Archive of Our Own ^beta

Quirin looked up into the wreckage that was once his home, the stone walls crumbling and worn, speared through black rocks.

It is clear that no one has lived here for a while, and though Quirin could probably fix up the building and make it habitable again, something about the area seems eerie, and he’d prefer to continue the trend.

Varian, Hugo and Rapunzel stand next to him, awaiting his decision.

“Thank you for your generous offer of materials to fix-up Old Corona, princess,” Quirin begins respectfully, “but it seems like most of the people have already moved on, so I fear it’s probably time for me to do the same.”

The princess smiles, “That’s fine. I’m sure we can figure out somewhere for you to stay.”

“You can stay with us,” Varian offers eagerly, Hugo nodding beside him, “We can clean out the guest room for you.”

“I would love to,” Quirin assures, before looking over to the princess, “If that’s okay.”

Rapunzel shrugs, stepping back, “It’s not up to me, it’s their house.”

Quirin’s brain short circuits.

“What?”

A couple hours later Quirin is standing in front of a small cottage in the woods between the ruins of Old Corona and the capital city.

The house is nice, don’t get him wrong, but he still can’t quite wrap his head around the idea his clumsy, irresponsible teenage son is a homeowner.

He had expected that Fredric and Arianna had taken Varian in once he was trapped, and Varian and Hugo were living in the castle.

His opinion of his old friend was far too high as he had learned when Varian, Rapunzel, and Hugo had filled him in on what had happened in the last year.

He didn’t really know how to feel yet about what Varian had apparently been willing to do and had done for him, so he resolved not to think about that right now, pushing those thoughts down until he can sort through them later.

He’s sure he and Varian will end up having many long talks about it, but for now he won’t worry about that because Varian is beaming as he drags his father around the house and Hugo is smiling as he interjects with wry comments every once in a while and Quirin has never been happier.

“What’s that over there?” He asks, pointing to a section of the basement/Laboratory that was mostly covered up by a sheet.

Varian and Hugo exchange looks. They know that what’s back there is a fair number of black rocks that Varian had been practicing growing and shrinking away, but they didn’t know how Quirin would take that. Sure, Varian had used the Moonstone’s power to free Quirin but at the time Quirin had been pretty out of it, and as he hadn’t made any comments about it yet Varian was pretty sure he hadn’t noticed.

Which caused a whole new issue.

Because Varian wasn’t sure he wanted Quirin to know.

It was bad enough that Quirin now knew about his brief stint on the wrong side of the law, about what a terrible person he had been. He didn’t know if he could take his dad knowing about this as well. Quirin had tried so hard to keep everything about the moonstone and Brotherhood away from Varian and yet here Varian was, using the power of the stone that had destroyed his fathers kingdom for fun, testing it and enjoying the rush of power it brought.

Quirin would tell him it was too dangerous, that he shouldn’t be using this power, that the moonstone was dangerous.

Varian knew his father would tell him to suppress it, clamp it down and hide it.

And Varian didn’t want to.

But he had just gotten his father back and he didn’t think he was strong enough to refuse if Quirin asked right now.

So he couldn’t find out.

The look in his eyes seems to communicate that to Hugo, who is quick to try and cover for him.

“Oh, that’s just where we keep all our bombs,” Hugo explains quickly and Quirin looks concerned.

“Bombs?”

Varian resists the urge to face-palm. That was perhaps the only explanation worse than the truth.

Hugo laughed nervously, he panicked okay!

“Yeah, our alchemical bombs that we used to break out of prison…” Hugo wilted under the weight of Quirin’s stare, trailing off guiltily and the taller man narrowed his eyes.

Something about this seemed… off to the man.

He had heard about the way Varian and Hugo had managed to become such a threat to the kingdom, kidnapping the queen and then later taking it over with the help of some fellow prisoners they broke out of jail (though no details had been shared with him, which he supposes was to be expected), yet the idea of his Varian, his sweet young son who cried when he accidentally squished a bug, building bombs just didn’t sit right with him. So it must be something else his son wanted to hide from him.

Striding over and pulling aside the curtain before his son can stop him, Quirin feels his heart stutter in his chest.

“Varian… What is this?”

The boy winces, shrinking back as if to hide from his father, “Surprise? Uh, you were right? About your theory in the journal.”

Quirin’s eyes dart up to the blue stripe in Varian’s hair and the boy nods.

Quirin swallows hard, leaning against a nearby wall as his mind spins, attempting to process the new information.

Well, not new. He had known, but to see it confirmed is… different.

