Summary: His sister would rather die for humanity than live for him. Angry, disappointed and bitter, prince Nuada turns away from his people's cowardice in disgust, determined to follow his own sense of honour and duty. However, Fate, and the Bureau, are not quite done with the prince.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hellboy. I do not make money out of writing this fanfic.

This Wood and Spirit

Ch 1

"Out of this wood do not desire to go..."

The prince watched with derision how, in a deliberately loud voice, the so-called director of this 'Bureau' urged a few of his underlings to divide their trash and do their bit for a 'cleaner planet'. The hasty glances Mannings threw him only made it all the more obvious that Manning's urgings were more for the director's own sake than for the planet's. Undoubtedly the director was trying to impress the prince by appearing concerned about the environment, and thereby weasel himself into Nuada's good graces. Ha. What a farce.

He purposely trailed his fingers lovingly over his favored weapon, the silver spear, while staring straight at the self-important director. The man promptly tripped over his own words, before hastily retreating to safer grounds, followed by most of his underlings. All of them gave the prince a wide berth. He sneered as he smelled the pungent scent of fear exuding from the humans. Even though he was now residing among them, they were right to fear him.

"You gotta teach me how to do that." The prince just curled his lip, not deigning to answer. The red behemoth apparently didn't seem to be bothered by the prince's animosity towards him. Hellboy leaned at the wall next to the prince, striking a match to light his cigar. "Ever since a little stint in a tomb he seems to believe I am actually a good guy at heart. Now he just isn't that intimidated by me anymore... A real shame."

Still, the prince didn't care to respond. He just stared at the wall, effectively ignoring the big demon. The demon was content enough with the silence, enjoying his cigar. They made quite the pair to the personnel of the bureau that hurried by. Both the Elf and the demon were quite a bit taller than the average human. But where one was pale, the other was a deep red. Hellboy seemed to not have a care in the world, where the prince seemed to be quite ready and eager to lay waste to that world.

Finally having finished smoking his cigar, Red squished the bud between thumb and pointer finger before mindlessly tossing it in the trash. The prince noted how it landed in the section bearing the sign 'plastic only'. Nuada smirked. How juvenile.

"Now how about we work off some of that energy? I want a rematch for this morning. This time I am going to smash that uppity, royal face of yours."

"We'll see." Having finally wrested a response from the taciturn prince Hellboy perked up, swinging his arms, working his muscles loose.

"This time you are going down, princey."

Nuada smiled a rather bloodthirsty smile in answer, as he raised his lance to rest on his shoulder while accompanying Red to the built-in dojo.

"Ouchouchouchou-"

"Shut up and take it like a man." Liz mercilessly pressed the wad of cotton doused with antiseptic to one of the series of cuts littering all over the red demon's skin. She wore a frown as she administered to her love.

"Next time you will be sparring without anything sharp or pointy. This is the third time today that I have to patch you up. The third time!" She threw the used wad into a bin standing next to their bed where it joined a dozen more.

"Seriously Red, why do you have to be the one to constantly play mitigator between that elf and the rest of the bureau?!" Beneath her irritation was real fear. Hellboy reached up to lightly caress her face. Stress was not good for her or the babies, but what could he do?

"Besides him being the only one who can give me a true challenge in this place? You know why Liz. I need to make sure you and the kids will be taken care of. If something ever happens."

The pyro sighed deeply before laying a sweet kiss on his lips. "The whole world may claim to know your destiny, I know you. You will never do anything that could harm the kids or me."

He smiled tenderly, gently pulling Liz down to him to gather her in his arms. "Thanks for your faith in me, babe." However, Hellboy was determined to plan for the worst case secenario, and that irritating Elf prince was at the centre of Hellboy's plans. However, Nuada was mightily uncooperative... and Red hadn't even told him what he had planned. Somehow Red had a sinking suspicion that the Elf might spite him, just for the heck of it.

Damn Elf.

The problem was that Nuada hadn't lost any of his hatred towards the human race. And from one day to the next he found himself living among them. It was enough to make him even more unbearable towards whoever dared to approach him. Hellboy got the Elf to spar with him, only because apparently the prince did get tired to shadow-fighting himself the whole day. But any attempt at conversation was rebuffed rather brutally.

Even his own sister was given the cold shoulder. Which made Abe frown, as Nuala took her brother's disdain towards her quite hard. However, it was to be expected after what happened in Bethmoora; even Hellboy couldn't begrudge the prince his animosity towards his sister.

All in all the atmosphere in the bureau compound was rather tense.

And it drove some people up the walls.

"They're at it again!" The human firestarter stood with clenched fists at one of the windows with unobstructed view of the sparring room. "And I said no more sharp or pointy objects! Why doesn't Red ever listen to me!" Unnoticed by the woman flames started licking around her hands as her anger and worry started to flare.

Others noticed though and started to back away. This was going to turn ugly. Better avoid the pregnant, hormonal woman as much as possible.

Luckily, not all personnel was of the dumb male variety.

A young woman's face actually lit up as she saw Liz, and instead of making herself scarce, she quickly approached the other woman.

"Liz!"

