Chapter Text
Chapter 1
A Family Reunion
Grian Crimson
”Could I go see my family again?” Grian asked, his voice hollow and numb.
Lizzie scoughed “Stupid Humans,” She complained loudly. Jimmy nervously glanced at her, but Scar oh Scar he was weird. His eyes almost instantly burst into tears. Was he gonna be upset about Grian wanting to leave? Shoot, Scar was the only one on his side losing his trust would suck.
“You guys can just say no,” Grian reminded them, “Its no big deal.”
Jimmy rested his shoulder on Scar’s arm as if to offer support.
“I mean out of all the things you could ask for from magical beings you chose to see humans, unbelieveable!” Lizzie complained.
“I just never thought this day would come,” Scar said wiping a tear, “The day you’d
ask us to meet your family, oh I’m gonna cry!”
Grian thought of pointing out that he was already crying but it felt unnecessary.
”It's fine if the answer is no.” Grian repeated.
“No no no! The answer is yes, we can try and go on sunday.” Scar declared.
“Ugh one of the few days we all have off together wasted by interacting with filthy humans,” Lizzie complained.
When Grian first met Lizzie he assumed a distaste for humans was a common fae trait, but as he met more and more fae he realized it mostly seemed like a Lizzie thing. Why she disliked humans Grian hadn’t got a clue.
“So wait, I'm gonna get to see them this Sunday?” Grian asked.
“Yep!” Scar exclaimed, “Gosh this is so exciting.”
”Wait a second, what if this is just an excuse?” Lizzie asked.
“An excuse?” Jimmy asked.
“To escape,” Lizzie reminded them, Grian was so upset. Why did she have to remind them? ”Like what if he tells his family he’s been kidnapped, what then?”
“We can just tell him not to tell them,” Scar suggested.
Then an awful thought crossed Grian’s mind, “You guys won’t take their names right?”
“Why would we want even more humans?” Lizzie asked.
“I mean- what if one of them introduces themself, you guys can’t like control them right?”
“Oh my deer Grian its all about the phrasing, we’d have to phrase the question as ‘can I have your name’ or ‘can I take your name’ to truly claim it and we’d do none of the sort.
“Okay, you promise?” Grian asked.
“Yep I swear on Jimmy’s life,” Scar confirmed.
“Hey!” Jimmy called.
Scar started crying again, “I’m sorry it's just so sweet, I mean you're introducing your fae family to your human family!” He then hugged Grian tightly.
Family was a strong word, they’d known each other less than two weeks, but if he made Scar believe the two were closer then they actually were then that would only benefit Grian.
That Sunday came a lot sooner than expected, before they left they had to go over a few ground rules.
“Grian Crimson you are not allowed to mention anything of the fae world or your captivity,” Scar said, “You are also not allowed to make any escape attempts, if someone asks you where you’ve been then you go along with the preplanned cover story.”
The cover story was so stupid and so unrealistic, when they came to the farmers market that faithful day they met and they all became best friends and Grian decided to leave his whole life behind to work for Scar’s company.
Grian realized the more farfetched the story sounds the better it is for him, the story shouldn’t be believable because then hopefully Gem and his dads would get suspicious.
Scar, Lizzie and Jimmy all dressed in human clothes, the very same ones they’d worn at the farmers market a few weeks prior. Lizzie was complaining the whole time, Jimmy seemed uninterested mumbling about how he had to cancel a date with that fire fae for this and Scar, Scar cleaned up nice.
The browns and the greens complimented his eyes and hair so nicely. Grian made a mental note not to think those things, he would not speedrun stockholm syndrome. Sure he had feelings for Scar when the two first met but that was before he knew he was a fae. And sure even as a fae he looked ethereal and he was so kind and considerate and- Grian just needed to stop thinking about the guy.
They walked over and Grian gave the general rundown on his family. He didn’t go into more specific details like him and Gem being adopted, because he felt they were unnecessary.
They finally came up to the sign “East Emberwood,” there was no market that day but Grian could see remnants from yesterday's market, litter on the floor, wagon trails ingrained into the surrounding grass, little petals where Joel's flower booth usually stands.
“Wow this town is even more boring than last time.” Lizzie complained.
“Lizzie be nice, Grian was so excited to come back,” Scar reminded her.
“So where does your family live, Grian?” Jimmy asked.
“A bit further north we live pretty far off from the rest of the village cause we need all that room for farmland.” Grian explained.
“Even more walking? My feet are killing me, why don’t you humans just fly?” Lizzie asked.
With lots of complaining the group finally made it to Grian’s house. The house’s exterior was yellow with blue trim and a blue roof. Outside there were little stones with he and his sister’s handprints engraved into them, they’d been doing them since they were first adopted.
He walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. A dinging came from inside the house then a dog barking, he was home.
He could hear Skizz’s voice from inside, “Settle down Kevin Bubbles, settle down,” He hushed the dog down, then opened up the door. ”Grian?” He rushed in for a hug and Grian accepted it.
“Hi dad,” Grian said softly, trying to savor the moment. His dad pulled him out of the hug and then blinked as if processing him being there.
