Their keepers had collected the last of the four year olds and Darcy was finally finished wiping down the rest of the crafting session.  This was like the first time in a long time that she forgot to do crafts before nap time… Now she totally remembered why. 

That was all over now!  She could rearrange everything and make sure that they finished their painted cotton ball pygmy puffs in the morning.  That would at least really only result in the use (and potential consumption) of paste.  As long as you convinced the wee one that it was totally okay, you wouldn’t even have to worry about the parents finding out…

Wiping her brow with the back of her hand, Darcy felt a warm, wet smear across her forehead.  Ugh.  That was… low key disgusting.  Wrinkling her nose, she let her hand fall and dropped the wiping cloth down onto the still damp surface of the table.  Patting at her waist, she frowned: where was it? 

Tucking her chin down, she looked again and noticed that her wand was not in her belt loop.  That wasn’t good.  Scrambling around for a second, Darcy whimpered and turned around in circles – she didn’t see it.  “Squibly!” she called out in a distressed voice, referencing her colleague so named after the famous Squid sidekick whenever Muggly needs to explore a seaside Muggle attraction.  “Squibly! Have you seen my wand?!” 

Squibly sure seemed like some sort of slur (like mudblood), but Kohaku was cool with it. Only specific people could call him that, and besides... It was actually the name of some sort of squid? He wasn't sure. Kids entertainment didn't make sense (see: Spongebob Squarepants), but it seemed like all kids, magical or not, liked things from uncanny valley.

"I don't know where your wand is!" He exclaimed with the fake jolly cheer required when working around small children. Darcy was one of his favorite coworkers. Whenever he was covered in paint, he could usually count on her to wave her wand and fix the problem. Unfortunately this time, she had no idea where it was.

Shit. Did one of the kids take it?

Kohaku's gaze slowly shifted towards the corner, where one of the troublemakers, Calliope Hawke, was cackling with her little gang.

"Tell me you didn't let a kid take it."

How did he not know where her wand was?  There were only two of them in this room who she trusted with her wand: and neither of them were in possession of it. 

Shit.  Shit. Shit. 

They were going to get in such trouble.  Darcy hadn’t made a mistake this bad for ages… Even though their bosses were pretty understanding, no parent would ever really be that okay if their child left school at the end of the day with half of an ear missing or a finger lopped off, would they?  This wasn’t like Hogwarts, after all; parents needed to be informed when their children were taken to the hospital here. 

“I wouldn’t let a kid take anything,” Darcy responded sharply and sort of kind of under her breath.  She wasn’t the quiet sort, after all.  But even then, her voice could not cover up the cackle of hell spawn itself: Calliope Hawke. 

Darcy turned on the heel of shoe and took a deep breath through her nose.  Patience, Darcy, patience. She repeated it over and over in her head as she approached – watching tiny faces turn serious and silent.  Not a good sign on their parts.  Her smile stretched across her face and she sounded only slightly robotic as she crouched, putting her paint covered hands on her knees.  “Playing a game, are we?” she glanced over her shoulder at Kohaku, trying to subtly (not too subtly), motion him over with a twitch her neck.  “Care to explain the rules?” 

Darcy required backup.

Kohaku wasn't sure exactly what kind of backup a non magical person like him could provide. Especially against a magical child who may or may not be in the possession of a wand. This was like a toddler with a switchblade cornering their baby sibling. In this situation, Kohaku was the baby sibling, defenseless. Magical child with a wand vs a Squbly? How about no.

He gave Darcy a long-suffering look that clearly placed the blame on her shoulders.

Calliope looked up at Darcy, a shit-eating grin on her face. The face of evil. She was about to open her mouth to speak when another child ran up to Darcy, an urgent look on her face.

"I made you a picture with pictures from home!" The child squeaked, tugging on Darcy's clothes.

Kohaku stole a glance at the picture. It was a half-naked woman, jutting out her boobs in unicorn lingerie. There was a golden horn on her head. Written next to it was a giant letter D.

"Uuuuhhh. That's not... Appropriate. I think." He mumbled.

"You like unicorns... So I found you a pretty unicorn lady." The kid grinned, "It's YOU."

Kohaku tried to turn his laugh into a cough.

There was a genuine moment where Darcy’s entire career at the Mandrake Patch flashed in front of her eyes.  She was going to lose her job.  In between Hawke holding that wand and the picture being waved at her… Darcy just hoped that Calliope would kill them all first.  At least then she could die a hero… if no one asked why the crazy kid had a wand in the first place.

Shame on Darcy for trying to do anything the muggle way!  She knew it was part of the curriculum, you had to show the students how to do things in many ways… but this time, this one time she put her wand down and this is what happened?  Should have left all the muggle cleaning to Kohaku.  Especially because he was laughing at the entire situation.

He might have thought she didn’t catch him… oh, but she did.  She totally did.

And even though, if it happened to someone else, she’d be absolutely on the floor laughing – staring at the image of the unicorn girl that obviously made Darcy question what sort of magazine material was lying about in her house. 

If it wouldn’t be absolutely and completely mortifying, she might bring it up to her dads when they picked her up… “Thank you, Helena,” Darcy cleared her throat, trying not to sound as agitated as she was and went to take it from her. 

But she didn’t get the chance. 

It was so much worse than it could have been in this moment.  Calliope Hawke jammed the wand into the side of her thigh and not only did the jeans fabric start to shrink… and contract… and the waistband seized.  How did she do that?!  Darcy bent over at the waist with a groan.  “Callie!” she shrieked as the seams around her hip started to stretch and she could practically hear the stitching rip. “I need… that… now!” the last word came out more like the sound of a screeching cat. 

“Right. Now!” she held out one arm as she felt the air being rolled out of her like a toothpaste container.  “Callie!”