#aerinm writes

[aerinsfables]

Found this in my Google docs, too! I think I was trying to fit this scene into In The Darkness, but it just wouldn’t work. So I tailored it a little and now imagine it takes place idk somewhere during book 5 before Graulas torched Fablehaven I guess 🤷‍♀️

It’s a mini therapy session between Dale and Vanessa.

——

“Just having a low day?” he asked.

“I messed things up pretty badly.”

He leaned back against one of the porch’s support beams. “You know, if I hadn’t been pinned when you were revealed to be our traitor, I would’ve tried to kill you.”

She bowed her head. “I know.” He would’ve tried to kill her, and she would’ve done whatever it took to protect herself.

Dale looked out across the yard and was silent for a long pause. He glanced at her briefly before he admitted, “I’m glad I was pinned.”

That caught Vanessa’s interest. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said. His gaze remained focused on some point across the yard; Vanessa couldn’t tell exactly what he was looking at.

“Why?” she asked. “You have plenty of reasons to hate me. Everyone does. I don’t think Ruth will ever trust me again.”

Dale scratched at the scruff on his chin and turned his full attention to her. “I’ve never been particularly good at hating. It takes too much energy, and the days are already tiring enough as is.”

Vanessa didn’t know what to say. She was used to the sideways looks she attracted from what felt like everyone, the conversations which would cease the moment she stepped into a room, sensitive planning meetings which she wasn’t invited to attend.

“You think you’re the only person who’s ever made bad decisions? The only one who regrets their actions? The first person on earth to be duped by someone they’ve admired and trusted? Really?” He shook his head. “Nope.”

“You too?”

“Yes. Not the same circumstances, but yes.” He looked back out across the yard. “All we can do is try again.”

Vanessa turned her attention to a few meandering fairies across the yard as well. “I feel terrible,” she mumbled.

Dale was quiet for a moment, then said, “You should. But don’t stay in that place. Do something about it.”

“How do I redeem myself, though?” she asked. She craved a real answer from him - how could she prove that she had changed?

He began to shrug, but stopped midway and smirked. “Well, we do have a couple of kids with a knack for getting into a lot of trouble. I’m sure something’ll come up eventually. It might be a good move to start there.”

Vanessa leaned her chin onto her knee. “What about the interim?”

“What about teaching the troublemakers some skills?” he suggested.

For what felt like the first time in days, she smiled a little. “I’ll think on that,” she said. “Thank you, Dale. I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“Sure,” he said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go make sure the new barn door Hugo put in today is functional. The chores never end…”

She laughed under her breath a little as he grumbled while he walked away.

#fablehaven #aerinm writes #dale burgess #vanessa santoro #look I will die on this platonic ship hill #Dale and Vanessa as bffs makes me happy

[aerinmelina]

Got caught up in plotting a new fic a while ago, and also got lost on the chapter numbering while in the process. I thought I would share the progression of frustration, because this struck me as funny this morning.

#writing #plotting #behold my apparent creative process lol #aerinm writes #this is for a fablehaven fanfic and I love it even though it’s simultaneously killing me #anyway I hope someone finds this relatable 😂

[ao3feed-fablehaven]

Rely On Me

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2UNXgq6

by AerinM

In which I tear out everyone’s hearts and stomp all over them. Strap in, friends. Angst awaits us. Hurt/comfort.

Focused on Kendra's reactions to the events in Dragonwatch 2. Spoilers be here. Ye have been warned. Platonic Warren & Kendra bonding fic.

Words: 2592, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen

Characters: Warren Burgess, Kendra Sorenson

Relationships: Warren Burgess & Kendra Sorenson

Additional Tags: non-romantic, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, sorry not sorry for writing this, Angst, kendra's hurt, post dragonwatch 2, so dragonwatch spoilers lie here

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2UNXgq6

#ao3feed #fanfic #fablehaven

[aerinsfables]

I was going through my Google docs trying to find something I’d scribbled down idk however long ago, and I stumbled across this little oneshot that I wrote some time after Dragonwatch 3 was released and before Dragonwatch 4 came out. Thought I’d share it here. I don’t know why I didn’t post it before.

Again, this was written before Dragonwatch 4 was released, so the oneshot doesn’t fit into canon (unfortunately canon took a huge nose-dive IMO).

Enjoy some sweet brackendra. ❤️

———

She sits by herself at the edge of the ocean, overlooking rocky shores and crashing waves. The air is warm and humid, but at least the breeze from the beach - if she can call it that - helps to quell the heat a little. The coarse and bumpy expanse of rock which stretches out beneath her crossed legs does nothing to help ease the ache in her heart, but at least the view and scent of the water helps to speak some minute semblance of peace to her soul.

Her thoughts turn to her brother, as they often do these days. She wonders where he is, and worries over his well being. Is he hurt? Has he had enough to eat? Is he sleeping okay? Is Ronodin still influencing him?

Kendra constantly worries about how he feels. Her brother is lost. Maybe he has an idea of where he’s headed physically, but in all other ways he is lost, and she fears for him, she wants to protect him, longs to see his smile, misses his incessant teasing, cries for his absence. Her brother has become her best friend, and the pain she feels threatens to eat her alive.

Bracken’s footsteps approach her. She briefly smiles at the thought that he’s usually so quiet when he walks that he often seems to appear out of nowhere, so if she’s hearing him now - over the noise of the waves - that must mean he’s deliberately trying to be loud in order to give her warning of his approach. He’s still quiet, which broadens her smile a bit, but the momentary amusement flees when she sees the almost cautious expression on his face.

“May I sit with you?” he asks. Kendra nods her head in response, and he takes up residence next to her on the relatively flat expanse of rock she had chosen earlier. She rests her head on her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs, and watches as he situates himself.

“The Giant Queen lives at the foothills of those mountains,” Bracken says after a moment, and points to a particular peak off in the distance. “It will probably take us the better part of a full day to walk there.”

“Aren’t we waiting for Warren and the others?”

He shakes his head. “Warren said they’ll meet us at the Queen’s fortress. She’s the caretaker of the preserve, so she fields all visitors.”

“Do you think she’ll be angry that we entered somewhere other than the front gate?” Kendra can’t believe she didn’t think about this before now; she’d just gone along with what everyone else had suggested. Go with Bracken through the Fairy Queen’s shrine to Titan Valley. We’ll meet you there. Really? She hadn’t even thought that sneaking in might be problematic?

Her brain is clearly not functioning correctly.

Bracken smiles at her. “I don’t think so,” he says. “The Giant Queen and the Fairy Queen are at peace with one another.”

Her mind is still mostly with her brother. No wonder she’s overlooked something so simple. Bracken’s attitude reassures her enough that she decides she’ll let him worry about whether or not they’ll run into trouble with the Giant Queen. She looks at him and wonders how he can be so calm all of the time. Everything is wrong. The world is upside-down and on the brink of collapse again.

Bracken is collected.

Seth is missing.

She feels weak at this moment, and she hates it, but she can’t seem to pull herself out of it. She hides her face in her knees and tries to shrink in on herself as emotion overwhelms her.

One tentative hand falls on her shoulder, and then she’s enveloped in a hug. “We’ll get him back, Kendra,” he says.

“Sure,” she replies while tears fall from her eyes. She wants to believe him, and she hopes he’s right, but doubt overrides her thoughts. Doubt and worry. So much worry.

“We will,” he states with confidence. “There was uncertainty in his demeanor. He wants to be true to himself. He wants to do what’s right, and he wants to be a true hero. He’s just trying to figure out how to be that person.”

He pauses for a moment, then continues. “If hope were lost, Kendra, then Seth wouldn’t be second-guessing himself. The mere fact that he is unsure of everything speaks volumes about the situation. Your brother is strong. He is kind, and he wants to help those who are in need. He will come back to you. He will figure out who he wants to be, and he will come back to you.”

A loud sniffle escapes her. “You don’t know that.”

“I do know that. I don’t know whether it will happen in a day, a month, or a year, but I know it.”

She knows he is trying to be kind and reassuring, but she can’t take it anymore. Thoughts flow from her mouth without filtration. “How are you always so sure of yourself?”

Her words sound more biting than she intends, but at this moment she doesn’t care. She’s confused, she’s never handled confusion well, and she’s frustrated that he’s not understanding her. How could he? He’s always so cool and collected, so self-possessed and confident. Kendra has had many wonderful moments of confidence in herself, but never so constant as Bracken, who she’s never seen waver. He makes decisions and then deals with the ramifications of those decisions gracefully. She’s never seen him lose his temper, not truly, and she’s never seen him doubt himself.

She’s envious of him in that respect.

“I know who I am,” he tells her. His tone of voice does not betray any of the emotions he may be feeling at the moment, which bothers Kendra a little more.

She sneaks a peek at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

His expression remains impassive. She can tell that he’s pulled a careful mask over his face, and she doesn’t understand why, and it only serves to confuse her more.

“It means that you need to decide who you are, too,” he explains. His words aren’t unkind, but they also aren’t satisfying.

“I know who I am,” she replies.

“Do you?” he asks.

She narrows her gaze at him. “What do you mean?”

He bumps his folded hands against his mouth a few times and straightens up before speaking again. “You are Kendra Sorenson,” he states. “Daughter of Marla and Scott, sister of Seth. You are intelligent, honest, kind, and courageous. You are fairykind, and as such, you have the unique ability to bridge gaps between many creatures of light and humans. You are of great importance to your family, your friends, and the world at large.”

Kendra doesn’t reply. His words flatter her, but she still doesn’t understand what he’s trying to do.

“You are worthy of all of the good which comes to you in life. You deserve it. The kindness which has been shown to you, the powers you have been endowed with, the affection which is freely given to you; you deserve it all.

“The problem, Kendra, is that you don’t believe any of the things I just said. At least not all of them. Not truly. So, I ask - who are you? Who do you believe you are? Because, ultimately, what matters most is your own opinion of yourself.”

She feels her eyebrows scrunch together in her bafflement. “You think I should be… prideful?”

Bracken smiles a little, then says, “Pride and humility are opposite of each other, and the best place to be is between the two points. If you wander too far toward pride, you’ll become self-centered and vain. If you move too closely toward humility, however, you can lose your sense of self and forget your value. Neither extremity is healthy.”

She’s frustrated and she doesn’t really know why. “I’m not any more special than anyone else,” she says.

“You don’t know how special you are,” he counters. “Kendra Sorenson, handmaiden to the Fairy Queen. Kendra Sorenson, slayer of Gorgrog the Demon King. Kendra Sorenson, who treatied with the Underking. Kendra Sorenson, who has worn one of the five crowns. Kendra Sorenson, sister of Seth Sorenson, who together are the Siblings of Day and Night. Kendra Sorenson, who has solved complicated riddles and puzzles, who has bravely volunteered and sacrificed her comfort and safety in order to bring peace to the world on multiple occasions. Kendra Sorenson, who loves her family with her whole heart, who will stop what she’s doing and interrupt her routine to help someone in need. Kendra Sorenson, my personal savior twice over.

“Every time you are faced with a challenge, you find a way to rise above it,” Bracken continues. “I have no doubt - not a single one - that this challenge will result in success for you.”

He places a reassuring hand on her shoulder and looks into her eyes with such sincerity that Kendra feels her face warm. They stare at each other for several long moments, and then Kendra relaxes her body and falls into his embrace.

“Thank you,” she mumbles as tears fall from her eyes once more. She quakes, and his arms wrap around her more tightly. “Thank you.”

#fablehaven #dragonwatch #brackendra #aerinm writes #hurt/comfort #fluff

[aerinsfables]

Flower Shop AU, Part 10

🎶 it’s about damn time 🎶

This one went on waaaaaay too long, so this part shall be split in half. I will post the second half once I’m done writing it. Thanks for sticking this out with me! I’ve been swamped with work and with being an awesome mom. :) Feels good to write a bit again.

Read part 9 here!

———

Seven months later, on a bright but chilly Sunday afternoon, an already-exasperated Bracken led a somewhat nervous Kendra to the front door of his family home. He knew exactly how this evening was going to go: open the door, and Kendra would immediately be whisked away by his sisters, who were bound to overshare about him and his childhood for hours on end. They’d all have dinner together, Father would give him way too many knowing glances over their meal, and Mother would be so pleased to finally have Kendra over that she’d be smug about it. There’d be laughter, Kendra would fit right in, she’d be fawned over, and Bracken would be on the receiving end of much teasing.

“I apologize for my family in advance,” he said, pausing in front of the door.

Kendra squeezed his hand. “They can’t be that bad.”

“For you? Oh, no. I expect you’ll have a wonderful evening. It’s me who is about to be thoroughly ragged on.”

She laughed. “And I thought I was nervous.”

Bracken smiled back at her. “I’m being dramatic,” he admitted. “My sisters are going to be unbearable, though.”

Kendra laughed again, which made him smile more.

“I’m quite fond of you,” he stated.

“I like you, too,” she replied before standing on her tiptoes and planting a kiss on his cheek.

He could feel his face warming up, and released her hand to pull her into an embrace, but before he could quite do so, Enemy Number One opened the door and squealed. “Ahhhh! Look, everyone! Bracken is here, and he’s brought a lovely young woman with him!”

Kendra’s eyes widened a bit in surprise, Bracken surmised, before Enemies Number One, Two and Three grabbed hold of her arms and ushered her inside.

Bracken shook his head and followed behind the swarm of ladies, and made sure to close the front door behind him.

“I’m Elowen,” Enemy Number One announced. “The youngest of Bracken’s sisters.” She pointed to Enemies Two and Three, introduced them to Kendra as “Lizelle and Iolanthe, the lawyer and the seamstress,” then proceeded to gush over how gorgeous Bracken’s girlfriend was.

