Archive of Our Own ^beta

Going into town is always a risky business. With all he did not that long ago, people still know his face, even if he looks substantially different now. He isn't taking the hat off just to disguise himself better. Point is, there's a few reactions someone recognizing him gets.

The first is mocking him, though there's always an undercurrent of desperation to the mockery, like they're still afraid. The second is immediately looking away and pretending he doesn't exist. That one's normally fine, Finn guesses, until he needs to buy something from that person. Then they're a stammering wreck, and look. He gets it, but he still needs to buy things. The third is throwing things at him, which doesn't happen much anymore, but it's not like Finn can really fight against it, that just incites mockery or more attacks.

So he doesn't go to town unless his Mom and Dad are both very busy with something or another, or he wants to do more than all the small chores he can handle. Just because people hate him doesn't mean he needs to drag his family down! Hence why he's in town now. They've been wanting more meat recently, as winter is slowly approaching and it's about time to dry all they can, and Finn volunteered to get some. Mom always looks worried about him leaving alone, but he'll be okay.

The chill in the air feels nice. Finn doesn't know what to do with this. It feels like every second there was heat in the air he was choking and just didn't realize it, and now that it's cold again he can breathe. He leans against the wall of a nearby building and tries to stay in his own skin. Finn doesn't notice the corner of the market he's ended up in emptying, nor does he notice someone walking up to him until she speaks.

"Hey."

Finn blinks, slowly, then jolts to awareness. "Yes! Yes? Sorry."

"Don't apologize." The girl in front of him frowns. She's a bit taller than him, dressed mostly in loose leather over plain brown clothes and a cloak. "You're scaring everyone off."

Wincing, Finn crosses his arms stiffly. "Yeah. I just came in to buy some meat."

She hums. "I'm a huntress. I don't think anyone else will want to sell to you."

"Ouch."

"Well?"

"Yeah, sure." So Finn follows her. Her stall's selection really is excellent.

---

"So, uh-"

"Don't bother with the weather." Margery says, smiling.

"I wasn't going to!"

"Liar."

"Well," Finn huffs, "it is nice weather. Hence this." He gestures grandly at the well-trod path around the edge of the woods.

Margery is having none of it. "First, did you just say the word 'hence' in casual conversation, and second, isn't this path a little boring?"

"Yes, and I have no idea what you're talking about, in that order."

"Mertens."

"Uh- Huntress?"

"This is an awful place to go on a walk. Let's do something fun."

"Like what?"

She shrugs. "I dunno. Maybe actually go into the woods?"

"I guess there's somewhere I want to explore?" Margery gestures in a 'go on' sort of motion. "I guess I'd like to wander Destiny Manor? Run around, smash some stuff. That sort of thing."

Margery squints at Finn, though he mostly just guesses she's doing this, as her goggles make it nearly impossible to actually see her eyes. "Well. Do you know a way up that isn't the ride? I'd rather not be so visible."

"Yeah, actually. There's a path up the back, I think?" Finn distantly remembers seeing it from above, a few times. Best not to dwell on that.

"Off we go, then." And so they do. The way to the manor's back entrance takes some time, but neither of them really mind. It's a nice day. The path up is rocky and steeper than most people would want to climb, but both Finn and Margery are agile and young, and have little issue scaling the rocks and roots that make up many of the shortcuts across the path.

The back door is shut, but unlocked when Margery tests it. Both enter carefully, but when they don't hear anything, start running around together, full-tilt. Smashing things and generally being menaces, they spend the day in that manor together. Eventually, they reconvene by the entrance. The sun is setting, dying light shining through the back door and into the hallway they walk down together.

"This is great." Margery says, suddenly.

Finn nods. "I like the carpet. It's easier to run on than loose dirt."

"Don't insult my dirt. This was good, though." She wanders over to a painting on the wall, unsheathes a dagger, and slices right through the paint and canvas.

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to sound so hopeful, jeez. This has been fun." She tilts her head. "Not just the vandalism. You're good company."

Finn takes a long breath. "Thanks. I liked doing this with you too, Margery."

She smiles at him. "Oh, why not. Merry. Please call me Merry."

"Sure thing, Merry."

---

Having been dating for a couple of months now, it's probably time to have Merry meet his family. He broaches the subject to.both parties, and Monday night seems to be the agreed-upon time, so Monday it will be.

