Notes: Usually when I'm coming up with where the NPCs live for this fic I tend to base it on where we see them appear in the game and where I think it'd make sense for them to live. But in the case of Sean, his profile directly says that he lives in Highyard Hill. So thanks for making it easy for me, Sean.


That night they slept in Crow's old room, in exactly the same beds that they had done back when Badger was living with them for a while. And by 'beds' that meant one was a bed and the other was a mattress on the floor, which Badger was currently occupying. Crow had protested that Badger was the guest, so he should have the real bed, but Badger merely snorted at that suggestion and pointed out that Crow's bed was the perfect size for Crow (who hadn't grown very much, a fact Badger didn't mention), whereas Badger was now too tall for either bed or mattress. So at least the mattress would be more comfortable, given that he wouldn't have to worry about hitting his legs off the wooden frame of the bed.

When morning came around, Badger was awake before Crow, as usual. He looked down at where his own feet were sticking out at the bottom of the mattress and mused that, while this had also been the case the last time he'd stayed here, he had grown even more since then. Most people told Badger that it was his confidence that had grown, whereas his height was just something everyone was used to, so he didn't think about it that much. But being here again made it hard to ignore.

By the time Crow started to stir, Badger could already hear Maureen downstairs in the kitchen. No doubt she was making something for breakfast and Crow wasted no time in finding out. He jumped out of bed and motioned for Badger to follow him.

Luckily for Badger, today's breakfast was only egg and soldiers. After yesterday's big dinner, Badger didn't think he could handle more than that, but this breakfast was fine.

"Didn't want to go overboard," Maureen told them, "I thought you might be going out with your friends today, so maybe you'd stop in at Paddy's to get something. Or at someone's house."

"We don't 'ave anythin' planned just yet, except that we're gonna visit 'em later," replied Crow, "But we'll probably go to Paddy's sometime while we're 'ere."

"It's nice up that way. And as far as restaurants go, not too expensive," said Maureen, "I guess with how steady the Garden keeps business, no one needs to charge that much these days."

Crow paused for a moment, as if he was thinking something over. Then he carefully asked, "So 'ave... 'ave ya bin getting' out much these days, Mum?"

"Look at you, worrying about your old Mum!" scoffed Maureen. She reached across the table to ruffle Crow's hair; "But yes, I get out now more than I used to. Some people are still a bit funny with me, but... well, all your friends are very nice, Tom, I don't know why you didn't want me to talk to them when you were a kid. And some of their parents are talking to me more these days as well. That friend of yours, Marilyn, gosh her folks are so proud! When are you going to bring me back a grandchild, poppet?"

"Mum!" Crow whined.

"I'm only joking, dear. You know that!" Maureen laughed.

"Well, Badge' don't need ya embarrassin' 'im like that," huffed Crow.

"Doun't bring me int' this," Badger warned.

Maureen piped up; "So does that mean there's something going on between-"

"Speakin' o' babies, do ya think Marilyn's bin all right?" Crow quickly cut in, "No one's talked much about it since we arrived."

"Seems to be," Maureen answered, with a shrug. She came across a little dejected to be denied the chance to find out what was going on between Crow and Badger. Admittedly, Badger was as well. But he refocused as Maureen went on, "It was a shock for everyone. I don't think they wanted people to know at first, but you know what it's like in small towns. Got to say, out of all the young ladies around here I wouldn't have put my money on Marilyn being the first to have a baby."

"She must know wot she's doin'..." mumbled Crow, though even he was starting to sound doubtful about that.

"Thomas, believe me, no one knows what they're doing when they first have a child. Even if they think they do," assured Maureen, "But her and that Gus are both very bright and caring, so I'm sure they'll figure it out."

"I 'ope so," said Crow.

"No use moping around here about it. You two boys want to get out there and see your friend while the morning's young," instructed Maureen.

She got up to clean the plates off the table, taking Crow's away before he was even finished. Then, after putting everything in the sink, she shooed at them to get up and go.

"All right, we're 'eadin' off," Crow muttered.

"Are yer sure we can't 'elp with the dishes, Missus Carr?" Badger asked.

