Rhedara was dreaming about dancing dogs with long, flowing hair when she was roused from her sleep. The first thing she registered was that her head throbbed like someone had hit her over the head with an iron pan. Then she realized that she was not in her bed. Why was she not in her bed? Whose bed was she in? A light groan, then she shifted. She wondered who was talking and if they could speak a little softer. Each word was like a blunt needle drilling into her skull. This was precisely why she didn’t go out drinking more often than she did.

Drinking. Right. She had been graced an evening to herself and she’d indulged herself by going to the tavern…then she shamelessly flirted with Raff and then they’d…

She may have blushed at the memory of what they’d done in the alley or perhaps grinned like a cat who’d caught the canary, but she did neither of these things. Her head hurt, and she was still trying to figure out why she wasn’t in her own bed. She remembered everything else, but the details about her current whereabouts were fuzzy.

She cracked her eyes open about the time Denzul sat on her cot. She saw the brown-eyed kid, but it took the amount of time to slowly blink three times before she realized she should be shocked at the site of some strange person watching her as she slept in a strange place. Sluggishly, she tried to sit up, but the pain in her head worsened and she flopped back down, putting her hand to her head as another groan escaped. Then the other kid’s words registered.

“New mom?” Her voice was groggy and scratchy. She didn’t get married last night, did she? Rhedara was certain she would have remembered that, given the other things she remembered. Still, she checked the palms of her hands for the slice that would have been afflicted during the ceremony. Her hands were unharmed.

"But her palms are fine. She ain't our new mom! You suck Cady!" the gullible Denzul stuck out his tongue at Cady and got up to move over to his cot again. 
"Hey she's up now. Put on a shirt ya animal. It's bad enough Raff is already a beast." Cady responded and went to a shelf on the wall nearby to open a box of foodstuffs.. She took down a melon and started cutting it with her knife as she walked toward Rhedara. 

"Raff's hangover helper. Smells and looks like ya need it." she smiled and offered the woman half of it as she spoke quietly. She gave a swift glare over her shoulder to make sure her brothers behaved with a stranger here. Ewan went to the shelf and took out some bread and cheese while Denzul watched hungrily from his cot. 

"Not dressed when the food is out ya don't git none Denzul..." he taunted loudly, not caring one whit about hangovers and taking a large bite of his breakfast. His younger brother scrambled over to the door where socks and shoes were neatly lined up, including Rhedara's own socks and shoes.

"Did ya smash with Raff last night?" She asked bluntly, staring at Rhedara and smirking. "Two hickies looks like more than holding hands."

Raff lay curled on his side on the floor to the right of Rhedara, sleeping soundly and totally oblivious to all the commotion nearby. 

Rhedara had no idea what was going on. She watched the two kids banter at each other a moment before she braced herself for the pain and sat up in the cot. The kids seemed friendly enough, but she had a feeling she needed to be sitting in order to properly handle them. As expected, her head throbbed and she rubbed at her temples until the pain subsided to a tolerable level.

She’d barely registered that she was not only outnumbered by young males, but that some of these young men were also shirtless when the girl handed Rhedara the melon. She’d never heard of melon being a remedy for a hangover, but she was willing to try anything that would get rid of the pain so she took it, “Thanks,” she got out before the girl asked that really personal and really unexpected question.

She slapped her hand to her neck where she thought the hickeys were as she gaped at the young girl more surprised than she should have been. Did she really have hickeys? Did that girl really just ask if she and Raff had “smashed?” Being a commoner that grew up in a home with thin walls, Rhedara had learned about what went on between a man and a woman at an early age herself. This girl likely had a similar experience. In truth, her shock was more due to the blunt way the girl had asked if she had had relations with Raff.

There were a few ways Rhedara could have reacted to the girl—who she was sure was Raff’s sister since he didn’t seem old enough to have a daughter that old. She could have blushed and denied it vehemently, or she could have told the girl it was none of her business. Instead, she answered the impertinent little question with a little sarcastic humor, “No,” she said as seriously as she could which wasn’t hard because of the headache, “We frolicked in a field and made flower crowns for each other. We giggled like little girls the whole time.

She hadn’t noticed Raff yet, focused as she was on the kids, “I’m Rhedara,” she thought she should at least introduce herself given what the girl had just asked.

