Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tired, on the verge of exhaustion, Alex slumps down on the mossy grass, carelessly throwing his backpack on the ground next to him, and rests his head against a tree. His feet ache, his calves burn, his back is killing him, hell, even his left pinkie is protesting.

He closes his eyes for just a minute. All he needs is just one minute, maybe five, to gather his strength, to take a breather, before he can continue on his journey.

Four days he’s been in this forest, following a non-existent path. Four days.

He’s probably lost.

How on earth is he going to find a small, hidden cabin in an enchanted forest as large as a small country? How is he going to find his way back, for that matter?

Yeah, he is most definitely lost.

Hope is lost.

June is going to die…

It’s that horrifying realisation that jolts him back to consciousness. Judging by the position of the sun, it has been more than just five minutes. Closer to an hour, if Alex had to guess.

With a grunt, he pulls his water bottle out of his bag and takes a careful sip. It’s going to need refilling soon, so not only will he be looking for a needle in a hay stack that’s a tiny cabin in the woods, he’ll also have to scour the land for some fresh water.

He hoists himself up, ignoring his aching muscles, and takes out his compass. The needle spins erratically. It hasn’t pointed due north for three days now, but it hasn’t been this frantic before. Does that mean he’s getting closer?

After checking his watch, phone and GPS, confirming none of them have miraculously started working again, he sets out.

Good thing he’s been a Boy Scout and still retains some memories of surviving in the wilderness. Except that, when he was a cub, there was always someone around when he needed help. He had back-up, someone who’d come looking for him if he didn’t return to camp. This time, he’s all on his own. There’s no one to come and get him when it gets dark, and it would be frightening, if he wasn’t so determined.

Forcing himself to put one foot in front of the other, he walks further into the forest, keeping an eye on the moss growing on the trees. Who needs a compass when nature can tell you which way is north? Not Alex, that’s for sure! He verifies his instincts by checking the sun’s position, the way most branches are facing, by watching the shadows and by observing the occasional spiderweb. He’s definitely travelling east, but he has no idea how far he’s come or how much of a distance he has yet to go.

He stumbles through the forest, fills his bottle at a babbling brook and pushes himself to the limit until dusk falls in. Even then he doesn’t give up. Until the limit pushes back, and Alex steps on a slippery rock and falls to the soft ground with a broken yelp.

Pain shoots through his ankle and he rolls onto his back, grabbing his leg in hopes of alleviating the pain a bit. It doesn’t help.

Cursing and gritting his teeth, he turns onto his side and lets his head drop to the ground. He squeezes his eyes shut in an attempt to stop the tears from forming. If he starts crying now, for whatever reason, he won’t be able to stop. He doesn’t have time for that. He needs to keep going!

He takes a couple of deep, forceful breaths, willing the tears and the pain away, and gets back on his feet. Even before he takes the first step, he knows it’s a lost cause. Besides the pain making him dizzy, his ankle isn’t able to handle his weight.

Unable to do much else, Alex hops around until he can put his hand on a nearby tree to hold himself upright.

“Fuck!” he shouts out into the quiet forest.

A tear escapes him, but it doesn’t make it far before he angrily wipes it off. The second one doesn’t even make it out of his eye before it’s removed.

“No,” he tells himself off.

He quickly gathers his thoughts and starts looking around for a branch or a sturdy stick, something he can use as a crutch. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for him to find one that’s of sufficient thickness and length. Leaning on his new lifeline, he makes it a few more yards before he has to admit it’s too dark to safely travel any further. He can hardly see the ground and if he doesn’t want to injure both ankles, he'll have to wait until morning.

Distraught, aggravated and completely exhausted, he finds a tree that will give him some cover and sinks back down onto the forest floor. He digs into some of his provisions, which he’s running dangerously low on, and rests is head against the bark as he closes his eyes.

“You can’t be here.”

