#I have the hunch that people who complain about flimsy clothes are not willing to accept that good quality also means higher price tag

[reaching-giraffes]

Look, it is true that fashion industry has changed rapidly during the last 30 years, but sometimes when I see people bemoaning how "clothes are so bad and flimsy nowadays" it basically boils down to the solution of STOP BUYING FAST FASHION.

[justaghostingon]

Cogs in a Steel Heart

Chapter 5: Letting Go

Hugo makes his choice, and Cyrus decides its time to do a meet-the-parents.

Read on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24331849/chapters/60360532

Hugo made his choice at the edge of the dark kingdom. In typical Hugo fashion, he does so with a wink and a lie. As if Cyrus is just some rich noble he’s conning out of his money, and not someone who’s been able to see through him for years.

“It's the wrong kingdom,” Hugo says. “The trial is in the ice kingdom just that way, but I’ll lead them through this one just to keep them occupied for a bit, so there’s no need to pay too much attention.”

Cyrus wondered why Hugo always seemed to think he’s dumb. He’s not. He may not be a genius on the level of Hugo and Donella, but he’s not an idiot. He checked with Donella to gain a map of all the kingdoms involved on the quest before he left so he could pack properly. Hugo should have noticed, except he’d been too busy tapping his foot impatiently and complaining that leaving now meant now and not in an hour later.

He knows that this is not the correct place. He knows that Hugo is lying to him to try and get him to back off and not report it all back to Donella. He can see through this flimsy excuse and read Hugo’s true intentions: he’s choosing Goggles and his team over Donella.

“Ok,” he says in response. Because he’s fine with that. Really. If this is what Hugo wants, well, he’s nineteen, its high time he started thinking for himself. And besides, there was a spark in Hugo’s eyes he hadn’t seen in years, burning bright. He’s practically weightless, bouncing on his feet like a man who’d finally had the weight of the world removed from his shoulders.

Hugo turned to leave, spring in his step, and Cyrus felt his lips twitch slightly upward as he watched him go. Hugo had found happiness, and it warmed Cyrus’s soul to see.

At the edge of the clearing, Hugo stopped, head turning slightly back to Cyrus. Cyrus hastily removed any trace of emotion from his face, staring back as impassively as he could manage. Hugo hesitated. “Mona,” he said.

“Yeah?” Cyrus said, wariness leaking into his voice. Hugo never used someone’s real name unless he was about to discuss something important.

“I never thanked her,” Hugo looked down at his feet, “for the hat.”

“Oh,” Cyrus blinked. That was unexpected. Hugo had learned to say ‘thank you.’ He wondered who had taught him that. “I’ll pass on the thanks,” he offers with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Of course,” Hugo turned back to the trail ahead. “Thank you Cyrus,” he says, a finality in his words that told Cyrus he wasn’t being thanked for passing on a message. His gut twisted as he watched Hugo step forward, vanishing among the trees.

Cyrus stood in the clearing for a long while, lost in thought as the blackened leaves fell down around him. Finally he grit his teeth and released two words, “Ahh hell.”

----------------

“It’s not that I don’t think that this is good for him. He’s happy! Happier than I’ve ever seen him! And he’s nineteen, so its damn time he went through a little teenage rebellion! It’s just-” Cyrus ran a frustrated hand through his hair, “-I just don’t know anything about these people and what they think of Hugo!” He threw up his hands in the air and looked at his audience for a reaction.

His audience, a dusty old crow that apparently didn’t know how to fly or stand properly lay on a log and gave a caw. Cyrus decided to take it as an agreement.

“Exactly! I know what Hugo thinks of them. But I also know Firecracker and Princess were suspicious before they learned to trust him, what’s to stop them from suspecting him again the next time something goes wrong? And he’s so infatuated with this Goggles, but Goggles was willing to up and abandon everyone! I can’t just leave Hugo with people like that without figuring out what they’re really like. Right?”

The crow didn’t respond in favor of pecking up in the air like he expected it to be wood. Cyrus sighed. He missed Mona. She’d know what to do. But she wasn’t here, and he didn’t have time to send her a letter and ask her for advice.

He tapped his fingers to his chin. “I need to meet Hugo’s friends, make sure they actually care about Hugo, and aren’t about to leave him dead in a ditch somewhere. It’s my job after all, as his bodyguard.”

He glanced back at the crow, who had somehow dragged itself up into a semi-upright position. “What do you think about doing a bit of improv?”

The crow gave a squawk of agreement and promptly fell off the log.

------------------

Cyrus adjusted the bear mask more properly over his face. Perfect. The crow, for all its inability to fly in straight lines, seemed surprisingly adept at finding threatening disguises. He gave the bird a sly grin, and it proceeded to caw in the wrong direction as its eyes spun in circles.

