#fae!patton | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

delimeful · 1 year

Text

carry them home (4)

warnings: magical oaths, mentions of past harm/captivity, mentions of murder, canon-typical remus behavior, lmk if i'm missing any

His declaration, predictably, sparked an entirely new argument.

Logan had wasted a few moments trying to call Janus’s bluff, and then, once it became clear that a Deal was absolutely not happening, he had been promptly dragged into the brewing argument.

Patton was vehemently against murder, and the fire sprite seemed to be tentatively backing him up. Logan was clearly weighing the benefits and the risks, his clear irritation with Janus seemingly warring with the fallout of going against Patton’s wishes. Vee appeared to be holding up the pro-murder side of the argument through sheer force of loathing.

Nobody had asked Remus for his opinion, presumably because the answer was extremely obvious. The kid was still leaning obnoxiously on Janus, watching the debate like a tennis match and nodding faux-wisely every once in a while.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to look the other way while your companions are distracted?” Janus asked dryly, tilting his head slightly to see that the hands on him were utterly caked in dirt.

“And miss the opportunity to see how many ghoul fungi I could grow out of your corpse? You ask too much of me,” Remus replied, tilting Janus back slightly so he could peer upside down at his face.

Startlingly, underneath the errant patches of lichen and mold, the changeling’s face bore a remarkable resemblance to the fire sprite.

Rather than comment on it, Janus rolled his eyes. “At least grow edible ones. Waste not, want not, as the conscientious say.”

Remus blinked, and the edges of his smile grew sharper with delight. “Any corpse mushrooms are edible if you're not a coward!”

Janus hummed in agreement. “And if you don’t mind becoming a corpse yourself.”

Those mismatched eyes vanished, and there was a nasally laugh, as though he’d thrown his head back to cackle. “You’re awfully relaxed for a guy we might pull all the guts out of!”

Part of that was the lingering effect of the trance, as well as the theory that if he planned an escape too actively, he might send the soothsayer into another foretelling episode.

(It was strange. Normally, involuntary visions of the future were triggered by impending danger, but Janus hadn’t had any harmful intentions while pondering escape.)

Of course, he wasn’t about to tell them that.

“There’s no point to mindlessly panicking,” Janus said instead. “Besides, as far as captors go, I’ve had much crueler ones.”

“Are you sure? We’re literally trying to decide if I get to mulch your body!” Remus informed him cheerily. His sharp-toothed little grin was practically designed to incite terror; Janus felt a small surge of fondness despite himself.

“Indeed, but a few of you don’t seem to want me dead, so my statement stands.”

“‘A few’ is generous,” Vee muttered, and then ducked away from Patton’s puppy dog eyes.

“He hasn’t done anything wrong!” Patton insisted. Generally speaking, that wasn’t remotely true, but Janus wasn’t about to correct him. “We shouldn’t hurt innocents!”

“Patton, we have to focus on keeping ourselves safe,” Logan tried, a sort of halfheartedness to the words, as though he already knew they wouldn’t sway the other fae.

“What’s an epic voyage without a few struggles?” the fire sprite countered. “This serpentine stranger may have some tricks up his sleeve, but a hero such as myself will valiantly protect you all from any threat he may pose!”

Vee scoffed. “Ro, you can’t even protect us from your twin’s bad singing.”

Ro gasped, placing an affronted hand to his chest, but before they could return to bickering, Logan mantled his wings in an unspoken demand for attention.

“If we aren’t killing him—,” he pointedly ignored the groan from Vee, “—we need an alternative method of ensuring he won’t hurt anyone.”

“Remove his arms!” Remus offered helpfully. Patton winced, and Logan sighed.

“Physical restraints seem to be effective enough for the moment. Our primary concern should be countering whatever method the human used to break free of my trance.”

“Or,” Janus interjected mildly, “we could skip the mind magic entirely, and negotiate instead.”

“Right, because you’re so trustworthy,” Vee snapped. He’d started aggressively pacing at some point during the discussion, his shoulders hunched inward.

The kid made an astute point, as inconvenient as it was.

“I’m not the one who chose to be dragged out here and interrogated,” Janus said, tone only slightly snippy. “However, I would be willing to swear a blood oath, if that is what’s required to ease your minds.”

All of the kids turned to him with wide-eyed surprise, though Vee snapped back into anger within moments.

“You don’t get to put any of us under oath—,” he started, edging in front of the others with bared teeth.

“I would be the sworn party,” Janus interrupted, heroically resisting the urge to sigh at the assumption.

Another beat of silence, though Remus and Ro seemed more bemused than anything.

“You’d rather subject yourself to a blood oath than a Deal?” Logan asked, his expression shifting to something more pensive as he studied Janus. “Have you… been under oath, before?”

Janus resisted a dry laugh. “I have,” he understated.

“But blood oaths hurt!” Patton chimed in, still looking far too worried on behalf of a relative stranger.

He was well aware. “The pain is only debilitating if I actively act against the agreed terms. As long as I am guaranteed my safe release by the end of the oath, I am willing to endure the side effects.”

Vee had gone quiet, watching him intently with those tar pit eyes.

“Alright,” Logan said, and settled into a neat, cross-legged sit in front of Janus. “Let’s negotiate.”

—

The agreement ended up being relatively straightforward, for how long-winded their discussion was.

Janus had agreed not to harm, or plan to cause harm to, any of the kids. He’d agreed to offer his honest knowledge on not only the movement of the Guard, but any relevant matters that could aid their journey. He’d agreed to follow the orders of whoever was currently assigned as his watcher, but only that designated person.

He’d insisted on that wording, having already picked up on the frequent bickering that went on between the kids. Being subject to one highly-opinionated child at a time was manageable. Being subject to magically compelled orders from all five of them was a recipe for disaster.

In exchange, he would not be killed, and he would part ways peacefully with the gaggle of infants after the oath period— a completed moon’s cycle— had passed.

He had spent so much time weaving loopholes into his requirements and playing innocent as Logan caught and unraveled the vast majority of them, that he hadn’t actually realized how heavily skewed against him the deal was until the oath was already being made.

That was what he got for indulging in bad habits, he supposed. A necessary evil, as he doubted the children would have trusted his word if he’d simply stated what he meant outright.

They had good instincts— it was always better to be watching for the trap— but in the end, they were still young. Rooting out Janus’s double-meaning machinations had successfully distracted them from including the conditions Janus wanted to avoid-- one that would force him to tell them anything about his own person, for example.

(Really, his highly suspect background aside, it was none of their business.)

He didn’t bother trying anything during the ritual swearing itself, both because Vee was watching him like a starved hawk, and because he wasn’t a fool that meddled with the processes of blood magic.

The heavy, dull ache of a blood oath settled onto Janus like an old jacket draped over his shoulders. He hadn’t missed it. Still, it was leagues better than making a Deal.

Five gazes watched him with varying levels of curiosity and wariness, as though waiting to see if he would spontaneously combust under the force of the oath.

Janus pushed down the stress that always accompanied arrangements like these, reminding himself that he was in the here and now. As far as captors he’d been magically bound to went, he’d endured far worse for far longer.

It would only be a month. They were children. This would likely be the easiest trip he’d ever made under blood oath.

“My first piece of advice,” he offered with a winsome smirk, “would be to move eastward. Odds are good that your encounter with the shopkeep will linger in her mind enough to mention it to the Guard, and I assume we’ll want to be well ahead of any scouting parties sent off the way I led you out of town.”

Vee crossed his arms, scowling. “We’re not going to find Sanctuary in the east. It’s in the mountains.”

“I’m not giving you information on how to get to Sanctuary, the place that isn’t real. I’m telling you how to not get caught by hunters,” Janus replied, saccharine-sweet.

Vee hissed petulantly.

“Ooh, ooh!” Remus waved his hand around wildly. “We could always go with my plan and immolate the Guard! I always wanted to go out in a blaze of gory glory.”

Patton chuckled nervously. “Immolate? I think I’d prefer we get moving immoearly to avoid the Guard instead!”

Remus booed. Ro also booed, but it seemed to be more about the pun than denial of mauling.

“Patton is correct. We don’t want to be caught unaware, particularly at nightfall,” Logan said, folding up his map after adding a few careful notations to it. “The human’s advice is sound— for the short-term, Vee. We can worry about Sanctuary once we’re out of immediate danger.”

With a decisive nod, he shifted back to his feet, and everyone dispersed as though on cue, hurrying to grab the supplies and belongings scattered about the clearing.

Having left all his belongings at home pre-abduction, Janus leaned back against a tree, grimacing as the bark pressed into his wrists. He really would have to convince them to retie his hands in front of him, he was going to be entirely useless like this.

Patton would be the easiest to convince, though he doubted that Logan would assign anyone but himself to watch Janus for the first few days—

“Vee! You’ve got the human. Keep an eye on him.”

Or maybe the siren trusted the others more than Janus had originally thought.

...Or cared less about Janus's survival than he'd originally assumed.

Vee returned Janus’s mocking smile from earlier, a silent promise that the changeling was going to enjoy making life harder for him.

So much for an easy journey.

#sanders sides fic #fae au #ts janus #ts remus #ts logan #ts roman #ts patton #ts virgil #my writing #carry them home #cth #writing

77 notes · View notes

where-are-the-spooky-gays-2 · 26 days

Note

*materializes into existence*

Hey there :D

I haven't sent an ask in... I don't remember. This is very long.

Calling this the QPP Fae AU.

(cw/tw: mention of death & dead parent, implied/referenced mistreatment & alienation, possible grief and denial, disappearance/missing person, not being believed, abandonment issues, fear of being alone, fear of vulnerability & trusting others, massive anxiety mention, hunters, mention of questioning ones humanity)

Spooky Gays in a qpp. One is a human, the other is some fae creature in disguise. Not the ones ya think.

Fae Virgil not wanting to deal with most humans can they're really mean and weird and why did one of them just down chemicals for a media challenge, huh??

Human Remus being his feral, chaotic self & Virgil genuinely believing he's a fellow fae. No human does that shit, you have no shame, sir, and don't give a shit about human rules, ain't no way you're a human. Remus is very much not like his peers at all, but he loves himself for it. The weirder he is, the better. He rather be alienated from those strict jerks.

It's not like he wants genuine connection, haha, shut up

Remus tells Virgil that actually he's human, but he thinks being mistaken for fae is the best thing ever. Virgil does not believe him for a while before just accepting his human is just a massive feral weirdo.

Virgil and Remus end up in a qpp/partnership. They slowly show trust and vulnerability to each other & find out things about one another. Like Remus' fear of being alone or his abandonment issues that may or may not being related to his missing twin brother who's being missing for almost six months by now. Or like Virgil's massive anxiety bc of unfair shit from other fae & meanie humans/human hunters. Also his fear of trusting others bc he's so used to be betrayed and hurt. They help each other out w/ their things.

And maybe h/c qpp turns into a mystery and thriller as they search for Remus' missing brother, Roman, who disappeared right after a trip into the woods and hasn't been seen since. Remus believes he's still alive somewhere but no one believes him. The townsfolk held a memorial/funeral that Remus refused to attend bc "he's still alive, what are you doing, we have to find him, idiots". Virgil is the only one who kinda believes him bc lots of ppl disappear into the woods and end up in the fae world, it happens a lot, so maybe he's there? So, Virgil uses his fae connections to help look for him & he and Remus look in Roman's fave spots in the woods. As this happens, Remus tells stories of when the twins were younger and they'd go camping w/ each other & how they'd play pretend a lot & when they played make believe Re chose to be a Duke & Ro chose to be a Prince & their mom Rhea would pretend with them sometimes and pretend to be this epic Dragon-Witch or some badass queen. And yus, Rhea is named after the actual mother of Romulus and Remus from the myth.

On this goes, and they find Roman. Not how you'd think. Maybe he'd be dead, maybe he'd be in the fae world. It's neither, kinda. They discover that Roman is, in fact, fae himself and is a changeling with a human form. Which raises so many questions of how the fuck that happened, does that mean Re and Roman aren't actually biological twins, but he's still his brother right, you're still my twin brother, how did he figure that out, he's more human than Remus is, how in the hell? Ya see, all those questions are put off bc Remus found his lost brother and hugs him so tight that he could break him if he wanted. The twins hug each other tightly and Virgil watches fondly in support from the background.

Turns out, Roman started questioning his humanity and discovered he may be fae, so he staged a 'mysterious disappearance' and ran off to figure himself out. He discovered himself, who he really is, what he really is, and he has missed Remus so so much. Remus is like "you asshole why did you tell me they said you were dead pls never leave again I missed you you bastard" and yep, more brother hugs for these two. Virgil and Roman meet, and Ro of course teases Re over having a partner in the most sibling way possible and everything turns out okay! The most likely to be fae isn't fae, and the other "normal" ppl are actually fae and Remus has everyone he cares about again (excluding his Mom cause she's dead but eh).

Anyway, Roman made friends with a fae Logan and Patton & made rivals with a witch/sorceress transfemme Janus. Remus is the only full-on, not magical, human in this entire group. Which is the funniest shit ever.

Oh yeah, and Rhea was a single Mom when she was alive. Best Mom Award, fr. Took the twins camping & indulged them in their interests (to a healthy degree). One of the few who ever supported Remus for being himself.

So, a qpp Dukexiety idea that leads into a mystery about fae, brothers, and transfemme witches. About family and most Dukexiety being dorks together as they go on this journey.

Hope ya enjoy!

Heyo! :}D That literally sounds S O fucking cool I L O V E L O V E L O V E E V E R Y T H I N G about this oml!!! There's S O much I already adore it's got Mystery, Fantasy aspects, The Spooky Gays adventuring and being absolute dorks and trusting to each other, Hilarious concepts (Forever cackling at both the fact that Ree is chaotic and unhinged as shit to the point where Vee doesn't even believe him when he says he's human at first and that the poor Emo Fae's QPP is literally the only non magical person in the group don't worry the C H A O S makes up for it Bud XD) The perfect amount of A N G S T and F L U F F ratio, Wholesome Creativitwins moments (Rhea is forever a Queen for raising such wonderful sons <3) Twists, and just ahhhh I desperately N E E D this <3!!!

