Chapter 2: "watching over you"

Time skip, obviously! :p Yeah, as a warning, the first chapters might not be really linked to each other, they « settle » things for the future ones but I'll try to be the more coherent possible! x)

By the way, with the release of season two, I add a little something that can be seen as a minor spoiler, but if you haven't see the pilot, you shouldn't get it, but you're warned! ^^

I know that I'll write it later in other chapters but I prefer to make myself clear now: this fanfic will not follow the RTA canon! I'll stick to the movie and season one plot (with the twist and all that this AU (?) will create) but after SOTSD, I'll use some elements from the season two but not the canon stuff! ^^

I also realize, while reading other fanfic, that some ideas seem to be "canon" (by that, I mean some "theme" are recurrent from fanfic to fanfic, like a Jazz standard, such as the dreams, the powers of the moon, etc,...) Maybe it's not necessary to put this here but I'll do it nonetheless: I don't plagiarize anyone, huh! And nothing belongs to me! The characters and the main story are Disney's property (?)! As the Moon theory belongs to Ghosta-r! ^^

Answer to Guest review :

Rock Mint Swirl : Thank you! ^^ I tried to do something that will be unexpected, hope I'll stick with it! x)

Enjoy! o/

oOoOoOo

Quirin looked at his son's sleeping face with a fond smile as he brushed some of Varian's black locks off his forehead.

At nine years old, Quirin's son was quite a gifted boy, very curious and eager in all new things that captured his attention. At such a young age, he had developed a great interest in science and alchemy, and for his seventh birthday, Quirin bought him some vials and stuff for him to do little experimentations. And after two years, nothing had exploded, yet.

It was a good start.

Outside, the sky was pitch black, only enlighten by the stars as it was the new moon. And as Quirin look aimlessly in the air before him, he let out a sigh, thinking back at the events that happened earlier this day.

The village's children thought of Varian as a sort of weirdo and they did everything in their power to make him felt rejected. Between the very bad pranks and the stupid nicknames, the last one recorded was 'Weird-rian', Varian had reached a certain line that the children should not have crossed, but they had, and the little boy became very, very angry.

The problem lied in the fact that Quirin wasn't aware of all this bullying stuff until one of the bully's parent came to his home with a very upset Varian and their own nose-bleeding boy, explaining that the nine years old one had attacked their 'sweet-little-Steve' without any reasons and that 'he should teach his boy how to act properly in society'.

Quirin had only looked down at his son with a very reproving glare of his own, and before he got the chance to say anything, Varian apologized with a very quiet voice and run straight to his bedroom without looking back. Steve's parents only snorted at the little boy manners and, after several Quirin's apologizes for his son behavior, went to return to their house.

And while he was watching them disappeared in a corner of the village street, he could have sworn that the little Steve had glanced back at him with a victorious gleam in his eyes as a vicious grin was spread across his lips. Quirin had frowned at this and quietly reached Varian's room, peaking a sneak inside, only to see the young boy trying to silently wash what seemed to be a pretty bad cut on his forearm.

His blood had just simply frozen in his veins at the view and Quirin had rushed inside his son's bedroom, to the very much surprise of the younger, to help him healed his wound while asking him what was exactly going on.

And after few silent seconds, Varian had begun to cry, a lot, in his father shoulder, telling him that he was bullied for a few months already by some children of the village, that they tough he was a weirdo because he didn't talk too much or because he spent a lot of time at reading books than playing with them, or because he was a boy too sensible and that it was not normal to be so emotional.

And between the sobs and the mumblings, Varian managed to apologize at least a hundred times to his father.

Quirin had felt hopeless and the only thing he did was drawing circles in his son's back in a soothing way, telling him that he shouldn't apologize for what happened, because it was not his fault, and that he should have come to see him sooner to talk to him about his problems instead of resorting to violence. Varian said nothing at this as he continued to cry in Quirin's shoulder until he was too tired to keep his eyes open. He drifted to sleep in a matter of seconds after that, his breathing becoming deeper and less erratic from his earlier's cries.

Since then, Quirin watched over him, making sure that the cut on his arm was okay. He had palled as he saw all the bruises Varian had on his body and he cursed mentally himself for not having noticed it sooner.

Sighing deeply, he looked at the window and at the moonless sky.

This part of the month was the one where Varian's mood swings were at their top. Not that Varian was a moody child, but he tended to be very emotional when it was the new moon, more restless and nervous than when the Moon was full, periods when he was peaceful and at the top of his abilities, both physical and psychic.

He knew that the natural cycle of the nocturnal body had some effects upon his son, it was expected, knowing Varian's… Abilities. Maybe he should find a stone or something like this that could help him calm his mood swings…

Maybe he should ask him for this…? Yes, maybe he should, he had told Quirin that he could ask him anything if needed after all…

Sighing once more, Quirin stroke once more his son's head, his fingers lingered a little longer upon the streak of blue that colored his black hair before bending over him and pressed a kiss upon Varian's forehead. He heard a sight of delight escaped his son's lips and Quirin realized that maybe, maybe, he should be more expressive toward his son.

He didn't want for him to grow up believing that he always disappointed his father or that Quirin was not proud of him.

Because he already so much was.

oOoOoOo

Those dreams had something very unsettling that made Varian almost restless.

Some weeks had passed since the incident with the children's village, and his father seemed to be more cautious of him and tried to be a little more expressive toward him.

The little boy was very happy that his father tried to be more here for him, he even gave him a gift while it was not his birthday! It was a sort of handmade necklace made with a thin cord on which his father had hooked a little purple-yellow stone, a certain variety of opal, he said but he didn't tell him where he found it, to help him stabilized his emotion and to not get angry as he did last time with Steve. In a certain trick of the light, the stone sometimes appears as if it had a deep blue-silver color instead of the purple one.