Hugo watches him warily, he thinks Quirin meant what he said earlier, that he will be a better father to Varian, but words don’t really mean anything.

Hugo will give him this chance for now, see if he can live by his promise, but if he shows even the slightest chance of hurting Varian, Hugo will not hesitate to remove him from their property.

At this point Hugo has done a lot of worse things than beat up his boyfriend's father, especially to protect Varian.

“Varian… I’m so sorry,” Quirin finally murmurs, looking down towards his son.

“Dad,” Varian moves forward to place a hand on his clearly struggling dad’s arm, “It’s okay.”

Quirin shakes his head, “I never meant to drag you into my past like this, I wanted to protect you from it, but now because of me you are cursed with this terrible power.”

Varian looks down. He had feared his dad would react like this, would think he was evil for using his power like this, but he had still hoped.

One look at their faces and Hugo can tell what they're both thinking, can see the self-deprecating thoughts swirling through their heads, thinking the other hates them when in reality neither hates the other.

Apparently Hugo is the only one with some goddamn common sense. He swears he hates these overthinking, emotionally-stunted morons.

“He’s not cursed, Quirin,” Hugo snaps, “Yes, he has the power of the moonstone but it’s not a curse and he doesn’t blame you for it. And Varian, he doesn’t think you’re evil, he might think the moonstone itself is evil and feels guilty for forcing you to deal with it, but he could never think you’re evil.”

The two people in question blink at him in surprise before turning to each other, equally wide-eyed.

Hugo rolls his eyes, “Now that we’ve figured that out, I’m sure you’ve got a lot to talk about so I’ll just go wait out here and give you some space.”

Varian stares after him gratefully as Hugo pulls the curtain covering the corner back into place and goes to wait back in the main laboratory. He doesn’t know what he’d do without Hugo to see through the mess in his brain and bring him back to reality.

Quirin looks at his son oddly, “So you don’t hate me?”

Varian turns back to his father, “No. I don’t hate you. I’m a little upset with you for having never told me anything about this side of our lives, but I don’t hate you.”

Quirin hangs his head in shame, “I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have told you but I was afraid-”

“It’s okay, dad,” Varian assures, “You don’t need to explain. I- I get it.”

Quirin almost melts, pulling his son into a tight hug. What did he do to deserve Varian?

“We’ll figure this out together. I promise,” Quirin mutters to his son, rambling on, “I’ll help you learn to control the power and hide it-”

Varian cuts him off, suddenly pulling back, “No!”

He can’t believe he let himself be pulled into such a false sense of security, thinking his dad might understand!

“No?”

“I can control this power, I’ve learned how to use it and I’m getting better every day. I don’t want to hide it!” Varian insists, eyes wide and pleading for his father to understand why he can’t just hide away.

“But Varian… It’s dangerous.” Quirin doesn’t understand. The Moonstone is dangerous, a threat, and they need to suppress it so it never has a chance to hurt Varian.

“It’s a part of me!” The boy responds, the magic under his skin bubbling in response to his strong emotions, “And it’s always been a part of me even if I couldn’t feel it until recently. I’m not going to hide it!”

“Varian!” Quirin snaps, annoyed because his son wants to willingly put himself in danger, “The Moonstone is dangerous. It’s not a toy or something you can harness. You need to take this seriously.”

“Am I dangerous? Do you think I’m a threat because of this power?” Varian asks and Quirin freezes. The boy knows he is both dangerous and a threat, but it’s not because of his magic.

“No, Varian. Of course I don’t.” Quirin assures, “But you’re just a kid. And this power-”

Varian laughs, but it is not a happy sound, “Dad, I haven’t had the luxury of being ‘just a kid’ in a while. And I promised myself that I wouldn’t hide who I am to make others feel better.”

Quirin respects the sentiment but this is so much more complicated than Varian seems to understand-

“Can you trust me?” Varian asks, voice on the verge of breaking and that finally seems to break through to Quirin.

“Why don’t you trust him?” Hugo had asked so long ago, the first time Quirin had realised how much he failed and sworn to do better.

But he wasn’t doing better because right now he was doing the exact same thing, making decisions for his son because he thought he knew better.

Apparently it was scarily easy to fall back into old patterns.

So Quirin would change the patterns, change it so his first instinct would be to trust his son rather than shut him down, would fight everyday the voice in his gut telling him that he knew better.

Starting now.

“Okay,” Quirin breathes and he sees Varian’s face break out into a smile, “Okay. I will. But if it starts being too much for you, come to me and we’ll figure something out.”

“I think I can live with that,” Varian is beaming as he wraps his arms around his father again, returning to their previous position of a tight hug.

