AN~ This is my reaction against the fandom's decision to pair Daphne with Mustardseed without thinking about any other options. Because Daphne has options. Most of you probably know how I feel about Daphnerseed, so this won't be a surprise to you. If you don't know, PM me or something, and we can discuss our shipping preferences at length. I always have fun doing that.
Now, at the start, it looks like this might be a Daphne/Wendell piece, but don't be fooled. This is just the intro.
Disclaimer: if I owned the series, Daphne would have learned some of the lessons she's probably going to learn here a long time ago.
"You two should totally date."
It's summer again, and the Grimms are all back home- it's traditional anymore, everyone getting together for the whole summer, all of them in Granny's house. What's not technically a tradition but keeps happening (is happening now, in fact) is that the Everafters of the town keep shoving their children at the house when Sabrina and Daphne are back.
Daphne can't exactly blame them; there are less than ten Everafter kids who still live in town all year, and half of them are fifteen- practically adults, even if they're still babies compared to most of the Everafters. So when four new kids come back, it's understandable that their parents send them over almost constantly.
The problem is that most of them don't get along. Oh, Basil gets along really well with Bess and Hamstead's kid, and Snow and Charming's, too, but none of them are even in grade school yet, and that's the time of life when everything is simple (Daphne might be a bit biased because after she hit grade school her parents disappeared and everything got complicated). But the fifteen-year-olds, who are technically too old for playdates, don't play nice together.
Well, that's not quite true. Puck and Natalie have a lot of fun wrestling and attacking Sabrina, but Sabrina hates all three of them. She can't get over the fact that Bella and Natalie used to be evil, and she thinks Wendell is a weird nerd who's almost as annoying as Puck.
So Daphne hangs out with them while Sabrina and Red, and sometimes Pinocchio, play games off by themselves. Red doesn't like being around this many people; it makes it hard for her to stay calm. And Pinocchio just gets offended easily.
Daphne doesn't really have a problem with any of them. She's forgiven Bella and Natalie because their dad told them to do it, after all, and they thought it was for a good reason. Pinocchio can get really annoying, but he's getting better as he grows up. Basil and his little friends are adorable, and she loves to play with them. Puck is like a fun big brother. And Wendell is like her twin- except he's four years older.
Which is why Bella has said this to the two of them.
Daphne and Wendell have decided they're going to open up a detective agency over the summer- nothing big, just for the fun of it. Wendell will wear a fedora and a trench coat and she'll wear tweed and smoke a bubble pipe, and together they'll solve tiny crimes in a completely disproportionately dramatic style. It'll be tons of fun, and they're both very excited. Bella's been watching and smirking.
Wendell looks up in response to what she's just said, and wrinkles his nose. "Date… Daphne?" he asks. "But she's like, ten!"
"I turned eleven three weeks ago!" Daphne protests. But she makes a face, too. "Guys and girls can be friends without dating, Bella," she says. "Look at Puck and Natalie!"
She gestures at the duo, who are currently rolling around on the lawn, making noises that sound more like wolves than people.
Bella rolls her eyes. "That's just because Puck's in love with your sister. You two, on the other hand…" She smirks. "You'd be perfect together."
Daphne and Wendell look at each other and laugh for a long time.
"I'm too young to date," Daphne says eventually. "Especially a high schooler. Maybe when we're older."
Wendell, still chuckling, wipes tears out of his eyes. "Yeah," he says, "Maybe."