The actual day is a bit cloudy, but not horribly so for midsummer. Finn doesn't actually know where Merry lives, and she's always a bit cagey about telling him, so they just meet up at the hill with the roots sticking out of it and walk the way to Finn's house together.

Right outside the door, Merry stops and grabs both of Finn's hands. "Nervous?" She asks.

"Just a little. You?"

Merry exhales sharply, mouth pinched.

"I see. Don't worry, they'll like you!"

"Still."

"Yeah, I know. C'mon." Finn knocks on the front door, and instead of either of his parents opening the door, his sibling does instead. "Mason?"

"Hi!" They nod at Finn and smile at Merry, then turn around and walk away, leaving the door open. Finn didn't even know they were allowed to open the door. From the kitchen comes a loud noise and indistinct conversation.

Merry grabs Finn's hand. "C'mon." She grins at him and Finn laughs. They walk in together, shutting the door behind them.

---

"A bit big for two, don't you think?"

Merry laughs. "Too late to change your mind now!"

"I'm not!" Finn hugs her with one arm. "It just looks like a lot."

The freshly-built house stands before them, three stories tall and with gaping holes where windows should be, but there aren't many windows anyways. Merry sizes it up. "Things always look more impressive when you're the one making them."

"I don't know about that. Easier to see the flaws in your own work."

"Fortunately, my work is perfect, always."

"You egotist." Finn grins.

She shakes her head fondly. "It's true! I'm perfect."

"Pfft. Perfect at carrying our stuff inside?"

Merry fakes swooning dramatically, collapsing on the ground in a drawn out motion. "Oh, I couldn't possibly. Where would I be with my beloved, strong husband to hold things for me?"

"You're a menace. I just want you to know that." Finn says as he begins bringing their things into the front room. After the first round, Merry stands up and starts helping too.

---

Finn wakes up warm and drowsy, dim light reaching over the foot of the bed from the window opposite it. Dawn. He looks to his left, seeing Merry curled into a tight ball, arms wrapped around a wad of blanket and sheets. He begins to get a possibly very bad idea, and pulls the stolen blankets closer to him.

With half the blanket cover, Merry starts to wake up. Finn waits until she's begun to stretch her legs out, and moves fast.

Merry shrieks. "Your feet are freezing!"

"What else could they be?" Finn laughs back at her. She snorts, throwing herself on top of him and placing her own feet on Finn's legs.

"How do you like that, huh?"

"Sorry. You're warm."

"Awful." She says dramatically.

"It really is!"

"Hey."

---

"I'd joke about you naming our first kid more or less after your dog, but I really don't know what to say."

"What?" Finn says, "It's a good name!"

Merry meets his eyes. "You named our son after your dog."

"...Our dog?"

"Jake is yours. You know this. Everyone knows this."

Finn fumbles for a response for a bit. "Uh. First? First kid?"

"Yeah," Merry hums, "If Jay isn't too much to handle, I wouldn't mind a large family. You?"

"I think I'd like that." Finn beams. "A big family sounds nice to me."

"Don't think I'm not going to bring the dog thing up again."

"Drat."

---

There's been screaming coming from town for a while now. Merry left a little while back with her crossbow and spear, but it's been an hour. Finn does his best to keep Jay and the newborn twins, Mary and Bryce, calm. Jay seems delighted to have run of the downstairs.

Finn wishes he could be out there too, helping Merry and the town, and keeping them safe. Bryce grabs at his fingers. His grip is surprisingly tight. Finn exhales slowly and holds the twins closer. This is what he has to do. He can't leave the kids alone.

Still, it worries him. The screaming shouldn't have reached their house to begin with. That must have been some monster. Or maybe the gangs are causing problems again. He hopes Merry isn't turned away from anything because of him. Maybe not? It's a silly thing to worry about when Merry could be in danger, but the smaller things are always easier to think on.

Another hour passes. Jay is poking around the stairs, and the twins have gone to sleep. Finn does his best to keep Jay from noticing how concerned he is, but eventually the front door opens and Merry steps through. She beelines to him and they hug for a long moment.

"Are you hurt?" Finn says.

"Not much. A few scrapes."

"Let's get you cleaned up, alright?"

