AN~ The idea of Moth's response to Sabrina's everafterhood is Berserkerangel's idea. I do not own it.
Rainbowofsmiles16: why can't you get logged on?
"I'd like to see this Moth character." Henry said once they were back in the Golden Egg that evening.
Puck snickered.
"What's so funny?" Sabrina asked.
"He called her a character. Oh, the irony." Puck grinned.
Sabrina rolled her eyes. "Right, dumbo." She said. "And Dad, why do you want to see her?"
"I'd like to yell at her for almost killing my daughter." Henry said. "May I, Mustardseed?"
"Of course." Mustardseed nodded. "I'll take you there now."
"Thank you." Henry said.
Mustardseed nodded, leading the way through the restaurant, then through the royal quarters in the back, and down to the basement. Henry followed. Puck and Sabrina glanced at each other. Puck shrugged and started after the two. Sabrina rolled her eyes and joined him, muttering under her breath about how this was a stupid idea, and they should avoid the homicidal maniac.
"Oh, be quiet." Puck said eventually, rolling his eyes. "It's not like you have to talk to her or anything."
"But I don't want to go near her." Sabrina said. "I never liked her in the first place, and now that she's tried to kill me..."
"I didn't like her either, but I'm not making a fuss." Puck said.
"She didn't almost murder you." Sabrina said.
"She wanted to marry me." Puck said vehemently. "That's worse."
"I dunno..." Sabrina said. "There's always divorce with that. Death is forever."
"I'd rather be dead than married to her." Puck said. "It's less painful."
"You sure?" Sabrina said. "You ever been dead?"
"No, but we could always go ask my dad."
"No thank you." Sabrina said. "If we ask him, he's probably going to inhabit my body again, and that was not fun. Besides, he's 'resting in peace,' so it's probably better to just leave him alone."
"Not fond of having your soul shoved aside, human?" a voice asked.
Sabrina blinked. It had been getting steadily darker and less hospitable as she and Puck had talked, and now they were in a darkened hallway lined with doors. They stood before the final door, where a small, weak lightbulb flickered. Inside the room was a shadowy figure.
"No on both counts." Sabrina said, struggling to contain her rage and failing, as the temperature in the room rose noticeably.
"Excuse me?" Moth asked, coming forward towards the barred window of the door, closer to the light.
"So much for not talking to her." Puck muttered dryly.
Sabrina ignored him, speaking to Moth alone. "Of course I don't like having someone else in my body. And the second part? I'm an everafter now."
Moth gasped.
Sabrina smiled wryly. "The funny thing is, it's your fault. If you hadn't tried to poison me, I wouldn't have had to be put into one of those fairy cocoons. And since a human can't survive being in one, I had to become an everafter or die. So don't call me human anymore. I might have to show you how annoying it is to be counted on by your race alone, Fae."
"Did you explain the difference between Faerie and Fae to her?" Mustardseed asked Puck out of the corner of his mouth.
Puck shook his head, watching the two girls.
"Then how did she know the difference?" Mustardseed asked.
Puck shrugged. "Lucky guess?"
"Probably." Mustardseed said. "You might want to tell her about that before she gets herself into trouble. Mother would not appreciate that."
"Mother doesn't appreciate most things." Puck said. "She's more of a stick in the mud than you are."
"She's a dangerous stick in the mud." Mustardseed replied. "And I doubt you want her getting hurt."
"True." Puck said. "Later, though, all right? I want to see how this plays out."
"Fine." Mustardseed said as the two returned their attention to the girls.
"How can you be an everafter?" Moth asked. "There have been no new everafters in over a hundred years!"
"Don't ask me." Sabrina shrugged. "All I know is I am one, and if it turns out I don't like it, I have you to blame. And I will not hesitate to get revenge."
Sabrina smiled, but it wasn't friendly. This was the look that countless kids had seen right before Sabrina punched them in the gut, or they ran screaming because they knew what was good for them. It was a fierce, feral smile and Puck, seeing it, shuddered.
Moth didn't squirm, though, something Sabrina gave her credit for. She simply glared back at Sabrina and said, "I should have killed you while I had the chance. Then none of this would have happened. I would have my husband, my crown, my kingdom, and my freedom."
Sabrina looked like she was about to strangle Moth, and Puck was about to step in and stop her when Henry jumped in front of Sabrina and began yelling at Moth.
"Now wait just a minute, young lady!" He shouted. "I don't care who you are, nobody talks to my daughter that way!"
He continued to rant while Puck and Mustardseed dragged Sabrina forcibly back from the cell.
"She's scum under your shoe, Grimm." Puck muttered. "Not worth getting mad at. A gnat. All her buzzing does is make an annoying noise."
"I swat gnats." Sabrina said tightly. "Can I swat her?"
"No," Mustardseed said, "That would get you put in jail, too. And I have a feeling you wouldn't enjoy that."
"Come on." Puck said. "Let's leave your dad to shout and get away from that thing." He glanced at Moth as if she were nothing more than the insect she were named after. "Mustardseed can help me explain the difference between Faerie and Fae."
