Chapter Text
Sunday morning dawns slowly. The sky is clear and blue – once the sun burns off the dew, it’s going to be a lovely warm day. The cafe opens at 9, like it usually does on Sunday mornings, though only Andrew is present – Adam and Steven will arrive in an hour or two, again, as usual. Banjo flips the sign on his door to open, but knows it’s a courtesy – he rarely gets visitors before noon, though he wonders if today will be different. City hall is closed today: everyone is home with their kids, or heading to church, or going to the cafe for Sunday brunch. The birds are chirping, the trees are budding: it’s a beautiful day in Willow River.
Xiaolian wakes up, still exhausted from the past couple of days. She stares at the ceiling for a while, playing with the wings on the mothman plushie Shane had given her for her tenth birthday. She really wants waffles. And company.
Something is nagging at the back of her mind, like something she doesn’t really want to remember. …probably just the night before, really. The café should be open, if Andrew and Adam have come home. It’s Sunday morning – just Andrew till 11.
Andrew and Adam constantly compete to see who can make the best waffles without “stooping to experimentation”, like they claim Steven does. Steven always rolls his eyes and just orders them whatever cockamamie ingredients they want to try this week. “No experimentation”, his ass…
A message pops up on Xiaolian, Roan, and Cassandra’s phone from James. “Meet me at the cafe, getting some waffles and changing bandages.”
Roan groans as they hear their phone buzz, one hand slithering out of their blanket burrito to grab it. Huh. Guess that means they actually need to shower and put clothes on and appear like a presentable human. Five more minutes of sleep, then time to be a person – albeit a half dead one.
Xiaolian gets up and dressed. She opens up her blinds and blinks at the bright sunlight coming in. It really is a waffle kind of day. She grabs her backpack, inside is a laptop, a note book, a pencil case, and a book on her latest interest, bees. She checks to see if Bolin is sleeping, and writes him a note letting him know where she’ll be. She heads out and to the café.
Cassandra sees the notification pop up but doesn’t stop typing. She’s on her laptop, so she finishes what she needs to put on paper before she closes the lid and stands up. She’s heading to the cafe about half an hour later, wearing a light coat over her clothes and her usual combat boots.
About 9.30, once Andrew has a minute where he’s not immediately needed at a kitchen appliance, he jogs up the stairs and knocks on Owen’s door. “Hey bud. You awake?”
Owen had been just waking up, and when Andrew knocks, he sits up. “I’m awake!” He calls, but stays in the bed.
“Cool. How’s your arm?”
Owen looks down at his arm, and then back at the door, shrugging before realizing Andrew can’t see him through the door. “It’s okay. It doesn’t really hurt at all.”
“That’s good. You wanna come down and hang out in the kitchen with me?”
“Yeah, sure!” Owen gets up, heading over and opening the door.
Andrew is standing on the other side, quite close to the door: he still looks pretty tired, and he hasn’t shaved, so now it’s a three-day beard. He’s wearing his whites, and an apron, and he’s semi-covered in flour, including a smear on his cheek. His arm is carefully wrapped in bandaging, and there’s bandaging plaster over the scrape on his jaw, too.
Owen smiles up at Andrew, reaching over and hugging him. “I’m still sorry I scared you yesterday.”
Andrew freezes slightly, then puts his arms around Owen. “I know you didn’t mean to. It’s just been a tough couple of days, and when you weren’t here when Adam and I got back—” He sighs. “I was worried that something really bad had happened to you.”
“I promise I can take care of myself, I’ve been doing it for a long time.” Owen says softly.
It might be Owen’s imagination, but it feels like Andrew holds him a little bit tighter. “You shouldn’t have had to,” he says, equally as softly. “I know you can take care of yourself, Owen, I just … we want to.”
Owen burrows his face against Andrew. “But you don’t have to worry, I’ll be okay.”
Andrew shakes a little, laughing silently. “Owen, that’s what parents are for.”
“…parents?” Owen asks softly. “Does that mean I have a dad now?”