Girlfriend. He’d gone so long without one, he’d forgotten how nice it was to be able to say that. His chest felt light and cheerful, despite being surrounded by far too many crooning sisters at the same time.

Lizelle caught Bracken’s gaze and sent him a pointed look. “You look happy,” she observed.

“I am,” he replied as he snapped out of his reverie. Elowen was speaking rapid-fire at Kendra, who didn’t seem to be absorbing any of the statements which were being thrown at her. “Please stop harassing Kendra.” He walked toward his girlfriend and held out his hand to her, but Elowen slapped it away.

“We’re not harassing her,” his sister stated.

Iolanthe clicked her tongue in disapproval - whether at him or at Elowen, Bracken wasn’t entirely sure.

“You’re the first person Bracken has ever brought home,” Lizelle explained to Kendra. “I’m not sure if he’s told you that or not. He’s probably been dreading this moment, because he knew how much of a fuss there would be.” She grinned, and Bracken closed his eyes and ran one of his hands down his face.

“Don’t make me regret bringing her here,” he warned all three of his present sisters.

“Or what? You’ll never let us see her again? Might as well get used to it, Bracken. We see how smitten you are,” Elowen teased. “Yep. I get the feeling you’ll be around for a long time,” she said to Kendra, who blushed.

So it begins, he mused to himself. “Where’s Jasmine?” he asked.

Elowen smiled brightly and sighed in a truly overdramatic fashion. “My lovely, beautiful Jasmine is with Laurel and the girls at the moment,” she said. “They were picking out flower girl dresses, but should be back any time now.”

“Without you?” Lizelle asked.

“Divide and conquer. I get to choose other things for our wedding.”

“Wait - Laurel’s in town?” Bracken asked.

“Yes,” Lizelle said. “She heard you were bringing Kendra over, and decided she needed to come meet her.”

Bracken smiled despite himself. If anyone could help him manage his other three sisters - well, Iolanthe wasn’t so bad, he supposed - it would be Laurel. As the eldest child, and as a mother herself, she had a knack for conflict management.

(Also, she came with two energetic nieces who Bracken positively adored, especially when their presence offered him a means of escape from his sisters’ teasing. Bonus points.)

Lizelle led Kendra over to the living room and sat her down on a sofa. Bracken and his other two sisters followed along, and Bracken sat himself down next to Kendra before one of his sisters could take his spot. Elowen frowned at him, but he just smiled and waved at her in response, then took hold of Kendra’s hand and gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. She opened her hand and they wove their fingers together.

Iolanthe smiled brilliantly at the sight, and turned to Lizelle, who also grinned. Bracken felt his face heating up again. He cleared his throat. “So, Kendra, these are three of my sisters. Elowen ran introductions very quickly, but I’ll do so again. Laurel, who’s not here yet, is the oldest of all of us. She has two children, and lives about two hours away from here with her husband. Then there’s Iolanthe.” The sister in question smiled and raised her hand. “She is a very talented, self-employed seamstress, and she loves other forms of art as well. You should see some of the dresses and other clothes or blankets she has made; perhaps she can show you some of her portfolio later?”

Iolanthe blushed. “I’d love to,” she replied. “If that’s alright with you,” she hurriedly added, her comment directed toward Kendra.

“Of course,” Kendra said. “I’d really like that.”

Bracken smiled and continued. “Next is Lizelle,” he began. “She recently obtained her law degree, and works for a law firm in the city.”

“What type of law do you practice?” Kendra asked.

“Family, for now,” Lizelle replied. “I think I want to head into more of a corporate counsel or contract counsel role eventually, but I need more experience under my belt first. Right now I help people with their wills and testaments, prenuptial agreements, powers of attorneys, I help people set up trust funds for their kids. Things like that.”

“It sounds interesting.”

“It can be,” Lizelle admitted. “Like I said, I’m more interested in other areas of law, but I’ll get there.”

Bracken gestured toward his final sister. “Elowen is the baby of the family, and she’s the one who bombarded you earlier.”

“Excuse me — you’re the baby,” Elowen corrected. “I am the favorite.”

His eyes rolled out of instinct. “Favorite. Sure. We’ll go with that, Miss I-Got-Caught-Skipping-School-At-Least-Once-Every-Month.”

Elowen grinned. “You forgot, I’m also Miss Planted-Frogs-In-Bracken’s-Bed-When-He-Was-Tiny.”

“I couldn’t sleep in that bed for days,” he muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Kendra laughed, probably at their antics. “You remind me of Seth and I,” she explained when he looked at her.

“Seth?” Elowen asked.

“My brother,” Kendra continued. “He’s younger than me, and likes to pull pranks and generally cause a lot of mischief. Although he’s mellowing out a little now that he’s getting older.”

Bracken decided not to bring up the fact that Seth had regularly been pestering him to propose to Kendra at random hours of the day for the past two weeks. It was far too soon for that, Bracken had insisted. Seth hadn’t seemed to care; the proof was in his text messages. His meddling was part of the reason why Bracken had brought Kendra to his family’s home for Sunday dinner today. That, and well… it was the right time.

Elowen clapped her hands. “Another troublemaker? I must meet this brother of yours.”

“I don’t think that’s a great idea right now,” Bracken interrupted. “One of you is enough to handle in one sitting. We don’t need two.”

Kendra laughed again, while Elowen pouted. “Well, you’d better make sure that our first meeting isn’t at your wedding. Something might explode in that case.”

“Oh, knock it off, Elowen,” Lizelle chastised. “You’ll meet him at some point, and I’m sure the earth will fall off its axis because of your combined chaotic power. Look at them. They’re marriage material. It’ll happen.”

Bracken planted his face into one of his hands again as he blushed, but turned to look at Kendra when she squeezed his other one.

“We’re young,” she said. “We have time.”

He smiled at her. “We do have time,” he replied. He raised their joined hands and kissed the back of hers.

Pink filled her cheeks and she looked to her left, where Bracken saw all three of his present sisters grinning at them. “Oh, shut up,” he muttered.

Elowen placed a hand on her heart and looked at her other two sisters while feigning injury. “Why, Bracken, I don’t believe we’ve said anything. Why must you wound us so?” she asked.

“Your faces said everything,” he replied.

“We’re home!” a voice called out from the front door. There were a lot of bustling noises, and then the unmistakable sounds of children chattering excitedly. Bracken kissed Kendra’s cheek and said, “My nieces are here,” before he stood up from the couch and walked over to the front entrance of the house. Kendra stayed where she was.

Upon seeing him, the two little girls shouted, “Uncle Bracken!” and proceeded to glue themselves to his legs while he laughed and tickled them. Laurel and Jasmine stood inside the hallway, the former looking decidedly more worn out than the latter, and Bracken embraced his eldest sister, trailing his nieces behind him as they giggled and refused to let go of his ankles.

“Hi, Bracken,” Laurel said as she smiled. “I see my daughters have staked their claims.”

“They can’t remain tethered to my legs if they want to play outside on the swings later,” he announced. As expected, this caught the girls’ attention.

“Swings?!” Piper, the older one, cried out. She leapt up from her position on top of Bracken’s foot and ran for the door to the backyard.

“In a minute,” Savannah, the younger one, complained while she better secured herself around Bracken’s knee. “I want Uncle Bracken to walk around some more first.” She looked up at him with her best puppy dog eyes, and he pretended to be wounded by her cuteness.

“I can’t bear it,” he played along. “Her adorable face is too much to refuse.”

Laurel laughed a little, then turned her gaze toward Kendra and asked him, “Is that her?”

Bracken looked at Kendra and found her still sitting down on the couch in the living room, looking back at him while his other sisters and Jasmine crowded around her, no doubt asking her a million different questions again. She smiled and waved at him, and he repeated her actions back to her. “Yes, that’s her,” he replied to Laurel. “Her name is Kendra.”

“She’s beautiful,” Laurel said, then returned her attention to her brother. “You look good, Bracken. Happiness looks good on you.”

Despite himself, he felt a little bashful at her comment. “Thank you,” he replied. “How have you been?”

“I’m well,” she said. “Jordan wished he could come this time around, but he has a few important business meetings tomorrow and Tuesday. He’ll come with us next time.”

“Uncle Bracken! Waaaaaaaalk!” Savannah shouted. He looked down at the little girl who clung to his knee. Piper had given up at some point and had instead run outside to play in the backyard.

“You wish to go for a walk, hmm?” he asked.

“Yes!” she cried, a glorious grin on her lips.

“Well then, a walk we shall have.” He moved toward the backyard as quickly as he could, and Savannah giggled so hard that he thought she would lose her grip and fall off his foot. When he reached the back door, he leaned over and picked her up, then flipped her upside-down and over his shoulder, and announced as she laughed even harder, “We’ll be outside!”

“Bracken, dear, don’t drop my granddaughter,” Mother called as she exited the kitchen.

“I would never!” he replied, then pretended to drop Savannah, who screamed at first, but immediately resumed laughter when he caught her in his arms. He couldn’t hold back his grin. “You didn’t think I’d actually drop you, did you?”

“Dinner will be ready in five minutes,” Mother warned. “Your father is finishing the salad and rolls.”

“We’ll come in.”

“Don’t get them all dirty,” she insisted. “Now. I’ve got a certain girlfriend to greet before we all sit down.” She wiped her hands on the towel she held, and made her way over to where Kendra was.

“Uncle Bracken!“

He turned to find that Piper had opened the back door and was calling to him. “Uncle Bracken, push me on the swing!”

“The swing?” he asked. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes!” she shouted. “Way up high!”

Bracken put Savannah down onto her feet, told the girls, “Last one to the swingset’s a rotten egg,” and then ran outside and listened to their happy cries as they chased after him.

He caught a glimpse of his mother embracing a smiling Kendra before the door to the backyard closed.

#fablehaven #brackendra #aerinm writes #flower shop au #in which there are so many characters that I battled over whether or not to actually write this #then I decided that this is all self-indulgent anyway so who cares really #also in which Bracken is dramatic and ready for his doom #and Kendra is fawned over #and I named Bracken’s sisters whatever I wanted to name them bc forget canon

[aerinsfables]

Never Have I Ever

The Fablehaven gang plays Never Have I Ever. Not really shippy, but will tag for relevant ships.

---

“Never have I ever become an albino courtesy of a revenant,” Seth announced. His face expressed glee as Warren and Tanu each lowered one finger in response. He was down to three fingers left, himself, and Kendra thought he seemed determined to remain in the game.

“Well, never have I ever held Vasilis,” Tanu retorted. The smile dropped off of Seth’s face as he lowered one of his remaining fingers with a quiet ‘nooo’, and Kendra laughed a little as she also lowered one of hers.

“Never have I ever broken my leg by jumping off a roof,” Dale said, which prompted Warren to roll his eyes and lower another finger. 

“It’s hard to play this game with people you actually know,” Warren protested. “I was nine at the time, yes it was a stupid choice, thank you for reminding me, now let me think for a minute.” He tapped his chin with the side of his hand and seemed to think for a moment. “Never have I ever… had a body double,” he said as he winked at Kendra, who stuck her tongue out at him and lowered one of her fingers. She had the most points left in the group thus far, so she’d been expecting some targeted statements, but still.

“That’s a cheap shot,” she said as she clicked her tongue in disapproval.

He shrugged. “Hey. There’ve been three of you. It’s not my fault that you’re the only one here who’s experienced that.”

“It’s not as fun as you’d think it is,” she replied.

“My turn,” Vanessa said. “Never have I ever spoken with the Fairy Queen.”

Seth let out a loud, “HA!” and gave Vanessa a high five. Warren applauded. Kendra sighed as she placed another finger down. Bracken followed suit as well. “Clever,” he said, sarcasm laced in his tone.

“Always,” Vanessa responded. “It’s your turn, Kendra.”

Well. Two can play at this game, Kendra thought. And, really, she’d meant for her next statement to be a jibe at Warren and Vanessa anyway.

“Never have I ever been engaged to marry anyone,” she said with confidence.

She’d expected the narrowed eyes from Warren and Vanessa as they each lowered a finger. She’d expected Seth’s guffaws and Tanu and Dale’s smiling eyes.

She had not expected for Bracken to lower one of his fingers, too.

Kendra turned her attention to the young man to her immediate left, who cleared his throat in an obvious - and vain - attempt to move the conversation forward, his face a lovely shade of pink. “Excuse me?” she asked, probably sounding about as shocked as she actually was. She wasn’t the only surprised one, though. Seth shouted, “What?!” at the same time that Warren announced it was story time while positively everyone’s eyes turned to Bracken, whose face flushed a darker shade of pink.

Bracken opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsuccessful at producing any words. “I… it was a long time ago, and an accident,” he said. “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“How do you accidentally get engaged to someone?” Dale asked. One eyebrow was pointed upward, and he appeared to be rethinking his entire opinion of the young man in question.

Kendra, for her part, was speechless. She didn’t know what to think. It was most definitely story time indeed.

“I… there was… it was…” Bracken cleared his throat again and scratched the back of his head, his gaze firmly fixed upon the table in front of him. “I was younger then. Still getting used to human socialization, still wandering between the wilderness and civilization. I’d decided to spend some time closer to towns, was low on human currency, and desired to reside inside an inn for a time. There were people in the street who advertised a sword-fighting competition, which offered a cash reward, so I decided I’d participate.”

Still unsure of what to think, Kendra furrowed her eyebrows. Where was this going? 

“I’ve… I’m good with swords. The competition wasn’t particularly difficult to win, although the last human I faced that specific day was quite skilled. I digress. I won the contest, was given a large sum of money in a very nice bag, and was also told at that moment that I’d won the hand of the local princess.” 

His face burned red. Kendra didn’t know whether to laugh or smack him upside the head. Maybe both? She refrained from reacting for the moment.

Seth, however, was not so well-controlled. He laughed heartily.

“‘The local princess’? When was this?” Warren asked.

