The thought of getting away from Gaige and getting cleaned up is a tempting one, and you almost take it. But you'll have to take off your clothes again if you go that route, which will mean seeing what Marissa did to you again. It might be a doomed prospect, but you'd rather put off that painful revelation, if only for a few minutes. "I'd rather eat first," you say. As you do, you realize it's true. You didn't eat anything after your job interview yesterday. You could probably eat a whole tube of those rolls yourself. But you probably shouldn't, not if you want to keep looking the way you do.
Do you? No, you want to be yourself again, obviously. But what if you can't?
"Okay." Gaige shrugs, gesturing for the table. It looks fairly typical so far as kitchens go, the kind of thing you'd find in any modest apartment you'd lived in. Except this one doesn't have a single chair. "Take as many as you like. I assume you like sweet things? Marissa has a sweettooth something fierce, and you look kinda like her. Are you her sister?
You circle around the table, where three places have already been set. You scoop a massive roll onto your plate, then take a bite. Eating standing isn't exactly comfortable, but you can deal with it later. Hunger first. "You said nothing small ever gets big," you say, after devouring half of the roll. "You two are... if you two are small, does that mean I'm shrunk too? Like... forever?"
Gaige shook his head once, dislodging unruly hair. He might be a snake, but under that apron his chest seems lean and muscular. The inevitable result of crawling around everywhere he went. And if you're staring at him, it's just because you've never seen a snake before. Not because you can imagine those arms wrapping around your shoulders, the only safe thing in a world that's turned against you...
"Nah," he says, apparently oblivious. "You're not changed into anything small, you're just living here. The apartment makes enough room for whoever, it's the building that's magic. I don't think Marissa would hire an apprentice she could keep in her pocket."
"You work there," you say, before you've even realized what you're saying.
But it's too late, and soon you can see Gaige blushing. He wraps his tail tightly around himself, along with half the table while he's at it, though you feel only a flick of it against your legs before he pulls back self-consciously. "I'm not an apprentice," he says. "I just stock ingredients for potions and stuff. Sometimes it pays to be able to get up and actually see what you're working with, instead of squinting at a leaf and guessing at what it is, like you witches do." He rolls his eyes, then lifts an entire roll off the plate in front of him and swallows it without chewing. He does the same thing with another, and still you're staring. "What?"
"Nothing." You look away, retreating from the table. "I'm Marissa wants me to stay here, I'm gonna need to arrange some furniture. If the whole apartment is snake accessible, that probably means lots of standing around, right?"
Gaige shrugs. "We have a couch, and beds, same as what humans use. Honestly though, I bet it was intentional. Give you another reason to practice your powers, you know? Shapechange is like... witch 101. Just change into something that doesn't need a chair."
You fold your arms, and are halfway to saying something slightly impolite when you realize Justin is watching your plate. He's been watching you during this entire meal in fact, patient and inoffensive. Without needing to ask, you slip another roll onto a plate, then slide it in front of him. It's lost on you whether little birds can eat prepackaged cinnamon rolls. That's a problem future you can worry about.
"I don't actually know any of my powers," you explain, as soon as Justin is tearing into the roll. "Or even that I have them. I... know that's what I signed up for. I don't even know what it means to be an apprentice."
Gaige slithers closer to you, on your other side now instead of across the table. You don't retreat--he might have fangs, but some part of you can't shake the fact that he's actually miniscule. He wouldn't hurt you now, not when you'll be working together. This dynamic will soon be reversed. "Don't be so nervous about it, Day. With the magic radiating off you, I can tell you'll learn fast. Just remember the little people when you're a big important witch, okay?"
"Sure," you say. You want to tell him something else, but then he goes for another roll, reminding you of just how not-human he is.
"You should probably use the facilities before we go," he says, a few minutes later. "We have a little time, but we don't want to risk being late."
"How will we get to the store?" you ask, licking the last of the sweetness ungraciously from your fingers. "If you're really a foot tall and everything... Marissa drove me here. It's got to be at least a few miles away."