When did you get so mature? Quirin wants to ask him, but doesn’t, because he’s not sure he wants the answer.

They stay like that for a while, enjoying the newfound truce.

“For the record, we did build bombs,” Varian admitted from where he was still stuck in Quirin’s arms, “but they’re kept on that shelf over there.”

Quirin sighed, but now it had a distinct note of fondness, “Of course you did.”

After that emotionally charged conversation, they moved on to outside the house, showing Quirin around the garden and talking about their future plans.

They are suddenly interrupted when Quirin sees a thing outside of the house.

It’s tall, with broad hulking shoulders and many glowing eyes on its spherical head as it stares at him blankly. An ominous creaking noise is coming from it and it holds an equally large ax in its strange bronze hands.

Quirin tenses, pulling Varian and Hugo behind him as he readies into a fighting stance.

He’s never seen anything like it. It doesn’t look like some new style or armor but like a creature, strange metallic skin glinting in the light.

Before he can stop the boy, Hugo is slipping out from under the arm he put out to stop him and greeting the thing with a joyous smile.

“Auto-Mason!”

“Hugo, get back. It could be dangerous.” Quirin warns, trying and failing to grab the boy.

Hugo looks at him, utterly confused before the pieces click together in his mind and he bursts out laughing. Varian rolls his eyes, also slipping out from behind his confused father.

“Auto-Mason definitely is dangerous… if you’re a tree. But he won't harm you. We built him.” Varian informs his father and Quirin is only more confused.

He looks over at the thing again in a new light. He supposes it does look more like a machine than a dangerous creature, and he can now tell that the ax in its hands is clearly for woodcutting, not battle.

It turns its head from side to side, looking between the still gasping from his laughter Hugo and Quirin with a vaguely concerned air as it makes more whirring noises.

Hugo finally manages to catch his breath, reaching up to stroke a reassuring hand down Auto-Mason’s side, “It’s alright bud, we’re all fine. We just forgot to tell Quirin about you so he was a little worried, but it’s fine now.”

Varian grins, happy that everything has calmed down as he waves between Quirin and Auto-Mason, “Auto-Mason meet Quirin,” The automaton nods to the shorter man (not something Quirin has ever been described by before) and beeps in greeting, Quirin nods numbly, “And Dad, meet Auto-Mason. Your grandson.”

Quirin chokes.

Hugo dug his fingers into the soft soil and yanked, the tangled roots pulling out of the dirt and sending it showering onto his knees.

The rich, earthy scent of the ground is all around him and he can feel the dirt underneath his fingernails. The sun beats down from the sky above them, warming Hugo’s back as he kneels on the ground.

“Watch it.” Varian snaps irritably from beside him as the next root Hugo pulls flings dirt in his direction. They are both tired and hot and grumpy from having been working in the garden all day, but luckily they are almost finished.

Quirin, on the other hand, looks happy as can be, cheerfully humming under his breath as he pulls weeds and loosens the packed dirt.

He settled into life with them quite well over the last couple weeks, and though it had been full of many tearful conversations, it was also good as they learned to be a family again.

The biggest problem for Quirin was the lack of things to do. Varian and Hugo had such an established routine, there wasn’t much space for him to insert himself into it and he found himself without anything to really keep him busy.

When he was the leader of Old Corona he never had this much downtime and though his many responsibilities had taken up all his time and damaged his relationship with his son, he did miss how much it kept him busy.

Varian had noticed how bored Quirin was getting, and had offered to let him take over caring for the garden. Quirin had readily agreed. He liked farming, liked the simpleness of it, like how rewarding it was, and he even liked the manual labor aspect as it soothed the part of him constantly stressed by how little he was training.

He guesses it doesn’t matter how much time passes, he will always be a knight and always carry the burdens and stress that comes with that.

Gardening is a little different from farming, Quirin’s finding out, as it’s a much smaller scale and generally has a lot more variety, but Quirin’s excited to learn.

He and Auto-Mason had spent the last week getting the garden all set up, building new boxes to expand from the much smaller original garden and arranging them and filling them with dirt from the surrounding forest. Finishing up the fence that will surround the expanded garden and setting up trellises for the more vine plants Quirin is hoping to grow.

Gardens can have a lot more variety then the farms Quirin has tended for years, so he’s been asking around the city and gathering tips for what plants to grow together and which to keep apart. He’s also been collecting seeds and planning how everything will be organized and can already tell he’s going to love gardening.

