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Tor, realising we’d stopped well behind the others, calls for everyone to wait a moment, jogging back to us, slipping his arm easily around my waist. His head drops naturally to my shoulder, and the familiarity and ease of affection makes my heart do a little skip in my chest and I have to cough to cover up my stupid smile.
“You okay, little bro?”
Theo’s eyes flash a half-hearted glare in his direction, before he purses his lips, chewing on the bottom one, fidgeting with his arms wrapped firmly around himself.
Tor sucks his teeth and lets me go to take his brother’s shoulders in his hands, squeezing his biceps affectionately. “It’s okay to be nervous. Roan is going to take us around the back. We’re not going to go through the main rooms, ok? Then we’ll get our rooms for the night. It’s too late for us to go back to Cae—”
“I’m not going with you.” The words jump out of Theo’s mouth completely unbidden, if the way he slams his mouth shut, horrified, slapping his mouth with a littlemeepis any indication.
The others have wandered back to us, far enough to give the illusion of privacy, but definitely close enough for more eavesdropping.I canfeelTor’s confusion without looking at him. His hands drop from Theo’s shoulders as if burned, taking a small step back.
“What? Why? You want to go back home to our parents? You hate it there. Is it the university?”
Theo scoffs, rubbing his arm with his other hand, protecting himself. “No! No, I can’t go back there like this. Definitely not. The people, myfriends,” he scoffs again, his voice dripping with bitter disappointment, “they wouldn’t understand what happened to me. I was getting pretty done with them, with all of that anyway. I need time, Tor. Time to… process. Figure out who I am.” He looks up at his brother from under his long golden lashes, his mouth red and raw from where he’d been chewing at it.
“And I can’t do that if I keep going the way that I was. Letting life happen to me rather than living myself. I may have fucked up everything with Marieth, but my reasoning still stands. I need to be on my own for a bit. Figure things out.”
Tor’s shoulders are tight, and my hand itches to reach out and soothe him, but it doesn’t feel like my place. He scrubs a hand through his hair, the dirty curls still managing to artfully arrange themselves. “I don’t like this.”
Theo drops his defensive stance to throw his hands wide. “Tor, you don’t have to.” Theo’s eyes are hard, showing the strength hidden under the scrawny exterior. “I’m a whole, grown-ass adult with a trust fund the size of most countries’ GDP. Ineedto do this.”
Seff, still in his wolf form, pads over to nose at Theo’s hands, pressing himself against Theo’s side to comfort him; he is so big though, and Theo so short, he comes up past his hip, almost knocking him over. Theo reaches down unconsciously to pat his soft fur, before once again realising what he is doing.
He lets out a frustrated cry, throwing his hands up and stepping back to cross his arms firmly over his chest. Seff whines, snuffling a little around Theo’s pants, and then gives up, wandering back to sit next to Edith, who gives him a scratch, anyway. Tor can’t suppress his chuckle, earning him another hard look from his brother.
“Well, what are you going to do, Theo? Go back to the Woods?” Tor’s voice is heavy with sarcasm he is obviously using to deflect his own feelings.
Personally, I am feeling more than a little awkward, but can’t seem to extricate myself from the brotherly spat. Theo softens his stance, reading his brother’s closed off expression easily, but, impressively, he still makes no move to ease his discomfort.
“No. Obviously not. I would kill for a warm bed and a shower. But I might, I don’t know, rent a place in Twin Heads. Or—”
“You can stay here.” Roan’s gravelly voice interrupts the brothers, making them both jump, only just figuring out now that they have an audience. “There’s a cottage out back. It needs cleaning. It hasn’t been used in a couple of decades. We can get it cleaned up. It’ll give you your own space and you’ll still be close.”
Everyone’s incredulous eyes swing to Roan; even Seff cocks his head, his canine whimper questioning. Roan’s eyes go comically wide, realising his gaff, and he quickly tries to recover.
“To your brother! You’ll be close to your brother.” Roan scrubs his hand awkwardly at the back of his neck, attempting to come off as casual but failing miserably.
Edith snorts and rolls her eyes so hard that I think she might’ve pulled a muscle. “Nice save, Goat Boy,” I hear her mutter while she picks at non-existent fluff on her skirts.
Theo stares hard at the older fae, who is fidgeting awkwardly under the scrutiny. You can see the moment the indecision warring inside Theo breaks, when he spins back to his brother, face defiant, arms once again crossed. “See? Perfect.”
Tor groans, rubbing his face with his hands. “Fine. Whatever you need.”
“I actually wasn’t asking for your permission, Tor.” His brother’s words are tinged with ice.
“Right, well, now we’ve got that settled. Let’s get home. I want a shower. You all stink,” Edith calls, breaking the heavy atmosphere, spinning on her heels in a flurry of lace and velvet to stomp off towards the lights of the Tavern.
We are saved from any more family bonding moments when a loudbangrattles over the general noise, the tall wooden doors to the Tavern smashing wide open. We can see a small round being running towards us, long brown braids flying, her skirt rucked up over her furry, goat-like legs, hooves thundering over the ground.
“Roan! Edith! Seff! Caelan!”Mauvy’s yells are breathless as she tears across the grass and cobblestones to us.
Her cries catch the attention of the crowds outside, the murmuring pausing for a moment before getting louder. Cheers go up throughout the crowd as we all race forward to meet Mauvy. Roan reaches to her first, lifting her high as she jumps at him, hugging him tightly as he spins her wildly, the two lifelong best friends laughing madly.
Seff bounces around them in a circle, barking happily, until Roan places her on her hooves, holding her steady until she is stable and launching herself at Seff to give him a hug too. In his excitement he bowls her over and they roll and laugh on the ground for a moment before she leaps up again and squeezes Edith, rocking her back and forth, the two whispering for a moment.
I can see the crowds spilling out of the doors, understandably curious about what is going on. Roan is pretty universally beloved around here. His disappearance would have been noticed. Plus, Mauvy has abigmouth, and she’s probably been sharing our story with the entire population of the Woods and half of Twin Heads.
We ignore them as it is finally my turn and I snatch up Mauvy in my own hug, wrapping my arms around her soft frame, picking her up to give her a squeeze. I can feel her tears against my beard when she kisses my cheek, too emotional to speak anything but nonsense. My voice is caught up on the lump in my throat, allowing me to only choke out a sob and rub my cheek on her hair. She laughs again, joy filling her round face as she spots Theo and Tor behind me.