A sudden voice nearly has Alex jumping out of his skin. Panic spikes and Alex hurriedly sits upright, his arms flying up, ready to defend himself if necessary. His eyes shoot left and right, trying to ascertain where the voice is coming from, but he immediately has to close them again to protect them against the blinding light from what must be a lantern of some kind. He blinks a couple of times to get used to it before he realises that the lantern is being held by the man the voice belongs to.

With his heart beating in his ear, Alex scrambles to his feet.

“Shit, fuck,” he says, both because of the unpleasant awakening and the pain that shoots through his entire body the moment he puts his foot on the ground.

“You’re hurt.”

“Yeah, shit,” Alex says through gritted teeth. “Slipped a little while back. Hurts like a motherfucker.”

He’s trying to get a feel for the man in front of him, to assess if he’d stand a chance if the man would try to overpower him, but the light is too bright. He can clearly see his surroundings but not much more than a silhouette of the man in front of him.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the man repeats, calm but urgent.

“No, listen man,” Alex pleads, trying to block the light source with the hand that’s not holding on to the tree for dear life, “I’m looking for Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor. My sister, she’s hurt, she’s gonna die and-”

His mouth snaps shut.

“You’re him,” he breathes. “You’re Henry. Aren’t you?”

“I am not,” the man answers after a suspiciously long pause.

“The hell you aren’t,” Alex says with a derisive snort. “Listen, please hear me out. I need your help. Please, please, don’t send me away. My sister is dying and you’re the only one who can help her. Please!”

His voice cracks and this time he can’t stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. A mixture of desperation and relief is coursing through him like wildfire. This is the man he has been looking for these last couple of days. This is the man he’s travelled miles and miles to see.

He’s found him, he’s finally found him, how improbable that might have seemed, and he’s not going to take no for an answer.

“It’s likely not safe out here if you’re wounded,” the man – who certainly is Henry – tells him. “I’ll patch you up and will give you a place to stay for the night, but come morning, I need you to leave.”

“No, I can’t-” Alex starts protesting, but he cuts himself off.

He needs shelter. He needs food. And if Henry is able to stop his ankle from hurting like a bitch, he’ll keep his mouth shut for a little longer. He’s got the rest of the night to plead his case.

“Alright,” he concedes on a stuttering exhale.

Henry turns around and takes that stupidly blinding light with him. Alex still can’t look at it without squinting.

Quickly, he feels around for his bag and his make-shift crutch, and he hurries to follow Henry, who has just disappeared around a tree.

It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes for them to arrive at a small cabin with plants and colourful flowers dotted around it. The walls are made out of a mismatch of stones, which shouldn’t be structurally sound but looks surprisingly sturdy. The slanted roof seems to be completely covered in moss, from where Alex is stumbling along the front path. It’s a little hard to tell with the ever moving shadows being cast by the lantern, but it almost looks as if the house has been organically risen from the ground, instead of built on top of it. It fits into its surroundings just as much as the trees and the vegetation, like it has always been here.

“Come in,” Henry tells him as he holds the sky blue door open.

Alex mumbles a thanks and hops over the threshold, straight into a miraculously spacious living area.

He has hardly had the chance to sit down on the chair Henry pulls out for him, when an adorable Beagle inches forward until it’s hiding behind Henry’s long legs. Alex was hoping to get a better look at the man, to discern who he is dealing with, but a dog trumps every other distraction.

“Who are you?!” he squeals delighted, bending forwards to hold out his hand as low to the floor as he can from his sitting position.

“This is David,” Henry responds, stepping away to a small kitchen area and reaching into a cabinet, the dog in his wake. “David, this is Alex. He won’t be staying long.”

“David?” Alex asks with a incredulous huff. “Who calls their dog Da- Hey! How’d you know my name? I sure as hell didn’t tell you!”

He whips his head around to eye Henry, who’s now putting a kettle on the stove. Suspicion rises, putting Alex further on edge.

As Henry turns around, Alex finally gets a good look at him. On top of those long legs he noticed earlier, because they were blocking the dog, he finds a sturdy torso, broad shoulders and a face nothing like what he had expected to find.

He had imagined a bulky, rough-looking, riddled-with-scars kind of face. Not this one. Not one that looks flushed and soft, with piercing blue eyes, plush lips and immaculate blond hair on top of his head.