“Shhh, he’s still telling the story,” Tanu said. “I want to hear this. Wish we had some popcorn.”

Bracken looked like he was marching toward his death. “A long, long time ago,” he said, “Somewhere in Ireland. Her name was Aoife MacMurrough.”

“So… did you marry her?” Dale asked.

His eyes grew large. “No!” he nearly shouted. He made eye contact with Kendra, who found it awkward to look at him right at that moment, so she diverted her attention to her hands, which still displayed the five points she’d managed to maintain.

“I tried to tell them that I thought this was a competition solely for money, and that I wasn’t interested in marriage, but the king and his vassals wouldn’t take no for an answer. The rules were apparently clear, although they’d somehow flown over my head. I snuck out of town that night and stayed far away from humans for quite a long time after that. I never found out what happened. Of course, I’d also fled to Greece and other countries and did not return to Ireland for a couple hundred years, but that’s a different story.” He reached toward Kendra and lightly touched her shoulder. “I don’t even know what Princess Aoife looked like.”

“How did you not know that you would wind up promised in marriage to a princess?” Vanessa asked, disbelief and disapproval very much evident in her statement. “Did you not listen to the rules? Did the people announcing the competition not make that clear? How is it possible to enter into a contest like that and not know what you’re fighting for?” 

Kendra didn’t entirely appreciate the tone of voice Vanessa used, but she was incredibly grateful that her friend had been able to voice even just some of the questions she had on her own mind.

Bracken narrowed his eyes. “I was new to Gaelic, and it was mostly still a spoken language at that point in time,” he replied. “I still don’t know how I missed that bit of information. I blame my empty stomach and longing for a soft bed to sleep in for the night.”

“He was - he was hangry,” Seth said, then rolled off into laughter again. Warren and Tanu joined in a bit as well, the earlier looking up something on his phone.

“It was a poor decision. I know. Go ahead and laugh,” Bracken stated. He once again reached for Kendra. “I’m sorry,” he said in a quiet voice.

Sorry for what? Why should he be sorry? Should she be upset? Did she have a right to be upset? Was she upset? All of those questions and more buzzed about in Kendra’s brain, but she refrained from voicing any of them. 

“Wait. Aoife MacMurrough?” Warren asked, his eyes practically bulging out of his head.

“Yes…?” Bracken responded.

Warren chuckled as he read from his phone. “Red Aoife. Married off by Saint Patrick himself. Warrior princess. That Aoife?”

“I don’t know!” Bracken insisted at the same time that Tanu said, “Saint Patrick, huh?” 

“Bracken almost married a leprechaun?!” Seth cried out before yet more raucous laughter escaped from his body.

Dale spoke next, after a brief pause to allow for excess joviality from the company who sat around the table.

“Well. That is an odd circumstance,” he said. “I’ve bailed Warren out of quite a few odd circumstances over the years, but never anything like that. Right, Warren?”

Warren laughed. “Nope.”

“Alright then. I think my next move is to say, never have I ever been accidentally engaged to marry someone,” Dale continued. He innocently blinked at Bracken a few times, who looked dumbfounded and then lowered another finger.

“I’m never going to live this down, am I?” he asked.

Everyone shook their heads while Kendra finally reacted in laughter. The rest of the table followed after her example.

“Are you upset with me?” he asked her.

Kendra let laughter take over her body for a minute, then wiped a tear from one of her eyes. “Upset?” she asked as more giggles escaped from her lips. “Bracken. You are the only person I know who could have done that.” Giggles. Somehow, this didn’t seem out of character for him. The poor, oblivious unicorn. 

“What other secrets are you hiding?!” Seth demanded.

Bracken folded his arms across his chest and refused to entertain that particular train of thought. “Nope. One story is enough for tonight,” he said. “Come on. Surely all of you have made poor decisions in your young lives as well.”

“Sure, but I never wound up promising myself to someone else by accident,” Vanessa shot back.

Bracken only rolled his eyes at that comment. “I believe it was my turn, next, before Dale stole it from me,” he said as he leveled Vanessa with a cool glare. “Never have I ever controlled someone in their sleep.”

Vanessa ran out of fingers at that one. “Very funny.”

“Always,” he retorted, copying her tone of voice from earlier on in the evening.

Kendra opened her mouth to interrupt them before they could launch into one of their infamous arguments, but Tanu beat her to the punch.

“Never have I ever been near Zzyzx,” he said.

Everyone else at the table groaned and lowered a finger, except Dale, who simply smiled. Warren ran out of points, Seth only had one left, Bracken had two, Tanu and Dale were each down to three, and Kendra still held onto four.

“Your turn again, Seth,” Tanu said once the damage had been assessed.

“Never have I ever… um…” he looked at his sister. “Never have I ever written letters to a dragon prince.”

Kendra could feel her face grow warm as she lowered a finger. “Warren and Vanessa are out, so it’s my turn,” she announced.

“A dragon prince?” Bracken asked. This time, his eyebrows were raised in surprise.

“I knew him as Gavin in his human form,” she said with a sigh. “He was actually Navarog.”

If Bracken’s eyes could have grown larger, Kendra was sure that they would have at that statement. “Excuse me?” he asked, in much the same tone as she’d asked him earlier. “I feel that another story time is in order.”

“Nah, we all know that story already,” Warren announced. “You two talk about that one between yourselves later. It’s Kendra’s turn now.”

“But-“

“Never have I ever drank an enlargement potion,” Kendra interrupted.

Bracken narrowed his gaze at her, but dropped the subject. For the moment.

Tanu lowered one finger. “Ouch, Kendra. I feel like I’ve been singled out.”

“Sorry, Tanu,” she replied with a smile.

Bracken huffed. “Never have I ever been duped by a demon dragon,” he stated.

He was astonished to find that everyone except Dale put their fingers down. Seth ran out of points, Tanu had one left, Kendra was down to three, and Dale and Bracken were still at two.

“All of you?!” he asked.

Dale shrugged his shoulders. “I never met the guy,” he said. “They all went adventuring with him.”

“Except me,” Vanessa elaborated. “I probably would’ve caught on if I had been there, though.”

“Let’s not start this up,” Warren said at the same time that Dale announced, “Never have I ever been in prison.”

Just like that, Tanu was out of points, Kendra had two, and Bracken had only one left.

“Never have I ever been trapped in a barn,” Kendra said. Dale laughed and lowered a finger. One left.

“Never have I ever had coffee,” Bracken said. 

“Really?” Dale asked as he ran out of points. “Never?”

“Not once,” Bracken replied. 

“How-?”

“You were in prison when coffee as a drink was invented, weren’t you?” Kendra laughed.

Bracken’s ears turned pink. “Maybe,” he admitted.

“You’re getting a cup in the morning,” Dale vowed. “I’ll make it for you.”

“Thanks…?” Bracken asked, sounding unsure whether or not he even cared. He turned toward Kendra, who still had two points left. “No coffee for you?”

She shook her head. “I don’t like the smell.”

“Who doesn’t like the smell of coffee?” Dale asked, sounding utterly flabbergasted.

“Kendra,” Seth, Warren, Tanu and Vanessa all replied in unison.

Dale stared straight at Kendra, who laughed when he whispered with so much melodrama that he could only be Warren’s brother, “But. You were my favorite.”

“Hey!” Warren protested. “I’m your favorite!”

“Well, you might be now,” Dale said. His gaze turned back toward Kendra. “How can you not like coffee? Coffee is life.”

“I… I didn’t realize you liked it so much,” Kendra replied.

“The way into Dale’s heart is a healthy serving of coffee every morning,” Vanessa said.

“She makes the best coffee ever,” Dale confirmed. “No other woman will ever take her place.”

Kendra wasn’t sure what was happening. This game was getting ridiculous. Whose turn was it, anyway? She recounted the latest movies and realized that this game was down to just her and Bracken, he only had one point, and it was her turn. 

She smirked. “Bracken,” she began.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Never have I ever won a sword-fighting competition,” she announced.

Bracken lowered his pinky, while Kendra waved her two remaining fingers in his face. “I win!” she taunted.

“That’s not fair,” he playfully complained.

“Totally fair,” Warren insisted.

“I lost three points from one story!” he exclaimed.

Seth shrugged. “It be like that sometimes.”

“Kendra survives the night,” Tanu stated. “Now we all know who to target in the next round.”

Vanessa raised her eyebrows in a somewhat threatening manner which made Kendra wonder what other embarrassing material was going to be paraded about that evening. She looked around to find similar expressions on most everyone else’s faces, too, and laughed when she realized that she would be running out of points very quickly. “No repeats from this round,” she said.

“That’s fine with me,” Tanu said. Everyone else nodded and voiced their agreement.

“Great! I’ll go first!” Seth announced. “Never have I ever run away from a fiancée!”

Bracken planted his face into the palm of his hand while everyone at the table enjoyed a solid laugh.

#fablehaven #aerinm writes #warrenessa #brackendra #again this isn't really shippy so don't come at me with protests about how it's not fluffy enough lol #have some nonsense #it's been a while hahahaha

[aerinsfables]

Flower Shop AU, part 8. :) I’ll add a “read more” link from my laptop later.

Read part 7 here!

———

It was uncomfortably warm that Mother’s Day weekend. Humidity was high, even despite the absence of clouds in the sky, and it was only mid-morning, so it was bound to get warmer as the day progressed. Bracken was happy to help his family’s friends and business partners, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss the air conditioning of his usual flower shop. Berrigan and Camira, the owners’ adult children, had done their best to angle a couple of fans around the tent, but it wasn’t much of a relief.

Bracken was busy putting bouquets together with Jarrah and Lowanna, who were the owners of Bluebell Farm. His mother would arrive soon to help as well, since he’d called for reinforcements. It took a good 5-10 minutes to assemble a nice arrangement, even as simple as the ones they were creating that day, but it was only 9am and they were already completely out of stock and had a line of probably fifteen people waiting for more bouquets to purchase. Berrigan and Camira handled the sales and customer service, and Bracken did not envy them that particular day; all of the Karens in town had apparently decided to show up at the market. Berrigan tried to appease them, whereas Camira wasn’t above just straight up telling them to leave if they got out of hand.

A bright laugh sounded in the air, and Bracken looked up with a smile. Mother had arrived. He didn’t know what she was laughing at, but he’d recognize her voice anywhere.

“Aaahhh, thank you so much,” Berrigan greeted Bracken’s mother.

“It’s no trouble,” she replied. “Our shop is very adequately managed at the moment. I’m happy to lend a hand.”

“Hello, Mother,” Bracken chirped. “I’m glad to see you.”

“Likewise, my son,” she replied. She embraced Jarrah and Lowanna, then rubbed her hands together and gestured about the tent. “What do we have here?”

“Roses, carnations, and lilacs are over there,” Bracken pointed to one corner of the tent. “Hydrangeas, hyacinths, daffodils and tulips over there. Crocuses and forsythias are here, along with peonies, irises, freesias, and a few different types of lilies. There are a few buckets of nice greenery near the lilies. Several sets of shears are floating around somewhere, too.”

“Rubber bands, plastic bags, water bottles and paper wrappings are underneath the display tables,” Camira directed. She kissed Bracken’s mom on her cheek. “You’ve missed some of my client-butt-kicking action already.”

Mother clicked her tongue. “That mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble some day,” she reprimanded with a smile. “Oh, Bracken, before I jump in - I ran into Kendra and her mother just before I reached this stall. I don’t suppose you have a break scheduled for any time soon, do you?”

Bracken felt a little suspicious at the tone in her voice; it was as though she knew something he didn’t. “I wasn’t planning to take a break,” he said as he gestured to the line of customers which was now probably around twenty in number.

She frowned at him. “You can’t spare ten minutes?”

“This is the busiest day of the year,” he said. “I’m needed here.”

“And in ten minutes, you can help one or two people. There will still be plenty of work to accomplish when you get back. Go take a break and say hello to that wonderful young woman. Invite her for dinner on Sunday.”

“Ooh, Bracken, inviting a girl over for family dinner? Getting serious, are we?” Camira teased.

Bracken grumbled in response. “We’re not dating,” he stated. “We just meet for coffee in the mornings.”

“Coffee dates? Every morning?” Camira teased further.

“Not every morning,” Bracken protested. It wasn’t like they met up on their days off, after all.

(He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought of meeting with her on their days off, though he wasn’t about to admit that. It was too soon.)

Mother smiled and shook her head fondly at her son.

Well, if this was any indication of how his sisters would react to Kendra’s presence in their parents’ home, then he most certainly was not going to invite her for dinner on Sunday. That was for sure.

He finished the bouquet he had been working on, wrapped it in crisp white paper, and tied a plastic bag around the ends of the stems with a rubber band. It was snatched up as soon as he placed it on the display table, and the customer who selected the floral arrangement made their way over to Berrigan in order to complete their purchase.

“Go,” Mother insisted. “Take a break, say hello, then come back and we’ll compete to see who can make the most bouquets in an hour.”

Bracken smiled and waved at his mom. He knew she would continue to pester him about it until he actually walked away. “I’ll be right back,” he promised.

“Say hello to your girlfriend for me,” Camira teased.

“Not my girlfriend,” Bracken called back.

Knowing that Kendra and Marla were at the market, and being able to tell where they actually were within said market, were two completely different things. Bracken walked down several aisles of stalls which sold everything from fresh vegetables to cookies to windchimes, but he didn’t see them. Well. It wasn’t like he couldn’t text her later. They’d exchanged phone numbers before he’d left the barbeque a couple weeks back, after all, and they chatted almost daily.

“Oh, hey! Bracken!”

He turned to his left and found Kendra waving at him. She was with her mother, standing in queue at a lemonade stand, and she smiled brightly at him. A similar expression probably crossed his face as well; he couldn’t help it, her cheerfulness was contagious. He jogged up to the ladies, careful to avoid collisions with other people who were milling about, and gave both Marla and Kendra a quick hug once he made it to where they were. “Good morning,” he said to them.

