Okay, look.
Mavis tried to make breakfast. She really had. The truth is that the mortal's heart wasn't really in it and she's a bad cook. The biggest fan of Mavis' home-cooked meals is Widget, who would eat anything. Even uncooked Hedge-fish. But, the coffee is excellent. Mavis makes amazing coffee and those croissants that Amity made yesterday? They still taste amazing the next day. The kitchen is still smoky from Mavis' morning attempt at baking fresh biscuits and she has cracked a window, despite the cold, to let the gray smog filter out.
So, this wasn't going how she had planned. Mavis had hoped to present a nice, homely breakfast to break unfortunate news to Amity. Hopefully, she looked cute enough in her pajamas, house slippers, and one of Amity's aprons for the Lost to forgive her. She did, however, manage to save some bacon that isn't too crispy to eat, some well-done sausage, and eggs which are scrambled due to the fact that every single egg Mavis touched this morning seemed cursed to have the yolks break in the pan.
Amity had slept later than normal this morning. She had had the swing shift last night, gotten home late and gone straight to bed without much fuss. Then she had stayed in bed a little longer, unwilling to remove herself from the warm cocoon of her blankets to make her way downstairs to start coffee and food. So, when she had heard Mavis head down she had been in a good mood--she's not cooking today! When she at last emerges in her house robe, slippers, and pajamas (and knit beanie because she's /cold/, darn it) she looks sleepy-eyed at the state of the kitchen, smiles, and starts to head for the coffee maker.
"Have some trouble with the stove?" She asked lightly, teasing. She knows of course that Mavis is not much of a cook and so she doesn't mind teasing just a little. It's normal. There's nothing weird happening this morning, right?
The kitchen is a mess. Normally, Amity left it tidy, but there are dishes in the sink, skillets on the stove with popped grease spattered on the surface, a baking tray with round, biscuit-shaped scorch marks, and a dusting of flour along the counter.
Mavis spins around when Amity enters the kitchen, greeting and startling her simultaneously. Guilt floods her expression, coloring her cheeks, and Mavis bites her lip as she glances anxiously at the stove.
"Oh, yeah," she goes, sounding forced. Her following snippet of laughter is choked, too. "A bit, I guess. The croissants are good," she tells Amity with a smile then she quickly puts her back to the Lost to start making her a plate with bacon, sausage, and eggs. Mavis carries that to the table with a fork for her girlfriend, then bustles off to pour two cups of coffee. She takes her time here, keeping her back and shoulders presented to Amity. Not looking at her.
"Sleep all right?"
Hmm...
Amity seems to think nothing of Mavis' behavior--her suspicions have not yet been roused and there's nothing that she can think of that would be wrong. Plus she needs coffee! Her advance on the coffee maker checked by Mavis, she contents herself with sitting down at the table with phone in hand.
"Thanks for making breakfast, Starlight," she says as Mavis drops off her plate. She begins to eat with her typical controlled bites, still half-awake. "...About as well as ever. You know how it is." Amity's insomnia is a constant struggle. Some nights? She's alright. A fair number of others, she simply never manages to get to sleep or only manages a few hours at best. "You?"
"Mm-hmm," hums Mavis in response to how she had slept. It's not really an answer, neither here nor there, although there's a weariness to the mortal's features that suggests she had not slept well. Circles under her eyes, hair mussier than usual at this hour as if she'd spent more time turning over her pillow than she had sleeping on it.
Mavis joins Amity at the table, sitting at the opposite end after bringing the blonde her coffee. Normally, they'd sit side-by-side or caddy-corner to one another, but today the human looks across the length of the table at Amity with worry in her eyes. She waits for her girlfriend to notice her, see that she had something to say.
"I need to tell you something," she blurts before courage fails her. "But, I'm afraid you're going to get mad."
Amity is lazily making her way through breakfast, not really /aware/ of anything that might be wrong. Normally she's observant but this morning, can she be blamed for not cottoning on to something immediately? She looks up at Mavis as she sits, smiles. There's a touch of concern at last--this is not usually how Mavis sits. She likes to be close to Amity. Just as Amity resolves to ask if something is wrong, Mavis beats her to the punch. Carefully, she sets her fork down. Tries not to let her anxiety rise.
