Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
Captain Kent Nelson was on edge. The morning had been quiet. In fact, the entire week had been unusually calm. Ever since their last big fight, where Kent told Venus she was making his life impossible, the djinni had turned herself into the perfect civilian.
He would admit he had been a little harsh on her, he’d said some things that even though he meant, could have come out a little gentler. It had been a long day and he was tired, he hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings. She had been acting like a human ever since. There were no floating heads, no people turning odd colors, no magic potions making him shrink to 3 inches tall. Life had been normal .
She stopped “helping out” and calmed the magical shenanigans down considerably. Maybe it was a good thing that he had been rough with her. This was what he wanted, wasn’t it?
A second day passed with nothing exploding in his home and he thought he would get used to it.
On the third day he realized it had been a while since he laughed- which shouldn’t have been unusual. Before Venus he hardly ever smiled, much less laughed . But since meeting the unruly djinni, he couldn’t deny that it wasn’t such a pain to get up in the mornings.
It had been 5 days since her last mishap now and he was miserable. She acted like nothing was wrong, she was trying so hard for him. He truly felt like a jerk for coming down so hard on her. He was working on his temper and knew he should cut her some slack. But apologizing now wasn’t an option.
If he let up now all the pent up magic would come exploding out of her, and he knew it was only a matter of time before she slipped up anyhow. It was better to have it happen naturally, unnerving as it was. Every step he took, every room he went into, every person he spoke to, he did so with caution. His coffee got cold before he dared to take a sip. He was probably going to get reprimanded for not shaving this morning. He’d already received a few odd looks for poking people in the chest to make sure they were real. It’s so much more stressful when you’re expecting it , he thought.
But aside from the extreme paranoia, Venus just wasn’t the same. He felt horribly guilty. Her smiles weren’t as bright and her every move was calculated. She was acting completely… ordinary. He hadn’t meant to make her so self-conscious. He just wanted some peace, but peace was overrated. He almost wanted for a houseplant to try and kill him.
He needed to make things right with her. Sure, she was going to drive him into an asylum, but he knew she’d also break him out of it. Life just wasn’t as… bland with her.
Enough was enough, he needed to make things right by her. He went to his desk, picked up his phone to call her and apologize.
“Captain, Sir!”
The voice startled him so much that he dropped the phone thinking it had become enchanted. It was just his subordinate.
“What is it, Lieutenant?”
“You have to come see this, sir. It’s all over the news.”
Kent heard the alarm in his lieutenant's voice and he rushed outside.
He found him staring at the TV. On it was the news showing people running in the street. There was mass chaos and panic. At first they weren't showing what everyone was so scared of, had there been an attack? A natural disaster? He was about to voice his confusion when he saw it.
It was a very large foot. Reptilian. With large claws. As the camera panned out it revealed a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
There was a dinosaur loose in the city.
Kent’s jaw dropped. He didn’t need to be a psychic to guess who was responsible for this. Still, he got his confirmation when he saw a blonde head running in the opposite direction from the crowd, towards the supposed to be extinct giant reptile, waving what seemed to be a large bone shaped chew toy.
He should have been mad. He should have been furious. All logic demanded he find the bottle and cork her in for a month. But instead... all he felt were his muscles relax and a natural smile spread across his face.
She’ll fix it , he thought. He should also get her flowers.
“Come on, Lieutenant. Dinosaurs are no reason to slack off. We have work to do.” He turned off the tv and went back into his office leaving behind a gaping man behind him.
Chapter 2: The Captain and the Djinni
Notes:
Not sure if this will be confusing, but just in case, speech in italics mean a different language.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It had been three months since Captain Kent Nelson had rubbed the bottle that had poofed Venus into his life. Three months and somehow it felt like three years. There was the time that she had gotten him stuck in a Groundhog Day type time loop for two months, so technically he could say that he’s known her for five months. But he supposed he could take some of the blame for that one- she had warned him not to wish for a restart of the day just because he didn’t get his coffee early enough.
It had been three- or five- months since she poofed in and turned his life upside down. The thought made him shiver, he hoped she never actually turned everything upside down. Before her, Kent’s life had been perfect. He was one of the youngest, well decorated captains the navy had ever seen. He was financially set, he’d traveled most of the world, served his country, and had made a name for himself. He spent months at a time at sea, but he had always loved the sea. When he came home, it was to a spacious house located near the naval base. People envied his life- not that he cared as he didn’t have many friends to begin with- but his life was going according to plan.
That was, of course, until she appeared.
To be clear, Kent didn’t bring this on himself. He even thought that perhaps it had been a mistake that he had ended up in possession of the bottle, he definitely didn’t remember packing it. He must have gotten it while deployed in Batar. The glass seemed to fit their cultural style with its long neck, wider bottom, and colorful design. He didn’t remember packing it, but was not upset when he found it. Not usually one for souvenirs, Kent was confused as to how it had found its way into his duffle bag. He should have realized there was something wrong then.
It was his own damn curiosity that made him read the inscription. Arabic spiraled around the bottle reminded him of ancient warning signs- that should have been clue number two. Despite not being fluent or even confident in the language, it didn’t stop him from sounding out the words into his phone for translation.
Doubly cursed for spurning he who would love her
Time’s gate crumbles as she lies in wait
A warrior foreign to his own land proves his worth by helping his enemy
His hands shall break the bonds of confinement
Powerless to defy the laws of two worlds
حبه يمهد الطريق إلى قبرها.
The last line, however, was more illegible than the rest. All it took was the rub of a thumb to clear the dirt around the words and the smoke began to billow out from the bottle.
Kent dropped it as if it had burned him and ran for the gas mask that was still at the bottom of his duffle bag.
He thought he was going insane at first. A woman had appeared in his home in a puff of red glittery smoke. Was it possible the bottle had been covered in a hallucinogen meant to kill him? He was grateful he felt no pain and wondered perhaps if it were a strong narcotic instead? He looked for his phone but saw that he’d dropped it on the floor, completely shattering the screen.
“Master.” She spoke in a foreign language as she bowed lowly. Her golden hair cascaded across a shoulder. She was barely dressed in sheer fabrics. He noticed her outfit was rather odd and they were nowhere close to Halloween- but then again, he supposed he never had much sense of fashion.
Who was this woman and how had she gotten inside his home?
“No, you’re not my master.” She spoke again but he still did not understand. Was she speaking arabic? Her eyes, blue as a clear sky, peeked up from her bow. “You’re much more handsome than that weasel.” She stood and looked at him, head tilted as if confused or curious. “So who are you then?”
She barely reached his shoulders. Hair flowed in golden waves down to her waist. Her skin was sunkissed and almost glowed. Her lips formed a pout he had to force himself to look away from. She was radiant.
The smoke had to have been a hallucinogen and he had clearly not put his mask on fast enough. He looked all around him in search of attackers, but saw none. The woman kept speaking in her foreign tongue.
“What the hell are you wearing on your face? And what century are we in? Please tell me you have toilets. I can’t live in an era without indoor plumbing again. I definitely feel air conditioning, so that’s a good sign.”
She was babbling as if he could understand her. All his windows were closed and his doors locked. Had she already been inside? “Who are you and how did you get in here?”
“Is that english? Damn it. It’s been too long, I don’t remember english.”
She seemed frustrated. The red smoke was dissipating, glitter dusted his carpet. Were they toxins? “What was in that bottle? Anthrax?”
“Wish for me to speak english.”
She stepped towards him and he moved back raising both hands to stop her. "No, stay back.”
“What are you waiting for? Wish. English.”
She crossed her arms awkwardly high and nodded harshly as if she were going to smack her head on her forearms but stopped just short of them. But then suddenly the discarded bottle was in her hands and she was shaking it at him. It had just been on the floor. He hadn’t seen her bend down to pick it up. The toxins must have already been working on his system.
“I should call the base. Or at least get to a hospital.” Kent reached for his phone but it was completely dead. He had to seek medical attention quickly.
“Here, take it and wish for me to speak english. You should know how, you rubbed the bottle, didn’t you? Hey! Where are you going?! Oh, no you don’t!”
He grabbed his keys and headed for the door. She sounded upset. Before he could get to the door another cloud of red smoke and glitter blew in front of him. Kent jumped back as she appeared from the smoke.
“What the-”
She kept talking, yelling. Shaking the bottle at him. He had to be hallucinating. She couldn’t be real. Would it be safe for him to leave the house? He should contain the chemicals to his home.
“Back up. I don’t speak Arabic.” It made no difference, she clearly didn’t speak english. And he was trapped. The gas mask wasn’t helping. He couldn’t risk public safety.
“Make a wish. Wish! Wish! Wish!”
His mind raced for a solution but it was hard to think when she kept coming closer, insisting on something he did not understand.
“My god, do you talk a lot. I wish you spoke english.”
“Just wish for me to speak english! Oh. Well, there you go. That was fairly easy. Hi! I’m Venus. What’s your name, master?”
From that moment on Kent’s life had irrevocably changed. Venus had literally poofed into his life with barely an explanation and his previously normal life had turned into misunderstandings, coverups, chaos, and… adventure.
It had taken him a week, three visits to the doctor, and a sports car appearing in the middle of his living room for him to believe her when she said she was a magical djinni there to grant him wishes. Of course, he had to get rid of the car to avoid suspicion. It wouldn’t do to hand over the woman to the authorities. He may work for Uncle Sam, but he wasn’t ignorant to what could happen to her if such a secret got out. Or the repercussions of her power in the wrong hands.
He’d given Venus her own room and tried to leave her alone- not that she reciprocated the courtesy. But he often thought back to their meeting and, every now and then, about the words on the bottle. How cryptic they were, and Kent sometimes wondered if they were referring to him. He worried in particular about that last line that he went back to read one night.
His love paves the way to her grave.
Notes:
Leave a note if you liked it :) <3
Chapter Text
Kent had tried wishing Venus free but she said it didn’t work that way. She was to serve whoever rubbed the bottle until all the wishes were fulfilled. He asked how many wishes he had to make until she went away.
“Three, but you wished for the Maserati so you’ve only got two left.” It hurt Kent to think of the sleek sports car. He had thrown it to the bottom of the Pacific in order to avoid suspicion as to where he’d gotten it.
And while her proposal sounded easy, he had been in the military long enough to learn there was always a catch.
“What happens after I make my three wishes?”
“I go back into the bottle.”
“And then?”
She shrugged. “Wait for the next master.”
“How long does that usually take?”
Venus answered distractedly as she was staring out the window at the birds flitting around the oak tree in his front yard. “Depends. It used to be a couple of decades in between, but my last master threw the average off.”
“By how much?”
“Couple thousand years.”
Kent, who had previously been reading an article and half paying attention to the conversation, froze at her words. He lowered the newspaper and stared shocked at Venus. “How long had you been in that bottle?”
“Give or take 3,000 years.” She was still watching the birds flit around, trying to seem unbothered, but he could tell by the fist at her side she was anything but.
Three. Thousand. Years . His mind couldn’t wrap around the concept. That was before Christ. How old was she? He almost asked before he remembered women didn’t take kindly to that type of question. Instead he asked, “What did he do to keep you in there so long? And… why?”
She didn’t tell him immediately, choosing instead to grab a pillow from his couch and float her body up to the ceiling where she laid against. He noticed that was a habit of hers. Resting on the ceiling instead of the perfectly comfortable couches and chairs all around. He suspected, by the evil gleam in her eyes, she did this to annoy him. Still, he remained quiet while she chose whether or not to tell him. She did.