18 notes · View notes

ijustwannadraw0716 · 16 days

Text

Moceit: Oh to simply...be.

The soft whistle of the wind washed against his skin, sweeping at the hair on his arms. The wind swarmed and engulfed him in a soft circle of cool air that forced a shudder down his spine. He leaned against the window sill, his hands curling into fists as the silk gloves creased at his tight movement. His eyes slipped shut, leaning further against the sill, a low sigh leaving his lips as he took in the cast of the far woods. He watched as leaves shifted, a small fleat of birds scurried from the branches and basked in the night sky, soaring through the breeze and angling towards the southard kingdom. He watched as the bird disappeared into a sea of grey clouds swarming the tips of the woods. A rumble ran through the earth, shaking the very core of his castle, and he melted into the noise, his head dazing in comfort as lightning flashed, cutting through the clouds.

"What I wound't give," He mumbles, leaning further out of the window, stretching an arm towards the angered clouds, the rumbling only growing. He caught a glance of a small dot escaping past the grey clouds, and his body went slack, hopelessness sinking down in his chest and tingling at the veins that pulsed violently underneath his gloves. Clenching at the windowsill, he slowly drew himself back in.

"Wouldn't give...what?"

Janus turns, his head tilting to the side ever so slightly. His gloved hands rose towards his head, slipping off his jewled crown and holding it in his hands. Patton frowned, the gesture forced his hand, moving in to lightly reach for the shimmering piece of entitlement, but hesitated as Janus moved out of reach, turning to face they dark sky, just in time for another crack of lightning. He takes a deep breath in and then exhales slowly.

"What I wouldn't give to simply...be, I suppose."

Patton conks his head to the side. "Be...?"

"Yes, I want to be. I want to be the clouds in which swarm a forest, I want to be the lightning that strikes before a storm can burst. I want to be the bird that can soar past it all, wings agust with nothing but Air." He set the crown aside and shut the window. "Wouldn't you?"

Patton slowly reached a hand out, taking his sleeve in between his fingers. Janus' eyes met his.

"I want to be the sun," He blurts, earning a slow blink. "It...shines. It casts over millions and provides comfort to all types of animals and crops. I want to be the sun."

Janus stares at the other and brings a hand up to cup his freckled cheek. "Oh fawn," He murmurs, leaning in. "You already are."

#sander sides au #sanders sides #moceit #janus sanders #patton sanders #fae au #royal au #soft #fluff

10 notes · View notes

ashs-random-writing · 1 year

Text

To Fly with Glass Wings

One-shot

Ao3

REBLOG>LIKE

Roman, a teenage fairy, was curious about the human that kept showing up in his forest. And, more importantly, he was curious about their devices. Perhaps going into their bag on an impulse wasn’t the best idea...

Deep in the forest, where most didn’t go, there was a magical town, filled with fairies. It was hidden from human eyes using magic, and it was usually bustling with activity

Roman walked around the small town. He was bored. He was so bored. He had done everything there was to do anywhere nearby a million times already.

He groaned, sitting on the very edge of the town border, careful not to go past the runes that protected them all from non-magical eyes. Perhaps just watching the wildlife would help?

He watched animals skitter along the tree roots and fidgeted with the cuffs of his sleeves. He heard heavier footfalls, and immediately became more alert. A human made themselves known less than a minute later, completely oblivious to the town right next to them

Roman just watched them.

Humans were... interesting, though he’d never admit as much to anyone else.

Humans were, above all else, dangerous

But this one, with their strange clothes and weird make-up and purple hair (he didn’t think humans could have purple hair; usually they only had boring colours like brown and blond) was just sitting on the forest floor, strange wires in their ears that almost sounded like they were producing a song

Roman wondered how humans worked without magic.

How did they cook, clean, keep predators away, travel- do basically anything- without magic? Like sure, they were phenomenally large, and that would probably help with predators and maybe travel, but the rest was confusing to him.

He flew upwards to sit on a branch, still within the town boundaries. He kicked his feet, and fluttered his wings, quietly watching the human scroll on one of their strange devices.

He could hear some of the music, and he danced slightly from his branch

The human came back every day for a week.

Roman concluded that they had used some sort of artificial colouring on their hair. It was starting to fade into a more brown-ish colour

He wanted to know more about the small device they always had. It seemed to show the human things, and let them communicate through it and let them read, and Roman figured that something like that would probably cure his permanent boredom.

He watched the human more and more. The human, he was gonna try figure out their name, seemed to never notice the town just to the side of them, which meant that the magic was working exactly as it was supposed to

Though, Roman was told by some elders that he needed to tell people when a human was nearby, even though the human literally just sat there and did nothing

Either way, he did alert them and then went to ‘keep watch’.

Roman had seen very few humans in his time; most didn’t come this far into the forest.

He watched as the human got ready to leave like they always did, and he couldn’t help the disappointment he felt. The strange giant was the most interesting part of his day, and now he’d have to be bored for the rest of the day

He watched them put their small device in the bag they usually carried, and he lamented his inability to try it out. Except, the human’s focus drifted elsewhere, towards where a twig snapped as a rabbit had hopped onto it, before they distractedly left.

They left without their bag.

Roman slowly left the safety of the town, making sure no one was watching him, before flying into the bag. He knew that he would need to leave before the human inevitably came back for their belongings, but this was likely the only chance he would get. Never let it be said that he didn’t evaluate risk, he just did the risky thing anyway

He tapped the screen on the device like he had seen the human do, and it lit up. Roman grinned, trying to make it go onto the other screen

All the human had to do was look at it and it would change, what was he doing wrong? Was it because he wasn’t human? Because that was discriminatory, thank you very much

He huffed, trying again and again, and, in his distracted state, he didn’t notice human footsteps until the bag was moving. He stumbled, falling over as the bag moved. He tried to move into a position where his wings would be safe, but the constant shifting of the bag and the bags contents were making it impossible

Horror slowly found it’s way into his feelings. The human was going to see him. The human was fascinating, but Roman was made of magic. The human would not be able to understand him, and what humans don’t understand, they get rid of

That had been drilled into his mind longer than he could talk.

Curse his own impulsivity and curiosity.

The human walked for a while, with Roman trying not to get hit by various objects, and feeling something hit into his back. Eventually, they must’ve arrived at their destination, because the bag was set down, and Roman tumbled out

The human stared at him, and Roman got up from sitting on the ground, and moved backwards, trying his hardest not to tremble.

He surveyed his surroundings. He was pretty sure he was in a human house.

A hand started reaching for him, and he conjured a clear magical dome around himself as protection. The human had retracted their hand, but didn’t stop staring

“... I’m Virgil. What’s your name?” Their voice was softer when talking to him than it was when they talked through their device

Roman said his name, wary of the obvious trap, and forgetting that humans couldn’t understand him.

The human (’Virgil’) stared blankly, and Roman kept as far away as possible from them.

“I’m sorry, I can’t understand you”

Roman knew that, he wasn’t dumb.

“Can you understand me?”

Roman nodded, looking at a window out of the corner of his eye. Virgil seemed to be looking at something behind him. Roman followed their gaze to his wings, which were looking different than usual. He felt the, now jagged, edges lightly and winced

Now that his panic had mostly subsided, he could feel pain. He mustn’t have noticed, because he was too busy worrying about what Virgil was gonna do to him, but it turned out Virgil wouldn’t even need to do anything to keep him there.

His wings would heal, but it would take months at best, years at worst. He couldn’t help the tears that were welling up in his eyes, and he couldn’t stop them from falling.

Great, he looked even more weak in front of a potentially bad human.

Roman messily wiped his eyes, and glared at the giant. Virgil put their hands up

“Hey, I didn’t do that to your wings! I haven’t even touched you!”

Roman sat down, bringing his knees to his chest, and half-heartedly observing the human

Virgil sighed

“Okay, I’m sorry for accidentally kidnapping you, but I didn’t know you were in my bag, and I’m sorry that you broke your wings in the process. I would have been more careful if I knew you were there. But, you can stay here with me until your wings heal, and I’ll help you with anything you need, yeah?”

‘Can’. Like Roman would want to stay in a human house for however long. Roman glared again.

Virgil looked a little lost at his reaction

“I know it probably won’t make up for breaking your wings, but I am really sorry”

Roman turned away, and noticed that his shield had fallen at some point whilst he was distracted. He got up and looked around at the house. He knew Virgil was watching him, but he understood the curiosity aspect.

That was what had gotten him into this whole predicament after all. He was curious about everything in this house as well. He wanted to explore

-----

Virgil was having a major freak out.

He had found a nice clearing in the woods, where he could just escape reality and be on his own. There was no one watching him, no one judging and no one to tell him what to do.

So of course, it only took a week for things to go to shit. He had left his bag in the clearing, and somehow a fairy had managed to find their way into it. He hadn’t even known that fairies existed previously

He didn’t know if they had willingly got in, or if they had fallen in or something, but from the way they seemed terrified of him when they fell out, the second one was more likely

Their skin was a pale reddish-pink, with large, wide eyes and red hair. They had (comparatively) large wings that almost looked like they were made of glass.

They seemed to put up some kind of forcefield to protect themselves from him, and he tried to diffuse the tension by introducing himself. The fairy seemed to introduce themselves as well, though whatever language they spoke sounded more like a melody than it did words

He noticed something was wrong with their wings after a few seconds of staring; they were an odd shape, almost reminding him of a broken window.

They followed his gaze, and stared at their own wings, and reaching a hand out to touch the edges, all but cementing in his mind that they were broken. They turned to glare at him, with glowing eyes and tears running down their cheeks

Virgil had a feeling they blamed him for the damage caused, and honestly, he didn’t blame them for thinking that. But he didn’t mean to.

They sat down, crying for a while, before doing something that he figured was probably a way to distract themselves

They started looking around, seemingly inspecting things. Virgil figured they probably didn’t have a lot of the things he had. He had no doubt they had substitutes that worked just as well, or probably better, considering they had magic and based on the exceptionally high quality of their clothes, they obviously had some sort of tools

He let them explore the countertop for a while, discreetly videoing them. He wouldn’t show the video to anyone without their permission, of course, but... just having the videos wouldn’t hurt.

They refused to go near him. They seemed to be feigning stubbornness, but Virgil could see the way they trembled when he spoke, or moved too fast or got too close. He could tell they were scared. They were scared of getting hurt again.

Virgil didn’t know how to feel about that. He understood the fear, but he would never hurt them on purpose.

They wouldn’t let him take them somewhere else to sleep, since he’d have to carry them, and just sat down when he asked, stubbornly glaring at him.

Virgil just sighed and brought them a blanket. They were still there in the morning, wrapped up in the almost comically large blanket, and still asleep. Virgil wondered what they would eat, and simply waited for them to awake (maybe snapping a few pictures here and there)

They eventually woke up, though visibly deflated when they saw him. He offered to get them some food, and they (after a while of what seemed like mental debating) nodded. They didn’t let him take the blanket away.

Virgil figured he couldn’t let anyone else know about the little guy, seeing as they seemed scared of people, and he wondered what he was going to tell his friends as for why they suddenly couldn’t come over anymore

He felt so wrong, next to the fairy. Virgil was usually short, and now... now, he was tall enough to accidentally kill someone. He could trip and crush them. And they knew it.

The next few days were tense, but the fairy had started letting him a bit closer, though they wouldn’t stop glaring. He had dubbed them Little Red, as a sort of nickname until they could communicate their actual name.

Little Red didn’t mind the nickname too much, he didn’t think so, anyway. They had been interested in his phone when they saw it, and Virgil had shown them different apps, pretending not to notice their tense, trembling posture when he moved too suddenly.

They played games on his phone every day, and they had started letting Virgil help them get to other places in the house than the countertop. They were still undoubtedly somewhat scared, and they still very obviously held a grudge of some kind against him, but they were getting somewhere.

They were very vocal, even though Virgil couldn’t understand them.

Virgil was careful every time he carried them into the living room or into the blanket nest they’d claimed as their own. He didn’t want to cause another accident at their expense

They were curious about a lot of things, he noticed.

It made him a little calmer, to know that Little Red seemed just as clueless about humans, as he was about fairies.

He noticed what they liked and disliked in terms of movies and tv shows.

They didn’t seem to like horror movies, but they were fine with things like The Addams Family. They liked animated films quite a bit, particularly disney, and would watch with rapt attention. Virgil didn’t usually watch animated movies, but he was willing if it kept Little Red a little happier

He waited for a while for them to wake up as he made food. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to have a very big sweet tooth.

Their blanket nest was in a corner of the spare bedroom, and Little Red had decided to claim the entire room as their own, despite being far too small to need all of that space. Not to mention only being able to use part of it with their broken wings. Either way, they didn’t need an entire room, but Virgil certainly wasn’t using it, and he kind of owed it to them, after kidnapping them and breaking their wings.

Virgil’s only problem with them claiming the room, was that now he’d have no where to hang out with his friends

Virgil brought them breakfast and carefully avoided getting too close. They seemed to notice his phone in his other hand and stared at it. Virgil chuckled

“Sorry, not right now, Little Red, I have to go somewhere, maybe when I get back”

Little Red pouted at him, but ate their food. Virgil left them alone, leaving the door open in case they wanted to traverse the house, though he wasn’t too comfortable with that idea.

He didn’t want to think about how easy it would be to crush them underfoot. They knew where to and not to go, so there wasn’t that much risk, but any risk was too much, in Virgil’s eyes

Their wings hadn’t made any progress, as far as he could see, but then again, it had only been a few days.

