The usual sun was gleaming in through the apartment window, gently heating up the small dining table that sat in front of it. As usual, Pauline and Halt sat at the table, drinking mugs of coffee quietly and enjoying each other's company before they had to start their days and get busy with their jobs. This was how it always was. It had been the same morning routine the day before, and the week before, and since neither of them had any work elsewhere, the month before. Neither Halt nor Pauline had any big plans to go anywhere so unless one of them got called away suddenly, the day would be relatively uneventful.
"I must say the meeting is the thing I am not looking forward to," Pauline was saying to her husband. "It's always the same thing. Some argument that goes on for far too long before everyone comes to the most simple agreement. To make things even worse, it's at noon, meaning it'll probably cut into my lunch."
"Have something to eat before you go then," Halt suggested, "then you can have your proper lunch afterwards."
"I will probably do that," Pauline said, "but it's still a minor inconvenience, and minor inconveniences can be quite annoying." Halt grunted his agreement but said nothing more. "Arald's not looking forward to it either. To be honest I don't think anyone is."
"Why would they?" Halt asked, "it's a whole bunch of diplomatic crap."
Pauline smiled at her husband's description. "That may be true, but it's still important diplomatic crap. You should be glad you don't have to sit through meetings like that."
"I am," Halt replied, taking a sip from his coffee. It was almost finished. Damn. "I still have to suffer through some though."
"I suppose you do, just not as much. And for that, I envy you." Halt grinned at Pauline while she glared at him, before she smiled back. The couple settled into a comfortable silence. Pauline had opened the window slightly so they could hear the bird calls which she enjoyed immensely, and knew Halt did too, whether or not he would admit it. Pauline leaned back slightly and closed her eyes, letting the morning sun heat her face. It felt lovely. Halt rested his chin on his hand and just stared out the window, either focusing on something or completely zoned out. No one could ever really tell.
As was common knowledge, nothing lasts forever, and eventually Halt and Pauline had to get up to start their day properly. Pauline had to leave to go prepare with Arald for their meeting, so like most days, Halt was left alone in their apartment to do his own work. Looking through a whole bunch of reports and paperwork. Redmont had been uneventful recently. There were no new robbers or thugs springing up anywhere which was a good thing Halt supposed, but it also meant that there was nothing to do. Nothing but paperwork.
It was early in the morning, and of course he didn't have to get any of it done right away. It wasn't too urgent. Most of it was probably useless reports that he had to read through anyway, which to Halt was just a huge waste of time.
He contemplated cleaning around the small apartment, maybe dusting the tables or reorganising some things so it was cleaner and less in the way, but he really couldn't be bothered to. It sounded just as boring as the paperwork. Life had been so much simpler when he had an apprentice to do the housework for him.
Speaking of his apprentice, it had been a while since he had last seen Will, and with both of them not being busy, it wouldn't hurt to visit. Yes, he'd do that. But first another cup of coffee.
Halt ended up finishing two more cups of coffee before grabbing Abelard from the castle stables to visit Will. The ride to the cabin was a fairly short one, but it was nice. It felt good to get out with his horse and walk around outside in an area that wasn't just Redmont's courtyards. The sun was on them for the majority of the ride but as they neared closer to the cabin it started to get hidden behind the shades of the trees that surrounded the dirt trail. Two more minutes of riding in the shade and they arrived.
Tug snickered a greeting as they approached, and Abelard greeted the shaggy horse back. Will must have heard the horses' interaction because a couple seconds later he stepped out through the front door, a grin plastered on his face.
"Hello stranger," he called out, leaning against the door frame. "Long time, no see."
"It has been a while," Halt agreed. He dismounted Abelard and led him to the stable beside the cabin where Tug was standing. The little horse seemed excited to see his friend again.
"What brings you here?" Will asked.
"Not much to do at the moment as you know," Halt replied, "so I figured I'd let you waste my time since you used to love doing it."
"You're bored aren't you," Will grinned at his former mentor.
"That does come with having nothing to do." The two rangers walked into the cabin together. Halt took a seat at the table and Will walked over to the small kitchen, opening a cabinet.
"Do you want any coffee?" Will asked, already knowing the answer.
"Already had some," Halt replied, "but yes."
"What's Pauline been up to?" Will asked as he waited for the water to boil.
"Usual boring diplomat stuff. She has to go to some meeting with Baron Arald and a couple other boring knobs around lunch. She was complaining about it this morning."
Will shuddered in mock horror. "The worst thing imaginable. Long meetings."
"They're a nightmare," Halt agreed. "Last time I was in one I asked Arald if I could jump out of the window to get out of it. I'm pretty sure he still thinks I was joking."
"Why would he think that? He should know by now that you have no sense of humour." Will grinned as Halt looked at him balefully.
"Why did I even come down here?" he asked himself, but Will answered anyway.
"Because you love me, and couldn't stand to spend any longer without me."
"Sure," Halt replied sarcastically. Will grinned once again, this time with a hint of mischief, and stood up to pour out the coffee. He poured two spoonfuls of the best honey he could buy into the drinks and handed one to Halt, who accepted it gratefully. They sat in silence for a while, enjoying their drinks.
"Can I admit something to you?" Halt asked Will. Will looked up at him curiously, but his eyes were open, inviting Halt to share anything.
"Sure," he simply said.
"I kind of wish someone would get robbed or attacked so we have something to do." Will looked at him blankly for a couple seconds. "You really must be bored. I seriously thought you were about to tell me some super dark secret."
"I don't trust you with those."
"You think I'd tell people," Will mocked a hurt face.
"No. But you'd probably tell Gilan or Horace, and then they'd tell people."
Will considered this before nodding his agreement. "True," he said. They settled back into silence again.
