Chillsorrow Manor was a maze of passageways where cold seeped through the petrified trees and frozen stones of the castle walls like a vice, a malignant sentience all in itself, waiting for unfortunate passerby. The little group had arrived to find the place deserted, though it wasn't until Ash and Puck had completed a thorough search of the inside that anyone relaxed. Sometimes Grimalkin would flicker out of existence for minutes at a time, and Meghan (who had been left to the safety of the drawing room) was left with nothing to do but inspect the walls for signs of imminent danger, her breath rising in wisps of hot, smoky air.

But all the disappearances must have had something to do with events happening elsewhere because eventually the cat had serenely said that he would be gone for the remainder of the night and then vanished for good.

"That can't be a good thing." Ash muttered, returning from his inspection of the upstairs rooms just as Puck resurfaced from the basement, cobwebs speckling his red hair.

"You never realize how big basements are from the outside." Puck commented thoughtfully, coming up through a door leading into the cellars. "For instance, I never would have guessed that a family of Winter sidhe would have these," here he held out a bowl with the dust brushed off, "just lingering in their stores, waiting to be eaten."

Meghan glanced into the bowl warily, too many times the victim of one of Robbie's jokes at school to look at anything he held out without some caution. But these things didn't look too bad, not like they could hurt anyone. They just seemed like a combination of pea pods mixed with orange slices, except that they were colored a red-purple and flecked with hints of gold, giving them a rich, juicy tint.

"Summerpod." Ash commented dryly, inspecting the contents of the bowl. "And you mean to eat it?"

"Well, duh, ice boy." Puck rolled his eyes. "It's a delicacy. And, after nearly getting roasted alive by a very angry Iron faery, I think I'm ready for a treat."

"That is stealing, Goodfellow." Ash frowned. "The family may be out, but that doesn't mean we should raid their larder. We are using their house, yes, but remember, they are still under the protection of the Unseelie Court."

"Oooh, the big, scary Unseelie Court. Live a little, prince. It's not like you've never stolen anything either." Puck stuck his tongue out and popped one of the fruits into his mouth. "What about you, princess? Feeling adventurous?"

Meghan took one of the fruits cautiously. Nothing bad seemed to be happening to Puck, and she was already kinda intrigued. But then again, Puck was a full-blooded faery and she was only half. He seemed to fit here, despite being a Summer faery, while she'd been majorly freaked out by this castle. The cold seemed to seep into her body, even though she wore layers and layers of clothing to guard against it and Puck had enticed some of the fallen logs in the hearth to catch fire, the warmth barely made its way to her skin.

"What does it do?" She asked, raising a suspicious brow. "I thought you told me not to eat things given to me by faeries. You're still a faery, Puck."

Puck waved this away. "Aww hey, it's not like I'm going to give you something that'll hurt you, princess. Oberon would have my head. Well, technically, he'd kill me for letting you go this far into Tir Na Nog and then he'd have my head, but details, details." He took a breath. "All that this will do is make you a little warmer than you are now."

He winked. "Honestly, that's it."

Meghan should have known enough about Puck, enough about him as Robbie Goodfell to know that when he winked something dangerous and probably regrettable was going to happen, but she was cold. And if it would shake off the prickles of frost threatening her from all angles, then she'd chance it.

Faeries couldn't lie, right?

Without giving herself a chance for a second thought, she tossed the fruit into her mouth and bit down.

At first, she didn't taste anything, just felt the warm ooze of the liquid inside the pod spilling out. She noticed that Ash was watching her with guarded eyes, as waiting for a reaction. Meghan was going to ask what his problem was, what he was waiting for, when the taste of the summerpod sank in.

It was like a thousand feasts erupting in her mouth at once, so fruity and intoxicating that she couldn't help but laugh at how amazing it felt. Her tongue was almost on fire with all the different sensations and she giggled as the flavors changed from sweet to tangy to salty and back to sweet as the pod's juices spread across her tongue.

When the laughter at last subsided, Meghan was oddly disappointed. She felt pleasantly warm as Puck had promised, but her mouth felt empty, like it was lacking something, like it knew that it was not going to experience a whirlwind of different flavors like that again for a long while. Almost reflexively, her eyes strayed to the bowl of summerpod fruit that Puck still held.

