Don't tease the flytraps, please.

He liked that sense of initiative, and it caused for an immediate smirk to show itself when Shea told him she’d handle everything else. He wondered what that could mean, though the mystery of it churned him with excitement. He liked not knowing, it was a thrill. Despite the way he often functioned around West Hollow, this was one little trip he didn’t mind not knowing the exact details of. Fairies could be tricky… but it was a huge part of why he liked them to begin with.

“Well, I can’t promise that…” He began with a grin, but her expression made him laugh and shake his head. “Okay, fine.” Hugo decided but practically as he said it, he slid his hands down her forearms to get a better grip and wrapped them up in a storm of black smoke. The sensation only ever lasted a few seconds, if that, depending on how far someone was teleporting but Hugo barely felt it anymore. Teleportation was his preferred travel method, though he knew for others who weren’t so accustomed, it could be a little disorientating. Teleporting humans could be out of the question sometimes, not if you didn’t want vomit on your new shoes anyway.

Hearing the immediate sound of happy chirps in the wilderness, and the bustling of chatter from somewhere behind the building they appeared next to, Hugo turned his head curiously. He didn’t know precisely where they were, but he’d heard of the town before and it had been the first thing to come to mind. ( Likely, perhaps Shea had mentioned it before, or even that plant freak Roy ). Either way, Hugo wondered what laid beyond the backyard they’d appeared in.

Shea rolled her eyes and gave Hugo a flat look as he teased about leaving her in a foreign country alone. Foreign may not have been the right word, but it certainly wasn’t home anymore. “That’s better.” Her smile returned once he changed his answer, even if he was kidding. “You better know that if you leave me, I’ll turn my attention to pulling tricks on you. As soon as got back to West Hollow I would be making your life frustrating as hell.” Though it was probably a weak promise for a demon, she had too many morals to ruin anyone’s life. Those games were for the demons, vampires, and fairies like Roy. 

Though Shea wasn’t sure what she was expecting teleportation to be like, it certainly wasn’t that. She blinked hard a few times and brought a hand to her head. “How do you do that so often?” Thankfully, the ache didn’t last long as she readjusted to the ground underneath her. As she gained her bearings, she looked around and tried to judge where they were– if she knew at all. 

After a moment she turned to him with a small smile sitting on her lips. “How did you know?” The backyard was familiar and though didn’t know who lived there now she was sure it used to belong to an older woman that used to let Shea hide underneath her hostas while her parents were searching for her to come back inside and work. “We’re not far. We’re going to walk since you can’t fly and I’ll be damned if I let you teleport us again for at least another thirty minutes.”

Roy furrowed his brows while she spoke, tensing up all the while. When she finished speaking he looked away and scoffed in impatience. The whole situation brought him back to decades prior - small arguments over harmless things that they would laugh about after. This was a bit different. She seemed to be under completely false impressions, and that frustrated Roy more than he cared to admit.

He looked back to her. “Guilt? When have I ever shown you I’m a man besought with guilt? I told you what I’ve done but I never once lied. You know I can’t. I never once said the things that happened plagued me - the only thing that plagues me is the angels and what they did to my family in Scotland. I don’t care about those peasant lives ruined or ended - they meant nothing to me. And believe it or not, I don’t feel-” Fuck. His fairy magic couldn’t bring him to say ‘guilty’ again, suddenly making him realize the extent of how much he’d been deceiving himself. Quickly trying to backtrack, Roy continued after only the slightest pause. “-that I was wrong for doing what I did. Because it’s the truth. I didn’t think you’d be able to handle the life I wanted. I wanted to spare myself the sting of hearing it from your lips. So I regret if it hurt you instead, but I’ve never been very selfless to begin with.”

Though Roy had a point– they couldn’t lie– there were other things that a fairy could become skilled at in order to get around it. For those who knew that fairies couldn’t lie, only a fool would still blindly believe everything they said. Fairies could deceive as much as anyone else. This time, however, Shea had no reason to doubt Roy. He wasn’t walking circles around the truth. It was the ugly and unignorable truth. Shea couldn’t mold Roy into someone he wasn’t. She couldn’t make him feel remorse for the things that he had done nor could she sway him away from doing those things in the future. Roy was right. And as much as she would have wanted to stay with him, she wouldn’t have been able to handle hearing about what he was doing.