Varian had no idea if it really worked, but he was now used to the cold feeling of the opal upon his chest, as he kept the necklace under his shirt to avoid breaking the rope and, yeah, he hadn't had the urge to punch someone nose for quite sometimes now, so he suppose it was okay.

As for the dreams, he hadn't dared to talk about them with his father yet. Because he knew deep down that his worries were unfounded, because it was just dreams, but also because Quirin claimed to be a man of science and Varian only wanted to be just like him when he would be older.

He shouldn't believe in nonsense like magic, and yet… He did because he couldn't avoid thinking about them.

The fact was that the dreams were kind of recurrent, even if not regulars, and it was always the same girl, and Varian felt it in his guts that something was wrong with them.

Well, not 'wrong' in a bad way, but rather because they did not seem to be just simple dreams. But no matter how hard he tried to give them a logical explanation, he always faced a dead-end in his researches.

Looking down to his notebook, the young by rereading the few pieces of information he had about them :

1) They are not regular and do not seem to follow a certain schedule, I can have them for twenty nights straight and then not having a single one for almost three months.

2) It's always the same girl who appears in them, it appears that she is older than me

3) They happen always in the same nowhere-place.

4) I can't remember her face, no matter how many times I saw her.

5) I can't hear her name too.

6) It seems that she had the same problems

Well, he thought, It's a beginning to work with…!

He drew a long sight as he leaned back in his chair. Who was he fooling? It was pointless! It had been almost six years since the first dream had occurred and no matter how hard he tried to understand them, those dreams seemed to keep their secrets under lock and except for the obvious, he had literally nothing to work on.

(And yes, maybe sometimes Varian forget that he was still a child)

Upside, he heard his father walked into the living room. Stretching a bit, he stood up, put the notebook in a hidden drawer of his desk then shook off the numbness in his limbs before climbing up the stairs to join Quirin on the ground floor.

As always, they will share a father/son moment while watching the lanterns that royal family launched for their lost little girl's birthday each year. Varian felt sad for them, as they were good friends of his father, and that he gets the chance to meet them a few times. They were very nice people, and they certainly didn't deserve what had happened to them all those years back.

"Varian? Are you coming?"

"I'm right here Dad," he said as we walked toward the big figure of his father. The older held two unlighted lanterns in one hand as he stretched the second one toward his son.

"Ready?"

"More than ever " responded Varian with a small smile, slipping his hand in his father's bigger one, and on that, they were on their way to the Capital.

As always, the festivities at the center of Corona were magnificent, with all the music and dances, and Varian enjoyed all that the Capital had to offer with his father as he hadn't spent a lot of time with him for a few weeks already.

Quirin seemed a little… Off, but he did his best to not show his feelings to Varian and the little nine-almost-ten-years-old didn't mind very much.

The launch of the flying lanterns was gorgeous to see, no matter how many times he already had the chance to watch it. But as Varian and his father were on their way back to Old Corona, a little part of his mind wished to he would have been able to take a little bit of the view with him in a part of his head to show it the Girl of his dreams later, as she longed to see them in real one day.

'It's my dream !' she had said one night, as it seemed that her own birthday coincided with the event. He had asked her why she didn't ask her Mother to take her to the festival as a birthday gift one year. The Girl had only sighed and said that she tries, once, to imply the idea that maybe she would like the go to see them and that her Mother answer was a categoric 'no'. He had asked her why and, as always, she said that she couldn't tell him the reason.

Maybe he should work on this problem to solve instead of trying to understand the origins of the dreams?

He decided that he'll think of it later. A yawn escaped his lips before he could register it and he felt his head fell upon his father's shoulder as they reached the village with their little cart. By the time they arrived at their house, Varian was already sleeping and Quirin had to carry him to his room. He took off his son's apron, shoes, and goggles before settled him in his bed. And as he did so, he saw the steak of blue in his son's hair began to glow before its silver-blue color spread all across his son's head.

So he had those dreams again… They would never stop, would they ? he thought bittersweetly.

… Of course not, they wouldn't. Things would be so different if Varian never had them if Varian had never been…

He drew out a long sigh and close his eyes, stroking again his son's black hair. And so, Quirin didn't register the coming glowing light until he heard something bump against the window's frame. Looking in the direction of the noise, he saw that it was a lantern that found its way to his son's room. Frowning at the strange event, Quirin stood up and went to take it between two hands and saw that it was not a common lantern but the that was launched by Frederick and Arianna.

Bewildered by the strangeness of the situation, Quirin returned to his son side and, on a whim, put the object on Varian's nightstand. In the distance, Old Corona's chief heard a bell rang twelve times. The lost princess's birthday just had ended, but it was not over yet. He counted two minutes in his head before leaning back over Varian and pressed one kiss on his forehead.

"Daddy… ? " ask Varian's sleeping voice, not noticing the surreal brightness of the room, "What is it…?"

"Nothing, son. Happy Birthday," he murmured as he stroke his son's shinning hair, lulling the younger to sleep, a small smile on his lips.

A few moments later, Quirin made his way out of Varian's bedroom to his own, aiming a good night of rest after having spent several weeks working like a madman.

But before that, he had to reinforce the spells that kept his house, and mostly Varian, safe. And even if he knew that he still had some years before hells break loose and that he wasn't the only one watching over his son (even if it was still from afar), they would reassure Quirin a little more about Varian well-being.

Once he was sure that everything was okay, the older man let himself fell straight into his mattress, barely pulling a sheet over himself, falling asleep almost instantly.

I don't know if I'm pleased with this chapter or not. It's a filler one, btw, as a lot of them will be! But, they are needed because they settle a lot of things so…

What do you think of it? A review/comment is always appreciated! ^^