Chapter Text
The very first thing that gently nudges at Stern’s consciousness as he wakes is how warm the sheets are beneath him, practically cradling him in a soothing heat. The more he wakes, the more he notices. The birds outside greet him with a quaint and quiet melody joined by a faint ticking he can’t place. Somewhere, someone is cooking pancakes. Finally, and most oddly, Stern wakes feeling more well-rested than he has in years.
It’s only as his eyes flutter open that Stern realises that something is wrong.
He’s not wearing his watch.
Bolting upright, Stern takes in the sight of his sylph form before him in a bed that certainly isn’t his own based on the fact that he’s been comfortably lying down in it without his legs sticking off the end. He goes to rip the blankets off himself, but immediately stops. Lying on top of the regular Amnesty Lodge covers, is a blanket. The blanket gifted to him by the other Lodge patrons. And . . . And next to him in bed is the little plush owl Barclay won for him at the carnival . . .
A gasp rings out through the room as Stern’s memories come roaring back.
Barclay! Oh god! The hot springs! Did he-
Stern stumbles out of bed and staggers to the door. He has to find Barclay. He has to know what happened to him. How long has he been out? Before he can even attempt to get his massive hand to work the door, it swings open to reveal Mama standing in the doorway.
“Ah darn, didn’t want you wakin’ up alone. Was hoping you’d stay asleep long enough for me to grab ya a glass of water. How ya feelin’?”
And discomfort about being in his sylph form is thrown aside in favor of bafflement. She’s so calm? Why is she so calm? “Where’s Barclay?” He manages out but with how dry his throat is, it comes out as far more like a growl than Stern is comfortable with. The mere action dragging back more and more memories. “Is he alright? I need to-”
“Whoa, hold your horses there,” Mama goes to hand him the glass of water but then glances at his hands. “Why don’tcha get your disguise charm on and drink some of this, alright?”
“My- My disguise charm?”
Mama nods over to the bedside table and it’s only then that Stern sees his watch lying next to the lamp. He makes his way over to it, still unsteady on his feet, and gingerly picks it up. It’s . . .
It’s ticking.
“Hope ya don’t mind,” Mama softly calls from the doorway. “But I took the liberty of fixin’ it up for you.”
“I- Thank you.”
“No problem Joseph.”
And then he slips the watch on his wrist and the world spins as Stern’s perspective shifts and he’s once again in his human form.
He stares down at his hands.
Curls and uncurls his fingers.
Turns them over as he stares.
He’s alive . . .
“Want to go see Barclay?”
Stern stops his train of thought as he turns around back to Mama. “Yes. Please. Is he okay? I remember- God, I remember-”
“Hey? Joseph? He’s fine.”
Stern swallows down all the words he was about to say. “Really?”
“Mmhhm, been resting in bed. He’s just down the hall.”
Stumbling over towards the door, Stern suddenly finds himself with his arm slung around Mama’s shoulder as she supports him. “You’re gonna be a bit out of it for a while, your body’s still adjusting. Let me help, alright?”
“Alright.”
With that, the two of them leave the room and start the slow process of walking down the hall. “Hope ya know that as soon as the others hear you’re awake, they’re gonna try and swarm ya. I can hold ‘em off for a bit, but not forever. Jake’s been asking every hour if you were up and about and I can’t even begin to count the number of cups of tea that they brewed for ya.”
Stern tries not to think too hard about these three sentences because otherwise he’s going to cry in the middle of the hallway.
Finally, they make it to Barclay’s room and Stern freezes. He can hear Dani talking inside. “Pumpkin pie is obviously the superior pie,” Dani says but he doesn’t hear what she says next as he takes a step back.
“What’re you waitin’ for?” Mama asks, looking up at him with furrowed brows.
Stern takes in a shaky breath. “Does he . . . Does he even want to see me?”
“What?”
“I nearly killed him,” he whispers as he stares at the door. “I put you all in danger. I was seen. He’s hurt because of me.”
“Now, you listen here Joseph and you listen well. None of that is your fault and I’ll say it again so you remember. None of that is your fault. Not a single soul in this Lodge blames you for any of that, and you shouldn’t either. And I know it’s gonna take time to accept that, but it’s the truth.”
Stern doesn’t know what to say so he just stands there.
“And to answer your first question, Barclay wants to see ya. Been askin’ ‘bout you non-stop. Pretty sure he’s planning an escape to come see ya if I’m bein’ honest.”
Despite himself, Stern lets out a weak chuckle. “Well, I would hate to keep him waiting then.”