“There are rules to making wishes,” she began. “Most of them are silly, but then there are The Three Big Ones. You can’t mess with those.” He wasn’t aware of this fact, but by the distant look on her face he figured all his questions would be answered if he were patient and let her tell her tale.
“Adonis didn’t understand that.” Venus waved her hand and a smoky apparition of a young angry looking young man appeared suspended in the air between them. As she spoke the smoke twisted to depict her story. “He wasn’t a kind man. He was the only son of the king, though not an heir for his illegitimacy. That didn’t stop the king from spoiling him, though, and it didn’t stop Adonis from abusing his favor.” The smokey man beat other figures with a whip and laughed as the women and children cowered before him.
“I don’t know how he got his hands on the bottle but he already knew his first wish when he released me from its hold.” A wispy Venus appeared covered in shimmering orange fabrics.
“The first wish he made was for the king to die. This, in my eyes, was a stupid wish. He was illegitimate. Killing the king would do nothing but have him beat to death by all those to whom he had wronged. In any case, I told him it went against one of The Three Big Ones to never harm any living creature. So instead he wished to have more riches than the king. I granted this.”
The angry figure of Adonis was surrounded by gold and covered in jewels as he laughed and threw coins into the air. “He had twice the king’s gold and twice his land. This, however, made the king furious and he waged war on Adonis.” The king’s smokey figure turned red and pointed his army at Adonis in the distance.
“The second wish he made was for all the best warriors in history to be raised from the grave to defend him. This also was against the rules, for we cannot raise the dead. He grew angry with me then.” Adonis threw smokey furniture, jewels, and vases everywhere. “Said that I relished in his suffering. That I wanted him dead.” Adonis’s figure grabbed Venus’s and seemed to yell at her while she shook her head and tried to push him back.
Bastard, Kent thought with surprising anger.
“It wasn’t true,” she continued. “I didn’t like him, but I didn’t want him dead. I kept trying to make him see reason in his wishes but he said I was trying to trick him. In the end he wished for walls tall enough to stop the king’s army.” Smoke rose around the two figures, the male figure looking paranoid with a sword in hand and angry at the fearful djinni.
“The third and final wish was for me to fall in love with him.” She spoke the words so quietly Kent wasn’t sure he heard right, but the smokey figures confirmed her words. Adonis cornered Venus, not letting her escape. He grabbed her and tried to kiss her, but Venus flew above him where he couldn’t reach.
Kent looked up at Venus slowly moving her fingers to manipulate the smoke from his ceiling and felt his heart squeeze at the realization that 3,000 years may have passed but Adonis’s actions had left their mark on her.
“The MPA-”
“What’s that?”
“The MPA? The Magic People Association. A bunch of bureaucratic buffoons that appointed themselves guardians of the mystical. They’re the ones that came up with the rules and enforce them. They forbid the manipulation of human feelings,” she said.
“ Human feelings,” Kent repeated, questioning her wording.
Venus gave a slightly sardonic smile. “Caught that, huh?”
“They don’t forbid the manipulation of djinns?”
“Not… technically,” she said, looking at him warily.
“What’re you looking at me like that for? I don’t want you to fall in love with me. I’m trying to get rid of you.” His words may have been harsh, but his tone was light and he watched his wording taking care to not wish her away. Venus must have noticed for she smiled coquettishly back at him.
“And let you become a boring old man again? I don’t think so.”
Kent tried not to laugh but a half smile slipped anyway. “Did Adonis catch the omission?”
Venus’s smile faded as she nodded. The smokey Adonis suddenly turned a darker gray and slipped away from Venus. “What I didn’t know at the time was that Adonis’s mother had been a witch. Witches aren’t allowed in the MPA anymore, not since vacuums were invented. The witches took great offense at the degradation of brooms. They said it was bad enough that most brooms were made of aluminum and not wood, but for an electric sweeper to be allowed to exist was too great of an insult. They demanded the MPA rid the earth of vacuums but the MPA refused. Said it was a mortal creation and they had no jurisdiction over them. The witches turned to dark magic and their membership to the association has since been revoked.”
Kent pinched his nose. He swore she made half this stuff up to annoy him. “I thought this story was set 3,000 years ago.”
“Yeah,” she said in a ‘what’s-your-point?’ tone.
“Vacuums weren’t invented until the 20th century.”
She rolled her eyes. “Time isn’t always linear.”
“Of course,” he replied sardonically. “Please continue,” he added, not wanting to question her further. He’d learned the more questions he asked, the less sense her stories made.
“Turns out, Adonis had paid attention to his mother’s teachings. I guess that’s how he knew about the bottle. He wasn’t very powerful, but he wasn’t inept, and it doesn’t take much power to make a seal.”
“Why didn’t the MPA release you?”
“I was sent a notice that the seal wouldn’t be undone for two reasons. The first was that tensions were high with the new witches union, The Sweep Don’t Suck Coven, and the MPA couldn’t risk making them mad again by releasing what one of their kin had cursed. The second was that I had denied him a wish, and while it’s not one of The Big Three , it’s still a high offense and they said the punishment would fit the crime.
“At first I thought I had gotten off pretty easy.” The smoke showed Venus locked in her bottle, looking bored and restless. “A hundred years passed before I realized I had underestimated the seal.” The apparition showed Venus trying to break out of the bottle until slowly her figure stopped moving. The smoke dissipated, erasing the image of Venus curled in the corner shaking in what Kent thought were sobs.
“Then you came along.”
Kent looked up and saw Venus smiling at him. The expression was filled with gratitude and held a happiness that allowed him to unclench the fist he’d formed as the smokey version of her had looked so small and helpless trapped inside that bottle. Adonis was lucky he was long dead because otherwise Kent might go after him for retribution. Then again, if Adonis was a descendant of witches, Kent needed to be sure.
“Is he dead?” he asked calmly.
“Adonis? Yeah. They sent me a letter informing me that his dad dug underneath the wall and burned his castle down with him in it.”
“Good.” Kent said the word so fiercely it made Venus’s eyes widen. Silence hung between them as he thought about her story and she readjusted her cushion on the ceiling. “I’m ready to make my second wish.”
Venus froze momentarily, then disappeared in a puff of red glittery smoke and reappeared in the same fashion right side up in front of him. The cushion fell behind her a second later.
“What dost thou wish, master?”
“Cut it with the ‘master’ crap. I told you it makes me feel like I’m in a bad porno.” Her teasing smile was almost enough to make him blush, instead he readjusted his seat on the couch and ignored her. “You said that once my wishes are up you go back into the bottle, right?”
She nodded, though he noticed with a glint of trepidation.
“And the rules are,” he said, raising a finger for each rule. “No killing, no manipulating emotions, and no raising the dead.”
“And no fish flavored wishes. It always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.” She made a face and stuck out her tongue.
“And no fish flavored wishes,” he repeated. “I’m ready, then.”
Venus wiggled her fingers and Kent saw some glitter fly off of them. “Do it!”
“I wish for a million wishes.”
Venus quickly crossed her arms and tilted her head back to jerk it forward as he’d seen her do when performing magic, but suddenly, she stopped short. “Wait, what?”
“I wish... for a million wishes,” Kent repeated slightly slower.
“Can you do that?” She seemed completely shocked.
“You’re the djinni. Can I not?”
Venus stood staring at him, mouth slightly agape.
“Well, is it against the rules?” Kent asked again.
Venus gave a shrug.
“Well, then. I wish for a million wishes.”
Venus glanced at her bottle in his hands, a slight line in between her brows. Did she not understand why he was doing this?
“Your wish is my command, master .” She crossed her arms and bopped her head. Red smoke and glitter dusted around her bottle. Kent frowned at the way she called him master. Normally when she called him that it would be with a flirtatious smile or at the very least a teasing tone. This time she said it with such disdain it surprised him that she didn’t spit on him right after. And immediately after she granted the wish she floated up to the ceiling, leaving his cushion on the floor. The look in her eyes was almost murderous.
“I thought you’d be happy,” Kent said confused.
“That you figured out a way to keep me when Adonis couldn’t? Congratulations. You’ve won.”
“What? No!” Kent quickly stood up. “Venus, that’s not it at all.”
“Yeah, right.” With a poof of red smoke and glitter, she disappeared.
“Venus!” Kent shouted into his empty living room. “Venus, please come back!” She didn’t understand. He didn’t want to wish her back, it would do nothing to help his argument. Damn, he should have discussed it with her before making the wish. “Venus, please.”
After an hour of calling her back and receiving no response, Kent had no choice. “Vee, I’m sorry. I wish for you to come back.”
Poof
.
Her eyes were red and her make up slightly streaky. Her lip trembled and Kent forced himself to take a step back before he reached for her. The last thing she needed was for him to touch her.
“What?” she said through clenched teeth.
“I don’t intend to keep you,” he spoke slowly.
“A million wishes contradict that.”
“I did it so you wouldn’t have to go back to the bottle. So you wouldn’t have to wait another decade, or century, or 3,000 years for someone else to be released.” Kent looked her in the eyes and solemnly vowed, “I still want you to get out of my house.”
Venus’s lips twitched twice before the smile broke through and she laughed out loud. “So you don’t want to keep me?”
As sincerely and gently as he could manage Kent said, “Hell no.”
Her smile was brilliant and he breathed a sigh of relief at having the misunderstanding cleared up.
“You’re going to need to find a job and your own apartment. But you can stay here in the meantime. I think you’re gonna need to learn how to act human before I sent you out applying.”
“And your wishes?”
“I never wanted them. I believe in hard work and doing things for yourself.”
“ Pfft! Overrated.”
Venus started to ramble about how she always wanted to become a pop icon or a phone operator. He had to tell her that job didn’t exist anymore. Then she wanted to adjust teleporting machines and Kent was shocked to say that that job didn’t exist yet. He let her prattle on for the rest of the night, content enough that she didn’t feel the need to return to the ceiling.
Notes:
Leave a note if you liked it please :) <3
Chapter Text
It had been bothering Kent for a week. He tried to ignore it. He was giving Venus room and board for really nothing in exchange since he didn’t make wishes often- he didn’t count the wishes he had to make in order to undo whatever trouble she had gotten into.
They weren’t really even friends. She was a plague on his life. Maybe that was a little dramatic, but she had turned his life upside down, he felt he was entitled to some theatrics. She was an annoyance at the very least.
It wasn’t like she was the only one that had ever had a rough life. He was pretty much all alone in the world too. He didn’t even like celebrations.
Still. It bothered him. It nagged and poked at him until he couldn’t take it anymore. With a grunt and a huff he stood up from where he was working on his laptop, grabbed his keys and slammed the door on his way out. He heard the telltale ‘poof’ of her appearing behind him and without looking back he yelled he’d return in a few before she could say anything.
Twenty minutes later he walked back into his house to find an extremely curious djinni watching his every move. She followed him to the kitchen where he took out what he purchased from the large brown paper bag.
“How old are you?” Kent asked.
“That depends.”
Always with the nonanswers. He took a deep breath and pressed. “....on?”
“If we’re talking linearly, then maybe 3,013 years. Actual time of existence, 5,584 years, give or take a decade. Time spent outside the bottle? About… 22 years.”
Kent took the frosting and wrote ‘22’ on the cake.