Startled out of her turbulent thoughts, Liz turned towards the person calling her name. The flames sizzled for a moment before disappearing. The other woman didn't bat an eye though and stopped at the pyro's side. She threw a glance into the sparring room, momentarily distracted before giving her attention to Liz. She hesitantly reached out to place her hand on Liz' shoulder.

"How about some tea? You look like you can use a cup." The softly worded request had the unexpected result of making Liz burst out in tears, whether from anger or worry even she didn't know.

It had the added effect of chasing the last few straggling men from the room. Even the other woman looked perhaps a bit perplexed and uncomfortable at what she had wrought with her well-meant offer.

"Come on, let's get somewhere a bit more private. Don't worry about big Red, they won't kill each other. "

"Maybe not today, but Nuada, he- Well, he could have killed Red twice before, and I worry that when his patience with this whole stupid situation runs out he will kill Red this time. Third time's the charm right?! And where would that leave me?! Alone with two kids! How will that..." The rest was pretty much lost in her tears.

At a loss for words, the other woman led Liz from the hallway, away from the sparring room. She pressed Liz into a comfortable seat in one of the smaller personnel break rooms, conveniently empty.

She turned on the water to boil, rummaging in her handbag for some tea.

"And I don't want any more tea! I want coffee!"

Oh dear.

How to comfort and calm a crying woman? A pregnant, crying woman?!

As Lark busied herself with the preparations for tea, she felt very out of her depth. She always felt very inadequate when it came to comforting people. Her attempts in the past had always been rebuffed, and multiple times the grief had turned into anger, usually directed at her. Most hurtful things were said at times like that.

So what should she do? What could she do? She poured the hot water into two glasses and set them on the table, placing some tea and a tea ball next to it.

"It's not coffee, because, you know, that would be bad for the babies, the caffeine. So, this tea doesn't have any of that particular substance either. It's tastes great though, and very soothing for your nerv- for the spirit. It's not a drug though! Or anything like that! It has some herbs, and just a sprinkle of, uhm.." Lark realised she was rambling and quickly shut up. She felt her cheeks heat up, but was rewarded for her efforts when Liz stopped crying to give her a watery smile.

"It will no doubt taste wonderful, though nothing can replace coffee. Or beer. Wine is also good. But I would kill for a coffee right now. God, I feel so... so not myself. One moment I'm happy, the next I'm in tears. I worry and worry and worry. I am excited but also very, very... scared! And this whole situation with Nuada works on my nerves. What if that guy hurts Red badly? And Red is so busy with him, while he should spend a bit more time arranging for when the babies arrive, with me! I sound awful, I know, but who cares about that pale freak, I am the one who's going to have not one but two demon-human babies! No one knows what to expect: even the length of this pregnancy is a subject of debate. And all Red is doing is getting his behind handed to him by that arrogant, psychopathic, all-humans-must-die, Elven supremacist!"

"Ah, yes, I see." And Lark did, but she had no clue what to say to that.

"I know why Red is trying to butter up Nuada, but I have faith in Red, we don't need precautions for something that will never happen." Liz' faith in Red was absolute.

"Well, I think Hellboy is actually thinking things through here. Not to say he never does, but he can be very impulsive." Lark said carefully, not wanting to sound insulting towards Liz' boyfriend.

Liz snorted. "Impulsive is like his middle name. He hardly ever thinks things through, I will be the first to agree with you on that."

"It's just the word 'never'. When we say something will never happen, it undoubtedly will. The word is, in my opinion, really jinxed."

Liz nodded. "You might be on to something. Especially around this place."

"So I think Red has started to think about this destiny of his. And even though we all believe in him not to bring about the end of the world, your pregnancy might have led him to think 'what if?'. And like any good father, he wants his kids to be safe."

Lark filled the tea ball with the tea leaves before dipping it into Liz' glass, gently stirring the brew. The other woman dragged a hand through her short hair and sighed deeply.

"It's the responsible behaviour that I want to see from Red. I guess it's just that the situation is so aggravating: prince Nuada doesn't even want to listen to him, or to anyone else! None but Red can even get close enough to him. Either the prince leaves the room or he gets us to leave." Liz shivered. "He's one cold, ruthless SOB. I don't like the fact that Red's contingency plan resolves around the most anti-human being I have ever met. Expecting him to give asylum to humans when the End of Times is upon them sounds more like a really bad joke."

"If you have the right leverage..."

"Leverage doesn't help when you can't even get the prince to acknowledge the potential leverage. He just don't want to have anything to do with us. I have never seen someone so good at evading any and all contact."

"He must be terribly alone in the midst of so many people."

Liz scoffed. "Now don't feel sorry for the prick. He's not worth the time or effort. Anyways, I guess Red will wear him down at some point and then he will hopefully listen to what Red and the Bureau have to say."

"Maybe a peace offering will help?" Lark had finished making both cups of tea. She pushed the sugar closer to the pyro.

"Don't you think they haven't tried it? Except for offering the thing he most wants, I think we have tried everything, which is actually very little... There are very few things we can think of which will please an Elven prince."

"It's a small miracle he's still here."

