Chapter Text
There was faint memory of his mother once taking him and his twin sister out to look at holiday lights. It had been on a Christmas Eve much like this one, with snow falling in gentle flurries and people rushing around doing last-minute shopping for their families.
As he was only a child back then, he had been absolutely stunned at what he had described as “tree stars.” The reds, blues, greens, whites, and many other colors strung across branches and over windows had dazzled his easily impressed mind. How could people take the shining lights from the sky and use them to decorate their houses?
Of course, Ingway knew better now and didn’t care nearly as much. The wonder of his young youth had vanished long ago and holiday lights were now little more than pretty display created by either magic or electricity. He wasn’t apathetic about it, but he sometimes wondered why people even bothered if the lights were going to be taken down after New Year’s anyway.
A hopeless puff of warm air escaped him as he tugged on the collar of his mantle and continued his trek, two shopping bags in one hand and fresh snow crunching beneath his feet. Considering how cold it was, he was better off taking his usual shortcut if he wanted to get home before his fingers and toes became numb. Even for Christmas Eve, a scenic route was just not the route for him.
It wasn’t terribly difficult to move through the throngs of people, although there were still enough people around that he got annoyed whenever someone moved to block his path. Parents shopping for their children and lovers out on dates were abundant as he continued down one of the city’s main streets in its shopping district. He sighed with relief upon turning on to a side street, which was far less crowded, although the sudden silence threw him off quite a bit.
He felt his phone vibrate and quickly reached into his shirt pocket, drawing it out and seeing what the prattle was. Velvet, his twin sister, had texted him a photo.
“Merry Christmas! We still wish you had come!” It said beneath a picture of her, their half-sisters Gwendolyn and Griselda, and Cornelius and Oswald, Velvet and Gwendolyn’s boyfriends who also happened to be cousins. Ingway had to roll his eyes at this one. Had they really gone ahead and did the whole ugly sweater group photo thing that was so popular these days? Apparently so, and right at the dinner table too.
He then noticed the photo caption.
“I have a sweater for you, too. Expect it among your presents when we come over tomorrow.”
Ingway clicked his tongue and shut his phone off. Velvet, in reality, wasn’t the most affectionate sister when it came to him, but she could be downright passive-aggressive when she was getting revenge for him skipping out on things like Christmas Eve dinner.
He continued as he had been, following the side-street and going by a number of small family owned shops and little stone houses. The snow twinkled beneath crystal lamps that were strung with glowing poinsettias and the air continued to nip at his face. It took another few minutes of wandering, but he finally came upon his shortcut.
It was an alleyway between a house belonging to an old couple and a magic shop that specialized in potions made for parties and pranks. Ingway had discovered this route one day when he was trying escape a sudden rainstorm on the way home from work. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant-smelling shortcut, but it cut his walk home down by ten minutes.
Checking to make sure that no one was watching him, he slipped into the alley and followed the imposing path made between the buildings. Even in winter, the odor from the trash barrels and dumpsters was pungent and Ingway scrunched up his nose in disgust. He swerved between tossed boxes and black bags, keeping his shopping bags safe and his eye upon the exit up ahead.
At that point, there were a lot of things that could have happened in that alley. Ingway could have been jumped by thugs hiding in there or he could have tripped and fallen. Someone could have even tossed something out a window and hit him right across the head. Ingway, however, never expected for something to happen because he was more than capable of handling things himself.
What did happen was that he heard a soft whimper to his right.
He paused in his stride, feet sinking into the snow as he twisted his body to look in the direction of the whimper. At first, he couldn’t see who or what it was, but then he flicked his fingers and summoned a glowing orb to light the spot between a dumpster and a cardboard box.
There was a girl sitting there, a girl with butterfly wings. Ingway’s leg swung as he turned his whole body to face her, his blank expression suddenly replaced with one of surprise. What in the world was a fairy doing out here?
She was either a bit younger than him or reasonably short. She was blonde like him, although comparison to his honey golden locks, hers were a soft sunshine color. Red eyes blinked sleepily in the new light cast by orb and she hugged legs that were startlingly bare, no thanks to her attire resembling a green and white leotard with sleeves.
She looked up at him rather briefly, her bangs veiled by a crown of white flowers, before she buried her face in her knees and took in a shaky breath.
Ingway stood there rather dumbfounded for a moment. Most fairies he had seen among the human populous wouldn’t be so idiotic as to wear something like that in the middle of winter, much less hide out in an alleyway on a night where temperatures were below freezing. There had to be a reason she was here by herself and he was almost tempted to ask her.
It dawned on him rather quickly, though. Fairies, while often considered to be equals with humans, could just as easily be considered animals by those who didn’t care that their existence was the reason that magic was rediscovered. If she was in an alleyway dressed like that in temperatures this cold, then surely she was a dumped lab fairy. Born and raised in research facilities, they were used as test subjects for all manner of experiments, only to essentially be thrown out when they had lost their usefulness. It was the worst fate possible for any one born of the famed forest folk.
Ingway continued to stare at the shivering fairy, listening as tiny hiccups left her. He knew that there were societies formed to help such fairies that had been dumped, but often the fairies refused their help. If they couldn’t be useful to scientists, then why should they be useful to civilized society? Many simply waited for their bodies to wither away and become a part of the earth again while their souls returned to the heavens.
The snow continued to fall upon Ingway and the fairy. He really should just leave at this point. If she was a dumped fairy, she probably wanted to be left alone, right? And he needed to get home. He had already been standing there long enough as is.
Sadly for him, his legs acted on their own accord. He took a step towards her and then another one, getting down on one knee and gently brushing at her bangs.