Denzul caught the shirt thrown at his face and grabbed a chunk of food from Ewan's hand as they fought over breakfast. Cady didn't even look back at them, used to their antics. 

"Welcome." she answered back, watching Rhedara as she ate. Cady spit out a bit of the melon as she laughed at Red's answer. 
"Yea and I'm the king of Nevermere!" the girl smirked, almost exactly like her oldest brother Raff. 

She put out a sticky, melon juice soaked left hand to shake and squelched it into Red's as she replied,

"I'm Cady and .." she paused to watch her brothers shoving food in their mouths, and still only half dressed. "Alarm clock's about to go off-"

"GET DRESSED, GET TRAININ' AND FUCK OFF TIL LUNCH!" Yelled Raff at precisely six am and went right back to sleep. Which was fine since he hadn't bothered to even open his eyes. He turned his back to the door and his breathing went back to slow and deep again. Denzul and Ewan grabbed their socks and shoes, pulling on their shirts and headed outside stumbling over their own feet.

"Want some coffee? It's the other half of the hangover stuff. They're all on automatic. Ain't no training on Ball Day! Not sure if they'll figure it out and stay out or come back. Probably they'll stay out. They know better than to sit around doin nothin when Raff's home." 
Cady took out the mortar and pestle and ground up some willow bark while picking up the clothes off the floor with one foot to fling them on a cot as she walked toward the door. 

"I could use a lil help here Rhedara. Ya want yer hangover cure or not? I gotta start the fire and the coffee's on the shelf over there." The fourteen year old headed out the door with the bowl, not waiting to see if anyone was following. 

Despite her headache, Rhedara smiled in response to Cady laughing at what she had said. She gave a dip of her head as if Cody was indeed the king, “Your Highness,” she said through a mouthful of melon.

Rhedara only looked at the girl’s sticky hand a moment before taking her hand that was sticky with melon juice and giving it a shake. Her mother would have had the conniption of all conniptions if she’d had seen it, but Rhedara at that moment didn’t care about how dirty her hands were for a change. She opened her mouth to say, “Nice to meet you,” when Cady said something about an alarm and—

Raff’s shouting was more than startling. She hadn’t known he was there, but she did now. She swore she jumped about a foot in the air—or maybe she nearly fell off the cot, it was a toss up—she wasn’t sure if she squeaked or gasped, but she did know that her heart was now pounding in time with her head. Rhedara braced her head with the hand that was the cleanest and peeked over the edge of the cot and saw Raff laying there.

“Sure,” she said absent-mindedly to the offer of coffee as she watched the boys leave like there was a fire behind them, “Does he do that every day?” Her voice was filled with a little horror, a little pain, and a little awe. It would be impressive if he did. She wasn’t sure if she could manage to briefly wake up at the same time every day like that.

Mention of the ball reminded her that she had to do something…something important, but she couldn’t remember what it was.

Then Cady was setting her to work. Rhedara gingerly stood from the cot, pausing long enough to let the ache in her head die down again, then shuffled over to where Cady had pointed and grabbed the coffee. She looked over at Raff and thought about kicking him awake so she wouldn’t be the only one being conscious with a hangover, but decided against it. Some people didn’t react well to being woken up, and she wasn’t in a good enough state to deal with however he reacted to it. Rhedara gave a little sigh before following following Cady out.

Cady chuckled at Rhedara's reaction to her brother's antics. It probably did take some getting used to. When she shook hands, Cady took a liking to her, partly based on that. And her smartass remarks too.

"Yep. Awake or asleep, he's up at six every day, no matter what." Cady answered, setting up a flame incantation with a proud smile at her casting. She knew she had great potential as a powerful witch because her brother told her so. She looked at Rhedara and gestured for her to set down the coffee pot and beans on the platter, next to the aspirin mixture.

"This is the communal fire for all of us in the mornings. We're almost always the first up anyway coz of Raff's big mouth." She hefted two empty buckets and asked Rhedara,

"Ya mind gittin the beans ground while I git the water? I'll be right back. Mix the beans with the willow bark for the first two cups coz he should be up anytime now." 