So, still leaning on Mama, Stern opens up the door and once his eyes adjust to the morning light streaming through the window, his breath all but stops. Barclay is propped upright in bed, bandages wrapped around his arms and torso, a bruise blooming across his temple and a cut along the bridge of his nose. Sat on the bedside table is the bear Stern won him at the carnival. Dani sits on a chair next to him but whatever she was saying is cut off as both she and Barclay turn towards the door.
The world doesn’t freeze, just them, just that moment as he and Barclay lock eyes.
And Stern doesn’t even get through the second syllable of a quiet “Hello” before Barclay is attempting to untangle himself from the covers and cross the room to him. “Oh, no no no,” Stern leaves Mama and stumbles over to the bed, just landing on its side as Barclay surges forward and brings him into a hug, head buried in his shoulder.
“You’re okay.”
“I was so worried.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I was so scared.”
And it doesn’t matter who says what, the words blurring and building and becoming something new until they’re inseparable.
Finally though, they pull back but don’t stop touching each other. Mama and Dani are gone now, yet he didn’t even hear them leave. Barclay’s hands remain on Stern’s back, rubbing up and down the fabric while Stern keeps his hand on Barclay’s neck, comforted by steadiness of his pulse.
“So . . .” Barclay starts, a wobbly smile on his face. “Bigfoot, huh?”
Stern lets out a short breathy laugh. “Indeed. Though you’re one to talk.”
“I know, I know,” Barclay says with a laugh of his own. “I still can’t- I don’t know. Can’t believe how it all turned out. There were so many times where I thought ‘well this it’ but . . . But here we are. Everything worked out in the end, huh?”
Stern’s fingers pause on Barclay’s neck. “But . . . Did it? You and I were both seen by the townsfolk. I attacked those Bigfoot hunters. Dale still knows that I’m not really an FBI agent. How are we possibly going to handle any of this?”
“Hey, don’t worry,” one of Barclay’s hands leaves his back and comes around to hold Stern’s. “We’ve actually got it all covered.”
“Truly?”
“Yep. With the costume Ned used to- well to convince you we faked that video, which again, I’m so sorry about-”
“Barclay, I understand. You wanted to protect the Lodge, it’s completely understandable. Now please, continue.”
He nods. “So anyways, using that suit with the disguise charm, Ned convinced folks that everything was just a publicity stunt for Saturday Night Dead. Actually brought a bit of business down to the Cryptonomica of people wanting to see the suit.”
“Oh ah, good for him. But what of the Bigfoot Hunters? Surely they weren’t fooled by that.”
“You say that, but you should’ve heard Buck mumbling to himself that he knew it was fake the whole time as he packed up and headed outta of here.”
“And the podcasters? If my memory is correct, they did get video of the whole encounter.”
“Tammy and Gordan? Oh well uh, the strangest thing happened. Camera they were using to film with? Well Aubrey went over to check on them and she said all their footage got deleted. Electrical mishap. Shame.”
Stern groans, but a smile still plays on his lips. “Oh, I almost feel bad.”
“Eh,” Barclay shrugs. “They’ve still got all the episodes they recorded for their podcast and even if they talk about what happened, can’t imagine many folks will believe them without the footage. ‘Sides, not like they could’ve shown a video over an audio medium anyways.”
“And Dale?”
A mischievous smile plays on Barclay’s face. “Well here’s the thing. Know how Dale’s always calling himself the Bigfoot Tracking King of Willow Creek? Well, Willow Creek is right in Six Rivers National Park, so Duck made a few phone calls over to the rangers there. Duck bonded real quick with them, talking about the people messing up the forests trying to find Bigfoot. Turns out, Dale’s made quite a name for himself up there. Destroying park property. Damaging the trees. Even shot a bald eagle. All together, he’d be looking at a pretty hefty fine plus jail time for all that.”
Stern jaw slowly drops as Barclay speaks.
“And well, after learning all this, Mama paid Dale a visit. Had a good long talk with him. Let’s just say, Dale won’t be telling anybody about you not being an FBI agent and in fact, he’s already packed up and left town. Won’t be coming back either.”
Stern takes a deep breath. And another. So . . . So it really is okay? Everything actually turned out okay? There’s no more Bigfoot hunters to worry about. He doesn’t have to hide the fact that he’s Bigfoot from the Lodge. Barclay is okay. Ten years of searching. Ten years of loneliness. Ten years of fear. Ten years of his crystal slowly running out of energy. Ten years of thinking he’d never make it past ten years.
He suddenly finds himself pulled in for another hug as Braclay runs a soothing hand down his back. “It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re okay now.” He murmurs in a never ending mantra.
It takes Stern a moment to register that it’s his own body that’s shaking, that the muffled sobs are his. Years of built up tension drain away with each breath that racks his chest.
Part of it’s relief.