"Of course. The kids?"

"Jay's awake, twins are asleep."

Merry squeezes him tightly, then lets go. "If you'll put him to bed, I'll have the medical kit upstairs." Finn nods and heads off silently. He's just glad she's safe.

---

Finn stares up at the ceiling, waiting for Merry to leave the shower. A revelation has hit him. When she enters the bedroom, he looks over to her and decides to wait until she's dressed to say anything.

"Did you pick out the name 'Mary' on purpose, or did you forget about your nickname too?"

"Uh," Merry stops in her tracks. "That's- Ah. I'm not answering that."

"No, that's a yes."

"It is not."

"It is!" Merry doesn't respond, simply crawling into bed and turning away from Finn. "It is!" She starts fake-snoring loudly. "I can't believe you. This is your version of the dog name thing."

---

When Bryce turns six, he gets a few gifts from those of the family that can gift things meaningfully, meaning anyone other than Mary (who gifts Bryce a very nice rock) and the newest child, Rye. Finn gifts him a set of overalls, which Bryce promptly dons, serious expression pasted on his face all the while.

The highlight of Bryce's day, rather than the clothing or admittedly phenomenal rock, is Merry's gift. She sits down in front of him, prompting him to do the same, and removes her goggles from the top of her head. Bryce stares, eyes wide, even as Merry carefully covers said eyes with the goggles and adjusts them to fit his head.

He grins wide, and then staunchly refuses to take the goggles off for anything for the rest of the day, including his bath. Bryce expounds at length about being able to open his eyes while underwater, and how he has to blink less, and a pile of other supposed benefits to not letting his eyes feel fresh air for the rest of his life.

The combined forces of Finn, Merry, and Jay's insistence that Bryce looks weird like that finally convinces him to take them off before he goes to bed. The goggles are delicately hung on his bedpost. In the morning, he comes down to breakfast with them on again. Finn and Merry just share a fond glance and tell him to be sure they're off before he sleeps every night.

---

Their fifth kid. It's a joy in multiple parts. Merry became horribly ill not long afterwards, coughing and throwing up, sweating endlessly, and both she and Finn were terrified she'd die from it. Merry refused to hold the new child, saying that she may make her ill. Finn names her Bonnie after Merry's insistence that he be the one to name her in her stronger moments.

Still, she recovers after nearly a month of this. The two agree that Merry needs to stay home for a while longer, to make sure it doesn't start up again or she doesn't make it worse. As Merry can't go out to hunt or forage like she usually does, and the harvest is yet to come in, that leaves the acquisition of food to Finn's ability to find merchants who will tolerate his presence.

As always, his entrance to town is heralded by a quiet but quick packing-up of just about all the smaller stalls, and flat abandonment of some of the larger ones. The townsfolk are less petrified of him than when the Snowman was a recent memory, but they still refuse to be near him most of the time. Choose Bruce, however, smiles at his arrival.

"Yoo hoo, over here! Get closer, come near!"

Finn obliges. "That one was a bit weak."

"You wound me, I'd think you don't care! Should I take it you don't want some of my wares?"

"Come on. Just grocery shopping." Looking at the selection, though... "Not much in that department from you, though."

"I'm afraid that's true, food isn't my niche. It simply isn't that profitable, capiche?"

Finn laughs a bit. "But you do still have some." Choose Bruce nods, dramatically waving his hand over what little food he does carry, and Finn takes most of it. "With any luck, I won't have to do this next time."

"What happened to send you to my shop? You don't often come, though it's only a jump, skip and a hop!"

"Eh. Huntress is just past a rough illness. We figured we needed to be safe about things. Just in case."

"A wise decision, to be sure. I think, though, you just couldn't resist my stand's allure!" Bruce grins and turns his head to the side, preening. He winks, though, so Finn is pretty sure it's just a joke.

There's a pleasant quiet as Finn finishes packing up his purchases and paying for them. His money is counted in silence, and both Finn and Bruce let the calm of the empty market wash over them for a while.

"Now, I think, you should go." Choose Bruce says,. eventually ."You're bad for business, I hope you know."

Finn grins, all shark-toothed mirth, and takes up his bag. "You're terrible to me. I don't know why I still shop here."

"I should hope you know why, when others see you, they fly!" He laughs. Finn leaves, shaking his head fondly.

