Eva looked up at the ash gray sky and zipped her coat up a little tighter. Maya skipped along beside her, carrying an honest-to-god wicker picnic basket, swinging it back and forth like she was Little Red Riding Hood on her way to see Grandma. Maximillian P. Doggerton, Max for short, stayed glued to her heels even more tightly than most days.
"Don't you love Fall?"
Maya's grin warmed Eva to her core, despite the chill late October air. The park was quiet this time of year. A few couples strolled, wrapped up in coats and scarves, and a few joggers steamed their way through their spandex, but the bustle of last month was gone. Decaying leaves filled the air with their distinctive smell, and someone in the surrounding neighborhood had fired up their wood stove.
"It's alright." Eva smiled back at her wife.
Watching her love's enthusiasm really did lift her own spirits too, though. Maya lived for Fall. Going apple picking together, going for hours long hikes through dying woods until the chill seeped into their bones so deep, Eva thought they'd never warm up again, then wrapping up in blankets on the couch and cuddling by the roaring fireplace, sipping hot chocolate and half-watching schlocky horror flicks. The promise of hot cocoa later had convinced Eva to drag herself out here.
Maya pursed her lips and Eva synced steps with her to give her a kiss mid-stride.
"Love you, Eevee."
"Love you more."
"Prove it."
"I'm out here freezing my butt off, aren't I? Isn't that enough?"
Maya laughed. "It's fifty degrees!"
"That's about twenty too few!" Eva grinned and squeezed Maya's hand. "It's lucky you're so hot, or I'd be freezing to death."
"And yet when we're trying to sleep, all you do is complain about me being a furnace."
Eva grinned and squeezed her love's hand. "Mm-hmm."
Eva let her extra senses roam. One thing she really liked about Fall was the thinning of the veil between worlds. She could feel it starting, feel the Otherworldly growing in strength in the runup to Halloween. As always, she let the world around her feed her own strength.
Her teacher had been baffled by her source of power. Most witches drew strength from nature or proximity to those they loved. Some from sex and sexual energy around them. Eva seemed to derive strength from the constructed environment, thriving in the city like she never had back home in the countryside. Asphalt and plumbing, brick front apartment buildings, steel and glass skyscrapers, even the city's metro system purring along deep under their feet, all hummed with energy. Visiting the Hoover dam last year had been an almost religious experience.
"Ah, this seems like a good spot," Maya said finally, pulling Eva out of her reverie and off the path onto the damp grass.
Max followed her, of course. Sandwiches were his favorite food, and picnics always offered him plenty of opportunity to get them.
Maya had outdone herself, baking and cooking and preparing sandwiches. Pumpkin pie, cinnamon apple slices, cookies decorated to look like ghosts, and still-warm grilled cheese sandwiches were spread out on the blanket, Max salivating but staying away. He was so good, especially since Maya had agreed to let her start training him as her familiar.
The chill from the ground was blocked well enough by the tarp and thick blanket, but Eva still played up how chilly she was. Maya grinned at her and snuggled close, handing her a grilled cheese sandwich, then wrapping a second blanket around both of their shoulders.
"You didn't need to go to so much trouble, you know?" Eva said as she took a bite out of her sandwich and a sip from a steaming cup of tea.
"Mmm, you're welcome."
"I'd still come to the park with you without the feast."
"I know. That's why you're getting one." Maya leaned over and kissed Eva, their lips lingering longer than was strictly proper in public.