“Good morning,” Kendra replied back.

“We ran into your mother a few minutes ago,” Marla said. “Kendra introduced us. She’s a lovely woman.”

Bracken smiled. “She sent me out to find you,” he admitted. “I can’t be away for long - there is a long line at our tent - but I wanted to say a quick hello since you’re here.”

“We won’t keep you,” Marla said, “but I’ll send you on your way with lemonade for everyone.”

“That is very generous of you,” Bracken began. Before he could turn down her offer, however, Kendra piped up.

“You’re not allowed to say no. There’s six of you, right? Running the stall?”

He rolled his eyes in what he hoped was a playful manner as he continued to smile. He’d learned that Kendra could be quite stubborn when she desired to be so, and once she’d decided on something, it was often easier to just go along with it. “Yes,” he admitted. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Kendra replied with a bright smile. He loved it when she did that. It was like her whole face glowed.

Five minutes into the future found Bracken heading back to the Bluebell tent with Marla and Kendra in tow, each of them carrying far too many lemonades in their hands. Camira clapped when she saw him returning. “Presents?” she asked with enthusiasm.

Bracken nodded. “Courtesy of Kendra and her mother, Marla,” he said as he gestured to the women who had accompanied him.

Camira reached for one of the lemonades in his hands with enthusiasm. “Ooh, I like this girl,” she remarked. “Your mother is right; you should totally date her.”

He tried his best to send her an unimpressed expression.

“Mind your business,” Berrigan chided as he also took one of the drinks he was offered. “Thank you very, very much,” he said to Kendra.

“You’re welcome,” she replied.

Jarrah, Lowanna, and Bracken’s mom all graciously accepted their gifted drinks as well, and Jarrah presented Marla with the bouquet he had been working on in exchange for the lemonades.

“Oh, thank you!” she exclaimed, clearly surprised. She inhaled the scent of the various flowers with closed eyes. “These are wonderful!”

“Um, excuse me,” someone behind Marla said. A customer.

“Yes. How may I help you?” Berrigan asked.

“She… she just cut in line,” the customer said, gesturing toward Marla. “I’ve been waiting a long time for a bouquet, and you just gave her one when she hasn’t been waiting.”

“Our apologies,” Berrigan stated. “She is a family friend, and brought us a gift. My father simply wished to return the favor.”

The customer folded her arms across her chest and appeared frustrated. “Look, I just want to buy a bouquet for my mother for Mother’s Day and move on. Can I please get the next one?”

“Certainly,” he replied. “Is there a particular color you’d like to have highlighted?”

“Purple, please,” she stated.

Bracken noticed Lowanna slip several violet and lavender flowers into the bouquet she had been working on when he and Kendra had shown up with lemonades in hand.

“My mother will have your arrangement done shortly,” Berrigan advised. He eyed the other occupants in the tent as though to silently ask them to please get back to making bouquets.

“That’s my cue,” Bracken muttered. He wished Marla a happy Mother’s Day and gave Kendra a quick hug. As the ladies turned to exit the tent, however, he was possessed by a moment of spontaneity. “One minute, Kendra,” he called as he cast his eyes about the tent.

There.

He gathered three pink peonies and two tiger lilies, tied them together with rubber bands, and handed them to her. “I think of pink when I see you,” he said without really thinking about it. “Have a lovely weekend. Meet you Monday morning?”

The expression she sent him seemed to melt him in place. It looked like a mixture of awe and gratitude. “Pink is my favorite color,” she replied. “Thank you.”

His face warmed, and he tried not to worry about it as he waved goodbye. When Kendra and Marla officially disappeared into the crowd, he turned to head back to the stool he’d been sitting at earlier, but made eye contact with Camira first, who was staring holes into him.

“You’ve got it bad,” she commented.

He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he answered.

She gave him a knowing look and nodded along as the next customer in line interjected herself to add, “That was a very lovely young woman.”

Bracken looked at the customer, an older woman, and smiled. “Yes, she is,” he said.

———

Read part 9 here!

#fablehaven #brackendra #flower shop au #aerinm writes #Camira is that obligatory obnoxious character who teases a lil too much #and thus we see the beginnings of fluff on the horizon ❤️

[aerinsfables]

Part 6 for the Flower Shop AU PLEASEE! I need to know what happens next!!

:)

Flower Shop AU Part 6 below :) In which Warrenessa makes an appearance.

Read part 5 here!

-----

Bracken showed up at the address Seth had given him about ten minutes before the event was scheduled to take place. He’d brought a bouquet of flowers for Kendra’s grandmother, and a green salad he’d made that morning to share with the other attendees. Kendra had told him that he didn’t need to bring anything, but he felt weird about dropping by empty handed.

Almost as soon as he pulled up, he saw Warren leave the front of the house and walk toward him. Bracken exited his car and picked up both the bouquet and the salad bowl as Warren approached and clapped him on the back. “Good to see you again, Bracken,” he said. “I’m glad you could make it.”

“I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone,” Bracken replied.

Warren then pointed to the flowers. “For me? Aww, you shouldn’t have.”

Bracken smiled. “Sorry to disappoint, but I brought these for-“

“You’re moving a little fast if you brought them for Kendra,” Warren interrupted. “She’s not in a good place right now.”

He blinked a few times. “I brought these for her grandmother,” he explained. “This is where Seth and Kendra’s grandparents live, right?”

“Ah. Trying to get into Ruth’s good graces, huh? Smart man. Good approach.”

Before Bracken could reply that he’d simply intended to be polite, Warren led him toward the house and began walking while he spoke some more. “Ruth is inside, or at least she was when you pulled up. Most everyone else is in the backyard. Stan and Scott - Seth and Kendra’s grandpa and dad - are grilling. I’ll introduce you to everyone as we meet them.” He opened the front door and motioned for Bracken to head inside.

The interior of the house was comfortable but also a tad ornate. The floors were made of quality hardwood, a staircase led to a second story, plush rugs were located in stylish locations, and a lot of knick knacks rested in various floating shelves which lined the walls in some spots. Family photos were artfully placed in different spots around the area as well; some hung on walls, some occupied desk or dresser tops. To the left was a living room, and to the right was a hallway which led somewhere Bracken couldn’t see. Overall, the house was quite large and held an inviting atmosphere.

Warren led him through the living room and into the adjoining kitchen which Bracken hadn’t been able to see from the entryway of the house. It was large and spacious, with lots of counter space and what was apparently a walk-in pantry. “Ruth,” Warren called, and an older woman came out of said pantry.

“Oh, hello there,” she greeted with a warm smile and a wave of her hand. “Warren, who is this handsome fellow?”

“This is Bracken,” Warren said. “Bracken, this is Ruth. Kendra and Seth’s grandma.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Bracken said. He offered the bouquet to her. “These are for you. Thank you for permitting me into your home.”

“Ooh, he brought a gift! Well, these are certainly beautiful. Thank you. Make yourself at home. Most everyone’s out in the backyard. Show him around, will you, Warren?” She sniffed at the flowers and smiled again. “I’ll put these in some water!”

Warren grinned and patted Bracken on the back again. “Okay, you little suck-up, let’s take you out back to meet the others.”

Ruth clicked her tongue at that remark. “It wouldn’t hurt you to bring me flowers every so often,” she said. “You just come here to raid my kitchen.”

A chuckle left Warren’s body and he walked over to embrace Ruth, who swatted at him the whole time in a manner which suggested to Bracken that she was clearly very fond of him, and they were used to bantering with each other. He smiled. Warren pulled away from Ruth and walked away, then motioned for Bracken to follow. “This way,” he said as he opened another door which led outside.

The backyard was quite large, with a spacious deck connected to the house, steps leading down to a grass lawn where a volleyball net had been set up, a pool off to the far left, and a fire pit to the right. Bracken noticed two men standing near a nice grill on the deck, Seth was at the volleyball net with someone Bracken didn’t know, and Kendra sat near the unlit fire pit with Dale and three other women. Warren led Bracken toward the two men who were cooking hamburgers and chicken at the moment, and introduced him to them. “Stan, Scott, this is Bracken. He works at the flower shop across the street from our cafe. Bracken, this is Kendra’s dad and grandpa.”

He waved at them, probably a little awkwardly, and said, “It’s nice to meet you both. Thank you for allowing me to be here today.”

Scott smiled. “Friends of my children are always welcome.”

Warren then pointed at the volleyball net. “You know Seth. Looks like he’s getting ready to start a game. That’s Tanu over there with him. Come with me, I’ll introduce you to the ladies. Oh, but first - ditch the salad over there.” He gestured toward a picnic table which was laden with other foods; chips, fruit, cookies, hamburger and hotdog buns, potato salad and the like. Bracken did as instructed, then walked with Warren to the fire pit.

“Hello, ladies and Dale,” Warren greeted. Bracken did not miss the mildly exasperated look which crossed Dale’s face. “This is Bracken. He works at the flower shop across the street from the cafe. Cool guy. Brought a salad to a barbeque, but you know. Whatever.”

“Don’t be mean,” Kendra tutted. She then waved at Bracken and pointed at a spot next to her. “You can sit here.”

“I was just teasing,” Warren said. “He helped get rid of Gavin earlier this week. I did actually mean it when I said he’s a cool guy.”

“Ah, so you’re the man who helped my daughter,” one of the women spoke up. She walked over to Bracken and laid a gentle hand on his forearm. “I’m Marla, Kendra’s mother. Thank you for interfering the other day.”

“It was no trouble,” Bracken replied. He could feel his face heating up a little. “I did what anyone in my position would’ve done.”

“No, honey. Most people probably would’ve just sat back and watched, or recorded the event with their phones. You and Warren really made a difference.”

He wasn’t sure what to say in response, so he went for his usual phrase when he received compliments from strangers or new acquaintances. “Thank you for your kind words. I was happy to help.”

“Come, join us,” Marla invited. “The spot next to Kendra is open. We can chat while we wait for food to be ready.”

Bracken made his way over to the empty space and sat down. Kendra gave him a somewhat weak smile and he gave one back to her, then mumbled, “You okay?”

She nodded her head. “I’ll introduce you to everyone here. To your left is Mara, then Vanessa, my mom, and Dale tells me that you already know each other.”

He waved at everyone and said, “It’s nice to meet you all.”

Mara looked like she didn’t really care whether he was there or not, Vanessa looked at him as though she was trying to gage how much of a threat he was going to be, Marla’s smile was sweet, and Dale gave him a friendly nod. He could deal with Mara’s indifference, but Vanessa’s glaring was uncomfortable to endure.

Warren stepped in and wrapped his arms around Vanessa. “Don’t mind this one,” he said. “Her bark is worse than her bite.”

“I haven’t said anything,” she retorted.

“You’re doing that suspicious sizing up thing you like to do. It’s intimidating,” Warren replied. “Cut the guy some slack. He’s the one who made the good riddance flowers.”

Marla laughed, while Mara and Vanessa seemed to look at him in a slightly different light; Mara seemed perhaps a little more interested, and Vanessa’s glare felt a little less deadly. Maybe.

“That arrangement was perfect,” Marla complimented. “Hilarious. Kendra sent pictures. Did you really fill it with loose glitter?”

“That part was up to her,” Bracken said. “Did you? I didn’t even ask my mother.”

Kendra nodded but didn’t say anything. Warren spoke up instead. “I hope he realized the glitter problem when he was in the middle of his living room, and I hope he never gets it all the way out of the carpet.”

“Agreed,” Marla said.

“I still say it wouldn’t have been a tragedy for him to die,” Mara added.

“I punched him in his face,” Warren said in a defensive tone.

Mara shrugged. “He could’ve died. I’m just saying.”

“Murder might be pressing a bit too far,” Dale stated.

Warren stroked the stubble on his chin. “She’s right. I probably should’ve accidentally pushed him into traffic.”

Bracken noticed that Kendra seemed to shrink into herself a little as the conversation progressed. He tried to think of a way to change the subject, but failed to come up with anything. He needn’t have worried about it, though, because it seemed that someone else had picked up the same memo.

“Ugh. Go play volleyball with Seth and Tanu,” Vanessa said to Warren.

“What did I do?“ Warren whined.

“Seth!” Vanessa shouted. “Come get your cousin!”

Tanu held the ball in his hands and both he and Seth turned their attention to Vanessa.

“Oh, hey, Bracken!” Seth called and waved in a summoning motion. “Come play with us!”

“I told you to grab your cousin,” Vanessa emphasized.

“Warren! Get over here so we can play two on two!” Tanu said.

Vanessa turned toward Warren with what looked like an extremely insincere smile on her face. “Your presence has been requested at the volleyball net.”

Warren rolled his eyes. “Fine, I can tell when I’m not wanted. Bracken, you coming?”

Bracken hesitated before standing up, as he felt concerned for Kendra and wanted to make sure she was doing alright. She looked at him and gave him a soft smile, then waved and pointed to her brother.

“I hope you like volleyball,” she said. “Watch out for Seth. He likes to cheat.”

“I do not!” Seth protested.

Warren leaned closer to Bracken and whispered in a conspiratorial voice, “He really does.” He then pushed Bracken’s shoulder and led him toward the volleyball net.

---

Part 7 is here!

#fablehaven #brackendra #side warrenessa #aerinm writes #flower shop au #sorry i'm a day later than i said i would be

[aerinsfables]

I would die for a part 4.... You have me hooked.

HDJSKAKDJJR IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE MY SPUR OF THE MOMENT THINGS THAT TURN INTO UNINTENDED PROJECTS!!!

——

Flower Shop AU, part 4 (I should probably give this thing a name at some point)

Read part 3 here!

