For all Mustardseed's grim predictions, Sabrina found that despite an impending war, her life didn't change much. Jake was absent much of the time, leaving tomes in her classroom with a scribbled note to summarize whatever chapter, and that he missed seeing her. Mr. Wiskers eased back on the trigonometry lessons, and encouraged her to get a better grasp on past participles. She still attended the weekly Faerie royalty dinners (Although Mustardseed refused to bend the dress code rules enough to let her wear jeans, at least she could get away with something that didn't look like a prom dress).
The only large difference was that Puck was more brutal in their daily weapons training, her time in the weapons room almost doubling on weekends as he started cramming as many different weapons into each lesson as he feasibly could.
"If you're ever in doubt, whack them on the head." The grinning fairy tossed her a baseball bat. "It doesn't work too hot on, say, a giant, 'cause you're smaller, but you can still give it a pretty good thwack on the big toe. Actually, that's more painful."
Archery, fencing, karate and a style Puck dubbed 'Street style' (And that involved hair pulling, dirt throwing and feinting) all blurred together as Puck pushed harder and harder, doubling timing push-ups alongside her and lecturing on battle strategies as he went up and down.
"Why do you even bother doing that?" Sabrina asked him in exasperation one afternoon as she pushed her sweaty hair out of her face.
"Doing what?" Puck asked, chewing an energy bar with his mouth open.
Sabrina wrinkled her nose in disgust, but otherwise ignored his lack of manners. "Train with me. You know everything."
Puck grinned. "Yeah, but I can do it so much better." She threw a wooden dagger at him.
It was true though. Mustardseed hadn't been lying when he told her that Puck was one of the greatest warriors the long history of Faerie contained. Even Oberon grudgingly acknowledged it when Sabrina, fed up with his insults towards his family, had mentioned how much better she was at weapons under his son.
"He seems to know everything about every weapon." Sabrina demurred, cutting her steak. Puck wasn't there, having found some excuse to escape the torment of spending time with his family. She was slightly put off that he hadn't given her a way out either.
"Well, yes." Oberon nodded. "He does have potential. He should. He's wasted his time studying everything and anything that has anything to do with warfare."
"He could be a warrior king." Moth chipped in, sipping her water. "Take over the world with what he knows." Her eyes glittered greedily.
Oberon snorted. "But will he? No. He's too busy blowing up my office." That had been Puck's latest rebellion, and Oberon had been forced to relocate to a slightly smaller room while magicians reconstructed the room and his paperwork.
Titiana glowered. "If you would just give him a little encouragement instead of cutting down everything he does!"
"Oh shut up, woman." Oberon glared back.
"Who are you to tell me to shut up!" And off they went, family night dissolving into war.
It seemed that only Mustardseed's life had changed dramatically. The Faerie prince had given up any claim to sleep as he hunted down allies and contacts, organized his spy network and filed more paperwork, trying desperately to find clues about the Scarlet Hand.
"Why don't you help him?" Sabrina hissed at Puck as the left his little brother's office, all but tossed out when a brownie came in, asking for a private audience.
"I do." Puck protested. "I'm organizing the army."
So the two seeming teenagers were in charge of a war. Sabrina didn't like to think how much her life had changed.
And still, life went on.
~Sisters Grimm~
"Do you know what I heard today?" Oberon asked.
It was family night. Again. Sabrina was picking listlessly at her salad, Mustardseed was taping away on his phone underneath the table, and Puck was trying to put as much distance between himself and his fiancee as possible.
"No, Father. What did you hear?" If Puck's tone was slightly mocking, well, Sabrina wasn't going to be the one calling him out on it.
"I heard that there's a war brewing." Oberon answered, tone neutral. "Of course, that couldn't be, could it?" He pinned his gaze on Sabrina. She froze. Beside her, Mustardseed stiffened, Puck mirroring the action. "And then, even more preposterous, I heard a certain family was at the center of it. A certain family," His voice rose, "named Grimm."
"Father,-"
"You will be silent." Oberon scowled at Mustardseed. His son instantly went quiet.
"Dad-"
"And you!" Oberon roared, swiveling to glare at Puck. "You were organizing the army, weren't you? You know what's coming. And you thought you could hide it? Are you as stupid as I thought?"
Puck scowled, opening his mouth to protest.
"No! You have no right to talk, you have no right to breathe. You are very, very lucky you aren't in the dungeon at this very minute."
