4000 years is a long time to live.
It's a long time of seeing wars and dynasties and inventions. To see death and life, darkness falling, and light chasing it away.
Puck doesn't keep track of the years, or the people. They exist, and he enjoys the time he has with them, but ultimately, everyone leaves. They can die, or move away, or become enemies. But everything eventually ends.
Puck refuses to let go. Not everything has to end, surely. He and his family have been here since the dawn of time as humankind knows it. They have survived this long, and so if his selfish, stubborn and detached family can make it, why can't something that's just purely good make it, too?
If good always wins, why hasn't won yet? It must be just a matter of time. So he holds on, waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
Time passes, and everything seems to cycle. Wars over something, wars over the lack of something. Disease, death, destruction. All just repeating itself. If good wins, it doesn't win for long before something wrong edges into it.
There is nothing new under the sun.
He refuses to believe that. He stays a child, waiting for there to be something worth growing up for, worth being a part of to surface. Until then, he will have his fun, but surely there will be good soon. Good that will last forever.
He repeats this to himself often.
New lands are discovered, and he becomes curious. He tours Africa, Asia, America, Europe. He swims with polar bears and flies with birds. But the years pass, and the new lands are no longer new, and no better than they were before.
His father doesn't understand. To him, good is an abstract. Everyone believes in their cause, and there are flaws in everything. Nothing can ever be purely good.
He tries to make Puck see this, but the child still believes in ideals. It leads to fights that only escalate until he forces Puck out into the world, hoping that a few centuries of roughing it by himself will force his son to see that it's every man for himself, an always will be.
Instead Puck finds Relda Grimm. The Old Lady doesn't want anything from him. She feeds him and offers comfort, and asks for nothing in return. She knows the extent of his powers, of his abilities, the magic he wields carelessly. Yet she asks for nothing, and only gives. She is good.
And her granddaughters are threatening to take that small piece of good that he has been searching for away from him. They won't. They can't. They are mere humans, fleeting and young. He has been searching for Relda Grimm's good as long as his memory extends. They will not take her last years from him. He deserves this good, not them.
He can't keep Relda to himself. She forbids it. She says she has enough love for everyone, so he grudgingly allows the human children to share her good. He's not sure why. The smaller one is okay. But the blonde one? She's not. She grumbles and whines, and generally is not goodness.
But she doesn't touch the Old Lady's goodness. In fact, Puck observes with confusion, she seems to be absorbing good, not destroying it.
And then suddenly, he's growing up. Sabrina is growing good, and he's growing up.
He rebels. How could he be growing up for a human? A human child who isn't even doing something! She cannot be the good he has been searching for. It's not all-encompassing. It's not world changing.
But it's changing his world. He's growing up, and he thinks that this is what love is supposed to feel like, and his stomach hurts when he thinks about her. And it's scary.
So after years of chasing after good, he leaves. He disappears. Doesn't answer the calls, doesn't return for Relda's funeral, doesn't contact the Grimms. But he's still growing.
He keeps an eye on them. He knows about Veronica's new job, Henry's struggles with teenage daughters, Basil's penchant for destroying stuff, and Daphne's increasing skill with magic.
He knows about Sabrina's experience with highschool, her major in college, her struggle to adapt back to the human world.
He knows about her boyfriend, then her engagement, and finally, the wedding date. He knows.
Sabrina is good. Despite everything, her stubbornness, her youth, her early trauma, she is good.
And he can't let that go away. He won't let it move onto someone else when he needs her, and she doesn't really love her fiancé. It would be a mistake that he could never fix, letting the good escape his world.
So he saves her, and himself.
"Hello, Grimm." He enters impressively, hoping to sweep her off her feet, to convince her to stay with him, not the human. And, judging by the smile that's creeping across her face as wedding guests scream, it's working. She is good, and he has been searching for so long.
Afterall, he never said that he was good or unselfish. Only that he was searching for it.
Ah, Puck. We really don't appreciate his lifespan enough, you know?
Anyway, I'm back after six months of silence. Sorry about that. But hey, I'll be updating "This Thing Called War" within the next few weeks. So stay tuned!
'Til next time!
-The Irish Lass