Today though, he’s dragged his family out to the garden to help him weed and clear out the original and very overgrown garden boxes that the house came with. Varian and Hugo do not seem very happy about it, complaining and grumbling as they weed, but Quirin is a father and has long since learned to block out the whining of his son when his son is just upset about having to do routine chores rather than an actual problem.

So instead Quirin and Auto-Mason sit together, Quirin still humming a simple song that Auto-Mason does his best to replicate through beeps and whirs as the automaton uses his large hands to pull out the tougher weeds.

Despite their rocky start, Quirin has grown very fond of Auto-Mason, and their family was already so unorthodox he had quickly accepted the robot.

However what surprised Quirin was how much Auto-Mason reminded him of Varian when his son was still young. Quirin still couldn’t understand Auto-Mason the way Varian and Hugo could but he recognized the curiosity in Auto-Mason, the gentleness and care everytime he does something new because he wants to do it right.

He can’t believe he’s really saying this, but Auto-Mason really is Varian’s son.

Back over at Varian and Hugo’s garden bed, Varian is getting annoyed with how often Hugo accidentally sprays him with dirt so the next time Hugo pulls out a root too fast and splatters his face with dirt he decides to get some revenge.

Hugo doesn’t notice when he reaches beside him and grabs the watering can Quirin had used to water the seeds already sown in the other beds. Hugo certainly does notice when the entire can of water is dumped over his head.

He splutters, spitting out what got in his mouth as water drips from his glasses. Hugo glares at his boyfriend who only grins cheekily at him, “Oh, it’s on.”

Varian doesn’t have time to prepare before Hugo pounces on him and the two of them wrestle in the dirt, laughing and screaming, the weeds and their previous grumpiness forgotten.

Eventually Hugo manages to pin Varian down as the shorter boy glares up at him, “Curse you and your superior strength from years of running from the law!”

Hugo cackles but their conversation is abruptly cut off by Quirin, who stiffens where he sits a few boxes away and gestures at them to be quiet.

In the silence that descends on the clearing they can all clearly hear the sharp whistle that cuts through the air, a bird call louder than any Varian had heard before.

A grin breaks out over Quirin's face as he cups his hands around his mouth and whistles back, replicating the noise perfectly before standing up and dusting himself off.

Varian and Hugo follow his lead, though they have a much harder time cleaning off the mud caking their skin, both wary of the sounds of cheers and shouting now coming from the forest as three figures burst from the tree line, the two in front breaking off and rushing towards Quirin to envelop him in a hug.

“See Hector, I told you this was the right way,” One of the figures scolds the other as they finally break out of the hug and Varian can now recognize her as his Aunt Adira.

The other figure grumbles, still unwilling to move from where he’s wrapped himself around Quirin and Varian realizes that must be his Uncle Hector.

After Varian had revealed to Quirin that he knew about his Aunt and Uncle, the boy had forced his father to write them and invite them over, especially because Quirin was not dead and they deserved to know that.

Quirin had protested immensely, it had been years since he’d seen his siblings and their last meeting hadn’t exactly been good, but now, finally seeing them again, he was glad Varian had forced him into it because Sun had he missed them.

Eventually, Adira’s joy at having found Quirin melted away into anger as she glared at her older brother, pulling Hector to her side so they could glare together, “We thought you were dead.” She spat accusingly and Quirin winced.

“I know.”

Varian and Hugo watched, slightly alarmed, as Adira berated Quirin, Hector nodding but otherwise letting her do most of the talking. Quirin looked more and more beaten down as his sister went on, but Varian couldn’t help but think he deserved it.

As they continued their reunion, the other figure who came from the forest with them came and stood next to the two boys, followed by Hector's bearcats (Adira had convinced that man to leave his rhinoceros at home as it was too attention grabbing).

The man was tall, about the same height as Quirin, with flowing dark brown hair and a truly impressive mustache. He was wearing a fur cloak pinned with the symbol of the brotherhood over dark armor that matched the set Quirin kept in his chest. There was a large bird on his shoulders, its beady eyes staring down at them in a way that made Ruddiger chitter protectively as he scrambled up to wrap around Varian’s neck.

The man might have been intimidating if not for the awkward, slightly unsure smile on his face.

Varian didn’t recognize him but he still knew instantly he was King Edmund of the Dark Kingdom, also known as Eugene’s father.

“Um… hello,” The tall man began, looking very lost, “It’s nice to meet you. You’re Quirin’s son, correct?”

Varian nods and Edmund nods back.

“Good. I, uh, knew your father quite well when he was younger. But, of course you already knew that. Oh dear, this is going terribly.”

