Sequel fic to “The Witch and the Green Knight” (on Ao3)
Warnings: undeserved redemption arc, graphic imagery and bad behavior. And once again, violence against an apparent minor. There’s a line to slap him, don’t be surprised.
Chapter 1: In which Rowan has Unexpected House Guests
Chapter 2: In Which They Try to Figure Out What the Hell is Going On
Chapter 3: In Which Remus and Rowan’s Stupidity Escalates to Treason (sort of)
Chapter 4: In Which Life is Difficult
Chapter 5: In Which Remus has an Argument with A Cat and Rowan makes some Charms
Chapter 6: In Which Love is Bullshit.
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
Chapter 7: in which Commitment and Love are Put to the Test
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
It was properly summer now and Rowan was glad for it. The smell of hot grass, the long sunlit days, the profusion of plants everywhere. All of it made her feel content even as her guest grumbled about the heat in the attic loft and moved to spend his days in the library room instead.
Remus was gone as often as he was there, working on his house to make it nice enough for DN. Personally Rowan doubted the little fae would ever be content in a wild fae's home, no matter how luxurious he made it.
Remus had visited for a few days, snatching raw meat from the barbecue tray, teasing Rowan's sister much more gently than he did Rowan and soaking in attention. He had to go back, he'd made a deal with a fae craftsman and needed to pick up something.
“Here.” Rowan held out a music box and headphones. “I made you a couple of mixes so you can listen to them instead of your own head. It helps me sometimes.”
Remus hooked his arm around her and squished her.
“Aw, you like me.”
“Whatever gives you that impression. Must be all the affection.” her eyes rolled but she smiled, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "You'll need to come back and charge it every few days."
"Oooooh music treat and reminder of the passage of time, you're a wicked one."
“Do you not want to borrow the camera?” she asked wiggling the small blue box in her other hand. “I thought you wanted to show me your house.”
“Ooh ohh gimmie!” he made grabby hands at it. “It’s looking so good! The moss is in all the right places and the wood’s all polished on the inside.”
"It sounds nice." She admitted. I can't wait to see."
"Sometime I'll bring you to see it.” He said in a way that sounded like a promise, fiddling with the camera. “I should get a phone.”
“That’ll be fun.” Rowan snorted, picturing him walking into the wireless store. "Would it even work?"
"Oh yeah, probably. The spider and honey and cream use theirs underhill after all. Think no-thank-you daddy long legs is playing antenna."
Rowan considered that.
"Well, it is just waves of energy, and magic can be described that way."
"Neat." Reaching out he fluffed her bangs, and grinned at Danger Noodle who was catching a breeze with a glass of lemonade on the porch and certainly wasn't there to see Remus off. He had, after all, made it clear he didn't care either way. “Should I bring you anything?”
“Properly made food would be good.” he said, sounding bored. “I’d ask for a change of clothes but I don’t trust your fashion choices.”
“Just wait and see!” Remus said brightly, and bounded off into the woods like a hyperactive deer.
“... I’m glad to see him happy.” Rowan commented.
“Hmf.”
“He was very sad when I met him.” she continued. “Not that it was easy to tell of course. On account of the batshit crazy.”
“He was like that when I met him.”
“I’m sure.”
(Rowan’s Break up List for Passive Aggressive Witches)
Three days later, Remus reappeared, singing ‘New Rules’ by Dua Lipa and carrying a bundle and a basket. He handed over both the camera and mp3 player to Rowan, kissed her mother on the cheek while getting a cookie, and moved into the library where Danger Noodle was reading in a window seat. He looked up as Remus entered.
“Well that wasn’t any faster than usual.”
“Would have been back yesterday, but I was getting something.” Remus said, plopping down on the floor next to the window seat. Rowan had followed him in, apparently she had also been reading, in an armchair instead, if the glass of sweet tea he brought in and the book she picked up were any clues.
Remus handed the basket to D.N. Inside he found a veritable picnic of fairy food that could be eaten cold, and kept fairly well. Danger Noodle had mainly been joking, while the preparation was different, and some things were procured by magic, food was food. Though he could be absolutely sure that these hadn’t been touched by steel, let alone iron. He put a tiny meat pie in his mouth and let it dissolve a bit rather than chewing, savoring the flavors.
“Also this.” He opened the bundle and produced some fabric, a jacket, a pair of pants, some fine stockings and gloves. They looked a little bit too big for D.N. “I remembered what you said, but these looked like things you’d worn before, so I thought it might be okay?”
“Not exactly suitable for my current situation.” He sniffed, looking at the soft embossed leather of the coat over. Despite that, he looked slightly pleased. “You really go out of the way to find things I’ve asked for.”
“Yep!” Remus grinned, looking happy. “I want you to be as happy as possible.”
“Anything I ask?”
“Pretty much.” He was pulling more clothing out of the bundle, grinning to himself.
“And what if I asked you to kill her?”