Pauline handed the letter in her hand back to Baron Arald, wiping some of the last tears from her eyes. Arald took it somberly, his eyes downcast and filled with sadness. He placed the letter down on the desk, separate from all the other piles of paper.
"I just can't believe it," Pauline said in a low voice. She held her hands in her lap, her thumbs fiddling with each as some sort of distraction from something. Possibly reality.
"I know," Arald agreed, in the same low tone Pauline spoke in. "I mean, you hear about this sort of thing happening to other people, but you never imagine it would happen to you." Pauline nodded her silent agreement. They both sat in a depressing sort of silence, trying to come to terms with their harsh new reality.
"How many other people know?" Pauline asked quietly. She lifted her eyes up to Arald and saw the deep sadness in him that reflected her own.
"I'm not sure," he replied. "King Duncan would know of course, he's the one that sent the letter. I'm assuming a couple other people at Araluen would know. You and I know, and if I'm the only one here that got sent the letter, then no one else at Redmont should know yet." He was silent for a couple seconds more before continuing, "We'll have to tell the news to everyone else. And I think we should probably tell Halt first."
Pauline nodded in agreement again, and she almost choked up as she spoke. "I'll tell him."
"Yes, that would probably be best."
There was another silence before Pauline stood up. "I'll get going now," she said. Arald nodded silently. She left the room with a single tear sliding down her cheek.
Halt hung around Will's place for another hour before returning to his apartment. The first thing he saw when stepping through the door was his wife sitting on the couch, tear stains on her face. He felt fear wash over him. Something was very wrong.
"What happened?" He asked. He took his cloak off, not even bothering to hang it up and instead dropping it on the floor. He walked over to Pauline as tears started to fall down her cheeks, kneeled next to her on the couch and wrapped his arms around her shaking shoulders. Eventually her sobs died down and she calmed down enough to speak.
"We got some horrible news today," she explained genty. The fear Halt felt before increased slightly. Pauline continued, "Arald received a letter from King Duncan. Crowley's dead."
Halt couldn't tell if Pauline said anything after those two words. If she did, it was all lost to him. Everything seemed to stop in time and all he could hear was his own heart beating rapidly. He hadn't even fully processed the information fully when he asked, "How?"
His voice was so quiet that Pauline almost didn't hear him. She took a moment to gather herself together to share the next bit of news. This was probably the worst of it all. "He was found in bed with a knife in his back," she whispered, "they think he was murdered."
Halt felt sick. Rangers all had enemies, their job was probably the most dangerous in the country. There was always the possibility of death, or getting seriously hurt. But the thought of something happening was different than when it actually happens. The fact that Crowley was the head of the rangers would make everything worse, Halt realised. Rangers did have heaps of enemies, meaning it would be very difficult to find who did it.
It took a while for Halt to register Pauline holding him close to her as she sobbed her sorrows into his shoulder. He let her stay like that for a couple of minutes.
Eventually he tried to move out of Pauline's embrace. "I'll be back," he muttered, and walked over to where he dropped his cloak. Pauline watched him leave the apartment with a worried expression on her face, but she didn't make any move to stop him. He needed some time alone to process everything. She just hoped he didn't do anything stupid.
Halt walked past the people in castle Redmont without sparing them a single glance. He was headed straight for Abelard. As he approached his horse, Abelard could sense something was very wrong. He looked at his master with a worried and curious eye.
Are you alright?
Halt didn't bother to reply but gave a very slight shake of his head. Abelard didn't press on any further but the worried look didn't leave. Halt rode Abelard into the woods surrounding the castle, and led him down a path that led to a small, gently flowing stream. The stream ran behind the ranger's cabin, and he and Will used to go there all the time. Sometimes Halt would use it for some of his training exercises, other times he would just sit with Will and watch the ducks swim by. Today he was going to sit by himself and mourn the loss of his best friend.
It was quiet when he arrived at a good spot. Good. It meant there was no one around. Halt sat down close to the stream's edge and pulled his knees up close to him.
Now that he had some time by himself without any distractions, his mind finally fully processed the news. Crowley was dead. It wasn't some sort of sick joke, or some misunderstanding or even something he had made up. It was reality. It was reality that he had lost his first and closest friend.
Memories of all the fun times he had spent with Crowley flashed across Halt's mind painfully. Memories of them spending time around campfires, sharing secrets they never told anyone else, joking with each other and confusing people with their inside jokes. He remembered how they would fight over small things and then immediately go back to being best friends like nothing had ever happened. He remembered when they had gone on missions together and tracked down bandits. And he remembered the times he had wished Crowley would stop annoying him and leave him alone. He wanted Crowley back to annoy him more than ever now.
He pulled his hood further over his head and buried his face into his knees as the memories started to get more and more painful. His shoulders began to shake violently as the tears for Crowley finally started falling.
Writing about Crowley's death was kind of sad at first ngl.
Also fun fact: I was listening to Friends Will Be Friends by Queen when I was writing about Halt remembering Crowley so that was fun.
This took a long time and the next chapters will also take fucking forever so yeah. But I finally got it done and I am proud of myself for that.
I hope you liked it, and I hope it made you feel sad because that is my entire job for this since this is a pure angst fic. The next chapter will probably come out in at least two months time because I suck at time management and have so many other WIPs and other things to do.
If you have any feedback, comments or recommendations feel free to tell me, like any creator I love hearing them. You can also send fanfic requests to my tumble account that-one-enby-ranger. I also do The Outsiders fanfic requests ponyhasapepsiaddiction on Tumblr Good Omens fic requests everythingsallticketyboo on Tumblr.
Hope you liked it.
Bye y'all. Thanks for reading :)
Song I was listening to when I finished this shit: Don't Try So Hard by Queen
