Chapter Text
Lilia liked Pip.
Despite their first meeting being less than ideal, with the girl suddenly appearing at his home and Silver claiming they met in a dream, he found that she was a bright and fun young woman.
Once he got past the shock of Silver inviting someone who was essentially a vaguely familiar stranger to him into their home when Lilia wasn’t there, the story of Pip managing to track down Silver’s location was cute instead of concerning.
He never imagined anyone would find them there, nestled in a glen in the woods, away from the prying eyes of both human and fae. Pip somehow beat those impossible odds and found Silver.
It felt like fate, maybe it was.
After all, Silver wasn’t meant to be hidden forever.
Those thoughts came to the forefront of his mind when he awoke to incessant knocking at the cottage door in the morning. It was too early for Sebek to arrive, and Malleus usually allowed himself in with ease, so it could only be one other person.
Lilia groaned and eventually dragged himself out of bed, hissing at the early morning sun peeking in through the living room windows. He did not like getting up at this time outside of school. He opened the door to greet Pip, who looked surprised to see Lilia still in his pajamas.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you’d still be in bed,” She greeted apologetically.
“Dear, we’re late risers. Both Silver and I are still asleep at this time. Training with Sebek usually begins at 9 or 10, right now it’s-“ Lilia explained, rubbing his tired, squinted eyes.
“7am, I thought if I rode at night I’d be here at a better time instead of late in the afternoon,” Pip apologized profusely, even bowing her head as if she were overstepping, “I can leave.”
“No, come inside. It’d be a waste of a trip if I sent you away. You and I can have breakfast together; how does that sound?” Lilia quickly assured her, not wanting her to feel unwelcome, even widening the door for her to enter.
“I wouldn’t want you to be overtired because of me,” Pip exclaimed with big, sad brown eyes. That enough sobered Lilia up to be a proper host.
“It’s fine, Night fae don’t need as much sleep as humans, but we are technically nocturnal. My schedule has changed to be closer to humans since Silver came into my life. Though with his sleep, not too much has changed,” Lilia explained while stretching, leading a surprisingly timid Pip through the door, “I can try to wake Silver, but he’s difficult to rouse this early…He’s difficult to rouse all the time, really.”
“You don’t need to, I’m fine with waiting,” Pip said and took a seat at Lilia’s dining table with mismatched chairs.
Lilia conjured up a small flame for his trusty cast-iron pan under the stove top. From the icebox he took out the remaining eggs he had left and thin cuts of pork. They needed more food groups for a balanced meal, so Lilia dug through the vegetables he had collected from the fields out back and tossed some green beans in for good measure.
When he had first gotten Silver, he agonized over what to feed him after learning that human infants could easily become sick and die if they didn’t get proper nutrition. Maybe he went overboard with herbs, spices, and ingredients in general, but Silver was hale and hardy enough now to prove that Lilia’s diligence had done him well.
Lilia grabbed his ground turmeric, garlic, and cayenne and sprinkled it all over the sizzling meat and eggs until completely coated.
He looked back and saw Pip looking rather cumbersome, her shoulders slumped forward as she held her hands. Poor thing was beyond guilty for an honest mistake; that wouldn’t do at all.
Lilia flipped the contents of their breakfast over a few times until he was sure it was cooked thoroughly, split the meal in half, and dispersed it to two plates. He dumped a spoonful of yogurt on the side for enhanced bone health and lathered the eggs in ketchup. He drew a little face on Pip’s and wrote her name the way he would when Silver was little. He made sure to remember to give Pip proper utensils, as Silver always found that very important, sticking to just a simple fork for himself. He poured water into two different-sized cups and magically transported them to the table.
“Whoa,” Pip’s eyes widen as she is handed her plate, “What is it?”
“Eggs, bacon, veggies, and yogurt. Would you like some fruit too? The wild blueberries grew in well this year,” Lilia answered. Before Pip could give a reply, he spelled the basket of fruit Silver left by the windowsill over to the table. He plucked some and sprinkled them into the yogurt.
“Thank you,” Pip said with a smile and rather politely cut into the meal with a fork and knife as Lilia stabbed and shoveled the food right into his mouth.