He thought he’d been searching for a hard, gruff, unpleasant kind of wild man, not Prince fucking Charming!

Is this the man everyone seems to fear? The man no one seems to be able to find? The elusive, evasive Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor? That just seems all sorts of wrong.

“I know who you are,” Henry states, pulling Alex’s attention back to the conversation with a jolt.

“How the fuck?” Alex exclaims.

“I might be a recluse, a hermit, but I’m still of this world,” Henry says, still infuriatingly calm.

Alex gapes at him as Henry turns back around and rips some leaves from a bunch of twigs hanging from a piece of twine that spans the entire length of the kitchen. It’s almost at the ceiling, but Henry doesn’t even need to get on his toes to reach it. He’s that fucking tall.

“I know your mother is the leader of your country,” he continues as he puts the leaves into a small bowl. “One of the most powerful non-magical people in the world.”

He takes a pinch of something out of one of the pots on the shelves and adds it to the leaves. Next, he takes two cups and puts them next to the bowl.

“Who the fuck are you?” Alex asks with a hiss.

“You seemed convinced to know who I was mere minutes ago, were you not?”

“Yeah, well, knowing your name doesn’t really answer that question, now does it?”

All Henry does is hum in response. He takes the kettle off of the stove as it begins to whistle and pours some water into the mugs and the bowl. While his left hand gently stirs the mixture in the bowl, his right one hangs a prepared teabag in both mugs.

“We’ll let that cool for a bit,” he says with a contented nod towards the bowl before he hands one of the mugs to Alex.

“What’s in here?” Alex asks suspiciously. He peers into the cup and watches how the colourless water slowly turns light brown.

“It’s green tea with some turmeric in there, some ginger and a bit of cinnamon. It’s a healing blend.”

Alex carefully sniffs the concoction, easily picking up on the potent smell of the cinnamon. It instantly relaxes him. It reminds him of home.

“Smells alright, I guess,” he shrugs, aiming for aloof, and puts it on the table next to him. He’ll decide on whether or not it’s worth drinking it while it cools.

“Are you hungry?” Henry asks now.

And yes, Alex is very hungry, basically famished in fact, but he’s not about to tell this strange stranger that. His stomach, however, isn’t shy and starts rumbling enthusiastically.

“I’ve made bread this morning. Do you like goats cheese?”

“It’s not my first pick, but sounds nice,” Alex answers a little bashfully, before adding a quiet, “thanks.”

While Henry moves around the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets, Alex’s eyes trail across the room. The first thing he’s drawn to is David, crouched underneath the table, eyes focussed on Alex. Deciding to give the dog some time to warm up to him, he scans the small kitchen with a ridiculous amount of storage space and fresh herbs and spices hanging around everywhere.

He appears to be seated practically in the middle of the cabin at a decently sized table surrounded by a couple of chairs. On the opposite side of the kitchen, there’s what seems to be a cosy chair tucked behind an overflowing bookcase. Warm, red tinted curtains block the windows while the glow of a couple of lanterns light up the inside. There’s a floral patterned rug on the floor and two oval paintings adorn the wall behind the small couch, both of them depicting a dog dressed up like a human. They’re kinda odd, but Alex has to admit he likes them.

It's cosy and warm, and it feels like a home.

And it’s definitely bigger on the inside.

Again, Alex hadn’t been completely sure what to expect, but it sure as hell wasn’t this.

His careful observations are interrupted by the sound of a plate being placed next to him. On it are two generous slices of bread with goats cheese spread on top of it, sprinkled with some herbs.

Too hungry to further question whether or not it’s a good idea to accept food from the man he’s been warned about more than once, Alex picks up one of the slices and takes a big bite.

“Thanks,” he mumbles with a full mouth.

“You’re welcome,” Henry hums in return. “Now, up.”

Henry motions between Alex’s injured leg and the chair he’s pulling up. He sits down on a third and takes a sip of his tea before he dips a cloth into the bowl. Henry must have moved everything over while Alex was distracted by cosy rugs and cute paintings. He should really pay better attention.