Liz sighed. "What would you do if we hold your sister over your head? Even though he doesn't speak a word to her, he cares deeply for her wellbeing, we all know that. The implied threat that we would imprison her to keep him from doing something foolish still seems enough to keep him here, where we can keep an eye on him. Though if Abe and Nuala get even more lovey-dovey with each other he might rethink his decision to stay here as our 'guest'; he can't stand how cute they are together."

"They are cute together." Lark agreed wholeheartedly.

Liz took a sip of her tea. "Ohh, hot! But good. I like this." A few more sips. "I like this a lot."

Lark glowed at the compliment. "I hoped you would. I tried to remember what you liked before, and so I thought to make you something nice, you see, and without any of the stuff that can be bad for babies. And you have been so nice to me since I have started working here and I wanted to do something back for you, and Hellboy, and, well, the tea is just a start. And, er..."

"You made this for me? Thank you!" Liz smiled, genuinely surprised and pleased. "It's very thoughtful of you, very sweet. Do you make tea often? I mean, make your own tea melanges. Is that a legitimate field of biology?" She teased gently, smiling when Lark mock-frowned.

"I'll have you know it's a small but very legitimate field! All the tea-brewing companies in the world vie for my services." They both giggled.

"I knew you have a green thumb, are you actually growing your own tea?"

"Well, not precisely, as I don't have any specimens of Camellia Sinensis in my gardens or here in the lab. I make tea using herbs and fruits mostly. I made sure that everything I used for your melange is pregnancy-proof."

"Pregnancy-proof huh? Well, I guess this will have to do until the twins are born, and I can have coffee again. Thanks for trying to cheer me up. I had a very bad couple of days..."

Lark leaned forward. "I, err, I might have something else that will hopefully brighten your day. I was looking for you to give you this tea, and something else. No one is blind to the fact that the situation here is rather tense, and that prince Nuada is at the center of it. Now, I have been doing some research and tests with the remains of the Forest God." Her voice had taken a solemn, reverent quality. "Did you see it bloom after... after Red killed it?"

Liz could swear that Lark's voice hitched. However, she too remembered the majesty of the great green being.

"I felt so sad hearing that he was the last of its kind. I felt so sad about its death... I like green things, you know that by now I guess." It was a half-hearted attempt at a joke, to hide deeper feelings of grief and some strange feeling of despair Lark had felt as she arrived at the scene after the battle. Those feelings had yet to ebb away. There, she had felt its death in the air, felt some last shred of hope being carried away by the wind. Hearing the story of what happened only confirmed the feeling of sadness that had enveloped her immediately upon entering the site. She had raced up the stair of a nearby building, equipment jostling on her back, hoping to catch some of the strange pollens drifting away on the wind. She had succeeded and brought her little treasure, together with other samples she had taken from the remains of the Forest God, back to the lab. However, the remains had seemed strangely lifeless in the lab.

"So I tried a few things, run a few tests, and set up a few experiments... And I may have... 'found' something, something that you could use as a peace offering to the prince, like I was talking about earlier."

Liz looked up at her, with an expectant expression. It made Lark blush and stutter a bit. Still seated, she leaned down to rummage in her bag sitting next to her chair. Lark felt nervous; she might think that she had something truly valuable, but Liz and the others might not share that opinion. They might even be upset with her as they could possibly view it as dangerous.

She pulled a large, rather dented tin box out of her bag. She put it on the table and removed the lid. She didn't dare look up at Liz as she carefully pushed loamy black earth to the sides, revealing eight green, bean-like objects, which were all softly glowing.

"Are that- No way! These things look exactly like the one that Nuada used to summon that Forest God!"

"Yup. And this is a Forest God. It just hasn't grown up yet."

"They seem so tiny and innocent like this." Liz sounded apprehensive, which Lark didn't notice as she smiled indulgently down at the bulbs.

"Yes, aren't they adorable?" Lark looked up and promptly blushed bright red again when she saw Liz' disbelieving look. She quickly looked down again, with one finger lightly stroking over one of the green bulbs, watching it pulse with a brighter glow for a moment.

"They are so full of life..."

"Are you sure they aren't dangerous? I mean, they could be, if we hand them over to the prince. In his hands they can be very dangerous. A peace offering that can start another fight." Despite her worries Liz also reached out, hesitantly placing a finger on one bulb, watching it glow stronger. "Amazing..."

"You could state some conditions, however, I don't think he will use them like he did before... From what I heard he was making a point... But he must have been sorry for wasting such a beautiful creature! Well, if he does do anything like that again, we will hand them over to the princess!"

Liz laughed, amused. "You sound like a mother hen. If they weren't plants I would ask if you laid them yourself."

Lark's blush turned an even deeper shade, but she had to laugh as well. "I had little to do with growing these little guys. Mother Nature is to be thanked." She pushed the tin box toward Liz. "Here, I really think this will make a good peace offering. Talk about it with Red, see what he thinks."

"I definitely will. Thanks, Lark, I'll keep you updated. And you might have to answer a few questions from Nuada, if he has any."

"You know where to find me."

"Out of this wood do not desire to go" : Shakespear, A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 3, scene 1