Pip pursed her lips together after the first bite, held back a cough, but continued eating. Once she was finished, she drank all of her water, and then ate a spoonful of yogurt and berries.
“Did you like it?” He asked expectantly.
“Yeah! I didn’t expect it to be so spicy, but it’s good,” Pip replied in between swallowing her spoonful and eating another one.
“That’ll be the cayenne. It’s good for you, it…I forget what it does exactly, but it’s important for human health. I read it in a book once,” Lilia explained, then he sighed and looked around his barely organized mess of a home, filled to the brim with knick-knacks of all kinds, “I’ve always wondered where I misplaced that.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the chance to tell you this, but all the stuff you have is really cool! You’ve been all over the world, right?” Pip spoke up with enthusiasm, “My mom does that too for work. What kind of job do you have?”
“I don’t have one currently; I simply do it for fun. But a long time ago, I was a member of the royal guard,” he said with a smirk and a wink. He appreciated now that Silver wasn’t much of a talker and that Pip wasn’t dissuaded by that, leaving Lilia room to entice someone new with his stories.
“Oh, that makes sense as to why Silver’s so serious about training!” Pip exclaimed as she came to her own conclusion, “Well, that and…”
Pip quickly shut her mouth and looked away guiltily. She was very, very bad at preventing her thoughts and feelings from appearing on her face.
Lilia wasn’t one to pry, although he was curious about what else she and Silver may have discussed in private, he decided to let them keep their secrets for now.
“Can I ask you something that stays just between you and me?” She instead asked.
Lilia felt excitement swelling up in him, “Of course, dear.”
“Could you tell me what Silver was like growing up?”
Lilia practically leapt up out of his seat and into the air, “I thought you’d never ask! I can do you better than just telling you, I can show you!”
He sprinted over to his bedroom, on the bottom floor, thrusted open the trunk from beside his bed, and gathered in his arms as many photo albums as he could carry in one trip. He reappeared behind Pip and dumped them over her from behind her chair.
“Whoa! Are these all photos?” She asked, pushing her plate aside, opening one and flipping through the pages, “I was surprised there were no family photos displayed anywhere here. Where have you been keeping these?”
“They’re just for me, in a hidden place,” Lilia said with a wink, returning to his seat, “Of course I don’t mind sharing them with you, though. His first years and the birthday ones are my favorite.”
Pip opened the oldest-looking album and let out a gasp as many baby photos were practically bursting out of the plastic sleeves. She eagerly flipped through all and noticed a common theme. Lilia was honestly surprised she hadn’t noticed before.
“He’s asleep in a lot of these,” she points out a particularly lengthy page of nothing but photos of just that.
“That’s just what he was like most of the time,” Lilia shrugged, “He’s more awake now, but surely you’ve noticed?”
“Yeah, but I never thought…I just thought he needed more sleep than other people,” Pip gave a rather innocent answer, a far more compassionate assumption than anyone else Lilia and Silver had encountered before.
Usually, when people saw the remnants of Silver’s powerful 400-year-old blessing, they assumed something was very wrong with him. It had been a source of personal anguish for Silver for a long time, and Lilia could find no way to alleviate that while still avoiding telling Silver the truth of what happened to him.
Not even the best medical mages could find and analyze the spell that remained in him, and those who got close told Lilia in private that there was nothing they could do.
It felt impossible that someone could simply miss Silver’s biggest insecurity, yet there she was, looking at Lilia with worry like she had missed something dire.
“Is he sick?” She asked, a more common assumption that others came to.
“Not exactly, but it’s something he’s struggled with since he was an infant,” Lilia explained, “I think over time he’ll improve more, but it may be something that stays with him through most of his lifetime.”
‘Or all of it,’ Lilia wants to add, but holds his tongue.
Pip looks introspectively at Silver’s more active photos of him proudly holding a proper training sword; another sword was stuck in the chest of a wooden dummy that Lilia set up.
“The reason I trained Silver in survival and combat wasn’t so that he could grow up to become a knight; it was to give him the skills he needed to survive. It just so happened that becoming a knight was a goal Silver wanted to achieve, and the training helped keep him alert,” Lilia further explained, “even if he does fall asleep at odd times and in odd places, he’s able to protect himself with those skills of his, so you don’t have to worry; he wouldn’t want you to.”