"But how will Dad get to his room?" Sabrina asked.
Puck rolled his eyes. "Mustardseed and I have minions, Grimm. Remember?" He pulled out his flute and blew a few notes, telling the pixies, when they arrived, "Take him wherever he asks once he's done."
The pixies chittered for a few seconds, and then Mustardseed led the way back up to the ground level and the den with the fireplace and leather chairs. He took a seat in one, Puck sat on another, and Sabrina, after a moment's hesitation, pulled a third closer to the others, forming a semi-circle around the fireplace.
"Awright, so what were you saying about Faerie and Fae?" Sabrina asked with a yawn.
Puck gave her a look. "Will you stay awake for it?" He asked. "This is important, and I don't want to have to save your butt because you called somone by the wrong kingdom."
Sabrina nodded, yawning again. "I'll- be fine."
Puck rolled his eyes and turned to Mustardseed. "Don't start without me, I'm gonna go get sleepy over here something to eat."
"Not too big!" Sabrina called. "I want to be able to sleep tonight!"
"Whatever, Grimm." Puck called as the door swung closed.
"While he's out," Mustardseed asked, leaning forward, "Would you tell me about what happened after your incident with the cocoon?"
"Sure." Sabrina said. "You want the long version or the short verison?"
"Short." Mustardseed said. "How long can it take Puck to get food?"
"You'd be surprised." Sabrina said dryly. "Anyway, Nothing much happened for ages, but a month or so ago I kind of made myself float. Obviously, I got it back to normal, but then I ended up getting wings, some sort of power to manipulate barriers, elemental/weather manipulation, and lie detection. I'm feeling like a Mary-Sue at the moment."
"They might not all stay." Mustardseed said. "From what I've found out-"
"How did you find it out?" Sabrina asked.
"Thumbelina." Mustardseed replied. "She's also one. She said that she had an explosion of abilities at the beginning, but they dwindled away after a while."
"I hope they don't go away until after the war's over." Sabrina muttered. "I was sort of counting on being able to kick some serious Scarlett Hand butt with this stuff."
"You will." Puck said confidently, walking back into the room. "Honestly, who needs special powers to kick someone in the rear end? All you need is two legs, their behind, and good aim."
"Way to be literal there." Sabrina said dryly, taking the box of Cheeze-its from his hand. "Thanks for the food."
"It might be harder if they were running, though." Puck said thoughtfully. "And who wouldn't run when they were being kicked at?"
"Ending a sentence with a preposition." Mustardseed tsked. "Bad grammar."
"Aw, who cares?" Puck asked.
"Let's talk about-" Sabrina swallowed her food, then continued, "-The difference between Faerie and Fae. You mentioned it before, in passing."
"Technically, there isn't much." Puck said. "We're all fairies, we're all either greater, lesser, or pixies, we all eat, we breathe, we have embarassing bodily functions that I find funny but nobody else wants to talk about, we all drink, we all like food, we all have weaknesses-"
"Right, I get the picture." Sabrina interrupted. "But how are you different?"
"Faerie and Fae are the two kingdoms of the fairy folk." Mustardseed said. "We both started out spread around the world, but the two kingdoms gradually got centered in Greece and Italy. That was when the fighting started."
"Back up." Sabrina said. "Go back to the kinds of fairies. Explain?"
"Pixies are the little ones, greater fairies are the human sized ones, and lesser fairies are the ones that are still counted as fairy folk, but usually don't have wings, and don't normally look like they would fit in with humanity." Mustardseed said. "The highest class of Lesser Fairies are the fairy godparents."
Sabrina blinked. "Then what about those other fairy names? Like sprites and stuff?"
"Sprites are bonded pixies." Puck said. "Normal pixies are free to do what they want, and the only one who really knows anything about them is the P word. They usually help us out because they're technically fairies and it suits them. But Sprites have a specific bond to one person, and they'll only do what that person tells them."
"That's kind of cool." Sabrina said. "Anyway, back to the story. Why were they fighting?"
"Nobody knows anymore." Puck said. "How stupid is that?"
"Well, the reason no one knows is that all the people who knew are dead. There are no living fairies over five thousand, because they were all killed in the war." Mustardseed interjected. "After our paternal grandfater died, our mother forged the treaty he had been trying to create with Fae. That's why father married her, a fairly lowly cortesan's daughter."
"What were the conditions of the treaty?" Sabrina asked.
"A hostage situation." Puck spat. "They took Peaseblossom and we got Moth. We and they get visting days, but I honestly think that they got the better end of the deal. We agreed not to attack each other or the hostages would die."
Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "That's... not cool. Peaseblossom is your older sister, I take it?"
Mustardseed nodded. "Puck neglected to mention that part of the treaty was an agreement that Peaseblossom would marry Mab-"
"Who?" Sabrina asked.
