It took her father, Lars and Gil – once the latter had come back from the store with a whole arsenal of orange juice – the better part of the night to help Avalon prepare every little thing for undoing the love spell. After the initial shock had worn off, Chill Pills or no, Neymar had helped where he could, doing his best to distract himself from what was about to happen and how his family was faring. You could still see his mind reeling, his fists clenching, as he realised, time and again, how helpless he really was in this situation.

Avalon was painting the pentagram on the floor of the VME's backroom, the only floor in the shop big enough for it to fit, when she stopped, the chalk hovering over the floor, and the realisation fully hit her. He wasn't the only one helpless in this situation, was he?

Not even a day had passed since that Nina had pretty much PWNed her. Thrown her out of the house. Captured her teacher. Used the local coven like a bunch of marionettes. Held the family she, Avalon, was responsible for hostage.

Not even a day.

The storm had stopped, and the night on the other side of the VME walls was eerily quiet for a major city such as Barcelona.

"Can I help you with that?"

Avalon blinked, surprised by the voice pulling her out of her musings. She turned to find Neymar leaning against the door frame, the shop behind him lit up only by a few dim lamps so as to not attract any attention from people passing by outside; whoever was out and about in this part of town deep in the night. It seemed that her boss – and yet he'd become so much more to her, hadn't he? – had enough of the talk of the others in the front of the shop and gone to the only place that promised at least the illusion of peace and quiet.

The fruity smell of hibiscus tea hang in the air, owed to the ointment her father and Lars were finishing preparing for the undoing spell that was still boiling on a little pot on a mobile cooking plate. It painfully reminded Avalon of the wonderful little witch kitchen up on Neymar's roof that she suddenly wished she could be at. She could hear them explain the differences between witches and Völva and Vikings to Gil, who'd missed the big explanations and still had a whole sack of questions to ask them. Conversation had turned toward the weird kind of questions. The uncomfortable ones. Like how Nina could so easily "overwrite" Neymar's free will – if there were Goddesses, there was a God, and if there was a God, there was a free will, and that was supposed to be untouchable.

No wonder Neymar wanted to get the hell away.

"Avalon?"

Oh, she'd zoned out again. No surprise there. She felt like beside herself ever since that big revelation, her thoughts turning this way and that...

How was she supposed to win against an ancient magical being that had been powered by a Goddess? Of all things! Well. Could be worse. Could be the Goddess herself. Haha.

"You rather be alone?" Neymar asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Avalon visibly shook her thoughts off, then she broke the chalk in two, conjuring a smile for him as she handed him one of the halves. "No. Sorry. Here. Just don't add any funny stuff to the design and keep to the one you see on the paper–" she nodded to the sheet lying on the floor where she and her father had sketched the complicated pentagram for the spell before, "–and you're good to go."

He took the chalk and settled down next to her, the corner of his mouth lifting in a half-smile. "I'm afraid to ask what happens if I mess up."

Avalon smiled, an honest one now. It was weird how simply his mere presence helped her relax and calm her nerves. Weird and oddly reassuring. "Oh, don't worry. I think you'll look pretty with two heads." At his shocked expression, she rolled her eyes. "I'm joking! If we screw up the pentagram, nothing will happen. I'll just have to start undoing the love spell again. Relax. No second head."

He sighed in relief, shaking his head. "By the end of this, I swear, I'm gonna need therapy!"

They worked in silence for a while, the chalk on the cement floor the only sound. Then he broke the quiet with another sigh. "You know... I don't think there are enough words in the world to express how I feel right now. How... grateful I am? I mean..." He stopped drawing, leaning back to study the pentagram on the sheet to the half-finished one on the floor. "What if you hadn't become part of my family? I'd never even know. All the things I've done... God, I can't believe I took her side over my own mother's! I can't even–"

"Ney," Avalon interrupted him before he could go on a tirade. Which was about the last thing he needed to do right now. Goddesses knew how often he'd thought it through, already. She turned toward him, give him a reassuring look. At least, she hoped it was. "Hey, that's not your fault, okay? You couldn't help it. We'll get through this."

He stared at her, trying to believe her, she could see. Having a hard time doing it. Naturally. "How, though? It's all so..."

And just like when she'd hugged him earlier, her hand grabbed his all on its own accord, holding it tight. "Whatever's responsible for this, however we got to where we are now? We're here and we're going to make the best of it. And the best will be to get this pentagram done and that spell off of your chest. And then we'll go from there."

She sounded matter-of-fact. But for his benefit, she needed to be. It was enough that she was out of her mind with worry about if she could even manage to undo the spell. Past experiences had told her she sucked at undoings.