Varian only stares at him, unsure of how to respond to that. Eugene had briefly mentioned his father’s tendency to narrate in the middle of conversations but it was another thing entirely to hear it. Clearly, Eugene had not inherited his charisma from his father.

Luckily for both of them, Hugo decides to rescue this conversation, “While we did know Quirin used to be one of your knights he hasn’t exactly talked about it much. Perhaps you could share some of the stories you remember?” Hugo interjects smoothly, smiling disarmingly and some of the tension bleeds out of Edmunds posture, happy to have a direction for this conversation.

As Edmund finishes telling a story about a young Quirin getting tossed off his first horse, the Brotherhood’s reunion seems to be coming to an end.

All three are crying now, though Hector is trying desperately to hide it, as Adira finishes yelling at a guilty looking Quirin and surges forward to once again wrap him up in a hug.

“Now never do that again.” She orders, “I’m not cut out to be the responsible one.”

“Okay,” Quirin promises easily, tearfully returning his sister's hug, “Never again.” He pulls back slightly to wipe some tears from his sister's eyes, “I missed you two so much.”

Hector cracks, pushing his way into the hug, “How dare you. Making me feel all soft.” He hisses but his siblings know there’s no heat behind it.

Eventually they pull back, Adira wiping some tears from her eyes as she pulls herself together.

“Alright, now that that’s out of the way, we should probably go inside. Based on your letter, we have a lot to talk about.” Her eyes find and linger on Varian’s hairstripe, her nephew only smiling sheepishly.

“Ah, well I’m afraid that is my cue,” Edmund informs them, “It was good to see you again Quirin, even if we didn’t get a chance to talk, but I’ve now got to go find my son. I have a gift for him,” He holds out a small box he was holding, “and then maybe we’ll even bond!”

The five of them say goodbye to the eccentric king before advising him on the most likely place to find Eugene and sending him on his way. Then they migrate to the living room.

After a long discussion about the Moonstone and the Sundrop, and another argument about Varian’s intention to embrace this power rather than hide it, they were all too exhausted to continue this discussion and Hector had enough of sitting.

“Alright,” He declares, standing up from where he was sitting on the ground with his two bearcats lying sprawled out next to him, “I called dibs on teaching my nephew how to fight many years ago and I’m determined to do so before I lose this chance.”

Both Varian and Hugo sat up in interest. They very much wanted to learn how to sword fight, that sounded cool as fuck.

“Wait,” Adira interrupted, glaring at him, “I seem to remember that I was the one who called dibs actually.”

Hector shrugs, “Sorry sister, but that just doesn’t sound quite right to me.”

“If I’m allowed to cut in here,” Quirin tried to break into the argument, “I would appreciate it if neither of you armed my son with swords.”

“Lame!” Hugo called, and Quirin sighed.

Adira pointed at him nodding, “See Quirin, the children yearn for weaponry, who am I to deny them?”

“Yeah!” Varian cheers, “Weaponry!”

“Well it’s just that they were able to take over the kingdom without swords, so I can’t help but fear for the fate of the kingdom if they do have access… and none of you are listening.” Quirin can only watch helplessly as his siblings drag his son outside to learn sword fighting.

“Alright nephew, over here and I’ll show you the basic stance,” Hector instructs, and Varian nods, doing as instructed.

Hector blinks at Hugo, who hadn’t moved, confused. The boy had seemed so excited to learn as well, Hector had assumed he would join them.

“Well? Aren’t you coming?” He asked the blond boy, and now it was Hugo’s turn to blink at him, confused.

“Um, I hate to break it to you, but I’m not your nephew.” Hugo reminded him. He was pretty sure by the way both Hector and Adira had talked that they wanted to teach their actual family, not the stranger who has attached himself to their nephew's hip.

“Not yet you’re not,” Adira laughs, “but future nephew’s-in-law get special privileges anyway.”

Quirin splutters, “Stop that! They are way too young to be thinking about marriage.”

Hugo shrugs, always happens to tease Quirin even if he still hasn’t fully processed Adira’s words, “I mean, we do already have a son together.”

Quirin groans dramatically, and Varian stifles his giggles.

“See,” Adira slings an arm over Hugo’s shoulders, “Only family could ever annoy Quirin that much. Sorry, but I think you’re already stuck with us.”

“Damn,” Hugo jokes, leaning into Adira’s side with warmth blooming up in his chest, “There goes my chance of finding an actually functional family.”

“Hey!” Hector calls as he throws another knife and Varian, the boy swinging the sword his uncle had handed him at it and missing completely, “What’s that supposed to mean?!”