Fall is nearing an end, giving away to winter, snow already beginning to settle quietly over the city when Hilda grudgingly admits to herself that Mogar and his mother are now official members of her strange little family. She hesitantly acknowledges that the stoic bearman and strangely intelligent bovine have found a way to wiggle a spot for themselves in the space in her heart set aside for actual people and not O.R.F or her inventions. And she might not mind it.
It's just a while before Halloween, after Ash has finished moving her stuff in, when she begins noticing just how much a part of everyone's life Mogar has become. He has been grappling and sparring with Ray and Gavin to help them learn some actual hand-to-hand combat for about a month before she makes sure to happen by the kitchen where they're all patching each other up to help afterwards. Once they've sheepishly told her what they've been doing -like she didn't already know- she walks them through what she knew about First Aid from the regular workshops they had to take at the labs in case any of their experiments went boom. In turn, Mogar shows her what salves and pastes he made from different plants in the forest to ease pain and itchiness and to ward off infections. She decides most of them are good enough to take down to the lab and analyze so maybe she can copy it and work it into their medical research.
Come November one night she goes to investigate a louder than normal racket downstairs to find a slightly bruised and kinda bloody Mogar laughing and practically carrying an extremely-drunk-but-not-as-beat-up-as-usual Rusty. It takes her exactly half an hour while cleaning them up and grabbing them some food, water and ibuprofen -because together they smelled like a fucking brewery- to hear the story. Rusty had managed to drag Mogar to a bar, gotten them into a fight, and by the end of the tale Mogar was laughing more than she had seen before to date and making claims of a brotherhood formed in the blood of their enemies and a battle well fought. She ignores the soft fuzzy feeling threatening to rise up from her stomach into her chest at his small smile as he helps a stumbling Rusty up the stairs, chuckling at the drunken man's ramblings and making promises of another such excursion, perhaps this time with the coloured warriors as well.
Not too long later he's making headlines again by addressing X-Ray and Vav as shield brothers when some reporter corners the three of them after a fight with a rising villain they had finally put down. He growls at the paramedics looking them over when Ray makes a strange choking noise and Gavin starts blubbering and just about bursts into tears as they're being patched up, thinking that perhaps one of the strange people had hurt one of them further. The newspapers blow up over his absent-minded declaration and how openly protective he was of his comrades. When they get home Ash has a few choice words about not being the first one to put out any sort of story on the subject when she lives with these people.
Then Ash sees this newfound camaraderie first-hand when the three men stop an armed robbery by some X-Men rejects one of the days she dragged them all out to help her do the grocery shopping and has to have her excited (exclusive) two-bits. She starts sitting in on their training sessions, taking pictures and asking questions and even joining in every now and then after Mogar comments on her need to defend herself if she was going to follow them into battle to observe as she always did. This evolves into her sitting next to Mogar the mornings he's found sitting across from Hilda, shifting about the breakfast seating arrangements. While he's quietly tasting the newest breakfast beverage the boys have decided to introduce him to -so far he had liked tea best and Gavin was going crazy having him try different blends with different sweeteners or none at all- Ash would come down, grab her coffee, and begin talking to Mogar about his time at the house, his life before they met him, taking notes all the while. Occasionally she talked him into accompanying her on errands or shopping trips when she failed with Hilda, though most mornings he did opt to just stay home.
After breakfast the mornings Mogar growled at her that he would rather stay at the den and train the reporter would hand him some papers, usually in a clear sleeve with a sticker on the front stating what was held inside, to help him become more acquainted with the world he was now a part of, even if only for awhile. He would hold onto them through Hilda and Rusty's daily ritual. Then, as she made her way up to her room and labs, there he was. His sword leaning against the wall beside him as he stood by her door, arms crossed and a forced scowl on his face. Hilda would smile softly, pat his shoulder, and invite him in. They would spend about an hour working through letters and words until Mogar had a basic concept of the documents and a firmer grasp on the written language.
One of the days he agreed to go with Ash on one of her shopping trips Hilda is surprised to find a slightly crumpled and stained piece of paper gently placed by her coffee mug before he turns away sharply and sulks off after Ash. It's covered in his slowly improving scratchy scrawl but she smiles at all of their names written under the heading 'Pack'. It really doesn't bother her that Mogar's name isn't on there, or that Ray, Gavin, and Ash's real names sit next to what he usually called them but hers just read Ponytail Lady and Metal Woman. And it definitely is no concern of hers when Ash makes a grand entrance later that day, arms covered in bags from different department stores and calls them all into the entrance hall for a grand reveal of Mogar stepping through the front door.
Bearskin cloak and his usual brown pants gone, Hilda's breath definitely does not whoosh out of her lungs at the sight of Mogar standing in the entrance of the house. Her mind does not go fuzzy at the sight of his auburn curls poking out from underneath a brown hat with little fuzzy round ears poking up and little paws dangling at his sides as he drowned in a loose dark grey hoodie with sleeves that threatened to cover his hands completely. Her eyes did not wander down what she could see of an almost-too-tight red shirt with a bear paw in front of a sword that looked an awful lot like the sword still strapped to Mogar's back. And she was not even going to acknowledge the jeans Ash had wrangled him into and the way they hugged his hips.
Hilda doesn't hear Ash gushing about Christmas shopping with Mogar. (Because you can never get your gift list knocked out too soon.) How they discovered he had a bit of a fanbase and had to disguise him lest they wanted to spend their day running from fangirls. Or that there was even a turkey and other groceries waiting to be brought inside the house. She just turns and snaps something about going up to her rooms to work on a project. She misses everyone's worried looks and hushed whispers. Ash's questions of 'Is she sick?' 'Should we follow her?'. Gavin's worried rantings of upsetting her so close to the holidays, and Ray's grumblings about stupid girls ruining said holidays. But as she climbs the stairs she feels someone's gaze boring into her skull and turns back to see Mogar standing surrounded by colourful bags and chattering people with a hurt and confused look that makes her chest ache. She doesn't want to think about how it makes her feel.