He doesn’t answer for a moment, then he exhales slowly, and Owen can hear the slight smile in his voice. “Well, I mean, you kind of have three. If you want us, that is.”
“Yeah!” Owen grins. “I mean I didn’t really have any before…” He frowns. “Or I guess my dad was a ghoul, since my mom wasn’t…? But they didn’t really take care of me, so they don’t count.”
Again, Andrew doesn’t speak for a second, and before he does he pulls away from Owen gently, his hands on Owen’s shoulders. His eyes are slightly red-ringed as he holds Owen’s gaze. “I’d really like to hear your whole story sometime, Owen, if you feel comfortable telling me. But for now: I’d be honoured to be your dad. I promise I’ll do my best to protect you and teach you whatever you need to know.”
Owen nods, smiling again. “Okay.” He says, hugging Andrew again. This time, Andrew says nothing at all, and just hugs Owen tightly. “Are we gonna go downstairs?”
Andrew laughs softly. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go downstairs. I’m making waffles.”
“Can I learn how to make food? I can’t eat it but I can make it for other people!”
Andrew lets go of Owen, and begins to head down the stairs. As Owen says this, he looks over his shoulder. “…You know what?” he says, “Sure. That sounds like a great idea.” Owen grins, and follows Andrew down.
As they make their way downstairs, Owen can hear the subdued hustle and bustle of the café on a quiet Sunday morning. Andrew leads him into the kitchen, and Owen can see into the front side – he sees James and Xiaolian already there, and Cassandra and Roan walk through the door just a moment later.
“James, I’m telling you. Bees are fucking wild! They literally vibrate their bodies so that it heats up to just one degree below what would kill them in order to kill another insect! How fucking hardcore is that?!”
James chuckles. “That’s pretty baller.”
When he sees everyone, Owen perks up, and turns to Andrew. “That’s all my new friends that I was with yesterday.” He says. “… Can I go say hi before you teach me cooking?”
Andrew looks the group over. “Sure,” he says. “It’s good to have friends.” He takes Owen by the elbow before he can leave, though, and pulls him in close, speaking softly. “Before you do: you need to know that things like ghouls are secrets that most people don’t know about. They scare most folks. I’d suggest keeping stuff like that quiet, okay? And please, talk to me, Adam, or Steven before you agree to do anything, or if you’re nervous about anything.”
Owen nods. “Okay, I will.” He promises, before going to the rest of the group. “Hi!”
James looks over to Owen. “Hey, how are your bandages doing today? Need fresh ones?”
“I dunno?” He holds out his arm. “Do I need new ones?”
Xiaolian turns to Cassandra. “Cass, get a load of this. Bees actually have five eyes. Five!”
“Wait, why? What do they need that for?” Cassandra is confused for a second, but she remembers to greet everyone with a big smile, sitting at the table with them.
“It’s so that they can fly straight. But isn’t that wild. Imagining needing five whole eyes in order to not face plant into a wall.” Xiaolian thinks she might want honey with her waffles.
“Well, changing bandages keep the wound from getting infected. We’ve only had these on for around eight hours so it should be fine to stay on for a while, and the leaves I added will help a lot. But if it still hurts, I should add more to help it heal,” James explains to Owen, while Xiaolian explains bees to Cassandra.
Owen nods. “Okay.” He says, and turns to the other three in the group. “Hi!”
Roan is slumped down in the chair. Their brain doesn’t really kick in before coffee, but they try to give a smile.
Andrew brings over several plates of waffles, and a whole pot of coffee. He comes back around a moment later with cream, sugar, and a dozen different little pots of toppings – fruits, syrups, chocolate curls, you name it.
Roan pours themself coffee and gulps it down, ignoring the burn in their throat. They aren’t really sure what they’re doing here, but they need coffee and food and it would have been rude to ignore everyone. Meanwhile, James pours himself a cup of coffee, adding creamer and sugar before drinking it.
Xiaolian looks up at Andrew, pure love in her eyes. “Andrew, have I ever told you how much I love and appreciate you?”
He cocks an eyebrow. “You tell me occasionally.” As he walks away, she notices the bandage on his arm, not to mention the three-day beard complete with plastered scrape.