“Happy 22nd birthday, Venus.”
Her eyes shone and a small smile made its way on her face.
“Make a wish.”
“Oh, I can’t do that! If the MPA found out-”
“Nevermind. Just blow out the candles.”
The two had a quiet night inside the captain’s home, eating cake and watching Venus’s favorite show, Bewitched . Maybe they were friends, he didn’t know. But he did know that everyone should know when their birthday was.
Notes:
Drop a note if you liked it, :) <3
Chapter Text
“Here,” Kent said, trying not to make a big deal out of the present he was making. No regular person would think the gift special, but who he was giving it to was not a regular person. He tried not to look in her direction as he handed the djinni currently sitting upside down on his ceiling- the amount of time she spent up there had dwindled some, but not enough- the gift.
“Is that a-”
“It’s for you to keep track of time.”
“Like a sand dial?”
“You know what a clock is, don’t act like you’re that out of touch with the world, and no. It’s a calendar.”
“But I don’t like calendars.”
“What year is it?”
“Depends on who you ask.”
“That answer is exactly why you need a calendar. In my world the year is 2019. It would help if you and I were at least on the same date.”
“You mortals and your time keeping, it’s silly.”
“Us mortals must make use of every day. It makes it special, doesn’t it?”
“Makes what special?”
“Life.”
Venus became so quiet Kent looked up, concerned. She still sat on the ceiling but her smirk was gone. Her eyes were low and hands were fisted in her lap.
“Did I say something wrong?”
She shook her head. His neck began to hurt from looking up at her. Kent lowered his gaze and left the living room. A few moments passed before he came back in with a ladder. He opened it up and climbed three steps until his face was in front of hers. Even upside down Venus looked sad.
“What’s wrong?” He asked softly.
“Has your life been special?” Venus asked.
Kent was speechless for a moment. While it was true that he was a more decorated officer than most at such a young age, and even though he had seen much of the world, did any of it really make him happy? That’s what special actually meant, didn’t it? To be happy?
Venus’s life was not one he’d wish on anyone. Even the prophecy carved on the lamp spelled out tragedy for her. How could a person, magical or not, find happiness with such doom looming over their heads?
“Maybe,” he said hoping to take away the trepidation from her eyes, “we could help each other make it special?”
Her somber expression quickly turned into one of curiosity and Kent tried not to smile.
“How?” she asked.
“What’s something you’ve always wanted to do?” It was a dangerous question to ask a djinni. Venus tapped her chin in thought for a few seconds before splitting into a toothy grin, he made a mental note to grab his helmet.
“There are these things called ‘bi-cy-cles’” she pronounced slowly.
“How do you know what a teleporting machine is but can barely pronounce ‘bicycle’ ?”
She waved her hand, dismissing him. “ Anyway, they say that once you learn how to ride one, you never remember. So maybe I’ve done it, but I don’t remember. So I want to try again.”
Kent opened his mouth to correct the phrase but what came out instead was, “I’ll grab you a helmet.”
Notes:
Please leave a note if you liked it, :) <3
Chapter Text
“Stop looking at me like that.” For once she was sitting on the couch like a normal person, instead of on the ceiling or floating in midair. But unlike a normal person her golden hair was turning red from her frustration.
“Like what?” He knew what he was looking at her like. She deserved the look. She deserved to have him stuff her into her little bottle and shake it.
“You know like what. I don’t need the telepathy machine to see what you’re thinking.” Kent cringed remembering the incident with the mind reading machine. Many lessons were learned that day, the importance of communication, the right to privacy, and how to defeat evil doppelgangers. He knew she’d never dare use that machine again.
“Well, Venus.” he said through clenched teeth. “How do you expect me to look at you when you pester me incessantly to make a wish for the last three days because you’re bored and when I finally cave you tell me no .”
“You’re being ridiculous.” Her hair previously turning a strawberry color was now on its way to fire truck engine red.
“You’re the one that told me you could do it.”
“I can do it!”
“Isn’t denying a wish a high offense?”
“Then report me!” He would never. She knew that.
“You begged me to make a wish, so I did. And you said it was too boring.”
“You asked for a beer!”
“I wanted a beer!”
“You could have come up with something better than that!”
“Exactly! You told me to come up with something better and then I do. And I ask you if it’s possible and you said ‘ yes’, and when I made the wish you said-“
“I’m not gonna do it!” Venus shouted, throwing her hands in the air. The tint of her hair started to spread down her skin.
He took a deep breath and squeezed his stress ball, saints didn’t have this much patience.
“Why. Not?” He bit out.
“Because the last time I brought someone back in time with me they ended up changing the future and then I had to go back again to make sure these two nerds got it on together and then I had to go back further to the freaking wild west where there was no electricity! I hate the no electricity time periods. It’s a pain and I won’t do it again.”
He just stared at her.
“You’re looking at me like that again!”
“Because you just described the plot of the Back to the Future trilogy.” If he clenched his teeth any harder he was going to break some molars.
“Don’t get me started on that movie!” She pointed harshly at him. “Michael J. didn’t even give me any credit for that one! The jerk!”
His stress ball was useless, he could feel his blood pressure reaching a boiling point. He didn’t want the beer anymore, he needed something much stronger to deal with her.
“Why do you want to go back to the 1950s anyway? They were so stuck up back then.”
Kent stared at Venus, wondering if she’d laugh at him. He wished to travel back in time in hopes of meeting his idol. Would she ridicule him for it? It didn’t matter anyway. If she said it was too dangerous then he should probably listen. Lord knew there wasn’t much that scared Venus.
He sighed, defeated. “I just wanted to try and meet Elvis.” Kent had loved Elvis from infancy. It seemed like a good idea to go catch a concert if he had a magical djinni with the power to make it happen.
Venus blinked at him. The red spreading down her chin stopped its track and quickly shrank back into her hairline.
“ Tsk !” Venus sucked her teeth. “Why didn’t you just say so?!”
“ Don’t bring him back from the dead!” He’d never get over the undead goldfish trying to raise all the flushed pets back up from their toilet. Apparently, it was only a minor infraction to bring fish back to life.
“I don’t need to bring him back.” She rolled her eyes at him and stood up with her hand out.
He stared at it, unconvinced.
“If there’s an underworld I don’t want to go to it.”
“That’s a myth.”
“You’re a myth.”
“That’s a fake myth. Now come on, if we hurry we can probably catch him before dinner. He’s really particular about when he eats.”
He frowned at her. “I meant Elvis Presley” he clarified.
“' You ain’t nothing but a hound dog' , yeah I know. Come on,” she shook her hand impatiently.
“He’s dead,” he deadpanned.
“He’s chillin in Tahiti,” she deadpanned sarcastically back.
There was a brief silence before he sat up. “Really?”
“Yes! Get up. Last time I interrupted his dinner he got spotted by the National Enquirer and he told The Magical People Association on me and I got assigned to that insufferable World Emperor Daenerys.“
“Daenerys is a Game of Thrones character.”
“Yeah, you can thank all the Millennials for that one.”
“Are you telling me that someone named after a Game of Thrones character takes over the world?”
“For like a minute.”
“What happens?”
Venus regarded him, hair turning from a deep red to a more pinkish color. She seemed to be judging him, deciding whether to tell him or not. Kent tried not to fidget under the scrutiny. “You did save me from Goldyfish. I guess I can trust you.” Venus floated up to his ear and whispered, “I get sick of my assignment and start a revolution. But keep that to yourself. Elvis is a snitch if I ever saw one.”
“And this all happens in the future.”
She nodded.
“What happens to me in the future?”
“How should I know? Do you want to go meet Elvis or not?”
A smile flickered on his face and he took her hand.
“Do you think he’d take a picture with me?”
“No, but I’ll sneak one anyway.”
“You’re the best,” he said without thinking about it.
Venus’s hair instantly turned a bright golden color. She floated up quickly and gave him a peck on the cheek. “And don’t you forget it! Now say the words.”
Kent smiled. “I wish to meet Elvis.”
She giggled and in a poof of red smoke the two disappeared from the room.
Notes:
This was the one shot that started it all LOL
Leave a note if you liked it, please! <3
Chapter 7: Rules for Cohabitation
Chapter by Cluckster
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Djinni (and human) Rules for Cohabitation
- No magic in public
- No performing magic on Kent’s body
- No using the telepathy machine (I already told you I wouldn’t.) (Just putting it down on paper to make sure.)
- No fish flavored wishes
- No wishing or performing magic under the influence
- Ceiling must be swept and mopped regularly if anyone is going to be walking on it
- 2100 - 2200 hours is Netflix Hour. If either party can’t make it they must alert the other.
- If notice has been given that Netflix Hour will be missed, present party may not watch next episode alone
- No complaining about wishes that don’t put lives or career in danger
- Create Wish-O-Meter to keep track of wishes in case they start to run short. (It’s a million wishes, Venus. We’re not going to run out.) (So says you.) (So says logic.)
- No using logic against magic
- Attempt to act human at all times when in public
- Never use magic to take the trash out
- Kent always takes the trash out
Notes:
Drop a note if you liked it pleeeease :) <3
Chapter Text
Entering his home, Kent was relieved to spot Venus in her usual spot, upside down on the ceiling, this time painting her nails.
“Welcome home,” her genuine smile washed away the stresses of the day.
“Thanks. Get into any trouble today?” He was mostly joking.
“Nothing that I didn’t fix.” Well, at least.
“Hey, Captain?” Venus floated down to his eye level while keeping her body parallel to the floor.
He had made a wish once to be able to fly like she does, just to experience it. He ended up hurling for two hours. She said it took practice but Kent didn’t see the need in honing the skill.
“What’s up?”
“I was looking at the paper sundial-”
“You know it’s a calendar.”
“I noticed six moons had passed since you rubbed the bottle.”
“I thought you didn’t care for special dates.”
“Well, I never really had any good dates to look back on.”
He felt his heart constrict. How had she been around for so long and had such few good memories. Then again, he didn’t really have many dates he himself was fond of, but she was right. The day he met Venus his life changed… for the better.
“How do you want to celebrate, then?” He braced himself, hoping she didn’t have anything too incredible in mind.
“How do you normally celebrate?”
“Depends, really. But I think a nice dinner would fit the occasion.”
“Wouldn’t you rather go to the moon?”
“Maybe when we reach a year.” He didn’t think he could handle a trip to outer space just yet.
“Fine,” she said in a way that made him realize he’d need to start mentally preparing himself for that trip. “Make your wish then.”
Kent smiled. “I wish for a feast in order to celebrate six months of knowing each other.”
Venus floated down to the ground, crossed her arms and bopped her head, covering the area around them in red, glittered smoke.
The air cleared and a table covered in food stood between them.
“Venus… what is this?”
“Your wish!”
“I wished for dinner .”
“And I provided you with a spread.”
“This isn’t-” How was he going to explain this to her? “Normal dinner isn’t-”
“Normal is overrated. This is food. It is edible. And they’re your favorite- don’t think I hadn’t noticed. No complaining over wishes that don’t put anyone’s life or job in danger, remember?”
Kent gave a sigh and threw his hands in the air. “You’re right, I know we agreed that I’d be more grateful, I’m sorry. One night of beer and cookies won’t hurt anyone.”
