With light steps that left a trail of drops and wet footprints on the wooden floorboards, he crossed the hallway and ascended the staircase to the attic, where his bedroom was situated. He closed the door behind him and unwrapped the towel, laying back on his bed to air-dry in the pleasant warmth of the late spring evening.

The sun was setting, its last rays slipping through the open moonroof, making the bland walls of his room look golden. It was still a few hours away from Rogue’s usual bedtime, even now that the days were getting longer, but when he deemed himself dry enough, he got ready for bed anyway. His eyes traveled over to the altar in the corner as he put on a pair of boxers and a sleepshirt. Once, it had been just an antique coffee table he’d inherited when his grandmother passed away, along with a matching cabinet that he used to store everything he’d collected over the years. Books, minerals, dried herbs and flowers, and lots of other useful items.

He combed out the tangles of his still damp hair with his fingers, and got comfortable in his bed, going over the checklist in his head to make sure he had everything he’d need for the spell he’d been planning to cast. The timing was important, and he had been waiting quite a while for the right moment to arrive. Where everything aligned from the date, to the hour, to the phase of the moon.

As the sun sank lower on the horizon, the room slowly darkened. Rogue closed his eyes and let the crickets sing him to sleep. He’d be up before dawn.

0-0

He’d gotten dressed and ready for the day as quietly as possible, as to not wake up his family members, who were sleeping soundly downstairs. The watch on his left wrist told him it was just past 5.15, and as he stood on his toes and stuck his head through the moonroof, he admired the beauty of the sky in its transition from night into day. The sun and the moon, coming together for a short time, against a backdrop of deep blues and violets, joined by a few scattered stars.

Rogue moved away from the moonroof and took a slow, deep breath, shifting all of his focus onto the task he’d set himself out to complete. He started the familiar ritual, drawing a circle around himself and the altar with a piece of chalk, and cleansing the space, his spell items and himself with a bundle of burning white sage.

When everything was done, he knelt, starting the preparation of his spell by placing two red candles on the surface of the altar in front of him. With a black-handled blade, he carved his name into the first candle and placed it back into the holder.

“I am a beacon of loving light. Let it shine and summon he who shall be mine,” Rogue spoke softly, lighting the candle after he finished.

He grabbed the next item, a red sheet of paper, and cut it into 12 pieces. On every piece, he would write down a desired trait his ideal partner would have, and he had no trouble coming up with the first trait.

‘Considerate,’ he wrote down neatly in gold ink, not wanting to deal with another possessive and jealous boyfriend. Once the ink had dried, he folded the paper three times. He focused on the word and its meaning, imagining every way he wanted it to be represented in a relationship. When he was done, he grabbed the red velvet pouch from the items he had set out and put the folded paper inside it.

The next traits he wrote down were ‘Honest,’ ‘Faithful,’ ‘Kind,’ ‘Spontaneous,’ ‘Likes animals,’ ‘Confident’ and ‘A good sense of humor,’ giving each piece of paper the same treatment as he did the first, but he still had 4 pieces left and found himself unsure as to what he should write on them.

He thought he’d covered all the personality traits that mattered to him, so he decided to focus on looks next. After all, a great personality wouldn’t make him fall in love if he couldn’t feel any attraction to the package it came in. And although his past crushes and boyfriends didn’t have a lot in common appearance wise, Rogue definitely had a preference, something that had enchanted him since he was old enough to recognize the feeling.

‘Blue eyes,’ he was already imagining it before he scribbled it onto the paper, smiling as he folded it because the stirring in his stomach told him that he’d made the right choice. To go with the blue eyes, he wrote down another silly bias, ‘Blond hair,’ and now that a visual was starting to form, his imagination was threatening to run away with him.

Tall, short, or average height? Slim, stocky, muscular? Fair skinned, tanned, or dark? Rogue pondered and fantasized, so many options to choose from and only 2 pieces of paper left. He frowned and pouted, twirling his pen between his fingers as he tried to just pick something, but truth be told, he didn’t really care as long as…

A loud snort escaped him that he managed to muffle behind his right hand as he wrote with his left, ‘Nice ass,’ scolding himself for having a dirty mind. But then again...not really.

He pressed his lips together, trying to hold back more chuckles as he indulged in mental images, justifying it with the excuse that the spell required him to. Feeling a warmth creep up from his cheeks to his ears, he forced himself to get his mind out of the gutter before he would get too distracted to finish the spell.

