Nothing altered a person's entire worldview quite like fear.
You looked at every stranger you passed on your way through Pine Grove from your grandmother's cabin in the woods to Lanius' sprawling winter manor differently. Not knowing who tried to break into the ranch house that terrible night meant everyone was a suspect. The only person you could safely rule out was your rescuer, Lanius.
Paranoia ate away at you like a flesh-eating disease for a span of about three days. After that, you didn't let it go per se, but you did try to stop theorizing. You didn't have a scrap of evidence or a lick of proof.
The only thing you knew for sure was that you didn't feel safe in Grandmother's house anymore. Not alone. And not at night.
You would have been up shit's creek without a paddle if it weren't for Lanius.
It would have been enough if she recommended a local door repairman. But, no, she fixed your broken door with her own two hands. Apparently, she practiced carpentry in her spare time, did a lot of house renovations. You tried to help and got nothing but a handful of splinters for your trouble.
It would have been enough if she had offered you a place to stay for a couple nights, until you could bulk up security or find a safer place to live in the meantime. But, no, she opened her home to you indefinitely. The only downside was that the two of you had to continue to share a bed, seeing as every other one under her roof was filled.
It would have been enough if she called to make sure you got to her house safe every night. But, no, she drove you to your grandmother's house each morning, aided you in clearing out the place, and drove you to Lanius Manor each evening. Your car was in the shop, would be for at least a week. The only thing that irked you was that all your time spent together gave her plenty of opportunities to say I told you so.
Lanius was beyond neighborly, went the extra mile to be helpful. She served as your protector every day following the night you messaged her for help.
Which begged the question...
"Why are you being so nice to me?" You asked on your commute home one day. You hadn't a clue when you started thinking of Lanius' house as home rather than Grandmother's house, but you did.
She answered with a question, the same one she had posed to you before. "Don't they have any basic human kindness in the city?"
"Must be the country air that makes you so hospitable," you said in a monotone manner. She grinned like a wolf. It was the closest you'd come to teasing her. "That explains why you're so nice. I guess what I really want to ask is... Why me? What have I done to deserve it?"
That certainly turned her smile upside down. You'd always been good at killing the mood, though. Now was no different than ever. "It's not about deserving, Y/N," she said, scratching her cheek hard, hard enough for even her short, blunt nails to leave three little red lines behind.
You reached across the center console to brush her hand away from her face before she could do any more damage. She captured your errant hand in hers, casually entwined her fingers with yours.
You should have pulled away, but you didn't. You'd been doing that a lot lately... Staying still when you should have been moving away. Sometimes you just froze up, but more and more often now you consciously chose to do nothing. Nothing good could come of it, but you found yourself falling into the same trap again and again.
"Why me?" You repeated. Sure, Lanius was stubborn, but you were downright bull-headed.
She sighed. "Some people... I don't know how to explain it, but it's clear when life hasn't been kind to them. I try to make up for it in any way I can."
You didn't like that answer. No, you didn't like that answer one bit. "I don't need your pity," you hissed, tears of fury welling up in your eyes.
"Then you won't get it," she replied quite frankly. "That doesn't mean I'm going to stop being nice to you, though."
You spent the rest of the car ride pouting... But you still didn't pull your hand away from her hold.
...
Lanius' friends and family were, admittedly, a lot, in almost every sense of the word. They were close. Too close. Almost to the point of suffocation. Like her, everyone was all smiles and sunshine... No matter when. No matter where.
You'd walk into a room and it was already filled with laughter, undoubtedly due to some inside joke or funny story someone just told. Maybe it was just that you weren't used to it.
Your place back home was quiet and distant. It felt like it had more space inside than the outside suggested. The silence trapped within seemed to hum, reverberate off the walls like an empty stadium.
Then again, it was your mother's house, and she was a very quiet and distant woman...
Whatever. You weren't trying to get poetic.
The point was that it was hard not to feel like an outsider in their midst. There was clearly an unspoken hierarchy in the house, one that obviously didn't include you. And, other than Lanius, you didn't know anyone well... But they sure seemed to know you.
It was more than a little creepy. You felt bad for thinking so, but it was a feeling you couldn't shake.
You were thankful that cleaning and clearing out your grandmother's house kept you away from home for most of the days. The family dinners at night were starting to take their toll on you.
Just when you were about to start taking supper alone in Lanius' room, the woman herself suggested something different.
"Let's have a cookout tonight instead," she said, and everyone unanimously agreed. They did that with everything she said, though.
