Chapter Text
You were checking on the herbs in your garden when the rain started. You were inspecting the leaves of your sage when the first few drops hit your nose. You huffed and flicked your hand, summoning your raincoat. You shrugged it on as you continued looking over your plants, albeit a bit faster. You had just finished making sure everything was growing nicely when you felt the wards around your home alert you to an intruder.
Your head snapped up, looking towards the treeline. The rain had gotten heavier now, making it difficult to see far out. You waited, knowing the wards were a decent distance from your house so it would take any animal or person a few moments to reach your property. You assumed it was a deer or some animal, as the people from the village didn’t usually travel this close to your property.
You’re about to turn back and head inside when you see something stumble out of the bushes. You freeze, staring at the three black-clad girls heaving for breath and shivering. One of them is leaning on the other two, seemingly injured. They haven’t noticed you yet, bickering among themselves. The injured girl keeps glancing over her shoulder while the other two argue about something.
You could leave them, could simply walk back inside and place a glamour on your house so they don’t see it. You really could. But they certainly aren’t from the village. And if you know the villagers well enough, you’d guess that’s who injured them. So instead of playing it safe, you call out to them.
“Hey! You’ll freeze out here, come on.”
The three girls startle and whip around to look at you. The two holding the other glance at you and then at each other. You’ve never seen someone look more distrusting before. You open your front door and gesture for them to follow you. They look as though they’re either going to refuse or possibly just run away, but a groan from the girl they’re holding spurs them into action and then make their way over.
You close the door behind the last of them, shutting out the cold and turn to face the group. Only to come face to face with a blood-soaked sickle. You stare at it, dumbfounded before looking at the face of its owner, the brunette. She's grinning menacingly at you.
“You’ve just made a big mistake, sweetheart.” She cackles.
You sigh and lower the blade with your pointer finger, looking to move around her. She snarls and swings the sickle back. You huff another sigh and snap your fingers, making the sickle disappear just before it hits you. Both of the conscious girls stare at you as if you’ve grown a second head.
“My house has a ‘no stabbing the owner’ policy, hon. Would you be a dear and start the fire for me?” You hum as you squeeze past her into your kitchen.
You don’t hear any movement as you set your kettle to boil. It's quiet for all of three seconds before the girl pipes up.
“You just- what…Bela did you? What the fuck?”
“So, was that a no to the fire starting or…?” You mumble, grabbing a mug from your cupboard. Sure, you could do this with magic, but frankly, you don’t want any of them to see how badly you’re shaking. It’s a struggle to keep your voice even as it is.
“Cass, I think we’d better uh, start that fire.”
“Bela you can't be serious she just-“
You hear a groan and look over your shoulder to see the girl laying on the couch. Now that she’s closer you can see she too is a bit blood-soaked, but you have a feeling it's not hers. Her skin is paler than any you’ve ever seen. Her hands seem to be crystalizing along with other small portions of her body. You turn back to your mug, pouring yourself some tea before taking a deep breath and turning around.
“Right. It's obvious you three are not regular human people. That’s fine! But I invited you in here out of the kindness of my heart and it looks like you’re in no state to go back out there,” As if to prove your point, loud thunder rumbles overhead with lightning following it soon after. “So how about this. You three can stay here until the storm clears, I’ll heal any wounds and keep you warm and when it's over we can part ways and live our lives. How does that sound?”
The two of them are staring at you again. The less stabby one, Bela, looks down at the girl on the couch and then back up at you. You can tell she doesn’t trust you, and you can’t exactly blame her. You barely trust the few friends you have, let alone a random stranger who invited you into her secluded cabin in the middle of a storm while you’re injured. Okay yeah no definitely not.
“How do we know that you won’t just kill us the second our guard is down?” Bela says, her hand reaching for the scythe she has attached to her back.
You sigh, your shoulder slumping a bit. “Well for one I’m really not looking to fight three random girls who are covered in blood and have sickles. And two,” You set your mug down on the table and look up at Bela. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have invited you inside.”
She pauses, staring you down for a few more moments before visibly relaxing. She turns to the fireplace and gets started on making a fire. The other girl, Stabby er- Cassandra, is still standing by your front door, glaring at you rather menacingly. You move to your room to grab your salve and balms, feeling her watch you as you do. As you return to the room and make your way to the girl on your couch Cassandra jumps in front of you and snarls. You raise your hands in surrender, having placed your “first aid kit” on the floor next to the couch.
“I just want to help. I promise I’m not going to hurt her; I’d just rather she didn’t lose a finger from it turning to ice over there. You can watch me the whole time and if I do anything sketchy, you have my permission to slice me as much as you want.”
You watch as she thinks, her eyes never once leaving you. She’s standing so rigidly you fear you might actually snap if you move. She glances down at the girl again, her body relaxing slightly. As you move to get closer, she whips her head back to you and glares.
“I’ll need my sickle back to stab you when you try to hurt my little sister.”
You chuckle, snapping your fingers and making her scythe reappear in her hand. She jumps as it happens, obviously caught off guard by the action or your willingness to return it. You kneel down next to the bed and assess the girl’s wounds. You reach for her hand, aware of how both her sisters, you assume, are staring at you intently.
You gingerly lift her hand, careful not to touch the part that seems to have turned into crystal. You raise your right hand above it and close your eyes, mumbling the spell you know by heart under your breath. You feel one of the girls lean over your shoulder as you open your eyes. The girl's hand is back to normal thankfully, and you gently place it down and continue healing her other injuries.