The smile disappeared as Remus’s eyes went wide and his head came up like he’d been physically struck.
“Please don’t ask me that.”
“I need to know.”
“Please.” his voice was a thin whine.
“It’s okay.” Rowan said quietly, calling attention to herself. “Take my body somewhere it won’t be found.”
“What?”
“He needs to know you love him more than me. So.” She opened her arms, as if inviting a blow or a hug. “Painless would be good too.”
Remus looked back at D.N. who sighed theatrically.
“I’m not actually asking.” he said “She’s right, annoyingly. Also annoyingly more useful alive.”
“Careful.” She picked her book up again. “Someone might think you’re starting to like me.”
“I don’t think that’s terribly likely.”
Remus stood up, suddenly enough that they both turned to stare at him.
“I’m going.” he said, and headed out the back door. “I’ll be back.” the door slammed.
“I think you upset him.” Rowan said quietly.
“Oh, and your reaction had nothing to do with it.” he curled his lip. “Would you really have let him kill you?”
“What about our interactions makes you think that I value my life?” Rowan retorted.
“You aren’t dead yet. It’s not something I’d recommended, personally.”
“Well the people I piss off generally can’t curse me.”
“You’re not too old to change.”
“Again, with your odd brand of compliments.” she snorted and took a sip of her tea. “I could wish you hadn’t chased him away when he just got back.”
“He’ll be fine. Thinking big thoughts takes him time.” He began sorting through the clothes in the bundle.
“Giving him a philosophical dilemma about his emotions is just unkind.”
“So am I.” He held up a shirt in dove gray and frowned at it. “Do be quiet if you’re going to be in the same room with me. I’m not Remus, I don’t like your peculiar brand of humor and your key-dead voice.”
Rowan huffed and picked up her book and glass.
“Fine. I’m going to keep watch for him, in case he needs a hug when he gets back.”
“You do that.”
“And who knows. Maybe he’ll realize he deserves better.”
“He hasn’t in a hundred years.”
Rowan glanced back at him, not quite sure what he meant, not wanting to know what he meant.
(illustration, Danger Noodle and New Clothes)
The rest of the afternoon was fairly quiet, and the moon was just rising when Remus let himself back in. The rest of Rowan’s family had gone off to see a movie, and Rowan had stayed behind because she was waiting for Remus, and not really interested in the movie. Remus looked like he’d been in a fight, and the winner was uncertain. His knuckle were bloodied and there were sticks and bits of leaves in his hair. Danger Noodle had taken over the table in the library- possibly his favorite room because once the fire tools had been moved out, there was no cast iron in it- and was prodding at the clothing, muttering to himself and drinking something that was the color of moonstone that had been in the basket. He looked up as Remus entered. The green knight shifted on his feet.
“I’ve decided.” Remus said slowly. “That the answer would be no.”
“What?”
“I love you.” he said it simply, like an absolute truth. “And I always will. I will protect you. But I am not going to help you hurt me anymore.” this Remus said like it hurt. D.N. just looked confused, but Rowan immediately hugged Remus, flinging her arms around his neck and pressing their cheeks together.
“Don’t get too excited, little tree.” Remus mumbled, even as he supported her weight “It’s true now, but who knows how long it will be.”
“I’m still so proud of you.” she retorted. “That had to have been hard to decide.” She kept holding onto him, so she wouldn't have to look at the baffled, terrified expression that haunted the edges of D.N.’s eyes. It was so much easier just to think of him as a one note villain.
Even if she held onto the hope he could change, if only for Remus’s sake.
Sequel fic to “The Witch and the Green Knight” (on Ao3)
Warnings: undeserved redemption arc, graphic imagery and bad behavior. And once again, violence against an apparent minor. There’s a line to slap him, don’t be surprised.
Chapter 1: In which Rowan has Unexpected House Guests
Chapter 2: In Which They Try to Figure Out What the Hell is Going On
Chapter 3: In Which Remus and Rowan’s Stupidity Escalates to Treason (sort of)
Chapter 4: In Which Life is Difficult
Chapter 5: In Which Remus has an Argument with A Cat and Rowan makes some Charms
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
Chapter 6: In Which Love is Bullshit
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
D.N. liked to watch Rowan cook.
Well, perhaps liked was too strong a word. He often watched Rowan cook, as if she would sneak things into his food he didn’t want. He also was fussy about accepting food that anyone else in the house had cooked, despite the fact that unattended sweets would disappear from the counter with regularity that amused Rowan’s mother. Rowan supposed she could understand. Food was a touchy subject for fae, and her family was far more used to cooking in cast iron pots than the copper ones. A mistake could lead to an unpleasant reaction, and while no harm would have been meant, it still would have been done. Remus was a great deal more sturdy when it came to that regard, so Rowan did tend to cook food for D.N. more often than not.
It didn’t make him any more gracious about it, but Rowan gritted her teeth and dealt with it. Not so much because he was a guest, as much as a favor for Remus. If she could, she would have given him a shirt that said ‘I love hard work, I could watch it all day’ because that was one of the few things he did other than reading and watching movies on the internet.
