Work Text:
Another slow day at the seap.
Seam rearranged the items on the shelf again, placing bottles here and the glass ball there and the doll next to the broken sewing machine. It was the fifth time this week they had rearranged. Things were very slow.
They picked up some envelopes left on a shelf and remembered that they, along with the enclosed stationary, were intended to be used for a letter of protest to the king. The idea came about during one of his darkest moments. But they knew firsthand what happened to traitors, so they scrapped the letter idea and moved out of the castle instead. Nobody else wanted to buy the stationary.
A gust of wind blew into the seap and sent a chill down Seam’s spine, and only then did they look down and notice the gaping hole in their attire.
They weren’t even sure how or when the tear had appeared.
All Seam was aware of was that it existed: a large and fraying hole in their robe, right in the middle of their chest. It was much too noticeable to just ignore, unlike all of the smaller holes in the sleeves, due to the size and placement. Seam decided to close the seap for a day and just fix all of them. They put down the item they didn’t realize they were holding, buttoned up the cloth door to the seap, and lumbered into the back room.
The back room of the seap also served as Seam’s house. It was cozy and small, filled to the brim with shelves and tables holding all sorts of odds and ends that they had collected over the years. They slept on a cot and had a fireplace to provide warmth and assist in most of their cooking. Next to the fireplace sat a rocking chair, which was where they settled down to fix their robe.
They started with all of the smaller holes, focusing on the thread. It became like a pattern, almost. Find a hole, stitch it up, tie off the thread, repeat. There were a lot more holes than they expected. No matter, they’d just fix them the same as all the others.
When it came time to fix the biggest hole, they knew they couldn’t just sew this one up. It was much too big. No, this one needed a patch.
Putting down the robe, Seam got out of the chair and started rummaging around to look for fabric. Usually they had an abundance, but today it almost seemed to be hiding from them. They couldn’t even find their sewing basket in all of the clutter. The thought of cleaning up crossed their mind, and they decided to do it later. Eventually, their hands found something soft, and they lifted it up to get a closer look.
It was a cape: green and yellow plaid on the inside, and all black along the outside save for the symbols of the four card suits embroidered along the edge.
The cape was Jevil’s.
It had belonged to him when he was still the court jester. Seam had made it for him one day, after his regular one got a tear and was sent off to the royal tailor to be fixed. It was his favorite cape. He had worn it for countless shows, but never once did it rip or even fray due to all of the care and small bit of magic Seam put into making it for him. Seam smiled at the memories, as bittersweet as they were now.
Then they took out their scissors.
He cut off a corner piece that would be a big enough patch for the hole and dropped the cape to the floor. They sat back down on their rocking chair and got to work.
With every stitch, Seam felt themself become less focused. Their mind kept drifting back to their time as the court magician alongside Jevil serving as the jester. They remembered their shows, with all of their playful banter that always ended with a colorful flourish. They remembered their time off, spent goofing around and laughing with each other. They remembered babysitting the infant prince with him. (They briefly wondered how old said prince was now, but it was quickly overshadowed by everything else.) They remembered the jester’s smile. They remembered the nuanced way he spoke.
He wondered what he was up to at that moment. It left a melancholy feeling in their cotton.
They looked down. Said cotton was spilling onto the fabric. They had pierced their hand without noticing and torn a hole in their paw.
Sighing, Seam removed the thread from their hand and the stitching on the patch unraveled as well. They lifted the fabric and noticed the heart embroidered perfectly in the middle of the square. At least it matched the placement on the robe. They stuffed the cotton back into their hand, sewed it up, and tied off the thread.
They switched to a stronger thread and got to work. They tried to be careful not to catch their hand this time, and sewed the patch on so that the plaid was on the outside.
Once they finished, they adored their handiwork for a few seconds, then changed back into the robe to go reopen the seap.
~+~+~+~+~
Seam hung a pot of tea over the fire. They hadn’t smiled this much in years.
“WHERE DID YOU GO, GO?” asked a voice from the front of the seap, and a few seconds later the former court jester popped his head into the back room.
“Just back here, Jevil,” Seam called back, “I’m making us tea.”
Jevil grinned and entered the back room fully with an excited hop. “GOODIE, GOODIE! I HOPE IT'S PEPPERMINT.”
“You really think I’d forget your favorite after all these years?” Seam teased, and kept an eye on the pot. Jevil wandered around the room, gazing in wonder at all the various items Seam had in their possession.
He stopped in front of a piece of fabric crumpled on the floor. “WHAT’S THIS, THIS?” He picked it up and gasped.
“Are you alright?” Seam said. He turned to see the jester holding up what he had found.
“MY OLD FAVORITE CAPE!” Jevil said. “HOW I’VE MISSED YOU, YOU!” He hugged the cape and Seam chuckled.
“Do you think it’ll still fit you after all these years?” Seam said, walking over.
“I THINK SO, SO,” Jevil said, “IT’S NOT LIKE I’VE GROWN.” He held the cape out in front of him and only then did he notice the missing corner piece.
He looked up at Seam, confused. “WHAT HAPPENED THERE?”
“Ah.” Seam looked at the patch on their robe, then looked away. “I needed to do a repair and had no other fabric on hand.”
“OH WELL,” Jevil said, “I’LL JUST WEAR IT ANYWAY!”
“Come now, Jevil, at least let me fix it up for you.” Seam took the cape and started looking around for some spare fabric to repair the cape with. Having nothing else to do, Jevil started looking as well. He slipped back into the front of the seap and soon returned with some fabric.
“HERE, HERE,” Jevil said, holding the fabric square out to Seam.
Seam took the fabric and recognized it as the missing fabric patch from their robe. “Figures,” they muttered, “Where did you find it?”
“CAUGHT ON A DRAWER, DRAWER OF A DRESSER UNDERNEATH THAT SHELF YOU LIKE TO REARRANGE!”
Seam hummed in response and took the fabric from Jevil. They sat down in their rocking chair and took out some thread while Jevil floated nearby, watching over Seam’s shoulder.
Seam hummed an old familiar tune as they worked and Jevil’s tail swayed along to the beat.
They stitched the frayed fabric onto the corner of the cape and even embroidered little hearts into the corners as a nod to the fabric piece that was once there. Once they were finished, they handed the cape off to Jevil, who took it and spun around in the air with glee. When he landed back on the ground, he put the cape on.
“HOW DOES IT LOOK?” Jevil said, posing dramatically to show off the garment.
“Just as good as it used to, old friend,” Seam said fondly.
“I THINK IT LOOKS BETTER,” Jevil said, looking at the newly added patch, “NOW THAT WE MATCH!”
Seam looked at the patch on their robe, then at the patch on Jevil’s cape. “So we do,” they said. And the thought comforted them.