Xiaolian frowns. She gets up immediately and follows him. “Andrew, what happened?”
Andrew looks back over his shoulder. “You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”
Cassandra is busy eating a waffle, but she’s glancing at Xiaolian and Andrew’s exchange, trying to hear what they’re saying.
Xiaolian gestures vaguely to his arm and face and makes a noise that sounds like “you know what.”
He keeps his eyebrow raised, and points to the bandage on her own arm.
“Hey, I asked you first.”
He crosses his arms, gives her a significant look, and leads her into the back room. Xiaolian immediately starts going through what to say to not get in trouble in her head. James raises his eyebrows as Xiaolian and Andrew leave. He looks over to Cassandra, giving her a weird stuff happening look.
He turns to face her, arms still crossed. “I was out hunting. Like we do here in Willow River. Keeps the freezers full.” He looks pointedly at her arm. “I’ve heard some interesting things about what you were doing last night, though.”
Xiaolian gives him a weak smile. “At least it wasn’t drugs?”
“In this case, I’d almost prefer you were out in the forest smoking a joint.”
“Are you advocating drug use? To a child?” Xiaolian is trying her best to keep him off topic.
“You’re not a child anymore, Xiaolian, which is the only reason I’m talking to you and not to your brother.” His eyes are rapidly turning flinty, though he’s still completely calm.
Xiaolian stares at the ground. “It’s not like planned to go out last night. I tried my best to get Owen and I back home but stuff happened and I didn’t really have much of a choice.”
Andrew leans back against the shelving. “Alright. I’m listening. Tell me what happened.”
“I was just watching movies with Owen after Steven had to go. But then Keith called me up saying he had some folks who wanted a tour. Those three showed up and I was just gonna give them a regular tour. But then they wanted to go to the train station for some reason. And while we were there, Owen kinda tried to take a bite out of Roan. I tried to get us out of there but then there was a knife and I started—” Xiaolian hesitates, not really sure if she wants to delve into her powers yet. “…and so then they just kept asking questions and next thing I know, they have me and Owen helping them.”
“Helping them. With what, precisely?”
“Umm…stealing a body and killing a ghoul?”
Andrew exhaled slowly, closed his eyes, and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Alright. So the kid wasn’t hallucinating things.” He points in her general direction, eyes still closed. “Did it bite you?”
“Yes, but, uh, James took care of it.”
He rubs even harder on his nose, then presses his hands to the sides of his head briefly before looking up at her. “Who is this James person?”
“I think he said he was like a monster hunter. I don’t know much about him other than that.”
“A monster hunter, eh.” He frowns. “Anything else to tell me? Am I right in presuming Bolin doesn’t know what happened?”
She smiles sheepishly. “Yeah he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know a lot actually.”
Andrew sighs deeply. “Alright. I think that’s probably a conversation you ought to have with him at some point.” He rubs his eyes, clearly just exhausted. “Honestly, I’d love to ask you to just not go out hunting monsters, but—” He laughs ruefully. “I know you too well for that, so… please just don’t do anything without all the information, and without backup. Be careful, Xiaolian.”
Xiaolian plays with them hem of her shirt. “…I don’t really know how to tell him. The only one who actually knows about it is Shane.” And in mentioning Shane, Xiaolian remembers something, vaguely. Something she dreamed. Or was it a nightmare? She remembers waking up with her heart pounding, having dreamed … something. Something about Shane? She can’t pin it, but she’s unsettled.
Andrew doesn’t respond immediately. This isn’t abnormal, really. He’s usually quiet, and takes time to think before he speaks. But this time, the moment stretches on just a little too long, and he swallows heavily and takes a long breath before he says, “… I’m sure you’ll figure something out. Come on, I need to get back to the kitchen. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He turns and leaves before she can say anything. The others see Andrew leave the back room and go into the kitchen, returning to one of the back counters. Xiaolian does not immediately follow him out.