Majorly.

Devastatingly.

They started at each other for a long moment. Then he smiled softly. "All right," he said. "We'll go from there. I think I look forward to that very much."

And Avalon's stomach did a somersault at his smile and at those words, somehow interpreting all kinds of things and possible futures into them.

Somehow knowing those interpretations weren't that far off either, when they kept holding hands even as they continued copying the pentagram.

- - -

An hour later, she stood at the top point of the five-star pentagram. Inside the five triangle fields created from the star design different kinds of candles burned. They were the only lights in the room, now that the light bulb had been turned off. Neymar had shown a surprising talent for drawing while copying the intricate symbols in between the starry shapes of the pentagram. They looked like nonsensical decorations to the uneducated eye, but Avalon knew that every swing was meant to help guide the magic in undoing the spell woven by another magical persona.

The man-of-many-hidden-talents was standing in the very centre of the pentagram, facing her. They were alone in the room, and while Gil had complained about not getting to see what he'd dubbed the "spectacle", Avalon was quite happy to not have anyone, least of all her father, watch over her shoulder. That way, he wouldn't witness her possible failing. Again.

"Remember this, Avalon," Marcel had told her in a last one-on-one before she and Neymar had locked the door behind them. They'd sat down on the bench, eyeing the drawing on the floor when they'd set the candles. The others had left give them room for a father-daughter discussion, and Avalon half wished they hadn't. She didn't want to talk about the past. Not now. Not when she needed all of herself to focus on the present.

"The past is the past," Marcel went on in that warm soft and deep voice of his, not minding her thoughts at all. And why would he? She hadn't voiced even them. Saying them out loud would make them all too real. "And nothing that you think and do now will ever change that fact. You can't unmake the past mistakes. So instead you learn from them. And I know you have. You wouldn't have turned your back on magic for so long if you hadn't felt and learned from that burn like you did back then."

She scoffed, even as goosebumps rose on her flesh as she fought the memories from years ago. "Jeesh, thanks for the pep talk. I'm all confident now that this will work. Second time's the charm, huh?"

"This isn't meant to be a pep talk, Avalon," he practically reprimanded and she winced. "You could've done it back then, had you only listened. But you were too young and too inexperienced. You're a powerful witch. One of the most powerful Vega witches for generations, whether you admit it to yourself or not. You were powerful even as a young girl, when you hadn't grown into those powers yet. But that is not the problem anymore. I know this will work because I know my daughter knows what she's doing now."

He didn't elaborate on that thesis, so Avalon tilted her head, watching his expression for any hints on what he meant. Because, contrary to his words, she had no clue as to what she really was doing. But there weren't any to be found, so she shook her head, as clueless as before. "I wish I had your confidence."

"You will have to trust me on that, I suppose." He nodded at her magic ring. "Besides, that ring of yours is charged with Neymar's aura."

Avalon frowned, inspecting the small band around her finger. What did that have to do with anything? And how could he tell that anyway? When she stretched for her magical power the ring felt like it supposed to. Nothing out of the ordinary. "You're not going to tell me what that's supposed to mean, are you?"

He only smiled at her, its meaning known only to him. "I will tell you afterwards. For now, you're more than welcome to take it as a good omen."

A good omen, huh? she wondered now, glancing at the ring before her gaze settled back on Neymar standing in the pentagram before her. The black heart on his exposed chest was glaring back at her. She cleared her throat. Saying she was nervous wasn't even cutting it close. Here goes... I hope you're right about me... dad. Sure, back then, the magic had burned her.

The problem was, it hadn't just set herself on fire.

"All right," she said, her voice not above a whisper. She opened her eyes, not having noticed when she'd closed them in the first place. "So, it's a pretty tough spell. Intricately connected to you."

The tendrils of the black heart that made up the love spell were all but dormant right now, put to sleep because of Avalon's magical trap that Nina was currently in. That didn't mean the spell wasn't potent, though. She bit her lip, eyes following the trails of every tendril, doing her best to not notice the chiselled chest of the man facing her. Which was kind of difficult. Impossible, actually. God, such a good-looking man. With a heart of gold. And wonderful humour. A smile to die for. And his eyes...

"Oh," Neymar said, pulling her gaze from his chest to his face. He sounded oddly disappointed. He looked down, scratching the back of his neck, as if he was embarrassed by her scrutinizing. Avalon's heart fell. Great, make him even more uncomfortable than he already was! "That's why you stared at me like that back then. In the garage? I've been thinking about that day we were introduced. I kept wondering– no, actually, even then I was kinda hoping that maybe you were staring because– but it was the spell you saw, after all. Not... me."