He got ready to go out and meet his friends

Remus and Janus were already at the movie theatre before him, annoyingly.

“How’d we get here before you? You’ve never relaxed on the idea that you might be late, and yet, here you are, a whole-” Remus checked his watch gleefully “- two minutes late!”

The movie lasted a while, and Virgil almost forgot the fact that he had an injured fairy to take care of back home. He hung with his friends, talking about everything and nothing, carefully avoiding any mention of what he had been doing the last few days

He wondered what Little Red was doing.

-----

Roman wanted to go home.

Virgil wasn’t bad, per se, but he didn’t like that he needed to be carried places because everything was too big and his wings were broken. And, he missed his friends.

He looked around at the room he was in. It was too big, it was too expansive. He looked around at the blankets he had nested in. They were too thick.

He finally got to try out the strange device, however, and he had found so many things to do. The ‘phone’ had games and it played ‘videos’ and ‘movies’

The movies that Virgil had showed him were interesting, but he only liked some of them. The ones that looked not-real, they were really cool, despite their inaccurate depiction of fairies and magic in general.

They did get one key aspect of fairy culture correct, though; the blessings and gifts bestowed on children. Roman was gifted with an adventurous spirit and, like with most gifts, it came with an unfortunate downside

His sense of fear was rather dulled, whereas his impulsivity skyrocketed when there was some sort adventure to be found. Which explained why he was sat on the floor of a human house with broken wings.

His friends’ gifts were also a bit of a mixed bag.

His friend Patton for example! He was gifted with a kind and pure spirit. This also meant that he trusted far too easily and got himself hurt by people with not-so-kind intentions in the past.

His friend Logan was gifted with a logical mind. It made him great at a lot of things, including stopping Roman from getting killed due to impulsivities. But it made it harder for him to understand his own feelings, and harder to make friends when viewing it through a logical lens

Great, now Roman missed his friends even more. He sighed, looking out of the window. He knew this situation was his fault, but, he really wished it wasn’t. He wished he could completely blame it on someone else, but, Virgil hadn’t done anything really wrong other than not letting him go. Roman was the one who flew into their bag on impulse

He groaned, pushing his head into his hands, and trying not to cry. Virgil was out of the house at that moment in time, and Roman knew he should be trying to escape

But a voice in his head reminded him that he had no way home when he didn’t know which way home was. Besides, he’d probably just get found by a different human, he noted bitterly

When Virgil eventually returned, what had to be hours later, Roman had not gotten any better at dealing with boredom. It would’ve been better if he had someone to talk to

Except, no. It wouldn’t. His sense of fear might’ve been dulled enough that he felt pretty much none after only a few days, but others didn’t have that. They’d still be scared

Roman scowled at the blanket that made up half of the nest. He wanted his bed, he wanted his house, he wanted his blanket.

There was a knock on his door. His stupidly oversized door that he couldn’t even open himself. He supposed that was probably why it was almost always left ajar.

Roman sighed

“Come in” He shouted. The door opened, scraping against the carpet with a uncomfortable sound

Virgil was bringing him food, he realised. He almost didn’t want to eat. He hadn’t been outside in days. He hadn’t seen his friends in days. He hadn’t properly held a conversation in days. He just wanted to go home...

He didn’t care how boring it was, at least he had friends back there

Virgil placed the food down in front of him, seemingly watching him. Roman gave a half-hearted glare and started eating. Human food wasn’t as nice as the food back home, nor was it very flavourful.

He noticed that Virgil was staying in Roman’s room more than they usually did. Roman looked at them quizzically, wondering why they weren’t in their own, strangely decorated, room.

He verbalised his thought, and Virgil looked at him

“Hm? Oh, sorry.. Uh, I was gonna watch a movie in the living room, do you wanna come?”

They always guessed what he was trying to say.

Virgil was awkward most of the time. Perhaps that’s why they kept going into the woods for hours at a time every day, instead of partaking in social activities with other humans.

Roman knew that Virgil did have friends, having seen pictures of them, but also...

Actually, no he wasn’t going to finish that train of thought, it was rude. It didn’t matter how much he personally thought the human was strange, anyone could have friends

Roman wordlessly nodded to the offer and Virgil placed their hand on the ground next to him. Roman walked onto it, sitting on the palm, and drawing his knees up to his chest

He hated being carried. He hated feeling helpless. He was supposed to be an adventurer, he was supposed to be strong. Virgil placed him on the arm of the couch and started looking through movies on their tv

Roman wondered how the tv worked. Logan would probably be able to figure it out.

He watched the tv with full attention as it showed him a story of a princess who fell in love with a thief, and it was full of genies and tigers and magic.

It was horribly inaccurate, but with how separated human and magical societies were, it was almost a miracle that they got any of it right. He yawned, but he didn’t want to leave to sleep before the movie ended. He had to see how it would end

He carried on watching, though he could feel himself begin to lose focus as he yawned again

“Are you sure you don’t want me to turn this off for now, and you can watch it tomorrow?”

Roman shook his head, still watching the screen intently. Virgil sounded like they were supressing a laugh next to him, but Roman didn’t care. He could feel his eyes drooping, and he laid on his stomach, watching the screen still

He didn’t exactly know when he fell asleep, but Virgil wasn’t in the room anymore when he woke up. Roman groggily stood up, to peer out of the window

…Sunrise. Huh. Usually if he woke up this early, he’d go to sit somewhere high up to watch the sunrise and see the way the hills and trees would be dusted pinks, purples, oranges and reds.

What if his wings never healed? Would he be stuck with Virgil forever and not ever be able to sit on a hill or tree branch and watch the sunset, or ever fly around? Would he be cursed to forever live a life of pain and longing?

This was the part that Logan would usually tell him he was being overdramatic. But Logan wasn’t here, and Roman wasn’t even sure if he was being overdramatic anymore

He really didn’t know if he’d ever be able to go home

Virgil had told him that he could go when his wings were healed, but when would that be?

Roman just sat on the arm of the couch and thought about his friends until Virgil came into the living room, about an hour later. They looked exactly how he would expect them to look after just waking up

“Mornin’, Little Red,” They yawned “Sorry I didn’t take you to your room last night, it felt rude to pick you up when you were sleeping”

Roman considered the apology for a few moments, before giving them a thumbs up. He wouldn’t want to be picked up when he was sleeping, honestly. He was most vulnerable when he was asleep, especially since he was a deep sleeper

They watched the end of the movie together.

-----

Virgil felt bad for Little Red. He had seen them staring out of windows, and he knew they probably wanted to go home.

But...

He was so worried that they’d get hurt even more, or found by someone not as kind as him, or- or something else even worse, that he couldn’t let them go. Not until they could fly at least

He could at least be more certain of their survival chances if they could fly out of reach of predators.

He watched them with almost as much attention as they watched Aladdin. They seemed completely enamoured by the film’s story, reacting quite dramatically with every twist and turn of it.

Virgil had to admit, their dramatic tendencies reminded him of Remus, although Remus openly hated wearing red unless it was fake (or sometimes real) blood

Little Red kept yawning, still watching the movie, but very obviously starting to drift off

“Are you sure you don’t want me to turn this off for now, and you can watch it tomorrow?” He asked, trying to hide the amusement in his voice

They immediately shook their head, eyes still locked firmly on the screen. Virgil stifled a laugh, watching as they slowly succumbed to sleep.

He turned the tv off, and turned towards them.

How was he gonna get them to their room? He carefully reached a hand out, but retracted it. He would probably lose any type of trust they had in him if he grabbed them whilst they were sleeping

Besides, they looked so adorably peaceful, in a way that he hadn’t seen them be very often. They had fallen asleep in front of him before, but this was the first time they seemed completely relaxed.

He stared at them a few moments, before deciding to leave them be until morning

He left them for a while, letting them sleep, and went to his own bedroom

He laid in bed with his thoughts, as he stared up at his ceiling.

Why did he feel so guilty about this? He was protecting them!

They might’ve seemed upset, but it was better than letting them get eaten by a bird or something. As far as he knew, they had fallen into his bag. If they were clumsy enough to fall into his bag, then he didn’t trust their survival skills without their wings

After about a month and a half, he didn’t feel as guilty. He knew he was protecting them.

Their wings had started to slowly heal, the edges slightly bigger and smoother than the jagged edges they were when they had first tumbled out of his bag.

And that was because Virgil was keeping them safe. Lord knows they weren’t the best at keeping themself safe, Virgil thought, remembering the time he found them trying to fight a house spider.

He had started keeping a more careful watch over them after that, deciding not to let them out of their room without his supervision. Who knew what danger they would idiotically get themselves into without him there? Besides, they had more than enough space in there, even with the door closed

He knew that they didn’t see it that way, but Virgil was fine with playing the villain if it meant keeping Little Red safer.

They weren’t as vocal anymore, and Virgil missed the melodic tones of their voice. They ignored him a lot. They still watched movies, but they declined more often than not.

It was fine. He was fine with that. They’d thank him eventually, he told himself. They always watched his every move when he was nearby, as if they were scared he’d hurt them. But he wouldn’t. He would never.

There was a camera in their room now, so he could help them if they got hurt without him there.

He knocked on their door, though didn’t wait on a response before opening it and closing it just as fast. They had tried to run out of their room quite a few times before, hiding from him. And as much as it was amusing the first few times, it had become annoying quickly. Besides, it was dangerous for them

They stared up at him with those wide eyes, and he crouched down and gave them their food. Little Red didn’t speak, and just grabbed a few pieces of food and started eating.

Virgil stayed crouched there for a moment. What could help them see he wasn’t a bad guy?

“I’m going to go watch a movie in the living room, if you wanna come,” He asked, before adding “Aladdin, your favourite”

They thought for only a moment before shaking their head

Virgil bit back his annoyance at the refusal, and just sighed. Why were they being so difficult recently?

He left, making sure to close the door behind him. He sighed, they needed to see that he was helping. They were sure to get hurt if he let them go, what was he going to do? Let them walk straight to their death whilst doing nothing to help?

He groaned, giving the door a glare.

-----

Roman wasn’t sure what had changed. Virgil had become more paranoid, more protective. Roman was well and truly trapped now.

They wouldn’t let him out of his room now, and Roman supposed it was only a matter of time before he was in a cage for maximum security. He looked at the door, now closed and wondered when it would next open. He suppressed a sob and curled up on the blanket

Nothing he could do would ever sway Virgil's protectiveness. They wouldn’t let him out of his room, or out of their sight. Roman glared at the camera in his room. He hadn’t even known what a camera was, until Virgil. Now the knowledge of what it was just hurt him even more

He would never get a moments privacy.

The lack of anything to do was genuinely hurting him, a lot worse than back home. At least then, he could climb to the top of the tree tops and dive down, only catching himself at the last moment. The lack of adventure was hurting him worse than his wings were

Roman curled up more. He had the spirit of adventure, he needed to be doing something mildly dangerous! He wasn’t even allowed to sit on the couch when they watched a movie anymore. Virgil would just hold him the entire time, so they’d ‘know for sure where he was’.

And they wondered why he didn’t like them anymore. Sometimes they’d come into his room whilst he was sleeping, and he’d wake up in their hands. He missed when they were concerned with being rude. Now they told him how simply adorable he was

He glared at the camera again, knowing that the lens probably couldn’t get an accurate reading on his face. Roman had thought about doing some magic, to destroy the camera, but he could already picture the condescending ‘this is for your own good’ disappointed stare, and stopped.

Nothing was going right for him.

He sighed, letting the tears fall. There was a knock on his door, but he didn’t get a chance to respond before the door was opened. He supposed that was because of his escape attempts. If you could call them that, anyway

All he did was run out of his room and try to hide. Anywhere was better than being trapped in his room forever. His attempts annoyed the human. They would sigh, telling him that the ‘game’ would have to stop. But it wasn’t a game.

None of this was a game. This was Roman’s real life, this was his nightmare, this was all too serious.

Roman wondered what they wanted now. They had already given him his food, he’d already declined to watch a movie, what could they possibly want? He weakly glared at them, as they crouched down

“Hey, Little Red. I know you already said no to watching a movie, but there’s a movie you haven’t seen, that I think you’ll like”

Roman ignored that they were using the same tone people would to entice a child, or dog, to do something and thought on the offer.

There was no point disagreeing. He nodded his head.

Virgil didn’t set their hand down anymore and let him climb on. Now, they just grabbed him. He didn’t like it. He wondered what the movie was.

They took him to the living room, where the movie was already set up. Tangled, it was called.

Roman attempted to get slightly more comfortable in their grip, but the hand tightened around him just enough that he wouldn’t dare

The movie was interesting he supposed, but he kept being distracted, as Virgil kept fidgeting with him during the movie. He tried to stop them, but they didn’t notice. He didn’t even know if they realised they were fidgeting

They kept gently grabbing his arms, moving them around slightly, rolling his torso between two hands, not enough that he couldn’t see the screen, but enough that it was completely distracting. When scenes got intense, the fidgeting increased.

He could barely concentrate when the ending was happening. He quietly grumbled about Virgil’s rude behaviour, and attempted to watch the screen. He was lucky that the fidgeting didn’t hurt.

The only thing he could properly remember about the movie was that Mother Gothel was trapping Rapunzel under the guise of keeping her safe, but it was actually a ploy to use her magic for herself.

Roman looked up at Virgil’s face from where he was in their hands. He wondered where he had heard that story before. Oh wait.

He (very stupidly, may the narrator add) tapped the giant hand to get Virgil’s attention, before pointing at the picture of Mother Gothel on the title screen, and back to Virgil with a stubborn glare on his face.

They looked down at him for a few moments in which Roman had just enough time to evaluate the idiotic decision before they actually reacted

His heart stopped for a single beat as they shifted their grip on him with an annoyed expression on their face

“I am keeping you safe. You should be grateful, not comparing me to fictional villains” They grumbled.