“Well I suppose I have to believe it, don’t I? Since you’ve outright said it.” Her working theory that he had been so persistent about seeing her to ease his own guilt was now useless. “Yes, it hurt! I don’t know it what universe that you thought that it wouldn’t! I loved you, Roy, and you just disappeared! Regret over hurting me then isn’t going to change anything now so I hope all the hurt that you got to spare yourself was worth it!” 

Shea took a breath and let her volume settle. She hadn’t realize how out of control she had let herself get in the moment. Shea opened her mouth to apologize but couldn’t. She wasn’t sorry at all. 

Roy resisted the urge to cringe at ‘as soon as you left me.’ Though he knew she’d be bitter about the way he just disappeared, it still made this weird, sick feeling churn in his stomach. Was it quite possibly guilt? He decided to chalk it up to not wanting her to be in a bad mood. “You think I left you because I wanted to?” He began, raising his brows as he turned his head to look at her. A hand came out to touch her shoulder and stop them walking a moment so she could face him.

“I had to. I wanted to bring you with me, Shea, but you’re too soft for my lifestyle. You weren’t going to want to follow me into chaos and bloodshed.” He shook his head subtly. “I decided to save you the effort of having to choose to give us up, so I did it for you.”

Shea’s eyes met Roy’s when she stopped but immediately averted them when he started speaking. She had spent decades letting her feelings about Roy leaving her and feelings for Roy be left underneath the rubble of her old life in Ireland. It was a mistake to bring it up now, especially since she hadn’t prepared herself. Unfortunately, it was too late to take it back and find a different topic.

“Why would I have any reason to think otherwise, Roy?” Shea’s hazel eyes met his again, her voice filled with more conviction the longer she spoke. “You left without any warning or explanation so I had to draw my own conclusions.” Stunned and hurt by his words, Shea took a small step back. “You didn’t do that for me. You did that to save yourself from having to tell me that you were leaving me. Even if you’re right that I wouldn’t have wanted to go, I’m not going to let you spare yourself any guilt by letting you think that you did me any favors.” 

When Shea appeared to have just as wide of a smile that Frankie had, the witch couldn’t have been more pleased. Most always, the smile of a customer indicated that Frankie was doing her job right, but this time she was more excited to see her customer’s smile in a friendly sense. Although doing business with friends wasn’t as successful as it was when doing business with gullible strangers, Frankie didn’t entirely mind. A customer was still a customer, and either way she still got to do her job. 

“Of course I’m ready,” Frankie grinned, nodding at the fairy as they ventured down into the basement. “Oh, you’ll be fine, don’t you worry. Since you’re not gettin’ any magic infused into it, it’ll be less painful. If ya feel like you’ll really need it, I can always give ya a potion to help stop the pain,” she offered, leading Shea over to a counter next to the makeshift tattoo parlor when they arrived at the basement. “So, you’ve picked out some designs, yeah? Let’s take a look,” Frankie stated with a nod, leaning her elbows up against the counter.

Though Shea’s friendship with Frankie was relatively new, she trusted Frankie when she said that Shea would be able to handle the pain. It seemed weak to ask for a potion, especially preemptively. Shea was the type to try and wait until she couldn’t hold it in any longer to show pain or most other types of emotions that had the possibility of embarrassing her. Though she couldn’t outright lie, with silence and the right expression she could convey what she needed to. “Don’t worry about it. I’d like to think I can handle pain pretty well.” She had caught herself on her sharper gardening tools when she had become distracted. The phrase done so many times, it can be done with eyes closed applies less when it’s a pruning knife. 

“Yes!” Shea pulled a piece of paper out of her purse and unfolded it. Although Shea was not an artist, she could most draw flowers fairly well after over a century of practice. The small drawing had two Heather flowers beside one another, one purple and the other white. They curved slightly along the stems to fit the contour of Shea’s body. “It’s Heather.” Not only was it beautiful, Heather was known as a hearty and self-sufficient flower and easily associated with independence. They were the qualities that Shea strived for, so to have it permanently inked upon her body seemed fitting. Heather also carried the symbolic meaning of good fortune and protection. Even if there weren’t any magical qualities within the tattoo itself, for once, symbolism was enough. “It’s a lovely flower and if I had one that I’d want on me all the time, it’s this one.” She looked to her friend with a smile. 

