#no actually I've planned to post this today for a long time sjdfksd It's father's day where I live and I wanted to mark the date

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Relationship: The Bell Keeper & Meiri (OC) Category: Gen Word count: 2.9k Chapters: 1/? Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Found Family

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Preview:

A thing about Ed, one that Meiri could have never foreseen wouldn’t get on her nerves until she wanted to bite another hole into his decrepit overcoat, was that every time she thought she had him completely figured out, he’d go and surprise her.

Which was exactly what happened shortly after they arrived at the cabin the very afternoon he had signed the papers declaring that he, of fully informed and free will, was taking Meiri to be his problem for the rest of his life.

(That, by itself, should have already hinted to her that the guy was very strange, if she were being honest.)

Meiri had been setting the dishes on the table, organising them the best she could. It was hard to do much when the material she had to work with were two plain white plates – one of them with a barely noticeable chip, which she placed before her usual chair – and mismatched cutlery, but at least she was trying. Maybe too much, in fact, considering her vision was beginning to play tricks on her with how obsessive she got about placing the fork and knife perfectly parallel.

Luckily, Edmund leaving the small bathroom after his shower saved her from escalating to frustration, then anger, then most likely throwing the cutlery across the cabin to hang from the opposite wall.

That would not be a very good show to put on on her first official day at the cabin.

The steam that accompanied the man’s entrance smelled of cardamom from his soap and sandalwood from his deodorant (she had read every single label in the cabin one day when she was bored), and it was strangely soothing. Meiri sat back on Ed’s chair, huffing, when the fork’s placement still looked off to her

Maybe it was a secret cutlery rebellion. Or they just hated her in particular.

She felt a hand on her head, and scrunched her nose when Edmund ruffled her hair, feigning an undignified “hey!” before he walked by her to sit on the opposite chair.

This was wrong. They were in the wrong places. She’d even put out the cutlery they were each used to using already. She was about to point this out when he said it.

“Want to go out for dinner tonight?”

Meiri blinked.

“Dinner?”

“Yes. It’s the meal we have in the evenings.”

She glared, but it seemed to amuse him so whatever effect she used to get out of that was apparently ruined.

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