Milk and Brownies

(previous chapter)

Chapter 3

 

            A finger poked Hugo’s cheek. He murmured in his sleep and rolled onto his side. It prodded him again, insistently, and Hugo’s hand took a blind swipe at it before flopping back down onto the mattress.

 

            Sneaky hands tickled Hugo’s nose with the end of a blanket, and when he moved his head to find avoid the assault, they stole the pillow out from under his head. The young man groped for it for a moment before blearily opening his eyes.

 

            Three pairs of unnaturally large eyes blinked back at him. Hugo yelped and tumbled off of the side of the bed, tangled in blankets.

 

            “Good morning, Hugo!” Chair chirped. She waved the stolen pillow at him.

 

            Key and Grub knelt down and unwound the sheets that trapped Hugo. “Did you sleep well? How was the bed?” Key asked eagerly.

 

            “Do all humans sleep as deep as you?” Grub added. “We didn’t even need to sneak in here.”

 

            Hugo ignored the three chattering Brownies and groped his hand along the headboard until he found his glasses. ‘Be nice. Be polite,’ he reminded himself. ‘They helped you. They just don’t understand personal space’ He slid the glasses onto his face, stretched a little, and stood.

 

            “Good morning,” Hugo replied to Chair. She giggled and smoothed the pillowcase in her arms. “The bed was very comfortable. I sleep deeply, but when I wake up with people standing over me, I get… startled.” Hugo struggled to phrase it as delicately as he could. Key smirked and patted the bed lovingly when he praised it, but she and her brother grimaced as he finished talking.

 

            “I hope you are taking note of what Hugo is teaching you, children.” Broom’s head leaned in through the open doorway. His brow furrowed as he lectured. “A firsthand perspective is a valuable resource.”

 

            The children frowned. “Da, we wouldn’t have let him see us if he wasn’t a guest,” Key complained. “And he already knows about us, which gives him an unfair advantage.”

 

            “It is not practice that makes perfect, sweetheart. It is perfect practice. I want all of you to treat every exercise as if it were real.” The brownie father turned slowly, meeting each of his children’s eyes in turn. When he reached Hugo, his serious expression lightened, and his lips twitched just a little at the sides in semblance of a smile.

 

            “Now, what would our guest fancy for breakfast?” he asked. 

 

            Hugo looked down at him and shrugged sheepishly. “Anything would be fine, sir. Whatever you’re having,” he replied.

 

            “No, make a request!” Chair squealed. She bounced up and down as she spoke; the pillow in her arms slipped to the floor with a muffled thump. “I can make unicorn pancakes and dragon bread and goblin hash browns,” the little girl proclaimed. She tugged on Hugo’s sleeve. “What do you want?”

 

            Hugo raised an eyebrow. “Unicorn pancakes…?” he ventured with reluctance. Twiggy arms wrapped around his legs and a flushed brown cheek rubbed against his stomach as the little brownie hugged him.

 

            “Those are my favorite!” she sighed. “And I get to make them for a human. I’ll make them even better than normal for you, Hugo, just wait!”

 

            Chair released him and shot out of the tiny bedroom.

 

            “Da, why does she get to make Hugo breakfast?” Grub grumbled. The young boy picked up the pillow Chair had dropped and added it to the pile of sheets bundled in his arms.

 

            Broom shook his head a little and gave his son a patient glare. “Because she is a little girl and she is excited, Grub. I assure you that you will each get an opportunity to practice your cooking. But right now, you and Key need to take care of that laundry.”

 

            Hugo winced as the children scurried around the room with his sheets and his pillow. “There’s no need…I can help, too,” he offered.

 

            The three brownies jerked around to face him and spoke all at once.

 

            “You can’t do that!”

            “You are our guest.”

            “This is our job!”

 

            Their eyes flashed, and Hugo felt a tremor of static electricity travel the length of his spine. He hoped it wasn’t more of their magic. But as quickly as the anger came, it passed. Broom took a breath and laid a hand on his children’s shoulders.