It bothered Roy a little to hear her disappointment but it wasn’t like he hadn’t expected it in the least. Of course he did. Unlike him, Shea was a fae with morals and virtues, despite her harmless mischief. He always enjoyed her most when she was having fun, but the morality and conflict that halted her from going too far had also become something he admired. Not because he wanted that for himself, but because it was something he didn’t understand. And it made him want to know her more. It was hard to get him to want to know people for more than what they were worth to him material-wise.

“What is it you expected me to do?” He said with a small scoff. Roy was proud to be able to keep his tone under control. “Keeping mucking about in the forests of Europe? Open a flower store?” He looked to her as they walked. “That’s you, sunflower. You know that isn’t me. This is where I fit - it’s where I always fit.”

“I don’t know.” Shea said honestly. She hadn’t put too much thought in what Roy was up to in the time they had been apart– not that in depth anyway. She had tried not to think about most of it. Any thoughts on it usually revolved around who he might have been running around with rather than what he was doing. Even if she had tried to dream up some type of scenario of the trouble he was getting himself into, clearly it would have been vastly underestimating him and what he was truly capable of.

You know that isn’t me. Shea looked out at the forest in front of them and took a breath, considering it a little longer. “Do I?” Shea knew that Roy was different than the Roy she had known in Ireland but she couldn’t be sure just how different he was. “Roy, I’m not looking to change you but to say that I have much awareness of what is and isn’t you might be expecting too much. I don’t know which pieces of you have carried through time and which were tossed out as soon as you left me. And excuse me for not assuming the worst in you despite knowing about your past. I guess I have a better idea now.”

The news was hard to take. In the time that they had been getting close once again, she hadn’t realized he had gotten so close to the human girl too. It was a mistake on his part, she was positive about that. Her feelings for Roy aside, being involved with a human long-term was a mistake that she wasn’t about to try and save him from. As far as she was concerned, he could ruin his own life. “I’m not–” her voice stopped mid-sentence, cutting itself off. The lie had been easy enough to repeat to herself in her own head but to verbalize not being in love with him was impossible. 

Roy absently led them in the direction of his home, just in case they had the chance and Shea would want to go. He knew she’d adore the gardens and his collection of Irish teas and food. But he decided to take it slow with her. Shea wasn’t an easy woman to handle, but that was something he’d come to like about her very much. 

He smiled at the question, although he knew she wouldn’t like the answer. But there was no sense in looking as if he cared what she thought… though he did. “I fought in the second World War. It was a bloody mad time,” he said with a scoff/laugh. “Then I… Well,” he sighed wistfully. “I spent some time in Australia with a rather interesting dark coven there. And that was when I began my collection of rare and powerful magical artifacts.” He glanced over at her with a glint of mischief in his eyes. “When I came to the United States, I started drug dealing since it was a far faster way of making money and drawing connections. Now I dabble with both.”

The response Roy had given took a turn that she had not expected it to. Shea was sure that he had spent time with other women and it seemed silly now to think that he would bring that up in any kind of recap of the time they’ve been apart. Any little encounter didn’t matter to her.  Nights, months.... it didn’t matter. That was time easily discounted as far as was concerned. She was curious about the longer stretches of time and if he had been with anyone longer than her. It was nothing more than nosiness, she reassured herself. 

She wasn’t sure how to process the information that she had given him. It was a much different Roy than she had known long ago. She knew some about growing up with dark fairies, though not all of it she was sure. At the time, she was sure that was a side of Roy that she would never know but it seemed as though he was standing in front of her now. The side of Roy that she knew was simply a product of a difficult time in his life. “Sounds like you’ve been busy.You’ve clearly reverted back to much darker things.” Shea tried her best to keep her tone level. She wasn’t ready to give up on the conversation altogether even if she wanted to give up on him. There were still questions she wanted answered and showing the budding frustration this early on wouldn’t help her with that. “I wish I wasn’t so surprised. I had a lot more faith in you than I should have.” 