Back in the house, Raff slowly lifted his weight onto an elbow and nearly groaned at the hangover. Cady's voice carried from outside like thunder on a giant blacksmith's hammer and his throat was nearly closed with thirst. He sat up stretching until his bones cracked and he rolled his neck to loosen up the muscles in a desperate attempt to ease the headache any way he could. Sleepy blue eyes drifted to the doorway and he saw Red's socks and shoes so he knew she must be close by. Hopefully, Cady was making coffee-with aspirin. He took two steps to the shelf to grab a melon and slice it open, Raff's eyes closing with relief as the moisture eased his parched mouth. Damn what a hangover! 

He finished the melon and relieved himself in the chamber pot quickly, glad that Cady had closed the door. Now that he was emptied out, it was time to head outside. Wonder what Red would be thinkin right about now? Barefoot and shirtless, he silently opened the door to the outside and watched Red from the threshold, wondering just how bad her head was feeling too.

“That’s…impressive,” Rhedara said in response to Cady’s rather cheerful revelation of Raff’s inner hourglass. She was never a morning person and could not fathom automatically waking up enough to shout orders consistently. Usually the sun woke her up, unlike that particular morning with curious kids looming over her, whispering who knew what. It was a livelier morning than she’d had in a while. She just wished she didn’t have a hangover while she was experiencing it.

Rhedara watched the girl start the fire. That was impressive. Incantations were difficult to predict the outcome. Either this girl was just coming into her magic, or she had a real gift.

“You have a lot of control over that,” Rhedara observed out loud as she set the coffee stuff down as Cady directed her. She was about to ask if anyone had taught her how to do that when Cady again put her to work. Rhedara couldn’t help but smile a little at this young teenager ordering her about, “Yes ma’am,” she told the girl before she sat down and started grinding the beans.

Using a mortar and pestle was a familiar movement for her. She often used them while brewing potions, and usually using one was how she started to go to her happy place. As it turned out, a hangover plus the loud noise of a pestle pounding and grinding into dried beans was hellish on her head. She lasted two hits of the pestle before she set it down and held her head. Goddess, that was awful! She picked them up again and braced herself. If getting this done meant that the pain would be over, she’d just have to put her head down, grit her teeth and just do it.

Some long, painful moments later, she’d gotten the coffee ground down to a level that she declared good enough. Normally she would have made it finer, but her head gave a resounding “Hell no!” At least it hadn’t been so loud the whole way through, but she swore her eyes were a little wet. She set the mortar down and reached up to rub at her temples, intending to mix in the bark once the throbbing went away again. Why couldn’t witches have healing magic that wasn’t potion related?

While she was trying to soothe away the ache in her head, she looked up and saw Raff standing in the doorway watching her. How long had he been there? Better yet, where was his shirt? Not that she was complaining, he was definitely worth looking at half-dressed. She smiled slowly, not dropping her hands from her head as she took him in, thinking of the previous night.

“Morning,” she said, leaving out the word “good.” There was nothing good about mornings, “How’s your head?”

"I'm just coming inta my magic and my brother says I got potential." Cady beamed proudly. "First time I did it, I burnt off Raff's eyebrows and beard! He told me ta face south first and check the wind before casting or shit'll blow right back atcha!" Her laughter carried on the breeze as she went to get the water.

Man she must have had a hella bad hangover to not grind diagonally against the bowl! He watched Red banging on the coffee beans like a mini sledge hammer and Raff struggled not to laugh. The woman looked ready to cry at the noise and he couldn't blame her one bit. 

"My head feels like a fuckin cannon blasting, how's yers after hearing five teenagers this morning?" He walked slowly to stand behind her and sat down with a leg on each side of Rhedara. Raff raised his hands to massage her temples, trying to ease the pain for her a little. 

"Hey if yer done groping yer new girl Raff, this damn water's heavy!"
Raff's hands paused and he looked at Cady sternly. In a very low growl of a voice he replied,

"'Scuse me? Who the fuck ya talkin to like that?"
"Can I please get some help with the water?!" Cady corrected herself, looking only a little chastised as she rephrased her request.

"Happy ta help." Raff answered, standing up and walking over to his sister to take the water buckets from her. "Ya done plenty this mornin Cady, go get yerself some breakfast and take my share. Ya more than earned it."

The fourteen year old hugged him while he was still balancing the yoke with the swinging water buckets so he stood still as a tree while she did. She headed inside and they could both hear her rummaging painfully loudly.

