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Billy isn’t entirely sure how he’s gotten here. He was on his way to help Tommy deliver something to their grandfather, but his twin brother ran off at one point to help what looked like an overturned carriage down the road (it appeared to be Lady Bishop’s, to whom Billy knows Tommy has taken a fancy), and at some point in the intervening time, Billy lost sight of him, got turned around, took the wrong turn…
And got lost, obviously.
“Hello?” Billy dawdles outside the gates for a moment. There isn’t any real way to get in, not that he can see, nor any guards, but maybe if he yells loud enough, someone will hear and let him in before the lights go out? “Anyone there?”
”No need to shout.” One of the statues on either side of the gate, just inside, leans over and looked straight at Billy. He squawks in surprise and stumbles back. “We’re right here.”
“Wha… You, you’re not… but you’re statues!” Billy stumbles back, mind racing. He only knows a handful of people that could do something like this, and his mother definitely doesn’t live here, and he’s pretty sure it isn’t Strange’s place either (not that he’s ever visited that one).
“Well, we are now.” There’s no outside indication of it, but Billy gets the feeling that the statue is rolling its eyes. “Anyway, Jonas, go see if the prince wants to let this one in.”
“But I did it last time.” the other statue complains, and Billy’s starting to think that this might actually be surreal enough to be a dream. “Seriously Nate, it’s your turn. Do your job for once.”
Yep, definitely a dream.
o.o.o.o.o
The prince in question is tall, broad, blonde, and very very green.
Billy’s a bit embarrassed about the fact that that last bit doesn’t make the man any less attractive to him.
“My apologies for the mannerisms of my guards. They’ve grown rather harsh since the spell that changed them to their stone forms.” The prince is also weirdly polite, and Billy thinks that maybe spending the night here wouldn’t really be that bad, even if the phonograph talks and refuses to play anything other than some strange music called ‘The Ronettes.’
Of course, come morning it’s not that easy.
o.o.o.o.o
“Oh, but I like this one.” The magpie laughs, landing on the gate that refuses to open. “I think I’ll keep him here, little prince. See if he can help you break that little spell of mine, or maybe put him under one as well? Oh, I’d love to see what such a pretty face could become. Perhaps a bookshelf?”
“Loki.” the prince snarls, and Billy’s torn between being horrified at the magpie’s words and weirdly aroused by the growl. “He’s done nothing to upset you. Let him leave.”
“Tick-tock, tick-tock.” The magpie’s head tilts and it readjusts its wings. “Only a month left now, and you really think you can afford to turn someone like this away? It affects me too, you know. It affects everyone here.“
“Wait, what?” Billy takes a step away from both of them, looking from one inhuman face to the other. “What’s going on here?”
“A fair time back, I cast a spell upon this castle whilst fighting a creature none know the name of. While I managed to turn the creature to stone, there were… unintended side effects.” The magpie manages to shrug, somehow. “All those animate objects that should not be were once human, even the prince. There’s only a month left to break the spell, and it can’t be done without the help of an outsider.”
“I’ll stay, then.” Billy says before he can really think it through. “I mean, I’ll need to tell my brother so that my family doesn’t worry and so that he can get the packages to my grandfather, but I can stick around for a month.”
“I… you would do that?” the look on the prince’s face is heartbreakingly earnest.
“I don’t have too many responsibilities back home.” Billy says, blushing and looking away and scrambling for reasons that don’t hinge on ‘I find this monstrous prince weirdly attractive’. “And the food is good and so is the company, and my mom would approve of me trying to deal with and unravel magical spells on my own.”
“You can’t unravel it knowingly.” The magpie warns him. “I can promise you that you will remain unharmed and that you will not need to do anything against your will, but if you know how to break it, you lose the ability to do so.”
“So I’m flying blind.” Billy shrugs, hiding his sudden nervousness. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Oh, you have gotten lucky.” the magpie almost sounds like it’s trying to seduce him, and it’s honestly weird as hell. “Tell me, little magician, what is your name?”
“William Maximoff, but everyone calls me Billy. And, ah, you guys?”
“I am Loki, and he,” The magpie nods at the prince, who’s staring strangely at Billy now, “is Prince Dorrek VIII.”
The prince makes a face. “Just… just call me Teddy.”
Billy nods. “Yeah, okay, I can do that.”
o.o.o.o.o
“You what.” Tommy stares at him from the other side of the gates, remarkably bland about the whole thing.
