Chapter Text
The air had changed and winter had finally lost its battle to spring, it was warmer now. The sun was out on a clear blue sky and Shane was enjoying some time in his garden. The grass had gotten taller and the flowerbeds were filled with sprouts and tulips, not to mention the green leaves slowly showing on the trees. It was time to do the year’s first round of weeding and Shane enjoyed getting his hands dirty.
He was kneeling in a flowerbed when all of a sudden he felt a sharp pain in one of his fingers.
“Ouch!” He yelped.
What was that? Had he cut himself on a rock or maybe a piece of glass? He inspected the small wound and was surprised to find two small holes, less than half an inch apart. though they weren’t big he could still see a pearl of blood from each of them.
“A bite?”
More cautiously he started looking between the tulips, being careful not to scare whatever had bit him. Perhaps it was a wounded animal? But what could have made such a small bite? It looked like a spider bite just… Bigger?
Immediately Shane thought of tarantulas escaping from the zoo and was about to get up and far away from the flowerbed when he caught a glimpse of a large shiny wing. A dragonfly perhaps? Wasn’t it way too early in the season for those?
Gently he brushed aside some leaves and was stunned into silence as he stared at a… fairy? There was no other word for the little creature he was looking at. It couldn’t be anything else! On the ground, a small human-like figure was glaring up at him as it tried to cover itself with one of the leaves Shane had brushed away. It had a sharp angular face with so much character, soft golden brown curls and bright hazel eyes that could scare any animal Shane was sure. He at least felt quite intimidated, but what really caught his attention was the broken wing. It had been almost ripped in half.
“Oh you poor thing…” Shane said, reaching out to the little creature which immediately drew back and hissed at him. Two sharp fangs visible.
“I won’t hurt you. I promise.” Shane reassured in a calm voice, moving his hand closer. Still the little fairy bit down on his fingertip with all the strength it could muster the moment he was close enough. Shane drew in a sharp breath but didn’t pull away and instead scooped the little fairy into his hand. It was still biting him, eyes wide and wary. It wasn’t easy to tell with how beautiful the little thing was but Shane made a calculated guess based on what he could see. This was a male fairy. Broad chest, muscular arms and fuzzy between the… he was naked and seemed to be shaking. From exhaustion or from being cold, or maybe both, was hard to tell but Shane had to do something.
“Let’s get you inside.” He finally said, cupping both hands around the little guy and leaving his garden work behind as he went back into his cottage.
As Shane got inside panic started to hit him. How did you even take care of a fairy? How could this even be real? He looked into his hands again and saw the little creature now curled up into a ball, covering his face with an arm though those piercing eyes were still looking at Shane with so much anger in them. Oh he was real alright. Shane looked around after a place where he could make the fairy comfortable and ended up grabbing his blue hoodie which he had thrown on the sofa. With an awkward hand he made a little round nest from the hoodie on his kitchen ilse and then gently put down the little guy on top.
tilting his head a little Shane looked at the beautiful little soul now curling up in his hoodie, glaring at him with a bloody mouth.
“Are you perhaps hungry?” Shane asked the fairy, but there was no answer.
He sighed and looked around his kitchen. What did a fairy even eat? nuts? fruit? none of that was really in season so what would the fairy have been eating at this time of year? Perhaps the little guy did what squirrels did and stored stuff around his garden to dig up during the winter and spring. Then Shane remembered the fangs and it dawned on him that the fairy might be a carnivore, so meat was probably the answer. He had meat, at least plenty for such a small creature, but did it eat it raw or cooked? Shane would have to experiment.
He went to the fridge and got out some steak he had planned to cook for dinner and with a practiced hand he cut out two small pieces before he set it away again.
“Okay, one raw and one to cook.” He told himself and turned to put a pan on the stove.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught the fairy trying to fly off, failing miserably because of the ripped wing.
“Woah there! Look out.” Shane said and caught the fairy.
By accident Shane squeezed him a little and a small squeak came out that sounded painful.
“Sorry! Fuck I’m so sorry little guy!” Shane exclaimed and put the fairy back on the hoodie.
The small creature once again glared at him but this time looked more protective of himself than fierce.
“I really am sorry. Look, I’m making you food.” Shane said as he grabbed a piece of meat to show the little guy, the juices from the raw piece soaking his finger and he seemed to perk up a bit. Shane smiled triumphantly.
“Right, just give me a second and then you’ll have some delicious food.” Shane said and turned back to the stove.
After a short moment the piece was cooked through and cooled off. Shane found a small plate and presented the odd meal of raw and unseasoned cooked meat for the fairy.
”Here you go little guy, pick whatever you like.” Shane said as he held the plate.
The fairy looked curiously at the two cubes, and even got up to take a closer look. It grabbed hold of one of Shane’s fingers again and Shene thought that maybe it needed help to get on the plate, only that wasn’t the case.
”Ouch! Why do you keep biting me?!” Shane exclaimed as the fairy once again sunk his sharp teeth into Shane fingertip. But this time the small creature didn’t seem to do so in self defence. His little eyes got droopy as he sucked in the small amount of blood pouring from the wound.
”Oh…” Shane was stunned by the realisation that this was the meal the fairy had been craving. To think that such a beautiful small thing was in fact a bloodsucker was more than a little surprising.
”I guess this is alright, you aren’t very big so this cannot possibly be dangerous.” Shane said out loud.
He kind of wished that the little guy would say something, but so far it didn’t seem like he could besides the squeak Shane had gotten out of him by accident. The fairy now seemed half asleep though still munching on the tip of Shane’s finger, so Shane decided that it had to be enough for now. With his free hand he removed the plate, and then gently lifted the little guy off his finger and back on the hoodie. Immediately the fairy curled up and fell asleep, mouth flushed with fresh blood. Shane inspected his fingers which now had multiple puncture wounds but they didn’t seem to hurt him in any way. He would clean them though, just for good measure.
