Updates! Yay!
It's crazy how much I love writing Sisters Grimm. There are so many good characters and plotbunnies to feed... Mwahaha. :) (Nevermind that I have no idea where this story is going - says the oh-so-dutiful author)
Anyway, WriterCat's on her way over to my house, so this chapter may take a while to write because we'll be having so much random fun. And I also want to answer a question people've been asking, but I've been failing to answer: Is the baby going to be immortal? Yeah. It is. It's half Everafter, so it can choose when to stop aging. I'm still trying to decide if I want to give it the power to go forward and back in the aging process at will. Thoughts? Oh, and yes, it will have wings. Duh. :)
"Thanks for coming," Veronica said, grasping Mr. Canis's knarled hand. The old man smiled warmly down at Sabrina's mother, his face an intricate web of wrinkles. He'd aged since the departure of the Wolf, and it was becoming clear his time was drawing near.
Little Red Riding Hood stood close to his side, not a day older than she had been seven years ago. She drew her hood up over her thick brown curls and allowed a small smile. "Thank you for inviting us," she said in her quiet whisper of a voice. Daphne leaned down and gave her a hug.
"It's nice to see you, Little Red," the human girl said. "You should visit more often!" Sabrina, who stood beside her sister, nodded. She got the feeling that Red was sometimes lonely living in Mr. Canis's apartment, with only the old man for company.
But the smaller girl glanced over at Canis, who was speaking quietly to Henry, and shook her head. "I can't leave Papa now. He's getting... old... and I want to spend as much time with him as possible."
Sabrina frowned worriedly. "If you guys need anything, just give us a call, okay?" Red nodded and joined her 'Papa' at the door, where they thanked Veronica again for her hospitality and left.
Landon stood by Daphne's side and smiled softly. "I admire her devotion to him," he noted. "I mean, after all they went through because of the Wolf."
Sabrina nodded. "I've always felt a little guilty when I was around Red... I didn't really make an effort to be her friend until a few years ago. I thought she was weird."
"Well," Puck interrupted, slipping next to his wife and propping an elbow on her shoulder, "she wasn't very conversational."
"Don't be rude," Daphne chastised as Sabrina removed Puck's elbow. "I like Red!"
From the other side of the room, Veronica and Henry began to clear dinner dishes off of their dining room table. "Basil!" Henry called. "Come out of your room and help us!"
Basil stepped out and sighed. Being a typical nine year old boy, he had a natural aversion to work. But being exposed to Puck's lazy attitude toward labor might have also helped.
"Hey..." Daphne paused, looking at her brother with a tilted head.
Uh oh. She's getting an idea again, Sabrina thought, raising an eyebrow. "What?"
"Basil and Red would be really cute together, huh? I mean, I have no one else to pester about a future love life; why not them?"
Landon chuckled. "They're only nine, Daph."
"And being pestered about your love life really isn't something most people enjoy," Puck added darkly. "You made my teenage years hell, Daphne Grimm."
At this, all four laughed, and Basil looked up like they were nuts.
"Well, we should probably be going as well," Sabrina said, pulling on her coat. "I want to get to bed before midnight."
Daphne rolled her big brown eyes. "Tomorrow's a weekend, 'Brina. It's not like you have to be anywhere!"
Sabrina shrugged. "Actually, we're going out to buy things for the baby's room. I mean, Uncle Jake's revealing spell already kind of proved it's a girl, so... what's the holdup?"
"Well, you have like, seven and a half more months," Landon pointed out, pushing up his wayfarer glasses. Daphne poked him. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. Sabrina's a perfectionist."
"Daphne," Sabrina complained, smiling.
Puck chuckled. "It's true, Savvy."
"Thanks for the support, Mr. I Can't Even Make Toast Without Burning It," Sabrina retorted. "Let's go."
"Bye, Sabrina, Puck!" Veronica called. Henry waved. Daphne was still laughing, wrapped in her lanky boyfriend's embrace. Even Basil had to smile at his weird family.
Puck flew Sabrina home. It was one of the last few nights she would allow trips without a car; it was mid-October, and so the weather was becoming colder. Soon, she'd have to pull out her black BMW X5. The car had been a very expensive investment, but, Sabrina argued, the quality was worth it. When they touched down and unlocked the door, she breathed in the scent of home. It was a mixture of her signature vanilla scent and Puck's ruddy evergreen aroma that never went away, no matter how many baths he took or how many times Sabrina sprayed Febreze.
It didn't really matter anymore; she'd learned to get used to it.
