Birds and the Bees – Prologue, One Bright Bird
Author's Note: The following is a quick short story set in an alternate timeline after the events of "The Wolf Among Us", and as such will contain original characters and inconsistencies from the comics. It is not meant to be taken as canon or meant to 'improve' on the comics, merely a separate, more simplified version of the universe from the original so that the story may be more easily written in. The diction and slang in the following is meant to evoke a feeling of a New Yorker telling it from memory.
Maryushka. A name not many in the new home of Fabletown could pronounce, so when the time to register came, she kept the name, but told everyone to call her 'Mary'. Maryushka Falcon was her name, and she knew very little what her husband did for a living. They had come to this land from the Homeland just as with the other fables and just as with the other fables it seemed it would not be easy to live in. She spent her days as a maid, cleaning, cooking and watching television when she got home and whilst she waited for her dearest husband to return.
Finnist. King of the Skies in their Homeland, and along with the Woodsmen her husband was one of the few to face the Big Bad Wolf and live to tell the tale. He was a predator back then; a falcon whose feathers bathed in the gold sunlight so often that they turned gold themselves, a Bright Falcon. Since she had first call to him, they spent every night together, and during the day he took flight while she stayed and cleaned the house. They loved each other so dearly. So dearly he could not tell her the truth back then, no more than he could tell her the truth now.
He was wearing a bulky fur coat that night with a black wig and large sunglasses, all a quick and hazmat method of covering up his appearance whilst still appearing to be an eccentric but otherwise normal person. In front of him lay a dead Mundie, the bloodstain they had left on the wall dripping with grey matter; their body limp and crooked after the harsh kick he had delivered. In his left hand between his index and his middle fingers was a thin, lit cigar; in his right was an equally smoky six-shooter.
Most of the Fables had gotten a job like the Mundies, maybe as a clerk or a landlord or maybe a butcher. Those more important or scholarly got jobs in their local business office, with Snow in charge still and Bigby Wolf as the acting Sheriff. Finn was never open to the idea. He was not royalty in the same way some of the others had been in their past lives, but he was not going to scrape by as some common, boring occupation. At first it was not a major deal, they sold the few treasures they had and went on their way; it was easier than how some other fables had it. Mary was a fable but also a human, so she did not need a glamour, and Finnist always knew how to take more than one form, and one of those just happened to be a handsome young man.
But Fabletown was established in full in New York, which meant rent would get more and more ridiculous, food and clothing too. Eventually, their little fund went dry, and Mary took up the broom as she had in the past for him. Finn tried, honestly he did. He took up management at a bookstore, and then a café, and then as a host at a restaurant. But he always got restless, and wanted to leave them, they felt like prisons…then the Crooked Man came and offered him something different.
He made a rule from it. No women, no children. The Crooked Man was not angry, but not happy with the rule either. Nonetheless he set Finn loose on anyone else who met that requirement. Any male Fable was fair game for Finn's talons. Was not long though before the Crooked Man found someone else, some psycho without any rules, a woman with the same name as his wife. Out of the job, he took off out of Fabletown and got his new work, very much the same, from the common Russian mafia. He knocked off wise guy after wise guy, his talons would be too distinct, and he would mainly fly in through the windows and throw them back out to make it look like an accident or suicide, making sure to avoid a struggle.
Tonight was different. Whole fucking place stunk of asbestos, a cheap motel in Brooklyn, that's where the target was. The whole cab ride there in the disguise was uncomfortable, he tried his best to avoid looking at the driver. Usually they wanted it to look like an accident, but this dipshit he was after tonight did something really bad to one of theirs. He had to arrive, had to make it obvious, had to kick in the door, had to beat the shit out of the sick fuck, then blow his brains out all over the wall. Routine.
He ran back out of the motel, knocking the clerk down who tried to block him in the lobby. The moment he was in an alleyway, sirens blaring behind him, he ditched the gun, the wig, the coat, and the glasses inside a trash bag and then threw it into a dumpster. Then he took flight, turning into a common, albeit golden falcon and soaring up over the rooftops. Heading back home.
Should probably mention that bit about him fighting with Bigby back in the Homeland. See, Finn's got a few forms: one's his pretty-boy form, where he's tall, lean and got some nice blond hair and crystal blue eyes; then he's got his angel-looking one, where he stays mostly human but can sub out his arms for wings and grows some tail feathers just above his ass, hence why he never tucks his shirts in; then you got the falcon, where he looks like a normal-sized, normal falcon but with his gold feathers; last one he calls the Bright Falcon, that shit's scary, he's still a head taller than a man like when he's a pretty boy, but is a giant fucking bird. In that one his talons might as well be fucking sabres.
Now, he used to sleep with Mary, and fuck her of course, in his pretty boy form, almost never used the angel one and would fly around during the day as the falcon for fun. But Mary's sisters tried to screw them over, strapped blades to her windowsill so he couldn't land on it. Finn and Mary had been arguing about how he was not bringing in any money or work to the house, and he thought she put the blades there to keep him out. So he told her that unless she wore out three pairs of iron shoes, she would have never walked afar enough to find him. He flew off and she bought those shoes, and started following him best she could.
