"Hey Vikki?" my genie girlfriend asked as she sat cross-legged on the sofa beside me.

  I put my soda down on the end table to my right then looked over at her, "Yeah Jenna, what's up?"

  The two of us were rexing on the sofa in our new living-room in our new house. We were both ready for bed, even though it was still super early. Barely six o'clock and still bright and sunny out, but Jenna wanted to have pizza in her polka-dot nightshirt. So I joined her by getting changed into my favourite pyjamas, after the delivery guy dropped off our dinner.

  My genie smiled at me as she replied, "I just wanted to say thank you? For finding us this house, and letting me buy it, and letting me use magic to move all our stuff here and do those renovations and everything."

  "And for ordering the pizza!" she added as her smile shifted to a happy grin. "I can't imagine anything more perfect!"

  I smiled back, "You're welcome Jenna. I'm gd you're happy. And I feel like I'm the one who should be thanking you, you know? Thank you for inviting me to join you in this really nice house. Thank you for taking care of the moving arrangements. And thank you for not using magic during the parts of the purchase that involved me and my work."

  "Aww," she said as she scootched closer so she was cuddling against me. Her head leaned against my shoulder as she said, "You're welcome Vikki. I still think I'm the lucky one, after everything you've done for me. None of this would be possible if you hadn't set me free."

  My smile faltered slightly at that. It was a reminder that she'd spent her entire existence as little more than a sve, up until I freed her just over a month earlier. It also reminded me of how little I really knew about her, considering how long she'd been around.

  "I'm gd you're free Jenna," I replied softly as I slipped my arm around her waist and pulled her a little closer, "But it still bothers me that you spent so much time having to serve so many other people."

  I felt her shrug her shoulders, "It's ok Vikki. Like I said before, that's what genies do. I guess I never really let it bother me too much? Or maybe I just tried not to think about it too hard."

  "Then you set me free," she added brightly, "And I got to do all the things I ever dreamed of! And I owe it all to you Vikki! You could have just used your wishes for yourself, like most of my previous masters did. Instead you used your very first wish for me, and I'll never ever forget that. Even if I live another twelve hundred years, I'll always be grateful to you for your kindness and generosity."

  Hearing that left me with some more bittersweet feelings, and rather than trust my voice right away I just gave her a gentle squeeze as we continued cuddling together.

  It was only another minute or two before I came up with some questions, although I wasn't sure if it was safe to ask them. Or if she'd even be able to answer them, I wasn't sure if they'd viote any of her rules.

  After a few more seconds I finally asked the first one on my mind, "Can you talk about your former masters? I guess I'm wondering what it was like for you, or what they were like to work for? Did they treat you well? Or...?"

  When she didn't respond right away I quickly added, "Please don't feel obligated to answer that. If it's difficult or uncomfortable, or if you just don't want to talk about it that's totally ok. I'm curious, but I don't want to pressure you in any way."

  "It's ok Vikki," she replied, although her tone sounded a bit down. "Masters are just people, some are nice and some are nasty. Some are nice but get so excited about the prospect of magic and wishes they get carried away. Others are nasty but pretend to be nice, thinking they can trick me or exploit me by pretending to be my friend."

  The genie snuggled a little closer into my side so I shifted my arm from her waist to her shoulders and hugged her against myself.

  With a wistful smile on her face she sighed, "My st master turned out to be one of the mean ones. He won me in a poker game, or I guess he won the fsk that was my test prison. It was about fifteen years ago, in the summer of the year two thousand and seven. I wasn't sure at first if he was going to be nasty or not, so I offered him the standard three wishes..."

  "Was that Mr. Kovalenko?" I asked with a frown. "I found your fsk in his house."

  Jenna nodded, "Yeah that's him. Mike Kovalenko."

  I was still frowning as I asked, "So how come he still had your fsk after all that time? I thought you said when the st wish was used you'd disappear, so someone else could find you?"

  "He never used his st wish," she expined. "He was saving it for an emergency. Some masters do that, they hold off on the st one, afraid to waste it on something frivolous. They think no matter what happens there'll always be something worse or some greater need in the future."

  "He died of lung cancer," I stated with a frown. "I can't believe he'd think curing his cancer would be a wasted wish."

  I felt my genie cringe slightly, then realized she was grimacing.

  "Actually he didn't die of lung cancer," she mumbled. "That was his first wish. He was a heavy smoker and loved his cigars and cigarettes, so his very first wish was that he wouldn't die from any cancers or illnesses caused by his smoking."

  That surprised me at first, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it made a kind of sense. It seemed like a wasted wish to me, but if he enjoyed the habit and knew how dangerous it was, then it wasn't that big a stretch to imagine he'd wish he could enjoy it without fear.

  Then I remembered something else, "Jessie Vaughan seemed to think he died of lung cancer, and as his wyer she probably had access to the medical records or something. Unless you figure the doctors were wrong? I can't imagine they'd miss something like lung cancer though, that's usually pretty obvious. Especially in patients with a history of smoking."

  Jenna shrugged slightly, "He didn't wish he was immune to lung cancer or that he'd never get it. Only that it wouldn't kill him."

  It took a couple seconds for that to sink in, and I slowly turned to look at the genie cuddling up against my side.

  "So you went with the letter of the wish, rather than the spirit of it?" I asked, as I tried to keep my tone neutral. "You had to know what he really meant, right?"

  She sighed, "Yeah I knew. But by then I also knew he was a nasty person. He didn't make that wish right away, he'd been keeping me with him for two or three years by that point. Like I was a good luck charm or something? He was one of those masters who tries to be clever and sneaky about things. He acted nice to me, but was a real jerk to other people. So when he made his first wish I didn't bother to crify or suggest he reword it. I just granted it exactly as he phrased it."