Pip smiled fondly, and then she began to tear up.
“There’s no need for tears, I already told you not to worry-“ Lilia hurriedly tried to make amends, but Pip shook her head and looked back at him, drying her eyes before any tears properly spilled.
“It’s not that. I’m just realizing what a bad daughter I’ve been,” Pip tells him, “My mom was always really insistent I learn about weapons. Maybe she was doing it because she wanted me to have more knowledge and skills to protect myself; she’s always worrying about that.”
Lilia’s hands fell slack to his side. In the back of his mind, he always wondered if his idea of ‘parenting’ was far too different than real parents. The Zigvolts and Malleus would scold him for making mistakes, and Lilia would try again while thinking that Silver would be in a better place once he left to be with other humans.
Someone else, besides his closest companions, believed he had been doing a good job.
“I’m not as disciplined as Silver is. I never really did as I was told…Silver is a really great person,” Pip admits while sheepishly averting her gaze.
Lilia’s heartstrings felt like they were pulled right out of his chest.
He liked her.
He really liked her.
Lilia reached over the table, placed a hand on Pip’s head, and stroked her hair. Maybe it was a bit much for him to show this gesture to someone who was not his own, but it felt right; he felt that same paternal spark as he did before.
“Believe me, I know how lucky I am,” Lilia tells her cheekily, “and I believe your family is very lucky to have such a strong, kindhearted young woman for a daughter.”
Pip smiled back at him and, without even noticing what he was saying, something else suddenly snuck out.
“Thank you for finding him.”
To think she wouldn’t be here had she not followed a dream that came about by chance or fate, not even knowing for certain if that dream were real or not.
“Thank you for finding him,” she uses his words on him, “who knows what would’ve happened had you not been the one to find Silver in the woods when he was a baby.”
Lilia paused. Right, that was the story.
Silver seemed satisfied with that answer after all, if he was so eager to tell Pip his ‘origins’…That was good.
Surely with Pip at his side, Silver would acclimate to human life easily.
It was tough to think about that eventuality, but for now, the kids were still young. He still had more photos to take and keep away in his secret place.
The two of them enjoyed going through all the photos, with Pip interjecting with more questions about what it was like and how present the Prince of Briar Valley was in their group photos.
Lilia decided to let Malleus handle explaining his role in Silver’s life to her himself.
Eventually, Silver emerged from his room and sluggishly made his way down the stairs, still in his pajamas.
“Good morning, Father,” Silver says.
He straightens up once he makes it down the stairs and matches eyes with Pip from a distance; what she and Lilia were doing was obscured from his view. His eyes widened, and he quickly walked back up the stairs, likely in a hurry to dress himself in clothes.
Lilia couldn’t help but chuckle. Usually, Silver was unbothered by guests seeing him in his pajamas. He must really want to look his best around Pip.
Lilia flicked his right wrist once, and the photo albums Pip had piled up on her lap closed themselves up and floated their way out of the living room and into Lilia’s room, to whatever secret place they were pulled out of, all while Silver was busy changing upstairs.
When Pip looked like she wanted to ask Lilia why he was so secretive about it in the first place, Lilia simply placed a finger upon his lips, and she understood to keep it between them.
It was sweet, sharing a secret with someone. It would be the only one, he was sure, as the rest were his alone.
Silver eventually came back down the stairs with proper clothes on, even his hair was partially fixed, though a few parts still stuck up as bedhead.
“Hello Pip,” He says kindly to her, then looks to his father, mildly disappointed, “Father, you could’ve woken me up.”
“I offered!” Lilia exclaimed while lifting his hands to show innocence, “Now that you’re here, I’ll go make a pot of coffee.”
He left them to sit together and talk at the table. Silver fervently apologizing for being late, and Pip smiling and brushing out his remaining bedhead with her hands. Lilia pretended not to be sneaking peaks from the kitchen.
Never in hundreds of years did he expect to see young budding love again, this time from the perspective of a parental guardian.
He truly hoped Sebek and Malleus would come around to them together eventually.