Mias and Elle - Chapter 19

After spending several minutes cursing Mias' name and trying in vain to claw her way out of the slippery silk lining of her dark, impromptu prison, Elle gave up. She just prodded at the cloth with fine, sharp claws that had once been elegantly short fingernails and grumbled to herself angrily. It felt so natural so soon that it made her stomach churn. What had he done to her? Would she be a fuzzy little mouse for the rest of her life? Her mind reeled. She was furious at Mias, she wanted to hate him all over again and never see his obnoxious face again. Yet, why was it that all she could worry about was how she would never get to kiss him again. The bastard!

As much as she hated to admit it –again, and again – she had grown terribly fond of Mias, in both positive and negative senses of the one particular word. Or perhaps it was more of a strong physical attraction mixed with a generous pinch of Stockholm's.  But it was all pushed to the back of her mind by the colossal bulldozer that was the fact that she was A MOUSE!

It set in.

"What did you do to me?!"

Mias' chuckle shook her entire body, and though Elle braced herself for a booming voice, it sounded no different from before. "You are a mouse, my pet." Another laugh at his little joke jarred her.

"Hilarious," Elle mumbled under her breath and crossed her little front legs -as best she could- in indignation.

"It's for your own good," A crack of light opened above her and a large finger dipped down to scratch her head – tiny in comparison.

Elle wanted to turn her head and bite into Mias' frighteningly large thumb, but –God help her- it felt incredibly amazing. Instead of going violent, she turned her head to the side like a cat in ecstasy, cursing her new body's weakness. Bastard! Eventually she snapped back to reality and squeezed her tiny legs around Mias' finger, her thin claws giving her enough grip to be lifted out of the pocket. The light stung her eyes momentarily, but she could not help but smile – as much as a mouse could smile- at seeing Mias smiling at her wrapped around his finger.

"And what –pray tell- makes you think that this is for my own good?" She balanced herself carefully in Mias' palm, not being able to ignore the incredibly terrifying drop just over the edge.

Mias' mouth became a short fine line in his face, "You will be safe."

"As cat food?!"

He gave her a bemused grin, "There are no cats here."

Elle gave him a look that said exactly what she felt did not need saying: Smart ass. Even though she knew full well that it was his idea of joking (or maybe changing the subject, she wasn't entirely sure) and she was in no mood. She missed her hands, and though she was completely covered with a soft fur she felt disturbingly naked. The only highlight was knowing that Mias would have no interest in trying any of his usual funny business.

"Stupid magic," she mumbled. "Keep me safe from what?"

Naturally, she got no answer to the only question she really wanted an answer to – next to how soon can he change her back, but that seemed to be another one that he had no intention of answering. She let her imagination create amusing to not-so-amusing answers of her own to keep her mind off of the air rushing against her tiny body as Mias carried her to his lab, claiming he had work to do. It was in the only place of the castle that she had not seen, and though she was quite excited to finally see inside of it, the twisting in her gut was hard to ignore. It was hard to ignore the immense distance between Mias' carefully cupped hand and the quickly moving stone floors below.

Mias noted Elle's nervousness and closed his fingers tighter together to make her feel a bit more secure, without feeling suffocated. "I won't drop you, my pet." But even he knew that would be little comfort, so he picked up his pace.

There was nothing particularly special about the room, besides that it was cluttered with an array of objects both incredibly large to infinitesimally small. Scrolls, books in a variety of sizes, lamps strewn about for light after sunset, and what could only be a very large desk – though, Elle could not be certain as it was completely shrouded in papers and opened books. In her opinion, it was a pigsty that was in desperate need of organization – or a large refuse bin.

Setting her down on top of the papers, Mias settled into a chair as near to her as possible. He noted that Elle was taking in her surroundings with some form of exaggerated expression on her small, fuzzy face that he could not make out. "Impressed?"

"By what?" Elle used as much strength as she could muster to lift a small pile of papers above her head, "This place is a mess. How can you work like this?"

Mias gave an indignant huff, "I know exactly where everything is."

"Sure you do…" Unable to hold her little arms – or was it legs? – above her head any longer, the papers fell on top of her and she scrambled out in a slight panic. "What a mess."

Grunting at her, he shuffled through papers in search of something. It was not long before he began to make an even bigger mess of the tabletop. He started to curse under his breath, papers spilling over on to the floor and in to his lap. In his quickening frustration, Elle could tell that his vision was obviously narrowed to the point where he could not make out his own hand in front of his face.

Elle fumbled about on her hind legs as she swung around a quill, trying to tickle Mias in the face with the soft feather. "Looking for something?" She was trying her best to make light of her situation, and irritating Mias was certainly of good way of lifting her spirits.

