The five Grimms and two fairy princes were gathered in the palace library. A sprawling room with beautiful dark bookshelves all filled up; filled with books from the mortal world, texts from the fae, spells, artifacts, pamphlets, and who knew what else. In the middle was a large table surrounded by comfortable chairs and sofas with smaller tables and chairs scattered around.
Pixies fluttered around assisting everyone, though they only really took orders from Mustardseed and Puck.
Daphne and Veronica were at a table each of their noses in books, occasionally they'd consult one another, looking for insight or comparisons of the text.
Henry was looking through index cards in a filing cabinet to find the next book - who knew Melville Dewey was an everafter?
Mustardseed was flying up to the top shelves, scanning the books for anything that might help.
Basil was going back and forth between helping, getting bored, looking around, touching artifacts, getting told off for touching artifacts, and then back to helping. Right now he was in a particular 'feeling bored' phase and was sitting in a comfy chair trying to get a good look at his own tongue.
Sabrina was on a couch hunched over the table making notes from different tellings of Kaschey's story. Everyone else was working on finding the egg, she was going to make sure they could destroy it. As she wrote she absent-mindedly played with her necklace - the one Bradly had given her.
Puck was lying with his back on the ground and his feet up on the couch next to Sabrina. He was tossing a baseball up and down.
Up. Catch.
Up. Catch.
Up. Catch.
"Aren't you gonna help?" Sabrina asked, annoyed "This is your kingdom we're trying to save y'know?"
"Sorry can't" Puck pointed to the books "I'm allergic, remember?"
Up. Catch.
"Whatever" Sabrina rolled her eyes. "Will you at least stop that? It's annoying."
Up. Catch.
Puck grinned, if it annoyed Sabrina he most definitely would not be stopping anytime soon.
"Hmmm no can do. I just learned about baseball last week."
Up.
"I'm really tryna hone my skills."
Catch.
"Ugh!" Sabrina started "you are so- wait what?"
Up. Catch.
She put her pen down. "You learned about baseball last week?"
"Yeah?" Up. Catch.
"You've been living in New York for like, a hundred years," she said appalled "How did you not know about baseball?"
"Not everyone knows about everything okay?" he replied a little offended.
Up. Catch.
"Okay well, I'm glad you learned about baseball. Now will you please. Stop. It."
Puck made eye contact with her.
Up.
Brina glared back.
Catch.
She curled her lip.
He flashed a grin. Dammit, why did her heart stop at that?
Up -
Before he could catch it she darted her hand out and smacked the ball away. It bounced across the room.
"Hey!" Puck sat up. "What was that for?"
"I'm trying to focus!" Sabrina shouted back "On something that is actually important." She leaned over him.
Basil suddenly decided to get back into a work flow and walked away to the shelves.
"Doing things I didn't get to do as a kid is important!"
"You had four thousand years to be a kid, it's time to grow up!"
They were nose to nose
"I did grow up!"
Sabrina's voice caught in her throat. The fact that Puck had grown up was a touchy subject for both of them. She had never asked him to do it, and she certainly didn't like the implications of it. She still hated that at twelve the control over her love life had been taken away. She hated seeing a future that felt like it was taking away her chance to make her own choices. And she hated that right now they were inches away and she still remembered what it felt like to kiss him.
And thinking about all that made her even angrier.
"Then act like it." She said quietly, in a tone that let him know she was done with their conversation.
She pulled away and looked up at the rest of the room.
Everyone else in the library quickly turned back to their work, pretending not to have been staring.
The pixies brought Puck back his baseball. He took it and lay back down on the floor.
Sabrina watched him from the corner of her eye.
He held the ball up as if to throw it and then…put his hand back down. It wasn't fun anymore.
She exhaled.
Ugh she was officially in her 20s now. Okay, yes she was only just barely 21, but still. She could be a big girl. She'd already lost her temper in the fight, if they were going to solve this mystery and prevent a war on the fae from breaking out she'd have to put her feeling aside…For now; she could always fight Puck later if she needed to.
A few more deep breaths before she quietly added "You still owe me ten dollars."
"Excuse me?" Puck lifted his head off the floor.
"Baba Yaga" Sabrina reminded him "She didn't know your name. You owe me ten bucks."
Puck put his head back on the floor, closed his eyes, and stuck his tongue out - pretending to be dead.
Despite herself Sabrina chuckled a little bit. "So stupid" she muttered under her breath, but loud enough for him to hear.
Okay, Puck thought, We're still good. It was only fun to rile her up when she got all serious and quiet it wasn't fun anymore. He opened his eyes and looked up at her while she was focused on her notes again, her left hand playing with her necklace. They'd both grown up.
