AN~Welp, there has been a lack of happenings on this website recently, and my solution is two things: update, because when I do that there tend to be a rush of other updates to bury mine (murphy's law turned to my advantage!) and to solve the issue of review lack, I am starting a challenge similar to yellow.r0se, like Lara D just started doing.
This time around:
Tell me your favorite fanfic (if you say this one, I'm disqualifying you). If you tell me about a story I haven't read yet that I enjoy, then I'll give you a mention in the next chapter and some sort of prize (e.g. a chapter dedication, a non-OOC request, a spoiler...)
warisha: Thanks so much for the review! I'm not normally a review begger. I think I've been spoiled by nice people.
ANannyMouse: You're welcome, and I've only read two stories from it: The Pardoner's tale (bleh) and the Chanticleer story, which was awesome. I had to. I'm always looking for something interesting for either Granny to cook or Puck to prank with, and you gave me a beautiful idea. So far I've gotten lots of good feedback on this chapter. Which is kind of weird 'cause it came out of nowhere. Like, I had no idea that I was going to write this beforehand. Thanks for the awesome review! :D
Luci-with-an-I: I'm sorry? I'll write worse?
Agd: Missed you last chapter. Don't dislike Granny! She's just... too nice. To everyone! Puck... might be back this chapter. We'll see.
Sabrina and Veronica took Briar and Red with them when they left for home, though Mallowbarb and Buzzflower stayed behind to take care of the restaurant.
On the way home, Briar sighed.
"What's wrong?" Veronica asked.
"Oh, Buzzflower and Mallowbarb are just getting on my case again, that's all." Briar said. "It's not important, it just gets me down, 'cause I want to make them happy, but it's so hard, and making them happy usually involves acting like I can't take care of myself."
"Sounds like dad." Sabrina muttered under her breath.
"What do they want now?" Veronica asked. "And Sabrina, stop it."
"Sorry." Sabrina said quietly, but she noticed that Red was smiling.
"They want me to move back in with them." Briar said, sounding annoyed.
"As in leave Jake?" Veronica asked, blinking.
"No, no, nothing that-" the house gave a particularly big jolt, and Briar stopped talking to grab the couch, "- nothing that extreme. They want all three of us to move in with them. I've been putting them off for a while, but they're getting really insistent."
"Why?" Sabrina asked, rubbing the wall of the house affectionately. "What's wrong with this place?"
"Nothing." Briar said. "They just feel we'll be safer living with them. Or they don't, but they'll feel better if they can see me twenty-four/seven."
The house jerked again, and Sabrina studied it intently. The brightly colored walls of the main room seemed a little dimmer, but that might be because one of the lights on the swaying chandelier had gone out- had it been out on the way to Sacred Grounds? She didn't think it had- and there was a leak in the kitchen ceiling that she hadn't noticed before. The furniture looked about the same, all still safely bolted to the floor and in good condition, but the house itself looked a little worse for the wear.
"You got the house all worked up." Sabrina accused Briar. "Look at it."
Briar looked at the house and rubbed a hand on the wall affectionately. "I'm sorry." She said. "I'm not going to move. I just wish they'd stop bugging me about it."
The light suddenly flickered back on, and the steady dripping of the faucet cut out- Sabrina hadn't noticed that. She smiled slightly.
The ride back home was nice, despite the gloom outside. The rain hadn't gotten much harder, but the clouds were thick and dark, heavy with the promise of a long storm, and there was an occasional flash of lightning through them. Each of the house's steps made a squelching noise in the mud that was audible from inside, and, though the leak had slowed down once Briar promised not to leave, it was still there. Sabrina made a mental note to get Uncle Jake to fix that. They saw no one else out. But inside was full of cheerful conversation, laughter, and warm drinks to fight off the chill outside.
When they arrived home, the house again settled itself so that they only had to be in the rain for a few seconds before they were safely under their own porch before going off to its usual corner of the yard to wait to be called. Sabrina smiled at it, and Briar patted the banister absently as they walked inside.
