Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Caroline is going to get herself killed this way!

You’d think that with the little incident they had just a week prior (a close call involving a Manticore and an unexpectedly too-weak blade), she’d learn better survival skills. It seems that’s not the case, however, considering his darling wife put the heaviest objects on the top shelf. Right where they could fall on her head and break her fragile little skull right open. 

What a humiliating and unlucky way to go, especially for a knight of the crown. Surely there had to be a better method than this (not that he plans on fixing it any time soon).

That’s why she's lucky she has Quanyii to look out for her, to keep her pretty head intact and not splattered across the walls of their humble abode. Not that he's actually going to take the time to rearrange it, but still, it’s the thought that counts.

In fact, Quanyii is such a good witch wife that Caroline doesn’t even have to worry about knowing what he’s planning with the cauldron he had climbed up here for. It would be his little secret up until the moment Caroline has to drink from the potion.

…Mostly because she'd likely try to stop him.

But, oh well! What she doesn’t know won’t hurt a pretty hair on her head!

Quanyii grunts as he sets the overtly heavy iron pot down, wrinkling his nose at how dusty it is; has it really been so long since he's used this thing? No wonder it looks ancient! Besides, who even uses cauldrons anymore? It’s definitely more of an eyesore, does he really have to use this? It’s so out of style, at least ten years out of date!

Not to mention the other thing he’s looking for resting right alongside it, covered in years of dust and forgotten by time: his potion book.

The thing’s old, leather bound with iris leaf paper; handmade by a redheaded teenage artificer Quanyii knew and then subsequently lost contact with — he never stays in one place for very long and it’d be a nightmare trying to find him again. At least he got a good deal out of it: the book itself and a bottle of glasswork lily pollen– super duper rare and an absolute menace to harvest.

Even after all these years and weathered by abuse, it still holds up. The writing’s faded, there are saints-knows-what type of stains, and many of the pages are tacky and stuck together. But there aren’t any tears and it hasn’t fallen apart with dry rot. He’d paid extra for the damage control enchanted gem embedded in the spine.

It’s bound up with string and decorated with sun-bleached crystals that tried valiantly to shimmer in the sunlight streaming in. Quanyii blows off the dust, coughing immediately as it blows back in his face. He trips with the force, only saved by the enchanted Griffin feather tucked behind his ear. He floats down to the ground lazily, like a falling feather, his feet hitting the ground with nothing but a whisper.

He waves away whatever flyaway dust still lingers before hunching over and unwrapping its shackles. He cracks open the newly freed journal to the table of contents, licks his finger, then begins to scan down the page, mumbling as he goes.

"Alright, let’s see… Silvertongue… Eternal Coryphee... Captivation… Lustful- Aha, here we are! A lucky little potion to keep my lucky little knight safe." He flips to it, tapping on the title with his nail before he grins excitedly, clapping his hands in front of him.

"And I'll get to practice my potion-making! How exciting for me! Two birds, one stone! Goodbye, poor birdies. Your sacrifices will mean everything and nothing in the end."

It doesn’t seem like that hard of a recipe to follow. He’d have to check through his supplies but he’s pretty sure he’s got everything required for it. If not, well Caroline was going to be gone for a while knighting anyway, so it’s not like he’d be caught anytime soon.

Quanyii pulls away from the book to look back at the pot before him, dusty and slightly rusted and definitely in need of a good wash. Which means his potion-making has to be put on hold until he can clean this thing up, which he’s absolutely not looking forward to. He knows it has to be done and if left, the dust and rust and whatever else was growing inside from his last batch of potions would cross-contaminate what he makes.

That would probably not bode well for his wife.

Which, to be entirely fair, would be a fun little experiment on its own some other time. But not when he’s making something with the express intention of keeping his wife safe from her own hubris and full-hearted stubbornness.

“Well then, I guess I better scrub up and scrub down, huh? Hehe, I make myself laugh,” He talks to himself, giggling at his own little joke as he presses his finger to the cauldron. It rumbles for a moment before it begins to levitate slightly off the ground. It’s still much too heavy to lift very far or for too long, but at the very least, it is light enough now for him to push it out of the room and towards the front door with only slight straining.

On the way, he stops in their kitchen, still messy with dishes from their breakfast date – but he’s already being forced to clean one thing today, he can’t be expected to wash the dishes too. It would be cruel and unusual punishment, especially since he’s being so helpful.

He grabs what he came for– a pair of gloves, a bar of soap, and a few too many sponges– then hums happily as he gestures the pot along through the living room with his hip. He only lets the cauldron stop floating when he’s out the front door and on their small patch of clear swamp ground where it lands with a squishy thud.

The sun has yet to reach its peak in the sky, much too early for Quanyii to usually be up (in his humble opinion), but it’s still hot enough to make him break out into a thin layer of sweat almost immediately. He rolls up his sleeves and pulls his mass of hair up to hopefully ease some of the heat of the swamp, but he doubts he’s going to get any relief until he’s done.

So, he better get to work and finish it up quickly, because if he has to stay out here long enough for the sun to rise up straight above him, he’s going to melt into a puddle of witch goo. Which would be fascinating to experience, but probably not the most pleasant.

Quanyii pulls on the gloves he had snagged from the kitchen, up to his elbows in charmed leather to keep the water off his hands. He rubs his palms together for good measure, humming happily as he begins to pace around the cauldron to observe it.

It’s still just as dusty and rusty as it was back in the house, but with more light from above, he’s able to see cobwebs and a few empty spider egg sacs down inside as he leans over it. “Oh dear, it has been quite some time since I’ve used this thing, huh? Generations of little families were born and raised here… It’s kinda cute to think about, actually!”

He pauses for a moment, almost as if he’s debating on what to do next, before he grins and shrugs, stepping away, “But now they’re going to die here too. Great-great-great grandma’s spider guts are gonna get wiped clean!”

Before he can officially start, though, he needs water for this to work. Lucky for him, there’s a well conveniently built a couple of feet away, which he floats over to with a cheerful song on his lips. “Hm hm hmm… hm hm hmmmm … Sweet Caroline, ba ba bum…~”

The well is covered in vines, but the handle is just free enough for Quanyii to crank. Which won’t do at all, Caroline worked so hard on building this well (and looked incredible doing so; Quanyii made sure to thank her extra when she was done– after she washed up of course, there was no way he was letting her into their bed covered in mud) and no creeping vines would ruin her drudgery.

He makes a bereft little sound at the vines' audacity, then grabs handful after handful, tearing the foliage away enough to uncover the well. He grabs the crank and begins to lift the bucket from the depths, continuing to hum his little ditty as he worked.

Eventually the bucket is retrieved, full of water and quite heavy. he dusts off his hands when he’s done, proud of himself and his handiwork. It’s a challenge to bring it over and he loses a third of the water on the way, but he gets it there nonetheless.

He grabs the soap and drops it with a splash into the water, then places his hands on his hips to survey. “Alright then, that’s everything! Time to work my stuff! Which is absolutely amazing and incredible, I am just sooo great. It’s a shame I won’t have an audience while I perform!”

Quanyii wiggles his fingers as he prepares to embark on this harrowing journey of manual labor, taking in a big breath of air to ready himself. He lets it out in a whoosh as he places his palms on the side of the cauldron, clearing his throat afterward.

“Universe? Are you listening?” He asks tentatively, looking up at the sky and squinting when his eyes catch the sun. He looks back down at the cauldron, blowing some hair from his face before he continues, “Could you pretty, pretty please give these sponges the ability to clean this little old thing for me?”

“See, I already did all the hard stuff by bringing the tools out here!” He keeps going, taking his hand off the side for a moment to gesture to the sponges lying lifelessly on the ground. He puts his hand back, batting his eyelashes to the sky, “And they’re so bored lying on the ground like that, they were made for cleaning! I’ll even put it all back when you’re done! It’s so easy, just a little-”

His little speech is interrupted by a musical note as the sponges begin to lift off the ground and advance on the soapy water. Quanyii squeals happily, stepping out of the way to let the sponges work. “Thank yooou, you’re so good to me!” He says, dancing in place with happiness as the cauldron is scrubbed.

The dust dissolves from the outer layers of the pot with every pass, the rust seems to melt away, and any and all gunk leftover on the inside is scooped out and deposited unceremoniously onto the ground and out of the way.

Soon enough, all that’s left is the little black cauldron, shiny and nearly brand new.

“Whew! I’ve done all my chores for today like a good little witch, I think I deserve to take a little nap–” He starts, dusting off his hands on his loose-fitting pants. He’s so ready to quit and have a relaxing rest of the day– only to remember why he went through all this trouble in the first place.

“Wait. Oh boo, I can’t do that just yet. Darn my pretty wife for taking harrowing missions that take her away from me for far too long! Darn her and her grouchy, kissable face.”

He sighs, long and mournful, putting his arm to his forehead despite the fact that no one is around to see his dramatics... besides maybe some nearby critters, but none of them would appreciate his flare. Sometimes it’s fun just to do it for yourself.

Quanyii performs the tedious task of returning everything to its rightful places: retrieving the soap bar, dumping out the water bucket and tying it back to the rope of the well, gathering up the sopping wet sponges and dutifully wringing every last drop of water out, then putting the everything away.

The most daunting task is the cauldron, although with a little bit more magic and a quick wipe down with a rag, it’s back inside and hanging over the fire pit ready to be used.

Everything is set and ready for him to begin. He prances his way over to the book that was left waiting and open.

“Now that we’re all set and properly cleaned, let’s see what I need,” He coos to nobody, talking to the air just to fill the silence as he runs his finger along the first page of instructions.

“Let’s see now… Warning: please be careful making this potion as carelessness can cause permanent bad luck and dangerous side effects such as internal and external bleeding, bubbling boils, tongue swelling, liquefaction, extra limb growth, spontaneous human slash monster combustion– Okay, pffft, boring.”

Warnings, who needs ‘em? After all, why would he need warnings and cautions, when he’s the greatest witch in existence and would never mess up something as silly as a luck potion? It’s almost insulting.

“I’m not gonna let a silly little book tell me how to be careful. I’m always careful!” He says, immediately bumping his hip against his desk in his little fit. It nearly knocks off some of the more precariously placed jars. They’re only saved from crashing to the hardwood by a full body turn and outstretched arms– cleaning up broken glass is not on his itinerary.

“Now what does said silly book say I need for ingredients? Okay, some boiling water to mix everything, of course… Something lucky, something sticky, two objects of sentimental value, and petite green rose petals,” He lists off the things he’ll need to get, tapping on the book and licking his teeth in thought.

“That’s not too bad, I should have all of that stuff… It’s a shame I’ll have to tear up Caroline’s garden to get at her roses, but she won’t mind once she knows what I’m doing. In fact, she’ll thank me and give me so many kisses. I deserve it after getting my hands dirty,” Quanyii giggles to himself as he patters his way back out of the room, returning to the well.

It’s easier going this time, since there are no vines in his way, and he returns to his workroom sporting his spoils. He pours the contents of the bucket into the cauldron, listening to it slosh as he leans down and sparks the charcoal still in the pit. It takes a few tries for it to catch, but soon enough the sound of crackling fills the air as the flames rise.

It’s not a very big fire by any means, not as big as he would make it given the chance, but he’d also rather not burn down the house. That would get him into serious trouble at the very least– plus sleeping on the bare swamp ground doesn’t sound very fun or comfortable.

Although maybe that big, ugly lizard might let him stay in his house if he asks really nicely… No, no it’d be too much of a hassle. Besides, Quanyii’s certainly not quiet enough to have house guests. So, no big flaming fireball.

With the water put on to boil, he sets about gathering up the other ingredients. The first one is easy; they have a jar full of honey that’ll work perfectly– sticky as instructed and sweet enough to make the potion go down smooth. The outside of the jar is slightly tacky from earlier mishaps, so he brings it back to the room to set down and leave for later.

He checks the book again, leaving behind gummy fingerprints from the residue of the honey. Then he leaves to get the rest of the ingredients.

A four-leaf clover and a small green rose from the garden, a bit of Gawain’s fur, and a tube of his own lipstick (one he made himself and, notably, Caroline’s favorite) should be the last things he needs for this spell to work. As he sets everything down on the table and out of the way to make sure, he peruses the book one last time.