“Hey,” he said in a voice a bit too stern for the situation. “Look at me.”
It took a moment, but she managed to tilt her head up. She didn’t say anything, although he caught her pointed ears twitching. Those red eyes of hers were incredibly watery and brimming with tears.
“Do you want help?” He asked. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do what I can.”
He expected her to say “no.” He honestly did. It was how dumped fairies were. Before she gave him her answer, he was already starting to get up, figuring it pointless to have even bothered.
But somehow, she must have decided that she might as well surprise him.
“I would l-like some h-help…”
He paused and looked back down at her. Her cheeks were streaked with tears as she tried to get up, only to flop back down disappointingly.
“W-what I really want is s-somewhere w-warm a-and…” Her knees were shaking as she tried to stand up a second time. How long had she been out here? “And s-some warm food, p-plus a b-blanket…”
Good heavens, this was positively pathetic. Ingway didn’t voice such thoughts, though. He had already become the knight in shining armor in this situation and positively regretted it, although he knew he would regret it even more if he didn’t do something.
Helping her is only a temporary thing. Just take her back home, get her some food and allow her to rest. In the morning you can take her to the nearest society for abandoned lab fairies and they’ll deal with everything else.
It was difficult picking her up with the shopping bags in his hands, but somehow he was able to do it. It was easiest for him to carry her in a manner similar to a bride. Oh great, now he really was a knight, wasn’t he? Hopefully no one on the way home would make some sort of mistake when looking at the two.
Hopefully.
She was quiet for most of the trip back to the nine floor apartment complex. She really just buried herself into his mantle, shivered, and whimpered. It was enough that Ingway felt pity for her, although it wasn’t enough to make him feel guilty that he’d be sending her out by tomorrow afternoon.
He wondered if he might be letting himself be cheated, now that he thought about it.
Once he was inside, climbing the stairs up to the sixth floor where his apartment was ended up being cumbersome. He had to put up with it, as the fairy still almost fell over when he put her down on the ground floor. Either the cold had frozen her down to the marrow of her bones, she was really tired, or she was faking it entirely.
Really, he hoped she wasn’t cheating him.
There was another thing that he was only thinking about now as he reached the fifth floor. He hadn’t asked the fairy what her name was. Did lab fairies even have names? It might be worth asking her on the landing.
Reaching the sixth floor, he turned right to Apartment 602. The fairy stumbled as he put her down so he could fish around in his pocket for his key, legs still wobbling despite being somewhere warm. Ingway glanced at her.
“Before we go in,” he said procuring his key. “I would like to know your name.”
The fairy’s eyes were slightly nervous, but she managed to say her name in a soft voice and without stuttering. “Mercedes. Mercedes of the Ringford Group, ID code Y66DR451L.”
“Mercedes,” Ingway repeated while inserting his key and turning it. The lock clicked open rather satisfyingly. “All right, I can live with that.”
The door swung open and he stepped over the threshold with Mercedes hobbling in after him. He caught her eyes widening in wonderment.
His apartment was fairly big, although not nearly as big as some of those luxury apartments up in the city’s northern districts. Personal preference said that he didn’t want too many flashy decorations, although he couldn’t help himself in regards to traditional Valentinian hanging charms, draperies, and throw pillows. The living area, kitchen, and dining room were all in one area while a single hallway led down to two bedrooms, the bathroom, and laundry room.
Ingway was quick to remove his turban and hang up his mantle while kicking off his shoes. Mercedes’ voice piped up behind him as she stumbled toward him.
“Are you a magician?” She asked. Ingway glanced away.
“They prefer to refer to me as a sorcerer,” he said. “Now, take your shoes off and lie down on the couch. There should be a throw blanket you can huddle under while I get you something to eat.”
At the mention of that, Mercedes’ stomach made a loud growling noise. Her cheeks had been a gentle pink color before, but now they were beet red. As best as she could, she awkwardly hurried to the living area without another word.
Ingway entered the kitchen area and put his shopping bags on the counter before he checked the fridge for something that he could quickly heat up. He had already stocked up for the holidays the other day, but most of what he had gotten was stuff that took time to cook.
Well, maybe she could handle scrambled eggs and toast, right? She probably needed some protein in her system.
Briefly, as he grabbed the eggs, milk, bread, and butter, he looked over at the living area. Mercedes was lying on the cough adjacent to the coffee table with her legs once again curled up so that she could fit under the whole blanket. Again, he had to wonder just how long she had been out there before he found her.
He tapped his foot impatiently as he cooked, wanting to get this over and done with so that he could throw in some microwavable mac ‘n cheese before sliding into bed. The toast was done and buttered rather quickly, but there was a little more time with eggs. He sighed when it was finally done and he could put it on to a plate to serve the young girl.
Mercedes slowly sat upright as he came over to her, stomach growling a second time as her eyes fell upon the scrambled eggs and toast. She almost dropped the plate when he gave it to her, though she was soon scarfing down the eggs and toast as though she hadn’t eaten for days.
Quietly, Ingway sat down on the couch and leant back with one leg crossed over the other, a cheek resting on his fist as he watched Mercedes. Now that she was inside somewhere and warmed up, she was definitely a lot more bright and perky. Her red eyes still seemed rather sleepy despite this and, once she was done with the eggs and toast, she put it on the coffee table and promptly lay back down against one of the pillows on the sofa, closing her eyes and giggling softly.
Ingway’s mouth opened, a question dancing on the tip of his tongue that he wanted to ask before she fell asleep. He then shook his head and got up, deciding he would wait until tomorrow to ask.
Very quickly, he picked her up, carried her to the guest bedroom, and tucked her in before getting dinner for himself.