Work Text:
The triadic voices of the Chorus reverberated off the walls of Rue’s skull. They hastened from the top of the tower, a million thoughts and questions followed the echoes. What had they done? What would they do now? Was it a mistake to refuse The Chorus’s offer? Had they not condemned the leaders of the court strongly enough? Were they in danger? Had they ever been?
Rue stopped, realizing they had been walking without destination. Their feet, acting on muscle memory, had been taking them home, down the hall that led to their suite. But they didn’t want home right now. They wanted something practical, something true. Something without pretense or glamor.
They wanted Hob.
Their heart lifted at the thought, but, no. He would have received the letter by now. He would have read it, and Rue was sure he would want to respond to it. After the conversation they just had, Rue wasn’t in that state of mind. No, that conversation demanded its own space, its own time.
Something practical. Something real. They knew another place, or rather person, they could find those qualities in.
Binx? It’s Rue, I need to talk to someone. Where can I find you?
The sending spell was returned almost immediately.
At the tailor’s shop. Hope you’re okay! And if you’re not okay, that’s okay too. I mean, you know. Oh, I should mention, I’m also-
There the message ended. With a fond eye roll, Rue headed back to the stairwell. They’d find out the end of that sentence soon enough.
Dark clouds had gathered while Rue was in the tower. They frowned at the oncoming storm as they made their way to their destination. They’d planned for inclement weather, of course, but rain was not ideal for the night to come. Their mind drifted to the preparations they had made for the play, which then drifted to the one carrying out the preparations. A pit formed in their stomach at that thought. Rue frowned deeper, shaking their head to clear it as they at last reached the abandoned tailor’s shop.
“Binx,” Rue said as they opened the door, “I have to tell you- oh!”
Curse and bless Binx for being spendthrift in her sending, unable to warn Rue of a certain fey’s presence in the shop. It was only right they supposed, Rue had wanted to see Hob after all. And there he stood, looking about as shocked as they felt, leaning over a battle map across from Binx.
“Hi,” Binx gushed, a panicked look in their eyes as their gaze shifted rapidly between Rue and Hob, “Come on in, we were just discussing the plan. Do you want to hear about the plan?”
Rue closed the door behind them, took a breath, and summoned a smile of their own. “Hob,” they nodded, unable to resist searching his face for a hint of his deeper thoughts at their arrival. They hoped for a shy glance, a flustered greeting, hopefully a smile in return.
But Hob did not meet their eyes at all, even as he spoke, “Mistrex de la Rue. We were just discussing our plan, or really, it was Binx's plan, she can fill you in I’m sure. Regrettably, I must be off.”
“So soon?” Rue said, “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can come back later.”
“No need,” Hob was donning his shako and making for the door, “I really must be going. Goblin business to attend to.”
Rue looked to Binx, perplexed. Binx made a series of expressions that conveyed neither clarity nor comfort.
“Good day,” Hob tipped the brim of his visor, and slipped past Rue out the door.
“I’m sorry!!” the words exploded out of Binx as soon as the door closed behind Hob, “I ran out of words! I tried to tell you he was here, but I didn't tell Hob you were coming on purpose because I thought, if I tell Hob that Rue’s coming, he might leave without talking to Rue, and he should definitely talk to Rue, because he’s got some stuff to say to Rue I’m sure, but then it was just a big surprise to you both, and I didn’t think-”
“Slow down,” Rue raised a hand, “What stuff?”
Binx made another series of pained expressions. “Sort of important stuff, but you should really ask him about it.”
“Did he- no, you’re right,” Rue straightened their posture, “this is becoming ridiculous. We should just talk to each other.”
“Exactly!” Binx held out their hands, “Yes, thank you, that’s what I’ve been saying.”
Rue looked at Binx. Binx looked to the door, then back to Rue. Rue looked to the door and then back to Binx. “...Now?”
“Yes, now!!”
The storm had arrived with vigor, and Rue was drenched almost as soon as they stepped out onto the grounds. They squinted through the rain, but it wasn’t hard to see the large shape of a bugbear stalking away towards the forest. Rue rushed out to follow Hob, the pouring rain a cacophony of sound around them. They called to him, having to shout over the noise.
“Hob! Hob, wait!”
But Hob kept walking, shoulders hunched, possibly in response to the weather. Yet, as they caught up to him, Rue suspected a deeper reason.
“Hob-” Rue reached for his shoulder, attempting to get his attention. But Hob must have heard them, and motioned to reject their advance. Instead of grabbing his arm as intended, Rue found themselves holding Hob by the wrist.
Caught in Rue's gentle grip, Hob finally looked up at them. His eyes were glossy with unshed tears, his expression stricken. Rue was taken aback, not expecting to see Hob so... devastated.