"...What's wrong? Why would I be mad?" She tilts her head. "...Did something happen?"
She hadn't made a plate for herself. Mavis didn't have much of an appetite, truth be told. The mortal slides her hands around her own mug of coffee to give them something to do rather than fidget in her lap. Oh God, Amity has set her fork down to look across the table at her and Mavis gets that scared hare look.
"Someone pledged to me," she says in a quick, breathless jumble. "To protect me- Thea did. I- I tried to stop her, but she did it anyway and if anything bad-happens-to me then something-bad-will-happen-to-her for failing to stop it."
Whew. There. She said it.
After Mavis speaks, there is a moment of silence. Amity looks at Mavis, searching her girlfriend's face for her feelings on the matter. The little voice that says 'Mavis asked her to' is discounted. Mavis has never asked for protection, has actively bucked against it. No, this was Thea intruding onto Mavis' life--onto Amity's life. Onto Amity's *love*. Finally, when Amity speaks, her voice is cold, hard, angry, though muted.
"Then if something happens to her, it is on her head and no one else's," Amity says. "I'll have to have a talk with her."
Mavis wilts into her seat under the weight of Amity's stare from behind the Lost's glasses. She looks... guilty, caught, and incarcerated for her crimes, but every word she'd said was true. The human had done everything a mortal could reasonably do to stop Thea from finalizing that contract. She is braced for shouting, flinched away from Amity and stealing nervous glimpses between the blonde Changeling and her cooling coffee. But, when she speaks, Mavis peers up and across the table at her, warily.
"I don't know if that's a good idea," she goes, at once, and immediately leaping to just how horrible that talk with Thea could go. Amity had never tried talking to Thea, least of all when she was being as bullheaded as this. "November told me she's a Summer?"
So, she had talked to the Waylady about this.
"I mean, she's being a jerk. On purpose. She meant well, I guess." Mavis pauses then laughs mirthlessly. Ha, ha. It was a mockery of Thea's barks of laughter, but Amity didn't know that yet. "She's just going to be an asshole if you do. I swear, Amity," she adds, scowling, "I almost slugged her the other night. She deserved it." That scowl turns to a soft frown. "But, I don't want anything bad to happen to her, I don't want her to be _cursed_. The pledge is only for a season."
"Not a good idea?" Amity says, incredulous. "Mavis, pledging yourself to protect someone you hardly know isn't a /good idea/. She should know better than to toss around words like that. It's dangerous--not because I think anything is going to happen to you but because if something /does/ and the Wyrd decides that, oh, I don't know, you getting in a car accident or dealing with some more mundane danger counts for the purpose of the pledge then Thea is the one who's in trouble. She's being foolish!" Of course, the fact that she is of the Summer court makes sense. Amity pauses there, though, and her expression wavers from protective, annoyed anger to something that looks a little more hurt.
"You talked to November first?" Yes, Amity had made up with the Waylady as best she could but... it still stung when she realized that Mavis went to the other first for advice on this. "Of course you did."
"Well-!" goes Mavis, voice growing louder because Amity's had risen in volume. And, she had been wanting to yell every since she stopped yelling at Thea who was presently receiving the opposite of shouted words. She was being given a large dose of the silent treatment and Mavis Octavia Baines' chilliest shoulder. "That is EXACTLY why I hate this! She left the pledge wide open, like, what if I fall off a ladder or trip down the stairs?"
She had agonized about it this morning before finally dragging herself downstairs and out of bed to fail at making breakfast.
Then, Mavis glances down and her hands slide away from her coffee mug to the mortal's lap. She's still wearing Amity's apron and Mavis smooths it out over her while trying not to look at the Lost. "Don't say it like that," she murmurs with her eyes downcast. "I didn't know what to do and I knew you wouldn't like hearing this. You've never," she falters, looks up and her eye contact wavers a little but she keeps it linked to Amity's. "Asked or pushed, but I know that you WANT to.. I know it must be hard.. to be magic and.. have that, want to use it, share it with someone you care about, but you never took away my choices. I love you for that. So much."
