Sighing, Reece muttered a spell that flushed away the last of his hangover.
He normally didn't like using magic so frivolously. It felt unnatural and gross to him. Being a sorceress often made him feel removed from the rest of society, which is why Reece still chose to teach and live in his own home instead of, I don't know, live in some opulent mansion with homunculus manservants, but while he wanted to hang onto as much of his humanity as possible wherever he could, if Aziza was here, it must be something important and he needed to keep his wits about him.
Reece approached Aziza's table and quietly sat down.
"What are you doing here?" he asked her in a hushed whisper. Kylie meanwhile was nursing a drink, a jagermeister by the look of it.
"I could ask you the same thing, bruv. What are *you* doing here?"
"I'm on vacation. How did you find me?"
Aziza rolled her pretty eyes.
"We're like twins, attached by the soul. There's nowhere in all of existence where we couldn't find each other eventually."
"Right, I know, but whenever I go dimension hopping to be alone, I cast a time dilation spell so things like this don't happen. I knew that you were going to find me eventually, but it shouldn't have been for another five months."
"You *what*?"
Reece sighed.
"Don't get your panties in a wad, Aziza. It'll still be New Years Day when you return. It was just an obstacle to make it harder for you."
"That's so irresponsible! You of all people should know how dangerous playing with spacetime is."
"Oh don't you dare question..."
"So why are you like...a guy now?" Kylie added awkwardly to the tense conversation.
Reece was about to answer, but Aziza interrupted him.
"In this dimension, everyone is genderfluid and can swap sexes at will, like clownfish."
"Cool!" Kylie squealed. "I want to try it. I haven't been Kyle for years now."
Aziza grabbed Kylie's hand and squeezed it.
"Darling, please don't. I like you better this way. You're so much prettier as Kylie."
"Aww, you're so sweet" Kylie cooed, cutely resting her head on Aziza's shoulder.
"And we're on a business trip, sugar plum. We just don't have the time to play around right now."
"OK, but we have to come back here sometime and try it out. Do you promise?".
Kylie pouted as if she were a child being denied a trip to Six Flags.
"I promise you on the lives of my parents, we will return when this snow globe business is all over."
"I'm holding you to that. You just got through telling me how important keeping oaths are."
Kylie lifted her head to look at Reece.
"Did you know that Aziza won't even curse? Maybe she'll say shit or fuck or bitch, but she'll never say 'goddamnit'. We've got a real Captain America over here when it comes to language. Or should I say Captain Arabia?"
Reece smiled.
"What is this about a snow globe, Aziza? Are we all secretly all trapped in an autistic child's dream?"
"No, thank goddess, but there is some weird anomalous weather happening on our Earth as we speak."
"Is it raining blood?"
"No. It won't stop snowing."
"So?"
"So?!" Aziza repeated back.
"Yeah, so?"
"It's not normal!"
"I hate to break it to you, Aziza, but not everyone enjoys the same clear blue skies and 80 degree Januarys that people in the Middle East are blessed with. In some regions, it snows out this time of year."
"That's the issue, it's been snowing in my hometown, my entire *country*, for a week now. And I can't do anything to stop it."
"Are you positive that it's magic?"
"Yes, there is no doubt about it. It started as soon as Kylie bought me a present for Christmas, a snowglobe. I shook it, and it immediately started snowing in the real world, and it hasn't stopped no matter what I try."
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"You know that we're not like that, Reece. We try and solve our own problems. We're both stubborn, and arrogant, and think we're smarter than everyone. But I'm all out of ideas."
Aziza placed the enigmatic snowglobe on the table.
"I can already tell how sketchy it is" Reece said, his senses bristling at the mere sight of it. "It's giving off weird vibes that I've never felt before. You said that Kylie got this for you?"
Aziza nodded her head, her mane of dark hair bobbing along with her.
"Why does that not surprise me?"
"I buy my boo nothing but the best" Kylie said, shaking her head confidently, a goofy grin on her face.
Aziza rolled her eyes.
"Honey, I love it, but people are hurting right now. Eternal winter is not good. Please just let Regina work."
"It's not like it'll be the end of the world" Kylie miffed. "There's hardly any old people anymore. We're an entire planet of strong women, we can handle a little bit of snow."
Reece paid no attention to Kylie as silently he ran through the same diagnostic spells that Aziza performed earlier. After a couple of minutes, he slided it across the table back at Aziza.
"How queer. I can't make heads or tails of it. I think we're going to have to..."
Before Reece could finish his sentence, the group of three noticed a shadow cast over them.
"Maybe I can help?"
"Savannah!" Reece yelped.
"Is this seat taken?" asked the interloper, magically pulling an empty seat away from an adjacent table a few rows from Aziza's and sitting down in between Reece and Aziza.