Danger Noodle had inched his way into the kitchen on the side furthest away from the stove and amalgamation of cast iron, and was watching her make cookies with a focus that made him look much more like a child. For him he was being polite, which meant he wasn’t giving Rowan a hard time for singing under her breath, making up a song as she went, rolling balls of saffron-scented dough in cinnamon sugar and sesame seeds.
“Everybody, put up your hands- Say I don’t want to be in love, I don’t want to be in love.” she sang softly. “Stop calling, stop calling I don’t wanna talk any more, I left my head and my heart on the dance floor~”
D.N. snorted scornfully.
“Something for you?” Rowan asked. “Got a cold? I can put the other kettle on for you;”
“Just wondering what Remus sees in you.”
“I make him laugh.”
“So do mushrooms.”
“Well some mushrooms are funny. Funny-gus, even.”
“Oh desist.” he made a face.
“But I don’t understand either if that makes you feel better.” She flashed a smile.
“And you-” He snorted. “Why?”
“Well, what do you see in him?” Rowan retorted, tucking a tray into the oven, and setting balls of dough on parchment paper on another.
“See in?” D.N. rolled his eyes. “He’s entertaining I suppose. Loyal. Useful.”
The teapot on the stove started to whistle and Rowan was wiping her hands as he spoke, reaching for it. Just as she touched the handle, she paused.
“You don’t love him, do you?”
“Why would I?”
Whatever reaction he was expecting it certainly wasn’t this. A rolled teatowel was shoved in his mouth, and a hot human hand held it in place as Rowan used the force of her body to pin him to the wall, the other hand still holding the iron teapot, full of boiling water.
“Now listen here you little shit.” she hissed quietly. “He is loyal to you. He loves you. He loved you even after you exiled him. While you hurt him. He has given you his everything. And you can’t think of a single fucking reason to love him? My brother deserves better; but he wants you.” her eyes looked like steel. “I’ve iron in my bones and salt in my veins, and you may be able to kill me in my sleep, but I will haunt your fucking dreams.”
Her body trembled as she drew back, getting ahold of herself. He spat out the dishrag, and it did not look healthy
.“I’ve dealt with witch’s ghosts before.”
“And I found your body. So I can hide it again.”
“Maybe you could. But you won’t.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because- you do love him. And it would hurt him. So much.”
She drew in a sharp breath through her nose.
“You do not make it easy to like you at all.” she forced out between her teeth.
He tipped his head, not looking impressed. “And isn’t that a crying shame?”
She turned her back on him and poured the hot water into the teapot. Her chest hurt and her muscles tingled with leftover adrenaline. Rowan tried to steady her breathing.
“What happened to ‘guest’?” he poked tauntingly.
“Oh, my apologies, are you hurt?” she retorted. “Did I damage you physically? Do you feel unsafe?”
“You did threaten me.”
"As long as you don't harm my family, you are as safe in my home as I can make you." Rowan told him stiffly.
Hurt her family.
She had called Remus her brother.
Surely she didn't mean… no. She absolutely did.
Witches were the craziest flavor of mortals and he was fairly sure the world would be better off without them. His world, certainly.
The silence was wearing after the cheerful humming. Rowan put a sheet of cookies in the oven and shut the door with a clang, before taking a deep breath.
“I’m sorry for losing my temper.” She said. “That was uncalled for.”
Danger Noodle stared at her. Witches. They just didn’t make sense.
>-<
There was rain in the afternoon, and Danger Noodle retreated to the attic. Rowan’s mother took over the kitchen for dinner after Rowan had finished the cookies, and she retreated out to her sunroom, before ducking out to sit on the edge of the porch, getting gently spattered with raindrops, near enough to the gutter that hopefully no one would hear her cry.
This was foiled by Remus coming out of the gathering dark and wet, and plopping down beside her, soaked to the skin. He didn't say anything, just sat there as she managed to get ahold of herself.
“I’m fine, more or less.” she said scrubbing at her eyes with the palm of her hand, and replacing her glasses. “Had a fight with Danger Noodle, it took a bit out of me, emotionally.” Remus tilted his head at her, then flopped against her, squishing her to the wall of the porch.
“Not fun, then? No mud pit?”
“I’d obliterate that twink in a mudpit, fae strength or no. He’s a noodle.” She said, trying for humor.
“A dangerous one though.” Remus nodded.
“A dangerous one.” she agreed. “So it was a stupid thing to do, I just got so mad.”
“Ooh, sorry I missed it.” His hair was sending water dripping down her neck, but she didn’t push him away. “You’re hot when you’re mad.”
“Yeah, flushing does pull up a fever.” She snorted. “He just... it was like he couldn’t even imagine you were worth anything. Like what you felt and did meant nothing to him it’s just-”
“Little tree it’s okay.” Remus said soothingly, putting an arm around her waist. “I know.”
