"I...I can't do it!"

Beside me, Rin fell to his knees, gasping. To the casual observer, we weren't doing anything much...just standing around and staring at nothing. But then, what we were doing wasn't something for the casual observer anyway. The casual observer would probably be horrified and shocked, and all sorts of other fun stuff if he (or she) could see what we really were doing.

And that was the fun part, the fact that very few people could actually tell. And the fact that we could do it in the middle of the city, in broad daylight, with all sorts of people rushing here and there around us, and only maybe one or two people in the whole day would ever approach us and ask us what the hell we were doing. Those few people would inevitably be like us too, so all we would have to do is flash the counterfeited badge that Rin had made at them, and they would continue on as well.

It was the perfect plan...until Rin decided to run out of reserves. Sure, we could do it in the middle of the city without anyone knowing what we were doing, up until the point where our carefully constructed illusions that were hiding the few physically visible parts of the strangeness fell to pieces as Rin almost fainted. I should have known that would happen. It had to be the illusionist to fall first...not that it wasn't surprising. Rin, unlike me, was putting a constant drain on his powers keeping up the concealment, and keeping it up to so many people had to make it even worse.

Still, had I been the illusionist, I'm sure I would have at least lasted the entire way through the first part of the plan. I know I could have. That's why sometimes Rin annoyed me. He ran out of power too often, and he was almost always the one that we needed to stay powered no matter what, since he was usually the one keeping us hidden from the mundane world. And he was the one who always caused the problems...

Upon seeing Rin fall to his knees and hearing him utter those words (again), I sighed and dropped the carefully constructed spell that was hanging just a few threads from completion in front of me. If he was that far gone already, there was no knowing when he would drop the illusion without warning, and it wouldn't do to still have the remainders of the aborted project hanging in front of me when that happen. Then, heaving another sigh, I bend down and offered my weak partner a hand to help him up.

He looked up at me with an apologetic smile on his face. "I guess I owe you again," he said softly as he took the hand and pulled on me to lever himself to his feet. The illusion stayed, which was probably a good thing. Even if we weren't really doing anything strange at that time, we probably would have gotten more than a few stares, the tiny, undersized me helping Rin the almost-giant to his feet and not being dragged down with him. After all, sometimes it helps to have a bit of magical strength... And sometimes it helps that my partner is just weak, no matter how much of a giant oaf he looks like. ^_^

I sighed one last time and helped an exhausted Rin sling one huge arm over my shoulder, which almost did drive me to the ground. Finally, I sent a little bit more power into my body, firming up the strength spell so that I could help him walk back home. And together, as Rin carefully faded out the illusion completely, the two of us staggered back to the complex, again having failed at what we had set out to do. Silently, I swore to myself that next time it would go better...not that I knew how I would make that happen.