Mias pursed his mouth to pinch back a smile – though not quite as successfully as he may have hoped – and twitched his nose to stifle a sneeze. There was something about Elle, no matter her shape, that was exceptionally charming and he could not resist. With a deep breath he blew the feather out of his face, and tried not to laugh out loud at Elle's eyes squinting as her fur and whiskers were pressed back against the force of the rushing air. Her tail flicked back and forth several times, but he could not tell what it meant, so he pet her gently on the head with his forefinger.

"Thank you, pet." He quickly pulled the quill from her grasp, and then returned the playful gesture by twirling the feather in her face. He could have sworn that she was smiling at him.

"What?" She blinked at him, combing her little mouse fingers through the barbules of the feather.

"Hm?"

"You're staring," She giggled and pulled at the feather to get him to focus.

"Ah, I-" He scratched at his upper lip, using his other hand to sift through the mess. "I need to work. Where is my ink?"

Elle rolled her eyes and pointed, "Far right corner, on top of the black book."

Mias had to stand to reach across the desk to the precariously balanced bottle of black ink. He was almost embarrassed that he had missed it and Elle had not, but made great care to show no sign of it by giving her a dignified nod. She returned his not with a rather undignified snort and plopped backwards on her behind with forelegs crossed. This time he could not contain all of his laughter, so it came out as a mocking huff of air and he shook his head at her.

"What is it now?"

Elle scowled at him, obviously not impressed with the impatience that was evident in his tone. She did not appreciate how he was just trying to shrug her presence off to the side, especially considering that he was the one who had encumbered her mobility and independence and insisted on keeping her near. She was trying to her best to make light of the situation and trust that there was some important reason that Mias had done this to her, but he was making it very difficult for her to be as forgiving as she was.

Tail slowly sliding from side to side across the grainy surface of the wood, Elle watched Mias as he callously turned his attention to his work after receiving no reply from her. There was a plethora of things that she wanted to say to Mias, but there was something terribly distracting about the latter action that her body was undertaking. An indescribable feeling came over her as she tried to interpret what it was like to now feel and have control over a body part that she did not have even two hours ago.

"I just want an answer, Mias."

Mias let out an exasperated sigh and slowly set down his writing utensil. He made no effort to make eye contact -or to put her anywhere within his line of vision- and simply stared forward with tight lips. Nostrils flaring with each heavy breath and pupils dilating, he looked like a man trying to contain the very devil within himself. Elle hesitated and even took a few nervous steps backwards to gain some distance between them as something within her seemed to say that it was no jest or devious ploy – something was wrong.

"Mias, forget I asked. I-"

"You will have your answer when the threat has been – terminated." He went to pick up the quill, but hesitated and set his hand back down exactly where it had been before. "Sometimes… It's better to be left in the dark. It's just…"

"Safer?"

Mias turned to Elle with a bemused grin on his lips; eyebrows set at uneven levels on his forehead, and just stared at her. He wanted her to be serious about the matter, but she continued to test him with her incessant curiosity. "Elle," He pinched the bridge of his nose and took several deep breaths to calm himself. The urge to slam his fist down in exactly the right spot and quell his quickly building frustration was becoming increasingly tempting.

"Alright," Elle shuffled towards Mias' hand and placed her forepaws on the knuckle of his index finger. "I'll accept your… condition – without question- if you stop going on about my safety. It's really annoying."

Her touch, though minute and inhuman, made Mias instantly regret his decision. He wanted that to be her real, human hand touching his, with her elegant and smooth fingers and short, delicate nails. It had not even been half a day and he was kicking himself, yearning to touch Elle again. With a slight ache in his chest, he scooped her up in to his hands and gave her a soft, careful kiss on the top of her head.

Elle would have been blushing, had her skin not been hiding under a downy coat of light brown fur, so instead she scratched at a non-existent itch behind one of her large round ears. It certainly was pleasant how Mias seemed to constantly be surprising her with one charming gesture after another – she could get used to it. Standing on the very tips of her toes, she stretched her body as long as it would go and gave Mias a ghost of a kiss on the tip of his nose just as he pulled away.

She could have sworn that she saw the faintest sign of a blush come across his cheeks and he smiled at her, but it looked so sad and quickly turned in to a frown. Something inside of her dropped like a brick being hurled purposely to the ground and she fell back onto her haunches. Sitting quietly, she watched Mias, waiting for him to be ready to tell her – though, by the look on his face, she was not sure if she was ready to hear it.

"I have to send you away."

"What?"