Roman, still feeling mutinous apparently, tried to move in the grip, and muttered his counter argument

“Well, maybe if you weren’t acting so villainous..”

They didn’t justify him with a response. Though, whether it was due to the language barrier, or their annoyance, was hard to say.

Roman did notice that their grip was now uncomfortably tight, almost bruising. So much for safety, he thought, before the grip tightened even more

He let out a pained gasp, as the pressure increased on his wings for a few seconds. He could hear them breaking even more. The grip loosened, and Roman watched a few shards of wing fall onto the floor

He could hear frantic apologies from Virgil, but it was soon drowned out by the blood rushing in his ears. He stared at the shards, until Virgil touched his shoulder, dragging him out of his thoughts.

Roman flinched back, shaking, almost instinctively raising his forcefield, like he hadn’t since that first day. It hurt, and- and he was still shaking, and Virgil was still there, still holding him

His forcefield had pushed away their fingers a bit, but he was still in their hand. He ran his hands through his hair. He was crying, he realised hysterically.

He almost started laughing, no matter how much he knew this wasn’t a joke. You know, for how much danger he was in, it still wasn’t an adventure. It was just a bad situation. A really fucking bad situation, that was entirely his fault, and the reason he’d probably never see his friends again

He tried to steady his breathing for a simple moment, but nothing was helping.

Virgil was still talking, still too big. Of course they were, humans couldn’t shrink (could they?)

Eventually, though Roman didn’t realise it as it was happening, he was left back in his room, alone. He never thought that he’d be so relieved to be trapped again, but it was better than being in Virgil’s hands.

Roman gingerly touched his wings, wincing.

What were his friends doing, he wondered. Why couldn’t he go see them? Why did Virgil get to decide what Roman could and couldn’t do? Why did Roman have to be so stupid as to go into their bag? Why did any of this stupid situation have to happen?

He sobbed, pulling his knees up to his chest. Everything hurt, and- and he was still trapped and nothing he could do would ever be able to fix it.

-----

Logan had been searching for his friend for almost two months. Roman didn’t seem to be anywhere.

Logan knew that there was somewhere he could be, though he sincerely hoped not. It was the logical conclusion, however, to assume that Roman was taken by the human that he had been watching. The only reason they hadn’t already assumed so was that they wanted to make sure that Roman hadn’t just gotten lost before rushing into potential danger

The human never came back after Roman disappeared, after all. Perhaps they only came to steal a fairy and leave. Perhaps their peaceful demeanour had been a ploy to get trusted. Or perhaps Roman had done something impulsive and gotten himself captured.

No matter why the human had him, it was a very unideal situation. Especially given the nature of Roman’s wings. As much as a human could harm any type of fairy, very easily, they could harm fairies with crystal wings much, much easier.

Crystal fairies’ wings were fragile, thin, and almost glass-like. Easy to break, easy to make the fairy in question much more trapped.

It was a miracle that Roman’s wings had never been broken before, with the reckless stunts he pulled. Not that Logan could completely blame him, of course, no more than he could blame Patton for being too trusting. But it was incredibly unlucky for Roman’s gift to directly contrast his wing type

Logan was a stone fairy, so his wings were, as the name suggested, stone. The stone spread across his entire body the more he aged. At the moment, he was stone across his entire back, and down to his forearms. It was hard to fly with stone wings, so he could only keep low, and he could only really glide. It was hard to walk with the heavy weight on his back, so he, like the majority of stone fairies, used a walking stick so he would be able to balance. His own walking stick doubled as a staff to do complicated spells

There were accommodations for fairies who couldn’t fly well, but not as many as there should have been. With most buildings strung up in trees, only a few had ladders, and even less had ladders that were easy to climb with stone wings; a problem he had complained about many a time.

Roman was helping him figure out a plan of better accessibility to present to the council, before he disappeared. Roman was helping with the design and aesthetics, and the visual appeal, and Logan was helping with the accessibility, having experienced the issues first-hand, and having an idea of it should work logically.

Roman was the youngest of their little trio, about one and a half years younger than Patton, and two years younger than Logan. He was kind, he wanted everyone to be safe, he wanted to protect people, he had wanted to be a knight when he was a little older. Roman wanted everyone to be happy.

And now, for the past few months, there had been no Roman. Logan and Patton were very worried. Logan tried to figure out how to find the human that he was certain had his friend, but was coming up short. There were hundreds of human homes outside of the woods, and not to mention, humans had those devices. Logan believed they were called cars? With a car, they could go pretty much anywhere. Roman could be anywhere

He sighed, looking for a spell that could help track his friend. Patton was looking as well, and they weren’t having very much luck.

Patton was a butterfly fairy, and so was able to fly a lot easier than Roman and Logan, not having to worry about fragility, or weight. Though he was eager to help wherever he could.

Now, that eager, cheerful face with creased with worry, and tear streaks. Logan knew that Roman’s unfortunate disappearance was the cause. Logan was never the best at comforting people, usually Roman would help him.

Logan gently patted Patton’s back, and weakly tried to comfort

“There, there. We’ll find him,”

His words were clunky, he wasn’t used to comforting people, and that’s not to mention the lie he told. He had no idea if they would find him or not, and statistically, it was improbable, given how many human houses there were in the area alone. Logan attempted to remember how the particular human looked, from the few glimpses he had gotten

Purple hair, he could remember, but that wasn’t definite. Besides, there had been an increase in numbers of humans with coloured hair in recent years. Dark clothes, purple patches on them. That might have been a bigger lead. Not many humans wore patched clothing. What else could he remember?

They were pale, he remembered, and they had strange makeup under their eyes. He was pretty sure that was unusual for humans.

And now, if he could simply find a way to figure out where this human lived, he could be reunited with his his friend. Roman would’ve figured an out-of-the-box, crazy idea that would’ve worked perfectly by now.

Logan couldn’t do that.

He sighed, closing the book he had been reading for hours, and resting his head on the library table. There was nothing that could help. They could potentially track Roman, if they had an object that belonged to Roman and Roman been near recently.

And there lied the problem. They had only found the spell after a month and a half of the disappearance. He hadn’t been near anything recently enough.

He groaned, prompting Patton to gently pat his back. Logan knew that, logically, the chances of finding Roman were low, but he forced those thoughts out of his mind. He would find his friend, dead or alive (though preferably alive), whether or not it took months or years.

He carried on reading.

This routine carried on for weeks more, until they finally figured out a way of tracking. Logan looked at the glowing blue trail on the ground, and started walking, his staff in one hand, Patton’s hand in the other. Like Logan had hypothesised, it led into the human town.

Only he could see the trail, so that wouldn’t raise suspicion, however, two fairies walking into human territory probably would raise a fair bit of suspicion.

He waved his staff and casted the invisibility spell, before starting to walk. Patton let him lead him. The walk was slow, and they had to avoid several humans, so as to not get hurt. But, after several hours, they had found the human house where their friend was being kept

Logan looked at the window that the trail led up to. He couldn’t get up there, but Patton could.

“He’s in there, but so’s the human,” Patton whispered down. Logan was glad that they both still were invisible

Patton reported back to him, when the human finally left. Patton looked upset at whatever he could see, and Logan was glad that he couldn’t see the state that Roman was in.

Patton used a quick unlocking charm to help with the opening of the window. Logan used a little magic from his staff to make it lighter, and he watched Patton go in to the room

He couldn’t hear most of the conversation

-----

Roman had been right. Everything got worse. With his newly re-broken wings, he absolutely refused to let Virgil touch him, at all.

Virgil didn’t argue as much as Roman thought they would. He could see the guilt on their face when they looked at his wings, but he didn’t feel any sympathy for them.

The first time, it truly had been an accident, but this time, they had been squeezing him, as a warning. That wasn’t as much of an accident as they claimed it was. He made sure not to speak anymore, not wanting them to hurt him again. He still had the bruises from where they squeezed him.

He was starting to get ill, he thought. He was starting to grow ill from captivity, and Virgil didn’t even notice. His wings were still in the early stages of healing, and he had no chance of getting home on his own. His magic was weakening as he sat here, as he stayed in the corner, never moving

Everything that happened after the second breaking was a blur, he thought. All it was was a blur of scaredness, anger, and exhaustion. He hadn’t stood up in two days. All he did was sit down, watch the wall, and occasionally he would quietly sing to himself, though he hadn’t done that recently.

Virgil barely bothered talking to him anymore. He could hear their hesitation when they knocked on his door. They didn’t check the camera as much anymore. It was like they were trying to make it up to him. It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough, until they let him go. And even then, it had taken months.

He was in pain every time he moved, because of them. He was away from his friends, because of them. He was unable to adventure, because of them. He was exactly in the wrong place, because of them.

They brought him some food in, and they told him that they’d be leaving the house for a while. Visiting friends, Roman thought bitterly.

Once the human had left, Roman heard the noise of a window opening, and he turned towards it in alarm. No one..?

An invisibility spell, he realised, feeling the distinct presence of Logan’s magic. Finally, he thought, seeing Patton fade into view, as he was approaching. Roman placed a hand on the wall and tried to lift himself up, but failed, falling back onto his knees. He looked up at Patton, who smiled down at him

“Hi, Pat,” He said, though his voice was raspy and unused “Did you miss me?”

Patton nodded with tears in his eyes, pulling Roman in for a hug. Roman accepted immediately, so glad to finally have someone to talk to, so glad to finally be going home, so glad that his friends were here

“What happened to your wings?” Patton asked quietly, and Roman looked away

“I... I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled, trying not to think about it. He shuddered, remembering how Virgil’s hand had slowly tightened until he was bruised and broken. He closed his eyes, trying to shake the phantom feeling

Patton wiped away a tear that Roman didn’t realise had fallen

“That’s okay, I’m gonna help you up to your feet, and I’m gonna carry you up to the window, is that okay, kiddo?”

Roman nodded

He was finally, finally going home. He was finally getting away from the human. He found himself back on solid ground, the grass under his feet. He stumbled slightly, but Patton steadied him. Logan was out there, looking almost the same as when Roman went missing. The only noticeable difference was that Logan’s wings had become almost overcome with moss, the way they did when he was stressed.

Logan pulled him in for a hug, and Roman complied. The hug was clumsy, Logan didn’t usually hug people. Roman cherished this moment more than any of his swords or daggers

It took a while, but soon he was home. His bed was how he left it, people welcomed him back, though the people at the medbay were not all pleased at the state he was in.

Neither was he, honestly.

It took a year and a half for his wings to completely heal. It took a lot longer for the emotional scars to heal

Sometimes, he did wonder about Virgil, though he tried everything not to.

And Virgil wondered about him. Wondered if he was still living. The human did, in fact, severely regret his actions, though knew better to try seek out the terrified fairy. He would look at the woods sometimes, wonder why they ever ended up in his bag to begin with

Life carried on, despite the events of this story.

Taglist: @a-chilly-pepper

22 notes · View notes

tss-grimmverse · 8 months

Text

Chapter 8: Gladiolus

Roman learns some disturbing things about his father, and he and Virgil finally talk.

Want to start at the beginning? Here’s the AO3 link and the Wattpad link.

An excerpt from Chapter 8:

They’d nearly reached the top of the staircase. “Was he awful, Red?” Roman asked quietly. “Just tell me; I can take it. I already know he abandoned my bio mom and Smile, and nothing I’ve heard so far has improved that image.” “Johnny was…difficult,” Red allowed after a moment. “How do you mean?” Red sighed. “I won’t sugarcoat it. We all had our inner demons to fight, but his were more vicious than most. His faery master fed on pain. I still believe the bastard used Johnny’s powers to control their other changelings, which broke him on a fundamental level. He was fickle, moody, prone to violent outbursts, hated any kind of commitment, and he enjoyed…” Roman swallowed hard. “Enjoyed what?” Red grimaced at his expression. “The thing you need to understand about Johnny’s history with this house is how deeply he hated faeries.”

The whole chapter can be found over on AO3 or Wattpad. The boys aren't completely hopeless at talking! And Roman has only learned the tip of the iceberg...

12 notes · View notes

theworldofmrplant · 1 year

Text

have they domesticated me?

Pairing: Analogical & Child! Patton

Summary: Fae!Virgil&Logan adopt a 6-year-old Human!Patton not realizing it wouldn't be the easiest.

Triggers: child neglect/abuse + nightmares (not caued by virgil or logan this is not unsympathetic sides)

Word Count: 923

I originally posted this on ao3 under the username steampunkgoggles ^_^

Being lonely was never a problem for Patton, he’d been lonely his whole life, his parents had given up on raising him years ago, only doing the basics to avoid getting arrested, and due to that, he’d never learned the social skills he needed to make friends. So yeah sure Patton didn’t have friends or parents who wanted him but at least he had his stuffed animals and the animals in the woods.

—

It had been a mistake to walk into the woods because now he was lost, cold, and scared. Trembling Patton wrapped his cardigan around himself tighter, he was trying his hardest not to cry, he was a big boy! Big boys don’t cry over things that were their fault in the first place. Sniffling Patton sat down, he wasn’t a big boy, he was a lonely sad boy whose own parents didn’t want him. Laying down Patton curdled up under a tree and cried himself to sleep.

—

“He’s waking up”

“Oh shit”

Rubbing his eyes Patton sat up yawning

“Who’s there?” he asked looking around

“Ah good you’re awake”, the blue creature said to him

“W-what are you”, Patton trembled

“We’re fae” the purple one piped in standing protectively next to the blue one as if little 6-year-old Patton could do anything to the nearly 6-foot fae.

“Oh! My grammy told me about you” Patton mumbled to himself trying to remember the rules of the fae she also told him

“Yes well, what are you doing under this tree?” The blue one said

“Uhm Parents don’ want me anymore”, he sniffled eyes filling with tears.