“Am I not granted a small shred of dignity on this day?” His words were angry, but his tone was pitiful, pleading, “Let me leave you in peace.”
“You- I only wanted to know what made you leave in such a hurry,” Rue quavered, feeling like a villain for exposing Hob so. But they had to ask. They had to know. “I think I’ve upset you and I want to know why. Clearly I’ve caused you some offense.”
“No,” Hob sniffed, steeling himself, “It is I who causes offense. Forgive me, once again, I beg of you.”
“‘Once again?’ Have you offended me once before?”
“Of course- is that not-,” Hob stammered, “I mean only to say that I am no doubt bumbling through my interaction with you, as always. I would greatly appreciate the end of my own embarrassment."
“Speak plainly, man!” Rue said, voice raised. “I feel like I can’t talk with you sometimes! Face to face, this should be easier,” Rue motioned between the two of them, “but we’re always talking around something. Never about anything! And when we are about to talk about something, you rush away. Not even my letters are granted a response. I’m tired of being left wondering, Hob!”
Hob’s face went from pained to bewildered in the span of a second, Rue catching on only another second too late. Letters. Hob didn’t know they’d written more than one! He didn’t know that Rue had been smitten from that first fateful day in the woods.
But what Hob said next left Rue just as bewildered. “You sent me a letter?”
They stared at each other for a moment in mutual confusion, the rain taking this opportunity to run into Rue’s wide-open eyes. They wiped the moisture away, cursing, “All right, enough of this.”
Rue couldn’t cast shape water, but they could do other casters one better. With a wave of their hand, Rue summoned roots and branches to grow up and around the both of them. The plants rose to form a canopy of leaves thick enough to block out most of the rain.
When Rue looked away from their work, they saw that Hob had not looked away. “You sent me multiple letters?” Hob was blushing now, “What were the contents of these letters?
“Letter. I only sent you one letter,” Rue brushed a leaf off of their dress in a casual feign, “But you don’t have it? You never received it?”
“No,” Hob looked like he wanted to press on the issue of the misspoken plural, but he let it drop for the moment. “I- when did you send it to me?”
“This morning! To your tent. Maybe you were gone-”
“I was in my tent until almost midday. I could have overlooked it.”
“I told Wuvvy to- oh,” Rue pinched the bridge of their beak between two clawed fingers with a sigh. The pit in their stomach returned. “Wuvvy.”
Already sober of countenance, Hob’s demeanor turned even more so. “Wuvvy was to deliver it.”
“Yes.”
“And Wuvvy… did not. Could she have been intercept-”
“No,” Rue shook their head, certain of this now, “no, I don’t think she ever intended to give it to you. I should have given it to you myself. No, I should’ve forgotten the letters entirely and just talked to you.”
Hob lifted a single clawed finger. “Okay, I was prepared to drop it before, but again you mention sending more than one letter. Which, to be clear, I know nothing of the contents-”
“Don’t distract me with details Hob!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Hob held up his hands, “Just feel like it’s important, that’s all.”
“Fine, fine, I wrote you a letter the day after the hunt. But I didn’t send it. You were never supposed to… What did Wuvvy tell you?” A suspicion suddenly occurred to Rue, “Did Wuvvy tell you what I wrote? Is that why the two of you dueled?”
“I didn’t know there was any letter involved at all,” Hob grumbled, “Hold on, are you asking me why I was challenged? I said so to you, in front of everyone, that I had no idea what I had done to warrant the duel. Except… except that I had upset you,” Hob deflated. “My only assumption to go on was that I had gravely offended you and Wuvvy had come to your defense, or you had sent Wuvvy-”
“I did not send Wuvvy to challenge you. You must have seen those missives, carried by birds,” Rue spat the word. “I was just as surprised to learn about it as anyone else, more surprised even. I never wanted you two to fight.”
“Then why send-”
“I didn’t. I didn’t! I didn’t send her at all, with a letter, with a challenge, with anything! I only had dismissed her, and next thing I knew, the two people I care about most were-”
A sudden change in Hob’s expression halted Rue’s thought mid-sentence. He looked taken aback by their last words, but in a flash, a more neutral expression returned.
“Hob,” the brief look had derailed them completely, “you know… you do know how I care for you, don’t you? Letters aside, I… has it not been painfully obvious?”
“I…” Hob paused for a long moment. Rue could see the wheels turning as he processed this information, “I suppose it would make sense, given your reticence to be cruel to me. To give me any time of day.”
Rue balked, “Why in the wilds would I ever want to be cruel to you?”
“In any case,” Hob was looking past Rue now, lost somewhere deep in his own mind, “you seem to desire my friendship enough to keep my company. Despite my having offended you so, despite my-”
“Knickolas,” Rue said, leveling him with a look.
