To Love A Myth - Book 1: Mr. Higgs and the Maid🎩✔️

31

"Is he still up there in the chicken coop?" Radek asked his brother later into the night.
Jami looked up from what he was writing on and looked out the window.
"If you haven't seen him then that would be the case."
"I'm going to go up there and get him."
"Let him be. You're the one who said we should let him figure his own self out. If he wants to hide with the chickens then just let him. He's a grown man, Rad."
"With the emotional stability of a mouse."
"When Ms. Dunbrough is melted off we can ask her what happened."
"You mean if she goes back to normal."
"Isn't it like the Naga?"
"No, it's nothing like the Naga, you imbecile! It's a completely different thing."
Jami looked at his brother as he paced around the room and that was literal. Whenever he ran out of floor he would take to the wall and then the ceiling. It was making Jami dizzy and he sat back at his desk.
"What's the difference between this and the Naga?"
"The Naga has been proven and is a creature with that ability. The Midas touch is a curse within a curse. It was already a curse to begin with and who knows how the curse will decide to let it be taken away. It can't be lenient all the time."
"You act like it's its own person."
"The way it acts, you'd think it is! No consistency with the changes save the month you're born, when 'that time' comes we never know, the picking of animals from all over the earth that we have no idea how to handle... it's toying with us with each generation."
"I will agree that it's not exactly the most helpful..."
"The point is that it's a curse within a curse and since that curse had a way of doing things then it might require that bit of information to be done with Ms. Dunbrough... You wouldn't happen to know where any gypsies are around this time of year, do you?"
"Tis getting close to Samhain." Catherine said as she placed a tray of tea on the small table. "Ye might find one or two about trying to get an early start..."
"Thank you, Catherine. You're the best thing I've seen or heard in long time, my golden shamrock."
Catherine rolled her eyes and set the teacup next to Jamison and poured his tea.
"Ye best go and find yerself another cow to feed on, Lard Radek. I'll not have ye on my neck."
"Oh come on, Cathy..."
"Find someone else or find an animal. I'll not be ye blood blank tonight."
She left the room and Radek pouted. "She never let me do anything to her..."
"She never liked you."
Radek sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll go and try to find another cow or something... Or a deer..."
Jamison ignored his brother as he sipped his tea and finished what he had been doing before.