The fae gave each other a look but the purple one was the first to speak up.

“Why don’t you stay with us?”

Perking up Patton gasps

“Really?”

Both of the faes nodded.

Jumping up Patton goes to hug the faes

“I appreciate it”

—

The trek back home was long, but somehow having Patton along made it much faster, which was strange considering the fae were much faster than he was usually.

“So what do I call you guys?” Patton smiled up at the two fae

“You can call me anxiety I guess” The purple one muttered

“I am referred to as Logic” The blue one nodded

“Oh golly you must be really smart then” Patton giggled

“Erm well I- I suppose so” Logan blushes pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“Hmmm I need a name don’t I hmm” Patton trailed off eyes lighting up as he got an idea

“Frogger! Like the video game character”, Patton laughed clapping his hands

“Of course, you’d choose that for a name” Virgil responded rolling his eyes

“Oh! Uhm, thank you?” Patton questioned

“No problem short stack” Virgil smiled ruffling Patton’s hair

—

Patton was asleep on Virgil and Logan’s couch, the two faes having made him go to bed as soon as he got home, of course, he obliged, exhausted from the walk home, which had lasted nearly half a day as Patton was very small and also very prone to getting distracted and lost.

“Are we really going to be able to take care of him you think?” Virgil said anxiously

“We’ll do our best and that’s what matters” Logan smiled at his husband

Letting out a breath Virgil nodded and held his husband tightly and watched his son sleep.

—

Raising a human son in a town full of mythical creatures was not as easy as Virgil and Logan had hoped it would be. They had to teach Patton the rules of course, and then proceed to explain to the 6-year-old why no he could not call his father's daddy and dada in public, and then proceed to comfort said 6-year-old and tell him that no they wouldn’t leave him. It was albeit harder than the men had thought it to be. But they made it work, and soon Patton was fully knowledgeable in all rules regarding the mythical creatures that resided in the forest. Getting him to follow those rules was a different matter

“Frogger stop trying to touch centaur's tails it’s incredibly disrespectful” Logan hissed his patience wearing thin

“But Logic it’s so fluffy” Patton whined stomping his foot

“Imagine if someone came up to you and started touching your butt” The centaur neighed

“Frogger apologize” Logan commanded in a warning tone

“I’m sorry Mister,” Patton said sadly

Huffing the centaur turned dramatically tail swooshing as he walked away.

—

The hardest part about raising Patton though was the nightmares, not because the two thought it was annoying when Patton crawled into their bed in the middle of the night, clearly shaken up from whatever dream had plagued his brain prior, no that was the easy part. The hard part was realizing that they couldn’t help him, that no matter how many soothing words, bedtime stories, and cuddles they’d give him, that crippling fear, the nightmare-inducing thought that the two people who had grown to care about him most in the world, were going to leave him one day all alone. And that, that scared them. It hurt more than any iron, insults, or physical pain ever had. They cared about their son so seeing him hurt like this? Heartwrenching.

Today was another night like all the others, Patton had come into their room sniffling, climbed into their bed, and snuggled right in between his fathers. Both faes smiled knowing that Patton felt safe in between them. And all three cuddled together, keeping each other safe from any night terrors that might plague their thoughts.

#-> writing songs of all they're dreaming ;; writing #sander sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #fae #originally posted on ao3 #first post !#fanfiction #writing #analogical #kid!patton #tw nightmares #tw child abuse #tw child neglect

18 notes · View notes

thecrowslullaby · 2 years

Text

Of friends, foe and fae

chapter two - Dollhouses, butterfly nets and other deadly traps

masterpost

first | you are here | next | ao3

Out of all mythical creatures Logan did not believe in, his behaviour towards fairies has always been the oddest.

Well. Patton supposed always wouldn't be the right word to describe it. It had started a few years ago, when they were still kids. Up until a certain point Logan had always ignored him whenever Patton tried to talk about mythical creatures. He still wasn't sure what had changed. But, for all that Logan denied it, something did change. And Patton was going to find out what it was.

He and Logan had been friends for a long time, longer than Patton could remember. Their mothers were childhood friends and lived on the same street so it was only a matter of time before Logan and Patton became friends as well. More out of convenience than actual desire at first.

I wasn’t that Patton disliked Logan back, not really. He loved making new friends. But there was no denying that the too-thin child was different from the other kids he played with. Always sitting at the edge of a conversation. Watching. A quiet kind of curious. It was… hard to befriend him at first.

Patton supposed part of it had to do with how often Logan was sick as a child. Missing over half of the classes each year. And he was sure were it not for Logan's love of learning the man wouldn't have graduated from primary school.

All these things combined led to Patton being Logan's only friend by the time both of them were eight. This meant that after Logan was released from the hospital, just five days after his birthday, they found themselves playing in Patton's garden. Logan reading a book in the shade while Patton set up a tea party for fairies. Patton's mum had told him not to drag Logan around too much. The boy could strain his hip again and land himself in the hospital for another two to three months. Which Patton was fine with, at that time. He could play with his tea-set on his own.

"They aren't real, you know?"

Patton crossed his arms, glaring at Logan. He hated when Logan did this. Always trying to ruin the fun.

"Just because you haven't seen one doesn't mean they don't exist."

"Have you seen one?"

"In movies."

"Cartoons don't count!" Logan scoffed.

"It wasn't a cartoon! It was a movie with real people and there were tiny fairies."

Logan closed his book. Scrunching up his nose as he gave his friend a look that Patton assumed was meant to be a glare. It was hard to take him seriously when Patton could clearly tell Logan was simply mimicking his mother. "Would you believe me if I caught a fairy?"

Logan's brows furrowed and his glasses slid slightly down his nose. He seemed to think it over for a second before he nodded. Patton beamed.

"I'm gonna set a trap," he said as he ran into his house. His mom helped him make a little house for fairies but the door kept getting jammed, so maybe if he put it in the garden with enough sweets and water he could catch one and then prove Logan wrong.

Hopefully the fairy wouldn't be too mad. He was going to release it as soon as he showed Logan.

The house was heavy and Patton had to walk very slowly not to drop it. It was all worth it because as soon as he reached the garden Logan was following his every move. His book long forgotten.

Patton patted the spot of grass to his right and Logan scrambled to sit next to him, right foot dragging a little behind him. He watched with interest as Patton undid the hinges on the roof to get a good look at the interior.

"The door gets jammed a lot so if it closes when the fairy is inside it won't escape until we come get it out."

"You should leave some snacks in there. So it doesn't die."

"Of course I-wait. You do think we could catch a fairy?"

"No!" Logan protested, ears going red. "But you might catch a mouse and I don't want mice to die."

"I don't believe you," Patton sing-sang, and Logan glared at him. Ears still red. “You do think they exist!”

"I don't!” Logan crossed his arms over his chest in the way adults did and Patton tried very hard not to chuckle. “But a scientist has to accept he can be proven wrong."

"If I catch a fairy will I be a scientist?" Logan scrunched up his nose in thought as he looked Patton up and down.

"If you take notes," Logan started slowly. "Maybe they would even invite you to a big science fair."

"That sounds boring."

"I think science fairs are fun," Logan mumbled, ears growing redder, the colour spreading to his cheeks. "I like going with my mum to them."

"If I catch one I'm gonna say we found it. Then we can go together." Logan snapped his neck to look at him, wide-eyed.

"You would?" Patton nodded. Sharing was caring and Logan looked far more excited about being a scientist than Patton. Besides, he worried about not looking smart in front of adults and Logan didn’t. Logan was so serious all the time the adults would probably listen to him.

"Yeah. You could help me make notes and everything." Logan's smile grew bigger than Patton had ever seen it and he felt his own cheeks flush. He really wanted to catch that fairy now.

Logan turned his gaze back to the house. Still grinning ear to ear as he inspected the door.

"We need to make sure it closes when the fairy enters."

"Hmmmm," Patton mused, looking over the door. "How do we do it?"

"We could use a string!" Logan suggested. "So when they enter they trip over it and close the door."

"Won’t they get hurt?"

"We could put something soft behind the door."

"Ooooh. You're so smart!" Patton smiled as Logan's cheeks went redder from the praise.

"Well, I am a scientist." He beamed. "And you're having good ideas, too. Like using the house to trap fairies."

It was Patton's turn to beam with pride.

"We should get some snacks. And tea for the fairies," he offered, standing up. "And the string, too. You wait here. I’ll go get it!!!!"

He ran into the house before Logan had a chance to protest, gathering supplies as quickly as he could. They worked all evening to set up the trap, but the next day when Patton wanted to investigate all he found was the door to his little house ripped out and left in the middle of their garden. Logan seemed to show no interest in locating it or even debating on what could have happened. He simply stated it was all a waste of time and they shouldn’t be hunting fairies anymore.

It stung a bit. He tried so hard to prove it to his friend but he cast the whole idea aside as soon as they encountered some difficulties. Why Logan had suddenly changed his mind was beyond him. He had seemed so eager just a few hours ago.

But Patton decided not to touch on the subject anymore. That is, until Logan left his backpack at Patton’s house one day. He didn't mean to peek inside, of course, but he accidentally knocked it over, sending the contents all over the floor. To his surprise, he found a book on fairies from their local library.

He mentioned it to Logan but his friend got defensive. Slowly, he noticed other things. There were doodles, notes, and films. Logan had seemed obsessed but for all his trying Patton could never get him to admit he did like fairies after all.

It slowly faded from an obsession into a quirk. He would catch Logan lingering over notebooks for children with colourful, painted fairies on them with a fond smile before moving on and grabbing one with a blank cover. A few books on myths placed between the stacks upon stacks of scientific books that littered Logan's apartment. So when Logan's 23rd birthday was around the corner and they both headed home for summer it came as a surprise to neither of them when Patton found himself with a neatly wrapped gift outside Logan's house on the eve of Logan's birthday.

"What's the occasion?" he asked, and Patton could see the fond smile the nerd was desperately trying to hide.

"It's your birthday tomorrow."

"You know I don't celebrate it."

"But I do."

Logan laughed and shook his head but he accepted the gift nonetheless. He let Patton inside and offered him some lemonade before he slowly unwrapped the box. Careful not to rip the paper as Patton was bouncing in his seat.

There was confusion on his face when he took the gift out and Patton almost couldn’t contain his glee at the thought of getting to explain his plan.

"Do you like them?"

Logan stared at the gift before he finally spoke up.

"They certainly look… sturdy," he tried, casting a glance at Patton to make sure he said the right thing. Mulling his words over before he spoke again. "Although I must admit I'm not completely sure what you expect me to do with them."

"We're going fairy hunting. Tonight." Patton beamed and he swore he saw a flash of panic on Logan's face before the nerd quickly concealed it.

"I wasn't aware you still believed in fairies." There wasn't judgement in Logan's voice, just… caution. Patton wasn't expecting that at all. Defence? Yes. Ridicule? Maybe. But not caution.

"Well, you seemed to be awfully fond of them." Logan's eyes have gone wide as his ears reddened quickly. Patton loved that expression more than he dared admit. "So I thought we might give it a try. I never managed to catch that fairy for you like I promised."

"I'm not sure if it's… wise." Wise?

"So you do believe we could actually catch one?” Patton teased, and he didn't miss how adorably red Logan's face had gotten. The man cleared his throat, not quite able to get rid of the flush before speaking up again.

"I suppose I could indulge you," he mused, turning the net delicately between his long fingers. "I was rather rude the last time we attempted fairy hunting."

Patton grinned. Everything was going according to plan. He didn't expect to catch one, of course, but something told him Logan would enjoy this outing even if they won't be successful. And, well. He would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to a midnight picnic with Logan.

#of friends foe and fae #logan sanders #ts logan #patton sanders #ts patton #logicality #platonic logicality

14 notes · View notes

a-small-batch-of-dragons · 2 years

Text

Accidents Will Happen

Prompts: heya! i was wanting to know if you could maybe write more of the (Un)wanted universe with this prompt? (only if you want, of course.) so logan is doing sciencey stuff and virgils there, and maybe something goes wrong (either with magic or science or what) and it turns virgil into a kid, with no memory of any of the events of (un)wanted, and he’s pretty spooked. this small virgil sees janus and immediately flocks to him, which makes janus like ‘oh okay i guess i have to protect this with my life’. - anon

Hey! For your unwanted universe can we maybe see a five times the fea find virgil sleeping some where weird or where they wouldn't expect. Pls don't feel pressured If you don't want to tho.. Hope you have a great day! - anon

Read on Ao3 (Un)Wanted Masterlist

Warnings: none! all soft and sweet

Pairings: dlampr

Word Count: 5708

Expect the unexpected, Logan had learned long ago, failure is a part of success. All data gleaned from an experiment is useful, especially when you couldn’t predict it or your prediction is wrong.

As he looks at the sleeping infant in front of him, haphazardly surrounded by blankets and pillows grabbed from a bed he rarely uses, he’s not quite sure it’s ever gotten to this.

It hadn’t been his intention starting out, no. He had been working on one of the new plant stimulants, trying to figure out the relationship between the nitrogen in the soil and its carnivorous appetites. Stimulating the plant’s roots had yielded impressive adaptations over controlled periods of time, and if he could get a soil sample from beyond the portal to test, progress would’ve been much faster.

Trouble is…

Logan had glanced up and seen Virgil working diligently on maintaining the crawling ivy on the opposite side of the garden. His purple notebook tucked under his arm, both hands occupied with twisting the tendrils around and around the trellis they’d somehow caught on. Logan had stopped writing for a moment, a small smile growing as he heard Virgil’s mumbled conversation with the ivy.

“I know, I know, climbing is fun. Trust me, the first time I figured out how the webs and legs worked, I was climbing all over everything. I think Remus had a heart attack when he saw me on the roof for the first time.”