Notes:
Did you like it? Tell me! :D
Chapter Text
Kent had no option but to call in sick. After nine years in the military and a perfect attendance, the sudden absence raised more than one eyebrow. The last thing he needed at the moment was to call more attention to himself, but it couldn’t be helped because while Kent was perfectly healthy, his djinni had caught what she called “ The Oops Flu .”
“What exactly is an oops flu?” Kent had asked when she interrupted his morning routine by locking all the doors and shutting all the drapes in the house.
“ The Oops Flu is what happens when a djinni catches a cold.” Her worried face amused him. He hadn’t known better then. He had been a fool then.
“Take some tylenol and get some rest, Venus. I’m going to be late.” He put his coffee mug in the sink and headed for the door.
“No!” She said rushing in front of him to block his exit. “You can’t go to work! You have to stay here and make sure nothing goes wrong!”
“What in the world are you talking about? You look fine to me. Just get some rest.”
“You don’t understand! The Oops Flu isn’t like your mortal colds! It can be catas- catas- aachoo!” Venus sneezed sending a flurry of glitter shooting at the far wall of the living room.
Kent turned, following the shot of what he could only assume was magic, and saw his living room disappear. In its place was a rainforest. Everything was covered in trees, leaves, vines, and all of it was dripping with condensation. Toucans flew above him. Where his couch used to be was an orangutan. Kent jumped back when a snake slithered past his feet.
He turned back to his front door where Venus was standing with her face hidden in her hands.
“Venus.” He spoke quietly.
“Oops?” she said.
Kent felt the vein that always started to throb whenever Venus performed magic without him making a wish start to form. “Where is my living room?”
“Well, technically -”
“Venus!”
“I told you! I have The Oops Flu!”
“Rainforests don’t just appear when people have colds.”
“Not when mortals get colds, maybe.”
Kent pinched the bridge of his nose and hunched when a capuchin monkey jumped unto his back.
“Oh how cute!”
“Get it off of me!”
“Come here, little guy! Get away from the mean old man.”
“What exactly does The Oops Flu entail?” Kent asked her once she set the small animal on a nearby branch.
She twiddled her fingers and mumbled something under her breath, looking anywhere but at him. Taking a deep breath and reminding himself that dealing with the djinni required a lot of patience, Kent placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face to look him in the eyes.
“A little louder, please.”
Her eyes shone with remorse. It was not something he was used to coming from the troublemaking woman in front of him and it softened his gaze.
“When a djinni catches a cold their magic kind of goes a little berzerk. We can’t really help it, all we can do is try to contain it to one place.”
Kent nodded, understanding that she hadn’t actually meant to bring a jungle into his home. Of course it didn’t really help when a parrot defecated on his uniform.
“How long will the cold last?” He asked, taking off his jacket and hanging it on a branch.
“I’m sure it’s just one of those 24 hour bugs. I’ll be healthy as a doctor in no time!”
“That’s not a saying.”
“Well, it should be.”
Kent loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves. “Can you make it go away?”
“Don’t you wanna keep Himeros?”
“Keep what?”
“Not what, who. Himeros. The cute wittle monkey eating the banana above you.”
Kent looked up to spot the little capuchin snacking on a banana over his head and dropping pieces into his hair.
“No, I don’t want to keep any of this.” He shook the pieces out of his hair and shooed the monkey away. “Please bring back my living room.”
“Okay, but you gotta wish it.”
“I didn’t wish for any of this in the first place!”
“I know that! But the magic was cast unwillingly and I can’t undo what has been reluctantly granted without a formal solicitation due to incongruous precedents set forth by antiquated parties of The Magic People Association and therefore-”
“Enough, enough. Please. That was...nonsensical.”
“The MPA doesn’t like to make a whole lot of sense.”
“Fine. Where would you like to go so you can feel more relaxed?”
“What do you mean? Wouldn’t we stay here?”
“Is my house big enough for you to unleash all kinds of magical chaos?” Kent answered distractedly as he watched a suspiciously orange striped tree that seemed to be moving between the leaves. He began backing up slightly, noticing the orange stripes also had two pairs of eyes.
“You want to go somewhere else so that I can be more comfortable when I’m the one causing that vein in your forehead to throb again?”
“Uh, Venus-”
“That is so sweet. You know, I think we’ve come such a long way since we first met. I know that I-”
Kent wasn’t listening. He was too busy noticing that the orange stripes also had very large teeth to pay attention to her ramblings. Unfortunately Venus was too distracted by the progression of their relationship to notice the imminent danger.
“I think we should make that wish now.” He racked his brain for a location to wish them to. Somewhere remote where she could have ample space to sneeze all the magic she wanted. Kansas was where he was stationed before Los Angeles. It was mostly corn fields, not even enough farms for there to be any kind of population for miles. It was perfect.
“In three thousand years no one ha-as e-e-ever ahh-” The orange stripes- which Kent was sure was a bengal tiger now- charged from behind the trees at the end of his living room. It took two giant leaps towards them and Kent tried to get the words out of his mouth as quickly as possible.
“I wish we were in Moscow, Kansas!”
Unfortunately, that was the same moment that Venus sneezed.
“-Choo!”
Magic shot out from her mouth and the couple disappeared in a flurry of sparkle and glitter.
Kent landed on his rear half a foot deep in snow. He took a look around and saw clear blue skies, white all around him, and not much else.
“Oops.” Kent heard from a djinni shaped hole in the snow next to him. Venus popped up with rosy cheeks and wide eyes.
“Where are we?” Kent asked.
“Moscow,” she said, as if she were saying ‘duh, your wish.’
“I said Moscow, Kansas . This is Moscow, Russia .”
“It’s not the same thing?” He knew she knew it wasn’t. He also knew she hadn’t meant to mess up. Kent had learned to recognize the evil glint in her eye when she was trying to drive him insane. She was completely void of that look and instead seemed a little pitiful instead. Her small nose was even tinged a little red.
“What is all this stuff anyway?” She said marveling at all the white surrounding her.
“What? The snow? It’s winter and we’re in Russia. Everything’s covered in snow.”
“This is snow? It’s so cold!”
“You’ve been around five thousand years and you’ve never seen snow? How is that possible?”
“When you take away the three thousand years for being asleep in a bottle and then spend most of the time outside said bottle in the desert, it starts to make sense.”
Kent’s heart clenched again at the thought of her being locked away for so long. How had she not gone insane? Well, maybe she was a little crazy, but nowhere near the levels of insanity she had all the right to be at. But she was out now and he was going to make damn sure of her freedom for as long as he possibly could.
“Well, then. Venus, I wish for both of us to have cold weather attire.”
Venus looked a little surprised at his suddenly determined attitude but acquiesced. She crossed her arms and bopped her head. Instantly, they were both adorning fleece insulated pants and thick wool sweaters. Kent wore a black, puffy, insulated coat while Venus fashioned a fur lined parka. Each had mittens and beanies on their heads - Venus’s with a little puff on the end of course.
“Perfect.” Kent said. “How about a cottage with a fireplace so we can warm up?”
“What if I conjure up a volcano instead?” Venus worried.
“Then I’ll wish it away.”
“But what if the dragon gets us before we can make the wish?”
“Dragons aren’t real.” The look Venus gave him made Kent doubt his entire existence for the millionth time since meeting her. “Okay, okay. Let’s keep it simple then. I wish for an igloo.”
Venus swallowed heavily, and shakily crossed her arms. She bopped her head slower than he’d ever seen her do before, in obvious concentration. Once the red smoke dissipated, Kent saw she had succeeded and they were inside an igloo.
“See? You did great!”
Venus smiled… and then sneezed. Magic shot out of her nose and smoke billowed around Kent’s hand.
“Oops.”
As the red smoke dissipated, a spatula was revealed in his grip. They both stared at it for a few seconds before the weirdest thing happened. A noise bubbled out of Kent’s throat. His shoulders began to shake. And before he knew it, Kent was laughing. When was the last time he laughed this hard? It felt wonderful. It wasn’t long before Venus joined him.
The rest of the night was spent mostly in the igloo, keeping each other warm and laughing at whatever Venus sneezed. There was a point where she transported them to the top of The Statue of Liberty, but Kent liked the change and they stayed there until Venus felt well enough to get rid of the jungle in his house.
She told him later that week that she was happy to have been found by a master like him.
Chapter 10: A Trip to the Mall
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
What was the worst that could happen, Kent thought. If he’s observant enough it’d be a normal outing, he’d said.
He was an idiot. Never take a djinni to a mall. He should have it tattooed to his forehead.
It was a calm, quiet Sunday morning. The sun was shining through the living room, it was the first day in three weeks he hadn’t had to report to the office. The last month had been so busy he had barely seen Venus. She had been keeping pretty quiet and to herself in order to help him out. She had of course tried relieving him of work at first, but after turning the base into a real life 8-bit video game, she agreed to stop helping. It wasn’t easy convincing his superiors of mass roofing an entire military base, but it was all he had.
Here was a quiet morning, an entire day for him to relax. He made himself a coffee and laid down on his couch, ready to do absolutely nothing for the foreseeable future. He took a deep breath of air conditioned oxygen and tried not to wonder where the troublemaking magic woman was. A few seconds of complete silence passed and the wondering turned into worrying.
Just forget it, Kent. Whatever she’s doing, it can’t be that bad.
The world was still standing… wasn’t it? His eyebrow began to twitch and he couldn’t take it anymore. He opened his eyes and was faced with footprints. On his ceiling. Why were there footprints on his ceiling?
He shut his eyes tightly again. Nope. Just ignore it. It doesn’t matter. She had to clean it later, it was in the rules.
Except that there weren’t just human footprints, and he couldn’t rest not knowing what she was up to.
“Venus?” he called out.
“Yes, captain?” she poofed next to his face, so close Kent jumped up into a sitting position.
Calming his pounding heart, he asked. “Why are there footprints on my ceiling?”
She looked up and frowned. “Damn. I knew I missed a spot.”
“A spot?! What the hell have you been up to?”
“Oh, nothing. Just hosting spider-creature parties. Hey, I just realized. You’re home. How come you’re home?”
“What are spider-creatures?”
“You know, spider-men, spider-women, spider-bears, decorative spiders, regular spiders. Are you off today?”
Looking at the footprints trying to understand what she was saying, he confirmed her question by nodding.
“Does that mean you can take me to the mall?!”
“The mall? Oh, I don’t know.”
“Come on! I need new outfits!”
“You make your own outfits.”
“But how do I know what’s in fashion anymore. You can’t keep me cooped up in here like some kind of prisoner.”
He looked at her seriously. “I don’t want to do that.”
Her face scrunched up. “Aw, no! Don’t look so sad about it! I was trying to guilt trip you but it worked too well. I didn’t mean it.”
Kent sighed. “You really want to go?”
“Pleeease?” she pouted.
“Alright, alright. Let me change.”
POOF .
In a puff of red glittered smoke, Kent was dressed in jeans, a button up, and his hair was perfectly gelled and styled. He could even smell his cologne on him.
“Anxious?” He meant to tease her, but stopped short when he saw her.
In her magical dust cloud she had also fixed herself up. She was in a white sundress, appearing like an angel he knew she certainly wasn’t. The dress actually fit her very… very nicely. It took a clearing of her throat to snap him out of it. His cheeks flushed and he avoided her knowing smirk as he led her towards his car.
How was he supposed to know how the day would turn out? Sure, he was aware that she usually caused a mess wherever she went, but it was usually just that. A mess. Not complete pandemonium.