"You're such a sweetheart, Simon. Much kinder than this lump of a son I have. But no, I could never ask a guest to do that. You just go out and enjoy yourself," she assured.

"See ya later, Mum," Crow called. He was already waiting in the hallway for Badger.

"Y-yeah, bye Missus Carr," added Badger.

"Bye, boys. And please, do call me Mum, Simon. None of this Mrs. Carr nonsense," Maureen called.

"Reet!" Badger promised. Not for the first time.

With that they headed out into the market. As soon as the door had closed behind them, Crow spun in the direction of Marilyn's house, but Badger grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Give 'er some space, Crow," he insisted.

"But... I just wanna make sure everythin's all right," protested Crow, "And besides, she'll have been awake for ages by now anyway. This is Mal we're talkin' about."

"Yeah, but she doun't need yer fussing about 'er like a motheh 'en. We can see 'er lateh when we go t' the base," Badger said.

"Fine, I'll drop it for now," conceded Crow, "So... where do ya wanna go this mornin', Badge'?"

Badger thought for a moment, then said, "What about the little wood with the stream? Up by where the fish scientist used t' work and the old shack were?"

"Ya like it up there. Sure then, let's go there," Crow replied, with a smile.

That place had always been special to Badger. It had been his hiding spot away from the world back when he was younger, somewhere quiet were he felt safe and secure. As well as that, it had been the place where Crow had asked Badger to join him when he went to London. That had been the first time Badger had properly felt as if Crow had wanted to stay with him. Even if London itself hadn't worked out, the two of them had endured and that meant a lot to Badger.

He wasn't sure if the wood meant quite the same thing to Crow, but he hoped that it did. M-maybe if they went there it m-might... prompt Crow to finally ask again about... them.

A lump formed in Badger's throat and he'd tried to swallow it back.

There was no denying that since Crow confessed his own feelings and Badger had turned him down that the two of them had been oddly closer. They both knew that the feelings were there now. So the hugs and the hand-holding happened. Most of their neighbours in Southampton assumed they were a couple and they'd never done anything to deny that rumour. But at the same time they weren't together. Not for real. Crow had to ask properly and they both knew that.

The walk up Misthallery was a pleasant one, with the two of them in good spirits. Badger started to daydream that even if Crow hadn't planned to come to the wood with him, that he might take advantage of the situation and ask anyway. If he did, then Badger couldn't see himself saying anything other than yes. Not this time.

Unfortunately for Badger, they didn't get that far. They'd only just reached one of the crossroads when they came across Tony and Arianna, both heading down to the market.

"Where are you two off to then?" Tony asked, grinning widely.

"Nowhere!" Badger yelped. Then he covered his mouth. They truly weren't up to anything suspicious and now he's gone and made it awkward. Tony's wicked smile had taunted it out of him!

"If you're not doing anything then why don't you come with us?" suggested Arianna. She seemed oblivious to Badger's discomfort or anything Tony might have been implying; "We were just heading to the base anyway."

"We would, but..." Crow started. Before he could say any more he looked over at Badger and Badger shook his head. The moment had gone. So Crow nodded and continued, "...Actually, yeah. We wanna see an auction anyway. So are ya settin' up for one today?"

"There'll be an auction this evening," replied Arianna, "I hope that we can impress the great Crow with what we've been doing."

So the four of them made their way back into the market and down to the underground base. It seemed that all of the others were already there, even Sean, who surprisingly must have come down from Highyard Hill on his own. And although their leader was one of the last to arrive, everyone already seemed to know where they needed to be and what they needed to be doing. Arianna must run a tight ship.

"Morning, you lot," called Marilyn, from where she was sat repairing a chair cushion on the stage.

"Wot are ya doin' 'ere like this?" said Crow, "Ya should be restin'!"

"Leave it off, Crow. Marilyn won't let anyone tell her to rest, not even Gus," called Charlie.