Avalon blinked. Really? That was on his mind right now? "Neymar?"

He looked up, dared she think, with hope in his features?

Might as well. She bit her lip. "It... wasn't just the spell I saw. Actually, the spell was what I noticed... later. I mean, your chest– that is, what I mean is–" she started, suddenly shy. What had she actually meant to say here anyway?

He saved her from further embarrassment by smiling at her. "That's... good to know."

Their eyes met. Her magic ring became warm.

"Uh," Neymar said, blinking as he turned his head to break the spell that had nothing to do with magic. "How about we get this over with? There's this thing I really wanna do and you told me I can't leave this pentagram until we're done here, right? That is, if you're up for it. I mean– are you?" He lowered his head, glancing at the ground, suddenly the shy one himself. Goddess, he was cute. "I wasn't imagining all the times that we– here's the thing, right?" He looked up again, seeking her gaze. "We're connected. Not like this–" He waved at the love spell on his chest. "Not by magic. I'm not seeing things that aren't there, am I? There's something there. And I know you feel it too."

A million different thoughts raced through Avalon's mind, making her unable to answer, at first. Was this really the time and place to talk about this right now? Of course she'd noticed their little moments, had cherished them more than she would've liked to admit whenever Zelo asked her about them, couldn't deny the feelings rushing her consciousness. But this was her boss. And he was in serious trouble. And she couldn't take advantage of that. "Neymar, you're–"

"I'm in love with you."

That made her freeze and set her on fire at the same time.

"It's not because of some spell," he went on, "or because you're helping me out of this Nina chaos, or because I'm on probably the hundredth Chill Pill right now and you think this is some side effect or whatever. Since this thing on my chest here is dormant I've realised it. No, even before that, I think. It just didn't let me know about it until now. I felt it – I feel it – every time I'm near you, Áva. Whenever Nina's far enough away. It's not her. It's never been her. It's you."

Could hearts overflow? Eyes certainly could, Avalon realised, as she blinked back tears – of joy, of relief, of happiness, she wasn't even sure. She cleared her throat, cheeks feeling warm from the rush of blood she knew was making her blush. Thank the Mother of the Moon for the dim light of the candles. She rubbed her cheeks dry, laughing softly. "It's you too. For me. Goddess! Look what you're doing to me! I... I hadn't even realised I wanted to hear you say that. So, so much! You sure have the worst timing ever, I hope you know that! No, don't leave the pentagram!" she shouted, holding up her hands when she saw him wanting to walk over to her.

Neymar stopped his movement just as his foot was about to cross over the first line. He pulled his hands through his black hair, turning his body sideways and growling in frustration. But he stayed right where he was supposed to be in the middle of the pentagram. "Right. Terrible timing. Tell me about it. I'm stuck in here and you're over there, looking unbelievably cute with that witch robe you're wearing."

She glared at him. It wasn't her fault an undoing required ceremonial dress code! "You're evil."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "And yet somehow you find me attractive."

An eyebrow rose. So much for the emotional romantic moment. "Awfully cocky for someone bewitched."

"Ah, bewitched I may be! But I'm more concerned by that love spell here than by the fact that I'm bewitched by you."

A moment of silence, then both of them laughed full-heartedly.

"Too much? Too soon?" he guessed.

Avalon nodded. "And way too cheesy."

"But it did relieve some of the tension, didn't it?"

She blinked, thought about it, and had to admit he was right. While there had been a major admittance of feelings just now, his comment had dissolved the seriousness around it. Still... She gave him an inquisitive look. The mood had turned sombre now. "So, just for the record. That thing you want to do. It involves me, right?"

Immediately, his gaze became heated. "Now who has terrible timing...?"

Avalon felt her lips prickle when she could feel him as much as she could see him stare at her mouth. He bit the inside of his lips, utterly mesmerized when her tongue slid over her lower lip. When had her lips gone so dry, anyhow? "Right. Unbelievable bad timing," she repeated. Then she rolled up the way too long sleeves of the ceremonial black robes and grabbed the can of ointment from the bench behind her. "Let's get that stupid spell off your chest."

Neymar nodded eagerly. "Yes, please! I wanna get out of here and find out what that ointment tastes like on your skin."

Hot flushes shot through her body.

"Evil," she whispered.

- - -

We've all been thirsting for a bit of Avalon-Neymar love, so here it is :) Well, at least some. Because I'm an evil masochist and couldn't help the tease that is this chapter and the end of it.

After that incredible dry and heavy chapters of the last few updates, I'm kinda glad I got the chance to write something a bit more light and feely. 

How've you guys been?

All the best!

- - -

Published on: 31 August 2018