At first things had gone smoothly. He purchased her 2 dresses, a pair of sneakers, and a pretzel she had been devouring the last time he saw her. But that had been a while ago. He’d been searching for her for at least 10 minutes before he heard the gasps and followed the sounds instinctively knowing she was the cause of them.
Venus had found the mall fountain. The one where everyone threw their pennies in to make a wish. She was standing in the middle of it, soaked head to toe, dress completely see-through- and entirely distracting- picking out pennies from the fountain. She had a crowd of onlookers, everyone from staring men to laughing women, all amazed by the occurrence.
He would have simply helped her out of the fountain had he not seen what she was doing. Her head was jerking at every penny she picked up. With startling realization, Kent understood she was granting wishes.
He ran forward three steps before surprised screams sounded to his right. He looked and almost fell flat on the ground. There was a young girl sitting atop an actual, real-life unicorn. Her mother was staring jawslacked at the phenomenon. He needed to get that djinni out of the fountain.
Kent heard elated screaming and saw people running outside. He looked to see what the commotion was and heard the yells. “IT’S RAINING MONEY!” the people were saying.
Shit. He needed to get her out and get her out fast .
After fighting the crowds trying to run him over to get outside, he reached the fountain out of breath.
“Captain! Look at this! This pool is made of wishes! It’s amazing. This one wished for an ice cream!” Venus bopped her head and Kent assumed some child somewhere had just gotten their dinner ruined. “And this one just wants to lose 20 pounds.” Another head bop. “And this one-” she frowned. “I’m not granting this one!” she threw the penny back into the fountain and crossed her arms looking upset.
“Venus, please. We have to go. Undo your wishes and let’s get out of here.”
She wasn’t listening to him. “The nerve of some people. He doesn’t like you!” She yelled in the direction of the discarded penny.
“Venus!”
“What?!”
“Stop making it rain pennies, it’s a hazard! And get rid of the unicorn and any other ridiculous wish you made come true.”
“What’s so ridiculous about unicorns?”
“They don’t exist.”
“Yes, they do.” She frowned in confusion.
“Sure, and dragons are real too.” Her facial expression didn’t change and Kent decided he didn’t want to know anymore. “Venus, undo all wishes. Please!”
The dripping wet djinni rolled her eyes before crossing her arms and bopping her head fiercely. He was grateful everyone had run outside to grab the money as red smoke covered the fountain and he noticed the water glittering. She looked exhausted from the effort of granting and ungranting so many wishes at once so Kent climbed into the fountain and helped her out. He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his body to lift her out of the fountain.
“We’re going home, alright?” He wasn’t really asking but phrased it as a question so he wouldn’t sound too harsh.
Venus nodded sadly as he put her on the ground. Kent slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders to cover her ruined dress and protect her from the chill. She stumbled forward and he quickly caught her from falling. She held onto him tightly with a grateful smile and Kent was content to hold her close all the way back to his car- to make sure she didn’t get dizzy and fall, of course.
They rode back in silence, ignoring all the sad people in the street looking for the money they thought they had caught. Kent berated himself for thinking the mall would have been a good idea. He reminded himself that Venus did better in less crowded situations. Their trip to carnival being the exception because with so much going on, no one noticed the girl making magic with her hands. He needed to take her to places like private beaches or small theatres. She wasn’t used to the 21st century, despite her having lived past it. He needed to ease her through it. He also noticed she had looked particularly upset since finding the one penny she threw back.
“What was the wish?” he asked.
She looked at him questioningly.
“The one you threw back,” he clarified.
“Oh. Nothing.”
“Not nothing. It upset you.”
Venus shrugged and Kent waited for her to respond. It didn’t take her long to cave.
“Someone just wished for a call.”
“So? What’s the big deal? That’s not manipulating feelings, is it?”
“No, not really...”
“So, why didn’t you grant that one?”
Venus pursed her lips and Kent became very curious as to what information she was hiding.
“Because!” she exploded. “Do you like the mail lady?!”
“What?” he asked, confused.
“That’s who it was! The mail lady wanted you to call her.”
“We have a mail lady?”
He wasn’t sure what he said or did, but Venus’ mood shifted entirely. From the sad and upset demeanor she had moments ago, she quieted quickly. A small smile spread on her lips.
“What?” he asked, very confused.
“Nothing,” she said with a smile. “You wanna go to France for dinner, tonight?”
Kent swore he got whiplash from her moodshift. He didn’t understand anything. Why was she happy he didn’t know who the mailman- or lady- was? Why had she been upset at the thought that he might like her? He would have questioned her more, but coq a vin sounded fantastic for dinner.
“That sounds nice,” he told her. He didn’t understand why her cheeks were pink, but it was a beautiful color on her.
Chapter 11: The Dangers of Homonyms
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
Kent hated making wishes. She got them wrong half the time and while he knew she didn’t mean to misunderstand him, it still got him into situations he had no way of explaining.
Truthfully, he should have known better this time, it almost served him right. The walk to his car, where he had left his wallet, wouldn’t have been so terrible. So what if his headache from not getting enough sleep because she opened a dimension to Rio de Janeiro's Carnival in his kitchen? It’s not like he didn’t enjoy it himself. It was still no excuse to not take the extra time to get his own money to buy the overpriced coffee.
He knew she was hungover too. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t understand he wanted five dollars when he said ‘ bucks ’. Now he had five male deer starting to get agitated inside his office. His lieutenant was outside pounding on the door asking why it sounded like he had horses in his office. Watching Seabiscuit loudly on his computer was not a good excuse, no matter what Venus insisted. And now she was too hungover to undo the wish.
“Venus. What am I supposed to do?”
“Just tell them they snuck in.”
“ How would that even make sense?! There are no windows in here!”
Two of the bucks slammed their horns together just feet from him. Venus laid across his couch with an arm thrown over her eyes, completely dismissive of the chaos threatening to spill from his office.
“Captain?” Lieutenant Jensen asked through his door. “Are you alright? Did you break your bookcase?”
“Lieutenant! Everything is fine! I’ve got the TV on… very… loudly?”
Venus peeked from under her arm at him. He tried to calm the three bucks that hadn’t started fighting as the other two agitated ones destroyed his office.
“What are you watching? Does it need to be that loud? Your office is shaking, sir.”
“Yes, it needs to be this loud! Don’t question me Lieutenant! I need- HEY! CALM IT DOWN YOU TWO!”
“Captain?”
“I like to yell at my tv, Lieutenant. Don’t you have work to do? Stop that!”
“Sir, you have a meeting in five minutes.”
“Then I guess I have four minutes to- GET AWAY FROM MY COMPUTER!”
“Sir?”
“ Will you do something?” he hissed at the lounging djinni.
“Your office needs a makeover anyway. Let them tear it down and then I can get to work on it.”
He hated making wishes, it only ever brought trouble. She was tired now, he didn’t know if wishing the animals away would even work if she didn’t care enough.
His mouth opened to try when he noticed her head jerking. After a moment of paying attention to her- and trying to hold a buck back from breaking his government issued computer- he realized she hadn’t been ignoring the situation. She had been trying to concentrate enough to get rid of the deer. She was too tired from partying the night before and it was his fault because he had convinced her to open the Carnival portal instead of the Oscars Red Carpet portal like she originally suggested.
Taking a deep breath, he let the buck destroy his desk. All 5 deer fought each other, destroyed his furniture, dug their hooves and horns into his walls.
“It’s okay, Venus.”
“It’s not.” Her voice broke and Kent rushed to her side, completely forgetting the pandemonium ensuing in his office.
“Hey, whoa.”
“I swear I’m not trying to make your life worse.”
“Worse? Are you kidding me? I was a boring old man, remember? My whole life was just work. You’ve made life interesting again.”
Her eyes snapped to his, wide and unsure.
Sure, his life had never been as chaotic before they met, but Kent wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world. She made everything an adventure. His world was brighter with her in it.
Kent smiled earnestly, hoping to reassure her. Her shoulders relaxed and he saw how tired she was in her gaze. He realized just how close they were, how easy it would be to lean forward and let their lips touch. She seemed to notice their proximity just as he did, cheeks flushing such a pretty color it took one of the deer shattering his whiskey glasses for him to snap out it.
Kent cleared his throat and stood. Straightening his tie, he walked towards his door. He opened it to three of his soldiers’ ears who were trying to hear what mayhem was happening in his office. “Well, men. Don’t just stand there. Call animal control. Lieutenant, brief me on the meeting.”
Chapter 12: Nightmares
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
Kent hadn’t slept well in years. It’s not that he wasn’t tired- if he could, he’d sleep for a century- it was that he didn’t trust sleep anymore. Being unconscious meant being vulnerable. It didn’t matter that he was in his own home and in his own bed, his body was too aware of its surroundings to properly rest. So it didn’t surprise him much when he awoke to the sound of whimpering.
The noise was coming from the guest room, Venus’s room. It was getting louder, more desperate. It wouldn’t be a good idea to check on her. If someone were to wake him during one of his nightmares, they were sure to get injured. What would a djinni do if she were woken up from a nightmare? He shuddered to imagine. But then her whimpering turned into quiet sobs and Kent decided to risk whatever magical chaos ensued.
When she didn’t wake at his soft knocking, he opened the door slowly into her chiffon covered room. Why did she have so much fabric hanging from everywhere? Did she not like the color of the walls? He could have painted her room.
Shaking his head and focusing on the small woman on the bed, he approached her slowly while quietly calling her name.
“Venus? Venus, wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”
Her cries only got more intense. She was gripping her pillow to her face, but Kent could see the tears running down an exposed cheek. He needed to wake her up. Bracing himself, he touched her shoulder gently.
POOF
The room exploded into red smoke and he felt the grains of glitter on his hand and falling all around. She was no longer in her bed.
“What’re you doing?!” Her voice came from above him and Kent craned his neck to see Venus’s body flat on the ceiling.
“You were crying.” He stayed as still as possible, he didn’t want her to think he was intruding. He was only trying to help.
“I was?” She said surprised.
Something wet touched his cheek. Her tears were raining down on him.
“You are.”
Her hands flew to her face and quickly wiped her eyes. Taking two deep breaths, she steeled herself and floated back down to her bed.
“Was I that loud? Did I wake you? I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m a light sleeper.”
“I just… have nightmares sometimes.”
She looked so uncomfortable, so unlike her carefree self. He needed to reassure her anyway he could.
“I do too. Sometimes.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“You do?” Had he been loud too?
“I hear you now and then,” she continued. “You shout orders. Sometimes you just scream.”
Kent felt his heart drop to his stomach. “Please- please , don’t ever try to help me when I’m like that.”
“It didn’t really work when I tried anyway. I kept my distance and put a shield up in case you woke up, but magic can’t break through the subconscious without conscious acceptance of its invasion while unconscious.”
Kent nodded slowly, though not really understanding, and turned to sit on the edge of the bed next to her.
“Thanks for trying, I guess. It’s been so long since the nightmares started, I don’t always remember when I’ve had one. I’ve spent most of my time away from home in a submarine, but I’ve been on a few tours as well. The one I came back from right before you appeared was a rough one. I couldn’t always trust my surroundings which meant I couldn’t trust being fully asleep. I had a few close calls when I thought everything was safe. Eventually, I forgot what safe felt like. I don’t think I ever remembered.”
