"Coming of the Ice King."
Chapter 9
"Mycroft ends up (begrudgingly) adopting four little idiots."
Mycroft was marveling at the countless amount of visible stars in the dark sky, as it was a rare sight for people living back in the rainy England, when Jon and his crew of reckless troublemakers found him.
"I see, Mr. Denner kept his word." He said as they approached, not even turning around.
"You did it." Jon stated, breathlessly in awe. "You actually beat him in a duel."
"I assume that's how you're able to be here, aren't you?" Mycroft then turned around with a small smirk. "Because he honored our deal and relieved you four from the forced chores?"
"But… Master Frostfinger is the best duelist at the Wall!" Finn stated, eyes wide. "How did you manage to beat him?!"
"I realize I might not look like a seasoned warrior…" Mycroft stated slowly. "I have more than one successful battle under my belt." He frowned. "Though I must admit this was the first physical battle I've participated in, in a long while."
"So not only are you a spy-"
"I'm not a spy."
"-but an undefeated fighter as well?!" Finn's eyes were positively glowing with excitement and hero-worship.
"I wouldn't say undefeated…" Mycroft stated slowly, wanting to tone-down his 'imagined' accomplishments in the blonde man's eyes. "I have been beaten once or twice..." The image of Sherlock twisting his arm behind his back when in the middle of a high appeared in his head and he shuddered.
"You were?" Cotter blinked. "How could someone who was able to perfectly predict his opponent's movements, ever be beaten?"
"I haven't been born already knowing how to fight, Mr. Cotter." Mycroft deadpanned. "I had to train, just like everyone else, to acquire the skills I now possess."
"See, Cotter?" Gared slapped his friend on the chest playfully. "Even you can be good at fighting if you actually focus on training instead of wasting time looking for trouble."
"Oi!" The skinny Night Watchman protested. "I don't 'go around looking for trouble'! It just happens to constantly appear in my way!"
"You keep telling yourself that, Cottah." His friend laughed. "Maybe one beautiful day it will magically come true."
"Hey!" Cotter protested, punching Gared back a bit harder than necessary. "Need I remind you that getting into trouble by fighting Finn was the first thing you did upon reaching the camp?!"
"Well at least I reconciled with the guy afterwards, while you didn't even bother to give his dagger back after you stole it!" The brown haired youth wasn't about to be beaten by the clearly smaller and weaker Night Guard, so he hit him back.
"Wait so it was you back then?!" The largest youngster suddenly pieced together, glaring at his skinny companion with obvious shock and anger shining in his eyes. "I knew you couldn't be trusted!"
It was obvious that, if no one intervened, the three would come to blows, so Mycroft reacting purely on his big brother instincts, decided to placate the situation.
"Girls, enough." He echoed a sentence John Watson usually used whenever he and Sherlock were enjoying a verbal spat, a wee bit too much. "Regardless of what happened between you four in the past, you shouldn't forsake the friendship you've managed to build since then because of it."
The fox-haired man fixated them with one of his Iceman glares before adding coldly:
"I've been led to believe we're all adults here, not just me." He narrowed his ice-blue eyes. "Start acting like it."
The youngsters had the decency to look properly chastised, heads bowed and a nervous hand reaching up to scratch behind the neck. Gared, Cotter and Finn even muttering quick apologies under their breaths.
It was amusing to see how much they looked up to him after such a short time Mycroft thought, a small smile gracing his face. Either they were quite the impressionable people, or he made quite the impression on them.
They liked him more after a few hours, than Sherlock did after an entire childhood spent together.
Not liking how this line of thought was making his chest feel tight, he turned away from the kids, the smile disappearing completely.
"Is there something you wanted?" He asked looking back at them, once his composure was regained, signature eyebrow raised questionably. "Or did you also come to enjoy the beautiful night sky?"
"Actually…" Jon, who up to this point has been quietly glaring and shaking his curly head at his companions, began looking quite sheepish. "We've been meaning to thank you for all you've done for us today."
'Thank you…' The fox-haired man repeated in his head. 'Now that is a combination of words I haven't heard in a long time.' He then blinked. 'It… actually feels… quite pleasing.'
"He's right." Gared nodded smiling. "You did save us twice in one day, Mr. Mycroft, we owe you much more than just thanks."
"Think nothing of it." He said waving it away with his hand. 'Most people I assist, don't.' Holmes added in his head. "It was within my nature to prevent the four of you from being unfairly punished."
"Still…" Finn spoke up, voice determinate. "We decided we need to pay you back for the protection you've given us."
