Summary: You were only supposed to observe. Sit quietly, gather information, and leave without anyone noticing. Simple enough, except you forgot to account for the fact that Qifrey and Olruggio know exactly how you think. And now, thanks to one catastrophically backfired spell, you're not going anywhere at all.
Tags: Forced proximity, Tethered, friends to enemies to lovers?!, Brimmed hat reader, Shared history, It's so complicated, Olruggio and Qifrey being a united front, She's trying so hard to stay guarded, Slow burn, Found family if you squint
Warnings: Action scene, Minor injuries, Morally grey reader, Complicated loyalties
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
You slid, ducking to avoid the onslaught of spells hurling towards you, courtesy of Qifrey. As annoying as his relentless pursuit of you was, you couldn’t deny that he was good. Scarily good, in fact. His sheer knowledge of magic theory allowed him to keep up with you even though he wasn’t utilizing any forbidden magic.
You winced at the burn of a scrape against your leg.
Olruggio had momentarily disappeared again. Though this time you expected it. Their pattern was simple yet effective. Qifrey aimed to overwhelm and draw all focus to him. In the gaps in your concentration, Olruggio swung in with a powerful blow, trying to catch you off guard. It had nearly worked.
Your eyes widened at the recognition of Qifrey’s pattern wavering, a sure indication of Olruggio’s pending attack, except it never came.
You flew back, angling your sylph shoes, thrown at the sight of Qifrey suddenly much closer to you than before. You cursed, hand clutching your pen ready to draw furiously before Olruggio barreled into you from behind.
Your sylph shoes disconnected from each other, sending you and Olruggio free-falling towards the ground. He gripped his hand against your shoulder, thumb biting into your collarbone, trying– and failing– to wrangle you into a still position.
“Stop resisting” He growled into your ear.
You thrashed, bringing your knee up to push against his stomach in an attempt to release his hands from your frame.
How bothersome. You were only supposed to bring intel for the Brimmed Caps. You really weren’t a combative witch. You hated going on missions that could warrant talking to people, forget getting into a fight with them.
You yelled in frustration as Olruggio brought you into a crushing hug, trapping you beneath his muscled arms. You squinted trying to see through the spinning of your quick downward spiral.
That’s why you had liked this mission in the first place. It was quiet and easy. Just sit and observe the comings and goings of Qifrey’s Atelier, unnoticed. How hard could that be? Plus, you were extra qualified for the job given you knew Qifrey and Olruggio quite well considering how close you were back when the three of you were apprentices at the Great Hall. You knew how they worked, how they thought. So how had this gone so terribly wrong?
You yelped in pain as Qifrey collided hard into the pair of you, crushing you as he attempted to slow your quick descent while holding onto you with a vise-like grip. You groaned, trying to push away from Olruggio’s rough embrace onto to feel your back push against Qifrey’s unmoving front. You were sandwiched.
You really weren’t a combat witch. They only sent you because you knew Qifrey and Olruggio better than the other Brimmed Hats. You truly knew them. And they knew you. That’s how they had trapped you so quickly. Afterall, you were only really good at crafting spells and what good was that talent in a fight?
You couldn’t help but smirk, bitterly to yourself.
What they hadn’t realized was that your crafting had come quite far in your years apart.
You shut your eyes, relaxing into their crushing hold.
There was a spell you were quite eager to try. Why not try it now?
You slowly wriggled your hand up to grasp your necklace– your last chance.
It was a repellent spell. It was simple really. So simple you were rather shocked no one else had thought it up. When activated, whomever or whatever was in direct contact with the user would be propelled far away. As if they were two positive poles on a magnet, theoretically.
You grimaced, hands hesitating against the cool metal of your necklace.
Theoretically, it would launch them away. Had you tried it yet? Not really. But the spell was self explanatory, and you had yet to craft a spell wrong, and really did you have another choice?
You steeled your nerves, fingers moving to rotate the wheel of the necklace, connecting the spell.
At first nothing changed.
You unfurrowed your brows, biting your lip in confusion, wrapped between the two men, hurdling to the ground, before a sudden burst of brilliant light blinded you.
You felt their grips loosen slightly before leaving you entirely at the feeling of searing heat at the spots their hands just were.
You couldn’t help the scream of pain that left you at the blistering heat.
Though you supposed you should be glad that it at least worked. Still, you couldn’t bring yourself to be too pleased. Why had it burned so horribly? That didn’t make sense. Something must have been off. But, at least, you were no longer being trapped between two broad chests anymore.