With steady patience, he lowered the buckets to the ground and removed the yoke lynchpin. He grabbed two of the ladle cups off the bucket and dipped them into the water. Raff handed one to Rhedara and set down the other on a stump near where Cady had stood earlier.. He grabbed a large drink of water for himself to take a long drink, downed it and grabbed a refill. He dumped the contents of the mortar into a pot and added two cups of water to it to set it over the fire. 

"I see she didn't burn yer eyebrows off--that's good. Cady's just learning so it's kinda strong fer her right now."




 

Cady, Rhedara decided, was like a happy tornado. The girl’s cheerful giggle as she told her that she’d burnt on her brother’s facial hair made Rhedara chuckle, remembering her own set of oopsies while she was learning to control her magic as she watched the girl walk away.

“Like someone hit me in the face with a cauldron, then put it on me like a hat and danced on it with metal shoes,” she answered Raff, leaning back into him after he sat behind her, her back touching his chest, “They were very curious about me,” she craned her head back to look at him and smirked, “One of them asked me if I was his new mom as soon as my eyes opened,” she wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to do next, but giving her a head massage wasn’t it. Not that she would complain or stop him. It felt really good. She shut her eyes, focusing on the feel of his fingers on her temples and let out a noise that was just shy of a purr, “That feels really nice."

The massage was interrupted all too soon when Cady called out to Raff in a way that would have had Rhedara’s own mother slapping her mouth—although Raff’s response had about the same effect as her mother’s slap had. Since she was still leaning against him, she felt his growl reverberate in his chest and she bit her lip against a delighted smile. That shouldn’t have been as appealing as it was, she thought. She nearly grabbed his hands to keep him right where he was at, but the sight of Cady with the water buckets made her freeze her hands mid-movement.

The sight of Cady giving Raff a hug while he held the buckets was so darned wholesome Rhedara had a hard time not crooning, “Awww!” The interaction between Raff and Cady reminded her a little of how she and her brother had been with each other…except that Tate and Rhedara had only been about five or six years apart. He had still tried to boss her around like they were about a decade apart.

She mixed the willow bark and the coffee grounds and didn’t bother trying to disguise the way she watched him set the water buckets down. Shamelessly.

She accepted the ladle of water from him and drank until it was empty. She already was starting to feel better, “You two seem close,” she said, “you and your sister.”

“I was pretty impressed,” she said, “that it was so controlled. Conjuring is so chaotic, it’s difficult to get the result you want,” she grimaced, “I set the house on fire three times before mother made me start practicing at the beach where I couldn’t hurt anything.”

TRIGGER WARNING: INSINUATION OF CHILD HARM

Raff nodded, knowing exactly how bad the hangover was breaking his balls right now. When she brought up the mom comment, he rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"That would be Denzul, he's the most gullible of 'em and I gotta wonder if he's gullible coz he's young, or just plain stupid!" Raff laughed and enjoyed the comforting feel of Rhedara leaning into him. It was a normal mammal comfort of craving human contact, but maybe with her, it might be something more. He didn't know yet, but he sure as hell liked it. A lot. When she mentioned it feeling really nice, he barely stopped himself from replying when Cady walked back into sight. 

He gave her a quick refill on the water and nodded at her comment, his thoughts ablaze at just why they were so close. Cady's father had tried to beat her half to death and if Raff hadn't stepped in when he did, there would be -no Cady- left of that man's temper. He knew Cady remembered but never spoke of it nor would Raff as it just didn't need saying out loud. 

"Yea we're close." he answered tersely, leaving it at that. He wasn't giving a near stranger his life story. Especially with how ugly it was.

Cady got mouthy and Raff wasn't having any of it. It really burned his ass that she tried that shit in front of strangers, pushing her boundaries like every typical teenager on Terra Nova. Not in his house, not under his rules. No way. They both knew it was a test and he made sure his little sister still knew that she could get away with cussin' as long as she was still respectful and hard working. 

All the blood rushed to his head as he lowered the yoke with the water buckets and he barely stopped himself from swearing at the agony in his head. The hangover tripled and he knew he'd never keep down solid food for at least a few hours. 

His tired blue eyes lingered on the coffee and aspirin with longing, trying not to groan aloud. He knew damn well Cady went inside to pretend to give them privacy and eavesdrop like the teen girl she was. Raff figured he'd give her a bit of honesty to overhear 'accidentally.'

"Yea I bribed her that she could have a kitten when she could control her magic without fuckin up. Wouldn't wanna hurt the kitten right?" Raff smirked at Red.