Part of it’s the memories. Of being out in that forest. Of not being himself. The absolute terror that gripped him when he thought that he was going to die all coming out in shuddering gasps.
He can’t stop. Just tries to keep gulping in breaths as Barclay says soothingly, “You found us. You did it. You won’t be alone anymore. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”
Stern believes him. He truly does. But still, he cries and still Barclay holds him until eventually, he slides in bed next to Barclay, curled close to one another as if both are worried the other man will disappear.
“I love you,” Barclay whispers to him.
Stern forces down a sniffle. “I love you too.”
And for the rest of the day, they simply stayed like that.
Together and warm and loved.
Growing up, there were three principles which guided every single action of Joseph Stern’s life.
One: He is a human being. Do nothing to make anyone think otherwise.
“So while myself and my parents had night vision, they never spoke on whether this was standard for all sylphs? So do you all have it too?” Stern asks as he sinks into the lobby couches and settles against Barclay’s side, handing him a mug of cider as Stern balances his own in his other hand.
The doors are all locked. The curtains all drawn. The disguise charms all off.
Stern never thought he’d feel comfortable enough to be in his sylph form around others, and yet here he is. It’s been just under a month since Stern’s been back and he and Barclay have both spent that time healing in different ways.
“Most do, yeah,” Dani says as she sits on the hearth. “With nights lasting literal decades on Sylvain, having the ability to see in the dark is pretty important.
“Sun should be rising soon, right?”
Barclay nods at Jake, who is currently an anthropomorphic seal in a neon windbreaker, a concept that first sent Stern into a double take but is now his new normal. “Should be yeah. This year probably. Then it’s a couple of decades of sun for everyone.” Barclay smiles. “Bet that sunrise will be beautiful.”
“I’ll be the first to admit that the Earth sunrises scared the daylight out of me, no pun intended, when I first came to Earth,” Moira says. Marcella, Harlan, Nexiad and a few others chime in with agreement before breaking back into their own conversations, creating a pleasant murmur throughout the room that he could sink into.
Taking a sip of hot cider, Stern takes a moment to think about the concept of having never seen a sunrise. “I can’t imagine how odd that must have been. Both seeing the sun for the first time and living without it.”
Stern still hasn’t gone to Sylvain. Doesn't know if he ever will. Technically, he hasn’t been banished, but if he goes, he can only go once. As soon as he returns to Earth, he’ll officially be banished. The thought doesn’t bother him though. He’s got everything he needs right here on Earth. Aubrey, Duck and Ned even travelled there and managed to get him a small implant that is tuned to his biology which allows him to transition his sylph form. And that ability to stand in front of the mirror with his watch on or off and see himself staring back, a smile on his face, it means so much to him he could barely put it into words when it was given to him.
Two: Cryptids do not exist. Any comment to the contrary must be countered and mocked.
“I have another question actually,” Stern starts but pauses as Duck comes in with trays of snacks and sets them down on every and any available surface. All the lodge residents gathered around immediately dig in. “The Loch Ness Monster, is she also a sylph?”
“Everybody always asks about Nessie. How would she even get through the gate?” Barclay says with a fond eye roll and then a kiss to Stern’s furry cheek.
“Hey it’s a valid question!” Aubrey counters, throwing a piece of popcorn straight at him.
Barclay just laughs.
“But to answer your question, we don’t really know? Never been over in Scotland. Hey, Mama? You’ve been overseas, you ever go to Loch Ness?”
“Nah!” She calls back. “But I think she’s real!”
Ned takes the opportunity to quickly duck out of his other conversation to instead lean forward in his chair and flash one of his businessman smiles. “Well, of course she’s real! In fact, I've seen the magnificent creature with my own two eyes!”
“You really trying to scam real cryptids?” Duck raises an eyebrow, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “You’ll stoop that low? For shame.”
The two of them devolve into their own conversation, but Dani’s voice draws him away from it.
“But yeah, Loch Ness Monster?” She shrugs. “Who knows. But Mothman, he’s real. And I mean, my babysitter growing up was what humans would call the jersey devil. So some of them are sylphs, but not everything.”
“Huh. Good to know.”
Stern thinks to all the sightings he tracked down over the years. The reports of aliens or werewolves or goatmen, how many of those were real? Were they actually sylphs? There must be other communities out there like this, surviving off Earth’s energy. Together and happy like he is here.
“Hey,” Barclay starts, his arm resting on the back of Stern’s shoulder, keeping him close. “Wanna see something?” He then tilts his head back so he’s staring straight up at the glass dome above them, and the night sky above that. “Alright, so you see that bright yellow star, the right head of gemini?”
“Your confidence in my constellation knowledge is highly misplaced.”
This earns him a small laugh. “Look, see the Big Dipper? See the bottom right star of the cup? Follow that up and to the right.”
