History, huh?

✏️✏️✏️

Last week, Vivi came to visit completely unannounced. A movie marathon for Halloween! She said. It'll be fun! She assured us. Taryn tried to turn her down at first, being 7 months into her pregnancy, she understandably found the idea risky. But Vivi being Vivi, she would not give up. And frankly, Taryn did need some family time and support. With no parents, no siblings and no husband by her side, although she doesn’t want to admit it, it must surely be difficult.

Meanwhile, Cardan immediately agreed despite our status. The High Queen and High King going to the mortal world only to watch movies? It’s a rather shameless behavior to display so soon, but Vivi said it makes us audacious for some reason that I didn't quite understand. The audacity! Or whatever.

Though to be completely honest, I'm pretty sure Cardan only wants to go for the caramel popcorn and to see Oak again. Oak who's now the only member of his "lineage" that he more or less appreciates. I'm worried. Nephew and uncle are maybe starting to get along too much. When Vivi found out Oak had punched a kid at school, instead of feeling sorry or ashamed Oak said "Someone who doesn’t respect others shouldn't complain about getting payback." Cardan said it wasn't his fault and it sounded more like something I would say. I beg to differ but he likes my begging so I just agreed and moved on. Vivi noted that he’s turning out to be a sassy child.

Now, we're lying down on the carpet while Taryn and Oak are on the sofa, Vivi is making the popcorn. She still isn't entirely back to being together-together with Heather. Should've figured, if she were I don't think she would've invited us. I hope things turn out well for them.

"Who wants it with caramel!?" Vivi asks from the kitchen, her head tilted to the side from the doorway so she can see us.

Cardan and Taryn lazily raise their hands.

"Who wants it salted?"

Oak and I raise our hands. Cardan looks at Oak like he’s incredibly brave for that, I roll my eyes. Salt only reduces or stops a fae’s ability to use magic for a limited amount of time, it’s not that big of a deal. I swear Cardan loves to overreact and exaggerate the dumbest things. The other day, I came back dragging the head of a traitor behind me to show the folk they can trust me to protect them. Meanwhile, Cardan said, "You know I love you but please think about the smell it’ll leave on the carpets." Well, Cardan dear, we’re King and Queen, we can get new carpets anytime if the smell doesn’t wear off. Also, Taryn is terrific at home decor anyway, I bet she enjoys decorating and redecorating our halls.

Oak puts his small hand on Taryn’s belly, then his ear against it. He’s excited at the idea of becoming an "unkie" to his future niece like Cardan is to him.

As soon as Vivi’s back with the popcorn, the movie starts. The good thing about watching movies at home is that you won’t be done with the popcorn before the commercials end. And although she’s the one who invited us, she keeps talking over the movie’s beginning, asking us how we’re doing and what stuff has been going on in our "fairytale hellhole." Then it quickly goes to the uncomfortable questions.

"So. Rynryn, I heard that a half-fae dude has the hots for you. How’s that going?"

Taryn cringes.

"Oh please, Larkin is ridiculous. Trying to court a widowed woman who’s still pregnant with the child of her late husband? He has no delicacy."

Cardan raises an eyebrow.

"The husband who died by the hands of his wife, you mean." I hit him on the shoulder and he utters a fake sounding ow. Oak is right there, I widen my eyes at him to make him understand but what’s done is done. Oak turns to Taryn once again.

"Why did you kill your husband?" Oak asks curiously with no discernible malice in his gaze or voice. Taryn smiles politely.

"He didn’t bear for me the kind of love that satisfied me nor did he treat my opinions and feelings with enough respect. And you know what that means?"

"People with no respect deserve payback!"

Taryn smiles and puts her hand on Oak’s horned head to praise him. Cardan and I look at each other a bit astonished. So that behavior partly came from Taryn, huh. I’m afraid that at this rate, he’ll become an amalgamation of all of our personalities. No matter. Vivi presses a bit further, putting Taryn back on track which only results in complaints from Taryn’s part.

"I swear he only ever wears plain and boring outfits, even for revels and casual occasions. Not to mention he has no common sense, poor table manners and his attempts at flirting are horrid, frustrating and awkward. How is he supposed to be a spy and assassin if he can’t even put two and two together? No way can he gain the trust of any of his targets that way." She suspiciously over-explains everything wrong with Larkin. Vivi smiles at her knowingly.

"Hmm. I don’t know, to me it sounds like he already caught his target." Vivi says.

"Why are you paying so much attention to him?" Oak chimes in with more accusations.

Taryn shifts her attention back to the TV, a furrow forming on her eyebrows. She tells us we should focus on the movie instead of whatever she thinks of Larkin. Which is none of our business, by the way. And so we do, we watch. Cardan seems to display no particular difficulty in understanding the images and plot but he’s much more entertained by the popcorn. That is until it runs out and he lets himself get swept away. His tail stands up straight like a cat’s every time he’s surprised by the sudden sounds or imagery, namely the jumpscares. It’s cute how his face doesn’t show his fear at all, he seems to be completely unphased if you ignore the tail. I suppose it must’ve been why he hid it all those years. It puts his emotions on display. Making his feelings obvious.

Near the middle, Oak is too tired to continue watching. Vivi puts him to bed. Near the end, Vivi and Taryn somehow manage to fall asleep on the couch. Vivi most likely because she’s not scared of horror movies in the first place, and Taryn because our presence hopefully calmed her down. In the end, this was mainly for us to get together again. Vivi may be clumsy with her words sometimes, but she’s still the same older sister who hugged us when we got into trouble or scraped our knees while falling on the concrete grounds of our neighborhood. I sigh.

While trying to get up, Cardan stops me. He whispers.

"Let’s sleep here."

I widen my eyes at him.

"On the floor?"

"On the carpet, dear."

I roll my eyes.

"I’m sure Vivi won’t mind if we borrow her bed for the night, as long as…" I don’t finish but Cardan gives me a sly smile nonetheless which makes me hit his shoulder lightly.

We get up and I properly tuck Vivi and Taryn in, leaving them to sleep comfortably on the sofa. Then we go to Vivi’s room and make the bed together. Well. "Make" is a big word, we’re both embarrassingly inept at tidying things up since our attendants do it for us. We just cover the bed with a cover we’ll sleep on, tucked in under another new cover so we don’t have to truly "get" into her bed.

As we lay there about to fall asleep, Cardan attempts to talk to me before I manage to make my way into dreamland, as he often does.

"Don’t you miss such things? Movies, popcorn, late night talks with your siblings? We could do that more often."

I smile and grab his tail, pulling it to my front so I can play with the tuft to fall asleep faster. It relaxes me. Cardan has enough only with hugging me, his arms just under my chest, and if his hands wander around to go higher when I’m too tired, I hit them away and he gets the hint.

"It’s fine. I believe it’s better for me to slowly move away from that, eventually we could try meeting in Faerie all together. There won’t be movies anymore, but the food can be brought here."

I’m not sure what face Cardan is making right now, but I think he didn’t like that answer judging by how his tail is flailing around.

"Don’t give up on that. I wish I always had that." He pauses then squeezes me tighter in his arms. "Or is it because of…"

I want my body to stay strong and healthy. My case is arguably completely different from other humans since I’m the Queen, but I’m not willing to risk it. When I reach my mid thirties or so, I’m thinking of stopping my trips to the human world. I hold onto Cardan’s tail in confirmation. And as I start to believe this might be the end of the conversation, he says one last thing before we fall asleep.

"We could try to install electricity in Faerie…"

I smile.

✏️✏️✏️

Please consider leaving comments and/or tags! Love you 🫵🫶