He flips over to the next page, having to unstick his finger in the process, and finds another handful of ingredients needed. He furrows his brow for a moment, flipping the page over and then back again before sighing loud and long. “You mean I have to get more stuff? This almost isn’t even worth it anymore,” He gripes, even as he trudges back through the house for the rest of the supplies.

“This stupid potion has way too many stupid ingredients. Surely it didn’t have this many last time,” Quanyii continues complaining, even as he grabs fistfuls of blackberries from the wild bush in the backyard. The thorns dig dangerously into his palm, but he pays them no mind, crushing the ripe fruit in his grip and staining his hands purple. He shoves them haphazardly into his pockets, adding more stains to his already well-loved and worn pants.

The roses he’d brought in earlier already carry thorns on their stems, which gives him a small break at least. However, the onyx is much trickier to find. The mess that is his workroom proves to be a hindrance to his progress as he takes out bottles and boxes of dried-out plants and leftover potions until he finds what he's looking for, a small onyx that could be easily plopped into the boiling water.

All that’s left is the mirror shard and the witch’s blood — both of those are easy enough to acquire with some minor property damage to their bathroom mirror (He’ll fix it later before Caroline sees).

Finally back to his post with the water boiling, he makes sure he has everything he needs (flipping the pages several times to be absolutely, positively sure). Once he’s positive he’s gotten all the required elements, the real magic can begin.

In goes the onyx, a small plop sound just barely resounding underneath the bubbling water. Followed by the fistfuls of blackberries, already popped and leaking their juices. The mixture begins to turn darker as he adds the sprinkle of dog hair and then scoops out the tube of his lipstick to drop in.

The four-leaf clover and roses are thrown in next. Technically, the recipe calls for just the petals and thorns, but the idea of plucking each individual petal and thorn off is agonizing and boring, so in goes the entire rose. It wouldn’t ruin the potion that much, surely.

The honey’s next and it flows in without much effort (save for the few little taste tests Quanyii steals, sucking his finger into his mouth with a happy little hum as the blackberry juice and the honey mixes sweet on his tongue). “I am so good at this. And look at that, we’re almost done!” He pulls his finger from his mouth with a pop as he sets the container of honey aside, licking his lips to get the lingering stickiness.

“Now… hehe, for the fun part,” He beams, wiggling his fingers as he picks up the mirror shard with careful fingers. Then, with a deep breath, he presses it to his palm and swipes, the blood beginning to pool in his palm instantly.

“Ow ow ow ow,” He hisses, gritting his sharpened teeth as he presents his wounded hand to the pot and squeezes, watching drop after heavy drop drip down into the murky liquid. He remembers to drop the mirror shard in as well, pulling his hand away with a quiet whimper as he steps back to grab a wrap for his hand.

The mixture, now fully combined, begins to fizzle and froth unnaturally. The colors begin to shift rapidly too — first blue, then pink, then green, then orange — sliding into each new color with a concerning gurgle.

With the wrap now securely in place and the bleeding beginning to clot, Quanyii turns his full attention to the cauldron again. It rocks dangerously as the potion sparks and pops and foams, shaking with magical energy. If he were any less of a professional, he might perhaps be frightened by this display.

Good thing he is, definitely, a professional.

It takes nearly a full minute for the mixture to calm down, turning into an ominous deep purple with the scent of blackberries and honey wafting off of it.

“How interesting! I’ve never seen it do that before,” Quanyii says, blinking for a moment as the fire below begins to die out, the smoke turning white as the embers flicker pitifully.

A gust of air from the door to his workshop puts them out entirely, as Caroline stands in the frame with a hand over her mouth. Her eyebrows are pinched with annoyance and as she pulls her hand away to speak she inhales a lungful of lingering smoke.

“W-What in the-'' comes a choked half question, Caroline waving her hand this way and that to disperse the rest of the acrid-smelling smoke. Quanyii lights up at the sight – he had no idea his frost-bitten girl would be home so soon. And right on time, it seems, with the potion now complete and ready for consumption.

“Oh, babe, look at you! Your armor’s all filthy and ruined! Did you get hurt? Are you bleeding? Do you need mouth-to-mouth?” Quanyii frets playfully, leaving the cauldron’s side to flutter his hands over the roughed-up armor adorning his wife’s body. It’s mostly for show, Quanyii knows that Caroline can handle herself quite well in the woods on her own. That still doesn’t stop him from worrying, which is the whole reason for this mess in the first place.

Caroline, still coughing, allows him to do so for a moment longer before she puts a stop to it by pushing him back and then pointing at the centerpiece. “What… is that? It looks toxic… and foul. Have you been making poison for the pests in the garden?” Caroline rasped, throat raw from the fit she’d been put through.

Quanyii clasps his hands together excitedly and moves away from the woman, motioning her to follow with a tilt of his head as he explains, “Not poison! A potion! One for you, in fact, my pretty knight! I made it special.”

“A potion… that I’m supposed to drink? And it looks like that?” She asks, her lip curling in the way that it does when she’s disgusted by something. “There is no way I’m drinking anything that produces a smell like that,” She concludes with a deadpan, crossing her arms over her chest.

Caroline enters the room to get a closer look despite her protestation, her boots thudding heavily on the hardwood flooring. Even with the ruckus she’s making, she’s careful to step lightly around the tables with precariously placed fragiles, something neither of them mention but Quanyii appreciates all the same.

“But! But, but, but-! I spent all morning making it!” Quanyii whines in offense, his generous gift so heartlessly rejected and stomped on by the woman he loved. He sticks out his lip, pouting and putting on the most pitiful face he can manage as he continues, “And you’re not even going to try it? Or even ask what it is? Don’t you trust me?”

Caroline looks from the witch’s face to the liquid currently masquerading as ink in the cauldron and back again. Quanyii dares to smile, showing off his teeth in a sign of good faith — he’s actually trying to be helpful for once! Just because he’s been actively detrimental to progress in the past doesn’t make a difference now.

There’s another moment of silence, as if she’s actually thinking about the question (that alone would be enough to make Quanyii throw a fit), but when she speaks she has the tone of someone who’s made up their mind ages prior, “Absolutely not, especially when it comes to… untested, unruly magic like this.” Even now, after all their years together, she’s always so reluctant when Quanyii offers magical assistance of any kind.

He huffs, stomping his foot in anger, then doing it again just for fun, before he waves his hand wildly over in the cauldron’s general direction, “Well, since you asked, it’s a luck potion. I was worried about you going out there and getting yourself into dangerous situations. Especially when you’ve,” he pauses to bring his fingers up and do air quotes as he says, “forbidden,” then drops them again as he finishes, “me from helping you!”

“There shouldn’t be air quotes around that-”

Quanyii bowls over her words with his own, “And! It doesn’t even smell that bad when you get close to it, it’s just the stinky smoke. So come on, please? Don’t make me beg, sweetheart, I hardly even do that in bed.”

As much as she tries to hide her amusement, the snort she lets out gives her away rather easily. Caroline’s hard exterior is no match for Quanyii’s dramatics. She loses every time. Quanyii, for one, enjoys that little fact very very much and puts it to good use now as he moves closer and presses himself to Caroline’s side.

“I followed the rules exactly, just for you,” He pleas, batting his eyelashes up at his wife as he wraps his arms around her middle. She puts one of her hands in his hair, letting her nails scrape gently against his scalp. For a moment, he forgets what he was saying, letting his eyes slip closed as Caroline pets him. He doesn’t allow himself to be distracted for too long, his face soft and relaxed as he continues, “I want my little knight to come home safe and sound. Is that so wrong?”

His words are painfully sincere and vulnerable in a way he never tries to be – it’s no fun being worried and nervous. It does, however, get Caroline’s hand to stop moving. When Quanyii opens his eyes again, he sees consideration settling into the other’s features, looking at the cauldron over his head. Now that the smoke has filtered out of the open doorway, the less prominent smell now makes itself known: honey and blackberries.

“…Fine. I always knew you’d be the death of me, you know,” Caroline finally agrees after what feels like ages of silence. 

Quanyii pulls away enough to lift on his toes and presses one, two, three grateful kisses to her jaw as he says in a sing-songy voice, “Aren’t you the lucky one, my sweet frost-bitten girl? And you’re about to be even more so! Oh, I’m so excited!”

Quanyii bounces out of the room with a skip to his step as he goes to the kitchen and snatches up one of the clean mugs for Caroline to drink from. Before he goes all of the way, he stops by to greet Gawain, petting his head until his tail is wagging happily as he waits by the door. “Pretty poochie, are you being good for mommy?”

Gawain barks in reply, his tongue hanging out. “That’s a good boy!” He makes a mental promise to find his treats and give him one later, after they’re all done, and he heads back to the room humming once more.

As he enters his workroom again, Caroline has moved deeper inside, looking around at the hanging ingredients and bottled objects on display. When she hears Quanyii coming, she turns around to face him, watching as he scoops up some of the contents into the mug with the ladle. When it’s half full, Quanyii hands it over.

“Do I even want to know what you put in this?” Caroline asks, eyeing the mug suspiciously as she brings it up to her nose and gives it a cautious sniff. She flinches a little when it first hits her nose, still expecting the sour smell from earlier. Only to be pleasantly surprised by the sweet, fruity smell instead.

“I can tell you if you really wanna know,” Quanyii starts, hopping up onto his desk and swinging his feet as he watches with barely contained excitement. He’s grinning practically ear to ear, his sharp canines poking out from his lip. He continues a moment later, his voice teasing, “But it’d be easier to stomach if you didn’t.”

“Right. Well,” Caroline nods, grimacing just a little bit at the idea. Quanyii’s excitement only serves to make her even more nervous, but she did agree to do it. If she backs out now, not only will she be seen as a coward, but she’ll also make Quanyii cry (and not in the fun way).

“Bottoms up, then,” She says, then hesitates again, swirling the shimmering purple liquid in the glass again. Quanyii is leaning so far forward he looks like he’s going to fall off the desk, but he stays perfectly still and holds his breath in anticipation. His eyes are practically glowing.

Caroline brings the mug to her lip, taking a breath, then another, before she brings it up and gulps it down, lightning fast. She slams it down when she’s done, shuddering afterward.

Then Quanyii waits, and waits, and waits… Waits for something to be different: A color or pupil shape change of Caroline’s eyes, a glowing golden aura that shines so bright it hurts, some kind of sound that signals the potion is working now, yippee! Good job! 

Except, there’s nothing. Nothing but the sound of Caroline’s stomach gurgling. Nothing comes of that either. Potions aren’t supposed to be instantaneous, but it’s still a little underwhelming.

“Is that it? That’s… rather anticlimactic. I should be grateful I’m not dead, I suppose,” Caroline wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, making a face at what the witch can only assume is the aftertaste.

Quanyii hops off the desk with a flourish, shaking out his hands as he explains, “You’re not exploding or growing any extra fingies, so I did something right! But that isn’t unusual, of course, I’m amazing. Most potions take a few hours to take effect, it’s gotta get through your system and all.”

He comes up to Caroline then, putting his hands on her hips and pulling her in with a devilish grin. “So, sir knight, what say you and I have some fun before then?”

“As tempting an offer as that is,” She starts, and Quanyii prepares to hate whatever the next words out of his mouth are, “I can’t stay. I only came by to switch out my swords since I was in the area,” Even as she says this, Caroline cups Quanyii’s cheek, rubbing her thumb on his dimple.

He pouts, then dramatizes it to hide how disappointed he really feels, asking in a whine,  “Already? But you just got here. You can’t stay for a little bit longer?”

“’fraid not, duty calls. I’ll be back in a week as long as nothing drastic happens. I’ll be leaving Gawain with you,” She says as she leaves the room, Quanyii trailing behind her with a pitiful expression. She grabs the replacement sword she’d come here for, leaving her old one in its place.

Despite the fact that Quanyii wants to beg and plead for just five more minutes, the civilians of the Citadel will be fine for five more minutes, he’s already stated that he’s not a beggar. Plus he’s not in the habit of showing how lonely he really is — his wife works hard to take care of the queen’s people, he should be proud. He is proud, but it just gets… a little too quiet, sometimes.

Caroline pauses in the living room to kneel down and rub Gawain’s face, making his ears flop around with her movements. She makes kissy noises at him, voice pitched artificially (and comically) high as she trilled, “You be good for Quanyii now, okay? Mommy will be home as soon as possible, and if you’re extra good, I’ll even bring you something back.”