“Take your shoe off for me?” Henry asks, not looking at Alex.

Alex quickly complies and takes both his shoe and his sock off with a hiss, revealing an ankle that’s double the size of the other one. It’s going to be all black and blue tomorrow, for sure.

He rolls up the bottom of his pants, careful not to jostle his leg too much.

“Let me grab a towel,” Henry says when he sees Alex’s cautious movements.

He stands up and returns a moment later with a fluffy, green towel. He rolls it up and then proceeds to gently lift Alex’s foot up by the heel so he can slide it underneath for support. Henry’s hand is big and warm, his fingers long and strong, but surprisingly soft. It doesn’t even hurt that much when he moves Alex’s leg around, which comes as a surprise. Alex had already braced himself, ready to bite off his tongue instead of crying out in pain, but all that escapes him, is a quiet groan.

“What’s that?” he asks, nodding towards the bowl, unable to contain his curiosity and desperate for a distraction.

“A healing salve.”

“That simple?” Alex asks, not fully convinced yet. “A healing salve?”

“Yes, as I said.”

Henry takes out the cloth, wrings it out, and dabs it onto Alex’s bare ankle without a warning. Alex’s first reaction is to pull away, but Henry has a tight hold on his shin and keeps him in place.

“Fuck,” Alex mutters, gripping the edge of his seat and grinding his teeth together.

Soon enough, the pain turns into a warm, flowing feeling, spreading from his ankle to his toes and up to his knees. It tingles a bit, but it’s not unpleasant.

“What the fuck is that?” Alex asks again, this time more perplexed than anything else.

“A healing salve,” Henry repeats.

“Yeah, no shit,” Alex breathes out with both a giggle and a sob, seemingly unable to control the emotions that have been accumulating over the last couple of days any longer.

“It will need a bit of time. You’ll have to stay off your feet for the next few hours for it to take full effect. You should be able to walk in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Alex says slowly, “about that…”

Henry closes his eyes as he lets go of a deep breath, but Alex continues, “I really need you to come with me.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Henry replies, reaching for the salve to apply some more.

“But my sister is going to die if you don’t.”

Alex is convinced he sees Henry’s hands twitch for just an instance before he wrings the excess water out of the cloth and brings it back to Alex’s ankle.

“She’s been cursed and she’s going to die. She’s only got another couple of days, maybe, if we’re lucky.”

“That’s not my problem.”

“I know it isn’t!” Alex says desperately. “I know, but you’re the only one who can save her. Please, please, I’ll do anything for you to come and help her.” Too tired to fight his tears any longer, he let’s them run freely. “Please, she’s the only one I have. She’s my best friend, she’s everything to me, and she’s dying because my mom has been standing up to your family and they’re pissed about it.”

“What?” Henry asks, his head moving up in a sharp motion, his eyes locked on Alex’s for the first time since they’ve met.

“Your… Your family,” Alex repeats hesitantly. Henry could very well kick him out into the dark night right this second, but it’s a risk he’s going to have to take. “Your family, they’ve been making threats for ages, but they haven’t done anything like this before. Like, they’ve tried to curse our farmlands and stuff, but so far our magical team has been able to put a stop to things and protect us, but this time… This time they’ve gotten to June when she was at a banquet, and we’ve tried everything. Everything! And nothing is working.”

With his chest heaving, he looks at Henry, hoping he’s getting the urgency of the message across.

“You’re our only hope. You’re my only hope. Please.”

Fresh tears prick behind his eyes and his throat feels raw, but he’s willing to plead for hours if that’s what it takes.

In front of him, Henry seems to be frozen. He’s searching Alex’s eyes with a tight jaw, his chest moving quickly up and down with hurried breaths and his hands lingering above Alex’s leg, still holding the cloth.

“Henry?”

Henry blinks a few times and seems to shake himself back to the present. He puts the cloth into the bowl with a splash and hurriedly stands up, pushing the chair back with so much force it almost topples over.