He rifled through his pocket and pulled out some string, a nail, a few pieces of candy (some wrapped some not), a crumpled one dollar bill, and a cricket who was somehow unharmed.
"All I've got is a one" he announced.
"I'll take it" She answered.
He stretched his arm out but couldn't quite reach the table.
"Pixies!" a handful of lights flew up to him. "Hand this to the wench!"
Sabrina gave him a 'really?' look but didn't comment. That was a pretty tame insult, he could've done worse and it wasn't worth another fight right now. They had more pressing matters at hand.
The pixies flew up to her with the dollar bill but when she reached out to grab it they started blinking and twittering like crazy.
They pinched her neck and flew all over her
"Hey! Puck! Call your stupid pixies off!"
They continued to twinkle and chitter.
"Woah, what's going on guys?" Puck stood up and fumbled around for his flute.
Half of them flew back to their master to yell about what was wrong while the other half pulled at Sabrina's necklace.
Puck responded to them in a conversation that only he and they could understand.
"What?...No, of course not…Well I don't know."
"Puck!" Sabrina was swatting away pixies and wincing at each bite.
He pulled his focus back to her "Oh right, sorry." Puck pulled out his flute and blew. The pixies backed off Brina.
"Okay, let's figure this out", Puck said "Mustardseed!" he called out.
Mustardseed flew over.
The Grimm's also interested turned their focus to the commotion.
"Will you please explain to the Pixies that they are crazy." Puck asked.
The little creatures lit up and chirped at Mustardseed who listened intently.
"No, surely not….Hmmmm I suppose it's possible but unlikely…Well let's ask." Mustardseed turned his attention to Sabrina. "Sabrina" he asked "Where did you get pixie dust?"
She went slack-jaw. "You're joking, it's real? Oh c'mon!"
"What! Brina that's so cool" Daphne shouted, excited. "Wait can I have some?" She asked Puck and Mustardseed.
"No can do Marshmallow" Puck said.
Daphne rolled her eyes "How come Sabrina gets some?" she complained.
"She shouldn't" Mustardseed interjected. "Sabrina, having this is pretty serious, can I see it?" he asked.
She held onto the little vial of what was supposed to be glitter. It was supposed to be pretend. It was supposed to be a normal gift for her normal birthday from the normal world. But she should've known better than to expect normal things to happen in her life. Sabrina unclasped the necklace and handed it over to Mustardseed, he examined it while the pixies twittered around. He took off the tiny cork and poured a bit out onto his palm.
"Wait," Daphne said "If I got some and thought of good things could I fly?! Just like in Pe-"
She looked up to Puck scowling.
Daphne quickly switched gears "Peeeeer Gynt."
"They don't fly in that?" Veronica said.
"Nice save." Added Basil who knew Puck's hatred for Peter Pan.
"While technically, yes, you could fly with it," Puck answered "and you wouldn't even need any stupid happy thoughts or even more stupid songs. But you really shouldn't."
"Why not?" Daph asked.
"Pixies are protective of their kind and loyal to their masters. They wouldn't gladly give up their dust. It'd have to be taken forcibly from them."
Everyone shivered.
"So Grimm," Puck looked to her "Where'd you get it?"
Sabrina swallowed. "It was a gift."
"From who?"
She blushed. "Um.. From my boyfriend."
"Your boyfriend?!" Puck sputtered.
Woah, why did he react like that? Sabrina was allowed to have a boyfriend, obviously. And he shouldn't care -he didn't care, actually. He was just taken by surprise that's all. I mean, how was he supposed to know she had a boyfriend? They had barely spoken the past few years. But still, he wasn't expecting her to have a boyfriend. Why would she have a boyfriend?
Oh shoot, everyone was looking at him.
"Uh, I'm just surprised" he said "surprised that any guy would put up with your.. stupid face"
"Oh good one." Sabrina replied sarcastically.
Mustardseed put his hand up before Puck and Sabrina could get into it again.
"Sabrina, we need to talk to him immediately. This dust is from the pixies of one of the Fae that went missing in Europe. It's possible Kaschey had something to do with this."
"Oh." Sabrina squeaked out.
She took a deep breath in and out.
"Okay. I'll call him."
So that's that everyone! Be sure to review and let me know what you think. I don't write for the reviews (let's be honest if that's why I wrote I'd pick a fandom that's much more alive) but it's still nice to get that little review notification. Let me know what you'd like to see more of.
I think the next chapter will com soon, I've been on a writing kick. May you also experience a good writing groove!
All my love
AG