Sometimes he wonders if Caroline likes that damned dog more than him. It’s ridiculous, he knows, but that doesn’t stop him from worrying at times. A big, empty house leaves room for big, scary thoughts.

“He’s not sleeping on your side of the bed,” Quanyii changes the subject, setting himself down on the ground as he crosses his arms over his chest. Caroline stops speaking to turn and look up at him, her hands still petting the panting dog with excitement. “And if he gets too excited and he pees on the floor, I’m cleaning it up with your pillow.”

Caroline chuckles and for a moment all is good, the fluttering in his stomach feels warm and fuzzy and disgusting in the best way possible. But then she stands up and straightens out her armor and the illusion is shattered. She still has to leave and Quanyii will be alone again. At least he’ll have Gawain with him.

“I’ll bring you something back too,” She says, coming over and lifting up Quanyii’s chin, rubbing his jaw with her thumb until the tiniest of smiles tugs at his lips. For added measure, she leans down and kisses him, getting him to uncross his arms and wrap them around her neck delightedly.

For a moment that’s all they do, holding one another and kissing as Gawain watches before growing bored and disappearing deeper into the house to get into trouble. Caroline wraps her arm around Quanyii’s waist, rubbing at his side until it tickles him enough to cause him to pull away giggling.

“I love you,” he whispers, his chin resting on what would be Caroline’s clavicle if it wasn’t currently covered by armor. 

Caroline hums in response, leaning down to kiss his nose before responding, “I love you too. But you have to let go of me.”

That’s actually the exact opposite of what Quanyii wants to do, but it isn’t like he has much of a choice. When Caroline was busy and focused, nothing got in her way. Not even her husband. So, with much reluctance and a few more stolen kisses, Quanyii finally pulls away. He tries really hard to keep the disappointment from his face, even as the frown settles on his features.

“I should… go make sure he hasn’t gotten into my workroom. Don’t want him getting a hold of any of my ingredients — he doesn’t make enough money to replace them,” He voices instead of one of the many other sappy, yearning things he wants to say. You think he’d be used to their routine by now, but it’s still hard to sleep in that empty bed at night.

“I’ll make sure to ask the queen to pay him more, he deserves a raise,” Caroline teases right back, then finally heads towards the door. “Be careful, be safe, and please try not to blow up the house while I’m gone,” She continues as the door opens and lets the afternoon sun in. It’s nice out, and Caroline will probably make it back to the Citadel by nightfall since she’s leaving now.

Quanyii blows her one final kiss, and then the door closes with a click and he’s left alone. He sighs, pushing his hair away from his face where it had fallen out of his bandana, then he turns and follows the direction where Gawain had disappeared to. Even though he was mostly joking, there were still hazardous materials out on display and he doesn't want the poor pooch to get a hold of anything deadly.

Besides, some alone time could be fun! He could take a nap, or read a book, or find something to snack on, or maybe even go pay one of his friends a little visit. Perhaps the pretty Rilla wouldn’t mind some company. He needs to return the book he borrowed from her anyway.

The rest of his day is way more boring and dreary. He takes a nap to avoid thinking about being alone in the house only to wake up still alone in the bed. At least Gawain is laying at the foot of it, keeping his toes nice and warm. He finds them something to eat, nothing fancy but something he was supposed to be saving to share with his wife. Oh well, at least it’s not going to waste.

After that was more of nothing: lounging on the couch in the living room, on the bed in the bedroom, on the floor of the kitchen. Gawain kept him company as he talked and vented; petting the dog’s head absentmindedly to use as a distraction.

“You know, sometimes I think she likes you more than me,” He says, then lets out a heavy breath through his nose. “I know she’s busy, she’s doing her duty as a knight to protect the Citadel, blah blah. I’m happy she’s found a place here, but what about me? Is that selfish to ask? I don’t care about being selfish, not really, I just— ugh. I don’t know why I’m asking you, it’s not like you can answer me.”

Quanyii lifts up to lean on his hands and looks out their kitchen window, the only light being the moonlight streaming in. It’s late, the moon is high and the fireflies have begun to dance outside. He’s not exactly tired, but there’s nothing else for him to do that wouldn’t cause immediate destruction of their property.

Besides, the sooner he sleeps, the faster the week will pass. Then his frost-bitten girl will be home again.

He gets up from the floor, dusting himself off and whistling to get Gawain’s attention, “Come on big boy, I know I told mommy I wouldn’t let you sleep in the bed again, but she and I both know I’m a liar.” Gawain wags his tail, barking at the witch excitedly as he trots his way after him.

Quanyii hums as he does his nightly routine, undressing to something a little more comfortable and braiding his hair to keep it from tangling in his fitful slumber. He steals one of Caroline’s sleep shirts (or was it one of Quanyii’s that Caroline stole first? It’s so hard to tell nowadays), pressing it to his nose to inhale her scent.

“Just a week.. I can do a week, I’ve done it before. I’ve done it for longer!” He whispers to himself in a forceful tone, busying his hands by smoothing out invisible wrinkles. It’s a weak excuse and he knows it, but anything to try and convince himself that he’s doing alright. It doesn’t work, if he’s honest, but it’s not like he can do anything to fix his woes.

Gawain breaks him from his moping by snorting at him from the bed. When he turns around, he sees the dog’s curled tailed wagging with contentment, tongue hanging out — waiting. Quanyii laughs a little, wiping his eyes out of habit as he says, “You’re absolutely right, I’m sorry for making you wait this long. Thank you for being so patient.”

He doesn’t keep the precious pooch waiting any longer, shooing him out of the way just long enough to slip under the covers. The blankets settle over him heavily, even more so when Gawain slots himself into the space between his legs, tamping down and spinning for a few moments before settling with a sigh.

“Comfortable, are you? How am I supposed to move now?” He asks and only gets a snore in response. Quanyii lets out an amused huff through his nose, then flops back down onto the bed. It doesn’t take him long to reach for Caroline’s pillow, wrapping his arms around the soft structure and pressing his face into the silk. It smells like her, earthy and cold, and he feels his eyelids flutter despite himself.

“Tomorrow,” He mumbles to nobody but himself, rubbing his face on the pillow, “Tomorrow I’ll find something to do so I can keep from thinking about you so much.”

He drifts off soon after that, face pressed against cool silk and the fuzzy memory of Caroline’s fingers running over his scalp.

Chapter Text

As morning comes and Quanyii's consciousness drudges to life, two things become apparently obvious. The feeling of fingers scraping delicately against a tender scalp, and that cool silk has been replaced by warm, breathing flesh. And unless Gawain magically grew fingers in the middle of the night (which hasn't happened in a good few years now), there's something very wrong here.

The witch’s head yanks back and away from the intruding figure and gets a brief look at who it is before the flailing causes Quanyii to fall out of the bed, legs tangled in the sheets. Gawain jumps up from his slumber, a bark startled from him in his half-awake state.

“Quanyii darling, are you alright?” Caroline’s voice comes as she peeks her head over the side the witch had tumbled, only to get a hand in her face that’s beginning to turn hot in self-defense.

“No, I’m not alright! You almost froze the marrow in my bones!” Quanyii squawks, taken aback by the appearance of the gloomy knight. The flustered witch continues, trying to untangle the blankets in the process, “You’re lucky I realized who you were or you could have had a shiny new hole sitting through your torso right now.”

When the blankets come loose and Quanyii can climb up without issue, the situation at hand becomes much more… confusing. “What are you doing back so early, sweets? I thought you were supposed to be gone another week, at least.”

The knight does something that Quanyii hasn’t heard her do in ages — she giggles. In the same manner as a schoolgirl with a crush, she puts her hand over her mouth and everything. “Is it not enough that I just missed you?” She says, climbing off the bed to stand in front of Quanyii, placing her hands on the witch’s hips, “I couldn’t stand the thought of being away from my favorite boy—“

“Mmm… Girl, today.”

“—My favorite girl any longer,” Caroline finishes and Quanyii feels her chest beginning to fill with sickly sweet butterflies. Something about the idea that Caroline missed Quanyii so much that she deliberately disobeyed an order from the Queen just to come home… It’s a good feeling.

Quanyii grips the knight’s chin, pulling her up as she leans down to meet her in a satisfying kiss. Caroline holds her firmly but carefully, dipping under her shirt to touch her skin. It’s deep and wonderful and yearning, different from the quick pecks they usually do when Caroline’s running out the door.

She’s got half a mind to shove Caroline back into bed to show her just how happy she is when they both pull away… and Caroline’s eyes flutter back open.

She knew the giddy feeling couldn’t last forever. She just didn’t expect it to vanish this quickly. As Quanyii looks down into Caroline’s eyes and notices something strange, unfamiliar, and off-putting. Her pupils are dilated and morphed into the shape of… hearts.

Uh oh.

“Sweetheart, are you uhm— are you feeling alright?” Quanyii asks cautiously, keeping hold of Caroline’s face even as the knight tries to lean forward again. When she can’t move, she pouts, furrowing her eyebrows just slightly. Then they immediately unfurrow as she grins again, looking up at the witch with a lovestruck face.

“I’m perfect now. How couldn’t I be, you’re standing right here…” Caroline sighs happily, leaning into Quanyii’s hold and just relaxing for a moment. This whole situation makes the witch’s hair stand on end. Something is seriously wrong here. Caroline’s never this dopey and lovesick… Oh shit.

“Sweets, hun, I’m gonna need you to stay here for a moment okay?” She says, keeping her voice level despite the nervous energy she feels bubbling in her gut. 

Caroline protests as she begins to pull away, wrapping her arms tighter around the taller one to keep her from leaving. “No, you can’t leave, I’ll miss you,“ she laments, as if Quanyii going to the next room really was the worst thing she could do.

It’s odd being on the other end of this exchange, considering just yesterday Quanyii had been begging for Caroline to stay… All things considered, it’s rather nice. “Not to worry, you can just come with me! But you gotta promise you won’t touch anything while I… do something really quickly, okay?” Quanyii states, sweet but firm, and Caroline is nodding along with her words before they’re over.

“I’ll keep my hands to myself and my eyes to you, lovely,” Caroline says and Quanyii has to keep herself from going red. Affectionate with cutesy nicknames? She could get used to this.

“That’s my good girl,” Quanyii croons before taking her wife by the hand and pulling her along to her workshop where the potion from yesterday remains untouched. Everything is the same as it had been left, the book closed on the table with the still dirty glass Caroline had drunk from sitting beside it.

She leaves the knight by the door as she slips deeper inside, putting on her serious face as she examines the potion. It remains still,the sweet scent still wafting off of it when Quanyii puts her nose to it. However, nothing else seems out of the ordinary or cursed. She ponders for a moment, feeling Caroline’s eyes on her as she scratches her head. Then, she sets her sights on the book.

“I did everything right… Did that little brat sell me a bunked book? Oh when I find him I’m gonna—“ Quanyii mumbles, furious at the prospect that she’d put her wife in potential danger (see, she can be compassionate sometimes!), flipping through the pages until she finds the spell she’d used.

Just like before, she reads and rereads the ingredients, mumbling to herself out loud as she rubs the page between her fingers. Once more, nothing odd strikes her, and her anger grows to the point of boiling—

The page she had furiously been rubbing between her fingers splits and suddenly becomes… two pages. She freezes, her stomach swooping with fear as she carefully begins to peel back the tacky, stuck-together pages. It takes some doing – she’s trying not to tear the pages themselves, but after a few moments of fussing she gets them apart.

On the page that had been stuck together is another spell: Obsession.

“Ah. Well. That’s… not good,” She says, more to herself than anything. She doesn’t notice Caroline approaching until she speaks from right behind her:

“Something wrong?” 

Quanyii slams the book shut without much thought after jumping about a foot in the air, then turns around to face the knight when her blood pressure has settled. The heart eyes make somewhat more sense now, but that still doesn’t explain why she’s acting… like this.

“Nothing your perfect witchy wife can’t handle, hun. How about you go make us some breakfast and I… clean up around here. It’s terribly hazardous to leave all my materials out and about, who knows what kind of mischief they could get up to on their own?”

