Powder Witch & Company

Harry walked down the steep path to his friend's home near the riverbank, a bottle of vodka in one hand and a deck of cards in the other. "Heeeey~," Harry called when he reached the edge of the camp. "Kerim, are you free?"

"Harry?" Out of the tent on the far side of the camp stepped an older man with umber skin and silver streaked black hair. His form flickered in the breeze off the river, sometimes fading around the edges, sometimes taking on the impression of fur or scales. "What brings you to my humble home?" Kerim smiled softly, then stopped and sniffed the air. "Have you been drinking?"

"Just a little." Harry held up the mostly full bottle to prove it. "Want to play a game before you go?"

"Poker?" Kerim frowned, but gestured over to a mat by the fire. "Sit down, Harry."

Harry plopped down on one side of the mat, his legs not cooperating as well as they normally did. Kerim sat more gracefully, then plucked the deck out of Harry's hands.

"What has you drinking so early in the day?" Kerim shuffled the cards as he asked.

"Aaaaah," Harry scowled and looked out at the river. "Some things happened. I don't want to get into it," he muttered.

"Harry!" Kerim set the shuffled deck down, he looked disappointed. "You said you were going to stop drinking when something upset you."

"I didn't-" Harry's mouth snapped shut. "It wasn't something that upset me, exactly. Just...confirming something I already knew."

"Your parents?" Kerim asked quietly.

"Yeah," Harry's voice wavered. He took another sip from the bottle while Kerim doled out cards.

Harry picked up his hand, and sighed internally, 'nothing good.'

"Tell me?" Kerim looked over his cards.

"I'm being cut off," Harry said. "Dad's denounced me completely."

"And your mother?"

"Says she supports me, but she doesn't get why I want the surgery, and wants me to 'stand on my own.'" Harry scowled. "As if I'd asked for money."

Kerim discarded 2 cards and drew. He had a thoughtful look on his face. Harry dropped 3 and gained one pair.

"You have had plenty of money troubles." Kerim traded another card.

"I'm getting better about that," Harry insisted. "And the house was necessary." He traded a card, and had two pair.

"Why did you come here, Harry." Kerim had a knowing look.

"A bet, if you're willing?"

Kerim chuckled, but his face was grim. "I can bet a wish, but what will you bet?"

"My gender."

"You!" Kerim burst out laughing. "You are predictable, my friend."

"In this, yes." Harry ducked his head. "It means a lot to me."

It took a moment for Kerim to reign in his laughter, and the humor drained away from his face. "And if you lose?"

Harry flinched, he'd been trying not to think about that. "Then I guess I go back to being a girl. Woman." He traded another card.

Kerim traded two cards with a stern look on his face. "Would that make you happy?" He asked.

"No," Harry chirped. "But it might make my parents happy." He tried to imagine what that might look like, and laughed. "That would be a first!"

Kerim shook his head. "Last draw."

They each traded one last card, then laid their hands on the mat. Harry had two pair, Kerim had a handful of junk.

Harry looked down at the cards, then back up at Kerim. "What?" He asked, voice shaking.

Kerim gave him a kindly smile.

Harry dug through the piles of discarded cards. A king, a queen, a jack, an ace. He hadn't drawn these cards.

"Don't look so shocked," Kerim said. "You have been a good friend to me these last few years, and helped me in more ways than you might realize."

"Thank you," Harry said, blinking back tears. "But, why?"

"Consider it a late birthday present." Kerim leaned in, gently grabbing Harry's shoulders to pull him closer. "Happy 30th, Harry."

"He kissed you?" Mei visibly bristled.

"Just on the forehead." Harris hugged him close, and felt the demon slowly relax.

Mei took a few deep breaths before looking up at him. "And then what happened?"

"Only the spell, love," Harris said. "He'd known me since I was a dipshit teen. Trust me there was nothing romantic there."

"I do trust you," Mei said with a frown. "So where did he go?"

"This was just after the flood waters settled," Harris said. "He had family in Libya that he wanted to check on."

Mei flinched. "Further inland, I hope?"

Harris shook his head. "No idea, Kerim always changed the subject when it came up. He said he wanted to see what other changes the flooding caused, after, and I haven't seen him since."

"Hmmm." Mei curled up against his side. "And what about you?"

"Hm?"

"Djinns' wishes usually come with consequences, don't they?" Mei said. "So what happened to you after that game?"

"After I woke up, I found that I was a man in every way I'd hoped to achieve," Harris said. "Except the beard. I had to add that later."

Mei nuzzled his jaw. "The beard is certainly nice."

"But, when I walked back to town, almost no one recognized me." Harris leaned into Mei. Over a decade later and it still stung. "Not my parents, not the other guys from my EMS crew, not people I'd known since elementary school."

"That's awful!"

Harris shrugged. "You guessed right. Kerim said there'd be consequences he couldn't control for. But I agreed anyway."

"So what did you do?" Mei asked.

"I rebuilt my life, with a little help," Harris said. "Established myself as the local witch and made a name for myself."

Mei hummed thoughtfully. "Good," he said eventually. "I'm glad things got better for you after all of that."

"Well..." Harris flushed, and scratched idly at his jaw. "Until I got a letter from the IRS under both my dead name and my current name asking why I hadn't paid my taxes that year."