Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Okay, I've got to get going, but you two have a good time together!” Steve said after he had finished introducing Katya to Mattholomule. He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on his girlfriend's cheek and whispered, “I love you,” while she smiled and leaned into his touch. He then turned around to face his brother and pulled the squirming boy into a side hug. “I love you, too, you know.”

After that he headed out the door to leave the two of them alone. Steve was excited for two of the most important people in his life to get to know each other, but he was also extremely nervous, because today he'd also be getting to know two of the most important people in Katya’s life: Derwin and Amber. 

In theory, Steve should have had the less daunting task, given the fact that he had already met Derwin and Amber. But that didn't change the fact that he was once a scout for the Emperor’s Coven, while they had been Bards Against the Throne. 

Belos was awful. Steve knew that now. And he deeply regretted all the years he spent blindly serving the tyrant. He had been working with his therapist for a while now on forgiving himself for that, but it was hard. And if he hadn't fully forgiven himself yet for serving Belos, how could he possibly expect Derwin and Amber to? 

All these thoughts filled Steve's head through the short walk from the house to his motorcycle. He took a deep breath as he sat on the bike and put on his helmet, knowing it wasn't wise to drive while anxious. He thought back to Katya, and how much he loved her, and how much she loved him in return. Katya was able to see beyond his past, and she had also been the one to remind him that all four of them had served the Covens Against the Throne together. She had assured him that Derwin and Amber didn't secretly hate him, and he trusted her. That was enough. 

He revved up his engine, and headed off towards the BAT apartment. 

“I don't understand why we have to do this,” Amber complained to Derwin as they waited for their friend’s boyfriend to arrive. 

“Come on, Amber. You know this means a lot to Katya,” Derwin said. Both he and Katya knew how cold Amber could be towards people she didn't know well, and he had promised Katya he'd help keep the younger demon’s attitude in check. “She really wants us all to get along.”

“But I—”

“No buts. You didn't like Eda either when you first met her, and now you love her.”

“You leave Mama Eda out of this! And I'm trying to tell you—”

“My point is, you need to give people a chance, Ambs. You know Steve is a nice guy.”

Before Amber could open her mouth with another comeback, they were interrupted by the sound of a knock on the door.

“That's him,” Derwin whispered. “Be nice!”

Derwin opened the door to find Steve on the other side, dressed in his classic dragon leather jacket, charcoal colored slim-fitting pants, clunky black buckled boots, and one of his signature t-shirts. From the waist up, he looked pretty similar to how he had when he'd first shown up at the CAT hideout with Eda, but he no longer wore the puffy pants and pointy-toed boots associated with the Emperor's Coven. 

“Hi guys,” Steve greeted as Derwin let him in. “Go CATs!”

Derwin kindly smiled at Steve’s greeting and hissed and posed with him. Amber did as well, albeit a bit half-heartedly. Steve lowered his arms and awkwardly cleared his throat. “So, uh, I'm glad you guys agreed to hang out with me today. I think it will be fun.”

“Us too,” said Derwin. When Amber didn't say anything, he elbowed her in the side.

“Ow!” she hissed, but then awkwardly smiled at Steve.

An uncomfortable silence followed. Steve had tried preparing some conversation and activity ideas earlier, but now that he was actually face to face with Derwin and Amber his ideas didn't seem so good anymore. Still though, he should try, right?

But before Steve could suggest something for them to do, Derwin spoke up. “Is that a different ‘Steve’ shirt? I don't think I've seen this green one before.”

“Oh, yeah! Thanks for noticing! I just made this one last weekend.”

“Wait, you make them yourself? I didn't know that,” Derwin said, sounding intrigued.

“Yeah, I make all of them! They're really fun. I've made a couple for Katya, too.” Steve paused as a new idea came to him. “If you guys want, I could show you how to make them?”

Even Amber perked up a bit at that.

“Really?” asked Derwin. 

“Of course!” said Steve.

“Then, okay yeah! Let's do it!” said Derwin. 

“Okay cool! We can get supplies from the market and get started right away.” 

Amber and Derwin exchanged a look before matching grins spread across their faces. 

“Can we go on your motorcycle?” asked Derwin. “We know it's not that far to the market, but Katya told us all about it and we really wanna see what it's like.”

“Sure!” Steve said without hesitation. Derwin was right that the market was pretty close and it wasn't really necessary to drive, but Steve was just thrilled the two of them–even Amber–were excited about doing something with him. “I've got extra helmets, and I'm parked right outside.”

“Dibs on the sidecar!” Amber exclaimed and dashed out the door. Steve and Derwin both chuckled and followed.