You find yourself relaxing into the methodical rhythm of the rain beating down on your roof, as well as the steady roaring of the fire. You finally finish healing everything you can find and lean back to admire your work. You notice then that the blood staining her face is starting to dry and hum in discontent. You snap your fingers, summoning a warm cloth and start to wipe away the blood and grime from her face and hands. The two sisters are oddly quiet while you do this.
You drop the now dirty cloth onto your coffee table and stand up, stretching after being crouched for so long. As you turn to go back to your kitchen you catch sight of the other two girls, staring at you looking like sad puppies. You make a note not to mention that to them if they don’t try to kill you again before this storm ends.
“Uhm, yes?” You say, stopping and looking at them.
Cassandra looks away, feigning disinterest and scoffing. Bela looks down at her hands, which are caked in blood and then looks up at you. She clears her throat and shuffles a bit in her seat. She opens her mouth to say something but as soon as she looks back at you the words seem to die in her throat and she shakes her head and clenches her fists.
You aren’t an idiot. You like to think you’re fairly good at reading people. It obvious these girls don’t get much physical touch. You wonder if that has anything to do with the blood they’re covered in and their haste to stab you. You decide it doesn’t really matter, because in the end, you’re a dumb bleeding heart who’s never been any good at being distant or cold to people, even after they’ve hurt you.
So, you smile at her reassuringly and crouch down in front of her.
“Would you mind if I took a look at you too? Can’t have one of you healing and the rest going out and dying on my couch.”
She stares down at you, hesitant and on edge. You try to reassure her by holding your hands out on her lap, letting her decide in her own time. She eventually, very hesitantly lowers her hands into yours and you start cleaning them off. You then grab her chin and start wiping around her mouth, not commenting on the fact that she seems to be tearing up and leaning into your touch slightly. When you’ve checked her over you place a kiss on her forehead out of instinct and freeze.
.
You had forgotten yourself for a moment, forgotten that this isn’t your little sister, that this isn’t you wiping her face after she’s upset your father and ended up with a broken nose to show for it. You jump back, clearing your throat and trying to cover up your momentary slip with a chuckle.
“Sorry about that, old habit.”
You stare down at your hands, wringing them together nervously. You’re about to apologize again when Cassandra clears her throat. You look up at her, not before glancing at Bela, who looks like she might actually cry now and is staring at her clean hands with a small smile. Cassandra purses her lips and looks away, mumbling something you can’t hear. You smile gently and move over to kneel in front of her. You hold your hands out on her lap and watch as she glances down at them and then away, her jaw tense.
“Could I check you over as well hon? Or are you okay?” You ask patiently.
She deliberates for a few seconds before unceremoniously dropping her hands into yours, looking disinterestedly at the fire. You hum and repeat the cleaning process with her, internally chuckling at how stubborn she is about appearing nonchalant and unbothered. You stand up and start to walk away when you feel her tug your wrist. You look down at her raising your eyebrow.
“You uhm…You didn’t, you didn’t do the thing.”
You frown, not understanding. She huffs and slouches further into the couch, looking a lot like an embarrassed toddler. You’re about to voice your confusion when you suddenly realize. You stare down at her for a moment, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. She huffs again and lets go of your wrist, crossing her arms.
“Forget it. I was being stupid just-“
You lean down and kiss her forehead. Patting her shoulder before you walk back to your room to put your things away. You can hear hushed whispers as you pack away the various salves and bandages you didn’t actually use. You chuckle to yourself when you hear Bela exclaim something and Cassandra aggressively shush her.
When you make your way back into the room both girls are staring at you intently, looking like confused puppies. You go to the kitchen, grabbing your still-hot mug(gotta love magic) from the counter and looking out the window.
“Looks like the storms clearing up. Should be good to go in a few minutes I’d say.”
When you don’t get a response, you turn to look at the girls. They both seem to be lost staring at the gradually clearing sky with frowns on their faces.
“So, I guess that means we should go.” Bela eventually mumbles, standing from the couch and moving to pick up the other girl.
“Right. Well yeah. Well, guess we’ll just be going, consider yourself lucky to be alive, witchy.” Cassandra murmurs, helping lift her still unconscious sister.
You watch the two of them getting ready to leave and feel your heartache at the sight. You bite your lip before rushing off to your room. You come back with three of your warmest jackets and hold them out to the two. They stare at you completely dumbfounded.
“In case it's cold or the rain starts back up. Can’t have my magic going to waste now, can I? And I guess you’ll just have to come back and return them at some point unless you plan to never see me again and take my nicest jackets with you.”
The two look at the jackets and then back at you. All three of you stay silent for a long moment before Bela smiles and lets go of her sister to hug you. You almost fall over and chuckle as she near squeezes you to death. She lets go and grabs to of the jackets, reaching for her unconscious sister again.
“Thank you. We uh- Most people don’t want to see us again after they’ve met us. Let alone invite us back-“ she explains.
“Or they’re dead,” Cassandra chimes in with a toothy smile.
“What I was trying to say-“ Bela continues, elbowing her sister. “Thank you, for everything. You’re probably crazy for helping us but we appreciate it.”
You laugh, shaking your head at the two of them and escorting them outside. You lean against your door frame and wave as they start to leave.
“And don’t you dare tear any of my jackets or I will hex you!” you yell, watching as the two of them nearly drop their sister while laughing.
You close your door, taking a deep breath and smiling to yourself. You hoped you’d see them again soon.
And as the sisters arrive home, they receive a scolding from their mother for the recklessness as well as much confusion over their clean faces and mismatched clothes.