“Oh, that one?” Stern says pointing through the glass, the remnants of snow still on the panes, which really isn’t the ideal way to do this truth be told.
“Yeah you got it! The star right next to that one? That’s Sylvain’s sun.”
Stern blinks. “Really?”
“Yep.”
Huh . . . And suddenly, it’s like Stern is right back at the Grand Canyon. Feeling so small, but not in a bad way.
He hopes they enjoy their sunrise.
Then, as Stern tilts his head back down, he sees that the rest of the sylphs are also gazing above at their sun.
“You know, it’s kinda weird to think about but uh,” Barclay pauses, takes a sip from his mug. “Wouldn’t be able to see the sun if we were still on Sylvain, would we?”
A small smile tugs on Dani’s face. “No, guess we wouldn’t.”
Three: Never let anybody close enough to realise that one and two are lies.
Looking out across the room, at his friends, his family, the man he loves, Stern doesn’t even try to hide his smile. When he used to imagine finding another sylph, he thought it would be a relationship born of pure necessity. They would have a crystal. Stern needed a crystal. Their interactions would be nothing more than Stern borrowing the crystal, returning it, then repeating the cycle.
Never did he imagine this.
Never did he even dare to dream of anything like this.
But now that it's here? Stern will be damned before he lets it go.
Clearing his throat, Stern grabs the attention of others. And now, attention doesn’t bring death, it brings warmth in the smiles and faces of those he cares most deeply about. “I just wanted to say to you all,” and then he pauses, trying to remember the syllables and sounds that he’s been working on. Breathe. Just breathe. He didn’t practice this for nothing. “ You all mean a great deal to me and I cannot express how thankful I am to have found Amnesty Lodge.”
Immediately, the room erupts.
“Holy shit man, when did you learn to speak sylph?”
“That was great!”
“You even got the trill right, that takes work!”
Stern tries not to preen, but as soon as he glances to his right to see Barclay staring at him, gaze soft and smile softer, well it’s really a losing battle at that point. “That was amazing, Joe. You’re a natural.”
“I have Moira’s tutelage to thank and to be quite honest, that is one of only two phrases I can speak in sylph at the moment. I still have a long way to go.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it all in no time.”
“Ooh, here! We can teach you some now!” Jake exclaims before launching into a list of words, the others jumping in every now and again to either add to the list, correct Stern’s pronunciation, or to say that Stern should probably learn the fundamentals before he learns curse words.
And as the night goes on, some heading to bed, others taking over the kitchen to bake cookies, eventually, through the glass dome, the first rays of light begin to break through. Next to him, Barclay yawns and leans on his shoulder.
“Tired?”
“What? Me? Nev-” Another yawn. “Never.”
“We should head to bed.”
“Ehh, it’s fine. I’m not working tomorrow. Or I guess today really. Sebastian’s manning the kitchen. Or maybe Dani? Can’t remember.”
Stern smiles and gently runs his fingers through Barclay’s fur. “So what I’m gathering is that you and I can spend the entire day napping together?”
“Oh, absolutely .”
Then for a moment, the two of them simply sit there, leaning against one another and not saying a word. Eventually though, Stern does open the door out of the quiet. “There was one other phrase I learned to speak in sylph,” he says softly.
“Oh?”
“Mhhmm,” he takes a breath. “ I love you.”
And Barclay doesn’t hesitate even a second before saying right back at him in sylph, “ I love you too. ”
Stern doesn’t remember if he’s ever been this happy before and when he speaks next, it's through a wide grin he can barely contain. “And my thought is, if my pronunciation on that particular phrase is off, well I’ll have many chances to practice it, won’t I?”
“And you’ll hear it a lot too, really help you get those syllables down.”
Stern lets out a small laugh. “We make a pretty sappy pair, hmm?”
“Our first kiss was on top of a ferris wheel, what do you expect?” Barclay counters, a crooked smile that Stern loves on his face. “And uh, on the subject of sappy, well I just wanted to say that I’m just- I’m thankful everyday that you found me.”
“I’m thankful you found me too.”
Then as Stern leans forward to kiss Barclay, he thinks back to those three principles, how the thought of breaking them was once blasphemy. But now, tasting the faint hint of apple cider on Barclay’s lips, their disguise charms off and staying that way, Stern realises that without breaking each and every one of those principles, he wouldn’t be here now. And you know what, he doesn’t think his parents would mind one bit.
He certainly doesn’t.
The kiss ends, but the feeling of Barclay’s lips on his doesn’t and Stern can’t help but smile, thinking about the rest of his life spread before him. Not searching or running or hiding, but here, at the Lodge with Barclay.
Two Bigfoots in love.