——

After Bracken opened the store the following day, he sat down in front of the computer near the register per usual and started the day off with his normal routine; check emails, send a few out, check for online orders, then get started with phone calls and new floral arrangements. His father would be joining him again later in the day, but he’d mostly be doing deliveries, which left Bracken alone with the store for a large portion of the day. He didn’t mind. It wasn’t that he didn’t like having company, because he did, but he was also comfortable being by himself for long stretches of time.

He took a sip of his morning tea and opened the shop’s email, then scrolled through a few messages which contained more returned surveys and a couple of general inquiries. Upon replying to one of said inquiries, he clicked “next” and found another message from Kendra. Bracken sat up straighter in his seat and read her words. She’d apparently sent the email long after closing last night.

I’m safe. Thank you for your concern. And thanks again for your help earlier… I don’t know what would’ve happened if you and Warren hadn’t been there.

Bracken paused before he chose to reply. Social interactions were admittedly not his strongest suit, and he didn’t want to inadvertently stick his foot in his mouth, nor did he want to make her feel uncomfortable, but ultimately his curiosity was eating away at him.

If you don’t mind my asking - and feel free to ignore me if you don’t want to talk about it - who was that man?

Again, you can ignore the question if you don’t want to answer it. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I hope you were able to get some good rest last night and are feeling a little better today.

There were no other emails in the inbox, so he opened a new tab and checked for new online orders. Three had been placed between last night and this morning, one for an apology bouquet as a rush request to be picked up that afternoon - he’d need to prioritize that - a “get well soon” arrangement, and a “congratulations” basket with both flowers and balloons to celebrate a new baby.

Bracken examined last night’s prepared arrangements for today’s customer pick-ups, called the customers to whom the flowers belonged, and started working on the apology arrangement. He idly wondered who was apologizing for what. They’d specially chosen an interesting flower as a focal point, as well, but Bracken wasn’t sure if they actually knew flowers like he did; most people chose flowers based on colors and styles, not symbolism. This particular patron had indicated that they wanted a purple calla lily in the center of the bouquet, which, sure, went well with the purple hyacinths and the scarlet geraniums and white tulips, but purple calla lilies indicated passion instead of ‘I’m sorry.’ Whatever. Maybe the flower held special significance for the recipient and/or the gifter.

The bells on the front door chimed, and Bracken turned to greet the newcomer. This one was a tall-ish young man, maybe 21 or 22 years old. He looked Bracken up and down, then stuck out his hand for a handshake. “Hi,” he said.

“Hello,” Bracken replied, a little confused as to why he was shaking hands with this person. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Seth,” he explained. “Kendra’s brother. Warren said you helped beat up Gavin, so I came to invite you over for a barbeque this Saturday. One o’clock. Are you busy?”

“I normally work on Saturdays-“

The bells chimed again, and Bracken’s father walked into the store. “Good morning,” he greeted. “Give me a moment to get settled, Bracken, and I’ll dive in.”

“You’re working on Saturday? Ugh. We’d all hoped you’d be free,” Seth stated. “Another time, I guess. We’ll shoot for a Sunday.”

“What’s this about?” Father spoke up.

“I’ve been invited to a barbeque on Saturday,” Bracken explained. “I normally stay ‘til closing those days and won’t be able to make it.”

Father seemed to think for a moment. “You covered your sister’s shift yesterday,” he said. “She should be able to return the favor.”

“I don’t want to bother her,” Bracken replied. “She’s young and in love. Let her have the weekend with her new fiancée.”

“I’ll take your shift for you, then,” Father stated.

Bracken opened his mouth to say that wouldn’t be necessary, but Seth responded first.

“Seriously? That’d be great! Everyone’s looking forward to meeting this guy!”

“It’s settled,” Father said. His eyes crinkled in the corners, and seemed to glimmer with his cheerful smile.

Bracken felt his mouth bob open and shut a few times before he asked, “How many people? I’m sorry. I’ve only just met you, and I hardly know Kendra. A barbeque with a bunch of people I don’t know doesn’t sound particularly appealing.”

Father clamped his hand on Bracken’s shoulder, which caused him to wince in surprise. “Go make friends,” he encouraged. “This young man seems particularly delightful.”

“Warren and Dale will be there,” Seth said. “You know them, right? They own the cafe across the street.”

In passing, Bracken wanted to say, but Father answered for him.

“Yes. Wonderful people, both of them.” He looked at Bracken. “What do you say? I’ve got your shift covered, you’ll know a few of the people in attendance. I think you should go.”

The hidden message was clear to Bracken: Agree to go, or I’ll tell your Mother and you can deal with her nagging until you agree to go.

Bracken held up a hand in surrender. “Okay,” he relented. “I’ll need the address.”

“What’s your phone number?” Seth asked. “I’ll text it to you.”

He couldn’t believe he was giving out his personal cell phone number to someone he’d just met only a handful of minutes ago, and yet before he knew it, he received a text message from Seth with the address for Saturday’s gathering.

Seth waved a cheerful goodbye soon after and exited the shop.

“He seems nice,” Father stated. “He’ll make a good friend.”

“I don’t even know him,” Bracken replied.

“All friendships start somewhere, son,” Father said. “And it’s about time you started to make real friends of your own. You’ve been focused on work for much too long. Time for you to get out of your shell.”

Bracken supposed his father was correct, but what none of his family seemed to understand was that he enjoyed working. He liked interacting with customers, he liked working with flowers, and he liked being in the shop. If he was going to give up time in the shop, he wanted it to be for a reason he would equally enjoy, and he wasn’t sure that a barbeque with a few people he barely knew and more that he flat out didn’t know would be worth the cost.

Oh well, he thought. I can always leave early and go home if it’s terrible.

It wouldn’t be terrible, though.

——

Read part 5 here!

#fablehaven #flower shop au #aerinm writes #brackendra #anonymous #thanks for asking! #help I’m getting carried away #don’t even really know where this is headed #this is probably just going to be a bunch of fluff/friendship/maybe romance with no actual plot lol

[aerinsfables]

How many goats must I sacrifice for part 5? (p.s., may I suggest “Blooming Friendship” or some sappy ,punny line for the title?)

No goats necessary, but I will accept a donation of cookies! 😁

Also your title suggestion is hilarious and much appreciated (I love puns). I was thinking “love amongst the flowers” or something, but haven’t been able to bring myself to be quite that corny yet 😂 (can you tell I’ve been watching ATLA lately?). Will give it some more thought. Whyyyy is naming things so freaking hard sometimes?!?

——

Flower Shop AU Part 5 below. Read part 4 here!

——

Bracken didn’t hear back from Kendra until Friday, when she sent a short email.

Long story short, he was my fiancée. Gavin. I caught him cheating. Among other things.

Seth tells me you’ll be coming over for tomorrow’s barbeque. I’m sorry if he harassed you. He can be such a busybody sometimes, but he means well.

He replied with a short message of his own.

I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I believe you’ve truly dodged a bullet with regard to Gavin. That’s a very, very good thing. You deserve someone who will treat you with kindness and respect, and who will mirror your loyalty.

Seth was fine. My father liked him. He was nice, and I appreciated the invitation. To be honest, I’m more apprehensive about potentially forced conversation with people I don’t know. I’m good at small talk with prospective vendors and with customers, but it’s been a while since I’ve socialized with people in a friend setting. Most of the friends I’ve had historically have either moved out of town or have their own busy lives and fell out of touch. Many are married, some have children, and I fit into neither of those categories.

Anyway. Enough about me. You’ll be there tomorrow, right? Would you care to help rescue me from awkward socialization if I need it? Who else will be attending?

He typed his personal email address into the CC field and wrote another bit:

I’m copying my personal email address here, as well, in order to move this conversation to a more private setting. I hope you don’t mind. My mother, father, youngest sister and I all have access to the company email. I run it primarily, but still.

The “send” button was clicked before he could rethink his words too much. He returned to his tasks for the day and paused a few minutes later when he heard his phone ding with a new notification. Kendra had already replied to his email, this time to his personal address.

You’re right; I dodged a bullet. It’s just not so easy to recover from it all. I’ll get there.

You have siblings? How many? Are they always up in your business like my brother is?

Attendees for tomorrow’s BBQ are largely family members of mine. My parents, grandparents, Warren and his girlfriend, Dale, Seth. Maybe a few family friends. This had been planned for a while, and Warren and Seth both wanted to invite you. I’ll help protect you from the masses, but my family is honestly pretty great. I doubt you’ll need any rescuing.

He smiled as he finished the corsage he’d been working on, then replied back to her.

Healing is a process. It’s okay to take time for that. If he was your fiancée, then that means you felt strongly for him; you probably still feel strongly for him. There’s no shame in that. Take your time to heal.

I have four sisters, and they are all constantly ‘up in my business,’ as you put it. I’m number four in the lineup of children; my oldest sister lives about five hours away with her husband and my only nieces - no nephews yet. Sister Number Two is quite introverted and lives at home with our parents. She runs a small sewing business from there. Sister 3 is only a couple years older than me; she is a lawyer in the city and lives downtown near the courthouse with a couple of roommates. Sister 4 works at the shop with me part-time while she’s going to school. She’s working toward becoming a nurse, and just got engaged this week. She’s the bubbly, outgoing type.

What about you? Have you any siblings aside from Seth? What is your family like?

He started in on another corsage - he had to have 25 of them ready to go before he left that evening, and he’d done 11 so far - and smiled when he heard his phone ding again several minutes later. A quick glance at it told him that Kendra had replied again.

Four sisters! That’s a lot of siblings. And a lot of estrogen. Just the one brother for me. I’m pretty sure my parents decided to quit having children once they realized how difficult Seth was going to be. Mischief and trouble are his best friends. I’m amazed he’s survived into adulthood.

I have two sets of grandparents that live nearby. We’re all pretty tight-knit. Warren and Dale are cousins of my dad’s mom. I have no idea how many times removed or whatever that is, so I just call them my cousins. Vanessa, Warren’s long time girlfriend, is a tattoo artist. I’ve been staying at their house since Monday, instead of my apartment.

The BBQ will be at my dad’s parent’s house. Other people who might drop by are Elise, who works with Vanessa, Mara, who works for one of the nearby wineries and is dating Elise, Tanu, our family doctor who we’ve become very good friends with, and Trask, who knows my grandfather somehow. That’s never been super clear to me, to be honest. He’s an old family friend. At any rate, we’re an eclectic bunch of people, and I expect tomorrow will be lively and fun.

What kinds of things do you like to do in your free time?

Bracken thought on these things for a little while, and finished another corsage, before he answered.

It sounds like there will be a good mix of people. I look forward to meeting them.

I’m a bit of an artist in my free time. Drawing and painting are my preferred methods. I enjoy cooking, too, but don’t often do anything too fancy since I’m usually only cooking for myself. Puzzles are nice. Honestly, I spend most of my time at the shop. Sunday evenings are when my family gathers for dinner, minus my oldest sister, who lives too far away for that to be feasible. She usually visits once every couple of months, and stays with my parents for a few days. That’s when I steal my nieces and spoil them to death.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

The rest of the day passed with a fairly steady stream of emails between the two of them. Kendra loved books, and would love to be a novelist one day, but hadn’t found her inspiration yet. Her favorite colors were blue and pink, she had studied French in high school but hadn’t made it to France yet (a dream of hers), and she was thinking about going back to college to get her master’s degree in English Literature. She’d asked about how Bracken found his way into flowers, and he’d explained that his parents had established the shop when he was in elementary school. He’d learned the business over the years and enjoyed leaning into his artistic side, so it was a pretty natural progression for him to work there after he’d graduated from the local university with a degree in business (his goal being to inherit the shop someday). To his pleasant surprise, conversation with Kendra flowed easily, and he left the shop that day with a positive feeling about the next day’s gathering.

---

Part 6 is here!

#fablehaven #dragonwatch #brackendra #aerinm writes #side warrenessa #they may become more mainstream later #we’ll see #anonymous #thanks for asking!

[aerinsfables]

Flower Shop AU, part 3

See part 2 here.

——

Monday morning found Bracken back at the shop again. He normally had Sundays and Mondays off, but the sister who worked with him and their mother had had a conflict that day and asked him to cover her shift. “Besides,” she’d reasoned, “You’re always there, anyway.”

He’d made to protest that, despite her comments, he did in fact have a social life (not an entirely truthful statement), but then he saw her excited face and remembered that she was planning to surprise her girlfriend with a lunchtime marriage proposal, so he ultimately smiled and told her he’d be happy to take her shift if she promised to bring his soon-to-be sister-in-law over that night for dinner.

Today’s list of tasks included signing for a delivery of several different types of lilies, making some general “have a good day” and “I love you” bouquets for passersby who might wish to stop inside and pick up some flowers for their friend or significant other during the day, put together a special birthday order to be delivered tomorrow, purchase more flowers which would be needed for a couple of large arrangements that had been ordered for an upcoming funeral, call a few customers to let them know their orders were ready to pick up, and of course, more corsages and boutonnières for the coming weekend. His father would be arriving later that morning to assist, but Bracken always opened the shop, so he’d be on his own for another two or three hours.

Bracken took a peek into one of the refrigeration units inside the shop and pulled out two vases with arranged flowers and colorful ribbons. He placed those on top of the front counter and returned twice more to pull out a total of four additional vases, all of which he placed on the countertop. His trained and careful eye examined each of the arrangements to check for droopy buds, wilting leaves or other problems, but he found none; his mother had assembled these particular arrangements, and her work was flawless as usual. He called the first customer to let them know their order was ready to be picked up, and was midway through dialing the second customer’s phone number when a flurry of motion caught his eye and caused him to turn his attention to the street outside. The shop itself was located alongside a relatively busy street which usually experienced a lot of pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle traffic, but Bracken’s jaw dropped when he saw what had managed to pull him out of his work mindset.