He picked it up and put it on his shoulder. There, final touch complete. Now he looked like a madman. He’d have to take the mask off for some of the more theatrical bits, but this would make a pretty good entrance. He gripped his club, took in a deep breath, and stepped out from the trees and into the dark kingdom.

The dark kingdom was, and there was no other words for it, creepy. The soil was blackened and dark, and instead of trees large black spikes littered the land. Cyrus had thought most of them had disappeared ages ago, put apparently some roots were too thick for even magic to remove. He suppressed a shutter and strode forward with large, echoing footprints.

Hugo’s team had stopped below a slight cliff, no doubt resting after getting their old donkey down. Or was it a mule? Cyrus couldn’t be certain. Whatever it was looked like it had outlived several lifetimes worth of drama. Even now it looked up at Cyrus’s bear costume as it chewed the grass, unimpressed to the extreme.

“What is it Prometheus?” A boy said, following his gaze upwards. He was shorter than Hugo, with goggles on his head and a wizard’s staff in his left hand. Cyrus briefly wondered if this was the Goggles he’d heard so much about. The boy looked up at him, expression wary. “Are you King Edmund?”

“What?” Cyrus gaped, completely thrown off track.

“Your son mentioned your love of bear clothing,” the boy continued with a slight cough into his hand.

Cyrus turned to look at the crow in confusion. The crow began to eat one of the bear’s ears. Cyrus looked back down at the four people below him, expressions ranging from wary to hopeful. He sighed. There goes his fear factor. Looks like he’d have to start step two sooner than he thought. “I don’t know who this king is. But if you really want to know,-” he threw off the hood, causing the crow on his shoulder to shriek and take off into the air, “-I’ve been following you. You have something I need, and I’m not leaving until I get it.” He lowered his knees slightly and hunched his shoulders, gritting his teeth into his most ferocious smile.

Behind Goggles, Hugo facepalmed.

His friends tensed. The girl and the little boy drew closer to Goggles, pulling out strange glowing chemicals and...was that a giant firecracker? Well, that nickname was certainly accurate, Cyrus thought as he eyed at the boy was now most definitely Firecracker. Goggles fingered the strange balls on his sash, and narrowed his eyes at Cyrus. “We aren't giving up the totems.”

“Oh I’m not here for the totems,” Cyrus drew himself up to his full height. “I’m here for him.” He pointed a finger directly at Hugo. Hugo’s jaw went slack.

“Me?” he pointed a finger at his chest. What are you doing Cyrus? his expression said.

Hugo’s companions all glanced back at Hugo, and he quickly schooled his expression to one of neutral confusion. Princess sighed, a hand on her hips. “What did you do Hugo?” Goggles and even Firecracker looked exasperated.

“Nothing!” Hugo protested. “I don’t know this guy!”

“You don’t need to know me,” Cyrus waved his hand at Hugo’s words. “My employer knows you, and they’ll pay a pretty penny for the head of the Alchemist who screwed over the Baron Von Drake!” It was the name of a royal Hugo had screwed over for something, Cyrus couldn’t remember what. But there was no point in bringing up Donella in the likely scenario that Hugo had not mentioned her to his team after he switched sides.

Hugo’s eyebrow rose. “You mean that guy who I sold the hair potion too?”

Cyrus held back a snort of laughter, disguising it as a cough. Oh it was that guy, heavens above that had been hilarious. Concentrate Cyrus, sad things, dead cats, hunger. He gave his best frown. “Yes, and he wants you dead for it.”

“For hair?” Goggles exclaimed.

Cyrus shrugged. “You know nobles, ruthless over the stupidest things.” Princess gave the slightest flinch, and Hugo’s brow furrowed. “But look,” Cyrus added, desperate to bring this back on track. “I’m a reasonable man. Just give me the criminal, and no one else has to get hurt.”

The three looked at each other. “Yeah, I don’t think so,” Goggles said as he drew back his arm, a ball in his hand. “But thanks for being so polite about it.”

Cyrus made no move to dodge the ball as it fell, releasing a sticky substance that coated his feet. The crow landed beside it and began to peck, but to no avail.

“It should wear off in a few hours,” Goggles said, turning away. “Bye,”

Cyrus smiled. Straining his legs he kicked out, sending the hardened purple crumbling all around him. The crow gave a cry and flew off. The three children below gasped and drew back. Even Hugo, who was fully aware of exactly how strong Cyrus was, looked a little impressed. Cyrus wasn’t certain why though, an antidote to the purple goo had been the first thing Hugo had brewed, did he think Donella had asked for that purely for research purposes? Cyrus had coated nearly a whole bottle’s worth on his boots for this very attack.

But whatever the reason, the surprise worked in his favor, and Cyrus was not going to waist it. He jumped down the cliff like it was nothing, this one was completely on him he was pleased to admit, and charged straight at Hugo.

