Chapter Text
Rue hides away in their room most of the day before the Play. Wuvvy, Chirp, and Squak are all running around making sure everything is in place at the Theatre.
They, of course, needed to top getting Renner and The Green Hunter, so what’s happening tonight is under lock and key. Rue isn’t privy to any of the details, despite living with the hosts.
Binx and Andhera drop by and play with Lulu and Peep for a while, and Rue goes over some of the letters and requests they’ve got from people who want to join the Court of Craft.
The two of them eye Rue, and Rue thinks back to the offer that was made those few years ago at the last Bloom. They never gave a decision, simply left the Court of Wonder and remained unattached.
They sip cider Andhera provided and Binx heated up for them, and deliberate on the offers and requests on the Court of Craft’s docket.
Blessedly, nobody so much as utters Hob’s name.
Near the end of the day, Rue begins to get ready, primping and preening until they’re all done up and ready to go.
Their outfit is matching with Lulu’s, each in a beautiful pink dress with little bows as accents.
“You look hot!” Chirp says as she stops by for an outfit change, hopping from her ostrich to immediately sit on a bench and pull on a pair of stockings.
“Thanks. You too,” Rue says, and Chirp smiles graciously.
Chirp hoists herself back onto her ostrich before they leave together with Peep and Lulu in tow, heading down to the theatre.
It’s an outdoor theatre, but structures have been put in place to guide people along as well as provide a stage that can move about due to magic.
Rue does not even make it inside of the entryway, though.
Their eyes land on Hob and Lady Sylmenar, whose heads are bent slightly downwards. They are holding hands, tightly, and engrossed in their conversation.
Rue is instantly transported back to the moment that they learned Hob would be marrying the Seelie woman. They stop, and then turn back the direction they came, walking into the forest.
“Baba. Where are we going?” Lulu asks, looking over Rue’s shoulder. “Are we not seeing the Play?”
“Nobody ever stays to watch the Play,” Rue tells her.
It’s not even a lie. It’s nearly impossible to pay attention, fey are always moving about, drugs being shared, last-minute plots hatching.
It always has been Rue’s least favourite event.
Rue comes across the pond that they were at earlier in the Bloom, and places Lulu down. They sit on a mossy log, not even thinking of their dress. The hem immediately dips in some mud.
Lulu eagerly digs her hands in that very same mud and Rue laughs, a beautiful little chuckle against the quiet air.
“Delloso?”
Rue lifts their head and glances back. “Knickolas,” Rue says.
“Daddy,” Lulu says, more to herself than anything. “Papa.”
“May I?” Hob asks, and Rue gives a tiny nod. He sits next to them.
“The Bloom is coming to a close,” Rue says, once again feeling wistful. Lulu makes some screechy noises for a few moments, then trills more quietly.
“It is,” Hob says.
“I suppose we should start planning? A schedule, perhaps- when you will come fetch her, if I am to bring her to the Seelie Court? Or- whatever you wish,” Rue says, staring out at the water. They feel overcome with an emotion that they can’t name.
“And what do you wish?” Hob asks.
“I would not have you absent from her life,” Rue says, sounding slightly offended. “What- I know I kept her to myself too long, but I would not-”
“Rue, my apologies, that’s not what I meant,” Hob says, as patiently as he can manage. “I meant us.”
Rue blinks, and turns their head like Lulu is so fond of doing. “What do you mean, us?”
“You and I,” Hob says.
“Is- is there an us, Knick? Still? After all this time, and you are married-”
“Rue. I implore, think not of those things right now. Humor me, one moment. I’m asking, what do you want?”
Rue smiles despite themself. The answer to that question has not begun to change since last Bloom.
“Hob. Do you really need to ask?”
“Perhaps not, but I am.”
“Of course I want you to be with you. In body, and soul. I want to share each day with you. Still, now, I want to learn your mind and know every inch of you. That has never not been true. Not since you grabbed my hand,” Rue says, and Hob nods slowly.
“I- I should not have doubted you then, or now,” Hob says. “You are one of the most incomprehensible people I know, sometimes, but I admit I get in my own way when it comes to you.”
“Oh?” Rue asks, and Hob places his hand on top of theirs on the log.
They take a beat, and Rue wishes to kiss him, but resists.
They sigh, and let reality hit pull them back, “But I cannot answer as if it is such a simple, easy world. You are still married! And I- even if that were not a problem, are we not too different? I cannot go back to hiding, Knickolas. I cannot go back to worrying about polite society, over Courts and reputations- and it may have been childish of me, to so strongly admonish you for caring about them. I am sorry for how I spoke, last time we did. But what I said was the truth. I cannot be in a Court that needs me to be to be something other than myself.”