He was sat on a seat in one of the rows of chairs that surrounded the stage, next to Gus, who seemed to be scribbling in a notebook. Badger regarded them both for a moment. Over the times that he'd been here visiting, Badger had noticed that Charlie and Gus seemed to have become good friends, though he didn't know more about the matter than that. He'd wanted to ask them about it sometime, but it had always seemed rude. When Charlie joined the Black Ravens it was hard to know who he would get along with, but Gus had never been someone who Badger would have guessed to become best buddies with him.

While Badger was thinking about this, the others carried on talking.

"He's right, you know. I'd go stir-crazy if I didn't have this to keep me occupied," Marilyn said, "Sometimes the baby does get a bit much to manage, but right now he's settled."

"She's here so often that I might put bets on about the baby dropping in this very auction hall," teased Charlie.

"Don't even joke about that," sighed Gus.

It seemed as if the unusual duo had now caught Crow's attention as well. He walked over to where Charlie and Gus were sat, so Badger followed along behind him.

"Wot ya writin' there, Gus?" Crow asked.

"Nothing!" squeaked Gus, instantly slamming the notebook shut.

"Oh, come on, Gus. Everyone else knows about it by now," prompted Charlie.

"Only because you've told everyone..." Gus muttered.

"You should be proud of what you make," Marilyn called over, from up on the stage.

"But... it's so... strange," Gus protested, weakly.

"I don't think it's strange," Marilyn reasoned, "And you have Charlie hanging off every issue."

"Issue...?" Badger mumbled, now completely lost.

Gus looked up at them, then he looked between Charlie and Marilyn, before inevitably giving up. He carefully opened the notebook again, flipping through pages and pages of drawings. He didn't stop on any long enough for Badger to make out what was going on, but he could tell that they were comic pages of some sort.

"Aren't they amazing?" chimed Charlie.

"They're nothing. Just some doodles I do when I'm stressed," Gus insisted.

"And luckily for me, this whole pregnancy matter has had him as stressed as he could possibly get," Charlie purred, as if he wasn't talking about something serious that was affecting two of his friends, "I've gotten so invested in the will-they won't-they romance between Tim and Si, but Gus used to take forever to finish new comics about them. Now he's pumping them out like no one's business."

"Tim and Si?" checked Badger.

"They're no one," Gus mumbled, "Just stupid characters."

"Look at how cute they are together! They're totally meant to be," demanded Charlie.

He took the notebook from Gus and flicked to a page with a large drawing of the two characters gazing into each other's eyes. It wasn't like anything Badger had ever seen before. When he was a kid, the only comics he'd seen were the Beanos that Socket used to pick up sometimes or those American superhero comics that Charlie was into. He couldn't read them himself, but the pictures had looked nice. These characters... it wasn't that they didn't look good, but Badger couldn't understand what was going on with them. They both had massive eyes, pointy faces and long, flowing hair that seemed to be blowing about in the breeze. Behind them, the background was filled with giant rose petals, without any explanation as to why.

"Why are their 'ands so big?" asked Crow.

"It's the style!" Charlie hissed.

"Honestly, I'm just not very good at drawing hands" admitted Gus.

"Nah, these look great, Gus," Badger said, "I dunno what's gan on in them, but they look very pretteh."

"They're not that good. Other people can draw much better than me," Gus dismissed.

"Not in Mist'allery, I'll bet," reasoned Crow, "So 'ow long 'ave ya bin doin' this for?"

"I guess a bit more than three years," Gus replied, "I used to do it sometimes before that, but I never thought that it was something I should be wasting my time on when there was work to be done. Then Charlie joined us and he saw me drawing one time... the rest is history."

"I like to think of myself as his coach," bragged Charlie, "There's even this contest in one of the comics I read, for aspiring young future creators, but I can't get Gus to enter it."

"That would be going too far," Gus stated, "It's all very well me drawing these for my friends, but no one else wants to see them. And Mari and me have a kid on the way, so I need to be keeping my feet on the ground about doing proper work."

"This could be proper work..." Charlie weakly protested.

"I don't mean to be rude, but whether it is or not, it isn't the work you're supposed to be doing now," Arianna injected, "Don't you all want to get this auction ready to impress Crow?"

"Yes, ma'am!" grumbled Charlie.