"Well, I gotta say," Puck started, sighing contentedly, "your mom makes killer lasagna."
Sabrina smiled. "Yeah, it was always one of her favorites. Daphne loves it."
"I could tell. She ate, what? Four servings? How does Landon stand her?"
Sabrina shrugged, taking off her coat and heading to the bedroom. "Landon and Daphne fit nicely with each other. Something about him just... clicks with her. I'm not objecting. And I guess the eating thing is just a job hazard for him, just as your slovenliness is a job hazard for me."
"I just hope our baby doesn't get this weird eating disorder thing she has," Puck replied, rolling his eyes at her comment about him.
"Speaking of weird," Sabrina teased, grabbing her pajamas. "You should look in a mirror sometime. I'm going to take a shower - and then I was hoping you could give me a back rub?"
She laughed when Puck groaned.
The next morning, Sabrina found herself tediously straightening her hair in the bathroom. Her silky blonde locks, however pretty, were an awkward mix of curly and straight, and she liked to straighten them most days. However, it took twenty minutes, and she wasn't very fond of the chore. When she was finally done, she got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast.
Puck was sitting at the newly installed island, blearily drinking a cup of coffee. He loved the stuff, and went through so much of it that Sabrina was beginning to suspect he had an addiction similar to the one her parents had accumulated over the years. But it kept the faerie awake and alert, so she didn't mind much.
"Why, again, do we have to leave this early?" Puck mumbled as Sabrina sat down with a bowl of cereal.
His wife rolled her eyes. "Oh, be a man. It's eight thirty - that's way later than you'd get up on a work morning."
"Yeah, but this is a weekend."
"Puck... shut up and drink your coffee."
Twenty minutes later, Puck was pulling on a signature green hoodie - though much less tattered than previous ones - and Sabrina slipped on a pair of wool boots. She stepped outside and looked up at the sky. It was gray and windy, and bitterly crisp. Winter was certainly upon Ferryport Landing.
"Let's take the car," Puck suggested, stealing the words from her lips.
"Exactly what I was thinking," she agreed, and they jogged to the garage. Sabrina tossed Puck the keys - he liked to drive when he got the chance - and soon they were speeding down the road.
"So," Puck began, "what is it exactly we're shopping for?"
Sabrina began to dig through her coat pockets. "Um... I have a list here somewhere... aha! Here it is." She unfolded a scrap of paper. "We're going to look at some baby cribs, get a car seat, some blankets, clothes, bottles... you know. Baby stuff."
"Actually, I don't know. I never really bothered thinking about babies 'til a month and a half ago." When she shot him a look, he shrugged. "I was the equivalent of eleven years old for 4,000 years! You can't expect me to think about becoming a dad at that age!"
"Well, I guess we'd better both start taking it seriously now..." Sabrina sighed, putting a hand on her stomach. She hadn't thrown up this morning, which was good, but she was also a little worried about sprinting to a bathroom in the middle of a store. She didn't especially want to look like a freak in front of other customers and employees.
Puck soon pulled into the parking lot of Ferryport Landing's new mall, which, because of a large donation from the Charmings, was called 'Snow's Emporium'. William Charming's lovely wife had been quite flattered upon that development.
Sabrina sighed contentedly as the warm temperature of the indoors enveloped her. As far as shoppnig centers went, the 'Emporium' was quite small, but it held a decent variety of stores. She dragged Puck to a Gap Kids - the poor faerie still looked half-asleep.
"What kind of clothes to babies wear?" Puck asked awkwardly. "Like, footie pajamas?"
"Sort of..." Sabrina replied slowly, feeling just as awkward as her husband looked. What would her baby wear? Would it have to be modified for wings, or some other Everafter deformation? And would it look better in pink or purple? She grabbed pale green footie pajamas off of the infant shelf and glanced them over. There were flowers decorated on the front, so it would be nice for a girl... why not?
"How about these?" she asked, thrusting them in Puck's arms and moving a few steps away to look at more outfits. Sabrina picked out two more pink and white outfits and another long-sleeved onesie. She glanced back at Puck, who had his back to her. The faerie looked like he was laughing.
"What's so funny?" Sabrina queried.
He turned around, grinning and holding up a pink and red outfit that read, My Mom's A Fox! on the front. "I think we should get this," he chortled.
Sabrina turned bright red and waved her hand at him. "You're such a weirdo."
Puck smiled wider. "So we're getting it!"
