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[youngpadawan]

Harry had done a thing. This was definitely a Harry thing. If she had to guess on how much of a stupid Harry thing that Harry had done? It was definitely at about a nine, which on the Scale was akin to wearing a leather and metal bikini around a giant fugly slug creature. So, Harry had done a thing Again and she had to pick up the pieces. In her towel. Yeah, Harry had definitely done a thing worth killing for. Or at least Mom level of scary glare at him.

"And he would've gotten away with it to if it hadn't have been for those darn pesky kids, come on Obi-Wan not really getting the whole point of this little lesson!" Molly said to the air, raising her hands above her head and almost giving a couple of hey, faeries and just her kind of faeries. "You guys want to help a girl out and in return I promise I'll buy you guys a slice of pizza?"

Yeah, who was the big bad faerie tamer that would be her. Now, all she had to do was get some clothes, get her magic on and find her stupid ass Captain oh Captain. Wherever he was, he better have his damn coat on him because it was cold. And was that a door? She was definitely going to exit stage right because damn that place smelt like coffee.

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[wizard4hire]

I thought about that for a moment. There was a time, in a place similar to this, where she spent a lot of time at my place. That's what I hate about memories like that. I'm sitting here talking with my apprentice who was my girlfriend in another time and place. This is just way, way too weird to deal with.

"You can stay for tonight," I said with a nod. "We can find you a place close by tomorrow."

[youngpadawan]

"That's-" Molly opened her mouth to say something before she changed her mind. There was no point arguing with him besides she still had training to do, he still had to help her with her control. "-cool. Could we go now? Only if I wasn't wearing the coat everyone would be able to count my piercings. All of them."

And Harry had seen pretty much all of them, maybe one might have escaped his notice.

[wizard4hire]

"Why don't you get a change of clothes and then we'll go," I said. One of us may have been entirely comfortable with her being in a towel and my jacket, but that one person was not me so she was going to have to get some actual clothes. And some shoes.

[youngpadawan]

"What just borrow them from who exactly? The guy with the fauxhawk and kilt?" Molly asked raising an eyebrow at him. "We can get clothes on the way, right? Or you could just lend me a shirt until tomorrow when I can go actual shopping."

[wizard4hire]

"People always show up here, Maggie has spare sets of clean clothes for people who arrive," I explained. There was no way she was marking out of here in just a towel, no way.

"And I bet if you asked nicely, fauxhawk would give you his kilt."

[youngpadawan]

Muttering a fine, Molly scuffed her bare feet beneath the table before finishing his mug of coffee. Sliding out of the seat, the coat slipped a little before she tugged it tighter around her. Looking across Molly smiled and shook her head.

"Nah," Molly replied before leaning in to whisper into Harry's ear. "You're more his type than me Boss."

Giving him a mock salute, she headed towards the back to see if she could get some clothes and only returning once she found something decent. Well, decent wasn't the best word. She kind of looked like a Goth Sexy Catholic Schoolgirl, which in some ways she kinda was. Tugging Harry's coat back on, she ducked back into the cafe before finding him.

"Better?" Molly asked.

[wizard4hire]

The towel had covered more, but I wasn't all that surprised at her choice in clothes. I wasn't sure if that outfit wasn't just to spite me though, in which case I was definitely not rising to the bait. I had a lot of experience with not rising to bait. Of course, sometimes I swallow the bait hook, line, sinker, and pole.

"Works for me," I said, standing up from the table and nodding to her. "We're not too far from here."

[youngpadawan]

Ahuh and there went her ego getting stomped and crushed by Harry Dresden again. He just didn't see her, no matter what she did or showed him. It was like she was under a veil and he just couldn't see who she really was and how she felt.

"Have you found anything out yet about this place?" Molly asked, following Harry. She tugged the skirt down, conscious of the lack of underwear and feeling more exposed now in clothes than in the towel. She might borrow clothes but she was not borrowing someone elses panties, that was just weird. Still, it wasn't like he could tell not whilst she was wearing his coat and coudld draw it across the stiff peaks of her pierced nipples. "Who do we need to look out for?"

In other words who had he already pissed off.

[wizard4hire]

I was really glad that she was still wearing my coat, but I know Molly and I'm pretty sure she wasn't going to borrow some underwear. It was going to take my brain a while to retrain itself not to run away with those thoughts though. Fortunately there was enough to talk about that I could focus on that. Mostly.

"It's completely cut off from our world. Our magic still works here but there's other magic too that works differently. Pretty much any supernatural creature you can think of exists here in some form or another."

[youngpadawan]

"I already met, well I kind of promised them pizza. I can't go back on my word," Molly replied, sticking close to Harry. He looked so vulnerable without his coat on. Maybe one spell on him wouldn't hurt, it wouldn't do him too much damage. Changing her mind she followed Harry out the door. It'd be interesting to see his place. "Then what has gotten you so, weird?"

[wizard4hire]

"Wait, you promised who pizza?" I asked, because promising things to other things could be bad, depending on what you promise and who you promise it to. That can be true of normal people but it can be especially true of anything that can eat your face off magically. Molly was coming along but she still had a long way to go when it came to dealing with the magical community.

"And what do you mean weird? I'm not weird."