Kendra. She was being pulled by a taller man - a bit roughly, Bracken noted, and also very obviously against her will - from the cafe across the street toward a car which had been parked not far from the very flower shop where Bracken was located.

Well. That wasn’t going to stand.

He was out the door in a flash, without bothering to lock up. Kendra looked like she was in trouble, and although he still didn’t really know her, he’d be damned if he sat back and witnessed anyone being forced to go anywhere or do anything against their will.

“You think that was funny?!” Bracken heard the man yell at her. “You leave those crazy ass flowers on my doorstep, then ghost me all weekend?! What the hell is your problem?!”

“Leave me alone!” she cried as she struggled to break free of his hold on her. “Stop!”

Run faster.

“Hey! Kendra!” Bracken called as he ran. His hail grabbed the attention of both parties, and he managed to intercept them before they made it all the way to what Bracken figured was the man’s car.

“Get lost,” the man told him.

“Let me go!” Kendra shouted, tears streaming down her face.

Bracken placed his hands on top of Kendra’s arm, then pried the man’s hand off of her and set her free. “The lady wishes for you to leave her alone,” he said simply. The man, who had dark, curly hair and what would probably have been handsome features if his face weren’t contorted in rage, yanked his hand out of Bracken’s grasp and moved to take hold of Kendra again. Bracken stepped between them, effectively blocking the man’s access to Kendra with his own body. “Excuse me,” he said. “I don’t know who you are, but it’s time for you to leave.”

“I told you to get lost,” the man positively seethed. He looked like he was going to hit Bracken, who was prepared to defend himself, when another man suddenly dashed in front of Bracken and knocked Kendra’s assailant to the ground. Bracken knew the newcomer - his name was Warren, and he and his brother owned the cafe across the street.

“Who the hell do you think you are, dragging Kendra around like a ragdoll?!” Warren yelled. “I warned you. I straight up warned you. Get out of here. If you know what’s good for you, you will never come around here again. Got it?!”

The man on the ground held a hand to his cheek. Bracken could see a bruise already forming below his eye. “You’re psychotic,” he said to Warren.

“And you’re an astounding piece of trash. If I hear about you hurting Kendra ever again, you’ll be buried trash. Have I made myself clear?” Warren’s face was flushed, and his fists quivered with what Bracken recognized as barely-concealed rage.

Bracken turned toward Kendra, whose cheeks were wet from continued tears and who also cradled her arm - the one the man had grabbed - in front of her. “Are you injured?” he asked as gently as he could.

She shook her head no.

“Do me a favor and get her out of here, Bracken,” Warren said, his eyes trained on the guy who was still lying on the ground. “I’m going to stand here and make sure this loser leaves.”

A small crowd of people were gathering to watch the show, and Bracken agreed that it would be best to remove Kendra from the situation. With a careful hand, he lightly touched her back and gestured toward the flower shop. “Would you like to come inside for a moment?” he asked.

Kendra didn’t verbally respond, but she let him guide her away from the scene and into the store. Bracken led her into the back room, the one he and his family primarily used to store their tools and miscellaneous supplies (vases, plastic wrappings, ribbons, the die-cut machine and materials, shears and scissors, etc.) and pulled out a chair for her to sit on. He then retrieved a couple of water bottles from the refrigerator in that room and passed one to her. She accepted it, but didn’t say anything, and continued to weep.

Concern flooded Bracken’s brain. He didn’t know who that guy had been, but after witnessing the altercation outside, he could understand why Kendra wasn’t in a condition to speak at the moment. “May I see your arm?” he asked.

Kendra hesitated, then stretched her arm out in front of her. It was red around her wrist, and looked tender. He wouldn’t be surprised if bruises started to form later. “It looks alright,” he stated. “I don’t have any ice, unfortunately, but I do have another chilled water bottle I can offer you, if you’d like to use it as a cold compress for now.”

“Th-th-thank y-you,” she gasped as she tried to control her sobs.

His heart went out to her. Was it inappropriate for him to hug her? Probably. She didn’t know him! And he was positive that he was making her feel awkward while he just stood there and watched her cry. He placed a tentative hand on her upper arm. “Would you like to have some time by yourself?”

She gave an emphatic nod at that question.

Bracken withdrew his hand and said, “You’re safe here. Stay as long as you need to. I can order in lunch for the both of us, later, if you’d like. My father will be here in a couple of hours, but I can tell him to leave you alone.” He cast his gaze around the room and found a few boxes of tissues, opened one, and set it down on a countertop near Kendra. “For you,” he said. “I’ll be right outside this door, making phone calls and otherwise managing the front. Feel free to call for me if you need anything.”

A shaky “thank you” was received, and he pulled the door shut as he exited. Later, when she’d calmed down, perhaps he’d ask her some of the questions which were bouncing around in his mind. Who was that guy? Did she want to press charges? Get a restraining order? Was her house safe from him? What had she been doing around this area?

Not that he was upset she’d been right outside - he was actually glad for that. He had no idea how she knew Warren, and couldn’t have predicted his involvement, but at the very least, Bracken was glad to have been able to help in some way.

Speaking of Warren. His entrance into the store caused the little bells at the front to ring. Bracken greeted him and said, “She’s safe, she’s in the back room here,” and pointed to the door behind him. “She wanted some privacy.”

“Thanks for your help out there,” Warren said. “That piece of shit finally fled the scene after he screamed some more. Dumbass thinks he can hurt Kendra. She’ll be staying with me, at least until he’s no longer a threat. Idiot.”

“I’m glad she has someone like you to help her,” Bracken replied. “Her wrist, where she was being pulled around, may start to bruise later. I didn’t notice any other injuries, thankfully.”

Warren placed a hand on Bracken’s shoulder. “Seriously,” he reiterated. “Thank you for your help. If you hadn’t intervened…” he trailed off. “You gave me the extra few seconds I needed in order to jump over some customers and get out there. Thanks again.”

“It was no trouble,” Bracken said. “I couldn’t watch that happen and not do something about it. Kendra doesn’t deserve that treatment. No one does.”

“It was trouble, but I’m grateful you were there.” Warren removed his hand. “Is it okay if I go see her?”

“Be my guest,” Bracken replied. “If you know her well, I really think she could use a hug.”

“That girl is my honorary baby sister,” he said. “She’ll get as many hugs as she wants, and then I’m taking her to my house where she’ll get all the comfort food she could ever need, along with the TV remote. I’ll give her the rest of the week off, if she wants.”

“She works for you?” Bracken asked, unprepared for that particular realization. She worked across the street?

“Yeah,” Warren said. “That douchebag showed up and took hold of her right when she was walking in for her shift. Busiest time of the day. She didn’t even make it to the front door.” He looked at the door behind Bracken again, who caught his cue.

“Go right inside,” Bracken told him. “Stay as long as you’d like.”

“Thanks again,” Warren repeated. “Seriously. Thank you.”

It wasn’t much longer before Warren and Kendra exited the flower shop, with the former shielding the latter from view. Bracken bid them both farewell, and best wishes, then resumed making phone calls to his customers.

Later that afternoon, shortly before Bracken left for the day, an email popped into the store’s mailbox. He recognized it as an answer to one of the surveys they always sent out after someone picked up their order. This one was from Kendra.

A five-star ranking, accompanied by the simple words, Thank you.

He broke protocol and responded back to her. You’re welcome. Please be safe.

—————

Read part 4 here!

#brackendra #fablehaven #aerinm writes #flower shop au #part 4 is mostly written already as well #apparently this is my therapy project 🤷‍♀️ #imma go back to work now

[aerinmelina]

Flower Shop AU

From this post here.

Spontaneous ficlet time, apparently. I blame @hugoandmendigo. So you can all blame her, too. 😂

——

Prom season was in full swing, which meant that the little flower shop on Main Street was busier than usual, but mostly with online or telephonic orders; foot traffic was somewhat light. Bracken primarily spent the days of prom season by putting together boutonnières and corsages while listening to some random radio station in the background that his mother liked. The work wasn’t exactly difficult, per se, but it was fulfilling. He enjoyed creating beautiful works of art out of flowers, and always tried to put a little something special into even the smallest of his projects.

This day, at around lunch hour (and after Bracken’s mother had stepped out of the shop in search of food), a visibly furious young woman yanked open the front door, which caused the bells hanging from the top of the door to jangle more loudly than normal. Bracken looked up from his work and greeted her. “Hello,” he said. Then, taken aback at the redness in her face and the puffiness in her eyes, he asked, “Are you alright?”

She slammed some money onto the countertop in front of Bracken, and he jumped a little at the abruptness of her actions. “You know flowers?” she asked.

“Um. Yes?” he replied, quite bewildered.

“I want to buy the prettiest ‘fuck you’ bouquet the world has ever seen, and I want to shove it right up inside this asshole’s, well... asshole,” she stated. Venom laced every single one of her words.

He blinked a few times before humor sank in. Bracken laughed a little, his customer’s face flushed a bit in some sort of reaction - whether embarrassment or anger, he couldn’t tell - and he immediately tried to quash the chortles in his throat. With as straight of a face as he could possibly manage, he said, “This person must’ve done something pretty terrible.”

She sent him a deadpan look. “Can you make the bouquet or not?”

Bracken quickly sobered and nodded. “I can, but we don’t carry all of the right flowers here.” He gestured at the various buckets and containers which held a healthy variety of blooms. “I’m sure I can find them around town, though. When do you need it?”

“Is Saturday afternoon doable?” she asked.

It was Tuesday at present, and he knew exactly where to find the rest of the flowers he’d need. “I can have it for you by Thursday if you’d like.”

Her hand waved in the air. “Saturday would be perfect, if that’s okay. I’m supposed to go on a date with him that night. I’d love to drop the flowers off on his doorstep beforehand and ghost him. Don’t want to give him any time to get a refund, or another date, for those ‘expensive’ concert tickets he’s been babbling about for months.”

“Wow. He really must’ve done something awful.” Bracken’s interest had been captured.

“He deserves it,” she said as she slid her money over the countertop toward Bracken. “Will this be enough to cover it?”

Plenty. “It’s too much,” he said. “Take these bills back.”

She thanked him for his help, reiterated that she wanted the bouquet ready by Saturday afternoon, and turned to leave the shop.

“Hang on,” Bracken called to her. “Can I get your name and phone number for your order? That way I can send you a message to let you know when it’s ready to be picked up.”

“My name is Kendra,” she said. “I’d rather not give out my phone number.”

“I promise not to share it, or use it for purposes other than to contact you regarding your order,” he tried to assure her. “Your email address would work, too, if you’d prefer that.”

A strained smile crossed her face, but she relented and tendered her email address. He again promised only to use her contact information for business purposes. She thanked him and walked out the door with much less angry energy than when she had walked in only a few minutes before.

What a strange encounter. His mother would need to hear about this when she returned from lunch; he was sure she’d find it highly entertaining. After all, how often did the opportunity to create and deliver a spiteful and angry collection of flowers come around?

Not nearly often enough, if you asked him.

#fablehaven #brackendra #because I said so #also #PICTURE THEM AS ADULTS MMKAY? #like 20-something year olds and not high school students #this is a flower shop au not a high school au #bracken’s mom owns the shop and he works there #yes I’ve put too much thought into this wth #also yes I wrote some swear words. sorry not sorry. they’re adults here and Kendra is pissed (: #aerinm writes

[aerinsfables]

Can I get a part 2 of that flower shop AU? Pretty please with a bit of “slink back to your hole you wyrm” on top???

Okay! 😊 The wyrm part is gonna have to wait for section 3 though. 😂

Part 1 is here.

———

Flower Shop AU, Part 2

———

Bracken hustled through his errands in an effort to try and make it back to the store in time to see Kendra’s reaction to the bouquet he’d put together. It had been a fun, very novel project, and he wanted to be there when she picked it up, but traffic was terrible on the interstate thanks to a car accident which had blocked off the left lane. He looked in his rearview mirror at the tall stalks of fresh flowers he’d had to pick up that morning from one of the farms out toward the countryside and said aloud, “I’m not going to be very happy if you’re the cause of me being late today.”

The clock on his dashboard told him he had 10 minutes to make it to the shop in order to meet her and see her reaction to his work. He let out a loud exhale and tapped his hands on the steering wheel. Traffic was at a standstill. He glanced at the clock again and then reached for his phone and dialed his mother.

“Hello?” came her cheerful voice.

“Hi Mum,” he said. “I’m stuck in traffic and there’s no way I’m going to make it to the shop in the next 10 minutes.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Bracken,” she replied. “I’ll be sure to assist Kendra when she arrives. I’m looking forward to meeting the patron of such an interesting arrangement.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, unable to hide the minor disappointment in his voice. “Listen. I had made a little sign with the die-cut machine yesterday, and was waiting until today to put it in with the bouquet. Could you do that? You know. Center it in with the blossoms?”

She laughed. “Is that why there’s a pretty, cursive ‘good riddance’ on the counter this morning? I had wondered.”

He grinned and chuckled. “Yeah, that’s for her. I also wanted to give her the option of pouring an entire tube of glitter into the packaging, that way when the plastic is opened or the bouquet is held upside-down, it’ll dump everywhere.”

An amused sound met his ears. “Do we even know what the perpetrator did in order to deserve such punishment?”

“She didn’t say. But she was terribly upset.” He patted the steering wheel again. “I was hoping to cheer her up a bit, so I put together a little bundle of pink and white hyacinths for her. They’re in a small vase next to her order. Will you please make sure she receives those as well?”

“Of course,” his mother replied. “That’s very thoughtful of you.”

“I wish I could be there,” he said. “Please tell her I’m sorry to have missed her. The flowers I picked up for the arrangements for that wedding tomorrow are in the back of the car, by the way, so we can finish those up whenever I can finally get off the freeway.”