"Queen of the Fae." Mustardseed supplied. "Anyway, Peaseblossom would marry one of Mab's sons and Moth would marry one of us. That way neither kingdom would lose a future ruler, and both girls would be well married. Peaseblossom married the oldest Fae boy, and Moth was going to marry one of us, only Puck refused to grow older, and as twins, we are forced to stay the same age. I, being the younger of the two, was not allowed to dictate our ages."
"That's harsh." Sabrina said. "Way to be a good big brother, Puck."
"Look who's talking!" Puck protested.
"And who sacrificed her childhood to take care of her younger sister?" Sabrina shot back.
"Guys!" Mustardseed shouted. "This isn't the issue. The marriage to Moth was prevented for some time by our ages, but Mab was getting impatient, and she told Father that either one of us would marry Moth or the treaty was ended. That is when Father and Puck had their fight. I assume you know the rest of the story?"
"The basics." Sabrina said. "I might get details from Puck later."
"Right, so anywah, that's the difference between Faerie and Fae. We might have a treaty, but neither kingdom really likes the other one." Puck said quickly. "Anything else you want to know?"
"Not that I can think of at the moment." Sabrina said. "I guess we'll go to bed now?"
"Sounds good." Mustardseed said. "Puck, you'll be in your old room. Nobody's touched it since you left, I think they were all afraid to- I know I was- the pixies are going to show Henry to the guest room, and Sabrina, you'll be sleeping in Moth's old room."
"Which is where?" Sabrina asked.
"I'll show you." Mustardseed said. "Goodnight, Puck. It's good to have you back."
"Goodnight, Mustardseed, Grimm." Puck said, waving as he left the study.
Mustardseed and Sabrina followed a few seconds later, and Mustarseed led Sabrina through a series of hallways to Moth's room.
On the way, Sabrina muttered, "How the freak is this place so big when it looks like a regular diner from the outside?"
"A twist in the spacetime continuum." Mustardseed said. "From what I've heard about my brother's room, I assume it's the same thing. It's bigger on the inside than the outside."
"...Sure." Sabrina said. "But the time thing, what does that mean? It sounds pretty weird."
"I honestly have on idea. Time passes the same here as it does outside the Godlen Egg, though." Mustardseed chuckled and stopped walking.
"That works." Sabrina said. "Is this the room?"
"Yes." Mustardseed said. "It's only really been cleaned since Christmas, and I had someone put your bag in here earlier, so you should be fine. Ring the bell if you have any problems."
"Bell?" Sabrina asked.
"Moth liked to be pampered." Mustardseed explained.
"Ah." Sabrina said, then opened the door to Moth's room as Mustardseed walked off. "Goodnight!"
"Sleep well, Sabrina." Mustardseed said.
Sabrina turned back to the bedroom and stopped dead. SHE COULD NOT SLEEP IN THERE.
Everything was either pink, gold, or white, fluffy, garishly bright and distracting, and horribly expensive-looking. Aside from the fear that she would break something and need to replace it and the horrible thoughts she had at the decor of the room, both of which Sabrina could stand, there was the really horrible part: there were posters of Puck everywhere. Big ones, little ones, all angles, Puck doing all sorts of things, but mostly Puck staring forward. Sabrina stepped into the room, towards the small, safe spot of blue that was her duffel bag.
The poster's eyes followed her.
Sabrina ran to her duffel bag, grabbed her pajamas out of the top, then ran to a door across the room to get changed, because she was not going to do it with Puck staring at her.
The door wasn't the bathroom, it was a walk-in closet full of clothes Sabrina would never consider wearing. She ran to another door, opened it, found a boathroom with another picture of Puck, and ran into the shower. Thankfully, there were no posters in the shower, and Sabrina decided to clean herself while she was in there.
She emerged half an hour or so later, feeling more pampered than she had in ages, having used all of Moth's shampoos and such because she didn't want to return to the horde of staring eyes before she had to. She climbed into the bed, turned off the light, and turned to ignore the shapes in the room.
But as her night vision devleoped, she could make out the poster's eyes, still watching her. She put her head under the covers, but soon she got stuffy, and she had to pull them down again so she could breathe. She tried closing her eyes, but they kept popping open.
It was all Puck's fault. She'd told him not to feed her. She needed a sign. 'Please do not feed the teenager' or something like that.
She could use the sign to cover the eyes of the giant Puck fathead on the ceiling.
On second thought, that would have to be a pretty big sign.
...
Why couldn't she fall asleep?
The eyes were watching her. It was really creepy.
Was it just her, or had one of the posters blinked?
Of course not, posters didn't blink.
There. It did it again.
She couldn't stand it anymore. She turned the lights on and ran out of the room to the next door down the hall. It turned out to be her dad's room. Henry woke up and blinked at her groggily.
"What is it, sweetie?" He asked, seeing the state she was in.
"Can I sleep with you?" Sabrina asked. "I can't stay in there."
"Sure." Henry said, scooting over.
Sabrina smiled and crawled into bed with her dad. She was asleep withing minutes.