Reflections

**Reflections** is an additional fic for Love and Other Fairytales.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall…"
## Plot Summary

During a fae reveal 12 years after the main storyline, Remus, Durant's lover and champion before Roman, returns from the quest Durant sent him off to in order to get rid of him.

The quest was to bring Durant a talking bird, water from a stone and a fallen star and he could not return to Wickhills until the quest's completion.

He's first met by Bell and Roman and is delighted by Roman's dismay, making comments that remind them that Remus does not know of Durant's death. His delight quickly turns to rage as he's made aware of the overthrow of Durant's rule and tries to attack. Between Virgil and Logan, who is by then the head of the Seelie Court, he is captured quite easily. Begrudgingly, Remus allows Virgil, as the closest living kin to Durant, to take the bird and the stones and release him from his quest. After consulting with Logan, Virgil places a geasa on him to prevent him from seeking vengeance for the death of his love and they give him back the bird and release him.

Meanwhile, Patton takes Roman away from the reveal (and Remus) to his and Virgil's old room. There he tries to comfort him and Roman expresses guilt over forgetting about Remus's quest and being happy that he left. Roman also comments on Remus's age appearance and asks if they had been this young when they had overthrown The Serpent King.

At the next reveal, his husbands try to convine Roman to stay home in fear of Remus approaching him, but Roman insists on going. To their surprise, Remus ignores Roman.

As time goes on, Remus does nothing more than distrup the fae around him, presumably in search of the details of The Serpent King's death and does not contact the four at all.

One day, Dot tells Logan of a fae sitting by Greta's grave and Logan quickly realizes it's Remus. When he goes there, he sees Remus lounging by the grave and hears him talking to himself. From his speech, Logan realizes that Remus tries to get Virgil to kill him. Unsure of what to do, Logan steps to Remus's line of sight and manages to convince him that Virgil would be glad that he sits by Greta's grave. Annoyed, Remus walks away into the forest.

A short while after, Remus infringes upon Logan's territory, interrupting Logan, Linda and May who were picking apples. Remus's presence in his home makes Logan snarl in rage, which seemed to be Remus's desired affect. During his visit, Remus tries to get Linda, who introduced herself as "Bobby", to come to him so that they could go on an adventure that would scare her fathers and later upsets Linda in a fit of anger and comes close to breaking the bindings from the geasa, which would result in his death. He freezes as Linda starts to cry and Logan creates a doom of roses around her, himself and May. Logan calms Linda down, whose crying can hurt others, and lowers the doom. Logan is surprise to see that Remus hadn't left and silently remarks that he might not have been able to, as he's sitting on his knees, shaking. Upset that she might have hurt him, Linda makes a move towards him that Logan stops. Logan asks if Remus is okay and is ignored. Recovering, Remus continues to talk to Linda, who now wants to be his friend. When he turns to leave, Linda stops him, saying that he didn't answer her papa's question about whether he's hurt or not. Remus says that Logan doesn't care about his well being, which Logan denies, to Remus's surprise. Unable to lie, Remus only says that it's not her fault and disappears. Logan ponders what it means that Remus comforted the daughter of the people he hates.

Later that day, Logan talks to his husbands about his two meetings with Remus (by Greta's gave and in their yard). At first Virgil responds in anger but after Logan explains that he believes Remus is trying to get them to kill him, his anger gives away to helplessness. The four decide to not kill Remus and to find a different solution. Patton asks if there is some kind of a fae therapist Remus could go to but Virgil answers that there are none and that he's surprise that if Remus is in that much pain that he didn't just die on his own. The four come out of the room without a viable solution and discover that Linda had overheard the entire conversation when she remarks that she's glad they're not going to kill Remus.

The next to meet Remus is Patton. While he was ready to be antagonized by Remus, he was surprised that Remus decided to do it in one of his practice sessions with White, instead of near his husbands, since he was used to be the one picked on by fae to get to his husbands as he was the one who appeared to be the weakest. During their conversation, Remus gets angry when Patton calls the bird that Remus brought for his quest Remus's bird and Patton learns that the bird's name is Eulalia. Remus vaugely threatens White and Patton makes it clear to him that they're not going to hurt him. Realizing that they know that he tries to get them to kill him, Remus asks why they refuse to and walks away. Patton is left sad that he could not help him and White comforts him.

A few month go by without any sighting of Remus and Roman decides to go look for him, not knowing if he's even alive. On his way, Roman debates with himself about the morality of the situation, driven by his guilt, and what he would do if he finds Remus's corpse. Eventually, he finds Remus destroying tree trunks. Remus confronts him, saying that it wasn't fair that Roman betrayed Dee (the only part of Durant's name Remus and Roman knew) and still got his happy ending and expressed guilt that he wasn't around to save Dee. Remus breaks down and Roman rushes to comfort him. Remus does not resist him and Roman tries to get Remus to understand that he's not at fault and that love is not supposed to hurt. Remus remarks that then perhaps no one had ever loved him. From then on Remus and Roman become friends.

Remus goes through the process of overwintering, during which his organs freeze and then melt back, as a way to help him emotionally. When he wakes up, he discovers a blue sparkling drink left there for him by Logan (who he knows as "Snowmelt"). He decides go to their house to collect Eulalia, who was left under their care in the months he overwintered. Remus thinks about how she's indeed his bird even though she wasn't supposed to be and that he feels like he's begining to heal. When he gets to the house, Logan rushes him in and immediately goes to get him his bird. Patton (who he calls "Shrike") frets around him and gives him food and Linda hugs him.

Logan takes Linda from the room and the worried Patton asks about the process overwintering and if he's feeling better. Remus answers that it helped. Virgil and Roman walk in and the chapter ends in a group hug of them all after Remus asks Roman for one.