And on that note, for a second he’d considered picking ‘well endowed’ as his final trait, but decided against it, knowing that if he was going to have to envision that and everything that came with it- pun not intended?- there’d be no end to it. Pushing that thought right back to where it came from, he wrote down ‘Neat’ instead, folded the paper and filled his mind with thoughts of having a boyfriend who was organized, didn’t need to be badgered about doing chores, and dressed smartly.

Satisfied with his efforts, Rogue put that last piece of paper into the pouch and cupped it in his hands, closing his eyes as he ran through everything he’d written down in his mind until he once again felt that same stirring from earlier. Then he blew a kiss into the pouch and sealed it by pulling the drawstrings.

He placed it in front of the lit candle, and grabbing the knife again, carved the words’ future lover’ into the other candle before placing it back into its holder, next to the one with his name on it. He moved the red pouch in front of the still unlit candle, again focusing on everything he’d written down on the red pieces of paper, combining all twelve traits into one vision.

He lit the candle using the flame of the other and finished the spell, “We now share a light, a spark in the night that draws you to me. No harm will be done, so shall it be.”

Filled with faith that the spell had been put into motion, Rogue rose to his feet and broke the magic circle, releasing all the energy inside it into the world. In one of the cabinet drawers, he found a leather cord to tie around the pouch, and after he tied the ends into a small knot, he was able to wear it around his neck.

Now all that was left for him to do was put away the items he’d used, starting with blowing out the candles before any accidents could happen. The smoke that came off the wicks curled up into the air, filling his room with the unique scent that was one of his favorites, and still a bit moony-eyed from the spell, Rogue got so caught up with enjoying it that he’d forgotten to turn off the smoke alarm. The shrill beeps blared loudly through the house, making him scramble to grab it off the mounting bracket and remove the batteries.

He looked from the smoke alarm that was still busy singing the song of its people in his one hand, to the pair of AA batteries in his other, getting increasingly frustrated from not being able to hear his own thoughts over that most hated sound. But why was it still beeping? And better yet, why did it sound an awful lot like…

Rogue slowly opened his eyes, squinting and blinking to clear his blurry vision. He rolled over in his bed and swept aside the hair that hung in front of his face like a black curtain so he could find the off-button on his alarm clock and put an end to that atrocious sound. Off, not snooze like he usually did at least once before he’d get up, but he was currently too confused and disoriented to even consider trying.

He scratched his head as he looked around his room, at his window, his regular French door window that didn’t look anything like a moonroof. They didn’t even have an attic. There was no antique cabinet in the corner of his room, no coffee table that served as a magic altar. Just a bookcase and his guitar.

It had all been a dream.

0-0

October 3, 2012

Rogue padded to the kitchen to make his breakfast still caught up in his dream and how very real it had seemed. He could only imagine it had something to do with the conversation he’d had with Cana the previous night.

Cana had learned to read cards from her mother at a very young age, and after her mother had died, she had continued to learn all sorts of things that most would consider occult. Gildarts had always encouraged it, knowing that it helped her cope with her loss and trusted her to be smart enough not to muck with any dark stuff. Not that she ever would, especially now that she had a young daughter of her own.

When they were younger, both Rogue and his older brother Gray had listened in awe as she told them about some of the things she’d learned. It was all pretty fascinating in theory, although neither one of them had been interested enough to learn how to do it themselves, which was why that dream had been so surprising.

However, as obvious as he thought it was that Cana had inspired the whole thing about the spell, he knew that the idea behind it, the wish to find love, was all his own.

He certainly couldn’t deny that he was feeling pretty lonely these days.

When his parents had left, he’d had great hopes of spending long nights writing, working on new songs, or even catching up on his reading. And while all those things had definitely happened, there was one thing he hadn’t factored in.

The silence.

Before Gray had left for college, and his parents had moved to Alvarez, their house had always been busy. Gildarts and Cana could usually be counted on to be about as well, adding to the ever present noise. There had always been someone around to watch TV or play video games with.

Now there was nothing but a big empty house that Rogue was suddenly responsible for, and it was filled to the rafters with the silence his loved ones had left in their wake.

