Chapter 122
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 121
With all her wonderful parents helping, oh, and Mrs Mina… Mina, (Darcy’s still not sure what to call her,) the preparations don’t even take all through the night! She can run back to sleep next to John and get a good few hours in! After she kissed everybody thank you, of course.
Clearly, all her parents believe that she learned from their punishment and are now so very sweet to her again. She’s behaving so she’s getting rewarded. Life feels easy and good like this. Apart from when she thinks she catches a shadow moving, or when tăticu’s smell makes her think of Radu and the hole in her chest aches, but she always pushes it away quickly.
No, she’s behaving, she’s being good, everybody is showing her that now she’s being good, so she needs to keep at it.
She knows that she’s the last one to breakfast normally, (apart from Daddy,) so she makes sure to get up together with John, but giggles that she can’t tell him yet why when he is surprised by that. Oh yes, he is totally on to her, but he’s sweet, too, and just looks curious, not disappointed that she can’t tell. Also, getting up with him means that they’re helping each other get dressed and she so loves when he lets her comb his hair!
Arriving down at breakfast arm in arm, she’s so very glad to see that Mina kept her promise and made sure that everybody is assembled. Even Gregory is there. She’s so happy! Making John sit down, she makes herself tall at the head of the table and takes the two pieces of paper that Mina kept safe from anybody curious to hold them up.
“It’s Christmas Eve and I don’t want any of you to work today! I and my parents prepared a big Treasure Hunt for everybody! I made two maps so that you can have teams!”
~~~~
It does not like this. It is in a room with too many of them. The glass one (she is slick- it cannot pull anything from her, all her emotions on display behind a frustrating, impenetrable wall,) made it come here. But now the dream walker is here, too.
And they are all wrong- all of its food sources and those that would interfere. It cannot use any of what they are feeling. Such a waste.
And it is so much harder to make them tasty when they are all clumped together like this. It has not grown powerful enough yet.
It must leave, without giving itself away. Too soon, it is too soon to give itself away. But maybe… maybe it can have at least a taste? It is, after all, what they call breakfast time. And things have been going so well with its prey.
So it makes Gregory’s body say: “Wow, that’s so childish! I’m out!”
It’s something the memories are very concerned with, not being childish. And, oh, there, there are the streams of sweet power.
~~~~
His girl looked so proud and eager, John was about to tell her that he is sure as fuck in… and yes, he would have called dips on the molly, to his own surprise, but then Gregory, of course, had to be an arse and Darcy’s hands are dropping, her shoulders slumping, and there’s a glitter of tears in her eyes.
He has officially had it (for about the hundredth time) with that absolute and complete arse, so no, he’s not even trying to calm his exploding temper down. He’s out of his chair, fists up already, and shouting at the top of his lungs: “You have three fucking seconds to apologize or so help me God, I’m going to make you and you’ll sound like shit because I’ll have broken your fucking jaw!”
~~~~
Now, Quincy is still absolutely not good with violence, and he doesn’t want to see it but… but that was over the line. Even for Cobb. Can’t he see how much work Cycy clearly put into this? She must have used this to deal with all her hurt. And then he puts her down like that. That’s just downright cruel.
Even if he doesn’t want to take part, (and Quincy wants to see those challenges before he decides,) but still, there are gracious ways of telling somebody no and that most certainly wasn’t one. So he huffs, crosses his arms, and hardens his face before Cobb thinks he is going to fix this for him. “I agree with Blondie. Apologize.”
~~~~
Arthur finds himself gaping at Gregory, because: “…What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Sure, Gregory sometimes doesn’t think before he speaks, and he likes to not be childish, but… but that was just mean? And also… Arthur scowls at him, and folds his arms. “I think it sounds like a lot of fun!”
~~~~
Starting to whimper, Darcy is about to say that of course she didn’t mean to imply that Gregory is childish, (apparently she is,) but Mina puts her hand on her arm and shakes her head. “Now, children, all of you, there is nothing childish about teamwork and riddles. What is however very childish is to declare something else loudly so. Gregory, I believe you forgot to stick your tongue out and run to the other side of the playground if you wanted to perfect your impression of behaviour I would have not even tolerated in Quincy when he was five.”
~~~~
Oh, the sweet taste- if only it could take away the dreamwalker’s powers, he would be such a delicious meal, so primed already.