"That's my point! If something happens to her, it's /her/ fault and you shouldn't worry about her because this is her own selfish, self-centered decision that has more to do with what she thinks is best than with actually wanting to help you." Amity is bristling a little, her gaze boring into Mavis. She refuses to look away, refuses to let her get away.
"...How else should I say it, Mavis?" Amity asks, her voice settling back into a quiet unhappiness. "I don't like hearing someone was a jerk to you at work or if someone cut you off on the drive to work either, but you would /tell me/ about those things and ask what I thought before you run off to the Waylady for her advice, wouldn't you?" Her chest tightens as she realizes that maybe that's not true either but she has to believe it or she might just snap.
"It--" She waves a hand, for once having a hard time finding the right words. "Your choice is important to me but it hurts when it feels like you don't /trust/ me to actually help you. Or be there for you." The whole conversation is starting to swing away from Thea.
Mavis huffs, opens her mouth about to defend Thea's actions but then she thinks better of it. She clamps her jaw shut and Amity would catch a glimpse of that lovely fury that Mavis had revealed to Thea. The mortal's honey-brown eyes blaze like bronze back at Amity's bright sapphires and her nostrils flare as she forces herself to breathe through her nose in slow, deep breaths.
"Yeah, it was stupid. Fucking reckless," she spits, flushing with pretty temper, "but it's her way of telling me that _I'M_ being dumb by not joining the goddamn-Freehold." Mavis scowls back at Amity. "This is different, Amity, it's not just roadrage or a bad day at work." She doesn't bother to correct Amity that her days at work were never BAD. Boring? Maybe a little, but she found ways to pester her girlfriend on the clock. But, mostly, Mavis doesn't bother to correct Amity because she didn't want to highlight that November is, was, and forever will be the Best Boss Ever. When Mavis starts to turn things on her, Mavis puts her hands on the table like she's about to push herself out of her seat.
"Uh-! Are you kidding?" She blinks at Amity in faux-disbelief. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for any of this. Part of what STARTED that fight with Thea was how I don't want you guys acting like idiot-men to fall down and protect me." Now she is on her feet. She doesn't remember standing up, but the chair is roughly pushed back. "How would you actually help, Amity? From what I've picked up on? You guys don't stand a chance if They came knocking, do you think I want you sacrificing yourself for nothing? To go back to HER?"
Amity bites back her first retort, which is to tell Mavis that /yes/, she's being /stupid/. But that won't help anything, it's a conversation that has been had and she doesn't want to push Mavis again unnecessarily. She takes a breath, nostrils flaring for a moment as she looks across the table at the now-standing Mavis. She can hear her heart thudding in her ears but she can't show it. Can't let it through the mask.
"It's not about me wanting to protect you--I just want to know what's happening to you! Because I care about you!" She hasn't stood up. She stays sitting, staring up at Mavis. She flinches when Mavis brings up the Gentry.
"They are limited here in this realm. We can stop Them, but we can't... kill them. We can hide from them." She says, her voice dropping into a quiet, unhappy murmur. "What am I supposed to do? I've tried to be nothing but honest with you. I'm giving you the space you want. I don't push you on this because I know it's not what you want. I..." She lowers her face into her hands. "I don't know what you want from me, Mavis. I'm doing my best."
She wishes Amity would show her something. Anything. Mavis searches the Lost's eyes behind her glasses with hurt creeping into her own features, then she flinches when Amity shouts back at her. It stung a little, but, at least, she knew that her girlfriend was HERE with her, present and not walled off. Relief floods over her and Mavis balled fists slowly uncurl as she breaths out a slow, easing sigh.
"I'm sorry, Amity, I-" She breaks off, making split-second alterations to what she's saying. "It's not like I called November over to talk ABOUT you. I knew this was heavy stuff, she.. she isn't biased." She's not Amity. "You didn't even come up in the conversation until later, I was... waffling about how to tell you 'cos I knew you'd be hurt."
