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The forest had no mercy left in it.
Almeric’s lungs burned. Branches clawed at the heavy cult robes that still clung to him like a second skin, the gold trim catching every thorn. Somewhere behind him, the shouting had faded, but the memory of it stayed, the raised voices, the accusations, the way the elder’s eyes had gone cold when the truth of his “sin” finally came out. He had run. He always ran. Because that always solves problems.
His boots slipped on wet leaves. The world tilted. Green hair plastered to his scarred face, half-blind eyes struggling to make sense of the shifting shapes of trees. His heart hammered so hard he could taste copper.
Not again. Not again. Not-
A root caught his ankle. He fell forward. The ground vanished.
There was a short moment of pure panic, then the impact. Rock met the side of his head with a wet crack. Everything went white, then black.
───
Quinn had been humming.
She always hummed when she foraged. The late-afternoon light filtered gold through the trees, and the air smelled of damp earth and the last of the summer blackberries. Her white wooly hair brushed against ferns as she crouched to gather morels.
She almost missed him.
A dark shape underneath a low cliff, half-hidden by ferns. At first she thought it was a discarded cloak. Then she saw the green hair, the rise and fall of a chest that was far too weak.
“What in the sweet buttercup cinnamon-”
Quinn went very still.
“...Almeric?”
The name came out soft, disbelieving. She was at his side in three long strides, dropping to her knees. Gentle hands turned him carefully. The face that looked up at her was older, thinner, ruined by scars that showed violence across pale skin. One eye was clouded white, the other fluttered weakly.
Quinn’s breath caught. Then a wide, disbelieving smile showed on her face.
“Oh, you poor lamb.” she whispered, voice thick. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you now.”
She lifted him as though he weighed nothing. The cult robes hung in tatters and blood matted the hair at his temple. Quinn pressed her forehead briefly to his, wooly hair soft against his skin, and began the long walk home, already planning apricot pie and clean bandages and a dozen gentle questions he probably wouldn’t want to answer.
───
Consciousness returned like a slap.
Almeric jerked upright with a raw, panicked sound, hands flying to protect a face that no longer needed protecting from anything. The room curved and blurred. Soft lamplight. Wooden walls. The smell of burning firewood and something sweet, dried apricot, wool, buttercups. Something slightly sharp for a slight unimportant second...
Quinn.
She sat in a chair beside the bed, massive frame somehow made small, red eyes bright with unshed tears and pure joy.
“Easy, easy.” she soothed, one huge hand hovering near his shoulder. “You’re safe. You’re home. Gods, look at you, still the same stubborn green bean. I thought-” Her voice cracked. “I thought you were gone for good.”
He stared, frozen, disbelieving. He blinked a few times, convicted this is just another hallucination. Said hallucination didn't dissappear.
Almeric’s throat almost made a sound. The room was too warm. His head throbbed. But it was Quinn. Loud, ridiculous, infinitely kind Quinn who had once teased him about his “quiet lover” and never asked why that lover looked at him with such strange intensity.
"...Q-Quinn?" His voice cracked, eyes glistening.
She looked... exactly the same. Bright, Warm and her smile the same one that made every child into he room feel like they belonged.
"Oh."
Her own eyes began to glisten.
"...It really is you."
Almeric simply stared, his mouth opened. Nothing came out.
"How? How are you here? How... are you alive?" His voice was hoarse.
Quinn raised a puzzled eyebrow. She looked confused for a few short moments, then laughed. The sound loud and bright.
"Oh, Al... you poor thing. You've had quite the knock to the head." She reached over and ruffled his hair, smiling way too brightly for his overwhelmed mind.
He sagged, just slightly.
Then he heard it, the floorboards creaked under a weight. The doorway darkened.
Nodi stood there.
Tall. Still so fucking tall. Black hair falling past sharp shoulders, antlers catching the warm light. The familiar red-patterned bandana didn’t cover the lower half of their face anymore, black fingers ending in sharp clawed points, no gloves anymore to hide the truth. Their eyes, dark, calm, and fixed on him with an intensity that same intensity that made Almeric’s stomach drop through the floor.
Five years.
Five years of nightmares in which those eyes were the last thing he ever saw.
Almeric’s body moved before thought. He scrambled backward until his spine hit the headboard, breath coming in short, panicked bursts. He tried to force himself farther away, any fraction of a milimetr away from... them. But he was firmly pressed against the wood of the bed. He almost fell.
“No- no, NO, fuck, nO-”
Quinn laughed, bright and warm, completely missing the terror.q
“Oh, look at the two of you! Nodi, come here, don’t be shy. It’s been so long. Almeric, sweetheart, you remember your Nodi, of course you do. Look at them, still the same quiet one. I told them you’d come back someday. I knew it.”
Nodi stepped into the room with unhurried grace. They stopped at the foot of the bed, head tilting slightly.