Usually, Caroline would be all over the dismissal and hesitation. If she was in her right mind, she would have wrenched the truth out of Quanyii sooner rather than later. However, now she doesn’t even acknowledge the weird way the witch is acting as she nods, her eyes growing excited, “Oh yes, breakfast! That would be good, wouldn’t it? Not to worry, I’ll take care of it. Don’t work yourself too hard. I miss you already.”

Quanyii doesn’t move until Caroline exits the room and is down the hall, keeping her brave face until she knows for sure she’s alone. And then she begins to panic, pacing to get some of the nervous energy out as she begins talking to herself just to work it out, “So, you put your wife under some kind of… love spell. Obviously, that’s not good! She’s not turning into liquid or changing colors so that’s something, but how did you not even notice the damn pages stuck together!”

She chews on her thumb, looking from the book, to the defunct potion in the cauldron, to the rows and rows of trinkets and bobbles, trying to think of a solution for the mess she caused. “Maybe it’ll be fine,” she tells herself as she listens to Caroline moving around in the kitchen not too far away, the sound of Gawain’s nails scratching the hardwood right behind her.

“Maybe nothing will come of it and it’ll all be fine and you didn’t kill your wife. I mean, most potions just go away on their own! So it’d probably be the same for this, right? Right?”

Quanyii paces for so long, so deep in her head with worry that she doesn’t notice Caroline returning until she’s already in the doorway again, startling her once more.

“I made breakfast,” She announces, holding up a wicker basket covered in a blanket. Quanyii must let the surprise and confusion show on her face because Caroline immediately grows sheepish as she says, “I thought… It’s nice outside, perhaps we could have a picnic. Only if you want to, of course. I’d be happy to eat anywhere as long as I’m with you.”

Gawain is at her heels, looking up at Quanyii with enthusiasm, wagging his tail excitedly as he waits as well for her answer. It’s almost too much for Quanyii’s heart to take — and she’s seen a lot of horrible stuff in her time. To be wasted by her wife and dog both giving her puppy-dog eyes might be the best way to go.

Taking advantage of this little scenario wouldn’t hurt… She’s been so lonely at home all by herself, and now here Caroline is. Enthusiastically wanting to spend every second with her that she can, using pet names that she’s never used before, being overtly affectionate and loving— It’s all so… nice.

Maybe it’s wrong for Quanyii to be enjoying this altered version of her wife, but so what? She deserves a little treat after the time she’s spent on her own. Besides, the potion will wear off! So what’s the harm in it?

“You know what, Sweets? I’d love to have a picnic with you and our little devil,” she says, deciding to put off her worrying for the time being. Caroline’s still alive after this long, a few hours for breakfast won’t hurt.

And she’s right.  a lot of fun spending that time together. Caroline’s usually so busy with work, they never get to just… hang out. But here and now, they’re talking like they used to, laughing like they used to, being like they used to.

Before Caroline prioritized work over spending time at home. Being a knight is a full-time job and she does her job… sometimes a little too well. She forgets herself, forgets how to relax properly or be her own person and not just an extension of the Citadel.

A person who is currently feeding Quanyii grapes ever so gently, with her head resting in the knight’s lap. Fingers pressed to her lips as her teeth puncture the skin. Caroline’s other hand runs through her fluffy hair. It’s picturesque and entirely too cheesy for their usual dynamic, but one Quanyii will bask in gratefully for the time being.

“I love you, you know,” Caroline says above her suddenly, and Quanyii’s sleepy eyes flutter open. Above her, Caroline stares down at her with the same lovestruck eyes, the pupils seeming to glow with affection — It could just be the sunlight casting a gorgeous glow on her face though. Quanyii takes a moment just to stare at the woman she married; how did she get so lucky?

“And I love you, my frost-bitten girl,” she responds, soft and sleepy, the sunlight falling on them both making her warm and comfortable. She stretches out lazily, nearly purring under the motions of her wife’s hand in her hair. Caroline laughs, soft and floaty and unlike her usual one, then leans forward to press sugary sweet kisses to her face.

Oh yes, Quanyii could get used to this.

She rides that high throughout the rest of the day, until they’re both curled up in bed together with Gawain once more at their feet. Caroline stays awake, running her fingers through Quanyii’s hair and coaxing her to sleep with nothings so sweet they almost feel too good to be true.

The morning is much the same, the position identical as the one they went to bed in. That’s odd, because usually Quanyii tosses and turns like a bird in a net. She lifts her head up to be greeted by her still fawning wife, purpling bruises under her eyes and the sweetest smile she could give. The eyebags are… new.

Caroline is usually such a stickler about getting enough sleep. Coupled with their parallel positions one can’t help but think— “Hon… did you sleep at all last night?” Quanyii asks, voice slurred just slightly as she wakes up properly.

Caroline continues her movement from the night before, playing with the end of Quanyii’s braid as she responds, “Why sleep when I could just look at you? You’re so pretty, I couldn’t help myself. I’m…” She trails off then, the hearts in her eyes flickering back to normal for the briefest of moments. Then her brows furrow and her mouth twists and she says in a tone that easily shows her bewilderment, “It’s almost like I’m… compelled.”

The word seems to jumpstart something in her, because she’s suddenly pulling away and standing up stiffly from the bed, almost frantic as she looks around. “What am I doing here? I’m supposed to be on a mission, I have a duty to attend to, why am I here—“

Caroline’s hysteria gets Quanyii feeling all kinds of things, mainly anxiety and guilt for her role in this mess. She sits up to try and help her worried wife when the expression on her face must override the panic in the knight’s brain because she freezes, then shakes her head. Just like that, the hearts are back, more prominent and almost… pinker than before.

“Actually… I don’t really care about why I’m here. I’m just happy I get to spend it with you,” she says, her body relaxing as she comes in close once more. She takes Quanyii’s face into her warm hands, pressing a kiss to her nose as she continues, “Who cares about duties? You are certainly more important than some ruckus-causing monster.”

Somewhere in the witch’s mind, she knows this is wrong. Caroline ignoring her work responsibilities is a clear sign that something’s not right; the knight is a busybody at heart and needs to keep her hands moving at all times.

And yet, all she can do is giggle helplessly as Caroline kisses over her entire face — she’s right, who cares about duties?

“You’re so right my frosty little knight. Come back to bed for a bit, will ya? I’m not ready to face the world just yet,” Quanyii swoons as she’s pushed back into the mass of blankets, the weight of her wife settling on her as she does just that.

“Gladly,” Caroline whispers, face pressed to her neck and her hands finding home on the witch’s love handles.

They stay there until well after noon, giggling and kissing and wasting the day. Quanyii didn’t think it could possibly get any better than yesterday, but being carried out of bed by your wife and her amazingly strong arms really does put things into perspective.

Placed on the counter, Quanyii watches with a matching lovestruck gaze as Caroline prepares breakfast once again, Gawain begging for scraps by her feet and the knight sneaking him bits of meat when she “thinks” Quanyii isn’t looking. It’s a good morning… well, afternoon.

But as much as she enjoys this, there is also a restlessness settled deep into her bones. She can only be lazy for so long, and she’s already used all that up this morning.

So, after breakfast, as Caroline packs up the leftovers and does the dishes, Quanyii gets ready to go return a book she had… borrowed from Rilla a few weeks ago (Rilla should know better than to leave such a thing lying around out in the open — it’s like she was just begging for Quanyii to want it!).

Book in hand, she heads for the front door when Caroline calls, “Where are you going?”

Quanyii turns around and presents the book, smiling mischievously as she says, “I’m going to see the pretty Rilla. This book she let me have is boring, needed to see if she had anything more exciting to read. She probably won’t notice if it’s missing — If she left it out then it wasn’t important to begin with!”

Now here, Quanyii knows how the next interaction should go. Caroline will roll her eyes and wave her off with a, “Tell me if she was wearing that little orange number, it’s one of my favorites. Be safe, I love you, be back before dinner,” and then she’ll hurry back in time for round two of lazy cuddles. Something along those lines.

Except… this time, Caroline isn’t laughing or making jokes. She looks almost annoyed by the idea, rolling her eyes in a less-than-playful way as she gestures vaguely toward the offending object. “Why do you need to return it to her? She’ll be fine without it until she can come over— Don’t leave. I forbid it.”

“You… forbid it,” Quanyii says, deadpanned, treating it like a joke. Why wouldn’t she be joking, anyway? This has been such a long-standing routine between them. “Well hon, like I said the other day, I do a lot of things that are technically forbidden so you’re gonna have to try harder than that to stop me.”

The giggle in her mouth dies out when Caroline marches over and puts her hand on the door, leaning her full weight on it. Realistically, it wouldn’t be hard to pull the knight away — Quanyii’s done it plenty of times for other reasons. The look on her face tells Quanyii, though, that this is no longer a part of their game.

“I’m serious. I don’t want you leaving today. It’s not important, the herbalist will be fine without one measly little book. She’s got plenty of others.”

Before she can get too worried about the strangeness, the knight’s face grows soft and she comes in close. A mimicry of this morning, she puts her hands on Quanyii’s face and rubs her cheeks and says sincerely, “I’m sorry, my thornbush. I didn’t mean to startle you, but I’ll miss you terribly if you go. Won’t you stay with me? Please?”

Quanyii doesn’t even notice she’s been coaxed away from the door until her back is pressed to a kitchen cabinet. She blinks, befuddled by the sudden change in scenery, but she doesn’t have much time to process it properly before there’s a spoon to her mouth and a savory-smelling aroma wafting from it. “Here, taste this. Do you think it needs anything else?”

Quanyii, while confused, is never one to pass up free food. She dutifully swallows the spoonful she was given, then leans over her wife’s shoulder to look into the mixture of herbs, meat, and veggies simmering on their gas stove. “Hmm… more rosemary.”

Caroline pulled back and returned to cooking, doing as the witch suggested and adding a dash more rosemary. Quanyii stays leaning back against the counter, just watching the knight work for a moment longer. All of this, when she thinks about it, gets weirder and weirder with each passing second.

She’s usually such a stickler about Quanyii returning things she’s stolen, but now she’s actively trying to get her to stay home? Perhaps that warrants some more looking into—

Caroline turns back to look over her shoulder, the hair on the back of her neck rising under Quanyii’s watchful eye. “Something wrong, thornbush?” She asks, tilting her head to look up at the witch through her eyelashes.

—Later, though.

“Not a thing, my frosty darling. Want some help?”

For now, she’ll enjoy this companionship that she has been lacking lately. She’s sure one more day won’t hurt anything—

“I’ve thought about it and I think I’m done being a knight of the Citadel.”

Until Caroline speaks up suddenly the next afternoon while they harvest the fruits of their labor in the garden. Quanyii is hovering close by, totally helping and not just sneaking berries from the fruit basket, when that bombshell is dropped.

“Pardon?” He asks, a handful of blackberries halfway shoved into his mouth. He laughs a little as he continues snacking, wiping the juice on his pants before he continues, “I don’t think I heard you correctly, sweets, because I thought I heard you say you wanted to quit being a knight? Surely I’m mistaken, right? Right?”

Caroline barely stops working, pulling another carrot up from the ground and tossing it into the vegetable basket. Quanyii floats closer, hovering over Caroline’s head until his hair hangs down enough to catch the (possible ex???) knight’s eye. “C’mon Sweets, don’t joke like that. You love being a knight!”

“Perhaps, but the time it requires me to be away from home has decidedly put a damper on my enjoyment. Slaying monsters is one thing, protecting the citizens is another, but being here with you is far more to my liking. What is the queen going to do, fire me? I’m already quitting, I sent one of her stupid pigeons back this morning.”

“You what?” He asks, shaking his head in disbelief, like if he shook it enough what Caroline was saying would make sense. The griffin feather tucked behind his ear wiggles loose and nearly causes him to drop his weight, but he saves himself at the last second by pivoting to the side and landing with a heavy thud on his feet.

This is what he wanted, isn’t it? More time to spend with his wife, a less empty house… Caroline’s undivided attention. So why does it feel so… wrong?

Gawain notices the sudden tension shift in the air, dropping the bone he’d been chewing on to come over and bump his nose into Quanyii’s calf. He whines softly, concerned, then patters over to Caroline to bump her hip.

Caroline sits back on her heels and pets the dog absentmindedly, calming him down just a bit, then addresses her wife, “You don’t sound too thrilled about this. I’m surprised, I’d expect you to be more enthusiastic about me not having to work anymore.”