Roy listened, genuinely curious as she explained about her family. That was weird. He never usually cared much for the familial affairs of others, especially since his own had been wiped out by trying to fight angels. But he found himself still wanting to know about hers. Not exactly because he wanted to know a whole lot about the Riley’s, more so that he seemed to care about what she cared about because he… well, he seemed to care more for her than most. But Roy kept convincing himself it didn’t really mean anything.

“A nephew, congratulations,” he said with a small scoff/laugh. Fairies tended to reproduce like rabbits, it wasn’t a surprise to him and he knew he was a rare fairy without a family. Unless he’d unintentionally made children along the way in his adventures, which, in hindsight, would not be much of a surprise. But he really didn’t want to know.·

When she came closer, he felt excitement fire up inside him and tried to ignore it. But a grin twitched at his lips and Roy nodded, gesturing for them to start.·“I would want nothing more… Lead the way.” Although he wanted to suggest his house, he knew it was better to let her make the choices so early in… whatever this was. Roy could still tell she bared some discomfort, understandably so.

Shea kept dangerously loose ties with her family back home. As far as she was aware, Sean was the most recent birth but what did she know? Maybe they just had too much trouble finding her now and decided to give up trying to get in touch. Her two youngest siblings were still young yet for children and her older sister, as far as she knew, was still unmarried with only one son. Any news past the two of her eldest brother would be unnecessary as far as she was concerned. Fairies were known for their ability to keep their population high so an alert every time a new child was born past a certain number didn’t seem worth mentioning for the amount that Shea was in touch with them. Still, she hoped that if anything important were to happen, like a death, they would figure out how to find her again. “I’ve never met him but thank you.” 

Since Roy didn’t have a family and Shea wasn’t in touch with her own, it seemed worthless to continue on the subject. Instead, Shea picked a direction that brought them deeper into the forest. “So tell me, what have you been doing all this time? Honestly. And I’ll try my best to not be bitter over whatever it is that you say.” It wasn’t a promise but it was as much as Shea could give. 

@shearriley​

Frankie was expecting Vermillion’s Evening of Romance to be completely fruitless, but it had turned out to pleasantly surprise her. Instead of loathing her blind date for the majority of the night, the pair had befriended each other. Although they had opposing histories with taking risks, Shea and Frankie had come to bond over their love of their own businesses. It seemed to be an instant and mutual liking, understanding each other in terms of their businesses and in general friendly ways. Shea’s plan to get a tattoo was quite exciting for Frankie. While she was glad to keep her business rolling, she was quite glad that her friend had taken the risk of getting a tattoo. In West Hollow, she couldn’t have been in better hands.

As the doorbell sounded, Frankie shot up from her place on the couch and set her sketchbook aside. A somewhat goofy smile instantly came across her face, filled with eagerness and excitement for the appointment. “Hey there, come on in,” she said after opening the door, motioning with her hand for Shea to come in. Frankie shut the door behind them, then shoving one of her hands in her back pocket out of habit. “Ya ready?” As Frankie posed the question, she motioned with her free hand to the staircase that lead to the basement tattoo parlor.

Shea hadn’t expected to walk out of Vermillion’s event with a friend. Mostly, she expected to have to grit her teeth and wish that she could lie with the amount of ‘oh, that’s interesting’ she would have needed to give. Thankfully, she had been matched up with Frankie and the evening went much better than she had imagined. And that wasn’t where the surprises ended either. After a conversation about risks, Shea decided to support her new friend’s business and get a tattoo. Deciding she wanted to get the tattoo was one thing, actually picking what she wanted was another. A simple flower, but which one? There was a lot to consider as each flower had it’s own formal symbolism but also it’s own personality in her eyes. Choosing one to be connected with forever was a big task. Where to place it was the next big question. She knew that she wanted it to be small and especially for her, not somewhere that could be seen by the general public. Arms, hands, legs were completely out of the question. 

Shea rang the doorbell, a smile matching the size of Frankie’s appearing on her face as she entered. “As ready as I’ll ever be. Are you ready?” Shea followed Frankie down into the basement. “I’m a little nervous about how much it’s going to hurt but I’m hoping I’ll push through it.” As she reached the bottom step she looked around the room, now more excited than ever before. 