He almost let the memories overtake him but the soft touch of a warm hand on his brought him back to the beautiful woman wearing a black negligee sitting next to him.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
Kent shrugged. “It comes with the job.”
Venus gave a sardonic laugh. “I know how that is.” She took a deep breath. “I was dreaming I was stuck inside the bottle again. Alone.” She gave him a shaky smile. “I don’t want to be alone again.”
Kent had always tried to keep a respectable distance from Venus because he knew her last master had been anything but honorable. He had strived to make his home a safe space for her and in doing so he felt protective of her. The two had come a long way from when they met. They’d become so close that when he saw the tears brimming in her eyes Kent didn’t hesitate in wrapping an arm around Venus and brought her into his embrace. To his surprise, she clung quickly to him. Her breathing became heavy and he knew she was crying again. He held her tight and rubbed her back letting her tears wet his bare chest.
He wasn’t sure how much time passed but eventually he felt her body grow heavy and snuck a peek to find her asleep. Carefully he laid her back down into her bed and rose up the sheets to cover her body. He turned to leave when his hand was caught.
“Would you stay with me?” Her voice was so soft he would’ve doubted she actually spoke if she hadn’t been grasping his hand so tightly.
Kent hesitated for only a moment before crawling into the bed behind her. His body molded perfectly to hers and she did not scoot away from him. Instead, she burrowed herself backwards into him and held his hand securely to her chest.
The next morning Kent wondered if she had enchanted the bed. He hadn’t slept so soundly since before he joined the Navy.
Chapter Text
“Are you sure this is right?” Venus said squinting her eyes at the string in her hands.
“You may have the secrets of the universe in your little bottle, but when it comes to holidays I am sorry to say, you’re lacking.” Kent enjoyed the way she rolled her eyes at him.
“I think you’re making this up.”
“This coming from the one who swore dragons lived in volcanoes?”
“Are you still harping on that? How was I supposed to know they moved volcanoes?”
“You almost fell in!”
“You caught me. That’s good enough for me.”
“Hm.”
“Are you blushing?”
“No. Keep stringing your popcorn.”
“What’s this for anyway?”
“To decorate the tree.”
“But there’s already balls on it, how much decoration do you need?”
“You’d be surprised. Most people put lights on it.”
“On the tree?!”
“Mm-hmm. Here, help me wrap the popcorn around the branches.”
“Isn’t having electricity on a tree a fire hazard?”
“Yeah, but it's not as bad as when people used to put candles on the branches.”
“This is a weird tradition. Why are you smiling like that?”
“I just never thought about how strange some of the aspects of Christmas are.”
“It gets weirder?”
“There’s a lot of stories that come with the holiday. One of them is about a snowman who comes alive when you put a hat on him.”
“What’s so crazy about that? Oof! ” Venus smacked into Kent’s back as she was following him around the tree while he put the popcorn string around the branches. “Why’d you stop?”
“Don’t bring snowmen to life,” he warned, raising a finger.
She lightly smacked his finger away. “I can’t give life to things!”
“Good.” Kent turned back to decorating the tree.
“Besides, I’ve heard snowmen are flesheaters. If you ever come across one,” Venus grabbed his arm and turned him back around, “you run and you call me quick, okay?!”
The intensity in her eyes made him never want to build a snowman again. “Y-yeah, alright.”
They circled the tree twice more before they ran out of popcorn string.
“Is that it?” She asked.
“Just missing the topper. People put lots of different things, but I like the traditional star.” Kent cut the tag off the shiny star they bought at the store and slid it unto the top branch. It was a little lopsided, he admitted, but it still looked nice.
“Hmm. It does look kind of pretty.”
“It’d be better with lights. I should have gotten some.”
“How about something like this?” Venus crossed her arms and bopped her head.
“Oh, no. It’s, uh, not like regular light bulbs.” Kent tried not to laugh, but a Christmas tree covered in incandescent light bulbs made it hard to keep a straight face. He covered his mouth and tried to explain. “It’s more like a lot of really small lights all over the branches.”
“Oh! Like this?”
Kent’s laughter ceased immediately. He’d never seen such a tree, covered in glowing, floating lights. Almost as if a thousand fireflies were dancing all around it.
“...Wow.” He could think of nothing else to say.
“Hey, Captain?”
“Yeah?” He answered distractedly, still admiring the tree.
“You were right. This is beautiful.”
Kent tore his eyes away from the tree and saw the total wonder in Venus’s eyes. It warmed his heart that she was starting to understand the indescribable joys of Christmas.
“You did a great job.” He touched her back and received a smile brighter than the tree for it.
“So, what’s next?”
The question snapped him out of the trance her smile had created and Kent almost actually shook his head to focus.
“Right. Um, we make hot chocolate and watch a holiday movie.”
“Ooh! I love movies! What are we watching?”
“My favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard”
“There’s a Christmas movie called Die Hard ?”
“Yes, and don’t let anyone tell you different.” He threw her a smirk so she knew he was mostly joking.
Kent went into the kitchen to prepare their drinks while Venus found her spot on the couch.
“Hah, okay. From what I’ve seen,” she said as he was coming out of the kitchen, “isn’t Christmas supposed to have snow?”
“Yes, but we live in LA. Not a lot of snow around here. I can turn down the thermostat so it feels more authentic. Here,” he said, handing her a mug. “I added extra marshmallows for yours.”
“Thanks.” She took a tentative sip, followed by a larger one. “Oh, wow! This is delicious!”
“Mmm.” Kent sat next to her and took a large sip of his own mug. He felt the chocolate warm his chest and remind him of days long gone.
“This is my favorite part of the season. It reminds me of my childhood in Queens. The winters there were brutal, but my mother always had a cup of cocoa waiting for me. We’d sit cuddled under a blanket and watch the snow fall.”
“That sounds lovely.”
“It was. Actually, I haven’t spent the holidays with anyone since she passed. I’m glad I get to share it with you.” Kent looked at her and found Venus watching him, wide eyed and a little flushed. Were her eyes a little teary? “You okay?”
“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah.” She hid her face back into her mug. “Just a little warm in here.”
“I’ll turn the thermostat down some more.” He started to move but was stopped by Venus’s hand on his forearm.
“No, don’t! How’s this instead.” She put her mug down on the coffee table, crossed her arms and bopped her head. The red smoke covered the entire room, but after a couple of swats at it, Kent noticed what she had done.
“It’s snowing!” Kent blinked a few times, to make sure he wasn’t seeing things that weren’t actually there.
“Isn’t it pretty?” She gushed.
“It’s snowing inside.”
“Don’t worry, nothing’s getting wet. This is magical snow.”
“Huh.”
“You don’t like it.”
“It’s not that.”
“What is it, then?”
“We’re just missing something.”
Kent went into the hallway closet and retrieved a large, red, woven blanket. He sat next to Venus, covered their legs in the blanket and hit play. They fell asleep on the couch as Hans Gruber fell off Nakatomi Plaza, her head on his shoulder and his head on hers.
Chapter 14: Final Notice
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
FINAL NOTICE
The MAGIC PEOPLE ASSOCIATION is sending out this final notice in lieu of Aphrodite’s Djinni, Venus’s recent misbehavior.
While certain infractions may be overlooked due to the length of time already served having been more extensive than the board had originally expected, the sheer amount of gross insubordination may not. Should behavior not improve, djinni and master shall be henceforth be separated for eternity . A reminder that The Three Big Ones are capital offenses.
Please see the list below of the actions that have been brought to our attention, though not all have been listed here as they are still under review:
- Granting one million wishes wish to djinni’s master
- Pescatary Necromancy
- Conjuring Crystal Pepsi
- Prehistoric Creature Time Displacement
- Granting of wishes not pertaining to djinni’s master
- Allowing unicorn to be fed cotton candy
- Un-granting of wishes not pertaining to djinni’s master
- Transforming djinni’s master into a cephalopod
- Erasing all djinni’s master’s remembrance of cephalopod incident
- Wearing white after labor day
1/3
“Venus, there are three pages of infractions! And is this why I keep smelling calamari everywhere? Get down from the ceiling and explain yourself!”
Chapter 15: A Rough Day at Work
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
Being a captain in the Navy wasn’t the easiest job. Kent had subordinates to look after and superiors to impress. He had missions to report, debrief, and prepare for. The paperwork on his desk rivaled Everest. His mornings began at 0400 because of PT- physical training with his troop- and most nights he didn’t make it back home until 2100 hours because he was making sure everyone else was done with their work.
His days were usually stressful, but it came with the job, with the lifestyle. There weren’t many stress relievers that worked well for him. He had tried a few; running, zen gardening, reading murder mysteries. He found them all to be a waste of time.
Then Venus appeared. And his life got exponentially more stressful. It was a good thing he was born with white hair, otherwise his soldiers would have gotten suspicious of why his hair was graying at such a fast pace. At one point he had feared it would start to fall out. Vainly, he wished for a full head of hair for the rest of his life. Venus thought that had been a good idea and she concentrated to make sure she got the wish exactly right. He was grateful, though it had grown past his shoulders in an instant and he had to run out and get a haircut.
This particular day had been rough for Kent. He had been issued deployment orders. He was to be sent back to the SSN-92 Scout with little to no information as to what his mission would be. He was ordered to prepare three men to travel with him. Orders like these pissed him off. The lack of information or consideration for what his team had recently gone through was reprehensible.
BAM.
Kent slammed a hand on his desk making the sound echo around his still mostly bare office after all the broken furniture was taken out after the buck fiasco. Luckily, everyone else had gone home and not witnessed his tantrum. He glanced at the clock and saw it was past midnight.
Taking a deep breath, he turned off his computer, grabbed his jacket and hat, and locked his office to go home. The drive was short and quiet. He was looking forward to pouring himself a glass of scotch and taking a hot shower. He knew not much else would relax him.
Pulling into the driveway, Kent kissed those hopes goodbye. Colorful lights were shooting through his windows. It looked like some kind of nightclub was taking place inside his house. He thought about driving away but knew he had nowhere else to go. He didn’t want to start making sleeping in his office a habit, so he steeled himself and got ready to deal with his troublemaking djinni.
His mood got sourer with each step towards his house. Venus knew if he was coming home past midnight that it had been an especially stressful day. She knew he liked his peace and quiet. He put in his keys and unlocked his door. Why couldn’t she ever just - opening his door, Kent froze.
Inside his home was no nightclub. He stood transfixed staring at his far wall. The living room, to which his front door opened, was cleared of everything but blankets and pillows. In the middle of them was Venus with a bottle of wine. She smiled at him and patted the pillow next to her.
“Come on,” she said quietly. “It’s about to get really good.”
Kent closed the door behind him and tried to shut his jaw- he didn’t really succeed. He did however manage to make his way next to her spot on the floor. She handed him a glass of his favorite wine and helped him take off his hat and jacket. She then crossed her arms and bopped her head. Soft jazz- his favorite- started to play around them.
“How are you doing this?” he managed to ask.
“What do you mean how? I’m magic. I can do whatever I want.”
He gave a small smile, it was a dumb question after all.
“Why then?”
“It’s 1AM, Captain. Whatever happened at work must’ve been bad. I thought this might help.”
“Might?” he asked incredulously. “Venus, you’ve got the aurora borealis on display in my living room. This is-”
“Too much?”
“ -amazing .”
“You like it?” She sounded so hopeful.