“I’ve left my family a long time ago. I am not part of their coven. I have no control over their actions, nor do I wish to.”

“I know,” Alex says quickly, his hands rising in a surrendering gesture, as he does everything in his power not to get up himself and wreck his leg even more. “There have been rumours for years now. Some people say you haven’t been spotted for that long because you died, but there were talks, talks of you shunning your family’s ways and living in the woods. They say you’ve renounced your magic, but that’s not right, is it? This isn’t just salve, right? It’s more than that.”

He looks at the green paste that Henry had gently spread on his ankle. He still feels the warmth emanating from it. He can basically feel the magic working in him.

“It’s not…” Henry stammers. “It’s not magic. It really is a healing salve. I’ve just… I’ve just helped it along a little bit.”

His cheeks manage to form a slight blush, even through his panicked state, and Alex is momentarily distracted by the vulnerability.

“You’re fucking incredible,” Alex blurts out, feeling his own cheeks heat up the moment he says it.

“I’m truly not,” Henry says, his jaw tightening again and his eyes glazing over.

“You are, you are!” Alex nods slowly, before remembering something. “Here! I’ve got something to show you!”

He fumbles to open his bag and pulls out the pouch he’s been carrying. As soon as he opens the zipper, Henry lunges forward to smack it onto the table. Lights start flickering and Alex swears he can hear the cabin’s walls creak.

“You’ve brought magic here?!” Henry thunders, looming over Alex threateningly. “Their magic?!”

“Shit, sorry!” Alex stammers, his heart suddenly racing and his throat closing up. “The magical team managed to extract some of the curse and bottled it up. They said… They said you’d be able to recognise it and come up with a counter curse, or a potion, or something. And I really want you to come with me to cure my sister yourself, but if you can’t, if you really can’t leave here, you could tell me what to do. Just… Please, please help me!”

He bites his tongue while he watches Henry take breath after breath, his eyes moving around erratically, his lips twitching as the cabin slowly settles back down.

“Please,” Alex whispers one last time.

Swallowing around the lump in his throat, he slowly slumps back into his chair, his shoulders slacking.

This is it. This is the moment all hope is lost. This is the moment he’s sent home with the worst news possible.

That is, if Henry doesn’t kill him on the spot.

“Show me,” Henry says instead, breaking the silence.

With trembling fingers, Alex reaches for the pouch again and slowly zips it all the way open. He takes out the clear phial and hands it over to Henry, who hesitates for a moment before he takes it. His hands are shaking just as much as Alex’s, when he brings it up to the light and watches it more closely. Then, he closes his eyes, puts the phial in the palm of his hands and wraps his fingers into a fist around it. He visibly shivers and gasps for air before he hands it back to Alex, desperate to get rid of it.

“Put it away,” he emphasises.

Alex nods eagerly, pushes it back into the pouch, zips it up and puts it in his bag for good measure.

“It’s lined with magic, isn’t it? The pouch?” Henry asks.

“Yeah, sorta. It’s a blocker.”

“That’s why I didn’t feel it before,” Henry hums.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Alex says, feeling guilty about not mentioning it before. But, to be fair, he hadn’t expected this big of a reaction.

"It doesn’t explain why you’ve been circling the cabin for days now.”

“I what now?!” Alex says, jumping up, immediately remembering his injury and sitting back down.

“Yes, my apologies,” Henry says with a sheepish chuckle. “I’ve been aware of your presence and was wondering why you weren’t leaving.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Alex asks, perplexed.

His mom would say she’d be worried a bat would fly in, with his mouth hanging open like this, but he doesn’t care enough to actively close it at the moment.

“This cabin, this area, it’s been charmed to keep everybody out. Everyone who happens to venture here simply… leaves. But you haven’t. And you’ve been carrying my family’s magic with you. You should have been actively deterred to even enter this forest the moment the charms picked up on it.”

“But… I’ve been going east this entire time though!” Alex proclaims. “I didn’t go round in circles.”

“Ah, this forest is quite confusing, isn’t it?”

“The fuck?” Alex mutters, feeling distraught but also, weirdly, a little impressed.