Logan had hidden a chuckle. It wasn’t often that Remus was the one caught off-guard, much less actually scared. Seeing—well, hearing the shriek followed by an emphatic what the fuck, little monster?

Priceless.

“But you gotta pace yourself,” Virgil had scolded, “look, see how your stems are cracking already? You’re not strong enough to hold your entire weight like that, much less if you’ve wound yourself so tightly. If you just cling on for now, then you can get better at figuring out how leverage works and you’ll be able to contort yourself like this.”

He’d made a face as a flailing leaf had smacked him across the face.

“Hey! That’s not nice!”

Logan would not be going anywhere near the portal while Virgil was under his watch. No, thank you.

Not that Virgil couldn’t handle it. Logan wouldn’t dream of telling Virgil how to process his trauma, much less hover over his shoulder while he worked through things for himself. But Logan could be selfish too, and hold Virgil away from the threat of the portal for himself.

Or, more accurately, the threats that could lie beyond the portal.

He had looked back down at his calculations, mulling over the differences in the coefficients for the soil concentrates, and sighed.

“Logan?”

“Yes?”

“You okay? That was a really big sigh.”

Logan had stood, dusting his lap off. “Yes, I’m alright. Simply exhausted, it seems, by the things I don’t understand yet.”

Virgil had shrugged. “You’ll figure it out.”

Virgil’s quiet but assured confidence in him had made his chest feel a little bit lighter. He’d made his way around the plants and over to Virgil’s corner of the garden. He’d taken one of the ivy strands in hand and helped Virgil detangle it.

“Oh, thanks. I swear, even with all my legs and hands, I can’t do this by myself.”

“You’ve only got two opposable thumbs, that will make the utility of your legs a little more complicated.”

“Uh-huh. Why does Janus get six actual hands if he’s a snake?”

“Why does Janus insist on referring to his color as gold and not yellow?”

“Because he’s pretentious and dramatic.”

“There you are, then.”

Virgil had snorted, elbowing Logan. “Don’t let him hear you say that.”

“He’s heard me say it before, I will say it again.”

“I’m sure he will.”

“Careful, little one,” Logan had teased gently, “that almost sounds like a threat.”

“Who, me? No, no, never, what are you talking about?”

It had been Logan’s turn to laugh as Virgil hid dramatically behind a curtain of the ivy. “Oh, dear, where did my little one go?”

“Nowhere, don’t worry about it.”

“But I can hear him, therefore he must be close…”

“Dunno what you’re talking about, L.”

“Really?” Logan had gently poked at the curtain of ivy, smiling as a few prods elicited sharp squeals from the person behind it. “I certainly don’t remember this plant making this much noise.”

“Sounds—eep!—interesting. Maybe you should—ah!—write that down in your—not there!”

“In my what?”

“L-Logan! Logan, no!”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“In your—eep!—notebook!”

“Ah, my notebook,” Logan had said, relenting, “yes, this would most certainly be something to write down.”

Virgil had breathed a sigh of relief as his hands left only to squeal again as Logan reached in and smoothly wrapped his arms around Virgil’s waist, pulling him free of the ivy.

“Hello, little one,” Logan had said softly, pressing a kiss to his forehead, “I think the ivy is plenty detangled now.”

Virgil had shaken his head, cheeks flushed. “Yeah, yeah, you go write things down.”

“But I’ve solved the mystery. It was my little one squeaking, not the ivy.”

“I did not squeak!”

Logan had simply raised an eyebrow and poked his side again.

“Oh, that’s what you meant by 'squeak.'”

“Quite. Now, would you like to help me with something else?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Could you help me pour some of the new solution onto the test plants?”

“Yeah, in the greenhouse?”

“Yes, right this way. It’s that bottle—yes, that one, that’s right. And then if you could just pour it into those pots along there, that would be wonderful. I just have to check the gauges over here.”

“Just these ones?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

“Cool, I—ah, shit—whoa!”

Logan had swung around at Virgil’s cry of alarm, eyes frantically scanning for what had gone wrong, only to see an empty greenhouse.

“Virgil?”

No response.

“Virgil!”

He had rushed around the edge of the planters and broken into a sprint only to almost trip over a small bundle lying on the ground. He had crouched down, heart in his throat, and gasped.

A baby human had been swamped by Virgil’s tunic, blinking up and around with bright purple eyes.

“Oh,” Logan had murmured, reaching out and letting the baby crawl toward him, “oh, little one…”

Somehow, somehow, the solution’s magic had turned Virgil into a baby. Alright. How?

Logan had wrapped the baby—Virgil in the tunic and set him carefully on the ground near the gauges. He pulled out the formula for the solution and squinted at it, summoning the blackboard to work on.

The nitrates had been calculated to stimulate growth but not overwhelm the system, the compounds had been perfectly balanced, but this was a fertilizer, how did it do something like this? Perhaps it was due to Virgil’s magic more than the solution? He would have to see.

Of course, he had forgotten that while they don’t move fast, mortal young are still very much capable of movement. By the time he looked up from his work, Virgil was nowhere to be seen.

“Virgil?” He had set everything down and run out. “Virgil!”

Virgil wasn’t in the main house. Nor was he hiding around the greenhouse. The garden was empty. Where…where?

On a whim—or a last desperate hope—he drew back the curtain of ivy. His eyes had widened.

Little baby Virgil, curled around the sapling of a great elder moss tree, sleeping soundly.

Expect the unexpected indeed.

Remus isn’t exactly what he’d call dispassionate about what Logan gets up to in his mad scientist workshops. Have you seen the shit he can get up to? There’s no end to how many things they can do, especially when Remus can convince Logan to come breathe under the lake with him. They’ve still got the remains of the eldritch kelp beasts that Oliver likes to play with.

So when Logan summons them all to his workshop and stands there looking like the perfect mix of intrigue, pride, and mortal terror, Remus knows it’s gonna be good.

It’s a great deal more adorable than Remus was expecting, that’s for sure.

Patton full-on gasps when Logan shows them the slumbering infant. Roman slowly covers his mouth with his hands, eyes fixed on the way Virgil’s little chest goes up and down, up and down. Janus glances sharply at Logan, no doubt wondering if this was on purpose or not.

Remus doesn’t give a shit, this is the coolest potato he’s ever met.

The fact that it’s his little monster just makes it better.

“I don’t know exactly how it happened,” Logan explains in a hushed voice, “but if you give me enough time, I think I can figure it out.”

“Is he okay?” Patton leans a little closer, squinting at the little baby. “Not hurt or anything?”

“He was well enough when I looked at him the first time, and he’s clearly well enough to crawl from the greenhouse to over here without me noticing.”

“Perhaps you should pay closer attention,” Janus says.

Remus winces. Janny’s voice has the awful habit of getting real sharp real quick when he’s upset and trying to hide it. Logan takes it on the chin, pulling out his notebook and scribbling something down.

“I can handle it,” he says, “I have a few theories already. I have all the samples I need, there won’t be any issues. I just need time.”

“You need us to watch the baby,” Roman guesses, watching a still-sleeping Virgil wriggle and reach toward the elder moss sapling.

“Yes. It wouldn’t do to have my focus torn between trying to keep Virgil safe and trying to reverse the process.”

“I’ll take him.”

Everyone turns to stare at Remus in shock.

“What?” Unbidden, a sense of shame rises to his cheeks. What the fuck is this? Why is this here? Remus can take care of a baby! He’s good at that! “I’ll keep him safe, I promise!”

“He’s really fragile right now, Re.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Roman says, knocking his forehead against Remus’s, “sorry. I just—I know you were supposed to help Oliver exercise this morning.”

“Eh, he can do that on his own, he’s a big boy.” Remus reaches for the baby. “This is a little boy. I can take care of that much easier.”

He doesn’t miss the way Janus stiffens ever so slightly as he tucks baby Virgil into his arms. But when he sees Remus support the head, tuck him up against his chest, and the way Virgil’s chubby little baby fingers curl into Remus’s sash, he relaxes.

“I’m gonna go take him somewhere so Lolo can get to work,” he announces, still quiet enough to let Virgil sleep, “and I don’t think you lot will be very useful either.”

Without waiting for replies, Remus sets off, walking out of Logan’s room and into the forest proper.

The soft bouncing of his stride gently wakes the baby, bright purple eyes blinking open and turning up to stare at him.

“Hey there, little monster,” Remus coos, bouncing him a little more, “we’re gonna go for a walk, okay?”

The baby gurgles. A font of saliva pours onto Remus’s chest.

“That’s so cool, little monster. You just make so much of that, don’t you? Yeah?”

Another happy gurgle and a fat fist waves around.

“Yeah, you waving? What’re you waving at? You waving at the trees? They can’t wave back, silly, but they’re happy to see you too.”

Remus keeps up the idle chatter until they reach the lake. Virgil’s eyes widen with delight at seeing the sun sparkle across the surface of the water, reaching out and making little grabby hands.

“No, no, none of that, little monster,” Remus says, holding Virgil tightly against his chest, “uh-uh. You’re too little to swim, and there’s no way I’m letting you go.”

Virgil lets out an unhappy chirp, still reaching. Remus sighs.

“Okay. We can go down to the lake, but you’re not getting in.”

He crouches carefully by the water where it’s shallow, letting Virgil reach down and splash. Terror grips his chest every time Virgil tips a little too far forward, but he’s got a tight grip on Remus’s sash with the other hand and they’re only a few inches off the ground anyway.

“Yeah?” Remus smiles when Virgil lets out a happy squeal. “Yeah? You like that?”

Something soft and warm and fuzzy emanates from Virgil and Remus shudders. Oh, okay, so Virgil just got made smaller, then, because his fae connections are clearly working just as well as they were before.

“Alright, alright,” Remus mutters, “no need to get all sappy on me.”

Larger ripples appear near the center of the lake.

Remus quickly pulls Virgil away from the lake, shushing the unhappy gurgles and heading for one of the higher hills. He sits down with Virgil in his lap and watches Oliver rise, shaking off the water and looking around. The kraken spots them and makes his way over will a happy trill.

“Sorry, buddy, we’re not working out today.”

Oliver slows, chirping in confusion. Remus shifts the bundle of mortal baby in his lap.

“We’re on babysitting duty.”

Careful not to let Virgil get too close to the edge—or out of his arms for that matter—Remus carefully lifts up the baby so he and Oliver can see each other.

“You remember Virgil, yeah?”

Oliver harrumphs, drawing back in shock, tentacles puffing up.

“No, no, he’s fine, Ollie, he’s just small right now.”

The kraken burbles.

“Yeah, he’s gonna be back to normal in a bit, don’t worry. He’s fine, see? Do you wanna say hi?” Remus looks down at the baby, whose purple eyes are wide with wonder. “I think he wants to say hi to you.”

Slowly, so slowly, kraken and baby reach for each other, Remus keeping a tight hold on baby while instructing Oliver to be careful. A tiny hand reaches for a tentacle, the tentacle laying on the grass as the baby pats it clumsily.

“See?” Remus smiles and rubs the baby’s back. “You both know each other.”

Virgil curls further into Remus’s chest, rubbing his fat little cheek against Remus’s warmth. Oliver trills.

“Mortal babies like the warmth, I guess.” He snuggles Virgil closer. “Maybe it’s to do with their body temperature being so high.”

More tentacles rise out of the water as Oliver chirps in question.

“You wanna hold me too? I can’t leave solid ground, buddy, but if you wanna cuddle me while I sit, that’s okay.”

Oliver chirps happily, his arms coming up to circle the two of them, creating a cradle to sit in. Virgil looks around, clumsily patting the arms as they encircle him. Remus smiles as Virgil keeps twisting, trying to see where they all go.

“It’s all Ollie, see? His arms. We’re safe, you’re okay.”

Virgil must come away happy—or maybe come away exhausted—because he goes a little limp in Remus’s hold and yawns with a high squeak. Oliver squeaks back, excited.

“No, no, Ollie, he can’t speak your language. I know,” Remus soothes as the kraken burbles sadly, “I’m disappointed too. But hey, it’s gonna be okay, see? Look how…”

Remus trails off, looking at the infant in his arms again. In the short span of time he’s looked away, Virgil has fallen fast asleep again. Oliver’s arms shift, letting the sun warm the tunic as Virgil snuggles against Remus’s chest. The kraken trills. A question.

A lump grows in Remus’s throat as he nods.

“Yeah, Ollie, this is—this is my eggling.”

Patton is not too proud to admit he panics for a second when he goes to find Remus and Virgil and all he sees are the arms of Remus’s kraken. He rushes closer, heart pounding, only to pause when he hears Remus talking softly.

“No, those are his suckers, see? He needs those to hold onto whatever he grabs, we can’t touch them.”

A gurgle.

“The spots? Those are for when he’s underwater and he needs to talk to the other creatures. They let them know if he needs to be alone for a little bit or if they can come up and play.”

Another gurgle and Remus chuckles.

“No, little monster, I don’t have those spots.”

Patton smiles as he gets closer. Who knew Remus was such a softy with little mortal babies?

The kraken notices his approach and rumbles in greeting, shifting his arms and pulling back enough to see Remus with little Virgil in his lap. Remus turns, smiling, waving Patton over.

“We’re learning about kraken arms.”

“I heard.” He crouches next to them, smiling at baby Virgil as he tries to grab for his glasses. “Oh, no, baby, I need those! You can’t have them.”

An adorable little pout forms on Virgil’s face as Remus chuckles. “Are you here to take him?”

“Logan said it might be a good idea to see if he’s hungry.”

Remus looks down at the baby, whose hands are around part of his sash and slobbering all over it. “Yeah, maybe.”

Patton chuckles, holding out his arms. “May I?”

Remus clutches him for a moment before slowly handing him over. Virgil whines unhappily when Remus pulls away, but he presses his hand against the top of Virgil’s head and he quiets.

