Riddle Me This (Winterwatcher)

Who Gets the Check?

A/N: woo 150 reads thank you all for reading!

Moon POV

As it turned out, she needn't worry about keeping her mother and Winter apart. 

Winter did that on his own, darting back into his room whenever Secretkeeper was around. Otherwise, Secretkeeper would shoot daggers at him. 

Metaphorically, of course.

About a month passed, in which Winter started going out more, apparently found a decent stay-at-home job, and brought a lot of miscellaneous things from the market home.

Meanwhile, Moon read scrolls, hung out with Kinkajou and Turtle since Turtle had been "un-grounded" recently, and wandered aimlessly for hours, sometimes finding things like an antique shop that she marked on her map, or a fountain with an interesting sculpture or pretty mosaics, or a shop selling various scrolls she'd wanted to buy. 

She also sometimes, when buying groceries, invited Winter along, just so both of them could avoid Secretkeeper. 

That didn't work, alas.

Like when Winter and Moon were buying canned goods two weeks ago. 

Moon had picked two cans of clam chowder off a shelf and found Secretkeeper scrutinizing her and Winter from the other aisle.

She'd hurriedly put the cans back.

Or last week, when the two had gone to the butcher's to buy some deer, and Moon had caught her mother observing them from the shadows.

Or a few days back, when Secretkeeper had tailed them to a cafe and pretended to read the newspaper while she glared at the IceWing vehemently. Moon had glared at her mother in turn.

At least Winter hadn't seemed to notice any of this. Or if he did, he gave no sign.

Despite her mother's constant spying on them (which she always claimed was "for Moon's good" whenever Moon accosted her about it), Moon found it rather easy to talk to the IceWing, and they'd chat about jobs, various tidbits of news, childhood stories (Moon doing the talking), training (Winter did the talking).

Another month passed, during which Secretkeeper decided that WInter was (probably) harmless and packed up her luggage and left. 

Despite everything, Moon still hugged her mother tightly before she departed, spending a day or two wondering about when they'd reunite again. They didn't have any means of communication apart from letters, and the nearest post office to Secretkeeper's house was a few dozen kilometers away.

Then she found out Secretkeeper had planted surveillance devices in Winter's room, which she promptly destroyed with fire.

Anyway.

It was that Friday that Moon arrived home and promptly collapsed on the couch. Way too many cashiers had decided to go on break because Pantala had been about to have some kind of festival, and she'd been working overtime for the past few days. Thankfully, most of them had returned by now, and Moon was looking forward to a lighter workload.

And then she heard the door bursting open and the flurry of wings. 

"Moonmoonmoonmoonmoon you can't sleep now!" Kinkajou exclaimed while bouncing around. "Let's get some food at Toasted."

Moon sighed and took a deep breath. "Sure, can you just let me rest for 10 minutes or so?" 

"Sure, be right back." More whooshing, followed by the sound of the door slamming shut.