Chapter 23 #2
It wasn’t like he couldn’t help Ollie. While hunters did have a slight immunity to magic, and he was trained to approach silently, he was sure that if he did it in a less than professional way, and tried to pull back his efforts, he could approach in an almost human-like manner of stealth…
The problem was…non-human was sort of his default, and it would take considerable effort, and some practice of his own, to stop himself from slipping into the default Ollie no doubt wanted for himself.
Ollie’s smile dimmed as he remained quiet, Noble winced when the man started to wind his fingers together as he softly, and with clear disappointment, rasped, “Ah…you don’t want to? That’s… That’s fine! Don’t—”
“No, no, I do!” Noble blurted, cutting the little witch’s no doubt nervous ramblings off. “I just don’t like the idea of purposely scaring you. But I’ll help, I’ll do it.”
His Baby’s smile came rushing back as he giggled happily. “I mean, you likely will scare me a little bit, but it will only help me in the long run, right?!”
He let out a barely audible sigh, before mutedly saying, “Right…”
“Distraction over. Start smelling, Ollie,” Red ordered.
Ollie sighed as he glanced away. Noble couldn’t help but notice that the witch began to squint a bit more as he breathed in deeply, the headache Red mentioned was no doubt very much reality.
After a moment, the man wrinkled his nose and sighed again as he asked, “Would one of the things you were doing today at home happen to be cleaning, Noble?”
Ah, shit… He knew where this was going, mainly as there were a few things he mixed in with the cleaning chemicals that would usually wipe away whatever odors were left behind by his hunter activities, so not even magically enhanced ones could pick it up.
“Ah, I started a full scrub down of my house…
I didn't finish, but I was cleaning for hours.”
“Well, whatever you used, it’s all I can smell. And I mean, I did smell a bit on you when we met up, but didn’t quite realize how strong and odor blocking it was.”
He winced. “Sorry…”
Ollie’s familiar let out a discontented hiss. “Really, Noble?”
“I would have cleaned on a different day if I had known he was practicing magic related to The Ceaseless Hunter tonight.”
“Red, be nice. It’s not like he knew it would interfere!” Ollie huffed.
Noble was going to keep his mouth shut, and not admit that he did in fact know it would interfere with magical senses, but had unfortunately forgotten all about it until Ollie had brought it up.
Red just scoffed in response.
“Well, since I can’t smell, now what?” his little witch asked, before hopefully blurting, “Oh, does this mean we can head back now?!”
“No!” Red snapped, before grinning viciously. “You have two options. Practice your hearing again, or…”
“Or?” Ollie pressed.
“Stand there silently for the next forty-five minutes.”
The man sputtered indignantly, “Y-you can’t be serious?!”
“You asked. I answered,” Red said with a sniff.
“You know what, for being mean, I am going to NOT practice my hearing, and I am going to SIT instead of standing, because I have free will and my legs are tired!” Ollie sat down on the forest floor with a hmph, arms crossed, but bounced up seconds later with a gasp, “I forgot about grass stains!”
He barely suppressed his smile when Ollie looked at him with his big eyes and asked, “Can I sit in your lap?”
Sitting down, he opened his arms and said, “Come here.”
“WAIT!!” Red yowled, causing Ollie to hesitate just as he was about to sit down in his lap.
“What now?” Ollie huffed as they both looked towards the cat.
“You two can’t seriously be planning to sit there cuddled up in front of me for forty-three minutes?! Like, I am here, and that is inappropriate, considering I raised you. And we both know you two are far too—ugh—touchy for anyone’s sanity!”
“Well, you gave me two options, and now I am going to do the same. Either I sit here in Noble’s lap, or we head back. Choose, Red.”
“Fine! You win. We’ll head back!” the familiar snapped after glaring for a moment, before starting to walk away as he proceeded to rant.
“Why am I always cursed with witches that are brats?! Every single one of you damn Cross witches always seems to have to get your bloody way! Never seeming to understand that I am just trying to help. BUT NOOO, don’t listen to the cat, he’s just been alive for longer than you can imagine!
What does he know?! Surely what he says doesn’t matter, so let’s perform an absurd amount of PDA in front of him.
He’s just a cat, he doesn’t matter. Nothing—”
Snorting as Red continued on, he eyed Ollie, who just shrugged and held his arms out as he sheepishly asked, “Carry me, please?”
Noble chuckled and pushed back to his feet, picking Ollie up and smiling as the witch clung to him.
In his fair and honest opinion, while Ollie may like to be babied sometimes, he’d hardly call him a brat.
The man was far too cute to ever be a brat.
And if he was…well, again, he was cute, so he could be as bratty as he wanted.
Not that Noble would ever agree that he was in fact a brat.