Chapter Text
Love potions have been banned for centuries. Truth elixirs have also been banned for centuries.
Unfortunately, Ramshackle was centuries old, and having stood since the age of such limited alchemical regulations, a few vials of them stood on a little rack within its walls. When uncovered some years after the laws forbidding their creation by the layman mage, their uncoverer thought it was decidedly not his problem, and hid them behind a row of dull books in the library to be someone else's responsibility. And so on and so on, the potions were found and left be or hidden once more, over and over, until it was stored a spot so inconvenient none might have touched it for millenia, and there its contents aged like the worst wine as time passed and they remained in their corner, silent, pungent-
Until the faint glimmer of glass caught a direbeast's eye, and he reached out a paw, knocking books back in his fervent, careless curiosity. When his long-suffering servant pulled the Great Grim away before he could make a greater mess of the library, his claws hooked into what he caught on reflex, in panic as he was dragged back-
And so the old vials fell to the floor, shattering, spilling their old, odious brews. The sludge may have bubbled. Their terrible fragrance immediately filled into the air.
Yuu coughed, sputtering at the horrible, somewhat flowery scent somehow worse than all the mold and pipe sludge of Ramshackle.
"Grim!" they wheezed, eyes watering-
"It ain't my fault!" he retorted, clinging to their shoulders as to not fall into the gross muck.
Yuu helped spare their great sorcerer's pristine form by staggering to the door and depositing him in the hallway. They swayed and braced themself against the door, gulping in the fresher air.
"Stay here, I gotta clean up-"
"What has the beast done this time?"
Rollo looked at Yuu, their teary eyes and short breaths, and cast their ingrate of a familiar a harsh look before stepping closer. He blinked when he did, wrinkling his nose before he covered it and his mouth with his handkerchief.
"What poison has he spilt?"
"He better not have spilled it on the carpet!"
Fellow poked his head out from down the hall, and he immediately reeled back.
"Good heavens, what is that? Gidel, cover your nose!"
"I suppose you forgot the handkerchief I gave you, once again?"
Yuu blinked. They smiled, nervous. Or maybe it was the fumes. "Uh-"
Rollo shoved the one he held towards them.
"Don't just stand there and breathe it in," he said gently, which is to say Yuu knew it was him being nice by minute softness of his tone though anyone less used to him would have detected no change in his voice nor his, as Fellow once called, resting bitch face-
"Hey!" Grim protested, "Don't I get one too?"
Rollo's eye twitched, but his gaze returned to them. "Don't linger here in the foul air if you can't help in your state. Go to your room and shut the door-"
"You heard Flamme!"
There was a blotch on the wall that grew darker, larger. Silver hair sprouted and shadows dripped away as the the rest of the spirit took form. The specter smiled, bowed, and offered his hand-
"May I escort you, my dear?"
"I think," Rollo snipped, and they thought he'd been heading into the library but he was in front of them now, "they are quite capable of-"
"Take Grim, please," Yuu said, scooping him up and into Skully's care. "I'm going to grab a broom and dustpan-"
"Check, and check, slowpokes!" Fellow held aloft the dustpan, Gidel the broom, and both had cloth bandanas about their heads and noses. "Toddle along now and leave this to the grown-ups!"
With that, he smoothly tossed Gidel at them and wrenched the broom from the boy as he did. The cat, once recovered, flailed in betrayal, making grabbing or perhaps slapping motion with his sleeves.
The fox was unmoved. He stared down at Gidel, hands on his hips. "No, you're not helping! I may not be a scholar but even I can tell this is bad stuff!"
"Ya don't say?"
All heads whipped to the library. The fae stood grinning over the shattered glass and goop. If he wasn't breathing easy, he didn't show it.
"Do you know what that is?" Rollo demanded.
The fae cocked his head. "Does Mr. Swing know?"
"Do refrain from being difficult," Skully sighed.
"Hmm." He tossed his head back and inhaled deep and slow as though the rot were the sweetest perfume. ". . .won't kill ya. Probably."
"Probably?! "
"Calm down fuzz. I'd worry more about winning."
"Winning?" Fellow pressed, but instead of answering, Swing sauntered out the door.
Gidel went stiff in Yuu's arms and Grim curled small and bristling in Skully's. Toxic green pools caught Yuu's eye past Rollo and Fellow's glares, despite the wall of shadow Skully was trying to be between them and hulking figure.
The fae just laughed and walked down the hall.
"This is gonna be fun."