“When are you going to stop all of this nonsense and finally settle down?”

It was a question that she always got every time Kendis went home.

As the Defeater of Who Must Not Be Named and as the current Lady Black of the Ancient and Noble House of Black, it was scandalous that she was twenty-eight and still single and without an heir.

The Wizarding World saw it as a tragedy that Kendis hadn’t finally conformed to their conservative sensibilities.

To the Wizarding World, it didn’t matter that the last thing Kendis wanted to do after experiencing the depravities of war was to pop out some kids.

She felt the world she sacrificed for was angry at her for being trans, but also for not marrying Ginny and having their own brood of red-haired, green-eyed children.

In truth, Kendis had no inclination to have a kid of her own. They much preferred to be eccentric Aunt Kendis, who spoiled her niblings rotten by buying them too many toys and feeding them all the candy their little hearts desired.

And when they got to be too much? She would happily send them back into the loving arms of their parents.

The only person Kendis had seen herself settling down with was Josefa.

Kendis would never know if she would eventually find the courage to ask Josefa to marry her. But occasionally she would daydream of buying a cozy cottage by the sea, adopting a kneazle, and growing old with Josefa.

And then Chester Coil robbed her of that future.

But now, as she watched her husband sleep, she found that despite all of her earlier misgivings, being married didn’t seem half bad.

Kendis smiled softly as she ran her fingers through Tony’s wild, dark brown hair. They never thought they would marry someone like Tony, but Kendis now felt at peace with her choice.

Kendis still couldn’t believe that this infuriating, impossible, wonderful man had somehow grabbed her heart. And they would fight tooth and nail to keep him.

Tony groaned and sighed as he opened those beautiful brown eyes.

“What time is it?” He asked, his voice rough with sleep.

“Sir, it’s 9:23 am.”

“I asked Jarvis not to do his usual spiel,” Kendis shrugged. “I thought you deserved to sleep in a little.”

“Thanks for that.” Tony turned on his side and gave her a slow smile. “You know, watching me sleep is kind of creepy.”

Kendis felt her cheeks flush, and she looked away. Tony held her chin so she would look at him. “Luckily for you, I’m kind of into it.”

Kendis laughed as Tony wrapped his powerful arms around and pulled them close. “What are you doing up so early?”

“Only you would think 9 AM is early.” Kendis rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. “I had a nightmare, and I couldn’t go back to sleep.”

Kendis had barely kept herself from screaming and thankfully hadn’t waken Tony up or fry anymore of his electronics.

He hummed and then pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Let’s brush our teeth. Then, I’ll give you a real kiss.”

Kendis grinned, “Deal!”

They both reluctantly untangled themselves from each other and headed into the bathroom. After all they’d been through, brushing their teeth together felt oddly intimate.

Afterwards, after they spit and gargled, Tony took her back into his arms and gave her a slow kiss.

His mouth tasted of mint and lemon from the bougie mouthwash he had. Kendis groaned and wrapped her arms around him as tongue plundered her mouth.

Finally, Kendis had to break away to breathe. “Well, good bloody morning to me.”

Tony laughed and then stepped back. He took Kendis’s hand and led them back to the bathroom.

“So what’s on the agenda today, Glenda?”

“I need to call Dr. Lan and check up on Alke,” Kendis frowned. “But I left my phone back in my room.”

Tony unlocked his phone and handed it to her. “Here, use mine.”

Kendis pecked him on the cheek. “Thanks, love.”

And to their utter delight, they saw the tips of his ears go red. Kendis chose to cut him some slack and not tease him about it.

“And then I need to go back to the house,” Kendis continued. “I had to check in with my customers and pick up something.”

“Oh, I just remembered that I have to get this place dog-proofed.” Tony turned to the nearest camera. “Jarv—“

“Already done,” Jarvis cut in smoothly. I’ve already bought everything you require, sir.”

“Don’t worry,” Kendis chuckled. “Alke is very well behaved.”

“She nearly tried to bite my head off,” Tony complained.

“I trained her to be a guard dog,” Kendis shrugged. “And Alke is very good at what she does.”

Tony rolled his eyes, but she ignored him as she dialed Dr. Lan’s number. It turned out that Kendi’s suspicions were right. When she called Dr. Lan, he told her that Alke was finally ready to go home.

Despite her earlier nonchalant attitude, Kendis had been worried that Tony would realize what an enormous responsibility taking care of a dog was and immediately rethink the whole thing.

‘You are not giving him enough credit,’ Kendis chided herself. Besides, if a homicidal wizard out for her blood wasn’t enough to scare him off, then a dog would hardly be the thing to break them.

“Everything alright, Glinda?”

Kendis shook her head and did her best to shove her misgivings aside.

“Yeah,” Kendis replied with a soft smile. ”Now let’s go eat and then pick up my baby.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Tony winked, and then slapped her on the ass as he went to get dressed.