This is where Bigby came in; back when he was still a complete prick. Finn flew as far as he needed to go and made a roost in a big tree out in the middle of the woods. He stayed there as the Bright Falcon, and the Big Bad Wolf didn't like it. He was King of the Woods, and now the King of the Sky was moving in on his territory. Wolf came at him early one morning and tried to rip him apart, but Finn's giant fucking talons ripped up the Wolf's face and he flew up into the air out of his reach. Then all he had to do was keep darting down, diving at the Wolf and slashing him up whenever he got close. Finn was nowhere near as strong as the Wolf, but was fast as fuck.
Fight ended with Finn standing on the Wolf, ready to slit his throat, but instead said that if the Wolf did him a favour he'd let him live. He made the Wolf promise to bring Mary to him if he ever got lost or thrown away, that even if he died and she came looking for him, the Wolf would take her to his grave. Wolf agreed, and not long after Finn got invited for a dinner with some witch-bitch queen. Bitch poisoned him and locked him up like Snow back in her tale. She thought he was beautiful and knew he would never stay with her, so staring at his comatose body was the closest she could get to marrying him properly.
Mary made it to the woods, all three pairs of shoes busted, and when Finn wasn't there, the Wolf could have easily eaten her there and then. Maybe it was out of fear or out of respect, but he took her on his back instead and led her to where the queen was living. Mary and the Wolf ended up talking the whole way and she was probably the first human he made friends with in the Homeland. Mary had met Baba Yaga on the way and traded the Queen a magic sewing needle for him. Can you believe that? Anyway, she brought him back to life with a tear and they went off and lived happily ever after…you know, once Finn fought off the fucking army the Queen sent after them.
Now you got the full picture, back to that night. Finn flew straight to the balcony of he and Mary's Woodlands apartment, changing back to his pretty boy look again. He ran a hand through his soft blonde hair, moving the bangs out of his eyes and stepping in through the glass sliding door. He was in a simple black shirt, with short sleeves and buttons up the middle, and a pair of normal jeans and pointed-toed boots. He scratched the stubble on his chin as he made his way to the fridge, not hearing a peep from Mary but still on a rush from the escape that he didn't think much of it.
Their place was laid out simple enough, living room was the first place you entered and the balcony was right across from the door, to the left was the kitchen and the bathroom, both on the same side of the apartment to save on plumbing, and the bedroom was on the right. Walls were peach-coloured, she chose it, with paisley curtains, and in the center of the living room was a chair, a couch, a coffee table, and their little television.
Grabbing a glass of milk, he chugged the whole thing before wiping his mouth and finally calling out to her. "Babe, I'm back!" He shouted, walking into the living room and seeing the TV lit up and playing some old movie, Sleepless in Seattle or whatever. He smiled, shook his head and shut it off. "You have to stop watching that cheesy stuff, Mary."
No response.
"Did…Did I do something wrong, baby?" Something was wrong. Did somebody find out about his work? Did the Crooked Man call her up and tell her just to spite him? "Babe?"
He heard a faint buzzing from his bedroom and went towards it, the door opened only a crack. He pushed it all the way open and froze in place, his mouth and eyes wide open. She was there, dressed in some cute all-white lingerie he picked out for her last Valentine's Day. Bra, Corset, stockings with gartber belt and a cute pair of white panties with a pink bow on the front. Her back was against the wall and arms and legs laid on the bed, her eyes wide open and staring at the door he had just come through. He stood there, frozen for a few, the scene not clicking in his brain properly.
Seemed she had put the outfit on knowing he'd be home soon, but now she was completely motionless. He caught his breath and slowly crept in, making his way to the left side of the bed and next to her body, staring at her in disbelief. He touched his hand, tracing her fingers but reeling back when he felt no warmth. He knew already, he was just pretending it was not true, but he knew. It all came in a rush after that, he felt to his knees, grabbed her, held her close with him on the ground there and just started wailing. Tears streaming down his cheeks, teeth grit anytime he was not screaming, hair getting messy while he cried unto her cheeks and shoulders, his face rested in the crook of her neck.
Grief is a weird thing though, sometimes it happens in the order of the five stages, sometimes it happens all out of sync. His tears got clouded when his face twisted from a wail into a snarl, and once he stopped making so much noise he heard that buzzing again. It was coming from her face. Her lips and cheeks were bruised, the shape looking similar to a closed hand, someone held her down so she couldn't open her mouth. So he did, and out came a buzzing bug which he snatched out of the air. The stinger had fallen off, but the fucker was bigger than Finn's thumb, and Finn was a big guy.
It was a hornet, a fucking giant hornet, and its stinger was off, pretty fresh too. It was too weak to try to bite him or fight back, and it died right then and there in the palm of Finn's hand. This. This was what killed her. No surprises there, Finn knew it, and Finn already had an idea of who did it.
He gently placed her back on the bed, stuffed that giant fucking hornet into his pocket and snatched his fur-lined leather jacket from the closet. He would find the fucker who killed her, he was pretty sure he knew who, but didn't know where he would find him. He ran off that balcony and turned falcon in an instant, diving down through the crisp winter air towards the ground, swooping up at the last minute and soaring up into the night sky.
I'll kill that fucker. He thought to himself, I swear that before I stop fucking breathing, I will kill that fucker and eat his fucking heart.