Quanyii scrambles for words, the knot in his stomach making it difficult to think properly. Finally, he wheezes, “Yeah, no I’m like, super happy! It just surprised me is all, hon! That’s wonderful, we should celebrate! You stay here and finish the garden while I go inside and start making you a pie, how about that?”

“I can help—“ Caroline starts, moving to get up, only to have Quanyii wave her back down with his hands on her shoulders and a kiss to her sweaty forehead.

“Nonsense, you’ve been working so hard these past few days, let me do something nice for you, okay? Besides, if I stay out here in the dirt and sun any longer, you’re going to have a very melty wife.”

Caroline snorts, though there’s a pained grimace bubbling underneath the surface; does it pain her that much to be separated? Caroline mulls it over for a moment longer, fighting with herself as her face twitches, before she finally says, “Alright, I’ll stay here. But I am going to hurry.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” Quanyii continues, picking up the fruit basket to bring inside with him, “Don’t you worry, I won’t burn the house down in that time. Maybe, we’ll see.”

Quanyii can feel Caroline’s eyes on him the entire way back into the house, almost like it’s a physical touch. It’s all too much and he’s barely out of her line of sight before he launches the basket onto the counter and makes a break for his workroom.

It’s still uncleaned from the few days prior, with everything as he left it. He should have done something then to prevent this whole thing from escalating as it has, but his selfish nature and lonely longing put it on hold. Now there’s a very real possibility Caroline has ruined the one place she feels at home besides this cottage in the woods.

And it’d be all his fault.

“C’mon, c’mon, there’s gotta be something in these stupid old books about reversing the effects of two potions mixed together,” Quanyii mumbles to himself as he yanks journal after journal off the shelves, flipping through them with increasing panicked speed.

Books begin piling up on the floor, half open and crumbled where they’re thrown away haphazardly once it’s clear that the thing he’s looking for isn’t in it. He’s pulled nearly his entire collection out and trashed his workroom when he finally finds it, near the end of a Potions for Dummies 101 book.

“So you accidentally mixed two potions together and the effects have not worn off after three days.”

“Wildly specific headline, but perfect for me because that’s exactly what I’m looking for,” Quanyii mumbles before he begins reading, skimming over the reprimands the book gives for letting it go on for so long in the first place. 

“Yeah, yeah, I should have done something when I first realized my fuck up, I get it! I don’t really need a lecture by the literal book! Get to the part where I can fix this mess.”

He finds what he's looking for near the end of the chapter. A reverse potion– or, more like a reversal method that works for any potion. Perfect.

“It’s called True Love’s Kiss … Huh, how cheesy. But, I guess, kinda cute. Okay, let’s see…” He lets out a shaky laugh, trying not to let his nerves get the best of him. How fitting it would be that a kiss would, apparently, break the spell. It’s almost like a fairytale, or something.

“This method works in most but not all cases of potion mixing. Depending on the severity and the potions involved, some more extreme methods may be required. In most cases, performing steps opposite to those required for creating the original potion will act as the antidote. Fastest method of delivery is through lip-to-lip contact, but alternatives may apply.”

That gets another laugh out of him– fastest delivery method really is locking lips. It works out great for him, because he loves giving Caroline kisses.

“Okay, cool, so opposite potions of what I did… So, good luck and obsession.. would be bad luck and repulsion,” He mumbles to himself, then sets down the book to look through the original recipe book, the tacky monster that got him into this mess in the first place. It takes a moment to find each, but he’s careful to make sure each page is it's own.

Then he focuses on the ingredients, “For bad luck I’ll need bergamot and earl grey tea with milk and sugar… And the repulsion one would be molasses and… Abhorsent slime. Great. I really hope I’ve got some, ‘cause how am I supposed to find an Abhorsent at this time of year? Ugh.”

Back to the original book, he finishes off the ingredient list, “Then beeswax to put it all together, mint for fast cooling, and Lilium veritas pollen for lip plumping. Okay, I should… have that somewhere. Anything else?”

Something at the bottom then catches his attention– it’s written in deep red ink, so bright he’s surprised he didn’t notice it sooner. It’s the disclaimer, and this time Quanyii is determined to read it and comprehend it. Sometimes even a great witch like him needs a little warning and regulation.

“Warning: This lipstick is useful for curing almost all ailments caused by two or more mixed potions, but proceed with caution as the recipient of the kiss…” He reads aloud, trying to trick his brain into memorizing the warning, when he gets to the last few words and freezes. Suddenly he no longer feels giddy excitement. It’s only dread.

He reads it once, twice, thrice over just to make sure he has it. Then, as dread settles heavy in his stomach and a knot forms in his throat, he chokes out,

“Please note that a faulty love potion can cause the concoction to be highly volatile, resulting in the recipient of the kiss having all of their prior emotional ties to the enchanter eradicated.”

All of Caroline’s feelings… eradicated? Gone? Poof? Vanished forever? The thought makes Quanyii’s stomach churn and his heart turn to ice, but so does the idea of leaving Caroline in her current state. He has the choice of keeping his wife magically infatuated or— or maybe losing her forever… like a cruel joke, a punishment for his hubris.

He blinks rapidly against the stinging in his eyes and whispers, “What have I done?”

Chapter Text

“Quanyii?” Caroline’s voice comes from the kitchen, sounding somewhat distressed by the disappearance of the witch, “I thought you were making a pie, where have you run off to?”

Quanyii slams the book shut much harder than needed, alerting his wife of his presence in the workroom. Footsteps creak against the floor and the witch tosses the book aside, scrambling to find an excuse for why he’s in here in the first place.

He grabs the first book close to him that doesn’t have a visible label before Caroline gets to the doorway. Her eyes are wild and panicked, like the few moments Quanyii had been out of her sight were the hardest few seconds of her entire existence.

“What are you in here for? Are you hiding from me?” She interrogates — harsher than it had been prior. It hadn’t even been a full five minutes since he left, it wasn’t like the witch had disappeared off the face of the planet. This really isn’t good.

Quanyii holds up his hand to show off the decoy, giving what he hopes is a normal smile, “No, silly! Why would I be hiding from you? I came in here to find a recipe book that I had borrowed from the kitchen and—“

He opens the book up to a random page, knowing full and well he doesn’t have a clue what’s in there. While Caroline is distracted with the book in his hands, he silently slides the important one into a careful hiding place for now. He’ll need it later.

“—Would you look at that, this isn’t even a recipe book! Go figure. I guess it was in the kitchen after all! Not to worry, sweets. Let’s head back and we can get to work on that pie, huh?”

Caroline regards him with suspicion for a moment, the hearts prominently in her eyes now flickering for a moment just as they did the day before. But now, they don’t go away before the potion is back fully and she laughs, seemingly placated by that explanation.

“You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached, wouldn’t you? Come on, I’ll wash the fruits,” she says, then continues to linger in the doorway as she waits for Quanyii to follow. The witch places down the useless book, cringing quietly to himself at the mess he’s made and will have to clean up before he can work on the reverse potion.

He puts on his cheery attitude once more to follow his spellbound wife, waving his hands as he says, “After you, sweets. I want something to look at,” then immediately wraps his arms around her waist and presses his cheek to her back when she turns. It’s a little awkward to get there this way, but it gives Quanyii the opportunity to drop the falsified smile and worry in peace.

How exactly is he going to get Caroline out of his hair long enough to do all of this? He can’t be so sure she’d leave him alone, or even let him make a reverse potion at this rate… How is he supposed to dispose of the cursed potion? Or leave the house to get the other ingredients? Or—

“You don’t seem to be in a baking mood. We don’t have to do this if you’d rather not, we can always lay down on the couch and nap,” Caroline interrupts his thoughts by turning around in his hold, wiping her wet hands on her pants and then cupping Quanyii’s cheek. Rough calluses from the knight’s hard work tickle Quanyii’s skin and she huffs, lifting up until they’re looking eye to eye once more.

“No, I wanna. I’m just all stressed out about the mess I made in my workroom. I’ll figure out something, don’t worry about little ole me, okay?” Quanyii lies immediately, turning to kiss those calluses that he loves so much. He loves Caroline so much.

That thought alone settles the debate he’d been having in his mind.

He’s not going to let her throw away the entire life she had been building for herself here. Even if that means… Quanyii had to lose her. Caroline’s autonomy is much more important than his own selfish desires. He just wants the real Caroline. Not this sanitized, exaggerated version.

“I’ll fix everything, I promise,” he says, too fond and not at all talking about the situation he’d mentioned. 

But Caroline smiles all the same, tucking a loose strand of hair behind his ear as she responds, “I know you will, my good little witch.”

He’s so distracted by the little kiss on his nose that Caroline gives him that he doesn’t notice the flour in her hand until he’s got the substance square on his chest. A cloud of it pillows away as Quanyii staggers and gasps in betrayal. “Now come on,” Caroline says with mischief in her smile, “This pie won’t make itself.”

The pie-making takes up the rest of the afternoon, flinging flour and sugar at one another until the kitchen is destroyed. It’s a good memory to hold in case this is it. Quanyii treasures it and every other good memory they’ve had together as they clean up while the pie bakes.

Quanyii steals as many kisses as he can and doesn’t even complain when the pie burns because of it. Okay, maybe he complains a little, but it’s not like it’s inedible. Just a little crispier than he usually cares for. They eat until their bellies are full and he almost considers passing out on the couch and not moving for the next twelve hours — if it was any other scenario, he would have.

But he’s not going to pass up the offer of bathing with Caroline. If he does, he’s given Caroline explicit permission to take him to the edge of the world and throw him off.

It’s another good memory to hold as Quanyii so carefully washes off his lover’s skin and face and hair with the utmost care and gentleness. It’d be much easier to find a way to magic themselves clean, but there’s nothing like… sharing a bath. It’s not about the convenience; it’s about the closeness, the tenderness, the love. Something Quanyii had taken for granted before.

Now he may lose it forever.

He tries not to think about it as he’s washed in return, his hair soaked and scrubbed until he’s tired and satisfied, lulled by the warmth and Caroline’s enchanting fingers. He sighs heavily, leaning back against her bare chest and making it impossible to detangle his hair anymore.

“I can’t work with you laying on me,” she says, fond and soft, and Quanyii places his hand on her knee and settles back even deeper.

“It’ll be fine for a minute. Let me just lay on you… please?”

Caroline doesn’t even hesitate, pushing a glob of suds from his forehead and then pressing her lips to it as the water sloshes with her movements. “Just don’t fall asleep,” She responds, then immediately does her best to put Quanyii to sleep as she rubs the witch’s shoulders and follows a trail down her arms and back up.

He fights the coaxing for as long as he can, starting conversations and immediately trailing off with a yawn or getting distracted by Caroline’s gentle touches. Before long, he hates to admit, the exhaustion from his anxiety takes over and he’s put to sleep, with whispered words of “Good night, I love you,” floating in his ear.

When he wakes up, slightly disoriented and confused, it’s pitch black. He’s dry and fully clothed, snuggled under warm blankets. Gawain lays at his feet, rolled onto his side and snoring loudly. It takes him an embarrassingly long time to realize he’s tucked into Caroline’s side, but when he does, he pries his face free from his wife’s neck and peeks over her shoulder.

Moonlight streams in from their bedroom window, bathing the room in a soft bluish glow. It’s just enough light for Quanyii to see Caroline’s face — and it seems the days of sleeplessness have finally caught up with her, because her eyes are closed and her lips are gently parted. Breath tickles Quanyii’s cheek, warm and soft, and it’s almost tempting enough to just fall right back asleep in this cozy atmosphere…

But, no, Quanyii has things to do, very important things.

He quietly slips himself out from Caroline’s vice grip, holding his breath and doing his best not to wake up either of his bedmates. He gets partway before Gawain stirs, yawning loudly and looking up at Quanyii with tired, droopy eyes. The witch puts a finger to his lips, as if the dog is going to start talking and rat him out for leaving, but he says as quietly as he can manage, “If you don’t wake mommy, I’ll give you tons of treats when this is all over.”