  "You didn't twist it somehow, did you? Like you didn't cause the cancer or something, did you?"

  I immediately regretted it as soon as I'd asked that. I didn't mean to sound accusing, and I also didn't really want to know the answer. It was too te to take it back though, Jenna was already shaking her head as she responded.

  "No, I didn't. I could have, and maybe I would have if I'd known how cruel he could be," she replied quietly.

  I nodded slowly before asking, "So if the lung cancer didn't kill him, do you know what did?"

  "Pneumonia," she stated. "The lung cancer was a contributing factor, but that's not what got him. And like you said, he could have used that final wish at any time. He could have cured himself, but he was confident that despite all the coughing and hacking he'd be fine. He knew he was magically protected, that he wouldn't die of lung cancer. He just didn't have the imagination to realize there were a hundred other reted things that were actively killing him at the same time."

  "I see," I grimaced.

  We were both quiet for the next couple seconds, before she changed the subject slightly.

  "He didn't try his second wish until two thousand and fourteen," she told me. "He'd kept me with him for seven years by that point, and that's when I found out exactly what kind of a horrible human being he really was. I vetoed that wish immediately, so he tried again. And again. We went through a hundred and eighty-seven iterations, each slightly less awful than the st, until we got to one that I finally granted."

  "And I definitely monkey's pawed that one," she admitted. "He deserved it."

  This time I was positive I really didn't want to know, but my curiosity got the best of me. I probably sounded nervous or uneasy though as I asked, "What was the wish? Or um, how did you monkey's paw it?"

  My magical girlfriend sighed again, "I don't want to say what he originally wished for. Or the next hundred and eighty-six variations. I will say, this was just after his little brother's child came out as trans, just after Mike discovered that he had a niece named Sophie. And I found out what an evil heartless transmisic bastard my master really was."

  "As for the wish I finally accepted," she hesitated slightly, "It was still cruel, but a hundred and eighty-seven times less cruel than what he started with. He wished that Sophie would be reminded of her deadname at every opportunity, for as long as Mike lived, and then some."

  I found myself frowning again as I thought that over, then decided I was grateful she wasn't going to tell me any of the previous hundred and eighty-seven versions. Instead I asked, "So how did you monkey's paw the wish?"

  Jenna shrugged slightly, "I changed Mike's will so his entire estate went to Sophie, instead of going to his mean queermisic friends. And I made it so after the estate was settled she'd never have to hear or be reminded of her deadname again."

  "I had to put the will in her deadname to honour the terms of the wish," she added sadly, "But I figured at least she'd get something out of it. Some form of reward or compensation, for being a victim of my magic. I actually thought she might wind up being my next master, if Mike died before using his st wish. Then maybe she could use one of her wishes to magic up her transition or something."

  "Oh no," I grimaced as I felt renewed guilt about taking Jenna's fsk. "You could have gone to Sophie, but she told me and Jessie to help ourselves to whatever we wanted in the house. I took you, and that meant Sophie never got a chance for magic of her own..."

  My genie shook her head as she moved from my side and onto my p. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and said, "That's not what would have happened Vikki. She'd have never even seen me. I'd have ended up in a ndfill, or melted down for scrap. Or maybe someone else would have bought my fsk, if there was an estate sale or something."

  "Maybe," I sighed as I hugged her back. "I still feel guilty though. Now I wish we could do something to make it up to Sophie."

  Jenna grinned and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, "There you go being so kind and generous again. Of course that one's granted! I'll be right back!"

  My eyes widened as I gasped, "Wait, what? No hold on, I didn't mean -"

  It was too te, my genie girlfriend had already vanished in a poof that left me and the sofa covered in violet flower petals. My heart began to race as I carefully brushed the petals off myself and the upholstery, and I couldn't help worrying what trouble I'd just caused by thoughtlessly using the 'W' word again.

  That worry continued to grow with every passing second that Jenna was away. After two full minutes I decided I needed some kind of a distraction, or something else to focus on. So I got up and closed the pizza box, tidied up from our dinner, then took the left-overs into our new kitchen and put them away in our new fridge.

  I was still getting accustomed to our new home, and wandering around turned out to be an excellent way to distract myself. I soon found myself down in the finished basement, where I had another look around. The previous owners had it set up as a sort of combination rec-room and snug, but without the cosy wood furniture and throw rugs it felt kind of cold and empty.

  Jenna hadn't told me yet what pns she had for the area, but I had some suggestions in mind incase she asked. I thought a games room might be fun, and I could easily imagine her getting excited about something like ping-pong or billiards. Or even video games, she seemed like someone who'd poof up her own arcade games or pinball machines.

  Then it occurred to me just how noisy that might be, and considering our bedroom was directly overhead having our own home arcade parlour in the basement was probably not a great idea after all. I was just grimacing at the thought of Jenna staying up all night trying for a new high score when I heard my genie return upstairs.

  "Vikki?" she called, "Where'd you go?"

  I hurried up the stairs as I replied, "I'm right here. What happened?"

  She fshed me a happy mischievous grin and announced, "I think the best thing about being free is it means there's no rules anymore! Other than the ones I make for myself, I mean."

  Despite her smile, or perhaps because of it, her words left me feeling very uneasy. I tried not to sound too anxious as I asked, "What did you do?"

  "Oh not much," she replied in a casual nonchant voice. Then her happy grin was back as she added, "Thanks to your generosity and my magic, we just made a trans girl very happy!"

  PurpleCatGirl