#leithpark

The funny thing (and that was definitely funny-peculiar, not funny-haha) was that Ephram had almost totally packed away the thought of her.

That was, until he’d been coming off a late shift at work and stopped in at the Fable Diner to pick up a couple slices of the banana cream pie he was partial to -- one slice for him and one for Ollie, since the little familiar liked banana cream more than his fairy Freddie did -- and, while he was propped up on the jukebox blearily reading the song lists over and over again, he caught sight of her. Leaf.

Honestly, Ephram couldn’t even recall what her real name was, only that he’d called her Leaf for the brief time they’d known each other back in Apple Fall. And it was only when he saw the dark, sleek fall of her hair across the diner that the memory of it slammed into his chest like a crossbow quarrel, knocking him breathless for a moment. Taking him right back to the sound of crickets and the flash of lightning bugs, the warm crush of her next to him as they talked and talked in endless loops and threads until the sun threatened to catch them on the other side of the night and they stumbled back to Cheyenne’s, letting her scold them and make breakfasts they were almost too sleepy to eat. Almost.

“Sheriff Pettaline?” The night shift waitress, an older fairy named Glo, called out to him curiously as she waggled the container of pie at him. “Your order’s up. I put something in there for Freddie, too.” 

Of course she did, she always did, but at the moment even the mention of his beloved husband didn’t bring Ephram all the way back to the present. “Yeah,” he said dumbly, taking a lurching step forward. Would Leaf remember his name? It wasn’t a common one even in the holler. Surely she’d recall. If she didn’t, well ...

Actually, Ephram didn’t want to think about that. She had to remember him. After everything they’d shared? She had to. “Hey,” he croaked. “Hey, Leaf?”

       “Mate, I get it, you want to impress the new familiar at work, but you don’t even know the girl...boy...?” Danny rolled off, unsure of the gender of Essie’s familiar. Just because she was a girl didn’t mean her familiar was, hell, maybe it was genderfluid, familiars definitely had that capacity in his mind. “Whatever, you can’t make me do that gross kale shot every morning.” Yet he’d done it that morning, because he wanted the faerie to think he was a cool one too.

        His steps were light as he descended the stairs of his apartment building and pushed out the door, his deputy uniform on but not entirely put together. He was still doing up buttons as he turned the corner to head down the alley. His building didn’t have parking spots so he parked on the street behind. Yet, as he and Steve, his wallaby familiar, turned to head down there they quite immediately spotted someone spraying the wall.

        “Oi!” Danny let out on instinct, too surprised by what they saw to really be threatening. With his arm raised he had to think this wasn’t real. Who went around doing graffiti these days? Least on private property. You could make money off it after all, if you were good, maybe they were just one of those lazy kids who just tagged shit with pictures of dicks. “What you think your doing there?” Danny asked, Steve actively hoping faster to get close to the criminal.