[attr="class","ferntitle"]Fern

[attr="class","deltitle"]Delaney

[attr="class","fernpost"]
In the wake of the fight, as it all slows around them, when the people cheer it is for luka chêne . Rhydia Ver . jayden cross .[break][break]

A slow, crooked grin spreads across their face in time with the lift of their brows, and they nudge Jayden with an elbow. “I think they like you.”

Enough, it seems, to make a king of him.[break][break]

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They never do quite manage to leave in the subsequent days and weeks and months. Oddly enough, it feels like an accepted fact. Fern doesn’t rage against their inability to find a way out. Or perhaps they can’t when they are focused on what tasks they can work on in the time that stretched on. They set up shop, and before they know it, they’ve become their father’s son. Fern never thought they’d be an apothecarist, but the skills are needed and supplies are scarce. Together with John Sullivan , just maybe they think the pokecenter can be rebuilt into something bigger and better.[break][break]

Then of course a few years in, Fern takes ill and is convinced they’ll die.[break][break]

Fern has never taken well to sickness when it creeps in, and maybe they’re always a touch toward the dramatic, but in the cold winter of Ballonlea, with a shortage of supply stock and a pneumatic cough that won’t subside, they really do think they’re done for. The toxins that persist year to year play a part to think, but Fern isn’t positive. All they know is that nothing seems to work. Nothing they do, nothing John Sullivan does. With or without assistance from tapu lele.[break][break]

So it gets a lot worse long before it gets better.[break][break]

It’s a miserable time, stuck feverish and bedridden and miserable. Even worse to see the effect it has on Jayden. Go, Michail. They'd like to say more often than not, go and rest. But they are also a selfish creature. Terrified of anytime that passes without him there by their bedside. So they never quite manage to tell him to go.[break][break]

Wellness becomes their slow crawl.[break][break]

They don’t expect to come out of the spell, but against all odds they manage it. Fortified by the efforts and encouragement of Jayden and Doug, and others like mint frost who remain a persistent stamp upon their life until Fern can’t think of possibly leaving any of them behind. They never feel totally okay again, though—coughs come on easily, and even short little walks wind them. But they’ll take it over being stuck inside, in a bed, for any longer than they’ve already endured.[break][break]

They fall back into place, and though they’ve never really been one for assimilation, the normalcy starts to feel a bit nice.[break][break]

It is both a surprise, and not at all when Jayden asks them to marry him afterward. Something they had wanted to do and found themself unable, but how can they say anything but yes? (in the most teasing manner possible.) It’s an answer they could answer in their sleep. One without doubt or hesitation.[break][break]

What does not come expectedly, is parenthood.[break][break]

Fern never considered themself the sort to be a parent, but when Aoife begins to sit with them—fascinated by the gardens they tend and the mixtures they make, they begin to see, maybe, what their da felt raising them. Before they know it, she’s become part of a small family unit, and they can’t turn away the twins Jayden finds. Suddenly, they are not just a da to one, but to three, and it’s strange but it feels more natural than they ever once anticipated.[break][break]

Something about it allows them the space to grieve what they miss. Little things, yes, but others. Like people. Their da. Marza Volchitsa. Taking care of them like a fretting mother hen allows Fern to see the care they’d put elsewhere be applied to something new, something that will grow up and flourish because they and Jayden chose to care.[break][break]

It’s not easy, of course. They’re convinced they’ll go grey prematurely. But if it’s to protect each hair on their little heads, it will have been worth it.[break][break]

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Ten years brings a life they’d never envisioned for themself. Stability, a family. Fern doesn’t care whether they are classed as royalty or not—they would tether themself to jayden cross no matter where he stood. When the prophecy comes to a head, it’s him they stand by. It’s him they fight with. They are not the most skilled or the most capable, but they won’t be pulled from their place by his side. They are bound, roots grown and twined together.[break][break]

So that when they fight, it isn’t for the hope of a way out. It’s for the potential of the coming day. To wake up somewhere warm and safe with the person they cherish most. So that they can sort their herbs and count their stocks. So they can thread their fingers through Aoife’s hair before braiding it for the day. So that they can spin silly takes for Aisling and Maritza. So that they can continue to live in the simple space that they’ve cultivated together.[break][break]

All of it, for tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
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tldr;[break]
+ strange new world huh?[break]
+ works with Doug to make the pokecenter functional. Sets up an apothecary alongside.[break]
+ gets mad sick around year three, really thinks he’s about to perish, but somehow slowly recovers[break]
+ gets married to jayden, eventually adopts some lil bebes uwu[break]
+ weirdly settles into life there, as most of the Ballonlea group seems to. [break]
+ when the black knight comes, he fights to defend rather than escape.[break]
+ weapon is a set of throwing knives that utilize phantom force
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[attr="class","fernpoke"]

[attr="class","ftag"] jayden cross

[attr="class","fernbottom"][attr="class","r"]♠