As quickly as the hands on you were gone, Qifrey crashed back into you, bracing his arms beneath the crook of your knee and the small of your back as he slammed his Sylph shoes together slowing the pair of you down just short of hitting the ground hard.
He groaned in a mix of relief and frustration before letting you push out from his grip.
You turned away from him quickly only to be met by Olruggio rubbing his forearms with a pained expression, presumably from the effects of your spell.
You paused, brows furrowed in thought.
So they had felt the heat too? But if that were true then they would have gained the same you did from the spell. So why weren’t you launched away from them? Or perhaps the effects nullified?
“What was that?” Qifrey rasped, rubbing at his sternum. He stood hunched over as if his body were begging him to collapse but his mind refused to let you go.
You dully registered Oruggio's determined stomp towards your direction before you instinctively stumbled back, still reeling from the effects of your ineffective spell.
He paused as if reevaluating whether getting into another chase with you was a smart idea, or something he would be able to even keep up with. You were always annoyingly good at running away from them.
Not giving him the liberty of deciding, you turned on your heel, breaking into a sprint away from where the three of you had crashed.
That blasted necklace. What a terribly crafted spell, you cursed yourself.
You risked a look over your shoulder, more to reassure yourself that you could get away. Yet, instead of them chasing quickly at your heels you watched as they stood unmoving, right where you had left them.
You scoffed.
You must have tired them out.
That was a step up, you supposed. Back in your training days they used to run circles around you when it came to sparring. Though that hadn’t necessarily changed. You had just found ways to adapt.
You felt it before it happened. A sort of pull in the wrong direction, as if you were being repelled by some force– like the ink of a spell was fighting back.
You made it maybe ten steps before the air solidified against you, hard. It wasn’t a wall exactly, more like the wrong end of a magnet.
You yelped in surprise, bracing yourself as you fell backwards.
Still, the pull didn’t go away. You winced, rubbing your chest in attempts to dispel the magnetic-like yank before your body started to move, dragging back towards where Qifrey and Olruggio were still standing.
You scrambled into a sitting position, digging your heels and palms into the soil in a desperate attempt to stop the force dragging you back to them to no avail. You sped up faster and faster before colliding into Olruggio’s, now crouched, form.
He grunted at the force of the impact winding one arm around your waist and bringing the other to catch himself.
You feel a shiver run through you at the feeling of his strong forearm pinning you tight to him. Your own hands moved to rest against his arm as if to pull it away, but for some reason, you couldn’t bring yourself to do it.
You look up, squinting through the sun to stare at Qifrey, hovering over you. There were deep lines of stress in his face, present even as a child but more pronounced now. The once light and airy smile he once reserved for you was now a hard set line.
You groan, more in annoyance as you collapse back into Olruggio’s front, huffing.
Of course, the one time you want to try a new spell it just has to backfire entirely.
“What’s going on?” Olruggio rumbled, sending pleasant shockwaves through you at the feeling of his hum hitting your back.
Your gaze remained trained on Qifrey. How long would it take him to figure it out, you wonder. He was always clever when it came to deciphering the way you thought.
“This is one of your spells isn't it?” He ventured to guess, nudging his head towards the invisible wall you had hit.
You sighed, dusting off your clothes, more so that you had something to do rather than just sit, trapped between Olruggio’s hold and Qifrey’s stare.
“Yeah.” You offered, lamely.
The three of you plunged into a heavy silence, disturbed only by the rustle of your movements.
Unfortunately, it was one of your spells. Honestly it was quite impressive. You had never crafted a spell that backfired so horribly that it did the exact opposite of what it was intended to do.
Qifrey crouched down to your level, though he wasn’t looking at you, but rather your necklace. You couldn’t help but hold your breath as he moved to grab the cool metal with delicate fingers, grazing them against the flesh of your neck.
He scrutinized the spell, leaning forward in his own focus until his face was mere inches from yours.
You flushed, squirming in Olruggio’s hold.
“Olly, you can let me go, you know.” You gritted, angling your head back in attempts to catch Olruggio’s eyes.
“And risk you running again? No thanks.” He deadpanned, not unkindly.
You oddly found yourself glad at that fact before shaking your head, cursing at yourself. You had left them. They weren’t your people anymore. They shouldn’t be kind and you shouldn’t crave their kindness.
“You can let her go. She won’t run– she can’t.” Qifrey concluded, dropping the necklace, allowing it to thump back against your chest, though he didn’t move back.
“Your spell was quite wrong.”
Olruggio loosened his grip, but also chose not to move.
You huffed, rolling your eyes as you stretched your neck, relieving it from its soreness.
“Really?” You offered, uninterested.
