Passing Time
It wasn’t too terribly quiet down in the basement for the moment, at least. The scrappy AC unit wheezed, the aquarium bubbled, and the rainstorm outside offered the occasional boom of thunder. Amos had never really liked spending much time downstairs because of how thick the silence could be, but for the moment, the sounds of the world around kept the quiet from invading too far.
In fact, after he’d finished working on the aquarium tank and sorting through the papers he was keeping in his box, he found himself settling on the sofa just to relax and kill some time. The golden Fish seemed pleased he was sticking around, and darted from one side of the tank to the other, flapping its fins as it went.
“Don’t even think about it,” he murmured with no real heat when it peered over the edge of the tank at him. “Remember, you’ll get us both in trouble if anyone but the folks catch you swimming around outside that thing. It’s not like this room is even off-limits.”
With a resigned air, the Fish dropped back into the water - no splash, no sound - and continued its pleased darting. Amos watched it for a while with a half-smile and wondered yet again if it was truly sentient, or whether it would simply always respond to whatever he asked of it.
The sound of movement on the steps above caught his attention, and he looked up just in time to see an orange coil slide into view, right before Lucy’s face appeared. She grinned at him and said, “Hey, Monya and Sterling and I are all going to brunch. You want in?”
“Hmm…” Amos felt his feathers start to ruffle up without his consent. It’s raining outside. And you just said the anti-magic word.”
“Oh, don’t worry about him. He loves brunch food; he’ll be too busy eating to make himself a problem.”
“Hmph.” Amos said, but began to get to his feet. He looked up at the small window near the basement’s ceiling, at the rain streaming down the pane. Then he glanced at the tank.
Lucy followed his gaze. “You’re not feeling tired or anything are you? Gonna be okay to leave the Fish for a while? We wouldn’t stay out all day or anything.”
Amos shrugged one shoulder and offered her a smile. “Nah, I’ll be fine. Let me grab my jacket and keys and I’ll meet you all upstairs.”