"Oberon, this is quite enough." Titiana's voice rang out. "You will apologize. And you," She looked to her sons, "will stop any proceedings towards the war."
"It won't go away if you refuse to acknowledge it!" Puck shouted.
"Did I tell you to argue with me?" Titiana's gaze grew fierce, and her attention came to Sabrina. "As for you, miss Grimm, do not presume to start a war in a vain attempt to recover your parents. Faerie does not fight your battles."
Sabrina's mouth dropped open, the insults to the king and queen rolling across her mind. Puck lunged across the table, sliding among the bowls and platters to clap a hand across her mouth. "We're leaving." He pulled Sabrina roughly to her feet, yanking Mustardseed up by the collar as he strode towards the door, and out of the suffocating atmosphere of the room.
~Sisters Grimm~
"Well, this is all very promising." Mustardseed flopped on his bed, tugging off his tie.
"How dare she." Sabrina fumed, pacing across the floor as Puck zipped around over her head, muttering nonstop as he fiddled with something. Sabrina hoped it was another bomb to blow up Oberon's office. Or maybe his closet. Get rid of all those ugly suits.
"She's been queen for five thousand years." Mustardseed intoned, kicking off his shoes. "She's used to having her own way."
"So much for royal ettiquitte." Sabrina snorted.
Above her head, Puck was funneling something into a balloon. "If you haven't picked it up yet, Grimm, manners are only for those who aren't them."
"It was nice of your financee to step in and defend you."
"She's only in it for the future promise of power." Puck scowled.
"We know that. Harpy." Sabrina stared at Mustardseed. He had never insulted anyone before. "Well, she is." Mustardseed calmly justified, a hint of petulance creeping into his tone.
"Whiny tonight." Puck blinked, apparently as surprised as Sabrina to hear his brother.
"I have the right to be."
"You never let me have the right." Puck complained.
"You whine all the time." Mustardseed supplied absently. Sabrina laughed.
"I wouldn't worry, by the way." Puck stopped his tinkering to look down at her. "We just gotta be sneakier about the war now. We're not going to stop because some glorified hussy commanded it."
"Puck!" Mustardseed protested.
"What? They both are, you know that." Puck looked surprised.
"That doesn't mean you can say it!"
"I hate liars." Puck shrugged. "How about this?" He dropped down beside his brother on the bed, and held out his contraption to Sabrina. "I wanna put it in his office again."
"No. Put it in his closet. I don't like the blue suit." Sabrina frowned.
"I feel like I should be protesting." Mustardseed yawned. "But I really don't like it either."
"Sirs!" A frantic knocking sounded at the door.
"Oh, what now?" Puck groaned theatrically. Mustardseed elbowed him.
"Come in."
"Sirs!" A fairy fairly burst through the door, saluting hurriedly. "I have urgent news!" He panted.
"Then say it." Puck grimaced.
"The king-" The fairy swallowed. "The King is dead. My Lords."
~Sisters Grimm~
Hi. Yeah, pretty abrupt. Can I just say I don't regret it?
So I updated! Yay me! If y'all would review, I might actually feel like that's a bigger accomplishment, you know. So pip pip! Please, I want to know where you think this is going, if I'm presenting Puck and Sabrina fairly, if I'm pacing this too fast, and so on.
And for all of those worrying, yes there will be Puckabrina here shortly. I'm not stupd, I know what 90% of us read fanfiction for.
Anyway, Review Replies!
icognito: Why, thank you! I'm glad you like it!
GriffinGirl8655: Yeah, it amazes me how many people are enjoying his character. I mean, I felt like Mustardseed was under appreiciated in the series, nd then he was just kind of reduced to a love interest for Daphne by the fandom. But he's so interesting to me. I mean, he did act as king for years before Puck returned, he somehow kept the family together, and he was somehow still sane through all of it.
Yep, I watch Doctor Who. I'm only into the tenth Doctor (But, hey, it's the fourth season, so I'll get to Eleven soon!) right now. I think Rose was my favorite companion, but I think Martha is undervalued, and Donna has such a poor opinion of herself that it's tragic. But Nine was awesome. So alive and vibrant, he got the job done. He was amazing. Which ones were your favorites?
OakeX: You reviewed more than a single sentence. Believe me, I don't think you are the world's worst reviewer. I actually thought you stopped reading this, so it was really nice to find your review in my inbox. You are also possibly the most positive reviewer I've ever had in terms of plot.
Well, that's kinda all I have to say.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who are in the states!
'Til next time!
-The Irish Lass