Roy would have wanted to lie if he had to comment on what he really thought of her date, so he kept his mouth shut about it. He had too much pride to admit it bothered him. But her own hesitation made him wonder and so his lips curled up into a grin. 

“… Monday is an intriguing woman. A human, actually,” he said with a small scoff/laugh. “Useless creatures in general, but she is entertaining and interesting to have around. At least more than most humans.” His head tilted slightly as he looked Shea over. Brows raised inquisitively, while a grin remained on his face. He wanted to ask about seeing her again, but decided to bide his time first. “You look stunning in the moonlight, as usual. I didn’t ask about your family. It’s been decades, hasn’t it… I expect they’re well?”

“A human?” It wasn’t as if Shea had never met a human whose presence she enjoyed but never enough to take them to an event. Shea hoped that it was a blind date. To be pushed out by a human was something to be embarrassed about. “Well, I’m glad you have a source of entertainment then, if nothing else.” As much as Shea didn’t want to be interested in Roy, she didn’t want him to be interested in this new girl, either. 

A soft blush crossed her cheeks at the compliment, accompanied by a soft “Thank you.” Shea’s family was a subject that Shea never felt like addressing. Since no one from her past knew Shea until Roy, it was something she didn’t usually have to think about or answer. She gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “I assume so. After I left to travel I only heard from them a few times. Always to tell me about a birth in the family. I haven’t heard anything since my nephew was born so I assume they’re alright. I figure if something was really wrong, they’d figure out how to find me.” 

Against her better judgement, Shea took a step forward and gave him a smile. “ If we’re going to catch up then maybe we should go somewhere else?  Even just walk and talk? I suspect you’ve been up to a lot since the last time we saw each other.” 

☣ Would they kill someone close to them if they had to? 

“You know I tend to avoid the public when I can, especially during daylight hours with all that… hustle and bustle of small town life.” he said, taking a step forward. The bird took off, flying over to a tall branch and he slowly rested his arm back against his body. He remembered the many other nights they spent outside in forests, often times resorting to flight so they could go faster and further. He wondered how surprised she’d be to see the change in his wings.

Roy couldn’t help admiring how wonderful Shea looked in the moonlight - the way it hit the color of her eyes and gave her a whole shine that looked almost ethereal. “As for the Vermillion… Well. You looked quite busy with your… ‘date’,” he said, the corner of his lips curling up a little, more teasing than anything. But when he looked back on that day and wasn’t paying attention to how lovely she looked, he remembered she was with someone. The thought of that was somehow less pleasant. He decided that fact was not worth mentioning. 

Even after all this time it was a relief to see the ways in which Roy was exactly the same. She could see the man she had fallen in love with– even if only vaguely so far. She knew how dangerous it was to sit there and count the similarities between the Roy she knew then and the one she was getting to know now. And it was a waste to spend her time thinking about all the things she missed about him just so she could check it off like a bingo board if the traits surfaced again. 

It was a waste of everyone’s time to fall down that rabbit hole. 

“Well, I was certainly having a great time with my date.” she emphasized the word back at him with a smirk “and we’ve made plans to get together again.” Shea was excited about her newfound friendship but she didn’t need to dive into the specifics. She would let him make his own ideas about it if he wanted to. “And you? You looked like you were having a.... nice... time with your date.” She tried her best cover how annoyed she was having to think about him with that girl at Vermillion. 

> @shearriley !!

It’d been a couple days since the Vermillion event and, while Roy had enjoyed his time with Monday, he couldn’t help remembering how stunning his ex. had looked from across the room. He’d look over when he knew she wasn’t watching and wondered if she’d done the same. Had it not been for the particularly interesting conversations he was a part of and heard around him, Roy would have gone crossed the room just to interrupt her date. 

But it was always more enjoyable to have Shea completely to himself. So he waited until it was closing time for Sherwood Floral to send his favorite raven over to her. The bird would have possibly startled Shea as she exited the store, as she’d been perched right on a pot and cawed loudly to get her attention. Then it flew and landed on a nearby fence and cawed again as it stared at her with it’s beady black eyes. It wanted her to follow and it wouldn’t stop cawing and flying in front of her until she did.

