Chapter 5:

Harajuku Reject

Idol Mind


Quartz had been checking the audience while everyone focussed on the competition. The closest match he'd found was Yumeda, but the idol was clearly human.

As he sat at the edge of the stadium carpark scratching his head and hearing Amelie's performance over the stadium's speakers, a shadow fell over him - a shadow of a teenage girl that seemed to faintly sparkle with lilac magic.

"You're here to bring me back, aren't you?" she scoffed, small change in one hand, a stick of gum in the other, a bubble of bright pink gum stuck to her pale lips. This was unmistakably the real Desiree, with her sash made from plant fronds, a periwinkle petal dress and her hip-length white-violet hair, as well as some straw sandals she'd managed to get from somewhere. Armed with the gum, she looked like a cross between a Harajuku reject and a punk.

Suddenly, Quartz's gaze grew steely as he leapt for the younger fairy, but she jumped back, discarding her gum from her mouth in the process. In the corner of the male fairy's eye, an amber flash disappeared almost as quickly as it came...
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By the time Amelie left, she was so disappointed she was numb to everything around her, including the sun, which was making way for the seemingly endless winter night. For all her time at the stadium, she hadn't found Desiree...

Just as she got to a nearby concrete bridge that went over a desolate road, she encountered Quartz and Desiree, the older fairy dragging the younger one by one of her long sleeves. Quartz was blushing for some reason Amelie couldn't fathom, while Desiree's grumpy face was practically unreadable in regards to what had happened to make Quartz this way.

"Now that I've found her, I apologise for making you go through that." The older fairy swept into a small bow after telling Amelie this and forced Desiree to do the same with a deathly glare.

"So why aren't we back to normal?" the younger fairy growled at her senior, raising a fist in a threat.

The sound of boots on concrete echoed across the surroundings as Kris emerged from the stadium, glancing around before stopping in his tracks at the sight of Desiree.

"Yumeda?" he gasped, prompting another death glare from Quartz to the younger fairy.
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After the situation was explained and Kris found the idol he was looking for, it turned out Desiree wasn't Yumeda. They were only similar in appearance...the idol was short, but even in her boots she was much taller and more mature than Desiree was (although Desiree had no idea how Kris judged this).

"So who did I see near my house recently?" Kris mused, creating a few seconds' worth of silence.

Desiree sheepishly put up her hand. "I was trying to escape that grandpa Platinum after he got angry and flung a spell at me - I fell into the lake! How disgraceful!" She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she complained. (Presumably, "Platinum" was the name of the fairy elder.)

After admitting this, a white light began to glow from Quartz's and Desiree's feet. A whirlwind of magic which was all sorts of colours began to swirl up from the light, enveloping them and restoring them to fairy form (bar the shoes they were wearing).
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Back at the forest, the elder had grown tired of waiting and was about to dig into a magenta berry when Quartz fluttered in with Desiree.

"Glitter!" he cried, and Quartz's shoulders visibly sagged as he realised what the elder wanted with Desiree.

Glitter was the name of the elder's wife. According to what Quartz had heard about her, she'd gotten close to Platinum so she could experience what it was like to be human, but then she was presumed a witch by the humans of the time. The other fairies decided to keep her human as a result of being found out...

No fairy ever knew if Glitter was alive today, but she did look a lot like Desiree. To top it off, Desiree's ability to show Platinum visions of his wife meant he could see her - or as much of what was real to the elder, at least - anytime.

As the purple-haired fairy retook her place by Platinum's side, Quartz left, wondering whether Kanade was truly human...

...and in the distance, he heard Kris repeat the song Desiree had sung a few nights ago. It was one of Yumeda's, so it wasn't hard to mistake, but he didn't know what it meant:

Watashi wa hitori de yukkuri aruita.
Daremoshitakunai kedo, ningen janakatta.
Himitsu wa himitsu datta.
Kokoro ga dokidoki shinagara,
yousei no tsubasa de sora ni tondeita to omotta.
Sore wa chiisai yumenanoni, sore wa shinjitsu datta.

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---- Author's Note ----
Since italics were implemented on Honeyfeed while I was releasing this story, I've gone back and put them where they're needed.