But, alas, it cannot. So it takes in a last swathe, a vibration deep into its being, and then it uses the convenient powers the fusion has wrought to escape before the dreamwalker can bring his own power to bear on it.
~~~~
“I stand corrected. I believe he did indeed just run to the other side of the playground.” Mina sighs and shakes her head, but takes her hand away because as childish as that one is, her own son clearly knows better.
“Oh bloody hell! Cycy, don’t you dare listen.” He’s up in a huff and running over to hug her tight in an instant. “Hush, we’ll have more fun without him!”
~~~~
“Oi, Molly, scoot, that’s my girl you’re hugging there,” John grunts at him, fists down now, and temper flagging off fast with Gregory having tucked tail. Although, maybe he should get grumbly again, because the molly is flipping him off behind Darcy’s back and telling him he can either join the group hug or wait his turn, because Darcy deserves all their support when she worked so diligently on giving them an amazing Christmas Eve.
John tenses for a moment, then shoots back that he can spot an excuse when he sees one, but fuck it. So yes, he puts himself on Darcy’s free side and hugs her, too, arms angled up so that he doesn’t need to hug the molly.
“Um,” Arthur says to Darcy, offers her one of his uncertain smiles. “I’d hug you, too, if there was any room.”
~~~~
Stuck between John and Quincy like this, Darcy still feels her tears, but also a rising blush on her face and she finds herself laughing and crying at the same time, trying to rub her face against both of them.
They are so sweet! Of course her John tried to protect her, and Quincy was right there to see to her feelings. She thinks they are great together, maybe… maybe Gregory doesn’t think she’s being good, but Quincy being here because of Gregory is still good. She thinks it’s good. John is this close to a man and he’s joking with him? He doesn’t smell uncomfortable, and that’s probably the first time she didn’t smell him be uncomfortable at this much physical proximity. Oh, that’s why she’s laughing. Because Quincy doesn’t just make her heart flutter, he must have befriended John, and that makes her so happy!
~~~~
“Hey, I’m not Blondie. I’m not scared of a little bit of touching. Get over here, Arthur, I’ll move a bit and then you can get an inch of our amazing hostess for today’s games!” Even while Quincy offers, he feels John cuff him on the arm, but he just grins and does it anyway, Blondie will have to learn to deal.
~~~~
Well, Darcy looks a bit less upset now, but that’s still pretty upset, and also… Arthur hasn’t seen her since the ritual and he really kind of wants to hug her in general. So he scoots over as indicated to also join the hug. It’s very awkward and probably looks even more silly than it feels, but Arthur still smiles at Darcy, now from close up. “I’m looking forward to your treasure hunt. I’ve never been on one in the real world, after all!”
~~~~
Even Arthur is being sweet to her, he’s really still her friend, and that makes her so glad that she turns to him and puts a kiss on his cheek. A strong one, one of those that make the silly noise, but that’s how it should be. From the corner of her eye she can see John punch Arthur’s shoulder gently. “Just means there are going to be fewer boats!”
“And I for one am glad about that, seawater would be terrible for my hair,” Quincy adds with a chuckle, a kiss to her hair, and stepping back so he can take the two sheets of paper she valiantly tried to keep safe through the hug. “Now, three makes for bad splits, so who’s in favour of cheating and doing this all together?”
~~~~
Arthur finds himself blushing but also grinning for the kiss, and Darcy looking much more cheerful again. “It’ll be great fun without boats, too,” Arthur agrees. “And I’m okay with doing it together, but only if that’s okay with you?” he asks Darcy. “I don’t want to mess up all your plans and hard work!”
Looking a bit shyly at him, Darcy admits that the two teams need to cooperate at the end for the final riddle, so no, if they want to do it together, they can.
~~~~
Hearing that, Quincy hands one of the two sheets to John with a wink. “So, the local hunk up for competing with little, pretty me?” Then he snorts with a look at Arthur. “Or rather, brain, brawn, and drama. I think we got this well covered.”
~~~~
Arthur isn’t sure what they’ll need ‘drama’ for, but yes, he finds himself excited to go on the treasure hunt with Quincy and John. It’ll be another, different, experience from doing the one in the dreamscape for his birthday.