“What was that?”

Remus shrugs, scuffing the toe of his boot in the dirt. “Works with the egglings when they hatch.”

Oh. Oh, no wonder Remus wanted to take him first…oh, that’s adorable. Patton keeps the comments to a blinding grin instead, sure that Remus would rather dive into the lake than be told how precious that is.

“You gonna go feed him now?”

“I think so. Thank you for looking after him.”

“No problem,” Remus mumbles, turning and nudging Oliver who burbles in confusion. “No, Ollie, he’s gotta go eat. We might be able to see him later, okay? Wave goodbye.”

The kraken waves its many arms and Virgil flails his chubby little fists. Patton giggles and begins to walk back to the clearing, smiling at the wandering purple gaze. A low rumble and Virgil’s face contorts.

“Oh, don’t worry, baby,” Patton coos, bouncing him a little, “we’ll get you something to eat. Yeah? You want something to eat?”

Virgil doesn’t reply, but his grip tightens a little on Patton’s shirt. Patton pushes his door open and glances at one of the chairs to make it taller. He sets Virgil carefully in the chair and sets up something to keep him from falling as he turns to the food.

“Now,” he murmurs, “what would a baby like?”

He’s saved the time—and possible mortification as well—by the sudden arrival of a closed wooden box. He opens it, taking out the note Logan’s left on the top.

One bottle if he can, more if he needs.

Patton smiles and sends a thank-you to Logan as he takes one of the bottles out and gets it ready. He turns back to Virgil and scoops him into his arms, carefully holding the bottle steady.

“There,” he whispers as Virgil starts to drink in earnest, “is that what you wanted?”

No reply. It seems the baby is more than happy to ignore Patton while he’s got his bottle.

Well, Patton has certainly been ignored for worse reasons.

It takes him by surprise, honestly, the little bubble of intimacy and the ease with which it’s created. He wanders slowly about the room, stopping whenever Virgil needs a moment before continuing to drink, pointing out the things he stops by.

“That’s Roman’s old armchair, he gave it to me when he noticed how much I liked it. Can you see all the stitching there? Roman did that, I’m not sure how he has the patience.”

“Remus gave me that, see? You remember Oliver the kraken, he’s got another friend named Uma. She’s a gulper eel, this is part of her egg sack. It makes for good luck, or so Remus tells me.”

“This is the bread box that Logan made. It looks like the one your bottle came in, do you see? The same wood, same shape. Logan’s very good at making things, you see.”

“Oh, that’s Janus’s cloak. I need to do laundry in a few hours, but you’re welcome to stay and watch if you want.”

That promise ends up true, Virgil sat with a new set of clothes as Patton washes the old tunic. Virgil watches him with interest, purple eyes never straying far from his hands as he dips, scrubs, and dries. The sunlight streams in through the window, title bits of dust swirling through the beams as Patton works. He keeps an eye on Virgil, not wanting him to fall or wander off, chatting idly as if Virgil could understand.

“I think this one’s going to need another wash,” he sighs, holding up Remus’s tunic covered in…who knows. “See? Still all stained.”

Virgil gurgles.

“Oh, I know, I could magic it away, but I would always know the stain was there underneath.”

Virgil reaches for one of the other articles of clothing.

“Oh, that? No, I think Roman just thinks I’d appreciate getting to see a comparison. The twins do wear pretty similar things, after all. Remus just has to have the slits in the back for his tentacles.”

Another burble.

“Yes, did you see them? He might’ve kept them in, not wanting to scare you. Yes, he has tentacles like Ollie, although not as big.”

A small giggle.

“Yes, I think it’d look quite ridiculous too, don’t you?” Patton grins as he scrubs at the tunic. “All big and beefy.”

He sighs, pulling the tunic out and examining it in the sunlight again.

“Well, I think that’s just going to have to do. I’m sure Remus won’t mind too much, do you?”

When there isn’t a reply, he glances over and gasps.

Little Virgil is curled up in the pile of warm laundry, fast asleep. A memory of finding Virgil like this when he first arrived, asleep for the first time and finally safe, makes tears spring to Patton’s eyes.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he murmurs, quickly drying his hands and adjusting the pile of laundry, “there, all nice and snug. You sleep all you need to okay?”

Virgil mumbles and turns over in his little laundry nest.

Roman walks in to see Patton cooing and fussing over a baby Virgil, swaddled in a blanket. It’s the same purple as his eyes.

“Roman? You okay?”

Roman blinks, snapping himself out of it. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. Just got a bit lost for a moment.”

Patton grins, gesturing to the baby. “Because of him?”

“And you.”

“Flatterer.”

“Oh, of course!” Roman grins as he makes his way over, smiling down at Virgil as he blinks up at him with huge, purple eyes. “Hi there, little honeybee, you look so cozy.”

Virgil just blinks.

“Yeah? You all warm in the sunlight there, little honeybee? You look it. Oh, hey, now,” he murmurs when Virgil starts to cry, “what’s the matter? Shh, shh, come here, little honeybee…”

He picks him up carefully, cradling him in his arms, still crooning softly as he gets Virgil settled.

“There, is that better? Are you a bit warmer now? Oh, oh, I see…” He shifts his grip as Virgil tries to rest his head against Roman’s chest. “You just want to be held, don’t you, little honeybee? There…”

Virgil blinks up at Roman, a smile briefly crossing his face until his eyes slip shut. And oh, if the sight of little baby Virgil falling asleep in his arms isn’t enough to make his head a little fuzzy…

“Has he been sleeping a lot?”

Patton nods. “I think so, but I don’t know how much sleep mortal babies need. Maybe we should ask Logan?”

“I can take him.” Roman adjusts his hold carefully on baby Virgil. “Thank you.”

“Roman?”

“Mm?”

Patton fiddles with the last button on the shirt he’s holding before sighing. “Are you…at all worried?”

Roman frowns, leaning against the counter and smoothing a thumb against Virgil’s swaddled arm. “About what?”

“About what happens if Logan can’t find a way to fix this?”

They both look at the peacefully sleeping baby. Roman sighs.

“A little,” he confesses. “I don’t…I had to be so careful with adult Virgil, even without my magic. I knew that there would—oh, Patton, I could hurt him.”

He looks down at the baby. He could. There’s some of his ambient magic that never quite goes away and mortals are so, so vulnerable to things that make them feel good. Roman doesn’t know how much is too much, not for little babies, and if he hurts Virgil…

“You won’t.”

He scoffs. “You say that with remarkable confidence.”

“Roman,” Patton says patiently, “feel for your Claim.”

Roman frowns but does as bid, a bit of magic glowing in his eyes. Virgil shifts a little, an answering red glow filling the room with the softest golden tinge.

“So?”

“So,” Pattons continues, coming over, “that means that your magic knows Virgil. And you know your magic. Be careful, yes, but this is still Virgil.”

“Our Virgil.”

“Yes, our Virgil. Besides,” he adds with a grin, “Janus is still the point of Claim for all of us, which means if needed…”

“He could stop me.”

“Yes.” Patton rubs his shoulder. “Virgil’s gonna be fine, Roman, even if we have to raise him like this.”

Roman smiles, nudging Patton in thanks as he adjusts Virgil’s blanket. “Sweet little honeybee…”

“Go, take him to Logan.”

“See you ‘round.”

Roman cradles the precious cargo to his chest as he makes his way to Logan’s door, knocking carefully. Logan opens it, gaze softening when he sees the little swaddle.

“Is he alright?”

“Had a question about that, may I come in?”

“Certainly.” Logan shuts the door behind them. “What seems to be the issue?”

“Is it normal for him to be sleeping this much?”

“I believe so, growing mortals need plenty of energy.” He gestures toward his workstation. “But I can have a look at his energy levels, see if there’s anything out of the ordinary.”

“Will that hurt him?”

“No, shouldn’t do. But you can be right next to him if something goes wrong. Which is probably won’t,” Logan says quickly when Roman tightens his grip protectively, “but just in case.”

Roman watches warily as Logan powers up the scanner. Little Virgil wakes up as he sets him down, blinking sleepily as he undoes the swaddle.

“Hi, little honeybee,” he coos, “we’re just gonna have a look at you, okay? Yeah? I’m right here, there you go, shh…aww, you’re so wriggly!”

Logan smiles as Virgil blinks up at the scanner. “I’ve almost finished my calculations, we should have him back by tomorrow.”

“So soon?”

“I’m almost offended by that.” He frowns at the display. “Well, you may be right, he’s a little lower on energy than he should be.”

“Is that…bad?”

“No, just curious. Oh…oh, what’s that?”

Roman huffs. “Logan, you’re freaking me out a bit here.”

“No, no, it’s nothing bad…oh, that’s why!” Logan grins and turns the display. “Look, Virgil’s trying to grow his spider legs back.”

A soft purple glow illuminates Virgil’s back, right where his spider legs normally are. As Virgil shifts about on the scanner, the energy blobs start to take shape.

“That’s why he’s sleeping so much,” Logan explains as Roman picks him back up, “he’s saving his energy to grow his legs.”

“So he’s alright?”

“Yes, he’s fine.” Logan presses a few more things. “I wouldn’t wrap him in the blanket until his legs are fully grown, and try and keep him on his stomach.”

“Can do. Thanks, Logan.”

Logan waves goodbye, smoothing his hand over Virgil’s head as Roman carries him away. He walks out of Logan’s door and into his, creating a giant pile of pillows and flopping down on his back.

“Let’s have a nap, shall we?” Virgil sprawls out on his chest, little fingers curling into Roman’s shoulders. “Yeah, you wanna sleep here with me?”

He reaches out to adjust Virgil’s position and yawns.

“I think I’m a little tired too, come on, let’s close our eyes and sleep. Shh, shh, now…”

He lets his voice grow low and heavy, lulling Virgil to sleep as he dims the lights. Virgil’s pretty purple eyes droop lower and lower until Roman can’t see them anymore.

“That’s it, little honeybee,” he murmurs, sleep calling to him as well, “that’s it…”

A while later, Roman wakes up to feel the weight on his chest is gone. His eyes fly open and he goes to sit up—

And thumps back to the cushions with a disbelieving laugh.

Little Virgil is suspended in his webs, still fast asleep, his spider legs all bundled up around him. Roman smiles, reaching out to make sure the baby can still breathe, coaxing him a little lower and smoothing a thumb over his cheek.

“Sleep well, little spider.”

Something cracks open the door to Janus’s room.

He turns, coils slipping over and over each other as he moves to investigate this new disturbance.

A little spider-ling, no bigger than the size of Janus’s head, crawls into the cave, blinking up at him with wide purple eyes.

Hello, little sssspider, he hisses, you’re an awfully long way from home.

Virgil crawls closer. Janus moves his coils to leave a path to the door, if he so chooses. The little baby loses its balance, stumbling off of its hands to the floor.

Ouch, little sssspider. Janus moves his head a little closer. Don’t hurt yourself. Take it nice and eassssy.

Thankfully, the little spider doesn’t seem too hurt—mortals, sturdier than they look. Janus sets his head on the ground and lets Virgil crawl up close. In the dim light, he has to reach out and fumble his way around Janus’s snout before he gurgles in triumph.

You found me, little sssspider, Janus hisses, nosing back gently as Virgil pats clumsily, that’s my nose.

Virgil keeps fumbling.

Those are my sssscent receptors, that’s how I smell. I can smell you, little ssspider…

He noses carefully at Virgil’s head.

You smell very good, little spider, very ssssweet and ssssoft.

Virgil giggles, leaning back a little and fumbling with his spider legs. They skitter and scuttle behind him until he can prop himself up, smiling at Janus. Janus lifts his head a little, just enough so he can look at the little spider properly.

Do you know how else snakes can ssssmell? With our tongues. He lets his tongue flicker out against the little spider’s tummy. You ssssmell very good.

Virgil wriggles a little at the touch, squirming and laughing.

Oh? What’sssss thisss? He flickers his tongue out again, lightly tickling Virgil’s tummy. You smell like giggles. Why do you smell like giggles?

Little spider giggles fill the den as Virgil keeps squirming closer. Janus rewards his efforts, giving him soft tickles until he giggles out a squeaky little yawn.

Little ssspider all tuckered out?

Virgil flops forward, his little hands finding their way around Janus’s head and clumsily cuddling him. Janus rustles gently, beginning to adjust his coils.

Sssweet little spider, he hisses as he carefully, carefully begins to wrap the little one up in a protective embrace, come, ssssssleep.

Virgil mumbles a protest, still clinging to Janus’s head. He sighs, gently nudging him awake to get his attention.

Let go, little spider, I won’t be far. Let me hold you, yesssss, that’s it…

Little Virgil adjusts his legs carefully as Janus cuddles him, settling him in atop the massive coils. He rears his head up so he can look at Virgil, safe atop the mountain of snake, and carefully sets his head near Virgil’s lap.

There, little ssspider, now ssssssleeep.

Virgil holds onto him, scales shifting like water under his touch. He smiles and closes his eyes as Janus keeps watch.

My little sssspider, he hisses contentedly as Virgil’s purple magic mixes with the golden glow of the cave, my perfect little ssssspider…

+1.

Well, now, isn’t that sweet?

Go away. You’re not getting your hands on him. I will fight you.

You can’t fight a voice, little thing.

Don’t call me that. You aren’t getting him. You’re gone. Stay gone. Go away.

Oh, my dear, you really don’t have to be so adversarial to me. I wouldn’t dream of touching this little spider, I know he’s yours.

Good. Now go away and let him sleep.

He is sleeping, can’t you see? He’s here in your coils, all sleepy and safe.

So what do you want? Why are you here?

I’m always here, little thing, I’m always a part of you. Did you not wonder why all of you knew how to care for mortal infants when you’d never learned it before?

…that was you?