Whether he understands him is up for debate, but the bribery must work because he snorts softly, then gets up and tamps down his spot once more before flopping onto his other side. The snoring starts up again immediately and Quanyii breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

He grabs the griffin feather from off their dresser and tucks it behind his ear, floating off the ground and out the door to avoid the creaky floorboards. It’s easy enough to get back into his workroom, the door cracked and moonlight shining in. He pushes the door open wide enough to slip through and then quickly closes it behind him.

He drops his weight onto the floor and holds his breath, waiting to see if Caroline has noticed his absence yet. She’s a terribly light sleeper, but it seems so far so good. With that worry out of the way, as quietly and as quickly as he can, he begins to clean up, touching as many books as he can with the feather until they can all float up and back into place.

Usually, he wouldn’t be such a stickler about cleanliness, but it’ll be easier and quieter to move around and time is of the essence right now.

When all of that is done and a pathway is clear, he pulls out the hidden book from earlier and flips back to the reverse potion recipe. The ingredients are once more laid out, and for safe measure he rubs the page between his fingers to make sure nothing is sticking.

“Okay… I have earl grey tea, I have bergamot.. Milk and sugar, duh… Mint and beeswax, yeah yeah yeah… I’ve got some of the glasswork pollen, lucky me— looks like I just need the slime. That’s… super. Of course, I don’t have the hardest ingredient to get. Wonderful. Most skittish and reclusive animal in the dang forest and now I’ve gotta find one, like, yesterday,” He chews on his thumb as he lists, tapping his foot anxiously.

“No– don’t stress yourself out, you’re the greatest witch to have ever lived! You’ll be fine. Now get rid of that old potion first and then we can go,” he tells himself, shaking his head, before turning to the cauldron behind him. The purple liquid continues to sit unassumingly, and if Quanyii didn’t know the trouble it had caused, he wouldn’t think anything of it.

That said, though, he’s not about to throw it all away. Some of it could be used for research later down the line! He’d just make sure it was labeled and that nobody else could touch it. He takes an empty mason jar from under the workbench and dips it in, filling up the jar almost all the way before he puts the lid back on and wipes away the excess on the side.

“Okay, now to get rid of this thing,” He says as he dries his hand on his pants, then moves over to the large bay window of his office. With the glass now open to the forest outside, Quanyii uses the enchanted feather still tucked behind his ear to lift it up once again and usher it toward the window.

“This isn’t the proper way to dispose of potions, but hell if I’m keeping this stinking liquid in my house any longer,” He grumbles to himself, careful not to spill any on the floor. When they reach the window, he tips it over the edge and pours it out, wincing internally at the large splashing sound it causes.

He doesn’t hear anything from the other room when it’s over, so he continues draining the cauldron until it’s empty. When all that’s left is a pitiful little stream, he puts it back into place and then uses a rag to dry out the inside, nearly toppling himself over into the container as he makes sure it’s good and dry.

“There, no fear of cross-contamination,” He wipes his forehead and then tosses the dirty rag aside to be cleaned later. With that out of the way, he begins to look through his supplies, getting the ingredients he needs to and setting them out for easy access.

Bergamot and earl grey, sugar and powdered milk, a jar of molasses, a sprig of mint, a chunk of beeswax, and the last bit of the glasswork lily pollen. All lined up in a neat little row and within grabbing range for later. All of it would be perfect… except for the missing Abhorsent hair.

That would be the biggest challenge. They were huge beastial things; territorial enough to traumatize any normal creature and skittish enough to annoy any witch (mainly himself). Finding one would be near impossible.

But, stressing himself out about it wouldn’t do anyone any good, especially not the one who needed him most. With some bait (a noxious mixture of shrew and berries), he might stand a chance. Plus, there wasn’t any problem a few extra sleeping nettles couldn’t solve in a pinch.

This had to be done, for Caroline’s sake. Quanyii will be fixing this mess if it’s the last thing he does. “Caroline’s going to think I’m incredibly stupid for all this. But when have I ever done the thing she thought was smart?”

He grabs a carrier bag from the back of the workroom door, securing it around his waist. He just has to hurry back with Caroline none the wiser. Then everything would be fine and Caroline would be better and… Well, what comes after that doesn’t matter. As long as Caroline is fixed.

“I can do this. I’ve done the impossible before. Just need to find a shrew, get the leftover berries from the pie, and find a den. Easy,” He says to himself, unconvincing but trying, and swings open his workroom door to make a break for the exit—

Only to run face-first into Caroline, nearly toppling them both over with the force. “Ah—!”

Caroline’s hands grab hold of his hips, holding him in place and steadying them both as Quanyii looks down with a guilty expression as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Where do you think you’re going?” Caroline asks, the gruffness of her sleep-addled voice nowhere in sight. Had she been pretending to sleep? What for?

“I was just—“ He starts, flustered at being caught so easily, when he feels Caroline tighten her grip on his hips.

“It’s too late, you’re not going anywhere. I’m not allowing you to leave the house… No, I’m not allowing you to leave my sight anymore.” Then she picks him up and tosses him over her shoulder, heading back to their bedroom.

Quanyii yelps, grabbing hold of the back of Caroline’s shirt as he’s carried unceremoniously back to the room and dropped on the bed, thrashing for a moment before righting himself to make eye contact with his wife. The room is still dark, save for the moonlight still flickering in, but that just gives more reason for concern.

Because now, Caroline’s eyes glow a bright, ominous pink, seeming to cut through the darkness and display Quanyii’s mistake right in front of him. Her eyes, once warm and brown and beautiful, have now been replaced by hearts that bore into the witch. “I want you to stay in here with me forever, you don’t need to go anywhere. What more could you need than me? What more could I need than you?”

Quanyii has to think fast, because the longer this goes on the more… obsessive she becomes. How long before Caroline stops eating and drinking water too? How long before she dies because of this? 

Quanyii flickers his eyes about, thinking as hard as he could. There has to be something he can do, anything—

Wait. That’s it. Sleeping nettles. Quanyii had tucked some away in his bag for bait mixture just before he’d been caught. That’s just the thing he needs; he did say they were good for a pinch, right? What’s one cup of tea anyway?

“You’re right, sweets,” Quanyii says, putting his own hands on Caroline’s hips to soothe her, smiling at her wickedly as he continued, “I don’t need to go anywhere. But you know what I do need? A nice cup of tea, I can’t seem to fall back asleep. Wanna make some with me?”

Caroline’s face seems to soften just a bit, touching his cheek soothingly as he says, “As much as I’d miss you while you slept, you do deserve to get a good night’s rest… I suppose one cup won’t hurt. C’mon then, stay close to me.”

Quanyii does as he’s told, holding Caroline’s hand as he follows her to the kitchen. He feels bad for what he has to do, but if it’s the only way Caroline will let him leave the house, then so be it. She needs the rest anyway – staying up for too long can have dire consequences. More so than the potion has surely already caused.

Quanyii presses himself along Caroline’s back as the knight begins to prepare their tea, setting the water on to boil on the stove. Caroline makes up a packet of tea to strain into the water, but before she can put it in the pot, Quanyii distracts her with a kiss.

It takes some fumbling, with Caroline’s hand twisted into the back of his shirt and the other wrapping around his neck, but Quanyii manages to slip the sleeping nettles into the mixture. It’s not like he’ll be drinking the tea anyway, this is just the fastest, safest way to get it into Caroline’s system… even if he doesn’t like doing it.

“The water… is going to boil over…” Quanyii mumbles against Caroline’s lips when the kiss goes on for far longer than is needed, but it’s hard to bring himself to break away. He loves kissing Caroline, and if this is the last time he’s going to be able to do it… well, he wants to make it count.

“Screw the water..” Caroline mumbles back, her hand drifting up under the back of Quanyii’s shirt— No, it’s not right. As much as he wants this, he won’t allow that to happen while she’s enchanted.

Quanyii breaks away and catches Caroline’s chin before she can dive back in, trying to keep the heartbreak from his face. “No no, you promised. Tea, then bed, okay?”

Caroline licks her lips for a moment, her eyes soft and hazy and pink, before she nods finally and clears her throat, “Tea, then bed… As long as I get to look at you, I don’t care.”

Quanyii smiles, a sad little thing, whispering, “I know, my frost-bitten girl. I know.” He turns around and places the mixture into the pot, watching as the tea seeps down into the hot water. Caroline stays pressed to his side all the while, with Quanyii’s fingers finding purchase in her hair.

Caroline presses her face into Quanyii’s shoulder and yawns as the smell begins wafting into the air, rubbing her eyes with slightly uncoordinated movements. Quanyii keeps petting her, soft and careful, holding his breath as the sleeping nettles begin to release their gas.

The witch feels his sleepy knight yawn against her, holding him even tighter. “I haven’t slept well in days…” She says, more to herself, and Quanyii resists the urge to say, “ And whose fault is that? ”

By technicality, it’s Quanyii’s. So, the question goes unasked.

Seconds tick by like hours, days even, before the mixture is ready. The witch keeps his breathing to a minimum, enough to keep Caroline’s suspicions low, but not enough to take in more air than necessary. It’d be all for naught if he drugged himself.

Quanyii’s hands shake as he pours the cups, looking down into the murky black liquid with regret. Oh, how he loathes what he must do. It’s for Caroline’s safety and benefit, but the act of it feels wrong all the same.

“Drink up, sweets,” He says, passing over one of the cups with a smile, leaning down to kiss Caroline’s forehead in return. “This’ll make all our problems go away. You’ll feel much better, trust me.”

Quanyii watches, his own cup in hand, as Caroline downs the entire mixture in a matter of seconds, as if taking her eyes off him long enough to drink it was a herculean effort. She slams the cup back down to face Quanyii again, reaching for him once more, “Alright, it’s down, can we go back to bed now?”

“Of course, hun,” He says and sets down his own still full cup, then puts his arm around her waist. Any second now the effects would kick in and—

“I… Oh, I don’t feel so good…” Caroline says, leaning her weight into his side once more, his legs wobbling as she tries valiantly to keep herself up. “Somefings… wron’…” Caroline slurred, scrambling and failing to grab onto something. “I can’n… eep mm ‘es o’en…”

Quanyii doesn’t let her flounder for too long before he lifts the knight into his arms bridal style, holding her steady. It doesn’t take her any longer than to exit the kitchen before she’s out cold, drooling onto Quanyii’s breast.

He apologizes with each step, taking Caroline back to their room and tucking her in comfortably. The nettles would last for about twelve hours, but with the knight depriving herself of sleep for nights prior… she might be out for longer. Either way, it should hopefully be enough to leave and return safely with time left to spare.

Quanyii kisses Caroline’s sweaty forehead gently, pushing her hair away from her face as he whispers to her nose, “I’ll be back soon, I promise. I’ll come home and make everything better. Just wait for me, okay, my darling knight?”

He straightens back out and turns to leave, only to stop by Gawain standing up and staring at him. Quanyii jumps a little, surprised by his sudden awakeness, and goes to scold the dog for doing so– but then he stops. The witch is good at many things, it’s true… but tracking has never been a strong suit. And if Quanyii’s going to do this as quickly as possible, then he needs someone who’s good at finding things fast.

And, well, Gawain isn’t a someone, but his nose is sharp and fierce and he’s hunted down enough beasts to be considered an expert tracker among the knights.

“And I’m taking Gawain with me too, okay? We’ll be back safe soon,” Quanyii says, patting his thigh to get the pup’s attention. His ears perk up curiously, tilting his head to the side as he keeps watching the witch. For a moment, he does nothing, staying put on the bed. For that moment, Quanyii fears he’ll be on his own.

But then Gawain barks, loud enough it would usually cause Caroline to stir immediately. Now she only mumbles something incoherent and curls up tighter, out like a burnt match. Quanyii breathes a sigh of relief, then pats his thigh again, more forcefully.

Gawain hops off the bed, his nails clicking on the hardwood as the two of them exit the room. The pug waits by the front entrance as Quanyii stops by the kitchen, going to gather some of the leftover berries from their pie-making adventure. 

And what else should be scuttling around in the kitchen but the other part of the bait he needs– a little shrew, scurrying around for crumbs. How… lucky.

Quanyii picks up a few spare berries and mixes in what’s left of the nettles he’s got, then puts them down on the ground. He steps out of the kitchen and out of sight, and before long the little creature takes the bait. 

Within seconds it falls asleep, flopped over on its side with berry-stained fur, allowing Quanyii to scoop it up with gentle hands, thank it for the service it will provide, and place it in his pocket. It might be bait, but Quanyii isn’t cruel.