"That is why," Cotter spoke up, carrying on where his friend finished. "We will help you get over the wall tonight."
Mycroft blinked… then blinked again.
"Excuse me…"He shook his head believing he simply heard wrong. "What?"
"That's still part of your plan, right?" Finn asked suddenly. "You didn't change your mind after all our warnings, did you?"
"I haven't rethought my choice of action, no…" Holmes tilted his head, not quite understanding what's going on. "As much as I appreciate the offer… isn't it forbidden for Night Watchmen to help ordinary civilians go beyond the Ice Wall?"
"Usually, it is." Cotter smirked mischievously, making alarm bells go off in the ginger's head. "But in our case, you shouldn't worry about us facing consequences."
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
"Just what are you playing at?" Mycroft glared at the skinny warrior through narrowed eyelids, a sickening sensation settling in his stomach as his mind began deducing their possible true intentions, and feeling more unsettled with each possibility he came up with.
"Simply thinking, nothing more." The smile on the younger man's face hasn't disappeared, in fact, it only got bigger. "It would be rather hard for Mr. Denner to punish us if we're not here anymore, right?"
If Mycroft thought the alarms in his head were loud before, they were positively hollering now.
"No…" He began sternly, hiding his face behind his hand.
"Oh come on!" Cotter looked like an excited child who just got told he's the only one who can't go inside the candy shop. "I promise we won't be bothersome! And besides," He threw Gared a suggestive look. "Some of us actually have good reasons for wanting to go beyond the Wall."
"I am not going to allow you to commit desertion because of a self-placed debt to me." Mycroft said, sharp eyes glaring at the youths from between his fingers. "You've sworn an oath to protect the world and its inhabitants from the creatures living beyond the Ice Wall, therefore I can't take you with me." He shook his proud red head. "Forgive me but this is simply not an option."
Holmes turned around then, wanting to show that the conversation is over, and even began walking away when...
"Wait!" Jon's voice made him stop. "Please… Mr. Mycroft just listen to me!"
Mycroft closed his eyes, counted to ten and then looked over his shoulder expectantly.
The curly-haired man swallowed.
"I… I have been released from my oath!"
Raising an eyebrow, the fox-haired man turned to face the group fully.
"Truly?" He sounded doubtful. "I was led to believe such oath can only be relieved by Death herself."
Jon played around with his fingers, squirming under the expecting gazes of both his friends and Mycroft himself.
"I know what I'm about to say might be hard to believe…but, please trust me on this…"
The first chore that Jon had on the list he got from the Lord Commander, was cleaning up the Weeping Tree that grew in the forest just outside the other side of the Wall.
It was an important place for the Night Watch because that's where all of them have made their vows, promising to keep the innocent people living on the inner side of the wall safe, until their dying breath.
Sighing in his misfortune the bastard son of Eddard Stark picked up a bucket and a spare gardening shovel, then walked up to the old, withered white tree with a crying face on its trunk and almost no leaves on its branches.
Kneeling near the trunk to pick up the little-to-no leaves beneath it, the young warrior's thoughts drifted towards the new friend he met that day.
The ginger man named Mycroft.
The same man that seemed to know everything about anyone within minutes of meeting them, yet only seemed to use that knowledge to help others, from what he's seen.
He stepped in to save him and his squad when they were surrounded by angry villagers…
And even took a stand against Denner Frostfinger when the man decided to punish them for tardiness.
He was… different from everyone else the young Snow knew, and it intrigued him.
It was a shame that the fox-haired man planned to go over the wall, instead of staying and joining their cause. They could certainly use someone who can wield words as well as a master swordsman can use a sword.
"It's truly a shame that he's leaving…" A soft female voice asked, making the curly-haired man freeze. "Or that you cannot join him?"
Startled he jumped to his feet, hand reaching for his sword, eyes darting back and forth from one tree to another.
"Who's there?!" Snow called out into the empty forest. "Show yourself!"
The voice chuckled softly somewhere behind him.
"Do not fret, child of winter, I mean you no harm." It added in a motherly tone. "Turn around and you shall see me, if you so wish."
Deciding to do as he was told, Jon relaxed his stance but didn't let go of his sword handle, and then turned around.
Only to be met with the Weeping Tree sporting a kinder, more feminine, face. Bloody tears no longer spilling from its carved eyes.
For a second all he could do is stare at it speechlessly, mouth hanging agape.
Again the tree laughed, its soft voice sounding like soft bells being carried by the gentle breeze.
"I see my presentation have rendered you quite speechless, dear child." The tree spoke humorously. "Please forgive me for my choice of appearance, but I don't believe anything else would convince you I am who I say I am."
