eyes. Once I had secured some pajamas, I quickly slipped them on before heading back to bed. Picking the Leprechaun up by his jacket, I carried him to the computer desk and set him down. "This is where you can sleep."

"I need to fix things." When Ailis toned down the accent, I could almost understand him. He was right though, he needed to fix things and there was only one way he could do that, leave and never come back. "How, can I fix this?"

"You know Ailis I just really wish you wouldn't have messed with my date in the first place. I wish you would have just let it be and let me enjoy it. You were right, my life is a mess and I have no friends, so getting asked out, that was a pretty big deal. But it doesn't matter now, because as much as I wish I could go back and redo it, I can't." I ran my fingers through my matted hair, pulling it away from my face. I turned my back to Ailis, he knew exactly what he did wrong and I shouldn't have had to explain it to him. I pulled the purple covers back before tucking myself in.

I rolled so I didn't have to look at Ailis. Leaving the creature out of sight and out of mind, and I was finally able to drift back into that wonderful state of limbo. Tiny noises were coming from the direction of my computer desk but I chose to ignore them.

"You wish?" He mumbled. I pulled the blankets over my head, he wasn't letting me be and I was getting more agitated with the little man. It wouldn't be illegal if you strangled a mythical creature, right? They weren't supposed to exist in the first place.

"Yes, now leave me alone. Good night." I shut my eyes as tightly as I could, just trying to forget about tonight, if that's even possible.

Tiny green lights began to glow, my room brightened ever so slightly and I opened my eyes and tried to listen to whatever was going on. I glanced over my shoulder. He was hunched over with an orb of green light, and I watched as he rapidly whispered into his hands before throwing the light into the air. It exploded with a pop as fragmented bits of green sparkles coated the room in a glitter fueled blizzard, and before I knew it. Everything had gone black.

When I came too, I was standing outside. Cars were rushing past me, and my heart was racing. It took me a moment to figure out where I was, but when I glanced up I saw a sign for Marco's Pizza. I couldn't figure out how I had gotten here, and I was sure my memory was failing me, but the last thing I remembered was Ailis and that magical orb thing. I had been laying in my bedroom in my parents house watching him fumble over what must have been...

"Magic." I whispered into the air. Glancing down, I took note of the dress I was wearing. My hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and I could feel the heavy lashes weighing down on my eyelids. Ailis had really done it, I was going to get to redo my date. I wasn't sure if Nathan was going to be inside, but when I walked through the doors of the restaurant, I felt giddy especially because everything else was like it had been a few hours ago. I took a few quick steps into the building looking through the crowd of people watching whatever game was on tv, and there he was.

He was sitting at the same table as last time, his blond hair was pristine and it fell to the side eloquently, though he'd never hear me admit that outloud. His hands were clasped together nervously, his lips rested against them. Looking around the room as his leg rapidly bounced under the table, he seemed to waiting for something and then I realized he was waiting for me.

I mustered up all the courage I could find and finally took the first few steps down the stairs before his eyes captured mine. There they were, those golden green orbs that could kill with their intensity. He jumped from his seat and rushed to meet me at the bottom of the stairs.

"There you are." Nathan smiled and I couldn't help but smile back. Ailis had really done it. I glance over at the soda machine and realized, Ailis wasn't hidden behind it. My heart warmed at the idea that I was out on a date with Nathan and Ailis wasn't here to mess things up, and hopefully I somehow wouldn't manage to do it for him.

Nathan led me to our table before we both took a seat. I was amazed at how one tiny little monster could do something like this, but honestly, something felt off. It felt different than last time Everything looked so perfect, too perfect, when I first arrived and looking at how happy everyone was, it felt forced.

"I'm so glad you came back." My heart skipped as Nathan's voice derailed my train of thought. What did he mean back? I thought we were redoing the date. I glanced at the clock on my phone, it was forty minutes from when the date was originally supposed to start. Nathan had stuck around for forty minutes after I had rushed out. Searching the table I realized the pepperoni pizza I had started on earlier still sat motionless in the same spot I had left it.

I didn't know what to say, and I couldn't figure out how to explain everything. I glanced up at the soda machine once more, just to make sure Ailis wasn't hiding behind it. My heart nearly stopped when a service technician appeared and pulled out the same pieces Ailis had tried to .

This wasn't a redo. It was a cover-up.