“Thank you for doing that,” she said. “I think our new favorite customer is standing outside already. She looks nervous. I’ll see you soon.”

“Yep. I’ll be there in a bit.”

He hung up the phone and looked at the flowers in the back of his car through the rearview mirror again. “You’d better cooperate with me when we get back,” he said. “No drooping stems or anything crazy. You owe me now.”

It looked like the accident up ahead was finally being cleared. Vehicles started to inch forward.

He really hoped Kendra would be okay.

---------------------------------------

“She was surprised by the hyacinths,” Mother said.

“Surprised in a good way, I hope,” Bracken replied.

She hummed in response. “I liked her.”

He smiled. “What did she think of the bouquet she ordered?”

A glint of what looked like mischief crossed his mother’s face. “She was most pleased with your extra touches, and gave many thanks. I wished her well. Really had hoped she would share her story, but I didn’t press her for details. I did take a picture of the bouquet for your portfolio before she left, by the way. Honestly, my son, that was well done and very thoughtful.”

Bracken waved a dismissive hand at her. “It was a fun project. I’ll bring in the rest of the flowers from the car, then email Kendra her receipt.”

A few trips to the car and back, and about ten minutes later, Bracken sat down in front of the computer at the register and clicked on the necessary mail merge templates which ultimately generated the shop’s standard “rate your service” email. He typed Kendra’s email address into the recipient field, attached a PDF copy of her receipt, and sent the message on its merry way.

He never expected to see or hear from her again.

He was wrong.

——

Part 3 is here!

#fablehaven #brackendra #anonymous #thanks for asking! #aerinm writes #flower shop au #not sure how long this is gonna go on but I guess we’ll see! #I’m giving bracken and his family accents in my head btw if that matters at all to anyone 😂

[aerinsfables]

📝7️⃣🙇‍♀️

:) :)

Flower Shop AU, part 7 below.

Read part 6 here!

---

That had to have been one of the most energetic games of volleyball Bracken had ever been involved with in his life. Granted, he hadn’t actually played volleyball since high school PE classes, but still. The amount of banter which had gone between mostly Seth and Warren had been quite amusing to observe, and when Tanu joined in on the teasing, it became even funnier.

Warren had claimed a partnership with Tanu as soon as he reached the net, which left Seth with Bracken; a mistake, Bracken thought, which Warren would not soon forget. Seth and Bracken were a pretty formidable team, and they found their balance with one another very quickly. Bracken had always possessed a natural talent of quick reflexes and good coordination, and it appeared that Seth was similarly inclined. They worked well together. Tanu and Warren were both also good at the game, but were not always on the same page with each other, which led to Warren diving into Tanu’s shins once and Tanu knocking heads with Warren another time.

He had to admit, this was nice. The camaraderie, the friendly teasing and banter, the smiles and obvious love each of these people held for one another… it was nice.

Perhaps Father had had a point about it being time for Bracken to come out of his shell.

“20-17,” Seth announced as he served the ball across the net. Warren returned it, Bracken popped it over again, and the ball was passed back and forth several times before Tanu just barely missed it and the ball landed on his side of the court.

“Boo,” Vanessa yelled from where she sat. “Warren, I thought you said you were going to kick Seth’s butt.”

“Working on it,” Warren replied. Tanu fetched the ball and tossed it back over to Seth so he could serve it again.

“You’re not doing a great job,” she replied.

Warren turned around and pointed at her. “Why don’t you come join us, then, Miss I-Can-Do-Anything-Better-Than-You?”

Vanessa’s eyes narrowed and she turned to the others who were still around the unlit fire pit. “Anyone else want to join in? Mara? Dale? Kendra?”

Kendra started to shake her head no, but Dale stood up and planted a hand on her shoulder. “Come on,” he said. “Some exercise will do you good. Besides, we can’t let them think they’re better than we are, now, can we?”

A semi-smile crossed Kendra’s face, and she stood up. Dale gave her a quick hug and walked toward the net with his arm around her shoulders. Vanessa and Mara followed behind them.

“Who’s joining whose team?” Seth asked.

“I’m with Warren and Tanu,” Vanessa announced. “Mara’s with me.”

“That leaves us with Seth and Bracken,” Dale said. “My heart is broken, Vanessa. I thought you loved me.”

“Oh, I do, sweetheart. Somebody has to babysit your brother, though.”

“I do not need babysitting.”

“Sure looked like it from where I was sitting,” Vanessa replied.

Bracken deeply enjoyed all of the playfulness around him. Kendra had been correct when she’d told him that her family was a lively bunch.

“Welcome to our normal,” Kendra mumbled as she walked over to him. She wore a tired smile on her face.

“I am very entertained,” he admitted. “Are you alright?”

She replied with a sort of half shrug. “I don’t really feel like playing volleyball right now, but Dale is right. We have to kick Warren’s butt.”

Seth gave Kendra an enthusiastic grin and called to the other side of the net. “Did you hear that? Kendra just said we’re gonna cream you all.”

“Kendra should put her money where her mouth is,” Warren retorted. “Serve the ball, Seth!”

—————-

Lunch was ready before their game ended, and all parties had opted for food in lieu of continuing to play. Both teams had achieved roughly the same score up to that point, which was pretty exhilarating; it had been a very long time since Bracken had played a competitive sport, and he’d enjoyed the experience.

His phone alerted him to a new text message while everyone was eating lunch and chatting with one another. He gave it a quick glance, typed out a reply, sent his message and placed it back in his pocket.

“Is everything okay?” Kendra asked. She sat opposite from him at one of the picnic tables which had been set up on the deck. Scott and Marla shared this particular table, and the other attendees sat at additional ones.

“Yes, everything’s fine. One of the farms my family purchases a lot of flowers from likes to set up stalls at a local farmer’s market on Saturdays, and with Mother’s Day coming up in a couple weeks, they’ve asked for help with creating bouquets that weekend. It’s something I’ve helped them with for the past few years,” he explained.

“Which market?” Scott asked.

“It’s downtown,” Bracken replied. “Not too far from the flower shop and Warren and Dale’s café.”

“Oh, the one on 2nd Street?” Marla asked. “I like to go there to buy fresh produce. I don’t remember seeing you there before, though.”

“I usually only help them on Mother’s Day weekend,” Bracken explained. “Otherwise, I work in the shop on Saturdays.”

“Which farm is it?” Marla asked. “There are two or three different ones I can think of that sell flowers every weekend.”

“Bluebell,” Bracken said. “They usually have two or three stands in front of their tables where they put finished bouquets for customers to choose from, and their event tent is a light blue. It’s a family-run business as well. The parents and I put bouquets together all morning while the other son and their daughter handle the money and customer service part.”

“Interesting,” Scott stated. “I’m guessing their stall is pretty busy that particular weekend.”

Bracken nodded. “It’s their busiest day. Bouquets are purchased as quickly as they’re made. It’s typically a pretty busy weekend for our shop, as well, but the difference is that my family’s store receives probably 95% of our orders in advance of the holiday, whereas Bluebell creates and sells on the spot. It’s easy for my parents to handle the few customers who pop in that Saturday for quick arrangements. In exchange for our help here and there, Bluebell offers discounts to my family on the flowers we purchase from them.”

“A business move,” Kendra supplied.

“Yes,” he agreed. “We’ve worked with them for many years now. They’re practically family at this point.”

“Well. We might have to come visit you that weekend, then,” Marla said with a smile. “I don’t usually buy flowers, but it might be nice to grab a bouquet for once.”

“I buy you flowers,” Scott corrected. He sounded perhaps a little wounded in Bracken’s opinion.

Marla waved her hand at Scott. “I know, dear. I meant that I don’t usually buy flowers,” she said. “It might be nice to choose a bouquet for myself.”

Ruth walked up to their table and patted Scott’s shoulder. “Elise is here,” she announced. “She brought an assortment of little desserts. You four should go get some before Seth finds out.” Scott and Marla laughed and followed Ruth back inside the house.

Bracken looked up as another woman, presumably Elise, stepped out onto the back porch. She wore a loose-fitting tank top which showed off the tattoos on her upper arms, a studded nose ring in one nostril, and her hair was a stylish undercut on one side of her head. He remembered what Kendra had told him about Elise dating Mara, and he found it interesting that such different people were attracted to one another. Mara was much more conservative in appearance, and also seemed a little standoffish (at least to him, anyway), whereas Elise exuded very welcoming vibes.

Kendra smiled when she saw her. “Elise!” she called. She stood up and embraced her.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Elise said. “How are you doing?”

Kendra shrugged. “I’m fine. How are you? You look gorgeous. I love your hair!”

“Awww, thanks,” she replied. “It’s not totally done yet. I want to get it dyed, but haven’t decided on which color I want. Maybe orange.” She made eye contact with Bracken. “I’m Elise,” she said, and held out her hand to him in introduction.

“I’m Bracken,” he replied as he also stood up and shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” she replied. She quickly looked him up and down, then whispered into Kendra’s ear loudly enough for him to hear, “Where’d you find this handsome man?”

His face started to warm up at her words, and he averted his gaze to the table. It wasn’t necessarily uncommon for people to remark on his appearance, but he felt a little awkward about it whenever it happened.

Kendra cleared her throat. “Bracken made the bouquet I sent you a picture of last week. He’s one of the florists from the shop across the street from Warren and Dale’s place.”

“A man with creativity and a little sass, hmm? I approve.” Elise nodded her head. She then laughed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be weird. Mostly. If you’ll excuse me, though, I need to go hug the rest of my people.” She bounced on the balls of her feet a couple of times before she gave Kendra one more hug and ran off toward her girlfriend.

A small laugh escaped from Kendra, and a fleeting thought of how pretty her genuine smile was ran through Bracken’s head. “She seems nice,” he said.

“She is,” Kendra replied. “She’s like a favorite aunt, or cousin.”

“Elise brought dessert!” Seth shouted from the other side of the deck. He let out a loud whoop of excitement and ran for the kitchen. Bracken laughed.

“Grandma was serious about getting some before Seth takes it all,” Kendra warned.

Bracken shrugged. “It won’t hurt me to forego a little sugar. I don’t mind. Today.” He smiled. “Would you like some? I can fight him for a piece of cake for you.”

That elicited another genuine laugh from her, which broadened his own smile. “Thank you, but I’ve eaten roughly my weight in ice cream this week and should probably refrain from further sugar consumption as well.”

He wanted to hug her, but wasn’t sure if she’d appreciate it. Instead, he placed one hand on her shoulder and said, “He doesn’t deserve your tears.”

Kendra’s face reddened and she looked like she might suddenly start to cry. She turned toward the lawn and hugged herself, but didn’t otherwise respond.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” he immediately apologized, distressed at the thought that he might’ve caused her distress.

She waved a hand at him. “Not your fault,” she said. “It doesn’t take much these days. You’re right, I know you’re right, but I can’t help it.”

“It’s okay to be sad,” he replied. “It’s okay to be angry, hurt, and upset, too.”

Kendra looked back at him with watery eyes. “Are you a therapist?” she teased with a weak smile.

He laughed a little. “I have four sisters, remember?”

“Right,” she giggled. “I feel so crazy right now. One minute I’m laughing, the next I’m crying, and now I’m laughing again.”

“Sounds pretty normal to me,” he said. “I don’t think I’d be much better off if our situations were reversed.”

She looked down at her feet with a soft smile. “Thanks.”

Vanessa walked up at that moment and wrapped an arm around Kendra’s shoulders, then glowered at Bracken. “Is he bothering you?” she asked Kendra while clearly staring at him.

“No,” Kendra said. “I’m just an emotional wreck.”

A short ‘hmm’ was uttered by Vanessa, who continued to glare at Bracken.

Her crystal clear and plain-as-day mistrust and what felt like hatred was really quite uncomfortable to endure. Before he had the chance to ask her what her severe dislike of him was founded on, seeing as they’d just barely met, Warren stopped by and pulled Vanessa away from Kendra.

“There you are,” he said. “I was looking for you. Elise was just telling some story about a ridiculous customer of yours from the other day. Why didn’t you tell me about him? The dude who insisted on misspelling a word in his tattoo design, then got mad when it turned out misspelled on his skin?”

She rolled her eyes. “That was Elise’s customer,” she corrected.

“My bad. Maybe you should come over and make sure I understand the other stories she’s telling.”

A sigh escaped her. “I know what you’re doing,” she said to Warren. She squeezed Kendra again. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m alright,” Kendra replied. “Bracken is being kind.”

“If you’re sure,” Vanessa answered. “You know where to find me.” She narrowed her eyes at Bracken once more, who was starting to feel more than a little annoyed by her attitude.

“I’m watching you,” she told him.

Bracken sent her what he hoped was his best unimpressed expression.

Vanessa shook her head at him, then turned toward Warren. “Go ahead, take my overbearing ass away from here.”

Warren shot an apologetic look at Bracken before he escorted Vanessa back toward Elise, Mara, Dale and Tanu.

“She’s been a little protective of me this week,” Kendra explained. “Sorry about that.”

He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s okay. She doesn’t have to like me. I would’ve appreciated a chance for her to get to know me before deciding that she hates me, but that’s her problem, not mine. I can’t please everyone.”

Kendra blinked. “She doesn’t hate you.”

“I find that difficult to believe.”

“If she hated you, she would’ve sent you back to your car and told you to never come back.”

Bracken shrugged his shoulders again. “It’s alright. I can deal with being disliked. I just wish I knew what I’d done to warrant it.”

“You didn’t do anything. She’s just being protective,” Kendra said. “I promise.”

He decided that he didn’t want to carry that particular subject any further. “Understood.”

An awkward silence fell between them for a few moments, and then Seth reappeared on the deck from the kitchen with a small plate stacked high with an assortment of mini desserts. He made his way over to them, apparently unaware of what had just happened with Vanessa, and announced, “She brought cheesecakes and brownies.”