 

“Hugo, it is our nature to serve humans. Breakfast will be ready soon. Please, just wait here and we will get you your clothing,” he requested. He steered Grub and Key towards the door and together they slipped out of the room.

 

            The door clicked shut, and Hugo was sure he heard the sound of a lock, as if they feared he was going to sneak out and clean something before they could get back with his clothes.

 

He sat down on the bed and waited for his captors to return. One silent minute passed, then another. “What did I get myself into?” Hugo asked himself quietly. “…and what the hell is a unicorn pancake, anyways?”

 

            “It’s not unicorn,” a voice whispered in his ear. Hugo whirled around; he would have fallen out of the bed a second time if Grub’s hand hadn’t shot out to steady him. The young boy, perched on the headboard, peered up at him through his disheveled green hair with an impish grin.

 

            “Chair uses normal batter; they’re not made out of unicorn, if you were wondering,” the young brownie repeated.

 

            Hugo nodded, not trusting himself to talk until his heart wrenched itself out of his throat and back into his chest. “…you…you startled me again…” he panted after a moment. “…didn’t hear you come in…”

 

            “Perfect practice makes perfect,” Grub smirked. “Here. I brought you clothes,” he added. He passed Hugo one of the outfits that had been in his bag. Hugo hesitated. Grub waited for a moment, confused, then blushed a deep purplish-brown.

 

            “I’ll…go wait outside,” he stuttered and disappeared.

 

            Hugo looked around. He didn’t see any more brownies popping up, so he changed quickly before they could come back.

 

………………………………………………….

 

            The door swung open when Hugo pushed it, so he figured he was allowed to leave his room now. Grub hadn’t brought his shoes along with his clothes, so he plodded down the hallway in sock feet. Noise and the scent of food drifted up the stairs from the kitchen. Hugo followed them and found Chair on a stool at the stove, with her mother watching and twitching with each drop of pancake batter that trickled onto the floor as the little girl poured.

 

            “Good morning,” Hugo greeted Quilt. She looked up at him and smiled.

 

            “Hugo dear, did you sleep well?” She gestured at one of the too-short chairs, so Hugo sat down and folded his legs underneath the table.

 

            “I slept well, tha…I mean…yeah. You really don’t have to feed me, too. You’ve done enough already.” If it hadn’t offended them so much the first time, he would have offered them his money again; taking so much for free felt like he was taking advantage of the poor creatures.

 

            Quilt smiled at him, and somehow the gleam in her eyes and the slight twitch of her green-brown eyebrows made the expression much more aggressive than it should have been. The tiny woman loomed over him.

 

            “About that, Hugo…I know you heard us talking last night. You told us you don’t have a place to stay, so why not stay here with us and let us help each other?” she asked quietly

 

            Chair flipped a pancake over in her skillet, and the batter hissed as it hit the hot surface. The young girl hummed happily and poked it with her spatula.

 

            “What is it that you want from me?” Hugo asked. What did magical creatures usually ask for? Given his gender and personal preferences, his firstborn son was out of the question, and he didn’t think the brownie family was the type to steal his soul or carry him off to fairyland.

 

            “We want to serve you, of course,” Quilt answered, as if Hugo were very stupid for not having guessed. “The children are a little…enthusiastic about their duties, as you’ve seen; they need to learn to act rationally and exhibit a little more restraint before we can let them find their own human households.”

 

            Hugo looked at Chair, who was carefully arranging two unicorn shaped pancakes on a plate. “If all they need is chores to do, why do you need me?” he asked. The young man turned back to Quilt, but found the chair in front of him empty. He scanned the room and found her on her hands and knees, scrubbing up the batter Chair had spilt.

 

            “Ma, I was going to get that!” Chair wailed. Quilt dropped her washcloth and clenched her apron tightly in her fists.

 

            “Sorry, love. I couldn’t help it,” the mother apologized. Chair frowned, but nodded and turned back to her cooking.