With that, he adds the rest of the berries to a container in his bag, staining his fingers wine purple in the process. With that, he heads for the door where Gawain waits, his tail wagging excitedly. He whispers, “C’mon baby boy, let’s go get mommy her antidote.”

Chapter Text

The sky is just beginning to brighten when the pair make their way into the forest. The sun hasn’t breached the horizon, but the early dredges of orange begin to peak over the edge, signaling the end of the night. Bad news for Quanyii, considering the beastie he needs prefers the cool hours of sundown.

However, if he's lucky (how ironic too, to need the luck he tried so hard to give Caroline previously), then the bait would do its job.

That all depends on Quanyii actually finding one first. Good thing Gawain’s here to do just that.

“Alright my little helper, you and I are gonna get this roaming beast. You ready? I promise I’ll let you have a slice of pie once we’re back. I won’t even tell mommy the next time you pee in the corner,” He says, leaning down to pet the pug’s head. He yaps excitedly, wagging his tail so hard his entire backside sways.

Then, just like that, he switches over to work mode, turning his nose up to the air and sniffing around. When he catches nothing of note, he turns to Quanyii, waiting patiently for his word. Quanyii, to be fair, doesn’t know any more than he does, but they’ve gotta start somewhere.

“Okay, let’s go… this way, towards the Coldsnaps. It’s dark and cold in there, maybe we’ll get lucky,” Quanyii gestures towards the southeast area, into the deeper, denser part of the swamp. The canopy overhead keeps most light from shining through, and most of the creatures who reside there have developed some type of bioluminescence as a counter.

Gawain sniffs in the direction, just to be safe, before he snorts and pads off, leaving Quanyii to follow closely behind. 

It’s a long and boring hike, birds beginning to chirp and the rustling of underbrush nearby sounding the alarms of the waking world around them. There’s a risk of Gawain getting distracted by the noises, but the most he does is pause to sniff in the general direction of a scurrying creature before getting back to the task at hand. Quanyii beams silently– her little knight has trained him well. (Just another one of the many things she will miss should this go south).

“I hope it’s not much longer…” The witch complains after a few more minutes of walking, hissing softly as he walks past another patch of thorns that scrape his legs. The swamp is thick and hot and miserable. He wants to get home, wants to cuddle his wife, wants this whole thing to be over with. He wishes he had never made the stupid potion in the first place.

The soft floor under him squishes noisily, wet against his boots. It’s monotonous, squish after squish after squish. “Maybe this is just a waste of time, pup. I feel like we’ve been walking for hours now,” The witch whines, even as he keeps his feet moving valiantly, not daring to risk stopping now. Just a little longer, that’s all he needs.

He’s so caught up in his own little pep talk, he doesn’t notice the world growing dark until the sudden shift in temperature causes him to shiver. He pauses his walking, nearly running into Gawain as he stops and smells the stem of the thing blocking out the sun– a gigantic mushroom. 

The disappearance of light is one thing, it’s the absence of heat that causes him shock. It was so… instant. Even in the early morning hours, the land is usually humid and hot. It’s the bane of Quanyii’s existence, as a man who hates being sticky and sweaty and gross. 

Yet here, where the light cannot shine and heat is dispelled, Quanyii feels the sweat that had begun to form in a thin layer on his skin grow rapidly chill. It’s a stark difference to realize he’s shivering.

“Would you look at that… Guess we found it after all, huh…” Quanyii talks aloud to himself, allowing the whimsy of it all to overwhelm him just a bit. He’s never ventured this far into the Coldsnaps of the swamp, but it’s… quite pleasant, actually. If he wasn’t on a mission to save his wife, he’d definitely find himself exploring.

It’s beautiful. Mushrooms as tall as trees that help with the canopy top, the gills shining with spotted bioluminescence; if he didn’t know any better he could mistake them for stars. The air is so cold that he can see his breath, and watch it crystalize at the same time. Moss (or… “ Moss .” When he grows curious and touches it, it flinches under his hand) that grows on the sides of trees, silvery in color and shimmering with a glitter-like appearance.

Quanyii makes a mental note to return here when he’s less busy. Perhaps he’ll even bring Caroline when– well… If . The reminder slaps him across the face: there’s no guarantee he’ll be doing anything with Caroline anymore. He swallows the lump in his throat, tightening his hands into fists (and digging his nails into his palms in the process), and keeps going. Whimsical as it may be, there’s a more pressing issue at hand.

Gawain trudges on, satisfied with his inspection of the new area. He stays in the witch’s sight as he sniffs the area for any clues that could lead to the beastie. Good news is the Abhorsent is known to secrete… a very distinct smell, from its slime to the hair in its follicles. Bad news… it’s a bad smell, one Quanyii is not looking forward to having to experience again.

In hindsight, it makes sense that it would be used for a repulsion spell. Quanyii feels nauseous just thinking about it. He’s not going to think about having to use it as lipstick later on. And he’s definitely not telling Caroline. 

The witch grows nervous again as time ticks on with nothing to show for. Perhaps there isn’t one in the area and this is all for naught. Which would be absolutely horrible and the very idea is making Quanyii tear up, because if he can’t find one then he can’t fix this mess. He sniffles, suddenly overwhelmed–

When Gawain begins growling at something. 

It startles him out of his head for a moment. Quanyii looks in his direction to find him pressing his nose to the ground with his paws covering his face, whining loudly. Like.. he’s trying to block out the smell of something disgusting.

“You find somethin’ for me, baby?” Quanyii says, hope sputtering up in his voice as he practically prances over and kneels down beside him. In the mud is a clump of black hair, matted with what Quanyii can only assume isn’t all from the mud. 

Beside it, there’s the remainder of a letter that looks suspiciously like a letter of resignation with very familiar handwriting and a few grey feathers. Huh… Well, at least that’s one problem solved.

Just to be safe though, he picks up the hair and what’s left of the letter, shoving the latter in his empty pocket. Even before he brings the slick lock to Gawain's snout, Quanyii knows he's caught the scent. The pug snorts and growls again, overwhelmed just from here. There’s only one thing this atrocious smell could belong to.

They’ve found the beastie. 

Whether it be nearby or disappeared, the hair is fresh enough to still be slimy. Gawain has the scent now too, as much as Quanyii and he both hate it. It should be easy to find from here.

“Yes, yes! Good boy, I’m so proud of you! C’mon, follow it for me! Find it again honey, we’ve gotta hurry,” the witch encourages, standing up and bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. It’s the best stroke of luck he’s had all morning (it’s still morning, isn’t it? He can’t really tell, and it feels like he’s been out here for hours, but who knows).

Gawain lifts his head, nose twitching as he sneezes– an understandable response. It takes him a moment longer to get his wits back, but he’s very good at what he does and he’s professional at that. He shakes his head, shaking off the fog, then lifts his nose to the air.

No time at all he’s got a match, turning in a direction before taking off and bolting. Quanyii yelps before stumbling to catch up, surprised by the sudden burst of energy. At the very least though, maybe this means good things.

“Wait wait– C’mon pup I can’t run that fast– Hold on–” He pants after Gawain, struggling to keep up but always keeping the pug in his sights. Gawain's collar jingles as he runs, scaring off anything nearby before Quanyii has a chance to stomp on it underfoot. He keeps a hand over the sleeping shrew in his pocket, just to make sure it’s not injured in the mad dash.

“Gawain– Slow down–” Quanyii wheezes again as the dog bursts into a clearing, where he’s nearly sent tumbling into the glowing river that cuts through the middle. Quanyii tumbles through the foliage line after, catching himself just barely on a tree before he too is almost sent flying in.

Gawain barks, pacing along the bank and growling at something. When Quanyii looks to see what it is… his heart sinks.

There it is, the creature of the hour, all ten of its powerful hooved feet stomping in the other direction as it runs away from the pug that’s barely larger than its hoof.

“No, no, no !” He yells, distressed and overwhelmed. He runs right up to the edge of the river, getting shin-deep before he can’t get any further without risking being swept away or turned into a block of ice. He’s shivering, clutching at his hair, and continues yelling even as the sound of hoofbeats get farther and farther away.

“Come back you stupid thing! You coward! You idiot! You absolute dingbat, good-for-nothing-but-trouble you–! You– Y-You cursed your wife! And now you might lose her forever all because of some stupid overconfidence that isn’t even rightly earned! You’re a horrible witch– monster– thing– Arghh!” 

He screams into the air, tossing his head back and throwing his arms, so loud and so primal that it feels like it’s ripping something out from inside of his chest as he does. He’s not really yelling at the beastie, not anymore.

Just like that, it’s over. Sure, they could try to chase it again, but what’s the point? There’s no way in hell they could cross this river without drowning or freezing. By the time they find a way across, the scent trail would already be long gone. Even if, by some divine miracle, they managed to find the beastie again, Gawain was just going to chase it off before they even get close. It doesn’t matter how many times they find it. It’s over.

Quanyii stands there for a moment longer, literally shaking in his boots, watching the space it made in disbelief. He backs up slowly, out of the water and back onto dry land. Gawain turns his attention to the witch, as he pants from the exertion of his outburst. 

Then, he starts laughing, high and hysterical. Gawain makes a soft whining sound, worried as he presses his wet nose to the side of Quanyii’s knee.

“Of course!” He says, voice strangled through his theatrics, “All I needed was a little luck– I-I couldn't even manage that! It's not like luck was the whole reason we’re in this mess… And now my only chance at making things right has run off. That’s just so funny I could just– I could just–”

His laughter gives way to the real emotion he feels, something he’s been trying to avoid since realizing his mistake. Tears, large and heavy, begin streaming down his face. They sting from the cold, and maybe that too is what he deserves. He’s ruined Caroline’s life, all because he was too prideful.

He sits down heavily, dropping his face into his hands as his shoulders begin to shake. “I’m sorry, sweets. I’m sorry I made you all… messed up in the brain, I was just trying to help, I swear…” He sobs, sniffling loudly. Gawain lays down beside him, whining again as he paws nervously at Quanyii’s foot. The witch turns his head to look down at his companion, moving one hand over to pet his head.

“I know you didn’t mean it, I’m not upset with you,” He comforts, blinking the tears from his eyes. Gawain doesn’t like to see either of his moms in distress, so Quanyii does his best to put on a brave face. Whether it works or not is debatable.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do about Caroline…” He whispers to the pug, vulnerable now that they’re alone. Maybe he should have just been more open in the first place too. It’s too late to do anything about it, though. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do…”

He continues mumbling to himself, talking just to talk, “Universe, if you’re listening, you got what you wanted. I messed up, I was wrong, I should have read the warnings and been more careful. I should have done so many other things too, but I’m... I’m sorry. I’m sorry, and if there’s anything you can do to fix it… Please… Please, I don’t want her to be like this and I don’t want to lose her. Please…”

Nothing happens, of course. It’s not like he was expecting to get an answer or a miracle. Even still, he turns his head back and shifts until he can hide his face in his knees. He sniffles, letting himself wallow.

That is, until he hears Gawain beginning to growl again, soft and careful. Quanyii turns his head to look at him, watching the pug stand up and make himself look bigger. The witch sniffles, lifting up to look at him properly when… there’s a tug on his hair.

He freezes at the pull, feeling whatever it is pull back just a bit before continuing. He looks out of the corner of his eye, turning his head just enough to see whatever has grabbed him.

Immediately he’s greeted by a sickly forest green, bluish hues all throughout the coat. Sharp ridges that protrude under the skin that form a bony rib structure. Ten massive hooved feet that he somehow didn’t hear sneaking up on him. A maw filled with rows of sharpened, jagged teeth that are currently chowing down on a section of his hair, leaving a disgusting sludge behind.

Quanyii only saw the creature for a second before, but this doesn’t appear to be the same one. This one looks… older maybe. Less skittish, or perhaps just doesn’t care. Whatever the case may be, Quanyii has never been more thankful to the universe or the monsters in the swamp than right in this moment.

“Um, excuse me? Can I have my hair back please, it’s not edible,” Quanyii says, softly, taking the bit close to his head so it doesn’t pull and trying to loosen it from the creature’s mouth without making it angry. The creature makes a sound in defiance, curling its lips up.

