▪︎

▪︎

The shadow fairy materialised back into a corporeal form as she walked through the front gates of Alfea, having reached the academy way before the adults in their cars.

She spotted three nervous fairies huddled together as she approached the building, along with Sky who was standing several strides away from them.

"Vienna!" exclaimed Terra, her eyes widening as she spotted the girl. "Is Bloom okay? Did you catch Beatrix? What happened?"

"Beatrix is under custody," the girl revealed with a small nod. "And yes Bloom is fine." Vienna hesitated slightly as the three fairies stared at her. "There's something off about the whole situation, but I think it's best if you questioned Bloom instead of me."

Musa furrowed her brows slightly, her eyes briefly glowing purple. "What do you mean?"

Vienna shrugged slightly. "I mean Bloom didn't look like she had been kidnapped, and she didn't actually want Beatrix to be apprehended. Just, be careful how you approach her about it."

With another nod, the girl turned on her feet and began walking towards Sky who had his eyes trained on her.

"Are you okay?" the boy questioned as she approached him.

"Yeah," she breathed out softly, turning towards the front gates as she heard the sound of tyres rolling over the gravel. "I'm gonna go and train for a bit."

As she turned, she felt a firm grip on her elbow, prompting her to turn back towards him. "Hey. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Mhmm," she pulled her elbow away from his grasp as the two cars slowed to a stop in front of them, and began making her way towards the specialist training grounds.

Vienna was mostly fine. She managed to find the stolen car and even helped bring it to a stop so Farah could trap Beatrix. She should be fine.

But something about those magical cuffs that Farah had used rattled the girl. Something about two pieces of metal completely taking away a fairy's magic just didn't sit well with her.

Not only did they dampen Beatrix's powers, but they restricted mobility in her hands. It made Vienna feel vulnerable. She knows there wouldn't be a reason for the adults at Alfea to ever use them on her, but what if they fell into the wrong hands, and all it took would be two slaps on the wrist to leave her helpless.

She shook her head as she approached the boxing bags, and pulled off the various knives and swords from her harness, and threw them on the ground a few metres away from her. She took a deep breath as she widened her stance and raised both her fists, before beginning to aggressively pummel the boxing bags hanging in front of her.

Time seemed to fly as she trained. The girl didn't even realise how long she had spent standing there as she punched the bags over and over again, and didn't even notice how the sky had significantly darkened.

"You're still here?" Vie straightened her body as she turned towards the voice, and found Sky leaning against one of the archery target boards.

"Uh, yeah. How long has it been?"

"Like." The boy pulled out his phone, the screen lighting up as he checked the time. "An hour, give or take."

Vienna nodded as she eyed his workout attire. "Any reason why you're planning on working out this late?"

"Any reason why you're still working out this late?"

Vienna chuckled softly. "Touche." She walked over to the boards holding the training weapons and pulled out a wooden sword, before chucking it towards the blonde who caught it with ease. "Come on," she spoke as she pulled off two wooden batons and turned to face him, one baton pointing towards his neck as she grinned at him. "Let's see how Sky, son of the legendary Andreas, fares in a fight against Vienna Silva."

"Oh, you're holding yourself to a high standard are you?" The boy questioned as he knocked away her baton with his sword, a grin of his own growing on his face.

She smirked and shrugged at him. "Someone has to."

The two of them moved onto the training mat and began to circle each other. One baton rested against Vie's shoulder, whilst the other stayed by her waist, her eyes firmly trained on the boy as they continued to circle each other.

Having had enough, Vienna surged forward with both batons raised in the air which Sky managed to easily block.

Only the sound of the wooden weapons clattering against each other filled the air as they fought, with regular grunts whenever one of them managed to land a blow on the other.

"Are you sure you don't wanna talk about it?" Vienna questioned as she dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the oncoming attack.

"It's nothing big," he responded as he struck again, this time his movement getting deflected by the girl. He stepped back slightly as he spoke again. "Just an argument with Silva over an assignment, it's fine."

"If you say so," Vienna responded with a shrug, both batons held up in the air as she assessed when to strike next. "So," she began as her eyes held his gaze. "You and Bloom, huh?" She sensed his hesitation and surged forward again, successfully landing a blow to the back of his knees and making him stumble.

"Me and Bloom?" he questioned as he steadied himself, a look of confusion on his face.

"You seem to spend a lot of time with her," she elaborated as they circled each other again. "Are you trying to kiss all the girls at Alfea or is it just the first years."

"What!" he sputtered, "No, I was only with Bloom because-"

Vienna ducked quickly and swept her leg, sending the boy flying to the floor, a large thud sounding as his back collided with the mat.

"Ow," he let out slowly, his hand massaging the back of his head.

"By the way," he spoke as he looked up at Vienna from the floor, "I'm not trying to kiss all the girls at Alfea, your father told me to keep an eye on Bloom for information."

"Oh, I know," she revealed with a grin, moving her baton so it was pointing at his neck. "I just wanted to catch you off guard."

Sky raised his brow at her slightly. "Off guard, huh?"

Vienna let out a yelp as she felt her legs move out from under her and fell straight onto Sky, who simply laughed as he broke her fall.

"For the record," he began as she looked down at him, feeling his arm wrap around her waist, "there's only one person at Alfea who I wanna kiss."

"Oh yeah?" She began as she pretended to look confused. "Who's that? Riven?"

She let out another yelp of surprise as Sky quickly pushed her off him, and grunted slightly when her back came in contact with the mat.

"I wanna kiss you, dummy," Sky spoke as he hovered over her, his forearms pressed into the mat on either side of her as he pushed himself up slightly.

"Why don't you do that then, dummy."

Without another moment of hesitation, the boy ducked down, his lips meeting hers in a rushed manner. Vienna's hands moved up to hold his face, her eyes fluttering to a close as she relished in the warm sensation that consumed her.

"Was that so hard," she breathed out as he finally pulled away again, her eyes locked on his as he continued to hover over her.

"Does this mean I can kiss you whenever I want?" He questioned with an amused grin, his eyes briefly moving to her lips before moving up to her eyes again.

"Oh, absolutely."

"Noted."

▪︎☆▪︎

Sorry about the unintentional break in updates, I hit a bit of a writers block with this chapter. I hope this longer chapter makes up for it :)

I had several doubts, and I couldn't figure out whether sky and vienna's 'relationship' was moving too fast or not (im used to relative slowburns). I also kinda hate this chapter, idk.

A different note, I published an acotar/azriel fic!! Updates will be much much slower than this fic, but I'm very excited for it.

Hope everyone is doing okay btw!!

A x

Oh I forgot to say!! Thank you so so SO much for 50k reads!!! I love you all so much <3