“I’m staying here to try to unravel a spell that’s been in place for the past couple of years. If I manage it, I’ll be helping a lot of people get their bodies back.” Billy scratches the back of his head. “I figure mom would approve, and it’s not like it’s forever, just a couple of weeks.”
Tommy nods like this is an everyday thing. “Right. Don’t fuck the monster.”
“Tommy!”
o.o.o.o.o
Billy likes it at the castle. Teddy is just as interested as Billy is in the old children’s stories, and most of the castle’s inhabitants are either genuinely nice or abrasive yet kind. Even the stupid phonograph.
Loki blinks in and out of their lives, showing Billy the books on magic in the massive library, the tomes old and dusty and hidden. Billy feels like Loki’s wandered this library for longer than Billy’s been alive, but he keeps his suspicions to himself and brushes off Loki’s flirtations as well as he can, because Loki is a bird and probably older than Grandpa Erik.
The oddest days are those where Billy is in a room with both Loki and Teddy, because Billy likes Teddy, probably more than he should, and he respects Loki, but Teddy and Loki have some kind of history after all these years of suffering beneath curse magic, and Billy doesn’t know what that history is like.
o.o.o.o.o
Billy stares up into the eyes of the monster man he’s come to love, eyes blown wide. The rest of the castle’s inhabitants are around them, but he can’t be bothered to notice. “So this was the cure to the spell. This is why I couldn’t know.”
“Yes, yes it was.“ Teddy’s gorgeous, still, even though he’s smaller and actually human now. “I hope that’s okay?”
Everyone’s human again, and wearing clothing, except for the goddamn phonograph that may be allergic to shirts or something.
“Are you joking?” Billy’s grip tightens around Teddy’s hands, and the taller man’s eyes widen just a tiny bit, possibly in fear. “I’m not just in love with you, I’m in love with you enough that it managed to undo a spell. A really powerful one. If that’s not confirmation, I don’t know what is.”
“So it’s okay.” The sentence is a statement, but Teddy definitely says it like a question.
“More than okay.” Billy nods, and then reaches up to kiss him.
“Excuse me?” The girl that was once a suit of starry armor knocks on the door. Her hair is curlier than Billy expected. “Figured you might want to see this one.”
“See what?” Teddy straightens up and turns, just in time to catch the tall figure striding into the room. The person is clad in leather and fur and metal, all green and gold and just the tiniest bits of black and white. Horns on the head and a smirk on their face, there’s nothing to tell Billy who this is, but he knows nonetheless.
“Loki?”
“The one and only.” Loki turns, as though to show off the body and clothing once more in the sorcerer’s possession. “What do you think? I haven’t worn my own body in years. I might miss the wings.”
“You’re a shapeshifter, Lo.” Teddy deadpans. “You’ll be able to go magpie whenever you want instead of being stuck.”
“As are you.” Loki smirks, and then looks at Billy. “I know you were fond of the green skin and size. If you ever get the hankering, he is perfectly capable of bringing it back…”
Billy’s face colors and he’s torn between moving away from Teddy in embarrassment and pressing closer to show that he is definitely okay with whatever happens on that front. If Teddy wants to shapeshift into something not quite human, Billy’s perfectly alright with it. He’s also curious about where that power came from, but that’s a question for another time.
“Can I…? Do you mind if I ask something?” Billy’s eyes on Loki, who nods with that same infuriating half-smirk. It’s stupidly attractive. “What were you two to each other, back before all this happened?” He hadn’t expected Loki to look so young or attractive, and that suddenly calls into question many of Teddy and Loki’s interactions.
“Loki was the castle’s resident sorcerer.” Teddy explains. “We were never particularly well-acquainted until after the spell backfired, though.”
“I certainly wouldn’t mind getting a little better acquainted, and that applies to both of you,” Loki’s words are almost purred, “but I figure you two will be more than occupied with one another for the foreseeable future, no?”
Billy’s brain screeches to a halt as Loki’s words start making sense.
“Well…”
o.o.o.o.o
Tommy squints at Billy’s face as he slides onto the chair across the table.
“You fucked the monster, didn’t you?”
“…I don’t know about monster, but there were two shapeshifters, if that counts.”
“Was one of them the monster?”
“Shut up, Tommy.”
“He was, wasn’t he.”
“I said shut up.”