Home takes the usual long trek to reach, but the path has some wonderful scenery.

"I'm home!" He calls as he opens the door. "Could use some help unloading all this!"

Conversation from the room over carries over as the two participants, Jay and Bryce, enter the kitchen. Finn sets the groceries on the ground and the three get to putting the nonperishables up in the cabinets and produce in the icebox. Peeking up the stairs briefly, Finn catches a glimpse of Merry's shiny eyes at the top landing.

---

Through the archway separating rooms to his left, Finn watches Merry hold little Bonnie's hands and coax her forward, sometimes pausing to return to cooking. Nothing fancy, just pasta and meatballs. The meatballs were a delight when Merry first learned to make them, but now they're an easy comfort food. Noodles are harder to come by, but they store for ages and trade is going strong.

He just wants to see Bonnie take her first wobbling steps. She's beautiful. Perfect, he'd like to think. She's so happy. He hopes that never changes.

"Pa?" Rye says from behind him. She's growing up to be just like her mother. Inquisitive nature, red hair, green eyes and all.

Finn turns to look at her. She's sitting on the bench, legs swinging. "Yes, Rye?"

"Why are you cooking?"

"Because it's almost time for dinner?"

Rye shrugs. "You always cook, though."

"Trust me," Finn intones, "if your mom cooked, we'd only be eating stew and steak."

"But that sounds good!" Rye laughs. "I want steak!"

"Not every night for a month, you wouldn't!" Finn smiles at her, then glances over to Merry and Bonnie just in time to catch Bonnie taking a few unaided steps and Merry cheering.

---

Merry is just adding some spices to her stew when a loud crash comes from outside. Finn jolts out of his chair.

"Kids. Cellar."

They head down the stairs with no complaint, and Finn watches until they all reach the bottom, just the be sure they'll be okay. Behind him, Merry takes her spear off the wall. The crossbow is by the door.

After a final glance at the cellar door, seeing it shut tight, Finn follows Merry outside. He falters briefly at the sight of a massive thing tearing up trees and old pipes in his yard. It's bigger than the house and a dark green, six huge arms and what could generously be called legs dangling beneath it. It's a monster. Merry scales the house and starts taking shots at it from a distance. Finn sprints to the barn to get his flamethrower.

By the time it's on and he's back outside, the thing is closer to the house, drawn in by Merry's attacks. She drops the crossbow and takes up her spear, readying herself to attack. Finn runs around it from the other side, keeping as much distance as he can, and starts burning away the arms. From up close, it's even worse, mismatched fingers of different lengths and numbers per hand. The legs remain vestigial and useless, swaying even as it turns to face him directly. It raises four of its hands at once, tipping forward and hitting the ground. A flailing hand hits Finn hard, sending him into a tree and knocking the wind out of him.

He can't breathe. He can barely see. The thing is thrashing, trying to stand again. His vision turns to static for a moment and he coughs, violently undoing any progress towards getting air back in his lungs. Merry is...

Merry is driving a spear directly into the thing's mockery of a throat. Blood sprays out in a horrible flood. It hits Finn, and burns. He scrambles to move as much as he can, and manages to get most of it off. The skin where it hit is the same colour as a sunburn. The monster seems to have fallen still, though. Finn drags himself up with the help of a tree and looks around. Where's Merry?

Finn... doesn't see her. "Merry?"

No response. He calls again. No response. Finn goes a bit hazy, walking towards the monster's body. It's still, draining poison into the earth. Right by its neck is a burnt, curled-up human body.

Oh.

Finn picks her up. Her skin crackles under his hand. She's dead. There's no other word for what happened. She died. Finn stares at what's left of her eyes. He walks back into the house and sets her on the floor, staring more.

The cellar is quiet. Finn looks away from Merry for a moment and opens the door. Two faces stare at him, hopeful. Finn opens his mouth, but can't say anything. Jay starts up the stairs, Bryce not far behind, but Finn shakes his head.

"Not. Not right now."

They accept this, reluctantly. Bryce's expression is the closest to afraid he's ever seen it. Finn closes the door and looks back at Merry. On the stove, the stew bubbles over, spilling spices and water over the stovetop. It hisses as it hits the surface, and Finn starts to cry.