Amber was already climbing into the sidecar when Steve and Derwin caught up to her. Steve passed her and Derwin helmets and motioned for Derwin to sit behind him on the seat. Derwin did as instructed and held onto Steve's waist for safety, though he did not hug him as close as Katya normally would. “I sure hope I don't make Katya jealous,” he teased.

Steve snorted. “Are you kidding? I'm more worried about Matty getting jealous of Amber riding in the sidecar.” The girl stuck out her tongue playfully and the three of them all giggled before speeding off.

“THAT WAS SO COOL! STEVE YOU’RE AMAZING!” Amber exclaimed as they all hopped off the motorbike.

“Well you certainly changed your tune,” Derwin laughed.

“Shut up, Steve and I have always been cool,” she said.

“We have?” “You have?” Steve and Derwin asked at the same time. Steve still had a hard time believing the BATs could actually like him knowing he had been a scout, and Derwin knew Amber was rarely “cool” with anyone.

“I tried telling you earlier but you weren't listening,” she rolled her eyes at Derwin and then turned to Steve. “You don't remember what happened on the Day of Unity, do you?” 

“Um, I remember parts of it…you know, before everything went blurry.”

Blurry was what most people used to describe how it felt being made into one of the Collector’s puppets. It was a unique form of consciousness, somewhere between sleeping and dreaming yet somehow still wide awake. Puppeted people could mostly hear what was going on around them, but there was a distant quality to it, and after they had been freed they mostly forgot what they heard and saw as puppets. It was all as distant and blurry as a dream after waking.

“You and I stayed on the ship to keep watch while everyone else went down, remember? And when the Collector started blasting at us, you pushed me out of the way and got hit yourself.”

Steve was shocked, he had completely forgotten that! They say you can't remember the five minutes before you fall asleep, and apparently the same applied to being puppeted. 

“I got hit a few minutes later, but it still meant a lot to me,” she added. 

Steve blinked back tears. “Wow, I don't know what to say.”

“You don't have to say anything, just know that you're cool.”

“Agreed,” said Derwin.

“Thanks,” Steve sniffed. He then shook his head as if to get rid of all his overwhelming emotions and smiled at his companions. “Now let's get our potion ingredients.”

The trio made quick work of shopping for ingredients, and soon they were back in the apartment with a collection of fruits, vegetables, herbs, various bottles of different powders and liquids, and three plain white t-shirts. 

“And that's all we need for the base potion,” Steve explained as he stirred the cauldron in front of them. “Now we separate it out and add our color reagents.”

Derwin and Amber held out several smaller cauldrons for Steve and watched in anticipation as he poured the base into each of them. 

“Now, what colors do you guys want?” Steve asked them once he had put the larger cauldron back down.

“Pink and purple!” exclaimed Amber, and Steve was glad for her enthusiasm.

“Alright, for that you'll need avoclawdo skins and purple scabbage,” he said while handing her the vegetables. “You can grind each up with this mortar and pestle and add them to the base. What about you, Derwin?”

Derwin hummed as he thought it over. “How about black and red?”

“Sure! You'll need fae-corns for the black, and purple scabbage for the red. And be sure to add lots of skinegar to the scabbage brew, it needs to be acidic to turn red.”

Derwin took the ingredients from Steve and began to grind them with a mortar and pestle just as Amber was doing next to him. “What about yours? You must have every color of the painbow by now?”

Steve chuckled. “That is true, but I'm actually thinking of making one for Raine. Do you think they'd like yellow and green?” Both BATs nodded in approval. “Cool. Then it's terrormeric and purple scabbage with alum powder for Steve.”

The silence that followed this time was much more comfortable as the three of them worked on their respective brews, though Derwin was once again the first to break it. “It's cool of you to make one for Raine, I bet they'll appreciate it.”

Steve smiled. “I hope so. I wanna be on their good side, too.”

“I don't think you need to worry about that,” said Derwin. “But they'll still like the gift.”

“Thanks,” Steve smiled. He then took a look around and saw they had all finished mixing their ingredients while they had been talking. “Alright it looks like we're ready to start our shirts now!”

“Woo-hoo!” cheered Amber. 

They laid out the three shirts on the table along with their small cauldrons of dye potions and started planning their designs. 

“Now usually, I use potion magic to precisely direct the dyes to create the letters and shapes I want, but we can pour them directly onto the fabric or use paint brushes instead,” Steve explained. Though the coven system had been abolished when Belos was defeated, no one had figured out yet how to remove sigils so Derwin and Amber were still limited to their bard magic.

Amber put her hand to her chin in thought until her face lit up with an idea. She then summoned her recorder and began to play. Red magic poured out of the instrument towards one of the small cauldrons. She levitated a bubble from her purple scabbage brew and directed it to the shirt, spelling out the letters A M B E R. 