Someone had to be the voice of reason, and you guessed that duty fell to you.
"Lanius, it's freezing outside."
"So what? We'll pack on some layers, put together a bonfire... It'll be great!" Then, before you could argue further, she was already corralling you into her bedroom to get dressed.
Three layers of the best winter clothes that money could buy and you were still shivering a little. You ended up huddled between Lanius and the bonfire for the entirety of the cookout, a bonfire that could hardly be called small. It was like a sacrificial pyre, large enough to evenly roast a whole cow over.
To your left, three massive charcoal grills burned away, cooking a variety of vegetables, meats, and seafoods. A little something for everyone. Lanius was already making you a plate so you didn't need to get up from your seat by the fire.
To your right, there were a couple of musicians, a man with a banjo and a woman with a guitar, singing a number of folk songs that you didn't recognize. You liked the one they were currently playing, though, found yourself humming along.
"Hey, hey, my playmate... Let me lay waste to thee," they sang, strumming away on their instruments. "Burned down their hanging trees. It's hot here, hot here, hot here, hot here! Got a curse we cannot lift, shines when the sunshine shifts... There's a curse comes with a kiss. The bite that binds, the gift that gives!"
"Here you go!" Lanius crowed, handing you one of the plates she was carrying. The other was hers, presumably, a theory that was solidified when she started chowing down on the ribs piled high atop it.
You snorted and used your own napkin to wipe her face once she was done. She'd somehow managed to not only get barbeque sauce on her mouth and nose but smeared across her cheeks as well.
In return, she gave you a smile that could melt even an ice queen. Your heart skipped a beat in response. You foolish, foolish girl. Your thought, but in your mother's voice. You wished you could divorce the two.
"I've been thinking..."
"A dangerous occupation..." You joked a little at her expense.
"I know, right?" She laughed, before putting her empty plate aside, on the ground next to her seat. "I want to buy your grandmother's house."
"Oh?" This was the first time she'd mentioned it.
"At market value, of course! No friends and family discount. As is, too. You don't need to find a buyer for the rest of the stuff inside. Nor do you need to pay to get any parts of the house serviced. I'll take care of that."
You shrugged one shoulder in a show of indifference. "That's fine. What do you plan to do with the place?"
"We need somewhere new for our pack of strays to live. This is my childhood house. I love it... But it's getting to the point where we're crawling over each other every day, and I don't think another couple added rooms will do the trick. We need another house."
That made sense, but you weren't entirely convinced that your grandmother's house was the right fit. "You've seen the place, right? Inside and out? It's not very big."
"It doesn't have to be perfect! We can make it so. I could use a new project anyway." Really made you wonder what her current or last project was.
"Okay."
"Nice! You won't regret this," she said.
"Why would I?" You asked. It was just a rhetorical question, though. "I guess that's it then."
"What will you do now?"
Another half-shrug. Then you looked away from her, away from everybody, just stared into the dancing flames until your eyes hurt. "I'll go home, I guess. There's only a week or so of winter break left. I missed Christmas and New Years, but I can still spend some time with my mom before the spring semester begins."
"You don't seem very enthusiastic about going home."
That irked you for some reason. "God, you sound just like her," you scoffed, crossing your arms like a child. "I don't need this from you too."
She apologized so quickly that it almost gave you whiplash. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to criticize. I just meant... Why don't you stay here?"
"For the rest of winter break?" You asked, confused.
"Forever."
"What?"
"You don't have to go home," she explained. "You don't have to go back to school. You can just stay here."
"There's nothing for me here."
"That's not true. There's me along with other people who count you as one of your friends," A nice sentiment, but that wasn't enough. You needed a job, education, purpose.
"What would I even do?"
It was her turn to shrug. "Why not just do what you want? I'd be happy to support any hobbies you might have. You can read, write... Hell, you can even just play videogames or surf the web all day. All I need is you here with me."
After a long beat of silence, you said, "No."
"No?" Incredulity colored her tone.
"No." There had to be a catch here, one she wouldn't tell you. You weren't about to throw away your life on a gamble.
"Why not?"
"When the answer is no, any reason will do." Simple as that.
"Give me one." Some of her disbelief was starting to come to anger.
"No." You didn't want to, shouldn't need to.
She snarled, eyes flashing. Then, when you didn't back down, her expression smoothed out again just as quickly... Except for the furrow between her brows. "It's a lot to think about. I came on too hard. I don't know my own strength sometimes. Just... Think about it, okay?"
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Mr Wolf, Mr Wolf, what time is it?
Ten o'clock...
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