“What?” She looked heartbroken for him.
“He doesn’t owe that to me.”
“You deserve better.”
“Do I?” Remus shrugged. “Witchbritches, you love me, but I know me. I don’t deserve much.”
“Amazing how you can say something so completely untrue.” she retorted. “I’m sorry that you can.”
“My heart’s mine to give to who I want.”
Rowan frowned and looked away. She leaned into him anyway, sliding her arm around his waist in return.
“That’s a true thing.” she mumbled. “That doesn’t make it hurt less.”
“A true thing.” Remus agreed.
>-<
Time continued to pass, rolling firmly into summer. Despite her best efforts to keep busy, Rowan found herself with time on her hands.
Time and-
"Ooh a hammock!" Remus said cheekily grabbing the other side. "Can we hang it higher? Also what the hell is that smell?"
"Pft. You complaining about smells." Rowan shook her head. "Not too high, or I won't be able to get into it. The smell is bug-off, I soaked the net in it to ward off black flies."
"See that's no fun. What if we got you a ladder?" He started securing the tie to the tree anyway, just at about his eye level. She matched it, leaving the hammock hanging just below chest high.
"Getting into hammocks is hard enough." Rowan retorted, then yelped as he picked her up like a fat cat and set her in it before climbing in after her. The hammock swayed dangerously as they rearranged themselves, settling to a gentle sway in the dappled green light. Rowan had found a place between her clearing and the house, so they were barely into the woods, something like two trees from the yard. Comfortably, Rowan shifted until she was using Remus for a pillow, eyes shut and humming softly to herself.
“Tha- I’m glad that you stay with me.” she mumbled.
“Sometimes I worry that you forget I’m a fae.” Remus said playing with her hair, pulling it loose from her braids and combing it with his fingers.
“Oh it’s worse than that.” Rowan sighed, leaning against him. “Sometimes I forget I’m not.”
“Hrm.” He grunted. They swayed back and forth gently in silence for a few minutes. “Sometimes.” he whispered. “I think I’ve forgotten how to be seelie. I spent so long being bad, being mad. I am mad, you know. I’m not a safe fae.”
“So?” she let her eyes close, and gave him a squeeze. “Be you. Whatever that is. I’ll love you either way, dumbass.”
“It’d be nice if you and he could come with me.” He mumbled picking out a knot at the nape of her neck.“I don’t like being alone. I have to think. Before I only thought of one thing. Now I have lots of thoughts.”
“Like what?”
“... he was just a mortal. He didn’t have any defense at all.” Remus said in a very small voice. “And I hated him. Even when he was being hurt.”
“Owch.” Rowan agreed. “That’s a stupid thought.”
“Is it?”
“Well, for one thing, it’s too late now, isn’t it? Would you act differently now?”
“... I don’t know.”
Rowan grunted a response, moving an arm to start carding her fingers through his hair in return, a sort of mutual grooming. She felt Remus’s attention shift, so she managed not to be surprised when something poked the bottom of the hammock, hard.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” Rowan grumbled, not raising her chin from Remus’s shoulder. “No, wait, I know what it probably looks like. We’re getting our cuddle on, because my boy needs hugs and you’re like twelve and an asshole.”
“I’m not twelve, even physically.” D.N. grumbled petulantly, not sounding particularly convincing. He poked the underside of the hammock again and Remus giggled. Unable to help herself, Rowan started giggling too, because of the vibration of his chest against hers. Within moments they were both laughing helplessly while Danger Noodle glared at them.
It felt good.
Like Remus was lighter than he’d ever been before, with the weight of his self imposed quest off his back, and sunshine and good company.
Sequel fic to “The Witch and the Green Knight” (on Ao3)
Warnings: undeserved redemption arc, graphic imagery and bad behavior.
Chapter 1: In which Rowan has Unexpected House Guests
Chapter 2: In Which They Try to Figure Out What the Hell is Going On
Chapter 3: In Which Remus and Rowan’s Stupidity Escalates to Treason (sort of)
Chapter 4: In Which Life is Difficult
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
In Which Remus has an Argument with A Cat and Rowan makes some Charms
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
The day had been fairly calm, a lovely warm day in spring; so naturally, that couldn’t last.
“You!” Remus said, and pounced. There was a general clattering, and Rowan turned around to see that Remus had grabbed a hold of a large gray cat, who to his credit, was trying to twist and get a hold of Remus’s wrist, in spite of being mostly scruffed.
“Hey!” Rowan yelped. “Leave Mouse alone.”
“I will leave this little bugger alone as soon as he calms the fuck down and listens to me.” Remus retorted, shifting his hands as they got scratched. He yelped as Mouse sunk his teeth into a finger.
“Mouse!” Rowan said in a scolding voice, and the large cat subsided into a deep grating growl.