He took his eyes away from the northern lights to look at the woman beaming next to him. It was true that what she had created was the perfect environment to turn his day around, but had she known that her smile had the same effect, she might not have needed such extravagance.
“I love it.”
Chapter 16: Under the Sea
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
How many times had he told her she couldn’t follow him on the submarine? He’d sat with her and explained why. He made her repeat the reasons why. She said she understood, and yet what is the first thing Kent saw when he entered the Captain’s Quarters after reaching their diving distance? Venus. Lying on his cot and sipping a margarita.
“What are you doing here?” He looked around and made sure none of the sailors were within earshot.
“I need a vacation.” Venus waved her cocktail in his direction.
“You don’t even have a job.”
“Yes and the stress of having no money has really gotten to me and I need some peace and relaxation.”
Kent pinched the bridge of his nose. “I told you, you can’t come along. This isn’t a vacation, it’s my job. I am responsible for these men and I can’t be trailing after you making sure you don’t wreak havoc all over the submarine.”
“I haven’t ‘wreaked havoc’” she said exaggerating her air quotes, “in at least a week. Besides, you need me.”
“ Need you?”
“Yes!” Venus sat up and waved her hand, making the margarita disappear. “What if you run into a Kraken?”
“There is no such things as- Are there such things as Krakens?”
Venus gave him a look that made Kent pause and rethink everything he knew about the world for the millionth time before shaking his head and dispelling any notion of letting her stay. “No. No, you’re not sucking me into this.”
“I could disguise myself! Be another sailor.”
“They’d know you’re not part of the crew.”
“I could be the submarine’s cat!”
“That’s not a thing.”
“Come on, Kent.” Venus turned the full power of her pout on him and he very nearly broke. Instead, he shut his eyes and tried to remember the important reasons for why a djinni could not be in a military submarine. He had almost convinced himself when he heard her whispered plea.
“I don’t want to be alone.”
The Iron Bastard, that’s what they used to call him. His squadron had the best reputation in the entire navy because of his unyielding command and discipline. How was it that this woman had undone him so completely? And at what point had he allowed it to happen?
“You can’t let the others see you,” he said with a sigh.
“I can be invisible!”
“And you can’t go roaming around the ship.”
“That’s okay. I’ll go swimming.”
“Don’t open any hatches!”
“Duh,” she waved him away and hopped off his cot. “Hey! You wanna go treasure diving?”
“What? No. Venus, we’re in the middle of the pacific. There is no treasure here.”
“And you know because you’ve searched?”
“I’ve spent a good portion of my life down here. We don’t get to see anything more interesting than sharks, and even they’re rare this far down.”
“Is that what you think?”
“That’s what I know .”
Venus folded her arms and bopped her head and a large reinforced window replaced the steel wall, giving them a view into the ocean.
“Geez!” He ran and closed the door, locking it. “This is the type of stuff I mean. You can’t just-”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look here smarty pants. What do you see?”
Kent came over and stared into the ocean. “Fish. That’s a school of lanternfish and an anglerfish down there.”
“Might wanna get your eyes checked if that’s all you see.”
“I have 20/20 vision, thank you very much.”
“I know you said not to do wishes that affect your body-”
“And I meant it.”
“But you really need to see what I see.”
“I don’t want to end up with my eyes outside of my head.”
“Trust me.”
Kent learned the hard way to not let Venus perform magic on his body when she accidentally turned him into a human Picasso painting, but the way her eyes shone with excitement let him know that he was missing something truly special. And despite all the magical mishaps of the past, Kent trusted Venus with his life.
“Okay.”
Venus crossed her arms and bopped her head. Red smoke dissipated around him and he shook his hair off the glitter covering it. Half confident that most of the glitter was gone and half not caring anymore, Kent lifted his head and saw what had Venus so excited.
It was an entirely different world, containing creatures and even colors he couldn’t have imagined before. Mermaids- or at least he assumed that’s what the half people half fish creatures swimming leagues under the sea were- laughed and played on a giant squid whose tentacles lit up like christmas lights. Creatures bigger than buildings floated in and out of view in the distance. It was an entire underwater civilization, more beautiful than anything he had ever seen on land.
“Wow.”
“Still want me to leave?”
“I never wanted you to go.”
“Huh?”
“It can be dangerous down here and I want to make sure you’re safe,” he answered distractedly because he was watching a school of fish actually playing football with a shell.
“Kent, I-”
“Can we go out there? Can we join them? Will they be scared? I have a diving suit I could wear.”
Venus giggled. “If we go out there, we’re going as merpeople.”
Kent was never one for showing much emotion, but in this moment he could not hide the excitement in his eyes. “Alright, you can stay.”
Venus smiled, happy to get her way.
“But to be clear,” He began as she turned away from him but Venus waved him off.
“Yeah, yeah. Stay out of sight.”
“Yes, please do that, but what I was going to say was, I would’ve missed you.”
Venus spun around and Kent saw her cheeks turn that lovely shade of pink again.
They begun their swim after most of the crew had gone to their bunks and stayed out almost until morning. It was probably the most fun Kent had ever had, though he thought it unnecessary to have his hair grow past his shoulders, but Venus insisted it was mermaid culture.
Chapter 17: A Djinni's Feelings
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
Venus’s absolute favorite thing in the world was bothering Captain Kent Nelson. Seeing his jaw clench and his eyes moving in obvious calculation in how to thwart her troublemaking, it gave her a thrill. She didn’t always mean to make his life difficult, sometimes it was accidental and she tried to make up for it when she really screwed up. She had even agreed to some of his own rules about when to and not to perform magic. He didn’t need to know that she had broken every one of those rules. The important thing was that she hadn’t meant to.
She also hadn’t meant to care for him so much, she hadn’t meant to care for him at all . After her last 352 masters- not to mention Adonis - Venus promised herself not to hope for decency. She knew her job was to grant wishes and go back into solitude. She was shocked, suspicious even, when the captain gave her a room to stay in after he released her. She had set magical booby traps to her room, in case he got any ideas, but he had left her alone. Granted, he thought she was a figure of his imagination, but still. And when he finally believed she was a magical being, he still kept his distance.
He treated her like a human. She tried explaining that she was there to serve him. She didn’t understand why he took such offense to that, why he got so angry over it. But then he took her to the movies. He hadn’t liked it when she poofed them into the movie, though. That’s when he created their rules, starting with no magic in public. She still didn’t regret it. He might’ve been mad for a second, but she could tell he had a blast fighting evil wizards in a castle.
Venus knew she was on thin ice with the MPA. Granting Kent a million wishes had definitely been pushing it. She wasn’t sure why they let it slide and didn’t come to collect her, especially after the notice, but she wasn’t complaining. If anything, she had been trying to be extra good. Not cause any imbalances in the space time continuum or disrupt any realities. Which was why she tried behaving in public. If she could at least keep her and her world’s existence a secret, she might avoid angering the MPA.
It had been hard behaving in the submarine for the first few days. Kent had to make up some wild excuses for why there was so much glitter all over the place- that truly was the most annoying aspect of her magic. Not that she particularly loved magic either. Sure it was fun to make Kent go a little crazy, but it was also a hassle. Not to mention she knew she’d eventually have to go back into the bottle. Maybe it wouldn’t be for a long time, since by her count Kent had barely broken three digits in the Wish-O-Meter, and most of those wishes were to offset something she had done. But she knew he’d either run out of wishes or he’d grow old and die and leave her alone for the next master. Eternal life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, especially since she mostly spent it locked up anyway.
She knew she was lucky to have Kent be the one to rub the bottle. Whether it was the prophecy- or curse, however one chose to look at it- Venus doubted she would have found in anyone else what she had in the captain. Someone who was kind enough not to abuse her power - she could count the number of masters who didn’t go crazy with power on no hands. Someone who allowed her to stay in his home when he could have kicked her out a thousand times for being a nuisance in his life.
Though, lately she felt she was not so much of an annoyance. Ever since that night. Ever since he crawled into her bed and held her while they slept. It was why she couldn’t stay home when he was given orders to go back into the submarine. They had spent every night since that one sneaking into each other’s beds.
At first it had just been her lightly knocking on the door and having him open the covers for her to crawl in. But then she stopped because she wasn’t sure if he wanted her there. So when he rapped on her door after a night spent apart to hold her while they slept, she stopped being shy about it. She went straight to his room when it was time for bed and slept on his chest every night as he held her close. They each still had nightmares every now and then, but they had significantly lessened since they started their nightly ritual.
It was new and wonderful and she wasn’t ready to give that up because his job wanted to send him to the bottom of the freaking ocean. She knew she had feelings for Kent. How could she not? He was grumpy all of the time, he was such a stickler for rules no matter how small, he matched each sock to the one it originally came paired with. He was neurotic and kindof a mess despite all his orderliness and he made sure she felt safe at all times. He was kind and he listened to her even when he didn’t understand half the things she was talking about. He offered her a home and healed her heart when she thought she’d be broken forever.
Venus didn’t just have feelings for Kent, she was in love with him. And despite how close they’d become, despite the ache in her heart whenever he smiled at her, despite the feeling that it just might be mutual, the fact remained that she would outlive him by eons. She was a djinni and he was human.
So she refused to stay home. She was going to spend every single moment she could with him even if that meant following him to the bottom of the freaking ocean. She really should have known better than to let herself care so much for him. She also should have known better than to break one of The Three Big Ones when they hit a naval mine.
Chapter 18: End of the Line
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
It was instinct that made his head snap towards Venus when the first explosion was felt. She was on his cot reading a fashion magazine- where had she gotten that anyway?- and raised her hands in surrender while shaking her head.
The second explosion threw them both to the floor. A million thoughts ran through Kent’s mind. Were they under attack? Who would be behind it? The purpose of his crew was basically border patrol. They carried no weapons, they weren’t spying, there was no reason for his submarine to be targeted. He pushed himself off the floor and helped Venus up quickly before he ran out of the captain’s quarters, yelling back at her to stay invisible.
The alarms tinged everything in red and were blaring so loud he could hardly think. Whatever had caused the explosions had done significant damage as seawater was quickly filling the ship. They waded more than ran through the corridors.
“Is this normal?” Venus asked as they pushed through the sea water.
Kent looked back at her as if she were crazy, but then realized she was invisible.
He expected chaos in the control room. While it was half filled with water, what he found was a full report on their situation.
He was proud of his men. He had been on submarines that had been under attack in the past when he was a subordinate and been ashamed to call himself part of their crew from the way they panicked and froze in the face of danger. Not his crew. These men remained calm, they were working fast and as a unit to bring the situation under control.
The submarine had drifted into a naval minefield, and while they were already working on backing out, the damage had been done. They were taking in too much water and were too far deep to simply abandon ship. They needed to ascend but the second explosion damaged their thrusters.
“What should we do, captain?” His sergeant asked.
Every man in the room looked to him. This is what it meant to be the leader. His crew had done what he asked of them. They had assessed the situation, remained calm, and delivered a detailed report. Now it was his job to come up with a solution. Except there was no solution. The vessel was damaged. They were a mile underwater. There weren’t enough scuba suits for everyone and they still needed to be attached to the submarine for them to work. They wouldn’t make it to the surface. A distress signal had already been sent out, but there wasn’t another vessel nearby for miles. At the rate in which they were taking in water, they had ten minutes at the most to figure something out. He was responsible for their lives and he needed to come up with a magical solution to save them.
A magical solution.
