Chapter Text
Ethan had been playing with his daughter, teaching her about other places, distant places since neither of them had been allowed to leave the village edges for years now.
Rose was precocious at two and a half. Brilliant and sweet and the most beautiful daughter in the world. But she was still three and despite Ethan, and a village's worth of people's best attempts at keeping her happy, she had her... off days.
The problem was Rose’s off days could easily be fatal.
Rose had been playing outside, easily in Ethan’s eyesight, squealing happily as she played with her current find. Ethan only noticed when it caught the light and flashed in a suspiciously familiar way.
“Rose?” Ethan straightened, winter hardy plants dropping away as he pulled back from his new garden. Truly it was more the idea of a garden, and one that had been helped by many of the villages in a way he wasn’t comfortable with, now taking up sections of the Castle’s previously well maintained decorative plants. He didn’t need plants left at his door steps like offerings to a god.
“What do you have there Darling?”
“Treasure!” Rosemary looked up, half toothy grin wide, and waved her find. “I found it!”
Some of the suspicious looking fungi that had been appearing near both Rose and himself ever since the Miranda incident, all dark and stringy waving tentacles, poked through the thawing spring dirt around her. In another world Ethan would have called the ring of odd not-mushrooms adorable.
But he remembered waking up in a similar circle.
In this world, his fear spiked at the thought of the Mold acting like children stealing fairies. Or trying to bond to Rose like it had to Ethan himself.
Then his flight or fight sense kicked in as the ‘treasure’ Rose was playing with glinted again and Ethan could make out an old and sharp looking ceremonial dagger under the dirt Rosemary had dug up to find it.
But Rose was now pushing the dirty metal towards her widely grinning mouth.
Danger!
“No Rose!” Ethan dived forwards, nerves bristling in panic, hands outstretched to grab the knife.
Rearing back, Rose’s face twisted into upset, face falling as her chubby little hands waved her toy.
“Oh no you don’t, dumbass.”
Ethan shrieked in surprise at the arm tightening around his waist and dragging him backwards before he could reach Rose. Panic filled his body as he reached out.
Thicker, older, tendrils of mold burst from the ground like grasping hands.
“Heisenberg! Rose has-”
The knife Rose was still waving froze mid air before the mold or Ethan could grab for it.
“No!” Rose started wailing when tugging on her dirty new dagger. “Mine!”
“I know princess,” Heisenberg hummed thoughtfully as he tightened his grip on her stupid father. “But you don’t want to worry your papa, eh?”
“Shut up.” Ethan growled stiffly. “Let me go.”
“So you can traumatize your daughter when she cuts off your hand?” Heisenberg snorted, holding out his free hand, twisting the dirty knife until Rose let go to pout harder. “There we go princess! You’re so much more cooperative than papa here.”
All the adrenaline vanished from Ethan as the knife flew towards Heisenberg’s outstretched hand. And he was left watching Rose’s red face pout and start thumping her tiny fists against the ground. Gearing up for a fit that Ethan could see coming a mile off and knew without a doubt he could not stop.
A tendril, triple the size of the ones that followed Rose, reached out gently to tangle around his daughter’s waist and pat gently at her cheek as the tears started overflowing.
“See Ethan?” Heisenberg leered as Ethan slumped against him. “This is why you’re not allowed out alone. You’ve got the common sense of a fucking lycan, you know? The ones that run right at you and don’t try to avoid your bullets. Fuck those idiots.”
Ethan did not respond to this praise of his intelligence.
Mate. Smart.
He did roll his eyes, neither of the assholes needed encouragement, as the metal manipulator continued.
“Let go. I need to get Rose.”
“Yeah, yeah. Your one brain cell is Rose, Rose, Rose.” But he did loosen his arm, letting Ethan escape and scoop up Rose as fat tears started dripping faster. “C’mon Ethan Winters . You can feed the little princess, pass her off to Auntie Bi- um big, then we can have our own lunch.”
Closing his eyes, refusing to reward Heisenberg’s leer with a glare, Ethan let his face drop into Rose’s wispy hair and started rocking her as she hiccupped. Behind them the large tendril of mold seemed to pat the smaller wavering circle of mushrooms. Just like how it reassured Rose before the dark tendrils pulled back to vanish into the earth.
Beneath Ethan’s feet the dirt shifted in time with his steps.
“Come on Rose, let's go home.”