[youngpadawan]

"Some faeries? You know the wee folk kind. It's okay, they were like Toot-Toot. I'll deliver it tomorrow," Molly replied, sticking close to Harry. They'd acted weird around her, kept calling her Winter's Lady and hesitating but they'd warmed up in the end. Spilled information and everything. "You? You are all kinds of weird, it's why we all l-" Love. Want. Want. "-like you. I don't know, you just kind of seem tense."

Around me. She could help with that... and she was not saying that.

[wizard4hire]

I wanted to facepalm, but at some point I have to let Molly start making deals of her own. I was a lot younger and dumber than her when I first started getting into that sort of stuff, so I shouldn't be too harsh on her. I just don't want her to be as stupid as I was about this stuff.

"I'm not tense, I'm just ready for anything," I said, giving her what I hope is a reassuring smile. "Tense is the poor man's paranoid."

[youngpadawan]

A small, nagging part of her whispered that she could just take if from his mind. Whatever was worrying him, whatever was making him tense she could find out if she just used her magic. She could even feel it, wanting to brush against his mind and ta- No, she wasn't that girl. That wasn't who she was, she was stronger than that.

Tugging her magic back, making it bend to her will and not its own or her stupid ass desires she got herself back under control. Harry didn't need to know, Harry never needed to know.

"Come on then, show me your home poor man's paranoid. And then I can give you back your coat, you look naked without it." Molly replied.

[wizard4hire]

"I feel naked without it," Harry admitted. Especially considering how not too long ago someone put a bullet in him, which his duster was able to protect against. Somewhat. Definitely better than his shirt and skin had been, that was for sure.

"But the place is nice. It's where the town just meets the forest, so it's isolated and it has the bonus of having a basement."

[youngpadawan]

"It's isolated? So, how exactly are we going to get me a place near it. I'm not living in the middle of nowhere on my own," Molly said. Okay, so she might have had some ulterior motives but he didn't need to know that. "It would just be easier if I stayed with you, at least for the moment until we know this place isn't secretly trying to lure us in and kill us in our sleep."

[wizard4hire]

"Not completely isolated," I said, rolling my eyes. She does have a point though about living by herself. It's one thing to have your own place in the city you've grown up in and know, another to be isolated and separated from the one person you know. I'll have to think about it.

"But we'll see. Later. For now you can crash at my place tonight."

[youngpadawan]

Molly tried not to smile too much. Damsel in Distress, thy type was Harry. Really, sometimes she just wanted to hit him for it but now? She was going to use it to her advantage. Just a little, look no magic was even involved so it wasn't even that dubious.

"Is that it?" Molly asked. "I hate to are we there yet but are we there yet?"

[wizard4hire]

"Patience, grasshopper," I said, suddenly feeling like I've been tricked into something. I don't think I just agreed to something I didn't want to do, but it kind of feels like that. I hate that feeling. Nothing to be done about it now.

"Five more minutes."

It was more like 15 now, because I was going to take the scenic route there.

[youngpadawan]

"Are we being followed? You said five minutes, this is more like fifteen." Molly said, pressing her lips together to stop her voice sounding like a whine. Fifteen minutes of him being out in the open without his damn coat and-oh. Molly stopped suddenly, glancing around before she brought up a veil and hid herself out of plain view.

She made the glamour strong and made it stick so no one, not even Harry would see through it. Shrugging off his coat, she took a step closer to him before pressing the coat onto his shoulders. There that was better. And now if someone was following them he'd be safe.

[wizard4hire]

"We're not being followed, I'm just teaching you patience," I said, trying not to sound exasperated by the fact that she's not picking up on the lesson that I totally didn't tell her about, never mind that it's on me that she hasn't.

"Good thinking about the veil and the jacket though," I told her, rather impressed at her quick thinking. It wasn't the correct reading of the situation, but it was a reasonable one and the correct response to it. "Next time you should veil yourself out of sight if you can instead of just disappearing. Maybe we should think about getting you a coat too."

[youngpadawan]

"I hate patience," Molly muttered from beneath the veil, scowling a little at Harry and pulling a tongue at him where he couldn't see her. She didn't need him to think she was being a kid about this but well, she might be. "Or I could just make a duplicate Molly and have her walking and talking beside you? Or you know an image of one. I'm getting good at the whole illusion thing, kind of need a Bad Guy to plant the image in though."

[wizard4hire]

"I know, that's why I make you practice it so much. Over and over until you don't mind it. Then, once you don't mind it, I'll still make you practice it but you won't care," I told her. Patience isn't always my strong suit, but I know the importance of it so I'm okay with it. Alright, maybe not okay but I can struggle through it if I have to.

"And you should be able to cast a veil that anyone can see."

[youngpadawan]

"But that's harder," Molly said, sighing before she concentrated and cast a veil that a rather realistic looking Molly dropping a veil and walking out of the shadowsI to walk alongside Harry and the real, hidden Molly. The only difference between the magic and the real Molly was the pretend Molly didn't seem at all bothered by her erect nipples, pressing against her shirt. It was a little cold.

[wizard4hire]

"Yup, sure is," I told her. But I'm still making her do it, because she needs to be able to do it and better she practice now than later, when I start throwing stuff at her and make her do veils under extreme duress. I had to admit though, grasshopper is good at veils. Real good. Pay attention to the little details like erect nipples, good. Which is maybe too good.