"Fine, but she's only going to wear that around the house. As in not in front of other people, Puck," she added when he smiled devilishly.
"We'll see, Grimm."
Three hours later, Sabrina was about ready to tear her hair out. Why didn't anyone warn her about how hard it was to buy a freaking crib? Puck wasn't really helping either, although he tried to be useful.
"How about this one?"
"No, no, that one has terrible safety ratings."
"Sabrina, I think you're forgetting that this is my kid we're talking about. To heck with safety -"
"Not now, Puck!" she snapped. He held his hands up in defeat and fell silent. Immediately, Sabrina felt bad. "Sorry, sorry... It's just... this is way harder than I thought!"
Like the sort-of-gentleman he was, her husband put an arm around her shoulder. "Hey... it's okay. Look - that one's got five stars, huh? And look at that graph! I mean, it shows people like it!"
"...Puck, that graph is the barcode."
"Oh. Oops."
But he had been right about the safety ratings, so Sabrina hefted the box down from the shelf. Immediately, Puck had taken it from her grasp. "Nuh uh. Not in your condition."
She rolled her eyes but didn't complain.
Back in the car - which was pretty much stuffed to the brim - Sabrina leaned back in her seat and rubbed her eyes. "When I get home, I'm definitely taking a nap..."
Puck, who was still hyped up on coffee, shrugged. "Eh. Maybe I'll go over to the office for a while. I've still got to fill out some more patient's forms..."
"Sure. But now... I'm exhausted."
Two and a half months later, and Sabrina was still exhausted. At nearly five months pregnant, her stomach was really showing now, and she'd had to have Daphne perform a few spells on her clothes so they'd still fit. The morning sickness was getting better, although now it was a matter of swings in her energy level. One moment, she'd be hyped up and full of energy; the next, all Sabrina wanted to do was take a nap.
The good thing was, she had nothing left to do to prepare for the birth - which was still four months away. Daphne, Landon and Veronica had all come over to help repaint the room Sabrina had once occupied before Granny's death and her marriage to Puck. It was now themed pink and green, with a few chocolate-brown accents. It had been a lot of fun to paint, and Sabrina had enjoyed watching Daphne and Landon interact with each other.
At one point, Daphne's slim boyfriend had morphed into a monkey, who sat on Daphne's shoulders and painted a portion of the wall with a paintbrush held in his tail. That would be a great story to tell the baby someday - "Oh yeah, a monkey painted your room, too!".
Another time, Daphne had dipped the end of her braid in the pink paint and whipped it across Landon's cheek, giving him a very war-like paint stripe - minus the color. Veronica hadn't been very pleased, as the end of her youngest daughter's hair was now stained pink. But it didn't seem to bother Daphne, who claimed it was a fashion statement.
And afterwards, Landon had baked a pan of cookies for the helpers - and Puck, who hadn't done much but still managed to snag five cookies. In fact... Daphne and Landon spent quite a bit of time at Sabrina's house. It might have been due to the fact that Henry was quite strict and Veronica quite intimidating, and the pair found a more private atmosphere when they stayed over. Usually, they just headed to the guest bedroom and did God knows what. Sabrina hoped they hadn't gotten to second base yet, because she'd already caught them kissing a few times and she thought Daphne was way to young for such endeavors.
Yet... this was the hypocritical twenty-year-old pregnant sister speaking.
Adding to Sabrina's exhaustion and newly developed cravings for chamomile tea, Puck had gotten, if anything, more protective. He tried to keep up his laid-back manner, but often he'd freak out if he saw Sabrina carrying anything over twenty-five pounds up the stairs. Weirdly enough, this had earned him brownie points with Henry, and Sabrina could only hope their friendly-ish relationship would last after the birth of their baby.
Their baby. There was so much Sabrina was excited about. She could just imagine her now - a big smile, blue eyes, perhaps brown hair like Daphne's, or even a curly blonde, and tiny wings. Puck had expressed his feelings for the baby having wings, and they tended on the insane side ("If she doesn't get wings, we'll keep trying until one does!")
But for right now, Sabrina was content to sip her chamomile tea and wonder...
Mwahaha, epic travel-in-time moment! I just wanted to get a move on, because I searched "fairytale villains" on Google and found a plot idea! (yes, how original) I promise, there will be more Landon/Daphne to come, and maybe even some tragedy.
But, more importantly, I HAVE A PLOT! No more incessant rambling about the daily, boring lives of the Grimms! Adventure time!
Review! It sucks when 100 people visit your story and 3 review. Really.