"A charm wouldn't've done much good if you hadn't thought to grab your sewing project up off the table, Hawk," Parker remarked, leaning against the small counter, massaging her shoulder. The tanuki crawled down Hawk's arm; the shift in weight caused Hawk to pitch against Teige, who grimaced.

"What, this?" the tanuki asked, pointing her muzzle at the dull white undershirt that Hawk was gripping in one hand. Then, with a burst of white smoke, the tanuki became a thick-set girl with full lips and a shock of dark hair that feathered around her face, barely held back by a wide headband. She cast Teige and Hawk a skeptical look over her shoulder. "What is that, anyway?"

Teige rubbed his shoulder ruefully as Hawk straightened up, rearranging his big wings in the small space. "Oh, uh," he said, and held up the shirt--a wide band of elastic had been--rather crudely--stitched to it so that it would wrap around the wearer's chest. The elastic had been split down the middle, and had been stitched back together; there were rust-colored bloodstains around the edges of the cut. A small square of green cloth had also been sewn into the inside of the shirt, where the tags normally would be. "I took the elastic out the shirt I cut off Teige, an' I sewed it an' the spell tag t'this shirt. Figured I busted th' old one, so I oughta fix it."

Abi cast Parker, who had moved to the couch, an amused look. "Aww."

"Look, don't make fun," Teige said easily, as Hawk glowered rather self-consciously, "Hawk just has a big heart."

"Fun, nothin'," Parker answered. "I'm just saying, a pile of bloody rags would've been hard to explain."

"Not that we'd need to explain," Abi interjected wryly. "Minnie'd be so mad, she'd undo all that spellwork she did to fix your shoulder, Teige."