Hob’s gaze snapped back to theirs with a start. “Apologies… I…” he looked stricken again. “I simply am struggling with maintaining something difficult to maintain. I’ll get better. I promise.”
“What? What are you maintaining? What are you talking about?”
“I… only…” he shook his head, “Matters not.”
Rue pointed a finger, frustrated, “No, don’t deflect, not this time. I want answers, real answers, Hob.”
A familiar stubborn look came upon Hob, having been given an order he was reticent to obey. “Perhaps you should start then. I asked moments ago but I shall ask again; what were the contents of those letters, both sent and unsent? You meant them for me, surely I have a right to know.”
Rue huffed and opened their mouth to launch into it all. To speak aloud every word, burnt, lost, and unsaid. But they made no sound. In that moment, with Hob looking them dead in the eye, fear washed over them. The same fear that had stopped them from letting Hob discover their true form in the woods. From sending the first letter. From telling Hob everything they’d thought and felt face to face.
It wasn’t all Hob’s fault, they realized now, that the two of them could never seem to just talk. It struck Rue that they themselves were quite good at dancing around certain topics. They felt the desire to retreat from true sincerity as Hob did. And surely they must have been just as coy, just as prone to leaving one to wonder. They had to be if Hob was so very unaware of their affections.
In a flash, Rue recalled the moment Hob had unpinned his medal of courage from his sash and placed it into Rue’s hand. You deserve this more than I.
But did they?
Hob softened at Rue’s silence, empathetic. “Apologies, I know these subjects are… difficult. I did not mean to be so bold.”
Rue remembered Hob in the forest, that look he gave Rue when they told him to go and rejoin the hunt. That glint in his eye that spoke of something simmering underneath the surface. Waiting to emerge.
They smiled, at both the memory, and at Hob’s retraction. “Never apologize for being bold, at least not to me.”
Hob smiled back, but there was a tightness around his eyes, ever present. “It’s you who compels me. I feel… If I may speak honestly. Though you fluster me, make me question… everything, I feel bolder around you, because of you. You inspire bravery, Rue.”
So inspire it.
Rue stepped forward then to close some of the space between them. They stopped only shy of touch. Near enough only to feel Hob’s breath on their feathers, first in a hitch, then a measured exhale. Rue searched for a sign, or a signal to withdraw, but Hob gave them none, nor did he withdraw himself.
“Then show me,” Rue pleaded rather than demanded, their eyes trailing over his lips. “What’s the bravest thing you could do, right now?”
The glint returned with a blaze to Hob’s eyes, the air charged with electricity as their gazes met. Time stretched into irresponsible lengths. Then Hob’s eyes flicked down, and slowly, in a release of warm breath, his eyes closed. Rue leaned. In tandem, their mouths brushed together, light as the beat of a butterfly's wing, then met.
It was a long embrace, as if they both wanted to give the other every chance to lean away, to retreat to safety. But neither did. Rue reached to cradle Hob’s face, to stroke a thumb along his cheek, and Hob let out a quiet gasp. He kissed them again, a hesitant hand moving to Rue’s waist, then their back. Then they were closer, so close, but oh, not at all close enough in Rue's opinion. Still, they sighed at the feeling of Hob against them, at long last.
In a moment of shared breath, still so close, Hob murmured, “Rue, I… I must tell you. I have felt for some time, since the Great Hart Hunt, that my affections for you have grown, greatly. Far greater than I have ever felt or could anticipate to feel. I confess that all that I want, all that I have wanted, is to be near you, beside you, ever since then. But I- I don’t know if I can, if you- Can I assume your… care for me is not limited to the statues of friendship? Or, perhaps, it is a purely physical-”
He stopped as, from out of nowhere, a delicate pink petal floated down in front of his vision. Hob went cross-eyed as it landed lazily on his nose. They both looked up.
Only now did Rue notice the flowers, blooming all over the inside of the canopy, in all sizes and colors. Rue hadn’t intended them to grow, but grow they did. The elegant petals floated downward, lending a heady scent to the air.
Rue looked to Hob with a sly glance, “Does that answer your question?”
“Ah…” his face was full of wonder as he looked back to Rue, “Yes… and no. We were just speaking about giving clear answers after all, and-”
“I love you, Knickolas Pnackleless Hob,” Rue smiled, “deeply. Truly.”
“Oh… oh,” the tightness around Hob’s eyes gave way to a look of true tenderness, his mouth hung open, “I…”
Rue interlocked their large paws. “Why don't we continue this conversation somewhere warmer, dryer.”
Hob swallowed, regaining his words, “I’ll follow you anywhere.”
Rue lifted Hob’s hand to kiss it. “I know. Hold on.” With a word, the both of them disappeared to a particular chamber in a particular tower. As the spell completed, the grounds were left empty, nothing lingering but the soft scent of freshly-bloomed peonies.