“Hello, Almeric.” they said, voice low and even, almost gentle. Their teeth showed while they talked, an immediate threat to Almeric's already growing panic. “You look… different.”
Almeric’s remaining good eye was wide, white showing all around the iris. His hands shook so hard the blanket trembled. Every scar on his face and shoulder burned like fresh wounds.
Quinn smiled brightly, utterly radiant and completely oblivious.
“I’ll give you two a moment. You must have so much to catch up on. I’ll go heat some pie, apricot, still favourite, I hope? Don’t you dare run off again before I’ve fed you properly.”
She squeezed Almeric’s ankle through the blanket in a motherly way, then swept out of the room in a cloud of optimism, already humming again.
The door clicked shut.
Silence settled.
Nodi did not move closer. They simply stood there, tall enough that the light cast their antlers in long shadows across the ceiling, and watched him.
Almeric’s voice came out cracked and vicious.
“Stay the fuck away from me.”
Nodi’s eyes crinkled at the corners, a sharp smile full of those teeth curving upwards.
“Still so loud when you’re frightened.” they whispered. “I almost missed it.”
They took one slow step around the side of the bed. Not close enough to touch, close enough that Almeric could smell them, pine, cloves, and underneath it the faint copper ghost of blood.
Almeric’s pulse slammed agains t his ribs. His vision tunnelled. The old scars across his mouth pulled tight as he bared ruined teeth.
“I mean it. I’ll scream. I’ll tell her-”
“Tell her what?” Nodi asked, soft, almost curious. “That the child she trusts most tried to eat her favourite runaway? She already knows I have… difficult appetites. She simply believes I keep them under control for her sake.” A quiet huff of amusement. “And I do. Mostly.”
They leaned a fraction closer, not touching, just enough that Almeric could feel the warmth of their body.
“You ran for five years.” Nodi continued, voice dropping into something... that he couldn't quite name yet. “I looked for the body, you know. I was very disappointed when I never found it. Leftovers shouldn’t walk away.”
Almeric made a broken sound.
Nodi’s eyes dilated, just slightly, the hungry look, the one he remembered from the forest floor when the world had turned into teeth and claws and the copper taste of his own blood.
But they did not lunge.
Instead they straightened, adjusting their shirt with care.
“Mother will insist you stay the night. Possibly longer. You’re hurt. You’re thin. She will fuss.” Their head tilted again. “I will be… patient. For now.”
They turned toward the door, then paused with one hand on the frame.
“Try to rest, Almeric. You’ll need your strength.”
The door closed behind them with a soft, final click.
Almeric sat frozen in the bed, staring at the place where Nodi had stood, every muscle locked, breath coming in short, silent gasps. Somewhere deeper in the house Quinn’s cheerful voice drifted, calling for clean water and bandages from Nodi.
Almeric did not close his eyes that night.
───
The bath had been scalding.
Quinn had insisted, of course. She had scrubbed dried blood from his hair carefully, muttering soft apologies every time he flinched, then wrapped the fresh cut on his temple in clean bandages. New clothes, soft, slightly too large, smelling of lavender and fresh pine, hung on his thinner frame. The cult robes were gone, burned in the fireplace despite his protests. Almeric sat at the long wooden table feeling strangely raw, skin too clean, scars too visible under the warm light of Quinn's home.
Quinn moved between the kitchen and the table, setting down a steaming apricot pie, roasted roots and thick slices of bread.
Nodi sat opposite of Almeric.
Sharp white teeth flashed whenever they spoke. Their dark eyes rarely left Almeric’s face. Not staring exactly. Just… resting on him, observing.
He wondered. How could this be okay for Quinn? This... thing of sharp teeth and claws, in her home still, herself cheerful and trusting as ever. She must've known, right? What they did, what they did to him, what they did to those children-
Almeric’s remaining good eye kept sliding away, then dragging back against his will. Every time their gazes met, something cold and disgusting slid down his spine.
Quinn noticed none of it.
She noticed everything else actually.
“Look at the two of you.” she said brightly, sliding a slice of pie onto Almeric’s plate. “Sitting there all quiet and intense. Reminds me of the old days. You used to look at each other like that across the table and I’d have to clear my throat just to get a word in.” She laughed, warm and loud. “Nodi, stop staring holes through the poor boy before he melts. Almeric, eat. You’re all bones.”
Almeric’s fork scraped against the plate. The pie smelled exactly the way he remembered, sweet, the crust golden, his favourite. The thought made his stomach turn.
Nodi cut a precise bite of their own food, chewed slowly, and never looked away.
“I’m simply glad he’s here.” they said, voice mild. “It’s been a long time. I worried.”
The words were perfect. Soft, Caring. It worked on Quinn, it didn't as much on Almeric.
Quinn’s expression went soft and misty. “See? That’s my thoughtful eldest. Always worrying about family.” She reached over and ruffled Nodi’s dark hair between the antlers, completely undeterred by the way Nodi’s eyes narrowed a bit. “You two should talk properly after dinner. Catch up. I’ll leave you alone.”