Cassandra frowns slightly when Xiaolian doesn’t follow him out, but turns to the others, opening her trademark smile again. “Hey guys!” She smiles particularly wide at Owen, happy to see the guy talking to them first this time. “Did you get enough sleep? Anyone feeling any pain?”
“I brought more of the herb if anyone needs some more. Which I don’t expect cause this stuff works miracles on flesh wounds.” James starts adding what is probably too much whipped cream to his waffle.
In the back room, the unsettled feeling gets stronger, and Xiaolian can feel her chest tighten. She leans against the wall, struggling to breathe.
“…Do you think Xiaolian is okay?” Owen asks, looking back to where she would be.
She takes one breath, then another, and the feeling is somehow so familiar— she doesn’t close her eyes but images begin to flash in her mind: a long hallway filled with doors, lipstick the colour of literal blood, blonde curls and high heels and a familiar face, covered in blood, a familiar voice, choked with pain— Shane, tied to a chair, broken, bloody, and bruised, unable to breathe, trapped in the darkness, hurting. The whole dream comes flooding back in a heartbeat, and her vision blurs in panic.
Xiaolian is filled with pure fear and the river in her head is rushing, and somewhere in it she thinks she can hear Shane singing to. It’s too much. Tears stream down her face and she lets out a scream without realizing it.
This is, of course, audible through to the café.
James immediately stands up, coffee and waffle forgotten, and runs to the room he saw Xiaolian enter.
“Was that—fuck,” Cassandra says, running after him, Owen hot on her heels.
Andrew drops the knife he’d been using to chop strawberries and takes off into the back room. Andrew, upon reaching the back room, is immediately looking for something that’s fallen, something that’s hurt her. “Xiaolian. What happened? Are you okay?” Upon seeing that nothing seems amiss, he comes to her side, and is looking at the bandage on her arm. “What’s going on? Are you hurting?”
Xiaolian looks at him. Her eyes have gone gold and she hasn’t stopped crying. The gold almost looks like it’s leaking into the tears. She grabs onto Andrew’s shirt. “S-Shane.”
Andrew freezes. He takes a shaky breath, and looks her in the eye. “What about Shane, Xiaolian,” he says, quietly.
She lets out a sob. “We have to find him. He’s hurt. He’s hurt so much. Andrew, we need to find him now”
“He’s… Xiaolian… Xiaolian, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Andrew’s arm twitches. “Calm down. Take a deep breath.”
“Okay Xiaolian. Breathe in, breathe out, slowly,” James says, in a low voice.
The river in her head goes silent – utterly silent. She stares at Andrew. Owen kind of slides past everyone and sits next to her, carefully putting a hand on her arm. Andrew stares back. His arm twitches again, and his breathing is way too level.
“…Liar,” she accuses.
He swallows. He looks like he did years ago, on Xiaolian’s first night helping with clean-up, when it was just them, and some random drunk dude banged on the window and shouted something about “I know you’re in there!” and Andrew just shut down. He looks like he’s barely holding himself together. She remembers Steven and Adam coming home minutes after, Steven whisking Andrew away to their bedroom, Adam helping her clean up, and steadfastly ignoring all her questions. Except now, it’s only 9.45 or so, and Steven and Adam won’t be back for another hour at least. He’s on his own, and doing his best, but he’s tired. Xiaolian can see it. So can Owen – Andrew looks like he did last night, when Owen came home, and Owen told him he’d fought and killed a ghoul.
“Xiaolian,” James says, to catch her attention. “What did you see? What happened to Shane?”
Xiaolian glances at James but doesn’t bother to answer. She looks back at Andrew. Her hands tighten their grip on his shirt.
“What…” Andrew’s voice sounds like it’s coming from the bottom of a well. He is forcing this out, sound by sound, and his breathing is speeding up. “What … do you want from me… Xiaolian.”
“Hey,” Cassandra tries to intervene, but she’s not sure anyone is listening to her. “How about we all take a deep breath here…” She’s watching Andrew with concern now.
Xiaolian lets go of his shirt and stands shakily to her feet. “I don’t want anything from you specifically.” She wipes her tears away. “What I want is for this town to stop hiding things from me. What I want is to find Shane.”