"You're late." A girl Sabrina didn't know yet said when they came in. She was tallish, with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes, her hooked nose dotted with freckles. She brushed crumbs off her blue minidress absently, saying, "All the other 'important' people are in the weird room, having a meeting. They said you're supposed to join them."
"Thank you." Veronica smiled at her, heading upstairs. "Why aren't you with them?"
"They wanted someone responsible with the kiddos." The girl said, looking at a number of children, all under the age of six, who were watching a movie in the living room.
"Oh, that reminds me, Sabrina, while I'm at the meeting, would you watch Basil for me?" Veronica asked. "You can help... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Rochelle." The girl said.
"You can help Rochelle keep an eye on the others while you're at it." Veronica finished.
"OK, fine." Sabrina agreed, taking her brother from Veronica's arms. He was spacing out again, his eyes shining golden as he stared into space.
She watched as the two women headed for Puck's room, and then noticed that Red was still standing in the hallway awkwardly.
"The kids your age are upstairs." Rochelle told Red, nodding for the staircase.
"Thanks." Red said quietly, scurrying up and away, leaving Sabrina alone with the older girl, feeling just as awkward as Red had.
"What's with you people?" The girl asked suddenly. "She's the only normal person in this house. None of the other fairy tale detectives I know are everafters."
"She's one, too, actually." Sabrina said. "That's Little Red Riding Hood. And Daphne and I... we didn't mean to be Everafters. It just sort of happened. Same with Basil."
"Hm." The girl said, turning away.
Sabrina sat Basil down on the floor with the other children, and he snapped out of his trance, looking up at her. "'Bwina?" He asked.
Sabrina blinked. That was the first time he'd said her name. "Yeah, buddy?" She asked, bending down.
He raised his hands towards her, clenching and unclenching his fingers.
Sabrina smiled a bit, lifting him back up onto her hip. "All right, bucko, you can stay with me."
Sabrina sat on the couch with Basil in her lap, half watching the movie for a while, wishing the girl would talk to her while at the same time hoping she wouldn't, so that she didn't have a chance to make a fool of herself.
"Hey, is it OK with you if I head upstairs?" Rochelle asked suddenly. "My friends are up there, and..."
"Sure." Sabrina said, though she didn't mean it. Watch eleven little kids, all by herself? No thank you! But she'd let her go anyway, because, if she was being honest with herself, Sabrina wanted this older girl, who was obviously confident and capable, to like her.
"Thanks." Rochelle said, heading for the stairs.
Sabrina watched her go, wishing she knew how to walk like that, with just enough swing in her hips that she looked girly, but not so much that she looked like a slut. Then, shaking herself out of her envy, she turned to the babies, just in time to see the credits begin rolling on the screen.
"Do you guys want to watch another movie?" She asked the kids as they turned to her.
"No." One of them said. "Wanna play game."
"Okay..." Sabrina said. "What game? We have candy land."
"No." The little girl said. "Hide n' seek."
"Ummm..." Sabrina said, thinking of all the very dangerous and/or breakable things in the house, "I'm not sure that's a good idea..." What if one of them got lost while she was supposed to be watching them?
"You count." The girl said stubbornly. "We hide."
"Wait!" Sabrina called as the little girl toddled off. "Come back-"
But it was too late. She and several of the other toddlers had already left.
"Count to twenty-seven." A little boy told her solemnly as he, too, headed for the house proper. "No peeking."
Sabrina looked at Basil, who was still sitting there on the couch placidly, and said, her voice full of resignation, "Well, Baze? Wanna help me find people?"
"OK." Basil nodded cheerfully. "Count?"
"Right." Sabrina said. "One... two... three..."
She'd reached twenty-three when the doorbell rang.
"Gimme a minute!" She shouted at whoever was outside. "Twenty-four... twenty-five... twenty-six... twenty-seven! All right, I'm coming!" The doorbell had rung again.