+++++++++++++++++++

The temperature had dropped and Kannasett shivered again in the chicken coop. The chickens had decided to gather around him and although it was slightly warm, it wasn't enough. He sat up, a chicken sliding off of him, and scratched his head. He moved to get out of the chicken coop and grabbed the edges of the doorway, the whole thing turning gold almost instantly. Quickly, Kans searched for the glove that must have slipped off of his hand and shoved it back on. He sat in the doorway when he heard something clink around the side of the chicken coop. He looked over and turned his head.
"What are you doing up here?"
"I thought ye might be cold, so I came to bring ye some tea and a few crumpets and a blanket."
He smiled as Catherine set the tray down on the ground. Kans eased himself out and sat cross-legged on the ground while Catherine put the blanket around him. He smiled a little as she sat next to him.
"Did they tell you I was up here?"
"Ye always went to the chicken coop when things went awry with ye curses."
"I forget that you were there when I was young. You were supposed to be there for Jami and all..."
"Ye know that Davros and I never catered to just Lard Jami. Besides, for a good few years of his life, he didn't want us around. Davros took to helping Lard Radek while I helped ye when I could."
"Right... Sorry... It's been so long... um..."
"Oh, I almost forgot..." She pulled out something from her apron pocket. "I made this so ye can drink the tea and I brought this for the crumpets."
Kans smiled as she held out the rolled up paper and he took it. It turned into gold and Catherine began to pour his tea as he took the spoon from her. He looked at it for a second.
"Did you mean to grab a fork?"
"Aye, yah, why?"
"You grabbed the spoon..."
Catherine looked back quickly and cursed under her breathe.
"Dammit..."
"It's alright..."
"No, it isn't. Damn it, I wanted ye to be able to enjoy yerself..."
"The tea is good enough, thank you... unless you want to feed them to me."
"What?" she asked, her blue eyes widened.
"Merida discovered that I could eat as long as it didn't touch my mouth. Before we used a fork for everything, she would just kind of drop things into my mouth in small bites so I wouldn't choke on them considering that eating with these gloves isn't as easy as you would think. But if you feel uncomfortable-"
"No, no, I'll do it. With a day like ye've had, I don't think feeding ye will be too much trouble..."
"Oh, so that's what this is about." He said with a small smile as he stuck his straw into the teacup. "I guess everyone knows, huh?"
"Besides Lard Radek throwing a fit to Lard Jami about Young Master Higgs, the fact that ye were in the chicken coop was enough to tell me something happened... what did happen, if I may ask?"
Kans sighed, stirring his tea around with the straw. He was sure that was the million pound question that everyone wanted to know. Catherine had always been a good listener and never judged him for what he was and was always doing little things like this to help him calm down and feel alright. He smiled a little, drinking the tea again.
"Lard Kans?"
"Why do you call me that when you know I'm nothing near that title?"
"Ye are Lard Northumberly's child and whether or not he accepts ye as such, ye are still higher than I am. If Lard Radek is one and Lard Jami is one, then so are ye."
"It would be more comfortable if you just called me by my name... no one's out here to tell."
Catherine made a face. "Yer avoiding the issue."
"Because it's all silly and dumb... it was just something stupid... would you?"
He pointed to a crumpet and Catherine broke it apart, grabbing a small piece as Kans leaned his head back. She dropped the piece into his mouth and he chewed on it a little. He smiled and Catherine sat back down.
"What is it?"
"These crumpets... they taste like the ones I used to have back at home... They've got an interesting taste to them."
"Bad?"
"No, good... nostalgic..." Catherine beamed as Kans pulled part of the blanket off of him. "You look like you're freezing. Come share the blanket."
"I brought it out here for ye."
"It would be in poor taste if I left you to the elements while I bundled up."
Reluctantly, Catherine scooted closer to him and let him wrap the other half of the blanket around her. She tried to keep the blush she had from being seen in the darkness. They were silent for a few moments while Kans drank some of his tea.
"I... I had a memory while I was in the kitchen... you know how sometimes it happens..."
"Aye, I do."
"I had dropped something and it triggered it. I... I couldn't stop shaking... I remembered every beating... every bruise that developed and I just kept shaking. When I finally got my bearings, I started to sob, feeling worthless, like a coward. I had been doing so well with Ms. Dunbrough and then all of a sudden... I was so ashamed of myself that I kept crying. I couldn't have steadied myself even if I had handles... Suddenly, I felt someone wrap their arms around my torso and hold me tight. I looked down and saw Merida, hugging me as tightly as she could. She was crying too and when I asked her why she said it was because she couldn't change the past and help me understand that I wasn't a monster or something horrible; that I was a victim... You... you know I never really got the best treatment at the home."
"Ye put that very lightly, Lard Kans." Catherine said with a look.
"Quite... um... well, I've never been hugged... properly that is."
"How do ye mean?"
"I've never felt a genuine hug from anyone save Jami when he was little. Everyone shies away from me as if I have the Midas touch all the time... Radek has hugged me when I'm sad, but everyone was too busy doing something else... For the first time, I felt a genuine hug. I needed it... I wanted it. So I grabbed her and pulled her closer to my chest to hug her back properly. Somehow in the midst of things, her bare arm brushed against my neck while she was putting her arms around me. When I realized what happened, that's when everything turned to this fiasco and here I am, drinking tea with you outside of a chicken coop next to my nephew's mansion on hill in the dark... I'm sure you have other things you'd rather be doing than listening to me rant all day."
"I'd rather be here with ye than be anywhere else."
"You really can't be serious. You don't have to cheer me up that much." He said with a little laugh.
Catherine sighed as she leaned more onto Kans to get a better taste of warmth.
"One thing that bothers me about ye, Lard Kans, is that ye sell yerself short on how much people really care about ye. I was there and I saw the way ye've been treated before, but Lady Northumberly doesn't count as... people. She isn't the only person in this world to base everyone else off of... she also isn't the only woman."
"What do you mean?" He looked down at her. "What are you getting at, Cath?"
Catherine just sighed again. "Nothing... It's not relevant. I'm not like Ms. Dunbrough..."
"I don't think anyone is."
"Aye, that be true." She said with a laugh.
Kans put his arm around her to steady himself on the ground and keep the blanket from falling.
"I hope she'll turn back to normal when the month ends. Radek is afraid we'll have to do something extra since the Midas touch is a curse within a curse."
"If it is, Davros and I can look into some books. We don't mind helping at all."
Kans nodded as they fell silent for the moment. He reached over and grabbed his tea, sucking it through the straw.
"Cath?"
"Hmm?"
"While I was with Ms. Dunbrough, for the first time I felt like I might actually have a chance at ending this thing but... I realize I was a fool... Was I too presumptuous to think that?"
"Not at all. That means that for the first time, ye thought of yerself as a person and not as a monster." He looked back at her. "I know ye all do it at times but ye especially... ye act like ye're a monster through and through... that instead of being a man who was cursed to be these creatures and things, ye were a beast cursed to be a man. I blame that woman but... if ye actually felt like ye had a chance then my heart swells with happiness because for once ye felt worthy to live."
"Who said you couldn't be like Ms. Dunbrough?"
Catherine looked up as Kans looked down at her with a smile she hadn't seen for ages: one that was genuine and good. Pulling herself from her own hopes and dreams, she cleared her throat and sat up a little.
"D-do ye want some more crumpets?"
"That'd be great."

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jami watched Catherine and Kans come down the hill together and he smiled a little.
"What?" Margaret asked from the bed.
"Ever think of Catherine and Kans?"
"Every once in a while...?"
"No, no, I mean together, as a couple."
Margaret blinked a little. "Do you think so?"
"Catherine would never be so bold but I think she's always had a mash on Kannaset."
"Really? He'd be ecstatic to hear that. I think she could really get past everything and help him out."
Jami shook his head. "It wouldn't be on her, it would be on him... kind of like how it was with us." He said with a sad smile. "I was the one who had doubts and someone like Kans would be full of them."
"When you put it that way then in all technicality, he's the one causing his own misfortune."
"I can't blame him for his thinking though... you've met my mother."
"Unfortunately so... Do you think Merida would punch her in the face if she met her?"
"What?" he said with a laugh.
"Radek said that when Merida first met your brother that she saw straight into his heart, could see the sorrow he was holding in, and then threatened to punch your parents in the face."
Jamison laughed hard as he walked back to the bed. "I really, really hope I'm there to see that if it happens."
"Tonight is your last night here?"
"I'll wait til the month ends. I don't want to take Cathy from Kans right now. It would be horribly wrong."
"True... do you think Higgs is alright with what happened?"
"Rad said he was angry. We'll know next month, I guess... well... if Merida isn't a statue still."
He dimmed the lantern and turned over to sleep, hugging his wife next to him.