“Okay, Little Tree, bear with me a second okay?” he shifted his hands again, so he was supporting the cat under his forelegs. The cat mostly put up with it. “This little asshole-” Mouse gave another growl. “Is a cait sidhe. I don’t know how you missed it.’
“... no.” Rowan said, staring at the bright green eyes of her favorite cat. It was true she’d found him in the woods when he was a kitten. And it was true that he was half-feral, wandering off for weeks and sometimes months when it suited him. And that he was much bigger than the other cats, but she figured Mouse had some forest cat in him or something.
Something was apparently it.
“Mouse…” she said, exasperated, and she’d never seen a cat avoid her gaze quite like that.
“He’s been giving me shit since I started visiting.” Remus continued. “I can mostly understand him; better than normal animals, even. But… Danger Noodle.”
“Ah.” Rowan reached out and grabbed the back of Mouse’s neck, taking him from Remus and cradling him in her arms. He shifted about and put both paws on her shoulder as if he was about to jump. She tightened her hand around his neck. “Hold up, Mouse.” she murmured. “I’m not mad, honest.” Her thumb made little strokes against his dense short fur. He looked at her soulfully, giving an earnest ‘pathetic mew’. “Has that ever worked on me?” she demanded, and was surprised when he nodded. “Shit, you would remember wouldn’t you?”
Remus laughed, and Mouse’s tail lashed as she rolled him onto his back in her arms.
“Since you’ve been bothering the compost heap since we became friends, you know I trust him right?”
The cat hissed.
“Don’t take that tone with me, mister.” She said disapprovingly. “I need you to keep a secret.” The cat’s tail lashed back and forth a bit. Rowan kissed his nose, and he headbutted her affectionately, a purr starting. Remus watched this exchange in wonderment.
“I’m sure you can tell I’ve got another fae visitor right now. I bet you like his smell just as much as you like my green brother’s.” Mouse rubbed pointedly against her head, and grabbed a hold of the end of her braid. “But he’s kind of a refugee, so I need you to not tell anyone he’s here, okay? You’ve charmed enough butter and cream out of me to know I’ll reward you for it.”
Mouse thoughtfully groomed the end of her braid. Remus just stared at them both. Finally the cat shifted and head butted her again. This time Rowan let him hop down and he gave a big stretch to show how unimpressed he was, flicking his eyes up at Remus, who met them. Mouse strolled over- and peed on Remus’s boot before dashing off into the woods.
“I’ll take that as a compliment!” Remus yelled after him, and Rowan burst into laughter.
-@-
The world was an explosion of green, somewhere out underneath the rain that promised to continue right over May Day. Remus was off in the woods somewhere, and Rowan was working in her sunroom, Danger Noodle having hooked a small hammock from the ceiling and was glaring down at her with the air of a cranky king. She suspected it had more to do with the broad spectrum heat lamps than her presence.
“At least this is keeping the daisies down. This town is such an unnecessary hassle. They could have just accepted their inhuman overlords.”
“Yeah, humans aren’t good at that.” the witch said agreeably. “But we only grow daisies in the front yard. I don’t like the way they smell, and Mother’s always been sad you can’t really grow ‘crazy daisies’. They’re an ok ward, though I’ve been doing some experiments with resin jewelry with them.” she had a batch waiting to be strung actually, waiting for the spring markets. She wasn’t sure how well they’d work at warding fae, but they were pretty. She had another batch of flowers pressing. She’d gotten a few perfect blooms before the rain started, and any that broke could go in tea.
“So the entire back of your house is exposed to the forest?”
“Well if you ignore the wrought iron trellis and the rowan tree.” She countered. “Which you don’t.”
D.N. made a face at her. The copper kettle on the hotplate whistled, and she put aside her work to make tea. Rather than try to hand Danger Noodle a cup she ‘abandoned’ one near his perch with several lumps of sugar in it. Ignoring it, she hooked the heels of her boots into the rung on the stool and checked the pattern she was following once more, shifting threads back and forth, the soft clicking of bobbins almost as rhythmic as the rain. From time to time she’d mumble under her breath.
Finally she picked up small gold-plated scissors, and snipped it loose from the braiding tower, braiding the trailing ends together in a much simpler pattern.
“I haven’t made one of these since high-school.” She mumbled sucking on the ends to thread them through beads taken from small wooden boxes laid out on her worktable, before knotting them again, and offering it over to Danger Noodle. “Tie this around your wrist, looping three times. People looking to do you harm will look past you.” Rowan frowned. “Well, that’s what the charm is for. If you wear them too much, people will start looking past you no matter what.”
“Why would I need that?” he held it like it smelled bad.
“Because it’s witch magic, not fae magic. So people looking for fae magic won’t automatically notice it.” She shrugged. “Might make it safer for you to go with Remus.”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“That’ll happen in it’s own time, I’m sure.”
The door to the outside opened, and Remus tromped in, soaking wet and covered in mud.
“Hello darlings!” he crowed.
