Closer

The Woodsman and his daughter stayed until the house repairs were complete and then went back to their own home with the promise of visiting again some day.

Beatrice hoped it would be soon : Clover had been gone for only a day and yet she already missed her. She missed the conversations they had while repairing the mill with the adults or cleaning the house with the children. She missed the silence when they sat by the river or looked through the window.

The teenager shook her head : it wasn't like she wouldn't see her again! Unlike Wirt and Greg, Clover had no intention of leaving the Unknown. She could visit whenever she wanted. Hopefully soon.

Clover found a bluebird nest in the forest while taking a walk and couldn't help but smile. She wondered what Beatrice was doing at this very moment. She hadn't seen her in two weeks but it felt like forever. Maybe she was sitting by the river with her dog? According to her it was the only place she could get some peace and quiet while still being on her parents' property.

Clover really didn't mind how noisy Beatrice's household could get with all the children running around (then again, she didn't have to put up with this every single day), however sitting in silence by the river with her friend definitely was her favourite part of her stay there.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Woodsman calling her name ; she rushed to their cabin immediately.

"I'm here, Father" she reassured him. "I just thought… since there's no Beast anymore I could just take a walk."

"It's alright", the Woodsman said as his daughter hugged him and he hugged her back. "But tell me beforehand next time."

"Father, I just got you back, I'm not going anywhere without you. And… speaking of going anywhere, we should visit Beatrice again like we said we would. Or we could invite her here, I'm sure she'd like how quiet it is."

"We'll discuss it when I'm done with all the firewood."

After a whole month without seeing her friend, Beatrice finally spotted her from the window of her bedroom. Without even thinking about it, she immediately dashed straight outside to meet her. Upon seeing the redhead, Clover also started running ; this resulted in both teenagers bumping into each other and falling on the ground. The Woodsman's daughter burst into laughter, soon joined by her friend.

Her father helped them get back on their feet. Even he was smiling.

From this day on, the Woodsman and his daughter visited the old mill at least once a week. She would spend the entire day with Beatrice and he would help the other adults with various tasks since manual labour was far easier to him than social interactions. And also because he didn't really know what else to do while at the mill. However, seeing his daughter happy was worth every single second spent in this place.

He witnessed the two teenagers growing closer to one another every week that passed. Maybe all Clover really needed was a best friend.