Andrew doesn’t move as Xiaolian stands up. Staring at the floor now, he manages to speak again, his voice approximating his normal tone: “Everything’s fine. You’re safe. Don’t worry.”
“Hey hey hey, let’s go check the bookstore.” James says in a kind voice. “He might be there, or he might have left a note if he left.”
Xiaolian laughs weakly at Andrew’s words. “If you honestly think I believe that, I must seem really stupid to you.” Xiaolian turns around and walks out of the back room. Andrew doesn’t respond.
After Xiaolian leaves the room, Cassandra takes a couple of steps closer to Andrew, just so she can say in a low voice: “It’s alright. Just breathe. We’ll take care of her.”
He shudders, and still doesn’t respond. He’s staring off into middle-distance.
“…I’m gonna go talk to her.” Owen leaves the room after her. “Xiaolian?”
Before James can leave the room after the other two, Cassandra says to him, “Make sure she doesn’t go far. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
“Andrew?” She turns back to the man, still a couple of feet away from him. Her voice is soft when she says, “That’s your name, correct? I’m Cassandra. It’s alright now. They’re gone. Can you take a deep breath for me?”
He breathes in, slowly and deeply, still nowhere near meeting her eyes.
“Thank you. Can I get closer?”
He nods, very slightly.
Cassandra steps closer, not too close that she’s in his personal space, but close enough that she can touch him – but she doesn’t, not yet. “Would you like to leave this room? Go outside, maybe?”
He swallows, and shakes his head. “Not … outside.”
“Alright. That’s fine,” Cassandra tries smiling, even if he’s not directly looking at her. “It’s calm in here, you’re right. If you want me to leave I can do that too. But right now I wanna help. How can I do that? How can I help you, Andrew?”
He lifts his hands, palms up, towards her. They’re trembling. He glances at her, then away, down at the floor. His eyes are red-rimmed.
Cass takes his hands, gently. She doesn’t try to squeeze them, but her grip is firm, steady; she wants him to know she’s there. “That better? I’m told I’m very good at hugs, too, if you need any of those.”
He blinks a couple times, then takes a single step towards her.
Smiling, Cass squeezes his hands for a second before she closes the distance in very deliberate movements, so he knows what she’s doing. She hugs him, one hand kindly guiding his head to her shoulder, and says, “It’s alright now. Remember to breathe. In, and then out. Like this.”
He breathes with her, slowly. His movements, as she guides him, are smooth: he’s done this dance before.
After a few breaths, he speaks. His voice is gravelly and low. “Thank you, stranger. …Sorry about that.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, fellow stranger. It happens,” Cass says with an easy smile. “Things seem to be quite intense around here, it can’t be easy.”
He sighs gently, and pulls back. His hands are still shaking a little, but his eyes are focused on her now. “It’s been a hell of a couple days.”
He finally looks at her as if he sees her, and squints a little. “…You’re Cassandra, aren’t you?”
“I… am? Have we met before?”
He shakes his head. “Not beyond here at the café, no, but I’ve seen you around. What are you in town for?”
“I’m doing my PhD, studying the community in Willow River…” She hesitates. She doesn’t want to be pushy, not now that Andrew has just calmed himself down, but she can’t help but ask: “May I ask what happened in the past couple days? Aside from, you know. The tragedy with the hitchhiker.” She tries to gauge his reaction, making sure she doesn’t get him upset again.
He looks at her for a moment, eyes back to their usual piercing acuity, and she gets the deeply unsettling feeling that he doesn’t believe her.
“…The aftermath thereof,” he says, mildly. “Thank you again for your help. I’d better get back to the café – Steven and Adam aren’t back for another hour.” He smiles, nods at her, and retreats to the kitchen.
Cass watches him go, barely managing a wave before he’s gone. Well, you sure have your secrets. She walks out of the room, looking for the others. As Cass walks back to the main room, she catches a glimpse of Andrew on his phone in the back. The others seem to have left, except for Roan, who looks a little lost at their table full of waffles.