The bird would lead her a little into the forest, close to the edge where grass met stone, stone met sand and sand met sea. It was close enough to the exit of the forest that the ocean waves could be heard and moonlight brightened the area. He stood by a tree and held out his arm when he heard the flapping get close enough. The large creature landed on his arm and Roy turned to smirk at Shea. Unlike last time, he looked a lot more like his natural self. Instead of the cropped light brown hair, it was longer and pitch black. “Apologies for the theatrics, love… but it’s quite hard to get your attention.”

With Valentines Day now past, business had declined a little. Though it was always a little disappointing to see a drop in numbers, it was nice to have a spare moment to breathe once again. Shea was able to leave at a decent time rather than staying late for the first time about a month. As she stepped out of the shop and locked the door behind her, she jumped at the sound of a bird cawing. She put her hand to her chest and looked firmly at the bird. “That wasn’t very nice, you know. You scared me!” Though she would have liked that to be the end of their exchange, the bird clearly wasn’t letting up as it flew to the fence and cawed at her again. Shea knew without having to ask the bird what it’s purpose was. It, unfortunately, had Roy written all over it. 

She decided to do her best to ignore the raven and walk home, earning herself another loud and angry caw. “Tell him no!” Shea called back as she continued walking. Another caw as it swooped down and stood in her way. She looked down at the creature and took a deep breath to try and collect herself. It was wrong to take out her frustrations on a bird that was truly just following orders. “Okay, fine. I will come along this time but next time he tries to be dramatic and send you, tell him that he can just come himself.”

Shea followed the bird just passed the edge of the forest, waiting for Roy to reveal himself. When he finally did, she folded her arms across her chest. “That’s not an accident but thank you for the flowers, they’re beautiful.” She couldn’t help but smile as she thought about the beautiful bouquets again. “But why not just come and see me? Or talk to me at Vermillion the other night?” 

👄 whisper a secret no one else knows

Sneaking a look out of the corner of his eye at Shea when she began to laugh, Hugo’s lips curled at the corners, ready to continue on his antics if it meant that he’d see that look on her face more often. She was beautiful when she smiled, the kind of electric, physical appeal only fairies had about themselves. It was no wonder that they were Hugo’s favorite species. Particularly the tricky ones.

“Ireland.” He repeated, a little at loss for why Ireland of all places, but there was a hint of mystery about the answer so he didn’t feel inclined to spoil the reason why that was her choice. Not yet, anyhow. While he was a major fan of some places in Europe, he couldn’t say he was overly familiar with Ireland. For someone who had lived as long as he had, he’d never really spent any time there. Not more than he had to anyway. “Ireland it is,” He decided finally before asking if she had everything with her that she might want to take. Allowing her to ready herself, he offered out both hands. Teleporting to the other side of town was one thing, teleporting to another country was a little more on the extreme side. The last thing he needed to do was have her slip out of his hands and into oblivion somewhere. “You ready, Flower Girl?”

It had been decades since Shea had spoken with a heavy Irish accent. When she moved to the United States she had done her best to assimilate in an effort to leave the past behind. In those days she had been so dramatic about the way she pushed everything about being Irish away from her. She practiced her American accent with others and repeated certain words that she struggled with until she fell asleep. Her accent picked up a few regional markers once she settled in West Hollow but for the most part, she was comfortable in her midland accent. Aside from her name, there was nothing about her that would remotely give the fairy away as Irish. So Hugo’s confusion hadn’t surprised her at all.

Shea’s nerves were riding high since she had not been back to her home country since she left many decades ago. Still, it was the best place that she could think to go and although Hugo had already apologized (loudly) for criticizing the life she was living, she wasn’t going to let go of it that quickly. She would prove to Hugo that she could live that life, even if it wasn’t one she chose for herself. Shea didn’t know much about living at life full of tricks and fun in West Hollow but she had a better idea of what that entailed back home. 

Shea put her hands in his and nodded, “Ready as ever. You get us to Ireland and I’ll do the rest. Just please don’t teleport anywhere without me and leave me stranded.”