Chapter Text
Puck hadn't meant to stay gone for so long.
He originally planned to go with Jake for a few months, maybe a year at the most. But the weeks turned into months and then the months turned into years. They visited a few times in the first couple of years, for the occasional Christmas and a few important birthdays. But eventually, their visits grew further and further between. They were simply too far away and having way too much fun to come back too often.
First, they traveled through the human world - across six continents, to every notable capital and city they could think of. Then once they had experienced all the human world could offer, they made their way through the Everafter worlds - Oz, Wonderland, Camelot, Sherwood Forest, even Neverland (after heavy persuasion from Jake, Puck finally agreed to step foot into Neverland, and even then only to tear it apart as much as possible).
After seven years of causing chaos in the world alongside Jake Grimm, Puck returned to Faerie.
And he didn't tell a single soul.
Sure, it would have been easy to pick up the phone, maybe even stop by and say 'hey', but how was he even supposed to start that conversation? Sorry, I know it's been years since I've seen you, and despite the whole winning a war together, saving each other's lives countless times, and the whole 'will we or won't we' thing, I haven't stopped by or even called. Anyway, how the heck are ya?
Jake wasn't any better. He stayed home for a total of six weeks and then was back on the road again. Only this time without Puck.
But the Grimms didn't need to know that.
Puck knew he had to stay. Faerie was still growing, faster than ever, and Puck could keep pushing away his guilt for so long.
Titania was overjoyed when Puck showed back up unannounced at the royal mansion. Mustardseed seemed to be happy, though Puck wasn't sure whether Mustardseed actually missed his brother or he was just happy to not be responsible for the throne anymore. But everyone was taken aback by the sight of him. Because seemingly still without meaning to (he kept telling himself) he had finally grown up.
And despite Jake's constant teasing, Puck assured himself his reasoning had absolutely nothing to do with anyone back home. He was adamant that he never thought, wondered, or cared about her. Although he couldn't help it if she crossed his mind every so often. Or constantly.
Okay, fine, so he saw her everywhere he went. Every once in a while, a glimpse of blond hair would make his heart jump before he forced it back down. Any mention of the Brothers Grimm made him homesick. He would be lying if he didn't admit that the thought of leaving early had crossed his mind countless times.
Which is why he had no idea what he was doing now. He was only a few hours outside of Ferrypoint Landing. He could easily give the kingdom over to Titania and Mustardseed for a few days, maybe a few weeks, and see the Grimm family again. It had been seven years, after all, plenty to catch up on.
Then the thought of it crossed his mind, of going back home and seeing her draped on the arm of some random guy, of seeing her happy with someone else, in love, and moved on. She had probably forgotten all about him.
The thought of seeing that was enough to deter him from coming back home all those countless times and it was certainly enough to keep him avoiding her now. The rest of the Grimms, too. He chose to leave for years, he would have to deal with the consequences of missing everything.
Puck had been back home for nearly half a year when everything started going haywire.
It started with the news that New York City citizens had spotted 'multiple flying humanoid figures' over Manhattan. Then, the statue started randomly opening and closing the portal. There had been dozens of recent cases of a human randomly wandering into a restaurant filled with pixies, godfathers, and talking animals and pastries. Talking mice were found in the subway, and one man was turned into a frog in the middle of times square. Soon, cases of oddities were popping up all around the city on an almost weekly occurrence.
They were running out of forgetful dust.
Puck took to avoiding the other inhabitants of the kingdom as much as possible. He grew overwhelmed answering their frantic questions and angry demands for explanations. His pixie minions bothered him on a daily basis. His 'fake it till you make it' approach was growing harder and harder to keep afloat.
The more days passed, the more he had second thoughts about his decision to stay.
~/~/~
Your Majesty! Your presence is requested in the main restaurant, squeaked his swarm of pixie minions. Puck groaned. He was sitting in his study doodling on the edges of reports and had been planning on staying hidden there the rest of the day.
"No can do," Puck sighed. "Tell whoever it is that I am handling extremely important matters and can't be pulled away."
The swarm twinkled in response and zipped away. Puck had spent half the day conversing with a mass of Everafters in Brooklyn about a loose pegasus flying through the streets and did not feel like hearing any more distressing news. Not long after, however, Mustardseed burst into the room.
"Puck, stop being childish," he sighed impatiently. "Your presence is required in the main restaurant."
"Why yes, Mustardseed, please do come in," Puck said sarcastically. Mustardseed didn't respond. Puck huffed. "While I appreciate the compliment, as you can see, I am extremely busy at the moment."
Mustardseed glared at him with the same demanding stare their mother used.
"Ugh, fine!" Puck groaned, rising from his chair. "But you're buying me food."
Mustardseed grumbled something he couldn't hear and turned on his heel out the door. Puck had to jog to catch up to Mustardseed hurriedly making his way to the hallway to the restaurant.
They walked for a moment in silence, which wasn't usual for Mustardseed, who never took a chance for quiet when the silence could always be filled with endless talking or planning. "So…who has the pleasure of being granted my presence?"
Mustardseed kept his eyes forward. "I called in some help."
"Oh, is it for a new restaurant employee? Why do you need me for that?"
"No, not that kind of help."
He waited for him to elaborate, but Mustardseed simply kept his attention forward, leading Puck to the doors so quickly it felt like he was purposefully trying to overwhelm him. "So like...what kind of help?"
"Detective help."
Puck stumbled to a stop, then finally grabbed Mustardseed's arm when he tried to continue past him. "Detectives? Why exactly would we need detectives?"
"I figured it was time to call for a certain set of skills for these circumstances."
Puck hesitated. "Who exactly did you call, Mustardseed?"
Mustardseed took a deep breath and then finally faced him. "A family who is particularly...ahem...familiar with these kinds of situations."
A shock ran cooly through him. He let go of Musardseed's arm as if it burned him.
"You didn't."
Mustardseed said nothing and Puck took his silence as cruel, hard confirmation. "Why didn't you ask me first?!"
"Because I knew you would say no," Mustardseed stated matter-of-factly.
"Well, duh!"
"Puck, face it. We need help. Things are starting to grow out of control. This is starting to go beyond Faerie, and if we don't find its cause soon, it's going to destroy this entire city. I tried to convince you to do something about it before, but you didn't listen. I had no other choice."
Puck felt the walls start to close in around him. He knew deep down Mustardseed was probably right, the situation was in fact at this point completely out of hand. But he still wasn't anywhere close to allowing himself to admit it.
"No, forget it. We don't need their help, I can handle this!" Mustardseed gave him an unconvinced look. "Look, I have everything under control. This will die down, it's just been a bit of a weird time, with leadership changes and expansions and-"
"Puck, we need help!"
"The only 'help' they could give is making the entire place reek with their stench!"
Whatever Mustardseed was about to argue back was overshadowed by the groan of the large double doors at the end of the hallway slowly creaking open. He turned back, annoyed, ready to tell whoever it was to beat it. Instead, he turned and felt his breath hitch in his throat.
He was frozen on the spot. He felt his heart pound and he had to slowly remind himself how to breathe. Because there in the middle of the grand doorway stood a young woman. A fierce, brilliant, wonderful young woman. She looked just as beautiful as he remembered before he left, if not more.
And she looked furious.