You don’t have to assume the worst of me, little thing.

I suppose not.

Rest, now, if you like, the other one is almost finished with the solution to get your big spider back. Go to sleep, everything will be alright when you wake up.

General Taglist: @frxgprince @potereregina @reddstardust @gattonero17 @iamhereforthegayshit @thefingergunsgirl @awkwardandanxiousfander @creative-lampd-liberties @djpurple3 @winterswrandomness @sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes @iminyourfandom @bullet-tothefeels @full-of-roman-angst-trash @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind @demoniccheese83 @pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious @firefinch-ember @fandomssaremysoul @im-an-anxious-wreck @crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch @enby-ralsei @unicornssunflowersandstuff @wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams @averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws @cecil-but-gayer @i-am-overly-complicated @annytheseal @alias290 @tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance @whyiask @crows-ace @emilythezeldafan @frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires @cyanide-violence @oonagh2 @xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx @rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734 @triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo @cerulean-watermelon @puffed-up-bees @meltheromanstan @joyrose-fandomer @insanitori @mavenmush @justablah65

(Un)Wanted: @deafeningdeppresedvoidthing@myrandomfandoms12 @i-love-books-and-so-do-you @homodetector @cohesiveanxiety @extrageekytrashofthething @beyondthestacks @lizzy-lineart @imknittingahat @twilight--trix @/nofurtherquestions-smirk @ray-does-stuff @lunatatic @our-bloody-mari666 @what-aboutno

If you want to be added/taken off the taglist, let me know!

#dragonbabbles #fic #sanders sides #virgil sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #remus sanders #sympathetic remus #deceit sanders #janus sanders #patton sanders #fae

40 notes · View notes

on-the-virge-of-breaking · 2 years

Note

(@pattxnsanders) Patton supposed he was to feel grateful. He was a faery prince, the youngest of the esteemed Seasonal Court, and while he didn't operate a season, his purpose would supposedly be very important when he came of age. However, if anything, Patton was bored. He hated the laws and the pageantry, hated everything that made him royal and wished often he could run off like the other fae and play in the wilds. Today, he's lounged out on his bed, moping for not the first time in the last few days about the upcoming gala and his role as a prince.

Just as Patton was laying around moping Roman and Remus came in to the room. Remus just walking right on in without knocking or anything.

“Hey Patton! Aww what’s wrong baby bro?” He asked softly flopping down next Patton.

2K notes · View notes

tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors · 12 days

Note

oh my god please tell me about Helena in edatd I want to know all about Patton's baby sibling

(also hi! I hope you are having a nice day!)

thank you!

Helena looks like the white thing version of shirley temple, basically - angelic, fluffy ringlet curls, cheerful beyond all measure

She's a summer, and White gestated her (how did Shelley sire a child on her fae girlfriend despite being a cis woman? dont worry about it)

She is the worlds number one Patton stan, best friends five ever. she was born when patton was 6 and the age difference being that big meant that she doesnt keep pace with him

while White's quadrupedal form is mostly canid, Helena looks much more mink-like, but with curly fur. little cloud noodle

and she is a white thing but she's a... warmer, white, than her mom. White has silver undertones and Helena has gold

#ask #takeabreathclosemyeyes #eatd verse

35 notes · View notes

candle-cloud · 10 months

Text

Here’s Virgil, Roman, & Logan as Faeries! Click on the images to increase quality!

—

Here’s Remus, Patton, & Janus

#sanders sides #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #fae folk #faeries #i need to stop spending so much time #this took me too long #send help 🥲#artists on tumblr

228 notes · View notes

delimeful · 2 years

Text

carry them home (3)

warnings: arguing, mentions of murder/death, tension, cliffhanger

A/N: previous chapter's mention of Silver Guard changed to Iron Guard because i got my lycanthropes and my faeries mixed up :P

“Good afternoon,” Janus started, because if he was to be stripped of the element of surprise, he was at least going to handle the situation with grace. “I’m afraid there’s been a bit of a misund– ahm.”

He cut his sentence short, since two undersized hands had descended to pull at his cheeks with a careless, borderline-painful level of strength. Janus didn’t allow himself to wince or sputter at the childish gambit, simply narrowing his eyes and raising his eyebrows slightly into something unamused as he felt crumbs of dried mud tumble off his face.

“Re!” the fire sprite hissed, frozen where he was hovering above the others. “What are you doing?”

“Instigating,” Re replied, the shit-eating grin audible even though he was still standing behind Janus. “He broke Lo’s magic, so I’m tryin’ to see if he can blow someone up with his brain or something.”

Did that imply the kid was trying to get himself blown up?

“My magic didn’t fail,” Logan snapped, hurriedly climbing back to his feet. “Remus, let go of him. Explain yourself.”

Janus resisted the urge to grimace, the sour taste of compulsion rolling on the back of his tongue and then fading away as his makeshift blood rune drained the command of all its power. “Right, because that wasn’t exactly what I was just doing.”

The effect of his words– clearly unburdened by Logan’s charmspeak– was instantaneous, all the children growing tense and shifting closer to each other. Logan’s face went pinched and cold, the fire sprite looked downright alarmed, and Vee looked alarmed and pissed.

On his shoulders, Remus’s hands bit down with bruising force, a clear warning. “Do you want me to kill him?” he asked eagerly, as though excited about the very concept.

“Now, now,” Janus smoothly intercepted before Logan could respond. “That would be a rather poor way to repay a debt, wouldn’t it?”

The words, as always, held weight.

The tufts of feathers that lined Logan’s pointed ears flattened back, giving him the look of an angry cat. “You said you wanted the ring. It was a fair exchange.”

The utter naivete of that little accusation was enough to make Janus sigh, only riling the siren up further. “Humans lie, kid. But for the record, I was actually talking about your sense of hospitality. I offered you no malintent back in town, even gave you advice, and for all my graciousness, I currently seem to be… ah, yes, abducted and held against my will.”

“You unraveled my disguise in a dangerous place,” Logan returned, though some of the certainty had faded from his sharp tone. “I had no promise of safety from you.”

“And clearly, nor I from you,” Janus returned dryly. “I can tell you now, I had no intention of revealing you to the townsfolk, or anyone for that matter.”

The information didn’t seem to be as reassuring as Janus would’ve liked.

“Humans lie,” Logan echoed, his wings mantling slightly as he crossed his arms.

Using his own words against him. The kid was a quick learner, Janus thought with a smidge of amusement.

“True, but the proof is in my actions, not my words. If I wanted to cause you harm, all I would’ve needed to do was pull off your hood in the middle of a town currently crawling with the Iron Guard,” he told them, wishing his hands were untied so he could spread them in an extravagant flourish.

If his magic resistance had startled the children into wariness, his mention of the most notorious fae-hunting guild on the continent was enough to make most of them drop into downright fear.

“The Guard?” Vee spat, shrugging off Pat’s hands to struggle to his feet. “You’re full of it. This is way out of their normal routes.”

How curious, that a fae would speak so confidently about the routes of a hunter guild. Janus would have worried about it more if it wasn’t so clear that there was no lost love between the two.

Instead, he met the child’s poisonous glare evenly. “It is. But there was a sighting of a winged witch at the nearby spring, and so they came swarming down in hopes they’d get a shot at their most notorious enemy.”

Vee’s dark-edged eyes went suddenly wide, and behind him, Patton clasped his hands together in front of his chest and squealed excitedly, sounding remarkably similar to river ice creaking under the force of a current.

Re whooped loudly in response, and the flickering edges of the fire sprite seemed to solidify slightly as a hesitant, hopeful smile grew on his face as well.

Janus narrowed his eyes curiously. That was… not at all the sort of reaction he’d expected for news about the Guard.

“We must be getting close!” Patton said, the edges of his voice still burbling slightly.

“It might not be him,” Vee warned, but even he seemed oddly heartened. “Until we see evidence of the Guard, we don’t even know if the human is being honest or not. And even if it’s true, it’s still probably not him.”

“But it could be him!” the fire sprite returned brightly. “This could be just the lead we need to get our quest back on track!”

“And we could fight hunters on the way!” Remus added, a malicious grin audible in his voice.

“Nope.” Vee pointed at him with the stubborn sternness of someone who’d clearly learned to cut these ideas off at the root. “We are not doing that.”

“There’s no reason to abandon our plan just because of a rumor of a sighting,” Logan cut in, running a hand through his wing to carefully smooth down his ruffled feathers. “Vee’s foresight is a far more reliable method of guidance than hearsay from humans.”

Vee’s face scrunched up with uncertainty. “Is it, though?”

“What if the witch needs our help?” Patton asked, fingers worrying at the edge of his damp shirt. “The Guard could be after him, he could be in danger!”

“We could rescue him!” the fire sprite chimed in, gesturing valiantly with an ember-red hand that was visible within the flames. “And then he’d have to take us with him, right?”

“What happened to figuring out if we could trust him first?” Vee protested, turning half-away from Janus to pointedly cross his arms at the optimistic duo. “We’re not risking getting captured by the Guard for an adult we don’t even know!”

The fire sprite scowled, but Logan cut him off before he could respond.

“If he can’t even defend himself against the Guard, he’s not strong enough to protect us,” he said coldly. “We’re better off trying to find the haven itself.”

The pieces finally clicked together in Janus’s mind.

Oh. How… ironic.

“Ah, I see,” Janus said, and the attention of every child there immediately snapped back to him. “You’re seeking Sanctuary.”

An overlapping cavalcade of voices responded, ranging from “You know about Sanctuary?” to “We don’t have time for this,” to “What would you know about Sanctuary?”

Seeing as Logan was looking a few seconds from deciding to try a second round of enchantment on him, Janus chose to focus on the last one. “I know that it’s not real.”

Patton’s eyes went watery so quickly, it was as though Janus had personally kicked a puppy in front of him or something. Virgil stepped in front of him like he could physically shield him from the words, making a noise like a very angry rattlesnake.

“Many fairytales have a considerable basis in reality,” Logan replied, his expression somehow becoming even more closed off. “That you choose to not believe in the possibility is not—,”

Janus couldn’t help the bitter snort, shaking his head. “Oh, I certainly believed it. Right up until we were standing at the supposed gilded gates and found nothing but dirt and ash.”

“You were seeking Sanctuary?” the fire sprite asked, drifting a bit closer. His feet barely skimmed the ground as he moved, Janus noted with mild curiosity. The sprite was certainly the most ethereal of the lot.

Janus shrugged, forcing a casual air over the old, infected wound that was his experience with Sanctuary. “Fae aren’t the only ones that want to get away from the Guard. I'm telling you now: you're wasting your time. Give it up.”

There was a short gap of silence as that sunk in, and then–

“Liar,” Vee accused, his voice rough and those inky tear tracks visibly darkening. “You don’t know anything!”

Janus rolled his eyes. “Of course, of course. Since I’m so clueless, I’m sure you all wouldn’t mind letting me be on my way?”

“Not a chance,” said Vee, in a tone that promised violence.

“No,” said Logan in the same moment, his tone considerably more contemplative.

“No?” Janus asked, raising an eyebrow in silent judgment of his decision-making skills.

“No,” Logan confirmed. “We’re going to continue on our path to Sanctuary, and you’re coming with us.”

“I’m what,” Janus said flatly.

He’s what?” Three other pre-puberty voices shrieked at varying levels of horror and/or glee.

“A new friend!” Patton cheered, possibly the only person in the clearing who was actually fine with this.

“No, Patton—,” Logan sighed. “We’re taking him prisoner. Having a human around will be advantageous, and if he’s as familiar with the Guard’s typical routes as he claims, it will decrease the risk of our journey significantly.”

“By introducing a whole new risk?” Vee asked, his hands twitching as though he wanted to grab Logan’s shoulders and shake the sense back into him.

“Forcing him is kind of mean, isn’t it?” Patton said with a frown. “Why don’t we just ask for his help, instead?”

“Because, at the moment, there is no evidence to suggest that he is at all trustworthy, and I am not willing to bet any of our lives on a human’s word,” Logan told him firmly. “Let me be entirely clear: if we aren’t taking him with us, we are killing him.”

Patton seemed almost as displeased about the possibility as Janus. “No killing!”

“Dibs on the body!” Remus shouted.

“Dibs on the murder,” Vee grumbled, still glaring.

“I dunno, Lo,” the fire sprite mused. “I’ve never heard of a quest where the guide is a human.”

Logan inhaled, pinched the bridge of his nose for a good few seconds, and then exhaled slowly with a sort of exhaustion that Janus suspected was a side effect of managing four other fae children.

“I suppose,” the siren said dryly, “that we’ll just have to be the first.”

This seemed to be enough to intrigue the other child, though Janus was under no illusion that the fire sprite would particularly care if they ended up choosing the more lethal method of ‘dealing with the human’.

The siren turned and approached him, his magic stirring tangibly in the air. “Shall we figure out the terms of our Deal, then?”

The hairs on the back of Janus’s neck prickled, old memories and phantom pains alike making themselves known at the offer.

In the back of his mind, a little voice encouraged him to turn the tables: offering him exactly the wording he needed to twist this Deal into something that would hurt the other party instead of him in a vicious whisper. It wouldn’t be hard. He’d tricked more powerful opponents before.

With a low exhale, he straightened his back and looked at the ones in front of him directly. The children in front of him, no matter their origins.

“No,” he told them all, his voice composed and unbending. “I’d prefer to be a prisoner over a casualty, but not if it requires making a Deal.

“Find another way to ensure I won’t betray you, or follow through on your promised threat and kill me.”

#sanders sides fic #sanders sides #Fae AU #ts janus #ts logan #ts virgil #ts remus #ts patton #ts roman #carry them home #cth #my writing #writing #janus-centric #i think.#sorry for posting this a day late i don't know how time works </3

137 notes · View notes