“Did you take them all?” Kendra asked as she gestured toward his plate.

“There’s some left,” he replied. “I couldn’t stack anymore on top without them falling over.”

“Sugar addict,” Kendra teased.

Seth faked being wounded in his chest. “Kendra. My sister. You’ve hurt me.”

“Do you deny it?”

“No.”

“Well then, there you go.”

“I can’t help it,” Seth said as he chewed on one of the brownies. “Sugar is delicious.”

Bracken and Kendra both nodded their heads, then Kendra stole one of the tiny cheesecakes from Seth’s plate and popped it into her mouth.

“Hey!” Seth protested. “Get your own!”

“I can’t help it,” she replied. “Sugar is delicious.”

Bracken laughed as Seth held his plate over his head while Kendra also laughed and tried to reach it.

——

Read part 8 here!

#fablehaven #brackendra #aerinm writes #anonymous #asks #this is rapidly spinning out of control my dudes #whyyyyyyy do i do this to myself

[aerinmelina]

The Fablehaven gang plays Apples to Apples, pt. 1

Tanu: Is everybody here?

Vanessa: Warren’s grabbing something from the kitchen. He’ll be here soon.

Dale: What’s the game tonight?

Kendra: Apples to Apples!

Bracken: I haven’t played before. Can you explain the rules to me?

Seth: You want green cards, and you play red cards to get the green ones.

Bracken: Okay…

Kendra: The red cards are nouns, the green cards are adjectives. We each take turns playing a green card down on the table. The player who puts a green card down acts as the judge for that round. Everyone else puts red cards in the middle; nouns to match the adjective. Then the judge reads off the nouns and decides who wins.

Dale: That sounds simple enough.

Tanu: It’s not difficult. You’ll catch on quickly. Bracken, too.

Warren: *carrying a tray of mugs, passes them out to everyone* What’d I miss?

Seth: Mmm. Hot cocoa.

Tanu: We’re playing Apples to Apples. You’ve played before?

Warren: *rubs his hands together* Yeah. Got it. Love this game. You’re all going down.

Vanessa: How about you start, Tanu? And then we’ll go clockwise around the table?

Tanu: Sure thing. You deal the red cards?

Vanessa: On it. *Vanessa deals 5 red cards to each person at the table* First person to four green cards wins? Since we’re a large group?

Kendra: Sounds good to me.

Round 1

Tanu: *places a green card on the table* The word is effervescent. Fizzy, exuberant, and vivacious are a few synonyms. Choose your cards.

Kendra: So, Dale and Bracken, you want to choose a red card which goes well with the word “effervescent.” 

Seth: Or you can pick something opposite.

Kendra: Can we please not confuse them?

Seth: What? It’s the judge who decides who the winner is. Tanu can pick whatever card he wants. 

Kendra: But the rules-

Seth: There aren’t any real rules. Stop making up rules where they don’t belong.

Warren: *snickers*

Kendra: *to Dale and Bracken* Just choose a word you think will go well with the adjective. *rolls her eyes*

*1 minute later, Tanu collects the red cards*

Tanu: Let’s see. The word is effervescent, and our options here are… ‘my appendix’, ‘all-nighters’, ‘prom night’, ‘star gazing’, ‘my cold, dead fingers’, and ‘Sugar Plum Fairies.’ I’m, um. What a great way to start off this game. *laughs*

Warren: My cold, dead fingers. Nice.

Tanu: I was part of some pretty crazy all-nighters when I was a kid. That’s the winner. Who played it?

Vanessa: *grabs the green card* I’ll take that.

Warren: Seth? Did you play the dead fingers?

Seth: Yeah.

Warren: Good one. *high-fives Seth*

Round 2

Seth: My turn to judge. *cracks his knuckles* Okay. You all ready for this? The word is pointless. Do your worst.

Warren: I’ve got this one. Watch. He’s gonna pick mine.

Vanessa: Just play your card.

Warren: I’m going to win.

Vanessa: You’re not going to win if you don’t play the card.

Warren: *tosses his card into the middle of the table and smiles* I’m winning this.

Kendra: I don’t know about that; mine is pretty good.

Vanessa: Not as good as mine.

Dale: I feel like I don’t have any great choices for this one. 

Bracken: Me neither.

Seth: Just throw a card on the table. It’s okay if it doesn’t make sense. I’m fine with a little chaos in my life.

*Dale and Bracken choose cards, Seth picks them all up*

Seth: Alright. We have ‘grocery express lanes’, ‘a broken collarbone’, ouch, ‘inferiority complex’, hahahaha that’s awesome, ‘reality TV shows’, true, ‘a fender bender’, and ‘elections.’

Kendra: Elections?!

*Tanu, Vanessa, Dale and Warren laugh*

Dale: Feels that way sometimes.

Seth: Inferiority complex. That one wins. That’s the most useless of all of those options.

Warren: See? I told you I was going to win. *takes the green card*

Vanessa: The word was pointless, not useless.

Seth: I am the judge. I have spoken.

Warren: *to Vanessa* You played the elections card, didn’t you?

Vanessa: *sighs* Yes.

Warren: That one would’ve won in my books.

Vanessa: Too bad you weren’t the judge, then.

Round 3

Kendra: *draws a green card and places it on the table* The word is heroic. Courageous, daring, and valiant.

Bracken: I don’t have a good one for this round, either.

Dale: Neither do I.

Warren: I might, if she thinks creatively.

*Kendra gathers all of the cards*

Kendra: Alright, so the word is heroic, and here are the answers: ‘a Hail Mary’, ‘Uma Thurman’, ‘Haley’s Comet’, ‘hybrid cars’, ‘the eye of the storm’, and ‘Benjamin Franklin.’ Seriously, guys? This was the best you could do?

Seth: Sometimes the cards are great, and sometimes… they’re not.

Kendra: Haley’s Comet? Hybrid cars? Heroic? Really?

Warren: Just pick a winner, Kens.

Kendra: *bites her lip* Fine. Ben Franklin, I guess. You weirdos.

Tanu: Why, thank you, Kendra. *takes the green card*

Round 4

Bracken: My turn, right? 

Seth: Yep. Draw a green card and put it in the middle of the table. You’ll pick the winner, so don’t play a red card.

Bracken: Got it. *places a green card neatly into the center of the table* Taboo. Forbidden, prohibited, or unmentionable. Hmm. This could be interesting.

Kendra: I don’t have any good ones for that.

Warren: Welcome to all of us during the last round. I’ve got a good one this time. *plays a card*

Vanessa: Me too. *plays her card*

*1 minute later, Bracken gathers up the cards*

Bracken: Ooh, these look good already. Let’s see. ‘Skeletons in the closet’, hmm. Yes. ‘A watery grave’. Indeed. ‘Holiday office parties’-

Warren: *chokes on his cocoa*

Dale: *slaps Warren’s back*

Warren: That doesn’t help!

Dale: *teases* I could get you something stronger to drink if you’d like?

Warren: Just. Just stop.

Dale: *shrugs*

Seth: *looks between Dale and Warren* Why do I feel like I’m missing a story here?

Vanessa: *grinning* Because you are.

Kendra: … Are you going to elaborate on that one?

Warren: Nope. She’s not. No.

Vanessa: It involved some alcohol.

Warren: I said no!

Dale: And a stolen suit jacket.

Warren: Stop!

Vanessa: And a massive hangover the next day.

Kendra: At an office party? Have any of you ever even worked in an office?

Tanu: *amused* I heard about that. Warren became a legend with the younger Knights of the Dawn after that.

Warren: I was 21!

Vanessa: That’s actually where we met.

Warren: Don’t remind me.

Seth: Were you there, too, Dale?

Dale: Nope. I just got to clean up the mess which was Warren when he got home. We still have that suit jacket somewhere. I have no idea where he got it from.

Warren: Keep going, Bracken. Please. Change the subject.

Bracken: Actually, I’m quite intrigued. I’d like to hear the rest of the story.

Warren: *sighs* I got drunk during an undercover mission. It wasn’t my finest moment. I was young and stupid.

Vanessa: Old enough to know not to drink while undercover.

Warren: People kept handing me glasses full of champagne. What was I supposed to do?!

Vanessa: Keep the same one on you all night. Sip here and there. Don’t finish it. And don’t accept any more than that!

Warren: Young and stupid. I’ve grown since then.

Vanessa: Sometimes I wonder if that’s a true statement.

Warren: *rolls his eyes*

Vanessa: *rolls her eyes*

Bracken: Ooookay, starting over. The choices are ‘skeletons in the closet’, ‘a watery grave’, holiday office parties’, ‘moustaches’, ‘the Garden of Eden’, ooh that’s a good one, and finally, ‘the French Revolution.’ Hmm. I like many of these, but I think the most taboo of them all would be either The Garden of Eden or A watery grave. I think I’ll choose the watery grave.

Warren: Good choice. *grabs the green card* Dale, you’re next.

Bracken: Who played the Garden?

Seth: Me.

Bracken: Good one.

Read part 2 here!

#fablehaven #aerinm writes #script-style #there'll be four parts to this #yes i played an entire game of apples to apples by myself for this #kinda sad when you think about it LOL #also took forever #anyway i digress #have some silliness

[aerinmelina]

(From this post here.) @jaylalovesreading

So I wrote this whole thing in an entirely different way last night, and then tumblr deleted it when I tried to save it (!!!!), but I think I like this one better anyway.

———

A knock sounded at the door, and Kendra glanced up at the clock on the wall; 8:00am, the same time as usual. She smiled and opened the door to find Bracken on the other side of it. He waved at her and she waved back, then motioned for him to come inside. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

She sat down on a bench near the front door and put her shoes on, then grabbed her coat and backpack. “Bye, Mom!” she called.

Marla’s voice rang from the other room. “Bye, sweetie! Have a good day at school today!”

“You might want an umbrella,” Bracken said. “It’s a bit drizzly out there this morning.”

“Got it. Do you have one?”

He shook his head. “My sisters absconded with all of ours.”

“We can share,” Kendra said. She felt her cheeks tingle a bit. “It’s large enough for two people.”

She could swear his smile was bright enough to light up the entire world. It wasn’t hard to see why Bracken was one of the most popular guys in school.

Kendra opened the hall closet and removed an umbrella from its depths, then turned toward Bracken. “I’m ready,” she announced.

He opened the front door and motioned for her to walk through. “No Seth?” he asked.

“Not today,” she replied as she walked outside and opened the umbrella. “He has baseball practice this morning.”

“Isn’t baseball practice usually after school?” Bracken asked as he fell into step beside Kendra, under cover of the umbrella.

She shrugged her shoulders. “They’ve been doing a mix lately. Some days before school, some days after. I think some of the team is part of other clubs and had a hard time making it to all of the practices. Not sure. The game season is about to start, anyway.”

“Makes sense to practice a lot,” Bracken inferred. “I look forward to watching one of his games.”

“They’re okay,” she replied. “They’re definitely getting more interesting as he’s getting older. When he was younger? Super boring.”

Bracken chuckled a bit at that. “I know the feeling, but with ballet and piano recitals rather than baseball.”

They walked in companionable silence for a few seconds, and then Bracken switched topics. “So. You know how I’m on the student council, right?” he asked.

“Yeah. Of course,” Kendra replied. He went to meetings every Wednesday before school, and stayed after school on Mondays and sometimes Fridays as well because of it.

“Well… this’ll be announced today in the junior and senior homeroom classes, but we’ve decided on a date, location and theme for this year’s prom,” he said.

A well of hope started to spring up inside of Kendra and she tried to quash it. Prom?! Was he going to ask her to prom?! “Oh yeah?” she asked, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. “When is it?”

Please ask me to prom. Please ask me to prom. Please. Ask. Me. To. Prom.

“May 4th,” he stated, then stopped walking and looked at her. She was surprised to see that his cheeks were rosy, but then again she felt like hers were going to catch fire in a minute as well.

He had her full attention. “May is a good month,” she stated. “Maybe it’ll be less rainy by then.”

His hand made its way to the back of his neck, a gesture of embarrassment that she’d come to recognize in him over the past months since school had started, and his blush intensified. “Would you like to go with me?” he asked.

Okay. Her cheeks were surely on fire now. “Yes!” she said, perhaps with a little too much exuberance. She cleared her throat and tried again, this time keeping her voice calmer despite the party she was throwing in her brain. “I mean, um. Yes, I would love to go to prom with you.” She couldn’t stop smiling. Alert. Alert. She could not stop smiling!

His grin matched hers, and he offered her his arm which she gladly accepted. He in turn took the umbrella and held it for both of them this time. “I’m glad you accepted,” he said. “I didn’t want to go with anyone else, and I didn’t want to show up alone, either.”

How much more could her face burn? Was she some sort of science experiment or something? “I wouldn’t want to go with anyone else, either,” she mumbled. They resumed their walk and continued to grin like maniacs. Kendra was through the roof with happiness and excitement.

Upon reaching the school, Bracken closed up the umbrella after shaking it out, then returned it to Kendra. “Thank you for walking with me,” he said, just like he always did. This time, though, the words seemed to somehow stand out a little more.

“Thank you for picking me up,” she replied. “See you after school?”

He nodded his head. “Same place as usual.”

A sense of boldness, maybe, came over Kendra, and she stood on her toes in order to kiss him on his cheek. When she pulled away, she found his face had become a brilliant shade of red, probably like her own, and he moved his hand up to cover the spot where she’d kissed him. He had the biggest smile on his face that she’d ever seen. “It’s going to be hard to concentrate today,” he said.

Kendra laughed. She wholeheartedly agreed, but didn’t care. She had the feeling that today was going to be a great day.

#fablehaven #brackendra #aerinm writes #au scene #high school au #omgosh this was fun