“What are you doing?” Hugo hissed as he ducked under Cyrus’s punch.

“Helping,” Cyrus hissed back as he ducked under a brightly colored ball. “Play along.” Hugo did not look at all convinced as Cyrus landed a solid kick and sent Hugo flying backwards.

Ooof. He thought as Hugo landed hard on his butt, gasping for breath. He hadn’t meant to kick him that hard. He tried not to wince as he slowed himself to a threatening walk.

“Stay away from him!” Goggles threw himself forward at Cyrus, clawing at his sides. Cyrus peeled him off easily, wondering why someone so smart would attack with his hands. He was quickly answered when something strange and green started to grow on his armor, no doubt another attempt to make him stop. Too bad Donella had Hugo-proofed this armor long ago to make their team ups go smoother, and if the smell of this was anything to go by, Hugo had definitely helped in its creation.

“That ain’t gonna work on me kid,” he said as he tossed Goggles back at Hugo. Hugo stretched out his arms to catch him, but ended up falling back, winded a second time. Goggles struggled to sit up, but ultimately fell back on Hugo, dazed.

“Leave him alone!” Princess jumped in Cyrus’s path. She raised a hand to her chest. “If it's money you are after, I am Princess Nuru of the Air Kingdom. I can easily settle any debit my companion has created.”

Appealing to his character’s obvious greed? Not a bad move. Except for how she exposed herself as an even more appealing target. Seriously, had Hugo taught her nothing about survival. Not that it mattered, he wasn’t here to kidnap princesses. “It doesn't work like that little lady,” Cyrus shrugged. “I have a code.” He stepped forward, and Princess spread her arms defensively. Cyrus rolled his eyes. “And what are you going to do to stop me little lady? You aren’t even armed.”

Princess’s lips twitched upwards, and too late Cyrus realized he hadn’t been paying attention to Firecracker. He whirled around, only to catch a glimpse of a giant firecracker coming straight towards him. He ducked, the firecracker grazing his back. A flash of victory filled Cyrus, and then numb shock as he was pulled along into the air.

Cyrus realized where he had smelled that stench before as he flew through the air. Hugo’s sticking powder. They’d turned it into goo! Well, Cyrus would be damned if that wasn’t impressive. He cast one more glance back at the little group. Varian was still struggling to unattach himself from the goo that held him to Hugo. Princess was kneeling beside them, giggling. Yong held a firecracker up, clearly offering to blow them free, and from Hugo’s expression, half horrified, and half amused, it looked like they didn’t have another one. But even with the growing fear in his eyes as the pyromaniac began lighting the firecrackers, Cyrus could tell he was completely happy. They’d take good care of him.

He smiled as the firecracker exploded behind him, sending him scorched and flying into the open air.

------------

“What were you thinking?” Hugo demanded as he found him hours later, sitting on a log as he tried to recover from being blown out of the sky.

“I told you,” Cyrus pressed a cooling paste to his burned skin and silently thanked alchemy’s healing wonders. “I’m helping.”

“Helping? Helping? You call that helping?!” Hugo threw his hands into the air. “You attacked us! You nearly blew my cover!” He leaned down to get in Cyrus’s face, emerald eyes blazing with fury.

Cyrus stared back, unimpressed. “I didn’t put your cover in any kind of danger. I didn’t mention we knew each other, or Donella at all.”

“You didn’t have too!” Hugo shoved a finger in Cyrus’s chest. “I go to talk to you every other week! If one of them follows me and sees us together, it’s all over!” He punctuated the last line by pushing his finger deeper into Cyrus’s chest.

“Well then,” Cyrus shrugged and batted Hugo’s hand away. “I guess I’ll have to go back to Donella, tell her how I blew it, and how you can’t make reports anymore without me so there's no point in waiting for them.”

“Wh-what?” Hugo stepped back, eyes wide. “That means...” he shook his head, “No. No that will never work. The next kingdom is the iron kingdom, and Donella’s going to make a move for sure. Once they see you with her...”

“Then they will think she employed someone who has both openly admitted to not knowing you, and holds a personal grudge.” Cyrus crossed his arms and smiled. “Even if she completely outs you as a spy, they’ll never believe you wouldn’t have met a colleague as old as me, much less let me attack you for no reason. It will just look like we’re trying to smear you.”

“That is the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard,” Hugo scowled. “It has so many holes it would sink like a stone in water.”

“Perhaps,” Cyrus rose to his feet. “But it's done now. So you’ll just have to continue on this quest, without any supervision or anyone to stop you if you decide to stick with them.” He began to limp over to grab his stuff.

“Oh,” Hugo’s eyes went wide. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. Finally he got out. “Cyrus...”