“No don’t-” Rowan started, and D.N. just rolled into his canvas cocoon as Remus shook violently, watering the plants that grew along the sides of the sunroom.
Sequel fic to “The Witch and the Green Knight” (on Ao3)
Warnings: undeserved redemption arc, graphic imagery and as of this chapter violence against minors.
Chapter 1: In which Rowan has Unexpected House Guests
Chapter 2: In Which They Try to Figure Out What the Hell is Going On
Chapter 3: In Which Remus and Rowan’s Stupidity Escalates to Treason (sort of)
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
Chapter 4: In Which Life is Difficult
>-<>-< ——————-<>——————- >-<>-<
The winter waned in a sloppy miserable way, kicking out with a few snowstorms like the flailing of a dying animal. Despite not really being bothered by the cold, D.N. practically hibernated, most often found in a window seat in the library, going through Rowan’s Mother’s books and being snarky about bad information about fairies. Rowan was fairly sure it was just a way to safely lash out. She dug out an old laptop and gave him access to the Netflix account. If nothing else it kept him distracted. Something Rowan had learned was that the fair folk did, as legend said, love stories.
And apparently, soap operas and romcoms.
Like herself, Remus seemed out of sorts in the late winter, though more in the way of someone who had woken up long before they wanted to. He’d gone into the woods and returned dressed in his more normal attire, also having brought back a few changes of clothing that was closer to D.N.’s size, and of a finer make than anything in the Baker house, despite Rowan’s sister’s cautious attempt to find a fabric the fae child would like. For the most part, the rest of Rowan’s family treated D.N. with cautious courtesy, and a certain level of ‘not be alone in a room with him’. Remus, by contrast, was treated more as a benign nuisance, though not without kindness. Frankly, that was more understandable than Rowan’s blase attitude. That didn’t stop a certain level of speculation as to why ‘Leif’ and his friend were staying with them.
“I’ve figured it out!”
Rowan balled a pair of socks and tossed it in her sister’s basket across the table. They were sorting the laundry by owner, and Rowan had made it her mission to find as many pairs of socks as she could.
“Figured what out?”
“What’s going on with Leif and the kid!”
“Have you now?” Rowan said dryly and a little nervously. Her sister nodded.
“It’s pretty obvious if you think about it. The kid is the spawn of the last fairy king.”
“What.”
“Look, it’s obvious that Leif served him, right? And we know he’s dead. So then Leif disappears for months and reappears with a kid? With scales? We know that Leif’s traveled outside Wickhills before- so clearly he knew where the kid was, maybe he was even the one who took him away, probably more of a Cronos eating his kids thing than a Arthur sent into hiding thing, and now he brought him back.” She pursed her lips. “You know, I bet Leif can change genders like a frog.”
Rowan started laughing.
“Leif might even be the mother-” she went on.
“Definitely not.” Rowan choked.
“But he is related. I’ve connected the dots.” she said smugly.
“You haven’t connected shit.” Rowan retorted throwing a pair of pants at her.
“I’ve connected them.”
As spring burgeoned forth, Remus agitated with the need to leave the house. It was clear he wasn’t used to staying in one place, even for a few weeks like this. Rowan could always tell when Remus had gone wandering in the night, because D.N. didn’t come down from the attic until he’d come back. It wasn’t as if D.N. was avoiding his so-called hosts, so much as he was totally avoiding the humans in the house as much as possible as if by pretending they weren’t there he could pretend none of this was happening.
When spring officially arrived Rowan made them clothing, a shirt of heavy green broadcloth for Remus, and a more delicate shirt of the finest white linen she had for D.N. The shirt he generally wore was made of undyed silk, and Rowan feared that the substance had come from the shroud- or rather bag- she’d sewn for the bones of the Serpent King. It was tricky to give them, as D.N. certainly wanted no gifts from her, and Remus wanted to gift her in return. But it was simply tradition, that for the first day of spring everyone had a new garment. So her green brother and erstwhile guest needed something new too, for luck. Honestly, Rowan thought he could probably use all the luck he could get.
It was a fine warm day in mid April, when leaves were finally starting to show, and only the most stubborn bits of snow were sticking around in the darkest shadows, when Rowan was working in her garden.
“Little tree! You’re wearing pants!”
The whippy rose vine Rowan had been arguing with slipped out of her hand as the twist tie sprang from her other, and she took the momentary break to glare at Remus, who had appeared in her personal bubble with no warning whatsoever.
“I wear pants all the time.” she retorted, giving him a half hearted shove.
“Yeah, but usually you have dresses over ‘em.” theatrically, he collapsed to the scrubby grass outside the garden and sprawled in the sun.
“Well, I learned that arguing with rose bushes in a dress doesn’t end well for the dress.” She grabbed hold again with her gloved hand, and pulled a fresh tie out of her apron pocket, lashing the thorny vine to the wrought iron trellis that kept most fae out of her garden. They could, in theory, pass under the iron arbor that faced the wood, wreathed as it was in plants, but until Remus it hadn’t been much of a problem. “How are you doing?” she asked quietly. He was looking better. He’d been kind of wan, a sickly sort of green rather than his normal healthy hue like a ripening acorn.