In fact, he’s so excited for it that, for once, he barely pauses to appreciate breakfast, which Mrs Harker made them sit down to before they look at the sheets she gave them. At least John and Quincy are also fast- Quincy, because he doesn’t eat much anyway, and John because he also looks keen to get started. At least, he leans forward when Arthur pushes his empty plate aside and asks Mrs Harker: “Can we look now?”
He’d maybe feel silly (…childish?) about being so eager, but it makes Darcy giggle, so he decides that’s what counts. And Mrs Harker smiles tolerantly, too, surveys them, and then concedes: “Yes, children, you may.”
They flip their sheets over, to find a diagram of some footsteps and arrows and it says “one, two, three, FOUR, one, two, three, FOUR” and Arthur says: “Dancing!” about the same time that Quincy says: “You have a ballroom in this place, I assume?” and John is already standing.
They do have a ballroom, of course, though Arthur hasn’t been in it before. In it, they find a chair and a piece of paper weighed down by a tiara. The paper says: “Princess, fret not about the golden orb you dropped, an enchanted prince can brave the depths and bring it back.”
John grunts a: “Fairy tales,” and his tone sounds amused.
“Obviously,” Quincy says with an eye roll, and a smile at Darcy, who’s following along with them. She blushes, but smiles back at them when John smiles at her, too.
And Arthur isn’t terribly familiar with fairy tales, but even he has vague notions about this one- he thinks it’s the one with the frog that turns back into a prince with a kiss. And he does remember where he saw Dr Seward and Art yesterday, so he offers: “The lily pond behind the house?”
They nod at each other in agreement, and are off into the morning. It’s cool and the grass is wet, but the sky is a bright blue above skudding grey clouds, the sun shines out from between them.
They stop at the edge of the pond and look around, but no further hint presents itself. “It did say ‘brave the depths’…” Arthur offers dubiously. He doesn’t think the pond is terribly deep, but it is December…
“Molly, you can’t feel the cold, you go,” John says to Quincy, who pulls the most dramatically appalled face Arthur has ever seen on anyone and takes a step back, his hand fluttering to his chest, then his hair. “Me?!” he demands, and gives the murky water a disgusted look. “In there? It’s filthy! I’m not getting that into my hair!” He shudders dramatically. “There could be who knows what in there! Look at this stuff!” He waves his hand at the duck weed floating on the surface.
John rolls his eyes. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
Arthur doesn’t think he sounds that resentful about it, though. Of course, then Quincy whistles when John takes his shirt off, and John punches him on the arm, and Quincy fakes staggering back from that and swats at John in return, Darcy giggles (but also gives John sideways looks,) and Arthur starts snickering at their antics. And asks the house for some clean towels.
John wades into the pond, and Arthur can see his shoulders relax as he goes. “It’s not that cold,” he tells them before he takes a deep breath and dives under the surface.
After a few minutes and a couple of attempts, he returns, satisfied, with a golden ball in each hand. Also, duckweed in his hair and mud on his feet and algae smears on his underpants, which Quincy makes a lot of disgusted and “See, I told you!” noises about, plus throwing in some scoffs about manly men and brutes- and a comment about John’s golden balls, which Arthur does his best to ignore.
John doesn’t seem to be insulted by all that at all, and he thanks Arthur for the towels when he hands him those, gets the orbs in exchange.
Arthur examines the things while John dries off (with Darcy and Quincy both fussing over him, and him not really complaining.) It turns out the orbs screw open, and are hollow, and inside them is a key and a note. Quincy and John come over once John has his shirt back on, and they quickly determine that the note points them at the animal hospital.
First, though, Darcy and Quincy shoo John inside to get a dry change of clothes, and clean up properly. Arthur takes the chance to grab his own coat, if they’re going to be outside now.
At the animal hospital, the keys unlock two new gates next to each other that lead to… obstacle courses? Yes, Arthur thinks they are obstacle courses. Another note explains that “the right puppy for each trial will prevail, but a pack needs to stand together to overcome the final challenge.”
Both courses lead to the same pen at the end, so they probably need to herd all the puppies in there? As for the other ‘trials’ mentioned, John notices some obstacles are definitely set up with specific puppies in mind- like one made of two long pipes with a small box in the middle. There is no way any except Dandelion, the smallest puppy, fits in there. Peering into it, John confirms that he thinks he can spot Dandelion’s favourite toy in the box section in the middle. Since Dandelion loves squeezing himself into narrow spaces, they conclude that this is definitely his trial.
