black_sluggard | (Fic) Of Mice and Men—Epilogue: ...Happily Ever After?

Title: Of Mice and Men
Fandoms: Castle, Fables
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, Fantasy, Humor, Romance
Details: Slash, genre!crack, AU, crack, unsolicited crossover, fairy tales, talking animals, author insanity, shades of "omfg what did I just write?", unbetad.
Characters/Pairings: Castle—Javier Esposito/Kevin Ryan, Kate Beckett. Fables—Bigby Wolf, Frau Totenkinder, Reynard, Rose Red, Bagheera, others. OCs.
Wordcount: 623
Summary: In which a city mouse visits the country, which predictably leads to trouble and (in no particular order) revelations, relations and reciprocation; a funeral and a shotgun wedding; and Javier almost gets eaten by a panther.

Epilogue: ...Happily Ever After?

(In which matters may not be resolved as easily as anyone believes...)

The Wolf watched as the mouse and his new husband departed. Still he waited, and it wasn't until the dust on the road had cleared that he spoke, breaking the silence of his apparent solitude.

"Well, are you going to come out, Maddy?" Bigby said. "I'm not stupid or arrogant enough to think even I would have smelled you if you were actually trying to hide."

There was no answer, at first. Yet after a moment a very small shadow detached itself from the leaf-shade of the nearby trees, and a tiny blackbird lit on a fallen log beside him. The bird stretched her wings, and her shape began to change. Soon, she had returned to the form she favored these days—that of a lithe, night-black cat with the barbed tail of a devil.

It was said that a cat may look upon a king, and in this instance Bigby thought the expression was fitting. It was fear of his predatory past that kept him barred from the Farm, and that same fear had made him the obvious choice for keeping peace down in the city. But no fear greeted him in the eyes of the Fable sitting before him. The shapeshifting witch, Medea—also known as Sycorax—was one of Fabletown's most powerful sorcerers, and she awaited his words with the kind of forbearance and disregard that only a witch or a cat could muster.

"So you'll be reporting on all this nonsense to Totenkinder, then," Bigby said. "Or whoever it is on the 13th Floor that you actually report to."

"Oh eventually," Maddy purred. "Though knowing her, I would be surprised if she didn't have some notion of it already."

Bigby acknowledged her point with a grunt. Frau Totenkinder was the eldest and most powerful of all of Fabletown's magic users. Her knowledge was far reaching, and what she didn't know for subtlety was probably not worth knowing. Given the complicated internal politics of the 13th Floor mages, it more than went without saying that she had her own resources keeping tabs on the Farm.

In fact, Bigby thought, it was entirely possible that Totenkinder knew more about what was going on than any of them had even begin to realize.

"My sources on the Farm say it's True Love that helped the Mundy get through the enchantments keeping it hidden," Bigby mused, not bothering to disguise his skepticism. "I have my own theories, but what's your professional opinion?"

For as subtle as Totenkinder was, secrecy and deception were Medea's domain, and she had woven every bit of that expertise into those very same spells when she and the other sorcerers had first laid them. In spite of her apparent lack of concern, her tail twitched slightly in distaste.

"I suppose it is theoretically possible," she admitted coolly. "True Love can be a potent magical force, and one of the very few that can be found native even in this Mundane world. The Mundy would have to be particularly single-minded in his task to manage it, however. While it makes for quite a romantic story, personally I believe there are other forces entirely at play."

Silent, Maddy contemplated the road down which the newlyweds had departed.

"Decades ago," Maddy said, "Totenkinder chose to transform a mouse into a man. Though it is not common knowledge, I'm sure you're aware that such whims have written the histories of some of the best known citizens of Fabletown. Now, however indirectly, that choice has brought the Mundane among us..."

Her tail lashed just once, unhappily. Bigby gave a snort. Neither one of them was foolish enough to believe the situation had resolved itself as harmlessly as it seemed.

"Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

The End?