It was deafening, and no matter what he tried he could never seem to quiet it.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, he’d broken up with his boyfriend weeks earlier. Not that they’d been together very long, or that Rogue had any regrets about his decision, but at least spending time with Maru had offered a break from the monotony of his days.

His band Phantom Lord, of which Maru was the drummer, was the only real social interaction he had at the moment. Unless you counted the random hookups he’d tried at their last few gigs, drunk on cheap alcohol and the hope that a spark might ignite with one of these people that seemed so hungry for his attention.

Far from it, they usually left once they were done, content with having fooled around with someone in a band, but having no real interest in anything more. It was the same at the parties and clubs Rogue forced himself to attend, an effort to delay the inevitable return to his house.

Everyone was interested in his looks and the fact that he was a part of Phantom Lord, and although a good time could be had easily enough, any pleasure he felt was hollow at best.

He wanted someone he could connect with, who was interested in him because they found him appealing or had things in common.

He wanted, he noted wryly, someone just like that person he’d tried to spell into existence in his dream. A man who could vanquish his loneliness and make him feel something again.

But so far, that person didn’t seem to exist in Magnolia.

Rogue snapped out of his musings long enough to glance down at his phone and realize he would be late for class if he didn’t hurry. He wolfed down the toast and juice he’d put together and ran out the door, wearing his guitar on his back and dragging his backpack behind him.

He went from class to class, groaning at the ever growing number of assignments the professors dumped on them. Thankfully today was Wednesday, and he had band practice right after his last class. That thought alone cheered him up immensely.

He and Gajeel had been playing around with a new song, and Rogue had spent most of the previous night working on it, eager to make some progress that he could show his band members.

He all but counted the minutes until the end of his last class, impatiently collecting his stuff and jumping up from his seat as soon as it was dismissed. He’d made it all the way to his car when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He grabbed it, seeing it was a call from Gajeel.

“Hey, I’m on my way,” Rogue answered the phone, the device awkwardly pressed between his shoulder and his ear so he could put his guitar and backpack on the back seat, “Do you need me to pick up something?”

“Don’t bother, it’s a mess over here. There was a small fire earlier and they’re gonna have to close down for repairs for a week or two,” Gajeel sounded agitated and Rogue could hear the sound of sirens in the background. “I gotta go, I’ll text you when I figure out where we can practice in the meantime.

In his disappointment, Rogue almost suggested practicing in his garage, but the idea of having Maru at his house quickly decided him against it. “Oh. Okay. Well then, keep me posted, I guess?”

A grunt was all he got in reply before the line went dead.

Well, that’s just great, Rogue thought, his mood darkening at the idea of going back to his empty home already. Remembering all the work he needed to get done, he grabbed his backpack again but left the guitar, locking the car and turning around to head back towards the library. Might as well get some of it done.

It had been a while since he had set foot in the university’s library, and he was surprised to see just how crowded it was. Every table was occupied. Walking through the main room, he searched for an empty chair, keeping an eye open for anyone he recognized, on the off chance there might be an opening at their table.

As luck would have it, a table opened up just as he walked past it, and he immediately claimed it, setting his backpack on the floor next to him. Opening it, he pulled out the first thing he got his hands on without looking, dismayed to see that it was his biology textbook, the one class he hated with a passion.

Telling himself to just get it over with, he accepted his fate, grabbing his laptop to examine the worksheet the professor had assigned. It didn’t take long for his frustrations to build up, because the whole reason why he disliked biology so much was that he just couldn’t keep up. He had a great memory, which was the only reason why he wasn’t completely failing the class yet, but the fundamental principles of the science just went way beyond him. Maybe he should just do something else and hope Gajeel would be able to help him with this sometime, in the meantime, he could focus on a different subject.

Just as he leaned over to reach for another book, he heard a voice ask, “Hey, is this seat taken?”

Rogue gave a small jump, not expecting the interruption. When he looked up, he came face to face with a guy with blond hair, a smile like the ones you’d see in toothpaste commercials, and a pair of the bluest eyes Rogue had ever seen crinkling down at him in amusement. <br> <br> In the time it took Rogue to force his jaws back together and reply with a stupefied, “Oh, uhm, not at all,” the guy had already dropped his backpack on the table and sat down across from him. Rogue’s thoughts went back to his dream, and even though it was completely irrational, he couldn’t stop his hand from subtly patting his chest, searching for the pouch that he knew wouldn’t be there.