Sabrina hurried to the door and pulled it open, saying, "What?" In a rude sort of voice.
"Nice to see you, too." Peaseblossom said, smiling crookedly. "Is Mustardseed here? Or my mom? I need to talk to them."
"Yeah, they're in... Puck's old room." Sabrina said, jerking her head. "I think they're in the middle of some big meeting, though, so you probably shouldn't interrupt."
"OK." Peaseblossom said readily. "Mind if I just hang out here, though, while I wait?"
"Go ahead." Sabrina gestured to the living room. "I won't be able to keep you company, though, I got babysitting duty, and I have to go find a bunch of toddlers."
"Let me help." Peaseblossom offered.
"You sure?" Sabrina asked.
"Absolutely." Peaseblossom assured her. "Just you and... how many kids did you say there were?"
"Twelve, counting Basil." Sabrina said. "I think. There might be eleven."
"What were they thinking, leaving you alone to watch them?" Peaseblossom asked incredulously.
"There was this other girl, maybe your age." Sabrina explained. "But she went upstairs, I think. She wanted to find her friends or something."
"Why didn't you tell her to stay?" Peaseblossom asked. "You need the help."
"I dunno." Sabrina shrugged. "I just... I didn't want to... I guess I just... well, she was older, and she's..."
"You're telling me that you got nervous?" Peaseblossom asked skeptically. "You? Sabrina Grimm? You're not a shy person. You're loud, you're brave... and you stopped 'cause you were scared she'd dislike you or something?"
"That's about it." Sabrina agreed, shamefaced.
"Why?" Peaseblossom asked. "It never seems to bother you what other people think normally."
"I don't, around you guys." Sabrina said. "But you're like me. You're weird. And you all have magic stuff. But around other people... these guys were all friends way before I came into the picture. And they... they act older. You are older, but they seem... like they're on an entirely different plane of existence. And I just don't belong. Besides, I am shy. Daphne's the outgoing one. I'm loud and obnoxious, but it's because... well, anyway, we should probably go find the kids." Sabrina cut herself off before saying, because I'm scared.
"Right." Peaseblossom said.
Sabrina led the way into the kitchen and began pulling cupboards open. "Isn't your mother-in-law going to get upset that you're here?" She asked. "Since you're technically on their side and all?"
"She might be," Peaseblossom said, "but frankly, I don't care. I'm not going back."
"You're-" Sabrina straightened, leaving the cupboard door she'd just opened swinging back and forth.
"I left." Peaseblossom said. "I came to ask if I could move back in to the Golden Egg."
Sabrina stared at Peaseblossom, and suddenly, she wasn't in the kitchen anymore. She was in a grand room that bore the recognizable mark that Puck would have shuddered at: the overly ornate gold and cream walls with inset rectangles painted with frescoes of fairies. In the center of the room was a large bed covered with piles of unfolded clothes, books, and nick-knacks. Peaseblossom was moving stuff out of dressers and onto the bed.
A guy Sabrina recognized from her advanced gym class walked into the room and blinked. "What are you doing?" He asked.
"Packing." Peaseblossom said, not looking up.
"Why?" He asked, sitting on an empty corner of the bed.. "Are we going on a trip?"
"We're not going anywhere." Peaseblossom said. "I'm leaving. I can't take this anymore. And it's not like the treaty means anything."
He looked at her, his eyes wide, mouth turned down in a heartbroken pout, and said, "But... but I love you."
Peaseblossom, looking at him for the first time, snorted. "Love me?" She asked. "You've barely spoken to me in decades. You haven't even tried to kiss me in over a century!"
"That's because you stopped kissing back almost twice that long ago, let alone trying to do anything else!" He protested. "I thought I was doing what you wanted!"
"Yes, well, I didn't want to find out if I could get pregnant twice at once!" Peasblossom snapped.
"Sabrina!"