“I’m assuming your equipment hasn’t been working?” Henry asks and Alex nods. “And you’ve been using natural signs to keep your bearings?”

“Yeah, like moss and stuff.”

“Right,” Henry nods, his lips curling up into a cheeky grin. “This forest doesn’t exactly abide by the laws of nature.”

“But the sun!”

“Smoke and mirrors. The forest shows you it’s location where it sees fit. If you’re not me or my best mate, that is.”

“I really hate this place,” Alex grits, thinking back on those gruelling days and the crippling pain he has endured. And all the fucking while he’s been basically right outside? “Is that why you chose this forest? Because it’s kinda nuts?”

“No,” Henry says, almost amused. “I chose this forest because it lies on the border between your country and mine. It was a no-man’s-land, for all intents and purposes, with a possibility to escape into your country if need be. It is only became nuts, as you so eloquently put, after I moved in.”

“Can’t believe you’re choosing to live in a crazy forest,” Alex says, shaking his head in disbelief.

“I feel quite at home,” Henry hums, finally sitting back down, his face turning solemn. “The magic in the vial you’ve brought,” he continues, “is one of my grandmothers inventions. Stalling Death, she calls it. It is intent to make not only the cursed, but also everyone who loves them suffer for as long as possible by prolonging an inevitable death. It’s an intensive process to conjure up, very specific and time consuming, which is why she hardly uses it. The sample you’ve shown me, however, isn’t as potent as she’d make it. I am certain it’s my brother’s.”

“Your brother cursed my sister?”

“I’m afraid so,” Henry says with an apologetic nod. “My brother has been under my grandmother’s influence for quite some time, but I never thought he’d go as far as to kill the daughter of a world leader. It’s utter madness.”

“You’re telling me? He’s a psycho!” Alex says passionately. “Can you fix it, though?”

Henry lets go of an uncontrolled breath as Alex looks at him, clinging to that last bit of hope.

“I can,” Henry answers slowly. “You were right. There’s no cure. I’m the only one who might be able to reverse it.”

“But will you?”

Henry bites his lip for a moment, his eyes trained on his fidgeting hands.

“I don’t know,” he eventually says on an exhale.

“Will you think about it?”

When Henry nods, Alex feels like he can finally breathe.

While Henry makes up the couch for Alex, David tentatively comes closer to investigate the visitor.

“I’m guessing you don’t get to see a lot of people, do you buddy?”

David answers by sniffing Alex’s hand and hurries away when Alex tries to pet him.

“Sorry, bud,” he chuckles. “I’ll keep still, alright?”

“There’s a bathroom through that door,” Henry interrupts them, nodding towards the back of the cabin. “If you want to freshen up a bit.”

“Guess I should,” Alex replies, carefully pushing himself up and making his way over to the bathroom by holding on to every piece of furniture he can reach.

The moment he opens the door, he stops in his tracks.

“What the fuck, Henry!” he calls out. He’s standing in the doorway of a fully functioning, very up-to-date bathroom with a walk-in shower and a huge bathtub. “We’re in the middle of nowhere! How’d you get an actual bathroom in here?”

“Really?” Henry asks and when Alex turns towards him, all Henry has to do is lift an eyebrow for it to sink in.

Magic.

“That’s cheating,” he decides.

“Would you rather have a bowl of cold water and a rag?” Henry replies amused. “That could be arranged.”

“No, thank you,” Alex says and quickly steps inside and closes the door behind him before Henry has the chance to take this luxury away from him.

A bathroom feels like heaven right now.

“Mind if I take a bath?” he shouts through the door.

“Go ahead,” is Henry’s answer. “It’d probably be better for your leg in any case. There’s towels underneath the sink.”

As Alex sits on the edge, waiting for the tub to fill up, he vows never to take warm, running water for granted ever again. He’s never felt this gross in his entire life and he was a boy going through puberty once, so that’s saying something.

When he slowly sinks into the warm water a few minutes later, he completely forgets about the world for a moment and lets his mind and body rest.