“Hey, that actually worked!” she exclaimed as she admired her handiwork.

“That was awesome!” Steve praised. “And a great idea! I never thought of using bard magic with these before, I definitely have to try it.”

“Do you know any bard magic?” Derwin asked as he summoned a piccolo. Usually his preferred instrument was the bassoon, however he figured a project like this would be better suited for something smaller. Most bards knew how to play at least a few instruments, although Raine knew how to play every instrument known to witchkind.

“I can play the guitar,” he answered. “And Katya’s been teaching me the harmonica too.” 

Deciding that of those two a harmonica would be easier to control the dyes with, Steve summoned the instrument and began using it to direct streaks of green across Raine’s shirt. He was quite pleased with the effect it created, and made a mental note to experiment more with different techniques in the future. 

After that it was just a quick drying spell to finish the process and they were done! Derwin and Amber immediately went into their bedrooms to change into their shirts and came back excited to show off their final products.

“They look awesome!” Amber exclaimed as she proudly examined her new shirt and twirled around in the mirror.

“Yeah, they look great!” Derwin agreed.

“You guys both did a great job,” Steve complimented. “How about we get some iced scream to celebrate?”

Since it was close by, the trio decided this time to walk to the iced scream parlor, talking and laughing the whole time. 

“Hey, is that Katya?” Derwin asked as they got closer.

Sure enough, there was Katya. Her signature black and blue ponytail and purple dress she had been wearing today were unmistakable. 

“Yeah, it is!” Amber confirmed. “And it looks like she's hugging some short guy? Looks like you've got some competition, dude,” she teased while nudging Steve.

Steve laughed as he recognized exactly who his girlfriend was hugging. “Nah, that's just my little brother, Matty. Come on, I'll introduce you guys!”

“Wow, looks like you two really hit it off today!” Steve said as he approached Katya and Mattholomule. The two of them spun around at the sound of his voice, Steve delighting in how happy Katya looked to see him (and how embarrassed Matty looked after being hugged in public). 

“Katya! Katya! Look!” Amber shouted, eager to show off their creations. “Steve taught us how to make t-shirts!” She and Derwin both struck faux-dramatic poses to model them. 

“Very nice!” Katya exclaimed. She then leaned in closer to Steve and said softly, “Looks like we all had a good day today.” 

Steve smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Katya leaned into his touch and he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. “We did.” 

“So, are you gonna introduce us?” interrupted Derwin.

“Oh right!” said Katya. “Mattholomule, these are my best friends Derwin and Amber. Derwin and Amber, this is Steve's brother Mattholomule.” 

“Nice to meet you,” said Derwin.

Steve and Derwin simultaneously elbowed Mattholomule and Amber respectively till they both awkwardly mumbled, “Hi.” 

“You guys about to get iced scream?” Katya asked.

“We sure are,” said Steve.

“Sounds great! We just had some too. It is getting a bit late though, do you want to head back now Mattholomule?”

Matty nodded his head and Steve didn't miss the relief on his face at Katya’s suggestion. He certainly was impressed, she had only spent a few hours with Matty and had already learned to tell when he needed a break. 

Katya placed a quick peck on Steve's lips before she and Mattholomule parted ways with them, leaving the other three to enjoy their frozen treat. 

“So really, how did everything go today? Amber didn't give you a hard time did she?” a small image of Katya said from inside Steve’s crystal ball. The two of them were chatting just as they did every evening before going to sleep. 

“Not at all, actually, Amber and I are cool,” he said a bit smugly. “Her words, not mine.” 

Katya laughed. “Wow, I'm impressed. She doesn't take to most new people that easily.”

“What about you? How was Matty? Did he earn his two noogie-free months?” 

“Yup, no noogies from Steve,” she teased. “We actually had a great time, I even gave him one of my fics to read.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah, I don't think he knew much about fan fiction before, but he seemed curious about it so I also introduced him to Dark-hive Of Our Own. He’ll find tons of cool stuff to read th—”

“Is that Steve?” Amber suddenly appeared next to Katya. Steve waved at her.

“Amber, could you knock next time you come into my room?”

“Oh hey, Steve!” Derwin also appeared next to Amber.

“Unbelievable,” mumbled Katya as she dragged a hand across her face.

“Hey guys!” Steve said.

“Steve! Steve!” Amber excitedly started. “I was thinking, I bet if you play more staccato notes with the dyes you could create a really cool splatter effect! We have to try it next time we make more shirts!”

“Oh! That's a great ide—”

Steve was cut off by Mattholomule slamming open the door of his own bedroom. “Steve, why is there pink hair in my helmet?” 

“Uhhhh…I gotta go. Love you, Katya! Byeeeee!”