There’s also a sandbox, and Arthur thinks one of the puppies really likes digging, and a miniature, puppy-sized maze with a toy in the middle. “That’s Rusty,” John grunts. “Follows orders.”
Quincy sighs mightily and comments about how they are always so determined to get him covered in dog hair, but Arthur thinks it all looks like great fun, and eagerly heads off to get the puppies, which he can already hear give their squeaky puppy barks from excitement inside.
~~~~
While Arthur is over there and a little bit distracted, John sees Darcy dare to squeeze up tight to Quincy and giggle back that for somebody complaining about hair, he was eager to ask her if “Blondie’s other golden balls fit the colour of the ones in his hands”.
“He did what?” John glares, then groans but just elbows the grinning dolt of a molly. “Culver, don’t tell me if you answered. I don’t want to know.” Despite that, he can’t help smiling when both dhampirs start giggling, Darcy a bit shyly with her face hidden against Quincy, but it’s so fucking good to see her happy; even if Quincy is a big part of that. He doesn’t want to be jealous and he doesn’t want to think about what the flower strand for Quincy might have looked like, but the fucker makes his girl smile. And makes her smile extra hard when John gets along with him. So fine, he’ll get along with the molly, he kind of does anyway, but nobody better point that out.
For right now though, he better go help Arthur with the brood. The little rascals obviously are all gung-ho to just run right over Arthur to get to their mum. As much as Darcy tries to tell their puppies to focus on the others, they still all prefer her and John can’t help the proud grin about how good a mum she is.
~~~~
For this to work out as she planned it, Darcy makes a point of getting out of all their way, though, by hooking her bat feet to the ceiling and chittering encouragements.
From up here Darcy has such a good view, she should have thought of this before. Rather than dwell on that, she gets caught up in watching how different the three men are.
Arthur makes her smile, he’s always so gentle with the puppies, so obviously more at ease with them.
There’s John, gentle, yes, but also guiding and firm, the true father of her puppies and he’s so, so attractive when he’s like that.
And then there’s Quincy, her Sang du Coeur, the man she actually loves, and once more, she doesn’t know why she can love him when it eludes her with John, because oh night, please, he is such a disaster, such a bad excuse at any paternal behaviours.
She’s about to get really confused about her heart when she notices something. It’s during a moment when John and Arthur focus on guiding a larger group of puppies through the climbing section, Quincy stayed back. She thought so that he doesn’t need to deal with the puppies for a moment.
But no, he’s not just crouching there to rest; he’s doing it so that John and Arthur can’t really see what he’s doing. But her senses are sharper, when she focuses she can understand his whisper, can hear how soft his voice is, probably as soft as the fingers he has under Frimble’s snout. Holding that snout up so Frimble looks up at Quincy’s lips, and that seems strange until she realises that Quincy is whispering encouragements at her little deaf puppy. Reassures him not to let the grey world tell him he’s worth any less just because he can’t hear any commands, he’s special just the way he is.
She could start crying right there, that, that must be why her heart is so set on him. John would do similar things, of course, but he’d hide them more, he’d not so markedly talk about how the puppy and him are alike. He wouldn’t admit to the world being oppressive.
But there her Quincy is, wearing his hurt on his sleeve and forging it into a connection, into a strength; even while he’s putting a little harness on Frimble. She didn’t even know anybody had tried to train them on walking on a leash, but Quincy looks so confident, standing up and very gentle tugging in different directions on the harness, rewarding Frimble every time he follows in the right direction, and by the time they are to the climbing section, Frimble seems to have clued in.
That’s Quincy all but parading his special needs puppy in front of Arthur and John.
~~~~
When Arthur notices how Quincy has found a way to tell Frimble where to go, he can’t help but be impressed- that’s clever! He smiles and tells Quincy so, and Frimble looks happy to be scrambling along with the others, too.
~~~~
Uh huh, Molly showing off again that he’s agreeable and maybe doing half his drama just for the fun of it. John’s not blind, he can see how close of an eye Quincy is keeping on where Frimble sets his little paws. He’s half convinced he’d lift him up by the harness before he lets him get hurt, even if that gets him more hair on his clothes. Yeah, the molly is alright, but he’s still not letting him deal with the digging challenge, he wants his ear drums intact without shrieking.