***

Kendis was too anxious to cook, so they ate breakfast out. Not only was she going to be reunited with her precious furbaby, but she was going back to the house for the first time since Chester’s attack.

She took Tony to her favorite breakfast spot, Arnold’s Diner. It was a fifties-style diner right off Santa Monica.

Since it was an hour drive away from her house, she only went to when she wanted to treat herself.

After a breakfast of waffles, eggs, and bacon, they went to Burbank to get Alke’s crate and gear.

The closer they got to the house, the more nervous Kendis felt.

Tony’s hand slipped into hers and squeezed.

“I can turn around and take us back to my place.” Tony said, “I’ll buy everything Alke needs.”

“You can’t replace her favorite blankie.” Kendis pointed out dryly. “And good luck getting her to sleep without it.”

“Your murder mutt has a favorite blankie?” Tony eyed her skeptically.

“One, she’s not a mutt. Alke is a purebred Cane Corso,” Kendis rolled her eyes. “And my mom’s mate knitted that thing by hand.”

Tony snorted, and Kendis gave him a small smile. Excluding the nightmares and her panic attack, she had existed in a bubble the last few days. But now that they had returned to their grim reality.

“Kendis?” Tony called her, breaking Kendis out of her sad thoughts.

“We got this,” he said as their lips met. Rather than being passionate, this kiss was a silent expression of comfort and a deep well of devotion that humbled her.

They were interrupted by loud honking before they could get very far.

Tony threw the driver the finger and then continued driving. Finally, they made their way to the gates of Enchanted Engines and her house beyond.

The house’s wards were in tatters. When she agreed to go home with Tony, Kendis was too mentally exhausted to mend them after the attack, and she had been terrified of going back alone.

She hadn’t told Tony, but Kendis had planned to stay in a hotel until Chester was dealt with.

And now only Merlin knew who had access to her home while she had been off playing house with Tony.

With a sigh, Kendis got out of the car to cast the spell that would unlock the gates. A short moment later, the gate pulled back, and Kendis hurried back and got back into the car.

As Tony drove across the gravel courtyard that separated her house and the garage. She almost expected the garage doors to be open and to see Richie and Isiah arguing over something ridiculous, like usual.

She could imagine herself walking inside and seeing Hortense bent over a laptop.

‘Will I ever get my life back again?’ Kendis thought wistfully. She missed her friends terribly, and Kendis missed the peace that came to her when she was working on a bike. When everything fell away but the music and the feel of metal and oil on her finger.

Kendis pushed those thoughts aside as Tony parked in her driveway.

She tried to get her body to move, but Kendis could only stare at her house. It looked as if nothing had happened. As if what had happened days earlier were just a terrible nightmare that she would wake from.

Tony got out of the car, and she was surprised to see him open the door for her. Kendis gave him a weak smile as she took his hand and allowed him to help her out of the car.

Kendis kissed him softly on the cheek as he laced her hand with his. Together they walked up the driveway and up the stairs of her porch.

With shaking hands, Kendis unlocked the door. Her eyes watered as she took in the wreckage of her home. Broken furniture, photo frames, books, and the shattered remains of her records littered the living room.

“Fuck,” Tony shook his head. “It didn’t look like this when we left.”

“Chester came back,” Kendis whispered.

“Thank God, you weren’t home.” Tony wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

They walked into her kitchen, and it was just as wrecked as the living room. Her cabinets were open, dishes smashed on the floor, pots and pans everywhere.

“We should call the cops,” Tony said, his eyes wide.

Kendis snorted; there was nothing the police could do, be it Muggle or Wixen.

“No,” Kendis shook her head. “I am on my own.”

“No, you’re not,” Tony vehemently replied. “We’re in this together, remember?”

Kendis ducked her head into his shoulder and tried to breathe. Her eyes stung with unshed tears that she failed to keep back.

She should be braver than this, having faced worse things than going over her wrecked home, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling of violation.

And with what Chester had planned for her? If she hadn’t fought him off, or if Kendis had come back without Tony? There would have been one or more violations.

“How about you go get Alke’s things so we can leave?”

Kendis nodded, and Tony pressed a kiss on her forehead. Kendis did her best to clean a pathway through the mess in the kitchen and grabbed Alke’s dog food and her bowls.

Tony grabbed the food from her and took it outside to put in the car’s trunk. While doing her best to ignore the feeling of anxiety, she felt now that she was alone. Kendis packed Alke’s dog food, her bowls, her obnoxiously bubble gum pink blankie, and dog bed.

She was just debating with herself when she felt something shift in the air, and Kendis spun around, a stunning spell on her lips when suddenly Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley suddenly appeared before her.

“Kendis Black,” Hermione shouted, hands on her hips. “What in the bloody hell is going on?”