The bushes began to rustle, and Cyrus jolted upright, body moving to block Hugo from view. “Leave,” he hissed. Hugo didn’t need telling twice, scrambling back into the foliage back towards his friends. He did not look back.

The rustling stopped as the crow jumped out. Cyrus let his shoulders relax as it cocked it head sideways to stare up at him with one eye while the other one spun in circles. “There you are, you coward,” he sighed. “You left me all by myself back there.”

The crow gave a sharp caw, and began to peck at the open air. Cyrus sighed as he sat back down. “It's over now,” he told the bird. “I’ll head back to Donella and tell her I messed up while Hugo stays here with his friends.”

The crow stared at him, it's usually mobile eyes stopping to pin him into place. Cyrus felt a shiver run down his back at the intelligence hidden deep inside them.

“Odin’s eyes,” his grandpa’s voice whispered in his ears. “Whatever the crow sees the king of the dark sees too.”

Cyrus shook his head to clear it of the fear. “Oh don’t look at me like that,” he told the crow. “You don’t know what’s like to raise a son. Sometimes staying with you just isn’t good for them.”

A strange, animalistic sympathy flashed across the crow’s bulging eyes. Then it bowed its head and began pecking at a rock on the ground, missing every now and then to hit the open air. All its intelligence seemed to vanish as if it had been nothing but Cyrus’s imagination.

Cyrus watched it peck away, mind still on Hugo and his friends. It was good that they cared about Hugo. He wasn’t sure what he’d have done if they didn’t. But they had been willing to face Cyrus for Hugo, so they were all right in Cyrus’s book. Kinda small though. He briefly wondered if he should follow after them regardless, just to make sure they stayed alive. But no. They’d made short work of him, they would be fine.

Hugo would be fine. He was an adult now. Making his own friends and his own decisions. He didn’t need Cyrus to take out the trash anymore.

--------------

The alley behind the bar had been dark, but that was to Cyrus’s advantage, deep shadows hiding even his large form. Not that he needed surprise. His target wasn’t exactly in the best fighting shape. It was far from sporting, but as every thug in the guild could tell you, sporting wasn’t a thug’s job. Especially for people like this. Cyrus pulled his lips into a sharp smile.

Grimoire stepped into the alleyway, two friends at his side. Smart of him to have lackeys with him, but alas, still not enough. Cyrus darted forward, slamming a fist to the lackey on the left. Grimoire ducks, but Cyrus keeps his fist going, knocking the first lackey’s head into the second’s and sending them both crumbling to the ground. Good. He didn’t recognize them from earlier, so it was best to leave them out of this.

Grimoire scowled at him, already aware of what was coming. “Didn’t you tell the brat you’d leave me alive?” he mocked as he pulled out a knife and dropped into a waiting stance.

Cyrus didn’t bother to respond. Grimoire lunged with his knife at Cyrus’s stomach, but Cyrus sidestepped, catching the blade in one hand and twisting Grimoire’s wrist with the other. A single, well placed blow was all it took, and the man slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Cyrus took the knife and quietly finished him off. It was quick and painless, far better than he deserved. But Cyrus wasn’t the type to relish in cruelty when efficiency was an option. Task done, he turned on his heel, a strange satisfaction filled his stomach as he left the body to rot in the back alley.

There would be no consequences for this crime, Cyrus knew. There was no guild to protect Grimoire. And besides, there was a certain understanding on the streets about those who hurt children, even ones as annoying as Hugo. Even if everyone knew who killed Grimoire, no one was going to say anything. Sometimes it was better to let thugs be thugs.

Hugo never talked to Cyrus about Grimoire, but Cyrus could see a weight on his shoulders lift as news traveled around the underground that he was dead, killed in some back alley robbery. He didn’t seem to care to look any further into the flimsy details, like how nothing of Grimoire’s had been taken. Cyrus in turn never offered up any information of his own involvement.

Donella never said anything either. But the next day she quietly called Cyrus into her office and told him his probationary period was up, and he was now a full employee. It might have been a coincidence, but Cyrus had a feeling that the old bat knew far more than she was telling. Not that it much mattered. What was done was done.

---------------

The crow let out a sharp caw, startling Cyrus out of his dark thoughts. He shook his head and focused on the strange bird, who was now perched beside him one the log, somehow upside down.

“Guess I best be going,” he said as he rose to his feet. He gave the odd bird a two fingered salute. “It's been an honor to serve with you, my weird friend, but I’ve got to get home to my wife.” The bird raised a wing as if to give a salute back, and began absently nibbling on his own feathers.

Cyrus felt his lips twitch into a smile as he turned his face towards the setting sun, and home. He hoped Mona was making her famous stew. He’d send her a letter as soon as he ran into a town, and let her know to have some ready when he got back. He’d have quite the story to tell her over it.