“Where have you been, Dippledop and I have been worried sick!” Skizz exclaimed. If Skizz was known for anything it was his crazy nicknames for people, most of the time they didn’t even make sense.
Then Impulse came up behind Skizz, his face also brightening when he saw Grian. He pulled his son into a hug.
”Grian your back! We were so worried.” His other dad exclaimed. “Are you okay, what happened, who are these people?”
“Maybe I should explain it all inside?” Grian offered.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
Lizzie Blossom
Inside of the house was even more human, mismatched rugs laid on top of each other, framed family photos, fake flowers, creaky wood flooring. God humans were so predictable.
She and the boys were led to an old couch to sit on, it was not the most comfortable, it seemed well used and the color of the fabric seemed somewhat faded.
“Are these your friends Grian?” The man wearing yellow asked. Did Grian say his name was Impulse?
”Yep, I’ve been living with them for the past few weeks.” Grian confirmed. “They were at the farmers market and Scar offered me a job.” He explained.
“Hi I’m Scar,” Scar exclaimed. He shook Impulse’s hand and then gave a smile. “These are my roommates and best friends Lizzie and Jimmy.”
“Oh hello! Could I interest any of you in coffee?” Skizz asked.
“We're okay,” Lizzie said, speaking for the group. A human offering you a drink? It's probably poisoned.
Grian and his dads sat on chairs near the couch that the fae trio sat on. Ugh, she was surrounded by humans.
Grian gave a rundown of the elaborate lie, explaining how they really all just clicked and Grian decided to take a risk. Although his voice didn’t sound convincing, Lizzie assumed that his two dads weren’t the brightest, especially Skizz.
“So do these two work for your company too?” Impulse asked, glancing at Scar.
“No no no, I mean sort of, Lizzie does the floral work for the outside of the shop and Jimmy delivers all the mail but they work for different companies.” Scar explained.
“You're a florist? Wow somebody go find Joel,” Skizz giggled, although the joke was lost on Lizzie as someone who had no clue who Joel was.
“Speaking of which we should probably actually go find Joel, hes with Gem and Gem will be so happy to know her big brother is back.” Impulse explained with a smile.
“Oh we can’t stay for long-,” Lizzie quickly said.
“Yeah we can,” Scar decided. “I mean we have nothing to do for the rest of the day.”
“Well that's great cause you guys are staying for dinner!” Skizz declared. “I’m gonna go find out what you're having, Grian do you want to show your friends around?”
“Sure,” Grian replied.
“I’ll go fetch Gem.” Impulse said.
The house was boring, with a standard kitchen, dining room, living room, a couple bathrooms. On the top floor they went into Grians room. Bookshelves covered the light red walls, he had one of those clipboards with some sort of research on it.
“Wow this room is small compared to your room at our house, and alot less fancy.” Jimmy said.
“What are all these books?” Scar asked as he glanced at the pages, “Fae Mythology?” He read aloud.
Lizzie made her way over, heck the entire bookshelf seamed dedicated to fae culture.
“What the hell?” Lizzie asked.
“These are all my sister's books,” Grian explained, “She was really into mythology but she doesn’t have a bookshelf so I let her use mine.”
“Oh that's cool.” Scar said, Lizzie didn’t buy it though. Had Grian planned this whole thing just to be around faes? Scar did say he was pretty sure Grian had feelings for him? Was this all an elaborate plan. Then she noticed something, something that caught her attention even more.
In a frame a photograph of that same family heirloom, the red one with the gold trim, the one she used to wear.
“So which of your dads did this come from, I know you mentioned it being a family heirloom."
“Neither actually, my mom left me with it when she passed.” Grian explained.
“Oh I’m so sorry that must have been hard,” Jimmy exclaimed.
“No, it's fine, I never really knew her.”
“Wait a second so you have three parents? How does that work?”
“I was adopted by my dads because my mom got sick when she had me.”
It couldn’t be her, it genuinely couldn’t be. Nothing was adding up.
Before Lizzie could process anything the door swung open and a ginger girl pounced onto Grian, was she attacking? No, she was hugging him. He reciprocated the hug.
“Grian, you can never do that to me again,” She exclaimed as she held onto her brother tightly. It was weird to relate to a human but it almost reminded Lizzie of the time she’d returned back home to Jimmy all those years ago after her absence. She remembers how happy he was to see her and how he didn’t leave her side all day. God she missed when he was her cute little brother.
“Aww, Gem,” Grian said.
“I thought that you hated me, like you left cause of our argument.” Gem explained tears welling up in her eyes, the sadness was broken, “Wait is that the guy you claimed was a fae?” She turned to Jimmy.
Grian didn’t speak Lizzie knew it was intentional but she knew if she brought it up Scar would just get mad at her.
“Oh yeah, that's what he said when he first met me,” Jimmy giggled, he was such a
bad liar, “Me and Grian are chill now though, right Grian?”
Grian remained silent,
“Well that doesn’t matter, I’m just glad to have you home from now on!” Gem declared with a smile.
“Oh you must be mistaken, he's living with us from now on.” Scar explained, Lizzie watched as Gem’s face broke.