It didn't have to be that long. Besides, if they rescued Ethan and left, when would she get another chance?

"You see?" Puck grinned triumphantly at the Winter prince. "At least one of us knows how to have a good time. Besides, I think we have earned this, a good night's sleep, and more."

"More?" Ash repeated, notes of wariness in his voice. "What do you mean?"

Meghan bit her lip. More sounded like a good idea. A very good idea, actually.

"Well," Puck stretched. "Think about it. We just defeated an Iron faery. I almost got burnt to crispy little cinders and we've been on the run from the Summer Court to the equally dangerous, if not smellier, Winter Court. It's time for a little relaxation, ice boy, so try not to spoil our fun."

Ash arched a brow. "And how is it fun to rob a vacationing family?"

"It's just a few fruit. We can get them more. Have you forgotten how fun works?" Puck chided. "You just go with it, prince. Look, Meghan's got the right idea."

As if on cue, Meghan laughed.

"See? Someone appreciates my dry wit."

Meghan laughed again. And then laughed. And laughed.

"Somehow, I don't think that that's what you meant by having the right idea. Or any wit at all, really." Ash muttered as Puck's eyebrows knit into an expression of concern.

"Damn. Princess, are you okay?"

Meghan had had another summerpod, and then another, and one after that for good measure. She couldn't remember if there were more after that or not, but what she did know was that she felt as though her mouth had disconnected from the rest of her body, like the laughing sound were something different, someone else, even though she could still feel her mouth moving to make the sounds.

Everything was dissolving into warmth and noise. Puck was right! She tried to tell him how warm she felt, but she started crying because she was laughing so hard. She hadn't felt this good in ages...

"How many did you let her have?" Ash shot at Puck, his eyes dark and calculating.

"I don't know! A couple?" Puck had his hands on Meghan's shoulders, trying to steady her. "Can you hear me, princess? Hey! Come on, Meg."

Too warm, too warm. Meghan's brow knit, struggling weakly to break the contact. Hot. She had to get away, she was on fire. She needed to breathe-

The winter prince sighed, an I-told-you-so look written all over his face. "One would have been enough. She's only human, Goodfellow."

"She's Oberon's daughter. That makes her fey. Oh damn!" Puck had to think fast to catch Meghan before she hit the floor; as it was, his hands wrapped around her waist, trying to pull her up to a standing position, but her feet would not find purchase beneath her. Still, she kept laughing and laughing, as though her own incapacitation was all a big joke, even as she slipped into unconsciousness.

"You don't even remember how much these affect humans, do you?" Ash asked him coolly, despite the fact that Puck still held a girl being wracked by giggles. "You've been in the human world so long you've forgotten-"

"Shut up."

Puck held her close until at last her breathing settled into something more like its normal tempo. He knew what the ice prince had been about to say, oh sure. It was the same thing that Oberon had said to him, ironically enough.

you've forgotten how to be fey

Ash was silent, but his raised brow seemed to speak volumes about what he thought of the princess' appointed guardian. It wasn't the usual mix of derision that he saved for Puck, but something new, something made all the more insulting because it was spiked with, Puck almost couldn't believe it, pity.

"Don't. Just don't say it, okay?" Puck seethed, still cradling Meghan. "And help me get her somewhere she can sleep this off."

-o-

Fever and waking dream were nothing new to him. Hell, it was practically how Summer fey lived during big celebrations at Arcadia.

Still, Puck paced through the manor like a wisp of smoke, trying to find a window to climb his way out of. He wasn't sure where he was going, wasn't sure if he wanted to be anywhere. The summerpod still sang through his veins a little bit, making him want to fight and launch himself of rooftops at the same time, but it was tempered by something deeper, something sadder.

He glanced over his dagger hand, over the flesh that was still slightly shiny, one of the spots where Ironhorse's fire had burnt into him. His right foot hurt to walk on still, though he'd done a good job of hiding it around Ash (he didn't want his enemy knowing his weak points, after all), and his body just ached. Being caged and then having three fights all in quick succession was starting to wear him out. If he weren't more or less immortal already, he would have started to think that he was getting old.