You couldn’t help but bask in the comfort of their presence. You should be repulsed or even alarmed by how close they were, but all you felt was familiarity. A dull ache of remembrance at how life used to be.
“Next time you should use a sort of binding spell on yourself. Something that would make you temporarily impossible to hold onto.” Qifrey continued, ever the critique.
You felt a brow quirk up in amusement, “I thought you were against forbidden magic?”
“I am.” He corrected, voice suddenly sharp. “But that never seemed to stop you before.”
You couldn't help but wince at his sudden tone switch.
You had always found yourself rendered useless in anxiety when Qifrey would switch to the meaner version of him, threatening and erasing memories. Though usually, it was never aimed at you.
“Can someone explain what the hell is going on?” Olruggio grumbled.
You looked towards Qifrey, almost instinctively, to find his gaze already focused on you.
You sighed, turning to better face both of them.
“I wrote a new spell. One that would repel whomever was touching me. But, it backfired and instead I’m bonded to them.”
Olruggio stared at you blankly before moving his gaze to Qifrey as it to verify what you were saying.
You rolled your eyes, “I’m not lying.”
“Well, it’s not like you haven’t lied to us before.” Olruggio bit back without missing a beat.
You bit your tongue, looking down to your nails.
They weren’t wrong. You had lied. You had abandoned them. You had switched sides.
“So what then?”
You look up at the sound of Qifrey’s question.
“How long does it last?”
You furrowed your brows, wracking your brain for some answer you could give them.
You hated this. You hated not knowing something that you were supposed to be a master at. What could you possibly tell them? That you didn’t know? That you had acted rashly just as you always had? You were supposed to be changed– better. That’s why you were with the brimmed hats, afterall. What would they think when they realized you had acted just as stupidly as you used to act.
Qifrey brought his hand up to poke, noncommittally at your cheek.
You looked up at him to find his gaze trained on you expectantly.
How could they stand to look at you with something akin to kindness? How could they not feel anything but red hot anger?
You turned to look at Olruggio. If you squinted you might even dare to say he was looking at you with a look of distant fondness.
You felt your stomach twist.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
The three of you sat in silence. You fiddled with the blades of grass under you.
How would this even work? Would you stay at the Atelier? Would you become close to those four girls of theirs? Or would the brimmed hats track you down? You had become somewhat valuable to them, your innovations fueling a lot of their movement. How would they react when you didn’t come back at the end of the week?
“Stay.” Qifrey’s voice came out so quiet you almost missed it.
You stared at him in shock. He wanted you to stay? After everything? After all the time that passed? After what you had become?
You turned to look at Olruggio, craving a confirmation from him too.
He stared back at you with furrowed brows.
“And when the brimmed hats come back for her?”
You flinch at the accusation in his voice, no matter how true it was.
“I don’t know. What choice do we have though?” Qifrey questioned, voice hushed as if trying for a semblance of privacy.
Privacy from you.
You felt something twist bitterly in your stomach. Suddenly, for the first time, you felt as if you were on the outside of your little trio.
They argued back and forth for a little longer before turning their attention back to you. You can’t help but flush under the heat of their stares.
Olruggio cleared his throat, “Fine. You stay. Just until we figure this–” He gestured between the three of you.
Qifrey pushed off the ground, dusting his clothes off before holding his hand out to Olruggio and then to you.
Just like old times. You see the realization hit him too. How natural it felt. As if no time had passed at all.
You stare at it before pushing off the ground yourself, leaving his hand suspended and empty.
“The atelier is just past this hill.” Olruggio mumbled.
“I know.” You respond before you could think.
“Right.” Olruggio offered back, awkwardly.
You cursed yourself as the two began the trek back.
How could this possibly work? You would be stupid to delude yourself into thinking things would be how they used to. The two of them were as close as ever– closer even. And you were a brimmed hat.
You gasp at the now familiar pull in your chest, yanking you hard into Qifrey’s back. He stumbled, huffing in surprise at the force of your speed. Olruggio turned, closing his hand around your waist and Qifrey’s chest in attempts to stop the momentum of your collision.
“Sorry– sorry” You spluttered, blushed red in embarrassment. “I’ll keep up.”
Olruggio sighed, turning away from you to keep walking, followed quickly by Qifrey.
They didn’t wait for you, but they didn’t have to.
You knew your way home.
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ALSO GUYS IM SORRY IK THE VOTE SAID ONESHOT/MORE INFO BUT I DIDN'T WANNA SPOIL AND IM TEMPTED TO MAKE A PART TWO... But hope yall like!