Quanyii’s only saving grace then is his stuffy nose from his breakdown, because it begins to secrete the repulsive-smelling slime as a warning. Which immediately coats the chunk in the beastie’s jaws, and drips onto other sections of his hair. Gross.

Even still, he can smell it, and definitely so can Gawain. He begins whining, overwhelmed by the putrid scent as he backs away and tries to cover his nose again with his paws. Burying his face in the dirt.

“Thanks for the help! What a tough guard dog you are!” Quanyii calls, mostly teasing because he’s not exactly enjoying this encounter either. Quanyii tries again, tugging a little harder on his hair and begging, “Okay thank you universe you’ve done enough please let me go now, I need to get home. Please? I– Wait! I’ve got something better!”

He digs into his pocket and pulls out the sleeping shrew, then once more through his bag for the crushed berries. He slathers the shrew in it, getting the creature’s attention at the smell. “See? A little snack for you, please let go of my hair. You smell really bad.”

The creature tugs a little more, trying to decide if it’s worth it to keep up their game, before finally it huffs and lets the clump drop. It makes its way into Quanyii’s shoulder with a wet sound and he barely surprises the urge to gag as the creature moves to his hand and accepts the offering.

Satisfied and full, the Abhorsent takes its leave, treading ground with surprisingly quiet hoofbeats. Quanyii wastes hardly any time at all, fishing out the empty jar from his bag, making a disgusted face all the while. He takes the wet hair from his shoulder and drains it out into the jar, gagging and mumbling “ ew ew ew ew ” the whole time he does.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it fills the jar up enough to count. He washes what's left of it out of his hair until it's as clean as it'll get for now, and then puts the lid on the container. He shivers one last time for good measure, thanking the universe that his nose is clogged.

“Okay pup… Let’s go home. We’ve got work to do. And then the longest bath of my entire life, actually.”

It’s early evening by the time their little cottage finds his view again. He closes in quickly, the pep finding his step again. The door is still closed and it didn’t look like anything had changed since he’d gone, so perhaps he’s lucky and Caroline had slept that entire time. Perhaps he’d be even luckier and get to make the entire thing before he was disturbed.

He won’t push it, though. He’s slightly careless as he brings the water bucket up from the well, losing half the water in the process. It’ll be enough, he tells himself as he unties the rope, tossing it haphazardly back into the well then heads towards the front door. He holds his breath as he cracks the door open, listening for sounds of movement.

When he hears nothing, he unlocks the door and pushes it open. Still nothing, no sound of his name being called or someone’s sleep being disturbed. He breathes a sigh of relief, putting a hand on his chest. Then he looks down at his little companion, who has remained a little farther away from Quanyii than he usually does. “Stayin’ outside? I don’t blame you one bit, pup. I’ll leave the door open for you.”

Quanyii does as he says (partially to help air out the house) as he quickly heads inside and towards his workroom, only making a quick stop to poke his head into their bedroom. Caroline remains asleep, having tossed the blankets off at some point and now currently lays face down. The witch’s gaze softens, his heart fluttering at the sight.

Now is not the time to be all lovey-dovey! Go make the potion before she wakes up! The logical (and most underused) part of his brain yells, jumpstarting him again, forcing him to tear his gaze from his peacefully sleeping wife.

He clutches the bucket closer to his form before he hastily bustles off towards his workshop; the usual spring in his step is nowhere to be seen (This whole stressful situation and “causing problems” thing really puts a big damper on his mood).

Kicking the door closed behind him, he tosses the water into the cauldron, nearly sending it all over the floor in the process. Thankfully it only splashes a little bit, and Quanyii discards the bucket hastily on the floor. He yanks open his bag, pulls out the jar with the last missing ingredient, and slams it down on the desk hard enough to rattle everything else.

As night begins to fall once more over the house, the witch cracks his knuckles and shakes out his nerves. A blackened coal at the bottom of the pit begins to glow warm and inviting as Quanyii pleads loudly in his mind for a fire to grow. It sparks and with a fwoosh the fire roars to life once again. “Thank you,” He says immediately after in an effort to keep on the universe’s good side.

As the water slowly boils, he focuses his effort on putting the bergamot and earl grey tea mixture into a strainer along with the ground-up mint leaves. He stuffs it as full as he can, just to be safe, then places it gently over the side so it dangles down into the mixture.

He peeks over into the book just to be sure, then moves on to fighting with the lid of the molasses jar, grumbling frustratedly to himself about how of course it’s molasses, it always has to be molasses.

He finally gets it open when the mixture is nice and bubbling, just before he can decide to smash it on the ground. He spoons a globful out and taps it on the side until it falls in, then closes it back up and puts it as far away from his field of view as he can.

The pollen is easier to add – the cork pops right out of its container with ease. In the light of the fire, the pollen sparkles and shines like stars and if Quanyii was any less of an expert (and any more self-destructive), he’d find a way to make it work as makeup. Now, though, he dumps the last of it into the cauldron, seeing specks of it glimmer inside. It’d be pretty if it wasn’t for the context.

Next goes the milk powder, and sugar only after that — Caroline had told him stories her family had spread of how putting milk before sugar was supposed to bring bad luck. And well, that’s exactly what he needs to reverse this mess.

All that’s left is the beeswax and slime to bring it all together. He holds his breath as he opens the jar and shakes the content inside, making a disgusted face as he does. He doesn’t take a break until the jar is empty and the lid is screwed back on– he’s ignoring the fact that he currently smells just as bad. Then, the beeswax drops in with a finalizing, satisfying plunk.

With all the ingredients done, he just has to mix it up and wait for it to finish. Also find a container for the mixture, but luckily his old lipstick tube from the first potion is still sitting empty on the table– it pays to not clean up sometimes.

He busies himself with fishing the remaining lipstick the rest of the way out, because if he has to sit and watch the water boiling while twiddling his thumbs he’s going to throw up. “Almost done, almost done, almost done,” He sing-songs to himself, humming off-key as a distraction.

Quanyii lets it boil for 5 minutes at most, mixing it every now and then, but it feels like eons have gone waiting for the potion to thicken. It’s still runny, but the beeswax does its job at making it smooth. It’s a pretty color, no thanks to the molasses ingredient, but it’s finally done.

He douses the fire with a damp cloth, steam filling the room as the light dies out. He waits for the potion to cool just a bit, enough to where he wouldn’t scald his fingertips off, then pipes out a small bit to put into the empty tube.

He fills it up, cleaning up the excess, and just as he sets it aside to dry he hears a sleep-filled, distressed voice come from the other room. “Quanyii? Where are you?”

The witch’s heart rate skyrockets as he listens to his wife groggily climb from their bed, stumbling through the room. He feels awful leaving her to her own devices, but he tells himself it’s just for a little longer. Just until the balm cools and hardens. The mint will help, hopefully, but it can only do so much.

“Please,” He begs quietly as Caroline throws open the bedroom door and rushes out, footsteps stomping down the hall as she frantically searches for him, “Please, please, please let it cool faster. I’ll do anything, I’ll start blowing on it if that does anything.”

Quanyii does just that, leaning over the mixture and gently blowing on it, squeezing his eyes shut as the sound of Caroline’s footsteps finds its way to the closed door. “Quanyii… are you in here? Why’s the door closed, are you hiding? Why are you hiding from me?”

The door opens slowly, creaking eerily. In the darkness of the room her pink eyes glow bright and ominous, illuminating the shadows of her face and the cheshire grin splitting her lips. “There you are. I missed you, promise me you’ll never leave my sight again, okay? If you do… I don’t know what I’d have to do to keep it from happening…”

She approaches carefully, slowly, hands outstretched and reaching for him and Quanyii wastes no more time before he snatches up the balm and applies it hastily to his lips.

“Please let this work,” He whispers under his breath before he goes willingly into her arms, trapped by his middle. “Come home to me, my frost-bitten girl. Please, come back.”

“Let’s—” She starts and before she can say anything else, Quanyii grabs her face and pulls her up, kissing her full of desperation and longing.

Kissing Caroline is always good. Every kiss from her is wonderful. Quanyii can feel every bit of love and adoration in each press of their lips and the way her hands slot against his back and skin. But now, it’s different. There are sparks, warm against his lips, that feel unnatural and almost painful as the potion does its job and attacks the spell in Caroline’s blood.

He holds them there until it doesn’t hurt any longer, until he can barely breathe with his nose pressed so close to Caroline’s cheek. Then Caroline pulls away, and Qunayii takes a moment longer for his eyes to flutter open.

Caroline’s eyelids greet him. Seconds pass with nothing exchanged but their breathing. Quanyii’s stomach twists, not wanting to face the reality that Caroline might very well be lost to him forever. Had he been too late? Would this be the end?

“Sweets? Please say something, you’re worrying me,” He tries, laughing nervously as tears swell in his eyes, exposing the fear he’d been so careful at hiding previously. He doesn’t care anymore, if this is it, he might as well make his regret known. “You have to let me tell you how sorry I am. If you don’t love me anymore, I need to be able to let you go, so please say something .”

“A true knight only looks at the evidence presented,” She says suddenly, keeping her eyes closed as an impish grin begins to stretch across her face. “How do we know your solution isn’t temporary? We should look at all the facts here — maybe you should kiss me again to make sure my report back is well-rounded.”

Then her eyes open, filling out her face in that cheeky I told you so way of hers and Quanyii sees it. Her peepers are brown again, with thankfully no lingering pinkness and regular, circular pupils. The knot in his stomach uncoils and he laughs, sniffling as he wipes his eyes quickly. They both know she’s already seen his tears, but he can keep some of his dignity.

“You’re so mean to me, you let me think you didn’t love me anymore!” Quanyii pouts, even as he keeps laughing, wrapping his arms tight around his wife’s neck until they’re pressed flush together. Caroline buries her head into his neck, right at home.

“Says the one who put me under a cursed potion in the first place,” Her tone is stern, but greatly diminishing her words are the fact that they’re said against the witch’s skin, muffled and tickling him, “I should make you sleep on the couch for that, you know. I’ve got every right to do that and then some.”

Quanyii would happily sleep on the couch forever if it meant keeping his horrible, cruel knight just the way she was. “I’m sorry… I messed up, I didn’t pay attention and then you got your mind all corrupted and unfun junk,” The witch admits, soft and vulnerable, and Caroline pulls back to take his face in her hands.

“I know you’re sorry. There’s no point in beating yourself u now, is there? I’m here, I’m alright,” She whispers as Quanyii leans his head down until their foreheads touch, a relieved sigh falling from his lips. They stay like that for a moment, just basking in each other’s unhindered presence.

Until Quanyii asks, “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

To which Caroline responds, her shit-eating grin audible through her words, “Absolutely not. I expect you to make this up to me for a good, long while.”

Quanyii sighs dramatically, putting a hand on his forehead as he swoons, “Oh dear, sir Caroline the sexy, how can I ever make up for this transgression? I’ll do anything.”

The knight in question pauses to think, her eyes running over her wife’s form. Then she nods, her decision made. “You can start, witch,” She begins, then wraps her arms around Quanyii’s waist and hoists him over her shoulder again, causing the witch to yelp and grab ahold of her shirt. When she’s got him situated, she continues, careful not to hit his head as she turns around, “By taking a bath, because you smell atrocious. And then, I believe a nap is a top priority. Knight’s orders, after all.”

Quanyii shrieks and laughs, grabbing ahold of Caroline's hips to steady himself as she takes them toward the bathroom. "That sounds wonderful, sweets. I’m so glad you’re back to your old self, you know. You were super boring all potioned, you didn’t even banter with me!" He giggles, doing his best to stay still.

"And when we’re done with alllll that, we can officially celebrate your un-potioning," He continues, lowering his voice seductively (ignoring the fact that it’s completely undercut by his need for a long bath). Then, in his normal, mischievous tone, "Also, the fact that you'll probably be out of a job! But hey, maybe you’ll get lucky and the pigeon got eaten."

"Yes, thank you for that." Caroline's tone is sarcastic, but the smile in her voice is audible. "I'll deal with it later," she added softer, with a touch of exasperation and a whole lot more fondness in her tone.

Gawain has found his way back into the house by now, catching up and trotting after the pair with his tail wagging. Looks like airing the house out did the trick… slightly.

Quanyii is glad to know he’s just as happy that everything is back to normal. Well, normal for them anyway.

...It probably won't last.