He made a show of pulling himself up out of the seat, but once he was up it became clear that he was eager to get on. Showing up Crow was something that Charlie didn't get the chance to do often. Gus took his notebook back from the seat where Charlie had left it, closed it again and put it away in his pocket before anyone could ask any more questions about the love lives of Tim and Si or why they lived in a world populated by giant roses.

"Can me an' Badge' give anyone any 'elp?" checked Crow.

"Not at all," Marilyn answered, "You can step into the next one if you want, but for now we want it to be all about us. And we can't show you what we can do without you if you step in."

"Fair enough then," agreed Crow, "Let's just sit back an' watch, Badge'."


Sitting back and watching lasted until the auction itself, later that evening. Throughout the day they'd both hung around, talking to the others when they weren't busy and seeing what was happening. But when the time of the auction arrived, they both already had front-row seats before any of the guests had even arrived.

They tried not to make it too obvious, keeping mostly out of sight until the first throng of people were into the hall, then making their way over to some vacant chairs with a good view of the stage.

As the room filled up, it was clear how successful the auctions still were. This was something that Badger had seen in the other times that he'd visited, but for Crow it was his first time at a Misthallery auction since he'd left and knowing they drew such a large crowd put him at ease. Arianna had told them earlier that they keep to the format of having auctions for everyone in the underground hall and a few times a month do a special auction up at Barde Manor. But the underground auctions were more the kind that Crow remembered, so it seemed fitting they sit through one of those first.

Badger couldn't stop himself from checking Crow's reaction as everything went on around them. There was a mixture of old and new in how the auctions were presented and this had Crow's curiosity. He sat up straight when the lights dimmed and were replaced with pale blue spotlights, which focused on the stage.

After a moment for everyone to take in a breath, Arianna walked out onto the stage. She was not dressed as the Black Raven, but instead wore an elegant, deep blue dress that trailed behind her. She stared out into the crowd with a challenging and piercing gaze.

"Welcome once again, to our hidden auctions," she began, "I trust that the evening finds you well and that my good friend the Black Raven has brought along many items that will be of interest to you. I will pass you over to him in just a second. But before that, does anyone have any questions about the auctions or how they work?" She paused, but luckily it seemed that Crow and Badger had come on a night where there were no new-comers, so no one had any questions about the bidding. Once the moment had passed, Arianna continued, "...Very well then. I take it that you all go into this knowing what you are doing. So without further ado, I shall surrender the stage to the ever watchful, Bejewelled Raven."

"The wot Raven?" gasped Crow.

Badger had to grab hold of Crow's arm to stop him from jumping out of his seat. And the matter was made only worse when Arianna walked down from the stage and to her seat, only to be replaced by Charlie, who came out from behind the curtain dressed as his version of the Black Raven. Which, when you got down to it, wasn't too big of a departure from the original. But it had taken Badger by surprise the first time he'd seen it and the reaction was even bigger from Crow, who had lovingly created and maintained his own image of the Black Raven for so many years. Charlie's Bejewelled Raven, with its sparkly sequins that caught the light and glittered in that perfect way, was not what he'd had in mind.

The only advantage was that the shock seemed to render Crow temporarily speechless. So at least Badger didn't have to worry about him shouting out to Charlie. Instead Crow folded back into his seat and fidgeted around uncomfortably, as he tried to come to terms with this in his head.

"Greetings, my pretties," Charlie began, in his own version of the Black Raven's voice, "Welcome to my abode once again. Fortunate am I, that you make time for me. I will be sure to make it worth your while."

"That Curly's gonna 'ave some explainin' to do when this is ovah..." muttered Crow, having finally found his voice.

"Yer like it realleh," Badger said, wanting to be cruel.

He didn't get a reply to that, which he wasn't sure if he should take as a good thing or not. Crow sat in critical silence for the rest of the evening, his eyes fixed on the mask of the Bejewelled Raven like he was hanging on Charlie's every word. Part of Badger expected him to bid at some point, but he didn't. Maybe to Crow, staying out of it had meant truly staying out of it this time. Which was an improvement from the last time he'd promised them he'd not get involved in an auction.