Shane cleaned up the kitchen and then carried the hoodie with the fairy to the sofa where he sat down next to it and got his phone out. He should probably do some research and see if there was anything on the internet about fairies which would be helpful.
A couple hours later and now hungry, Shane gave up his search. He had found nothing helpful whatsoever, which shouldn’t have surprised him. Most of the things he had found were about dainty fairies dressed in flowerleaves and pretty much every picture and description had been about female fairies, as if males didn’t exist in the fairy world. That had surprised Shane but the rest about their diet of raindrops and pixiedust sprinkled wild berries had seemed quite wrong. He dropped his phone onto the sofa and looked at the hoodie beside him. The little fairy was still fast asleep, clearly drained from a rough day and Shane took the opportunity to study him a little closer. THe skin seemed very soft and had the lightest cover of fine hair all over which was thicker at the groin and under the arms. There seemed to be no sign of a beard nor any “pixiedust” as the few articles and essays he had found had described was their source of magic or flight. Not even the wings seemed to have any “dust” on them. They seemed hard yet flexible and were transparent with an iridescent shine. They really did look like dragonfly wings, though the shape was a little different and larger. It was really a shame that one of them had ripped.
Shane’s stomach suddenly growled and he stood up and carefully took the hoodie with him to the kitchen so he could keep an eye on the little guy while he busied himself with making dinner. While he did so Shane thought about researching repairs of insect wings. That had to be more successful than the fairy research he had done.
While Sahne ate his dinner at his dinner table, having fetched both the fairy nest hoodie and his phone, he researched wing repair on insects and he was a little surprised to find quite a good amount of solutions to the problem. Most of them were for conservatory reasons but some were about giving insects their flight capabilities back. People suggested donor wings and contact cement which both sounded a bit extreme and was mostly also for cases of missing wings. His own case was a little different. It would need to be lightweight or else it might not work as intended.
Shane ended up sitting on his phone for so long he hadn’t even noticed it had gotten dark. However he didn’t look away until the fairy started stirring on the Hoodie.
”Hey there little guy, you’re not sleepy anymore?” Shane asked him and moved a little closer to the nest.
Once again the small creature seemed uncertain and scared and hissed at Shane as he backed away.
”Oh no, don’t be scared. Please. I want to help you.” Shane said and drew back a bit, he grabbed his phone to show the fairy the picture of a repaired butterfly wing he had been looking at but the little guy hissed again when the phone got close and covered his eyes.
”Is it too bright? Hold on, I can fix that.” Shane said and lowered the screen light. The second time he showed the picture he made sure to keep some distance.
”See? We can repair your wing.” He said calmly and pointed at the picture.
The fairy slowly looked up and squinted at the screen. He didn’t seem to understand what Shane meant. The little guy looked up at him, then back at the screen and then back at Shane.
”Your wing.” Shane said and slowly pointed a finger at his ripped wing.
”We can repair it.”
This time the fairy seemed to understand and for the first time he smiled. A big happy one, fangs out and all. Shane smiled too, glad to have gotten the message through to the small creature. Perhaps it didn’t understand English?
”Do you understand English?” Shane asked.
No answer. The fairy just looked at him.
“Francaise?” Shane asked in French but still nothing.
“That’s a no I guess.” Shane sighed and leaned back in his chair.
That was going to complicate matters but he had to try.
Shane rubbed his eyes suddenly feeling how tired he was, though most of the afternoon and evening had gone by while sitting on his phone his body still ached. Probably from sitting still for so long. He got up and took the hoodie with him upstairs. The fairy seemingly not happy about the transportation method clung to the fabric.
“I need to sleep and then get hold of some materials before we can repair your wing.” Shane said to the little guy, although Shane now knew that he didn’t understand it sort of felt right to still try and explain himself instead of just doing everything in silence.
When they got to the bedroom Shane put the hoodie on the spare pillow next to his preferred one on the bed and quickly went to the bathroom to shower and get ready for bed. He had thought of bringing the little guy with him but then thought better of it. He wouldn’t try to flee now that he knew Shane would try and help him, would he? Yet when Shane came back now clean and in pajamas the hoodie was empty.
“Shit.” Shane said and looked around frantically though also trying to be careful where he stepped.
“Fairy? Where did you go?”
He felt stupid for calling out like that but he couldn’t really do anything else.
“Fairy? Fa-”
Shane sighed in relief when he found him standing up against the floor to ceiling window looking outside. He looked somewhat sad as he looked out into the garden.
“What’s the matter?” Shane asked and sat down on the floor next to him.
As he waited for an answer that wouldn’t come he looked out the window at his garden, lying silent and colourless in the dark with the exception of small green glints in the air from the fireflies, and that’s when he heard it. matching the glints a small sound he had heard before sounded next to him. He had always thought it was just the sound of insects, or maybe baby birds not wanting to sleep at night, but to his astonishment it seemed that the tiny chirping came… From fairies.
“Do you miss the outside?” Shane asked his unrequited questions again.
He looked down and found that he was being answered this time. The fairy was trying very carefully to spread his wings and move them gently, but of course it wasn’t working.
“You miss flying.” Shane answered himself in the silence between them, and the small sounds from the fairy did seem rather sad to him.
“Tomorrow we’ll fix your wing, I promise.” he said and placed his hand palm up next to the little guy.
Without a sound the fairy stepped away from the window and up into Shane’s hand where he curled up again. Shane placed it back on the hoodie and then lay down in bed next to it. Sleep didn’t come easy, but when it came it was heavy and dreamless for Shane.