“Starting to feel my oats.” He responded, tipping his face into the sun. “It’s a good spring. I’d say that spring was happy about something.” in the distance, a door opened and closed.
“Seasons do seem to have emotions.” She agreed, and had to step delicately over him to get to the next bush, pulling clippers from her pocket and studying the bush thoughtfully, before pruning a few branches, and returning to tucking them in safely so they wouldn’t grab passers by too badly. That done she carried the trimmed branches away. D.N. emerged from the widdershins side of the house, having exited the front door and walked so he didn’t have to pass the rowan tree, even if he could do so under the protection of the porch. He glared down at Remus with frustration.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Having a kip?” Remus suggested, as Rowan stepped over him again to get back to the rose bushes.
“You should tell me as soon as you come back from the forest.” he said grouchily, not making eye contact.
“Well, not much is going on, so there’s nothing to tell you.” Remus shrugged.
“That’s good right?” Rowan asked.
“A secret unsaid is a secret kept.” D.N. muttered, not addressing Rowan at all. “What are you doing out there anyway?”
“Favors.” Remus sighed. “So many favors. I’m not exactly a favorite right now. People don’t want me to do favors for them, but I need the currency. Also fixing up my house.” he rubbed his hands over his face. “It’s kind of out of the way, so it might be safe enough. It’s nice enough to visit with my little tree, but…”
“We can’t stay here forever.” D.N. agreed. “It buzzes.”
“Yeah.” Remus nodded. “So I’ve got some improvements to make, and gotta reassert my territory. No one got near the tree, but I don’t have much around it.” he clicked his tongue “Fun and all, but I’m in a hurry.” he made a kissy face at them both. “But I’ll always hurry back to you.”
Rowan snorted, and D.N. rolled his eyes. He crossed his arms and cocked his hip, glaring down at the green-clad fae.
“I’m sure whatever you stay in is better than this.”
“Hey, owch. It’s a good house. We finally got the roof fixed last year.” Rowan glared, waving her clippers at him. D.N. leaned away.
“Well it’s hardly the hovel I’ve seen other witches live in,” he sneered at the Victorian style house. “But it isn’t anywhere I would choose to stay.”
“Sorry for not being a magical house.”
“Oh it’s full of magic alright. Human magic, thick and inelegant, like mud on the bottom of a pond.”
“I like mud.” Remus commented, popping up and bracing himself upright on his hands. Rowan noticed that his knuckles were reddened and split. Putting her clippers away again, she dug into her other pocket, coming up with a small, shallow clay pot, closed with a wide cork. She crouched down and grabbed one hand, dabbing the ointment onto the wounds. Remus obligingly offered his other hand when she was done.
“Why was this in your pocket?”
“It’s better to get the ointment on big jabs right away, and I’m doing lawn work.” she shrugged, and went back to her work.
After a while, Rowan finished her discussion with the rosebushes, and headed back inside without saying anything. Shortly after that, a car drove up hidden by the bulk of the house. Another short while later, it drove away again. Rowan returned to her garden, hooking her apron over her head again.
“Bloody busy-body is what she is.” Rowan grumbled to herself. “No need to come by every time, her tea hasn’t changed in over a year, if I wanted everyone coming by and bothering me all the time I’d start up a tea room in town and read palms and cards. It’s what I get for being helpful and offering to do a unique blend.”
“Can you tell the future?” Remus asked, popping up on the other side of the hedge wall of rose bushes, making Rowan yelp and clutch her rake.
“Like the weather.” She retorted. “Which is to say, not really worth anything.”
“You’re a useless kind of witch, aren’t you?” sniffed D.N. who had taken up a seat in an Adirondack style chair they had acquired somewhere, and everyone in the Baker family hated, which is why it wasn’t on the porch.
“Yeah, kind of.” she didn’t rise to the bait, and watched him stare at the woods. “You could go, you know.”
“What?”
“Nothing’s keeping you here if you wanted to leave.”
“Little tree-” Remus said, sounding hurt.
“Not you, you’re welcome any time. And for that matter, if he wants to go for a bit and come back, that’s fine.”
“I can’t actually. I have to ‘stay here’ until further notice.”
“Oh right. Fairy parole officer.” Rowan sighed. “Well you could probably get as far as the property line, or where our ‘official’ lot meets up with the woods.”
“It isn’t as if I’m desperate to wander in the woodlands, Witch, I just don’t want to be here. At all.”
“Boy, do I hear that.” she sighed deeply, pausing to look into the woods herself. The small leaves were misting the tips of the trees with color, and there was a smell of wet and rot in the air. It looked like a storm was building in the west. It would probably hit the before nightfall, gathering the dark in the clouds and making the night come that much faster in the growing spring day. Better to get her gardening done before it hit, so she’d only have to repair the damage it did, not do that and the maintenance. The plants were being especially springy this year, and she was tempted to put this down to Remus’s presence.