The evening ended on a good profit. Badger didn't even need to tell Crow the figures for him to know that, but he nodded along all the same when he heard them. Then they sat together, pretending to talk casually as the other guests left the hall to either pick up their winnings from out the front or head off through the tunnel and back up into the night.

This part of the auction was just as important as the stage show, so both of them were happy to wait around until the others were ready. It would give them all a chance to get changed and-

...and Charlie walked out from behind the curtain still, dressed up as the Bejewelled Raven, the moment all the guests had left the hall. So much for getting changed.

"Like it?" he asked, as he gave a little twirl.

"Ya ruined the Black Raven! That's... that's an iconic look ya just gone an'... tipped glittah onto!" wailed Crow.

"You can't get enough of it really. That's why you couldn't stop looking at me," Charlie purred.

"In 'orror!" Crow corrected.

"Yeah!" Badger needlessly added, to back Crow up.

He hadn't felt strongly about the whole thing before, but suddenly he didn't like whatever it was that Charlie was implying. Surely Crow didn't like looking at the Black Raven being jazzed up like that, even if it was being worn by someone admittedly very pretty... Oh no, he shouldn't start thinking like that.

"If you want to be like that, then it's your loss," said Charlie, seemingly unfazed, "But the audience loves it."

"He's right," Marilyn added, as she stepped out from the back to join them, "We don't let him do that every night, but his version of the Black Raven has proven very popular. A lot of guests turn up for the excitement of seeing if it'll be the regular one or Charlie's."

"There shouldn't be any othah versions. There's only one true Black Raven," Crow grumbled.

"You say that knowing you can't stop us," Charlie claimed. He was taking off the mask now, which ruined the image ever so slightly, but wearing that mask for so long definitely wasn't a lot of fun, so Badger couldn't blame him.

"I... did leave the runnin' o' this place to Marilyn," agreed Crow, "An' while maybe I ain't 'appy about the sparkly Raven, if it works it works."

"And it does work, so that's the end of it, Marilyn said.

"All the same, can I take part in the next auction?" Crow checked.

"You'd have to ask Arianna about that, but I can't see her having a problem with it," replied Marilyn.

"Why would I need to ask Arianna?" Crow quizzed.

Then the large doors were pushed open again, with their usual crack, and Gus was standing there. He looked around at all of them and smiled up at Marilyn.

"Everything's been sorted out here, do you want me to walk you home?" he asked.

"Sounds good," Marilyn said, "I'll see you all tomorrow."

She climbed down from the stage, this time not chiding Crow for his attempt to help her. Then, once they'd all said goodbye, she headed out with Gus, putting her arm around him for the support that she wouldn't admit to needing. It was nice, Badger thought to himself. He didn't know much about Marilyn and Gus's relationship, seeing as they were both private people in that regard, but he hadn't seen them display much affection around each other openly. So this was quite sweet to see.

"Surprised ya not goin' with 'em," Crow said to Charlie, "Don't ya wanna nag 'im to draw more o' that comic?"

"No, he's right that they have a lot more than silly comics on their plate right now..." Charlie admitted. Then he brightened up and added, "Besides, I'll be walking back up to North Ely with the other posh kids. You should see Sean's face whenever I tease Tony."

"Don't pick on them, they're onleh learning still," Badger argued.

"Would you rather I stayed here and tried with Crow instead?" Charlie checked, savagely.

"Crow would rathah ya didn't. Now clear off before I decide to pluck every gem off that Bejewelled Raven o' yours," threatened Crow.

"I know when I'm not wanted," finished Charlie.

He gave them both a melodramatic pout and then marched out of the hall to join the others. Crow and Badger waited a while after that, but no one else came in, not even Arianna, so they assumed that meant they were being left to lock up. Not that Crow minded doing that. He'd often be the last person to leave back in the old days.

"Just the two o' us, Badge'. Like it is back 'ome," Crow said.

Badger smiled at him; "Did yer just refer t' Southampton as 'ome compared t' 'ere, Crowlo?"

"Huh. Guess I did," replied Crow, "The world gets weirdah every day."

"As long as we get by, it's not too weird t' me," Badger assured him.