“I know, Rue. I would never, ever ask that of you,” Hob says slowly. “And I am beginning to… to consider- that I do not wish that for myself either.”
Rue breathes in sharply. “Really?”
“Do you know me to be a liar?”
“Not often. But you are capable,” Rue says, and Hob nods.
“I do not lie. I- she does change things,” Hob admits. “Even before her, I had been thinking, again, and every so often, about the Court of Craft. The offer Binx made still stands, I asked her myself. I was thinking, hoping, that you might even consider joining? Binx and Andhera promise their Court refuses to control members, and if you, and I, and Lulu-”
At the mention of her name, they each take note of the silence around them.
It’s surely too silent for a bugowlbar such as herself to be present, and they both spring up, looking around.
“Where is she?” Rue asks, and Hob lifts an arm out, looking behind him. “Lulu,” Rue says, loudly, then yells, starting to move, “Penélope? Penélope de la Rue!”
Hob does not even take a pause as he joins in the yelling, “Lulu! Penélope?!”
Rue searches around the edge of the water, dress dragging in the mud as they peer in close.
She does know how to swim generally, but the water is dark and murky and it terrifies Rue to think of her in there.
Meanwhile, Hob moves more towards the perimeter of the area they are in, bending to looks at some of the bushes before glancing up at a tree.
“Papa!”
Hob looks around, and then makes a choking sound as Lulu jumps from a tree and grabs him around the neck.
“Lulu,” Hob chokes again as she pulls herself up from his back and sits on his shoulder. “You scared us!”
“Sorry, papa,” Lulu says, as he pulls her to his chest. She does not sound that sorry.
Rue rushes over to them and hugs both Hob and Lulu at the same time, not wanting to take her from him but needing to have her close for a moment.
“Child,” Rue hisses.
“Sorry,” Lulu says, sounding a bit more sorry than before.
“Penélope?” Hob asks.
“Yes?” Lulu asks.
“I probably should have mentioned that. It’s, um… Penélope Peony de la Rue,” Rue explains.
“That… bests my name in numbers of syllables,” Hob observes.
“Yes, I know,” Rue says, and Hob clears his throat.
“I take it you also know,” he starts slowly, shuffling Lulu so she’s in the crook of his arm, “that the name Penélope means ‘weaver’? Very fitting… were she a member of the Court of Craft.”
“Hm. Interesting,” Rue says, with a factitious edge to it. Hob stares at them, with great intent. “Perhaps I… might be willing to try, again. Being with a Court,” Rue says.
“Is that so?” Hob asks, and Rue nods.
Then, Rue leans forward, and Hob meets them in the middle as they kiss once more.
“Ewww!” Lulu giggles.
Rue leans back, a hand still on Hob’s upper chest. “Why would you think kissing is ‘ew’? Who taught you that?”
“Auntie Grabalba,” Lulu says. Hob can’t stop himself from snorting a laugh.
“Of course she did,” Rue huffs. “It is ew when I kiss you?” Rue asks, and nudges their beak against her head.
Lulu giggles joyfully. “No!”
“Then it is not ew when I… kiss. Your father,” Rue says, their words stuttering as they try to be brave enough to say such a thing.
“That’s different,” Lulu argues anyway, tucking her head into Hob’s chest.
“We shall agree to disagree,” Hob says.
“That will come in handy,” Rue says, and Hob laughs again. “Is this really- can we do this?”
“Do you mean are we able to raise a child, or are we able to be together?”
Rue hums. “I do have doubts on the first, every single day, but I meant to ask about the latter.”
“You are a marvelous parent. And we can. I… I have talked to Sylmenar, and with Grabalba’s support I won’t even catch the ire of my former Court.”
“Former- have you already left?” Rue asks quietly. “Your Court?”
“I have, yes.”
Hob holds their gaze and Rue stares at him.
“Oh.”
Rue then looks at their child, playing with a bit of string from Gods-knows-where, making a pattern by wrapping it around her claws and backs.
“Well. Lulu?”
“Huh?” Lulu asks, looking up with her giant eyes.
“Do you want to join Auntie Binx and Uncle Andhera in the Court of Craft? What say you?”
Lulu gasps, “Yes.”
“Okay,” Rue says, barely a whisper. “In that case. I, and Lulu, will join you the Court of Craft.”
Magic runs over their arms and into their body, and then something makes itself known within Rue’s very core.
Lulu has a full body shiver, and then makes a loud whirring chitter and shakes her feathers out.
Hob gasps softly, presumably because of how cute she looks.
“It is done,” Rue says, and Hob turns his smile towards them instead.
Once more, Hob draws Rue in to kiss them, and Lulu doesn’t bother complaining this time.
Last Bloom, many of them thought the Blooms might be ending forever.
For Rue, this Bloom has started their life anew, and they could not be happier or more thankful.