Jon swallowed, feeling his vocal cords finally working properly again.
"A-And who might that be?" He tried to sound calm and composed, but seeing the tree smile reassuringly didn't make him feel any less disturbed by all this.
"I am one of the Seven Gods of Westeros, dear boy." The tree said, calmly. "You may address me as Mother."
Jon not really sure whenever this was all real or some kind of hallucination caused by Cotter throwing some mushroom into his soup, but he wasn't going to question a literal talking tree so he simply bowed his head respectfully.
"I imagine this whole situation is quite unexpected…" Mother started, looking at him with concern.
''I'm not going to lie to you, milady..." He breathed softly, trying to calm his racing heart. "It is rather startling…"
"There is no need for you to feel threatened by me, young one." The tree smiled briefly before turning serious again. "However there is danger coming, which you have every right to fear."
"The White Walkers…" Jon whispered, his hand clenching into a fist.
"Indeed." The Goddess said gravely. "It is fortunate then that we already triggered certain events into motion that will prevent the White Walkers from destroying the world as you know it." She then smirked, the wood creaking as it moved to accommodate her facial expressions. "Such as sending that new friend of yours beyond the Wall."
Jon's ears perked up at this, body standing to attention.
"You are the reason he wants to venture to the other side?" He asked, a bit bewildered. "But… how will that help against the Walkers?"
"Mycroft has been chosen by our council to save your world." She stated formally. "The people beyond the Wall are merely a starting point to the massive army he will have to acquire against the oncoming threat."
Jon's sucked in a breath.
It didn't seem like the tree goddess was lying…
But if that was true then… Mycroft might have a bigger weight on his shoulders than even the owner of the Iron Throne did.
To be the soul savior of a world that's too busy fighting a Civil War against itself, to even realize where the real threat is coming from…
Jon though back to the way Mycroft was acting today, how calm he looked… how composed he sounded.
It seemed as if he was used to such pressure being put upon him, as he must have known why he was being directed beyond the wall in the first place…
Or he was putting on a brave face for those how will soon depend on him…
Without knowing him better, the young Snow couldn't know for sure.
He looked down sadly.
It was a pity he'll never get a chance to do so.
"That… is no quite true, young Snow." The tree spoke up again, catching his attention.
"Hm?" He blinked at the plant, clearly not understanding. "What do you mean, milady?"
"Because you are going with him." Mother smiled softly at him.
Jon instantly refused.
"What?! No I… I can't!" He argued. "I made my vows to the Wall and I am honor bound to keep them!"
"As a goddess of this realm I hereby relieve you from your duty to the Night Watch." The goddess's voice was laced with finality and no room for argument. "You are to serve a bigger purpose as guide and bodyguard of the Chosen One."
Jon was, once again, speechless.
Finding it hard to argue with a divine deity, he simply lowered his head in defeat.
"W-Why me?" He asked finally, watching the tree's reaction. "Why not Finn? Or Gared?"
"I have chosen you because you remind Mycroft Holmes of his younger brother that he left back in his home." She smiled softly. "Haven't you noticed how protective he was of you, earlier today?"
"W-What?" Now the poor man was just confused. "That's not what-he stepped in to save all of us, not just me!"
"When it came to the villagers, yes, that is true." She was still smiling encouragingly, trying to erase the youth's doubts. "But he took a stand against Denner Frostfinger mainly because he was attacking you."
Jon had nothing to say to that so he lowered his head, looking back at the previous events with a new light.
"It seems you've got yourself a protective older brother, Jon Snow." The Goddess said quietly, the face slowly disappearing from the tree trunk.
"Do not let him face this challenge alone."
Mycroft really wished he was dreaming, the minute the young Snow started telling them his story.
Before, he still had chances of talking his way out of this forced partnership…
Now… he might as well be trying to talk water out of being liquid.
He sighed at the hopeful looks on their faces, and silently cursed the Goddess that dared to put such a loudmouthed dent in his plans.
"I really shouldn't be saying this…" They immediately caught on, already giving themselves high-fives and triumphant looks. "But I will allow you four to accompany me on my journey just to keep you from getting into more trouble with Frostfinger." He clarified, then added just to wipe those smirks off their faces: "It seems like you cause more trouble than you're worth."
But Finn was already dismissing the harsh critique.
"Nah you're just saying that to make us less excited about all this." He grinned. "Admit it, you love us already."
At that Mycroft slapped him across the head.
Hard.
JA107: Minor adjustments to this chap as I have realized I've acted a bit hastily with the inclusion of some things.