Chapter 5
Harry was starting to go crazy. He was sure. It all had started a few days after Eros had taken off, dragging his little scaly feet and looking at him with pitiful and judgmental violet eyes all the way, with the final letter.
Everything was supposed to finish then. No more letters, no more lies… no more Hadrian. But it hadn’t, because now Harry fell asleep to dreams of a very familiar masked man glaring at him. Maybe it was the guilt that made Harry dream of him.
Yeah, that had to be it. What other reason would there be to dream of a made-up person?
“Hawwy!” He was snapped out of his self-pity when a small figure crashed against his legs and Harry wasted no time wrapping his arms around him and lifting the little troublemaker.
“Teddy! Did you run away from Grandpa Rian again?” Big yellow eyes looked at him innocently from behind a mop of bright blue hair. Teddy's absolute favorite color was blue, if it were up to him, he would probably be entirely blue. Bright neon blue to be exact. But after a too-close call with some aqua-kin'e, Teddy had been restricted, much to the one and a bit-year-old chagrin, in what things he could change to what color.
Harry raised a brow changing his own hair color to match Teddy’s, “Did you, Teddy?” Harry’s little brother avoided his eyes and whined. Two fluffy bright blue ears appeared in Teddy’s head and immediately dropped betraying that he had, in fact, run away from Rian.
A few seconds later a small sweet voice finally responded “Wanted Hawwy.”
Harry dug his fangs into his bottom lip to avoid cooing at such a cute sight. His little brother was just socute and so sweet. How could he ever get mad at him? Ignoring the little voice in his head, that sounded like Remus, saying that Teddy would grow up spoiled if everyone let him get away with everything Harry reached down and scratched behind a soft and fluffy ear.
Harry was rewarded with an inexperienced purr that he was quick to follow, his empathy singing at such a happy-love— “Hyacinth, have you seen Tedd– Ah! See Ivy told you he’d be with him.”
Harry grumbled a bit at the nickname. The Evansons had decided that even if he wasn’t named like one, Harry, like the rest of their family, would be called after a flower, even if it was just a nickname. They were still deciding Teddy’s flower name. None of the proposed ones has been approved yet.
The tall woman rolled her eyes “Teddy always ends up with Harry or Zephyr it wasn’t that hard of a guess.”
At the mention of Teddy’s unofficial favorite grandparent, he started squirming in Harry’s arms babbling about braids and tugging at his hair before someone rapped at the door. A few seconds later they heard Briar’s voice calling from the entrance, “Hyacinth, are you still here?”
“Yeah, what is it?” Harry started walking, carrying Teddy with him, to the front door where the other submissive was. Briar’s doe-like eyes gleamed with something that promised trouble and Harry quickly deliberated if he should throw Teddy at him and make a run for it.
“Someone is asking for you.”
That was unexpected. Normally if someone needed to say something they simply sent a message, they didn't come all the way to his grandparent’s house.
“Is it Kandra?” Harry asked while he tried to remember if he was supposed to meet with her and messed up the time again.
Briar shook his head but it was his smile that made him take a small step back. “It’s a man.”
A man? Harry didn’t have any idea of who could it be. He looked at the other submissive trying to get more information, “Do you know his name?”
“He didn’t say. I thought it would be best if you came and saw for yourself.” Briar smoothly took Teddy from his arms and into his. “But Hyacinth, you must be calm.”
Harry’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I am calm. Or at least I was until you said that.” He ran a hand through his hair willing it to return to its natural color and length, “What on Ergen’s name is going on Briar?”
“Don’t worry, it might be a bit of a shock but we can eat Flora’s cookies later. Still, I would like to cast a dampening spell. Jun sometimes hyperfixated in an emotion and kinda got stuck and I would prefer if we could avoid anything similar.”
“I don’t think it will be necessary. It’s only–” Seeing Briar’s expression Harry rolled his eyes, “Fine.”
If it was important enough for Briar to mention his missing grandmother Harry wouldn’t argue. While it was true that sometimes the residual magic of the dampening spell left him shivering and with goosebumps, it wasn’t that uncomfortable. Besides he was a bit curious to see who was looking for him.
In hindsight, he should have stayed curious.
He should have retaken Teddy and helped him find and annoy Zephyr to braid his hair and teach him how to do it. It always worked because Zephyranth is a kind soul who, like most of their family, can’t say no to Teddy’s big pleading eyes. Maybe that way Harry would have spent his afternoon laughing at the big joker unable to deny the small child and resigning to have his hair pulled so Teddy could practice his braids.
But he didn’t.
Harry opened the door and immediately snapped it shut.
Great, not only did he dream of Hadrian but now he hallucinated him. He should probably go to a healer because it was getting ridiculous. A soft knocking sound made him open the door a bit, enough so he could peek at the stranger outside. Maybe it was just the guilt that made him anxious, maybe he saw wrong and it was just another of the sellers trying to get him to buy some courting gifts, they tended to be particularly frequent when the hunt was near.
Unfortunately, piercing dark eyes glared at him and Harry slammed the door again only for a foot to stop it from closing completely. “Harry.” His name was said like it was an unfamiliar word to the other man but the warning on it couldn’t be missed. Harry gulped and reluctantly relented to open the door, “Don’t you recognize me?”
“Who are you?” Harry was sure he had never met the stranger outside his grandparent's house.
Apparently, he was the only one who thought so because Teddy had no problem recognizing him. He squirmed out of Briar’s arms and launched himself into the tall stranger with a loud shriek. “Adyan!”
The corner of his mouth tipped into a small smug smile and the stranger nodded as he lifted Teddy and perched him comfortably on his hip like he belonged there. “That’s right. I’ve finally come home to you.”
Harry gaped at the man.
If this was a joke it was a bad one.
“No, no nono. You’re not listening to me! I made him up. He’s not real.” Harry’s voice was high-pitched. It was the fourth time he tried to explain to his grandfathers that the man currently eating some of Flora’s cookies and listening to Teddy babble couldn’t be Hadrian.
“Hyacinth you’re not making any sense. Did you hit your head and didn’t tell us again? How can’t you recognize your ACE? It’s very clearly him, even though you forgot to tell us exactly how handsome he was. And you know how the organization from the pits is, it took us ages to get Zephyr out without Jun present, they probably sent the death certificate by mistake.” Rian was still not listening. Honestly, Harry didn’t know what else to do. When he had imagined his family finding out about his lies he thought they would be disappointed, sad, angry even, but not treating him like he was amnesic.
The worst part was he was starting to believe he lost some memories too because it sounded like the most logical option. In fact, Harry didn’t have any way, besides his words, to deny that the person in the living room wasn’t Hadrian. Maybe Teddy was right and if he had wished it hard enough on a shooting star it was made reality.
The maybe-Hadrian had even shown him proof of his words. He pulled a picture of them from about a few years ago that Harry thinks he remembers taking with a black-haired Ariki but it also kinda looked like the man claiming to be his ACE. The difference between the photo and the man could be explained by growing out of his teenage features. And then there were the courting gifts Harry sent. And when did he send them? Did he forget about that too? Because Harry remembers the mask but not the embarrassing baby photos or the dead rats.
Had Harry been courting a real Hadrian and simply forgotten about it?