Still, the fever licked at him, burnt along the insides of his bones. He'd never felt iron like that before, up that close, and it made him shiver. Something was definitely wrong in the Nevernever and if he'd had his choice, he thought as he looked out one of the upper windows and onto the frozen gardens below, he would never have walked Meghan into this.

But, as it stood, things were only going to get a lot worse.

-o-

"For what it's worth," he worried his bottom lip, his voice soft, "I'm sorry."

Meghan's forehead burnt, and Puck wondered if the summerpod was making her dream in overdrive, making her brain run so fast that it was making her whole body overheat. He gently pressed towels to her wrists, ushered the chill breeze coming from a crack in one of the walls to try and cool her down. Her face was by turns slack and contorted in pain; and while he tried to remain removed from the situation, impartial and able to take care of her, respond coolly, he was finding it more and more difficult to pull off.

Because the fact was, if he'd just been a little more careful about watching her, she wouldn't be like this. Meghan wouldn't be stuck in a bed, sweating and shivering in turns, and she wouldn't be wincing in her sleep like she were in pain.

He hadn't even noticed when Ash came in.

The winter prince sat in a chair on the other side of the bed, checking Meghan's forehead for her temperature as Puck had done. "You treat her too much like you."

Puck started, shocked for a moment but then his face settling into a familiar mocking expression. "Excuse me, your royal iciness, but I wasn't asking for your evaluation of me as her guardian."

"No. If you had, my statement would have been a lot less charitable." Ash responded nonchalantly. "My point is that you still don't realize how very different she is from you, from all of us."

"Not that different. She has Oberon's blood." Puck repeated defensively. "She's more faery than you think."

"Goodfellow." Ash met his eyes. "She is much more human than you think."

-o-

He fell asleep on her night table.

It wasn't like there weren't enough rooms in Chillsorrow Manor to accommodate all of them; the place was built so that even if Mab and the whole Winter Court chose to come down for a party on a whim they could do so without worrying about having enough rooms for all of their guests. The long corridors were lined with rooms, each of them furnished in icy finery.

He woke up and saw Meghan's chest rise and fall underneath the covers, lifting the blanket up and down in an even, rhythmic motion. Puck watched the blankets shift, waiting for some sign of consciousness but got none. He was supposed to have woken Ash to take over a few hours ago, he realized, but he wasn't quite ready to leave yet.

Questions burned at him as though each one were a fever, like he were caught in a mess of trees that tore at him as he tried to plod through.

Were they really so different after all?

After sixteen years of having her as his closest companion (and at times compatriot) alone in a land without magic, Puck hadn't realized how much he had assumed that he and Meghan were alike. Well, obviously not completely alike; he understood that she still had some limitations and didn't possess the same kind of power as he did, a faery that had been around for hundreds of years.

And so what if he thought of her more like him rather than a human? She was fey, partly, and they weren't all that different. He'd had a hard time readjusting to the power of the Nevernever after his extended stay in the mortal realm, and he knew it hadn't been a cakewalk for Meghan either. They were alike, he knew that.

But, he sighed as he reached forward to stroke her cheek, still too hot, he couldn't deny that he had overestimated it a little bit. They were the same in some ways, both at odds with the courts, both magical beings too long in the mortal world, both acting too human for their own good. But the difference was still there, at times seeming insurmountable.

Why did he keep trying? The question cut into him like a blade of flame and he rested his head back into the crook of his arm on the table.

A part of him didn't know, wondered why he didn't just give up. He had stories written about him after all; it wasn't as though he could just give all that up and rush off to be with some half-fey girl. He closed his eyes. It would be too reckless. But then the other part of him spoke up, the part that reveled in fever, and reminded him that he was Puck and that it wasn't in him not to be reckless.

-o-

Sometime around dawn, Meghan Chase at last woke up, yawning and feeling sore all over, as if she'd just run a marathon. But what surprised her most wasn't her body's incredible weakness, but that on her bedside table was the still-sleeping form of her best friend, a very tired Puck.


Author's Note:

Hope you guys liked this! Sorry for the wait- school started again for me, so I have a lot of stuff to take care of again. I'll try to keep up with this, though. I also tried to keep the characters a little more IC, so let me know what you guys think! I love hearing from you.

-cy.