Almeric’s hand tightened around the fork until the metal bit into his palm.
“There’s nothing to catch up on.” he muttered.
Quinn only smiled harder, as though his refusal was adorable shyness.
Throughout the meal, Nodi’s gaze never truly left him. Sometimes it drifted to the pulse in his throat. Sometimes to the line of his collarbone where the borrowed shirt was loose. Sometimes to the jagged scars that stretched across his face and the ruined shoulder. Their pupils would expand, just slightly, then contract again when Quinn spoke. Almeric felt every shift like a physical touch, his skin crawled. He forced down three bites of pie because Quinn’s hopeful eyes were on him, then pushed the rest around the plate until the meal finally ended.
He did not sleep that night yet again. Rookie numbers for him. He stayed up much longer in the past because of his horrible paranoia.
The guest room was small and warm, thee bed was soft and the window looked out onto black trees. Almeric lay on top of the covers fully dressed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the house settle. Floorboards creaked somewhere. Wind howled through the roof. qHis own heartbeat was too loud in his ears.
Hours passed.
When the silence finally felt deep enough, he got up.
Light steps on hard wood, door easing open a fraction at a time, the hallway stretched dark and long but he continued, hurried and reckless, desperate to get out. He knew the layout from years ago, front door to the left, past the sitting room, past the kitchen. If he was quiet, if he was careful-
He heard a soft sound behind him.
Not a floorboard.
A quiet exhale.
Almeric froze.
Nodi’s voice came from the darkness to his right, low and almost fond.
“I wondered how long you would wait.”
Almeric spun. His back hit the wall hard enough to knock the breath from him. Nodi was already there, had been there, leaning against the opposite wall the entire time, a tall shape of deeper shadow among darkness. Only their eyes caught the faint moonlight from a high window, reflecting like an animal’s.
They stepped forward.
Almeric tried to slide sideways. Nodi’s clawed hand came up and planted against the wall beside his head, not touching him, but close enough that the point of their claws brushed a few strands of his green hair. The other hand settled on the wall on the other side, caging him in.
They were so tall Almeric had to tip his head back to meet their gaze. The heat of their body radiated across the small space between them.
“Still so predictable.” Nodi whispered. Their voice was soft, almost conversational. “Sneaking out in the middle of the night like a guilty child. Did you really think I wouldn’t be waiting?”
Almeric’s breath came fast and shallow. “Get the fuck away from me.”
Nodi’s head tilted. The antlers cast long, branching shadows across the wall above Almeric’s head.
“Or what?” They leaned in another fraction, not touching, just closer. Close enough that Almeric could feel the whisper of their breath against the scarred corner of his mouth. “You’ll scream? Wake Mother? Tell her the truth?” A quiet, amused sound. “She won’t believe you. She never has. You’re the runaway who broke my heart, remember? I’m the devoted eldest who never stopped hoping you’d come home.”
Their clawed thumb lifted and, very lightly, traced the edge of one of the scars that cut across Almeric’s cheek, barely pressure, more the suggestion of a touch. Almeric flinched as though burned. His pulse hammered visibly in his throat. Heat flooded his face, unwanted and humiliating, a traitorous flush that had nothing to do with desire and everything to do with pure animal fear mixed with something he refused to name.
Nodi noticed immediately.
Their lips stretched into a delighted sharp smile.
“Oh.” they breathed, delighted. “There it is. That same little reaction. Even now. Even after everything.” The thumb withdrew, but they did not step back. “You hate it, don’t you? The way your body still answers. Disgusting, isn’t it?”
Almeric’s voice cracked into a snarl. “Fuck you—”
“I could.” Nodi said mildly, almost thoughtfully. “But I won’t. Not tonight.” They leaned even closer, until their chest nearly brushed his. “You’re already trembling. I can hear your heart. I can smell how afraid you are. And still…” Their free hand rose and tapped once, lightly, over the frantic pulse in Almeric’s throat. “Still this. Fascinating.”
They held him there for a long moment, caged, breathing the same air, the silence thick with everything unsaid and everything remembered.
Then, slowly, Nodi pushed away from the wall.
The sudden absence of their heat made Almeric’s knees threaten to buckle.
Nodi adjusted their shirt, calm and precise.
“Go back to bed, Almeric.” Their voice had returned to that mild, almost gentle tone. “You’re staying. Mother will want to keep you for at least a few days while you heal. Maybe longer. I’ll be here the entire time.” A small pause. “Behave, and I might even let you keep pretending you’re going to run again.”
They turned and walked away down the dark hallway without looking back, footsteps silent.
Almeric stayed pressed against the wall long after they were gone, shaking, the phantom pressure of a clawed thumb still burning on his scarred cheek, the echo of that soft, mocking voice still curled inside his ribs.
He did not try the door again that night.