D.N. continued to watch her, as though she was some sort of reality TV show, while Remus sprawled in the scrubby grass next to his chair.
When the first cold wet gust hit, all three of them headed inside.
The storm was really having fun, so they were in Rowan’s room instead of the loft. Remus liked to hang out with both of them, so Rowan coming to work on whatever she was doing -some sort of project involving embroidery floss at the moment- and sit with Remus while Remus would root through her work basket, or bring out a pouch and do something himself- embroidery, or sharpening knives, occasionally woodcarving. Sometimes he’d sit behind Rowan and brush or play with her hair, braiding it into elaborate arrangements that she’d have to ask for help to undo.
Sometimes Danger Noodle would use Remus as a cushion or a backrest as if he was staking his claim. That night however, he’d pulled the beat up floral armchair Rowan kept next to one of her windows to a different window (further away from the dancing limbs of the rowan tree) and settled down with a book.
Rowan noticed that he would raise his hand and rub the back of his neck occasionally as if it were hurting. She nudged Remus’s leg and inclined her head at D.N. He shrugged.
“Are you in pain somehow?” Rowan asked, startling him into dropping his book.
“Kindly mind your own business.” Danger Noodle sneered.
“Are you cold?” Remus asked. “You do-” he rubbed the back of his neck “lots.”
D.N. growled under his breath, picking the book up.
“It isn’t important.” He told them.
“But it is a thing.”
“You never used to.”
He sighed, explosively. “Are you two going to leave me alone about this?”
“Well now I’m curious.” Rowan admitted tipping her head with a smile on her face that reminded D.N. far too much of Remus’s mischievous expression. If it weren’t for her obvious humanity, he would think they were siblings. “If you’re cold, I could get you a blanket, is all.”
“I’m not cold.” he rolled his eyes. “I’m a winter.”
She looked unimpressed. “So what’s with the lounging in sunbeams?”
Danger Noodle sneered at her, scales glinting in the lamplight.
“It's just a feeling. It’s like a cold hand on the back of my neck, it’s not squeezing but it’s there.” D.N. spread his fingers over the back of his neck. “Like something’s watching me, constantly.”
“Huh.” Remus and Rowan said in unison, heads tipping to the side. Danger Noodle glared, there was no way they weren’t doing that on purpose.
“Might be something?” Remus asked thoughtfully, looking at the corners of the room.
“I’d want to keep an eye on him, if it were me.” Rowan admitted.
D.N. sighed again, exasperated, then Remus perked up digging in one of the many pockets inside his vest. After a search he came up with a bag, tied firmly shut with cord. He climbed off the bed and went to kneel next to the armchair instead.
“I made this for you.” Remus opened the intricately tied knot, and from inside the bag, produced a scarf. It looked like heavy silk of some sort, dyed a beautiful saffron yellow, covered in single-thread embroidery. Vines twisted and twined along it, with a snake hidden among them. D.N. stared at it for a long moment, then recoiled.
“Are you out of your mind? Wait, never mind I retract the question.”
“I made it for you a while ago but…” Remus admitted. “You wouldn’t have taken it.”
“I’m not taking it now.” He stood up, tossing the book on the chair. “What makes you think I would even want it?”
“-so I’m going to protect you until you’re stronger.” Remus finished as if he hadn’t just been threatened.
“I am still stronger than you.” the young fae said disdainfully, drawing himself up to his full, unimpressive height.
“Are you though?” Rowan asked, setting her project down and watching them.
“I am certainly more powerful than you.”
“Oh, that’s not even a question.”
“So what this looks like is Remus is offering you his favor to wear, showing that you’re his... I’m going to say ‘ward’, because you’re a kid.”
“I am not a kid!” D.N. retorted, stamping his foot like a child.
“And therefore under his protection. Displaying a connection.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that, but yeah.” Remus agreed.
“Which is why I’m not interested.”
“I don’t have to give you an oath to give you my favor.” Remus pointed out, he just stared up at Danger Noodle entreatingly. The room was silent except for the storm outside, and the faint sound of someone watching a movie elsewhere in the house. D.N. rubbed the back of his neck again, and Rowan shivered, like a gust of cold air had made it through the window. Her eyes shut and she saw dead branches against a milky sky. Blinking the vision away, she got to see D.N. throw his hands in the air.
“Uugh enough with the eyes. Fine. I’ll take it, but it doesn’t mean anything.” He accepted the scarf and looped it around his neck, spreading the folds upward to the base of his hair.
“It means you’re wearing something I made you.” Remus pointed out and rose up, gathering Danger Noodle into a hug, to which he submitted, to Rowan’s surprise. “Which makes me happy.”
“Mmgnh. Fuck off.” D.N. mumbled, face pressed to Remus’s bicep.
