[Open - Irish Coffee]

[irishcoffee]

It's still strange to me, not being at the cafe all hours of the day. Arriving at five in the morning to start the day's baking, staying until past six in the evening to clean and right the place for the next day had been the rule.

Now it's the exception. Turns out, having someone to wake up next to in the morning makes leaving bed to mix scones the absolute last thing I want to do when the sun starts to lighten the sky.

Two assistants take care of morning and evening prep and cleaning. I breeze in around ten in the morning and head out around four when Jack comes by to pick me up on his way home.

Some days I don't make it in at all.

Today, though, I'm readying the cafe to welcome the equinox. Pumpkin spice lattes, muffins and breads. Hot cider and thick, rich stews will take the place of the chilled beverages and fruit from the summer.

Based on the smiles I see from the people coming through the doors and reading the day's menu board, the changes are welcome ones.

Comments

[wizard4hire]

I was told that I should probably go to the cafe after all the weirdness with the change or switch or whatever it was that happened to me. I didn't know if this Maggie person could fix it but the people I talked to had assured me that if anyone could, it was her.

So either things were going to go back to normal or I was about to find out I was stuck here permanently. Or at least without the means of getting myself home until the town decided it was done with me.

Moving up to the counter I drummed my fingers on the table as I decided if I should order something to be polite.

[irishcoffee]

With so few other magic practitioners in town, I know the energies they give off as well as how the elements around me react to them. With the...well, the guy that scares the crap out of me, I go on high alert. The one behind me, though, raises no alarm.

So I turn with a smile on my face. "Afternoon, Harry. It's been awhi---"

My greeting cuts off and I give my head a shake. "Interesting. Most people age the other way."

[wizard4hire]

"From what I understand, it will be at least a decade, so you're not far off," I said, giving a bit of a sheepish smile. At least she wasn't freaking out although given this place, this might not even be the weirdest thing that she's seen today.

"But yes, I'm Harry Dresden."

[irishcoffee]

"I knew that before I turned around," I say with a smile. "I recognized your magic."

I pause and look over the younger version before me. "So is it the town's magic that de-aged you or your own?"

[wizard4hire]

"Neither," I said. I didn't want to throw Molly under the bus. Once I had gotten over being so pissed at her I realized it was the sort if stupid mistake that I easily could have made.

"I was wondering if you could fix it though. Or knew someone that could."

[irishcoffee]

"Really. You just woke up this morning like this?" I feel one of my eyebrows raise then I relaxed the expression and held up a hand. "I understand if you want to protect your friend. It's not necessary but commendable, and very chivalrous. That said, no, I can't undo it. I'm not that kind of witch. My skills are limited to the elements unless they directly affect the town. I can bring people here on rare occasions, I can banish people away, but that's the extent of anything beyond the elemental."

I run through the inhabitants I know. "We have a couple of empaths, a woman who can manipulate shadows, and a demon of some sort with some freaky powers, but I didn't delve too deeply there because, frankly, he scares me."

[wizard4hire]

I let out a dejected huff as she explained that she couldn't help me. I guess I hadn't realized how much I was hoping she could fix it until now. It's one reason I had been putting this off for a while now, because once she said no I had to admit that I was stuck here.

"It wasn't this morning. It was a while ago," I said. That was the only part of the conversation that I trusted myself to reply to.

[irishcoffee]

"So you've been hoping whatever caused the age reversal wore off since then? Or were you just enjoying a second childhood?" I ask, quirk to my mouth.

[wizard4hire]

"No, it's... I'm not the older Harry in a younger body," I explained, shaking my head. That wouldn't be such a huge issue, really. I'd hate to be stuck in my 12 year old body, but going from his physical age to my physical age wouldn't have been too bad.

"I'm in my early 20's. This is the first time I've ever seen you."

[irishcoffee]

My eyelids blink several times as I take that information in. What he's telling me is quite different.

"And you're saying you have no idea how this happened at all?" I take a breath. "Because if the you I met several months ago left the town, you arrived in his place, and I had no idea either had taken place then I may very well have a very serious problem with the town's stability."

[wizard4hire]

"I have a vague idea," I admitted. "Which is slightly worse than no idea at all."

If ignorance is bliss and knowledge is power pretty much everything in between was stupidly dangerous, which is right where I was sitting. Go me.

"What we think happened isn't that I switched bodies, but that everything about me has been de-aged. Body, memories, all of it."

[irishcoffee]

I didn't even try to not smile. Even younger than I remember, I do like the guy. His sense of humor is just quirky enough to be endearing rather than annoying.

"I know a few in this town that would probably love a spell like that, so you might want to not let it get around that whatever she did worked the way it did." I thought about Levi's appearance-driven mother and shuddered. "So you were wondering if I could put the memories and crows' feet back?"

[wizard4hire]

"Something like that," I said with a nod. Honestly I was hoping she could just wave a magic wand or whatever and fix it all, despite knowing that magic didn't work like that. Sometimes accidents could be harder to fix than actual spells or curses just because of all the unknown factors involved.

[irishcoffee]

"Unfortunately, then, I can't help you out with this one, I'm sorry," I say, meaning it. I really do hate not being able to help the residents.