She's around the table now, a hand shaking in the air before lowering to Amity's back. Mavis smooths her palm down the Lost's spine and leans down, nuzzling the side of her head.
"Babe.. I'm sorry, look. I love you, please. I'm doing my best, too. I want to pledge to the Freehold, or whatever. Just.. be done with it before something awful happens because I haven't."
"I'm... " Amity struggles for a moment. "I'm angry at Thea for forcing that on you when you didn't want it. More than anything else." She explains, then slowly shifts to lean into Mavis. There's comfort in her, comfort in the closeness after all the raw emotion that spills out of her. She's not used to letting it spill out, and it tires her out.
"...I don't want you to do that unless you actually want to, Mavis. Promise me? Promise me that you're doing it because you changed your mind and not because, like... of me. Being awful."
There. She gets Amity to look at her and when she does there's none of that storminess in Mavis' features any longer. They're softer now and a familiar expression of worry has washed across her face. She presses her lips to Amity's brow then leans back a little to smooth the blonde strands away and kiss her there again. The mortal takes her time before answering, stooping over to lean and bracing a hand on the table, and she thinks about how to answer.
Mavis nestles her face against the side of Amity's neck. She breaths in the smell of the Lost's hair, the same addictive scent of her girlfriend's shampoo that was left behind on a pillow when they shared her bed. "You're not awful," she murmurs against an ear. Her free arm slides around Amity's shoulders, hugging her then pulling back just far enough to fix Amity in her gaze. "I just don't like the idea of people I care about getting hurt because of me. I don't want to owe these guys nothin'. Just. In general. But, aLL of you keep telling me the same thing-- well, except Cas, but it's CAS-- that it's fucking dire. Even Widget was surprised when she found out I had no plans to pledge fealty. I don't see how.. how it'll help me hide any better to join the Freehold. For once in my life? Things are good, they feel... too good, I want to keep it that way. And, Freeholds? Fae government? Courts and junk? I- I dunno, Amity. It's a lot."
"It's more that... It means that all of us will be pledged to help and protect you against the things that want to hurt us. That's all it is. You don't have to get any more involved than that, I promise," Amity says quietly as she wraps her arms around Mavis and holds her, hugging tight as she tries to dispel the awkward, unhappy feelings that seem to hover permanently around her in this moment. "I know. my life is really wonderful right now and... I don't want that to change. I love having you in my life. I really do. It is a lot. But I think we can make it."
"Exactly," sighs Mavis, closing her eyes and forcing herself not to roll them. She opens them again and stares back down into Amity's blues. "That means that you idiots are honor bound to act on my behalf, do things that I would specifically NOT want or ask any of you to do." Now, she huffs out a disgruntled noise and stares hard at Amity. "I'm fucked anyway if something fae decides to come after me," she bleakly explains, smiling despite it all. "There's literally nothing I can do, it's a lost cause for you to even try. I could leave this place, pack up and go back east again, but what's it matter? I'd be miserable for it and it'd be about as good as trying to not get picked up by aliens. I'm happy here. Just promise me that you won't get yourself killed over something ridiculously chivalrous. If I had MY way, you wouldn't be pledged to this Freehold either."
"The Freehold is important to me, Mavis," Amity replies after a moment of quiet. "...It's like a support group. I can be around people who understand what I've been through and who know what being like this means for me. It... I know you don't really like it, but they're my community." She shrugs, her gaze sliding away, awkward and uncertain, before she manages to look back at Mavis again. "I promise I won't get myself killed or anything like that. As much as I can keep that promise, I will. As long as you promise me the same thing."
"I'm cool with you having a community and all," Mavis says carefully while pulling out a chair to sit caddy-corner to Amity at the table. She helps herself to her girlfriend's coffee, needing something to wet her throat and hers was at the other end and being nearer to Amity was better. "But, this one is sorta twistin' my arm. Other groups don't make you pledge or /heavily/ suggest it should be done. Well, cults do," she adds, thoughtfully, and touching her lips with an index finger. "Yeah, cults. And... I promise, yeah. I'm about as much use against a grizzly bear against anything fae, which is sorta my whole point, babe."
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