Sabrina blinked, and found she was looking at Peaseblossom in the kitchen again, staring at her with worry.
"You're pregnant?" Sabrina asked. She tried not to let her voice sound judgmental.
Peaseblossom twisted the wedding ring on her finger and sighed. "I was married for about two thousand years, Sabrina. Of course I'm pregnant."
"So... why didn't you have the baby?" Sabrina asked, resisting a strong temptation to crouch down by Peaseblossom's stomach and poke it.
Basil, though, held no such qualms and ran over to stare up at Peaseblossom's stomach. "A baby's innere?" He asked.
Peaseblossom nodded. "A very small one." She turned to Sabrina and said, "I don't know why I didn't. I just... I got scared, I guess."
"Scared of what?" Basil asked, poking Peaseblossom in the belly. "Hi, baby!"
"It can't hear you." Sabrina told Basil, grabbing him and pulling him back.
"Why not?" Basil asked. "How'd it be innere, anyway? You eat it?"
"No." Peaseblossom said. "Ask your mom and dad, they'll tell you."
"Why were you scared?" Sabrina asked. "Other than the whole pain thing, I get how that might skeeve you out."
Peaseblossom sighed and leaned against the counter, elbows poking back behind her. "Well, my parents weren't the greatest, you know? And Mab... she's worse. And I knew she'd try to take over my kid and make it like her, and I didn't want that. I want to be able to be a good mom, you know? And I don't know how. I never knew any good parents when I was younger, and now that I'm here where there are people that know how to be parents, we're in the middle of a war! And I can't have the baby like that. I'm just... glad I'm an everafter, and have a choice."
"I wonder why more people don't take advantage of that." Sabrina said, bending down to look in another cabinet. "You'd think that people like Beauty and the Beast and Bella's parents would have waited to have a kid 'til they thought they could afford it."
"I don't think most people actually think they can stop it. They assume that the baby will grow even if they don't age, so they age with it. It's subconscious." Peaseblossom said, standing up straight again. "I only know 'cause my mom put off having me until she and my dad were actually... Yeah."
"Oh." Sabrina said, carefully not looking at Peaseblossom as she shut the cabinet door.
"Hey, at least I know they were in love with each other once." Peaseblossom said, feigning cheer. "Even if they did fall out of it over the centuries."
"They still did." Sabrina said. "Even at the end."
"How do you know?" Peaseblossom asked, eyes narrowing. "They fought all the time!"
"I was there when your dad died, remember?" Sabrina asked. "I saw how your mom acted, when she was alone. I know the way she acts around other people is different, but she really wanted a chance to apologize to him. And your dad kind of took over my body for a while. It was awful. But I knew how he felt."
"Oh." Peaseblossom said. "Well, if you say so." But she had a bit of a bounce in her step, even though her words weren't very hopeful.
"Hey." Sabrina said suddenly, closing the last of the cabinets. "If they don't want you moving back in there, for whatever reason, you could always come here. Move in to Puck's old room."
"Where is my darling brother, anyway?" Peaseblossom asked. "I'd have expected him to be all on top of the kidlings."
"He left." Sabrina said shortly.
"Left?" Peaseblossom screwed her brows together and stared at Sabrina. "Left for where?"
"His junk heap." Sabrina said.
"Why?" Peaseblossom asked. "'Cause your grandma put people in his room?"
"Well..." Sabrina hedged.
"That's stupid!" Peaseblossom exploded. "Of all the immature, ridiculous-"
"It wasn't just that." Sabrina cut her off hurriedly. "He had a lot to sort through, with the growing up and all. This was just the catalyst."
Peaseblossom shook her head. "It's still stupid."
"Don't get too mad at him for it." Sabrina protested. "He's coming back. Eventually."
Peaseblossom was about to answer when a voice called from down the hall, "Hey! Arn'choo comin' to find us?"
The two girls, Basil in tow, snickered and headed off down the hall in search of small children.