"I guess we should start over, huh? I'm Maggie Donnelly." I hold my hand out to him.

[wizard4hire]

"Harry Dresden," I said, giving her a smile but making sure I didn't look her in the eyes. I don't want anymore soul gazes collected than I have to have. Especially not if she's connected to this city in some way.

[irishcoffee]

It takes me a minute, and a frown, when his eyes slide off my face to some spot over my shoulder. When it clicks, I nod. "That's right. You've got a thing with direct eye contact right?"

[wizard4hire]

"If you mean direct eye contact will result in us seeing each other's souls with the image permanently burned into our memory, then yes," I said with a nod. "I have a thing with direct eye contact. Also, the cookies here are very distracting."

[irishcoffee]

"Yes, my cookies are well known for their distractive qualities," I nod with a smile to cover the shiver along my spine.

I should probably not comment on it, but I've never gotten along well with subtle. "That's truly what happens when you look into someone's eyes?"

[wizard4hire]

"Anything with a soul," I said with a not, reaching into my pocket to pull out my wallet. Joke all she wants but those cookies look seriously amazing. I can't remember the last time I had anything resembling homemade cookies.

"It's... generally not a lot of fun."

[irishcoffee]

"No, I can't imagine it would be. Do yourself a favor, if you see a really tall guy...," I stop and look at the young man in front of me. "Okay, a guy shorter than you, but still tall. Tattoo on his cheek of a bow and arrow. I don't know about the soul thing, but whatever's in that guy's eyes, you don't want to see it."

I wave at his wallet. "What's that for?"

[wizard4hire]

"Trust me, I'm pretty good at avoiding eye contact," I said with a shrug. I do appreciate the warning though because some people's souls are way more messed up than others. I don't need something like that sticking with me.

"It's for the cookies. They look really, really distracting."

[irishcoffee]

I laugh. "I keep forgetting that you didn't just change in appearance. Money doesn't work here, Harry. If you want a cookie, take it. If you want a dozen, I'll box them up."

[wizard4hire]

"Oh that's not good," I groaned, looking down at the (apparently free) cookies. Before they were just a treat. Now they were going to become an addiction, I could tell.

"Because then I can just have as many as I want, anytime I want."

[irishcoffee]

I smile at him, eyes twinkling. "Am I sensing a problem with impulse control, Harry? Or simply an extremely active sweet tooth?"

[wizard4hire]

"I've just never had ready access to homemade chocolate chip cookies," I say. That sort of thing wasn't really abundant in the orphanage and Justin and Ebenezer weren't really big on baking. I could probably hang out here all day and eat cookies non-stop.

[irishcoffee]

"I can't imagine not having ready access to something as vital as chocolate chips. It's like trying to live without air or water." I say, and I'm only partially kidding. "You don't have to worry about gorging, Harry. As long as you're here, there will always be cookies available to you."

[wizard4hire]

"Trust me, it wasn't the fear that I might eat so many cookies that there weren't going to be any left that had me worried," I said, looking at the glass. No, I'm going to resist for now and maybe come back later for a treat or something.

[irishcoffee]

"Ah," I say with a knowing smile. "You're afraid of the cookies that take up permanent residence around the midsection? I'd think your metabolism could more than handle a cookie every now and then. Especially now that it's nowhere near middle-age spread."

[wizard4hire]

"That's where you're wrong," I say, eyeing the cookies again and thinking that maybe one or two of them wouldn't hurt. "Because if I tuck my shirt in, I can stuff a whole bunch down there to carry home, making my middle bulge.

[irishcoffee]

I giggle, hands to my face. "You truly are adorable, Harry, you know that?"

[wizard4hire]

"I think you mispronounced incorrigible," I told her, although I flushed a bit at the compliment. Compliments of that nature weren't something I was used to.

"But I will take four cookies to go. Two for me and two for Molly."

[irishcoffee]

"Something tells me you're very corrigible," I reply with a wink then box up a bakers half dozen for him. He and the girl can divide up the other three later. "Molly's the one with the multi-colored hair?"

[wizard4hire]

"That depends on what day you see her," I said. Sometimes it's a surprise to wake up and see what she looks like. Not that she ever looks bad or that I even notice her hair right away.

[irishcoffee]

"I think under the phrase 'free spirit' there's a picture of her in the dictionary," I laugh. "I always admired those girls growing up."

[wizard4hire]

"Free, right. That's absolutely what I would have said too," I told her. 'Strong' and 'wild' would have seemed better to me but 'free' was probably more politically correct.

[irishcoffee]

"You know, you have this ability to say something with complete sincerity, but I get the impression you mean the exact opposite."

[wizard4hire]

"I am a wizard," I reminded her. Not that being a wizard had anything to do with that, but wizards were all mysterious and such. Granted, I was probably more Bilbo than I was Gandalf.

[irishcoffee]

"You are," I agree with a nod. "And I'm a witch."

The expression on my face is one clearly stating my disbelief that magical abilities have little to do with creative phrasing.

[wizard4hire]

"Ahhh, so you understand perfectly," I said with a nod. I've learned that if you can't convince people of your point it was best to just act like they agreed with you anyways. Or maybe it was the worst to do that. It was one extreme or the other, that was for sure.