“Seal all doors to contain the leak. Navigate us out of the minefield.”
“Captain, where are you going?!”
“To get us out of here.”
Kent left the control room and made sure he was out of earshot of the sailors- not that it was very far because of the alarms.
“Venus!” He called.
The djinni appeared in front of him, hair soaking wet and clothes sticking distractingly to her body.
Focus, man! Kent berated himself.
“Can you get us out of this?”
“How? I’ll be exposing magic to them.”
Venus rung her hands, a clear sign that she was agitated. They both kept trying to come up with solutions that wouldn’t get them in trouble with the MPA. After the final notice they received a few weeks ago, they had both been on their best behavior. Kent would be damned if they took her away.
Kent wanted to suggest knocking the crew out until they figured out a better excuse but he never got the chance to. He barely heard the boom before everything went black.
Kent woke up soaking wet and covered in sand. He opened his eyes and shut them quickly again as the sun shone right above him. He took a few seconds to collect himself before trying to sit up. He took in his surroundings and saw he was on a beach. His screw laid scattered and waking around him.
How had they made it out? Had Venus saved them? Standing up quickly, Kent started running down the beach, calling for her. It wasn’t until the third time he called her name, when his tone switched from worried to panicked that she appeared in a puff of red smoke.
Relief flooded through him as he reached for her. He hugged her before realizing that the crew must have seen her appear. Venus had always been reckless, but never stupid. Why would she expose herself in that way unless-
“What did you do?”
“It was all happening so fast.” She was shaking. Kent held her arms, he tried to calm her down, but his own heart was speeding at what the consequences would be for them. Would they take her away from him? Force her back into the bottle?
Distantly, he heard the three men waking up start to ask questions. He couldn’t pay them any mind now. He needed to figure out how to keep Venus safe.
“What’s going to happen?”
Venus shook her head and opened her mouth to respond but the sound of the waves crashing on the beach stopped. The sound of the birds, the wind blowing across the trees, the men rejoicing and asking questions all around them, all noise ceased. Kent stood unmoving in front of her, unblinking. Venus looked around and saw the world around her frozen. Time had stopped and that could only mean one thing. She turned around and spotted three magical beings on the shore.
“We warned you, Venus.” Fiore, a blue fae and board member of the MPA, shook his head at her. Two gorillas in suits stood behind him, his flunkies.
“I couldn’t just let them die.” She tried to explain.
“You brought 4 men back from the dead and you’ve exposed magic.”
“We can erase their memories!”
“It’s not enough. You’ve become too close to your master, we’ve allowed it to go on long enough and now you’ve broken one of the big three.”
“He won’t accept that I’ve just disappeared.”
“He doesn’t need to. You are bound by our laws. He is a mortal and we have no obligation to him as such.”
The gorillas in suits flanking Fiore moved forward to cease Venus.
“Wait!” She stepped back. “Wait. Please, let me at least say goodbye. Please .”
Fiore raised a hand, stopping the two gorillas.
“You have one minute.” He snaps his fingers.
Kent blinked and was confused by Venus not being in front of him. He looked around and saw everything was frozen, the lack of noise eerie. Venus was a few steps away from him, three odd creatures- one of which was a blue man and two were silverback gorillas wearing suits- standing behind her. She walked up to him and he saw her shining eyes.
“Kent,” her voice quivered. The feeling of dread that had made itself known when he woke up on the beach multiplied, anxiety gripping him before he even knew what was happening. “I’ve got to go.”
“Go where? And how long?” There was no way in hell he was letting anyone take her away, not after what they’d done to her last time. He needed to have all the facts if he was going to find a way out of this.
“I’m not coming back.”
He looked at the mafia looking creatures behind her and shook his head.
“You didn’t just rescue us, did you?”
Venus smiled through glassy eyes and shook her head.
“Let me talk to them. I can explain,” Kent pleaded. “We can work it out.”
“Kent,”
“No!” He felt fury rise within him and for once didn’t feel the need to suppress his emotions. “I made a million wishes. You owe me those wishes. You can’t leave.”
“I owed you three.” She spoke slowly, as if she were trying to calm down a wild beast. “They let me stay because they felt guilty for letting me stay under Ace’s curse for so long.”
Kent shook his head, refusing to accept this outcome. “Then take me with you.”
Venus took his hand gently. “They need you.” She gestured at the sailors frozen on the beach. “They care about you too. You can’t just leave them.”
“I won’t let you be sealed away for another 3,000 years!” Venus stayed silent, avoiding his gaze and Kent felt as if ice water had been poured over his head. “They are… locking you up… right?”
A tear spilled from her eyes and Kent felt the world fall away from him. He could scarcely comprehend the reality of the situation. Venus hadn’t just saved them. He and his crew had died on the submarine and she had brought them back to life. This wasn’t like when she tried to revive her goldfish. They weren’t animals, they were human beings with souls.
A djinni must not bring the dead back to life.
She had broken one of the three big ones. It was a capital offense.
“No.” He grabbed her hands.
“Kent, please.”
“Time’s up, Venus.”
The two gorillas moved forward to take her away and Kent pulled her behind him.
“No. I won’t let you!”
The gorillas poofed behind him and wrenched Venus from his hands.
“No!” Kent lunged at them but the beasts waved their arms and he flew backwards into the air, landing on his back in the sand. “Stop!” He cried as he rushed back up. “Please! You can’t do this. After everything she’s been through, you can’t do this to her. Take me instead!”
Kent threw himself at them again but the blue one standing on the shore raised his hand and Kent fell back with a grunt, feeling as if he had been punched in the face.
“Stop it!” Venus yelled at them.
“Control him before we do.” The old one barked.
Kent was struggling to stand up and charge again.
Venus poofed away from the gorillas and appeared next to him.
“You need to stop. You can finally go back to your normal life since I won’t be here to mess it all up.”
“I wasn’t living until I met you.” Kent felt desperation crawl up his throat.
“What?”
How could she not understand? “I was broken, Vee. Lost. It was you who found me and put me back together. It was never about the magic, you know that.”
Venus caressed his face, tears flowing freely down her face.
“You healed me too.”
“Tell them. Tell them to take me instead.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“What if I-”his sentence was cut off as Venus dove forward to capture his lips with hers. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against him. She held his face and dug her fingers into his short hair.
It was salty and desperate but it was the best kiss Kent Nelson had ever received. It was also over almost as soon as it began. The two gorillas grabbed Venus and hauled her away and pushed Kent into the sand before he could think of fighting back.
Kent’s tears darkened the sand and he punched the ground, frantically trying to think of a solution. They were taking her away and there was nothing he could do. He’d never know what happened to her and she would never know…
Kent’s head snapped up.
“Venus!” His voice was hoarse and the world around him was blurry. Everything except her. Her golden hair falling across her shoulders, her blue eyes shining even though she tried to smile for him. He would be brave for her too. He stood up to his full length and spoke clearly and forcefully so that she would feel his words in her bones. “I love you.”
Her jaw dropped slightly and red smoke surrounded them.
Chapter 19: The Way to Her Grave
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
Waves crashed on the shore. Seagulls squawked above him. Men shouted behind him. Kent coughed and waved the smoke and glitter away. Not since she came out of the bottle had so much smoke been produced from her magic. Then it hit him, she was gone.
“Venus?!” He shouted, frantically swatting away the smoke. She was gone. He’d never see her again because she was gone. “ Venus!” He shouted until his throat was sore. His men, which he could now see as the smoke dissipated, grew quiet at the cry. They all stared at him, confused as to everything that had happened. How did they escape the submarine? Why were they suddenly on a beach? Why did their captain look like the most tortured man in all the world? Why was there a woman staring at her hands behind him?
“Kent?”
The captain spun around and found Venus standing on the beach devoid of magical creatures threatening to take her away. He felt like he couldn't catch his breath. Was he hallucinating? Was he hallucinating before? Was this a nightmare he couldn’t wake up from?
“I think… I think I’m free.”
He stood speechless, unmoving, staring at her.
“They left me behind and I can’t,” she nodded her head harshly and repeatedly. “I can’t- I can’t do it.” She was throwing her head forward as hard as she could, sometimes even closing her eyes, clapping her hands and once even wiggling her nose. “I can’t do it. I don’t have magic anymore.”
“I don’t understand,” he managed to sound out.
Venus started laughing. “I’m free,” she said quietly at first and then joyously screamed, “ I’m free!”
The sailors huddled around them, asking Kent questions and murmuring about the happenings. He didn’t hear any of them. All he could focus on was the smile and laughter coming from the woman he loved. The woman who wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.
“It was true,” he said.
“What was?”
“ Doubly cursed for spurning he who would love her,
Time’s gate crumbles as she lies in wait.
A warrior foreign to his own land proves his worth by helping his enemy,
His hands shall break the bonds of confinement.
Powerless to defy the laws of two worlds,
His love paves the way to her grave .” Kent recited.
“Ace’s seal?”
“I’ve run it through my mind a thousand times since I rubbed the bottle, trying to understand why I was the one who set you free. But... ‘His love paves the way to her grave.’ I’ve killed you.” The horror began to creep up his throat and would have made him go insane if Venus hadn’t rushed towards him and grabbed his hands with her very real, very solid hands.
“No! No, Kent. Don’t you understand? I’m mortal now. I can live a full, real life filled with love and Bewitched reruns and goldfish that won’t try to kill me! I won’t ever have to go back to the bottle.”
“You’re free?”
“I’m free!” She laughed.
He let go of her hands to wrap his arms around her and lifted her from the ground. He spun her around the sand, both laughing and screaming with happiness.
“Wait! Wait!” She tapped on his shoulders for him to stop.
He let her slide down quickly across his body to the ground.
“What?” He couldn’t contain the face splitting smile had he tried. She was free and she’d never be anyone’s slave ever again.
“I have to tell you!” The sparkle in her eye made him instinctively brace himself before he realized she couldn’t perform magic anymore. “I love you too.”
And just like that Kent knew he was wrong. Mortal or not, every moment spent with Venus would always be magical.
Kent grabbed her face gently and gave her a proper kiss. One devoid of sadness and desperation because they would have the rest of their lives to kiss and hold each other. It was a kiss filled with love and affection and the joy of knowing they had forever.
The sailors around them were still confused but left their captain alone to focus on building a signaling fire. The captain and the mysterious blonde woman remained in each other’s arms kissing, hugging, and occasionally arguing until rescue arrived.
Kent later introduced her as his fiancee.
Chapter 20: Epilogue
Chapter by Cluckster
Chapter Text
Rules for Marriage
- Always communicate
- 9PM - 11PM is Netflix Hour
- Watching ahead is punishable by taking out the trash
- No spontaneous magical creature visits; all visits must be pre approved by both parties
- Always check toilet for zombiefish
- Venus must pretend to have always been human around other people
- No complaining about trouble if the police were not involved
- Plan more adventures (You can’t plan adventures) (No, but i have to ask for time off to have one) (Fine)
- No sneaking into military bases
- No yelling unless the house is on fire
- Allow Venus to record on social media (But you have to be careful about what you say) (Why? Half the internet is goblins anyway) (I think you mean trolls) (No, I mean goblins. Short little magical creatures that hate technology so they learned how to use it ironically in order to sabotage it) (How is it possible I’m still dealing with this?)
- No attacking the mail lady
- Try something new at least once a week
- Learn to text
- Love each other until the end of time
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