 

            Quilt shook her head and stood, walking back toward Hugo. “You see, it isn’t that simple. Cleaning is a…compulsion, I guess. We do what we can for the children, but we just aren’t able to create messes for them like a human can.”

 

            Hugo raised an eyebrow. “So, let me get this straight. You want me to stay here for free so you can feed me, clean up after me, and cater to my whims?”

 

            Quilt nodded solemnly. “I know it will be hard for you, dear, but think of the children,” she pressed on, without a trace of sarcasm. “It would mean so much to them.”

 

            Chair slid a plate in front of him and caught the young man in her wide eyed stare. “Will you stay with us, please-please-please? I’ll make you breakfast every day and take good care of you!”

 

            Hugo broke away from her liquid eyes and focused on the pancakes the little girl had set in front of him. She had iced the unicorns a frosty white, with chocolate chips for eyes and hooves and golden brown sugar for the horns.

 

            “It’s almost too perfect to eat,” he remarked. Tears welled up and trickled down Chair’s tiny face.

 

            “I’m sorry! I can m-m-make an ugly unicorn. I’ll do better!” she wailed.

 

            ‘What the hell?’ Hugo cursed to himself. The young man grabbed his fork, beheaded a unicorn, and stuffed the head in his mouth.

 

            “Is delishush,” he told the sobbing girl before he even got the chance to swallow. Her tears immediately ceased and she ran to hug him.

 

            “I did good, so you’ll stay, right?” Chair asked. She clung to Hugo’s shirt and it surprised him how much warmth could radiate from such a small body.

 

            “I…” he began hesitantly. He didn’t want to take advantage of their compulsions after they’d been so kind to them, and he couldn’t ignore the distinct possibility that he was hallucinating the whole event.

 

            Quilt closed in on him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We can take things slowly, dear. It’s still dreadfully wet outside; it wouldn’t clear up until tomorrow at the earliest. Why don’t you stay just one more day and see how you feel about it then?”

 

            The mother brownie smiled sweetly and her words sounded so reasonable that Hugo found himself nodding in agreement.

 

            “Yay!” Chair cheered, giving him an extra-tight hug before releasing him. She began doing cartwheels and cleaning up the kitchen at lightning speed.

 

            Hugo felt breath on both of his cheeks, and he jerked from left to right to find that Key and Grub had appeared, one on either side. Neither one seemed to consider personal space a valid concern.

 

            “You’ll stay?” Key squealed. She danced a jig around his chair.

 

            “I call Hugo’s lunch!” Grub claimed. He linked arms with his older sister and they danced together.

 

            “Then I call dinner,” Key agreed.

 

            Broom strode through the kitchen and wrapped an arm around his wife. “Did he agree?” he asked.

 

            “Of course he did,” Quilt laughed back. “Now hurry up or we’ll be late.”

 

            Hugo’s eyes hurt from trying to follow the rapid motions of his hosts as they zoomed around the room.

 

            “We’re off to work, loves,” Quilt called. She gave each child a kiss on the forehead, although she moved too quickly for Hugo to see her in between.

 

            “Take good care of your human, children,” Broom ordered.

 

            “Of course!” the three brownies chimed together. Hugo wasn’t sure when he’d become ‘theirs’.

 

            “We’ll see you this evening, Hugo,” Quilt sang out. The same static electricity from the night before shivered down his spine. The young man got the feeling that if he tried to leave before the parents returned, he wouldn’t make it very far out of the door.

 

            “Have…fun…?” he replied, not really sure what to say to the brownies. With a ‘pop’ sound, Quilt and Broom disappeared. The children ceased their dancing and surrounded his chair, watching him with ravenous expressions.

 

            Hugo gulped. If someone was manipulating someone else here, it certainly wasn’t him.

 

…………………………………………………………………….(next chapter)

 

AN: Apologies for the shortness of the chapter and for the wait. I swear it will get more exciting in the chapters to come.

 

And for everyone who is curious about elf king Gerald, he will probably get a story of his own once I get a little further into this story. I’m excited about him, though. I won’t give anything else away just yet.

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