Rhedara also laughed at Raff’s not-so-flattering comment about his younger brother, her eyebrows shooting up toward her hairline, “Savage,” she said with humor.

His answer to her comment about him and his sister being close made her pause briefly, mid sip. Had she said something wrong? Had she sounded sarcastic? She swallowed the water and studied him and decided the terseness was more likely caused by his own hangover than anything she’d said. Still, she decided not to pry further, “It’s sweet,” was all she said. She felt as if she should say something else—maybe something about her own brother, but she had no prior experience to draw on. She’d never woken up in the home of a man she’d “smashed” as Cady had put it so delicately. She’d never “smashed” anyone before last night.

Lots of new experiences for her, and it’d not even been a day.

Still groggy and hungover, it took Rhedara a lot longer than it should have to catch on to what Raff was doing. She thought of how young Cady was and the smart little comment she’d made when she’d seen her and Raff snuggled up. She raised her eyebrows knowingly and returned his smirk.

“That’s right,” she said, finishing off the water in the ladle, “Although roasted kitten isn’t that bad if you hold your nose. Little bony though.”

"I dunno, I'd say roasted cat is more tender than rat, but too gamey. Those carnivores jes don't taste as good..." Raff said, smirking and pretending to sound blatantly bored with the topic. "I'm sure Cady will....eventually.. get the hang of it."

The millisecond that the coffee and aspirin mix were hot, he scooped up a cupful for each of them and gave one to Red.

"It's crazy fuckin bitter, but that's willow bark fer ya. It does the job so it don't gotta taste good. I'd put on the regular coffee fer us now but I'm just no good at it...." Raff said after hurriedly sipping at his own share of the nasty brew. It tasted vile but even the harsh bitterness on his tongue eased the nausea while waiting for the pain killing properties to kick in and stop the headache.  

The tall man sat down and looked comically glum and said in an affected tone to no one in general.
"Man I just can't make coffee the way Cady can. I'm just no good at it, but that girl, she can make anything ..." his voice hung on the still morning air and he slipped a wink at Rhedara as he set down the empty cup.

"Hey I make the best coffee. I'll make up some fer ya both." Cady piped up from the house, forgetting her role of silent eavesdropper and bustling around. He put out a hand to tousle her hair and she smiled at him.

"What would I do without ya Cady? I'll go get Red her stuff so she can eat."

"Obviously you'd starve without me." she sassed with the same smirk that Raff had.
"That's right, no eatin til yer dressed. Rules is rules." Cady prompted, looking at Red's bare feet.

Raff went inside, donned his own shirt, socks and shoes and gathered up Red's socks and shoes to bring out to her. He traveled back inside with an easy stride to bring out some bread and cheese in a cloth to lay out on the stump for breakfast.

“That’s true…roasted cat IS more tender than rat,” she matched his tone, “But rat has more meat. Maybe a pet rat would be better until she gets the hang of it.”

He wasn’t kidding when he said the coffee mixture was bitter. It reminded her of something her mother made…okay everything her mother made. She was a terrible cook. At least the coffee willow bark stuff wasn’t burned. She drank it down in a similar fashion to how she used to eat her mother’s cooking: Quickly.

“Believe it or not,” she said after she’d drained the cup, “I’ve had worse.”

She put her hand over her mouth to muffle her laugh as she watched Raff con his sister into making more coffee for them. She wouldn’t be the one to give up the ruse. Even though she could feel the edge of the pain fading away, she had no desire to grind up more coffee beans.

Rhedara also looked at her bare feet. How had she not noticed that? Despite the nakedness of her feet, they were not cold despite the Hiems chill. It was probably the fire which was still burning hot and far too cheerfully for so early in the day, “Well I wouldn’t want to break the rules,” she told the younger girl.

She’d actually stood up to go in after Raff to get her stuff herself when he’d emerged again, torso sadly covered once more. She bit her lip, suppressing whatever flirty thing she was going to say to him. Cady may have been correct in her guess about what she had been up to with Raff, but she wasn’t about to do that kind of flirting with him in front of his little sister.

“Thanks,” she said instead, taking her shoes and socks from him and sat back down to put them on. By the time Raff came back out, she was tying the laces of her shoes. She looked up and was glad the food was simple. She wasn’t sure if she could stomach anything fancier than bread and cheese at that moment.