londoncallingrpg

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OTA

And so she had become the Forgotten Queen of the Trooping Fae. Her grandfather's passing had come at a price and now she was some sort of royalty she didn't quite understand and Fin had gone blind again. It was nearly too much to take but Pippa was carrying on. What else could she do? The facts were the facts and no amount of fuss would change it. And she'd tried. She had power coursing through her now, all the time she felt it, and she'd tried to restore Fin's sight. It didn't work. Of course not. Why would it?

And then the dumb twit had gone back to stay with his stupid boyfriend. Pippa was outraged about that and she'd told Fin so. And that didn't work, either. Of course not. And so on that front she bit her tongue. Fin knew how she felt. It had little to do with keeping him close and everything to do with keeping him out of the treacherous prince's arms.

Pippa sighed softly and looked at her mobile that had just chirped. He newest client wanting a progress report. She needed something more concrete and so she sat down at the cafe on one of the dwindling nice days of the London summer, and she texted her client back.

It was striking, just how much she looked like Fin. And, of course, she'd been all over the papers thanks to the paps hounding Fin about his drug use and his blindness. The gentleman at the next table actually had a copy of the daily rag and she smiled at the photo on the cover.

If only life could be as dramatic as the paper made it seem. If only being queen meant something...

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Pippa laughed outright at that. Since she had her phone out and on, she hit the gallery button and pulled up a selfie of the two of them making a silly face, close together on the sofa.

"He's my brother," she said through her laughter. "I'm Pippa."

Anael looked surprised and delighted, and chuckled at the picture, before looking up at her. "It's lovely to meet you, Pippa. I'm Anael," he told her, going for his preferred name rather than the one he mostly used with humans. She was Fin's sister, after all. He sent a quiet prayer of thanks to God for the random encounter.

"It's lovely to meet you, too," she replied. "How do you know Fin? Since that sounded like an afterthought I'm going to guess it's not from the business."

The 'business' being the stage and screen. She knew too many actors, directors, writers and producers thanks to Fin's ties. This man didn't feel like any of those sycophants. In fact, he felt strange and new. Her magic was still new to her. She'd honed what little she had had, but now that she was Queen she had more magic than she knew what to do with.

"Oh, no," Anael answered immediately, as if the idea of him being 'in the business' was really quite ridiculous. Well, it was. "No, we... met at a party," he remembered with a smile. "A fundraiser I was attending with a friend. He was there to promote one of his plays, and having a miserable time of it."

"Well, then, Im glad he found you at the party. He's always been better at one-on-one rather than trying to entertain a whole party of people. We have that in common. My dream evening is a night in with wine and good conversation."

She'd been to plenty of parties and could do well being sparkling as she mingled, but it always exhausted her to put out that much effort.

Anael laughed at how much those words spoke to him, and of many evenings with Coby. "I can't say that I disagree. So what brings you to London, Pippa? Fin said that you did not live here."

"I've actually lived her for some time. But he and I...well, there for a while it was complicated. But now we're together and things are all put right," she said, vague but upbeat nonetheless.

"I'm a private investigator now. I work out of my home which gives me plenty of time to make up for lost time."

"Good," Anael stated with a genuine smile. "He can always use more love in his life. How is he? It's been a while since we saw each other." Anael could not have said exactly how long, but he thought he might want to stop by his home later, see if he was around.

"He's good, considering..." she replied. Since she hadn't heard of Anael she had a feeling Fin hadn't seen him since...well, since he could see.

"Big changes," she said. "He's lost his vision again. This time there won't be a cure. It's impossible now."

Anael frowned at the news, genuinely considered. "What's happened?"

Pippa knew better than to blurt out their fate, the roles they found themselves playing in life. The Forgotten Queen and The Blind Prince meant so much when one knew the whole story. Or she might sound like an absolute nutter, not to mention she didn't know if she could trust a veritable stranger with such a tale.

"Oh, you know," she said blithely with a vague wave of her hand. "He took a turn for the worse. I'm sure he'll tell you when you see him."

Anael opened his mouth to insist, but then closed it, and nodded. "Of course." She didn't know him, and might think him human - or, maybe, one of Fin's enemies. He only hoped that his friend was all right. What if this new blindness was the result of another attack? Anael pushed the memories of that day aside to ask Pippa, "But please. Is he safe?"

That made her smile gently and give a nod.

"Yes. Now he's safe as houses," she assured him. "We all are."

Anael held her gaze for a beat, and his countenance softened, until he nodded. "Thank you."

It was odd the way those two little words made her back itch. She didn't know why, but figured that it had to do with her new position in the world. Lately any time anything was strange or unknown she just chalked it up to her new magic.

"Of course," she said. "It's good to know Fin has people in his life who care about him. His safety. More than I realised when we found one another again."

Anael smiled again, nodding approval. "Yes. That is very good to know." The more people loved Fin, the better.

Admittedly, the more people loved, the better.

"I haven't seen you around much. You should come over. He needs friends right now," she said, gentle but with direct pressure to hear a yes to her suggestion.

"I was thinking, even before you told me, that I ought to stop by and see if he was home," Anael told her with a small smile.

"You don't just want to sleep with him," she asked, but it wasn't a question, it sounded more like a command. "Because he doesn't need any more of that right now."

Something in her gut told her that wasn't it at all, but she was protective of Fin and couldn't help herself.

Anael frowned at the question that wasn't one. "No, I don't." He was so taken aback that he couldn't think of anything else to say to that. He never just wanted to sleep with people.

"Okay, good," she said with such finality that it was put to bed.

"So tell me about yourself, Anael," she said then, setting into a proper vetting.

Anael could serve her the usual lies, but he did not want to. She was Fin's sister. He simply gave her an apologetic smile. "That's not something best discussed at a crowded café, I'm afraid."

"You know that's too tempting to pass up. Let's find somewhere more private then, shall we?" She took one more sip of coffee then gathered her things. The answer would, of course, be yes.

Anael had never got a drink here, but even if he had, he would not have minded abandoning it to go somewhere else. "Where are we going?" he asked curiously as he stood, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"Actually we aren't far from my flat. Why don't we go have a chat. It'll be quite private," she said. And, honestly, she'd be a bit more comfortable in familiar surroundings...just in case.

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