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If you were to believe local gossip, you would think that there is a witch that lives out in the middle of the woods, just to the east of Rochester, in England. Maybe an old woman on the street told you that there is a woman living in an old Victorian mansion out there, in the middle of nowhere. A woman who dresses in all black, and hardly ever smiles. Perhaps she has several black cats running around the property, because every witch has to have a familiar, right? If you were told about a witch, out in the woods, that is the kind of person who you would assume is the witch. But you would be wrong.
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Tori Spring is sick and tired of people coming to her house, asking for favors. There is a reason she lives in the middle of the woods, away from people, and far from the nearest town. But for some reason, people started to show up at her door, asking her to perform spells for them. She would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy scaring them off of her property. Tori has even considered faking some spells, and spouting off some random words, to con all of these strangers showing up on her property out of their money. After all, it’s not her fault that they heard there is a witch in the woods, and they automatically assumed it’s her. They’ve even told her that her style of clothing, and the fact that she has a black cat, clearly means that she is the witch that they are looking for. But she’s not, so she sends them away unsatisfied.
Finally, she decides to go seek out the only other person living out here in the woods, at least that she is aware of. She has had enough of people showing up on her property, expecting things from her, with them ultimately getting upset when she can’t provide what they are looking for. When she bought her home, the real estate agent told her that a man lived about a mile away from her place. Just like Tori’s house, you have to follow a winding dirt path off of the main thoroughfare, taking you quite a ways away from the road, but if she cuts through the forest in between their houses, she can avoid all of that. So, she laces up her trusty Doc Martens and heads out the door, feeling an odd sense of relief when her cat, Solitaire, follows behind her.
Tori sees the small shack almost as soon as she walks out of the woods. It would be hard to miss; though it is small, there is smoke coming from the chimney, and Tori can hear some kind of racket behind the house. She follows the strange noises until she comes upon a very tall man, with wild curls that are sticking straight up, with his back to Tori. There are vegetables of all kinds and sizes floating around him, and Tori deduces that he is the witch everyone’s been talking about, and he is using magick to harvest his garden.
“Ah, so you’re the Witch of the Woods, then?”
All of the vegetables drop to the ground as the man spins around. As a wide smile spreads across his face, he pushes a thick pair of glasses up his nose. “I am! And you are?”
Tori crosses her arms and looks him up and down. “I’m Tori.”
“Meow!” Solitaire runs up to Michael and starts rubbing up against his leg.
“And that’s Solitaire,” Tori mumbles.
The man smiles down at her cat before saying, “Nice to meet you, Solitaire, I’m Michael.”
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As the days turn into weeks, Tori comes to care for this strange man. She has never been one to moon over someone, let alone fancy them, and she’s never even had a boyfriend - or a girlfriend, for that matter. Tori has always assumed that afflictions of the heart simply didn’t apply to her. But Michael changes everything. The world - or rather the people in it - has not been very kind to either of them. She finds that when several days pass by and she does not see Michael, a dull ache creeps up into her chest. Over time, Michael confesses to her that he feels the same, which forces her to be honest with him, and herself, that she wants to be with him.
Weeks turn into months, and by then Tori and Michael have told each other all about their childhood, and families, and friends. It seems that neither one of them cares much for their parents, and neither has many friends to speak of.
“I like my brothers,” Tori tells Michael, “Charlie is a sad but kind man, and my brother Olly is practically sunshine personified. They were the only friends I needed growing up.”
Michael smiles wistfully. “I didn’t have any siblings, but I do have this friend. We still talk from time to time, and for a while, he was almost like a brother to me. Even when he started getting all sporty, he never abandoned me, or stopped being my friend. He even stood up to the worst of his rugby team mates when they would bully me. He’s just one of those friends that we can go months without talking, or years without seeing each other, and when we’re reunited, it’s as if no time has passed at all.”
Tori laughs dryly. “Geez, is he single? Cuz he sounds perfect for my brother, Charlie.”
Michael looks at her in shock. “Well, actually, he is. And he’s bisexual.”
Tori smirks at Michael before asking, “Is he tall?”
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Nick Nelson can’t believe that he agreed to come to Michael’s wedding. It is true that they were friends growing up, but ever since Michael moved out to the middle of nowhere, Nick has barely even heard from him, let alone seen him. However, the fact that he has asked Nick to stand beside him in his hand-fasting ceremony to the woman that he has fallen in love with says that Michael still holds Nick in the highest regard. To be fair, Nick feels the same way about Michael, he just didn’t expect Michael to still care so much about him, all of these years later. Nick always felt like as soon as he was around Michael, it was as if they had just seen each other the day before.
This is why, far too early on a Saturday morning, Nick drives his car out of Rochester, leaving behind his hometown, to seek out Michael’s tiny home. When he is almost at his destination, he starts to wish he had requested he bring a plus-one, because he is starting to get lonely. He also isn’t sure what he is supposed to do leading up to the ceremony, since he knows he is due to arrive just before noon, and the hand-fasting isn’t scheduled until nearly four.
Pulling onto the dirt path that his instructions assure him is the correct way, Nick starts to mumble to himself about how he can’t believe someone could live this far out of the way. He knows that Michael has always felt ostracized. The man was never understood back when they were in school together, and that was even before people knew that he could do magick. Nick supposes that he should be happy for Michael, that the man found love despite the odds.
Nick has heard stories about the supposed witch out in the woods for years now, and he always knew that Michael certainly didn’t look the part. The woman he’s marrying does, however. Michael sent Nick a photo of the pair just after Michael had asked Tori to agree to spend her life with him. Nick must admit that their relationship does not sound… traditional. Michael insists that he is Tori’s emotional support human, whatever that means. But, again, his friend is happy, so he can’t begrudge him his eccentricities, especially since it appears Michael’s partner shares in them.
Nick arrives in front of a large, Victorian house that has certainly seen better days. He is fairly certain he is in the wrong place, because Michael has told him that he is looking for a shack in the woods, but before Nick tries to reach Michael on his phone, the man bounds out of the house.
“Nick! You came!” Michael’s hair is even more wild than Nick remembers, with his long curls not being weighed down by gravity in the slightest and instead, are sticking up all over the place.
“Um, yeah!” Nick tries to act excited, and it isn’t that difficult. Michael is radiating an exuberant energy, and it is quite infectious. Nick already feels his mood shifting as Michael leads him into the house before he gets a chance to ask about how he was expecting to arrive at a different residence.
As if Michael can read his thoughts, the bespectacled man says, “I figured it was just easier to have you come here first. I’ll show you to my place later, if you decide you want to stay there, instead of here with me, Tori, and her brothers.”
“Oh? She has siblings?” Nick asks as he steps into the house after Michael.
Michael turns around quickly and starts grinning widely at Nick. “She does! Her one brother is just about a year younger than us, while the other is about to graduate from secondary school.” After a pause, Michael looks as if he is straining to hear something, and he winks at Nick before saying, “Speak of the devil.”
“Wot?” Nick asks, but before Michael can answer him, the most beautiful man Nick has ever seen walks into the hallway. The man is slight of frame, with the bluest eyes Nick has ever seen, and soft-looking dark curls all over his head and spilling over onto his forehead. Nick can’t help but notice that the man is also wearing a pair of the tightest skinny jeans Nick has ever seen, with rips going from knee to thigh, and an oversized jumper that makes the man look impossibly cuddly.
“Nick, I want you to meet Charlie, Tori’s brother. Charlie, meet my best mate from school.”
Charlie’s blue eyes go wide, and Nick can see his cheeks turning pink as Nick manages to stutter out, “H - Hi.”
“Hi.”