Fic: Serpensortia [Chapter 3] [Due South, PG]
Title: Serpensortia
Co-Author: sl_walker
Fandom: Due South; Wizard!Verse
Rating: PG
Characters: Renfield Turnbull/Ray Vecchio, Benton Fraser
Summary: The plan takes shape.
"How ya feelin' today, Benny?" I ask, putting on the half-distracted tone. Which isn't hard, 'cause God, I got enough on my mind. But I'm definitely playing it up, this time.
"Fine, Ray," he answers, bitten off and curt. Which I'd buy, if he didn't look like such a wreck. His old man looked more alive last time I saw him haunting around than Benny looks these days, and I know there's somethin' goin' on, but how can I even ask again? He cut me outta his life, and I didn't even really feel the blade until it was already through. And that was even before he started missing work and wandering around in some kinda daze. Like he cast colloportus on the doors that we used to keep open.
He was supposed to meet me a couple days ago to go over another crime scene that looked suspicious, and he never even showed. Had to get Dewey to come and help me out there, even though he's been trying to deal with scared people and escalating criminals all over the greater Chicago area too. When I asked him about it, he said he was sorry, but something else came up. Kowalski's kinda inferred that he's seeing someone recently. Maybe Benny's saving up all the warmth for her, 'cause he sure isn't sharing any with us.
I wanna say I'm pissed off, but I'm too damn tired to be right now. All I know is, we got a whole lot of work to do on top of a whole lot of work, I don't like how things are looking in our own Department of Magical Law Enforcement right now with the head-in-the-sand routine, and Benny's left us high and dry.
It kinda breaks my heart. I haven't seen Dief in awhile. I hope he's okay. Heck, I hope Benny will be okay. If it wasn't for the fact I know how good he is, and how hard it would be to actually cast dark magic on him to make him act this way, I'd want to believe he's under imperius or something -- “What business is it of yours?” -- instead of just abandoning us.
"Yeah," I say, softly, and he looks at me for a moment almost like he should, before he drops his head back to his paperwork.
I keep going until I'm back in Ren's office with him. Close the door, ward the heck out of it against prying Mountie ears -- Benny and Thatcher both -- and then turn back to him. It's just us, for this. Him, and me, and no backup.
The thought of Ren going into his brother's office to get a location on the registry and create a portkey so I can retrieve it scares the shit out of me.
"I got it," I say, and I take the box out of my pocket. See, I like using rings as portkeys, because you can hide 'em in a box and carry 'em with you without accidentally activating 'em until you actually mean to. Some people use larger objects, stuff anyone can just grab, but me, I like to keep mine small and hidden. Oh, and it's illegal to create one unregistered.
I've created, oh, maybe a dozen? And none of 'em are registered. For my sister, for my family; to our home on Octavia, from there to Italy. Sometimes, protecting what you love has to come way before the law.
And given what the head office said to me, Ren and I are about to go do that all over again.
"No luck?" he asks, and the sick expression of fear in his eyes makes me so damn miserable. It's times like this I realize how young Ren still is, and how damn brave he is, and how lucky I am to have him.
I shake my head, and I can't really say anything past the lump in my throat when Ren just nods. Like he knew it was coming. It takes me a few long moments to find my voice again. "They don't want involved. At all. Like maybe if they play neutral, You-Know-Who won't bother with the good ole U-S-of-A. It's bull, but..."
"But there will be no convincing them of that, until it's too late."
I nod. Just like across the pond, where it took 'em forever to listen to the Potter kid. Our governments are really good at ignoring things and trying to pretend they aren't real all the way up until someone shoves a wand where the sun doesn't shine. I bet most of Canada thought they were safe, too, until they weren't.
"Tomorrow, then," Ren says, a little quiver in his voice that disappears from the first word, to the last.
"Yeah," I say, and then I step around his desk and wrap my arms around him like I'll never have to let go. "Tomorrow. Lemme hold you tonight."
Co-Author: sl_walker
Fandom: Due South; Wizard!Verse
Rating: PG
Characters: Renfield Turnbull/Ray Vecchio, Benton Fraser
Summary: The plan takes shape.
"How ya feelin' today, Benny?" I ask, putting on the half-distracted tone. Which isn't hard, 'cause God, I got enough on my mind. But I'm definitely playing it up, this time.
"Fine, Ray," he answers, bitten off and curt. Which I'd buy, if he didn't look like such a wreck. His old man looked more alive last time I saw him haunting around than Benny looks these days, and I know there's somethin' goin' on, but how can I even ask again? He cut me outta his life, and I didn't even really feel the blade until it was already through. And that was even before he started missing work and wandering around in some kinda daze. Like he cast colloportus on the doors that we used to keep open.
He was supposed to meet me a couple days ago to go over another crime scene that looked suspicious, and he never even showed. Had to get Dewey to come and help me out there, even though he's been trying to deal with scared people and escalating criminals all over the greater Chicago area too. When I asked him about it, he said he was sorry, but something else came up. Kowalski's kinda inferred that he's seeing someone recently. Maybe Benny's saving up all the warmth for her, 'cause he sure isn't sharing any with us.
I wanna say I'm pissed off, but I'm too damn tired to be right now. All I know is, we got a whole lot of work to do on top of a whole lot of work, I don't like how things are looking in our own Department of Magical Law Enforcement right now with the head-in-the-sand routine, and Benny's left us high and dry.
It kinda breaks my heart. I haven't seen Dief in awhile. I hope he's okay. Heck, I hope Benny will be okay. If it wasn't for the fact I know how good he is, and how hard it would be to actually cast dark magic on him to make him act this way, I'd want to believe he's under imperius or something -- “What business is it of yours?” -- instead of just abandoning us.
"Yeah," I say, softly, and he looks at me for a moment almost like he should, before he drops his head back to his paperwork.
I keep going until I'm back in Ren's office with him. Close the door, ward the heck out of it against prying Mountie ears -- Benny and Thatcher both -- and then turn back to him. It's just us, for this. Him, and me, and no backup.
The thought of Ren going into his brother's office to get a location on the registry and create a portkey so I can retrieve it scares the shit out of me.
"I got it," I say, and I take the box out of my pocket. See, I like using rings as portkeys, because you can hide 'em in a box and carry 'em with you without accidentally activating 'em until you actually mean to. Some people use larger objects, stuff anyone can just grab, but me, I like to keep mine small and hidden. Oh, and it's illegal to create one unregistered.
I've created, oh, maybe a dozen? And none of 'em are registered. For my sister, for my family; to our home on Octavia, from there to Italy. Sometimes, protecting what you love has to come way before the law.
And given what the head office said to me, Ren and I are about to go do that all over again.
"No luck?" he asks, and the sick expression of fear in his eyes makes me so damn miserable. It's times like this I realize how young Ren still is, and how damn brave he is, and how lucky I am to have him.
I shake my head, and I can't really say anything past the lump in my throat when Ren just nods. Like he knew it was coming. It takes me a few long moments to find my voice again. "They don't want involved. At all. Like maybe if they play neutral, You-Know-Who won't bother with the good ole U-S-of-A. It's bull, but..."
"But there will be no convincing them of that, until it's too late."
I nod. Just like across the pond, where it took 'em forever to listen to the Potter kid. Our governments are really good at ignoring things and trying to pretend they aren't real all the way up until someone shoves a wand where the sun doesn't shine. I bet most of Canada thought they were safe, too, until they weren't.
"Tomorrow, then," Ren says, a little quiver in his voice that disappears from the first word, to the last.
"Yeah," I say, and then I step around his desk and wrap my arms around him like I'll never have to let go. "Tomorrow. Lemme hold you tonight."