Despite the cold weather, Ashton seemed anxious about being cooped up inside all day, so Niles took the two faeries back out in the afternoon. The woodlands finally listened to Niles and slipped on a jacket, though he seemed unhappy about it. Lucy didn't mind the extra layers, and she zipped around happily, tiny scarf trailing behind her.

While Niles busied himself with adding compost to the plant beds, Lucy and Ashton wandered to the edge of the pond, where Lucy was trying to goad Ashton into swimming.

"Come on, you're part water sprite!" Niles overheard Lucy say. "How could you be such a disgrace to your people?"

Niles, who was wrist deep in dirt, rolled his eyes. He wanted to scold Lucy and tell her to lay off the poor faerie, but Ashton didn't seem to mind, so Niles didn't step in.

"But I never used to go swimming before," he heard Ashton explain. "Getting your wings wet is the worst."

"Ugh, it is awful," Lucy agreed. "They take forever to dry. And it's such a waste to use magic on them to speed the drying process up."

Niles snuck a peek at the unlikely little pair. He was glad that Lucy was around, as Ashton noticeably opened up with her. Niles liked to eavesdrop on their conversations because it was the only time that Ashton really spoke. The sprite did talk to Niles a little bit more these days, but he always clammed up whenever Niles came by to join the conversations between him and Lucy.

The two little faeries were both staring out at the water, Lucy with her hands on her hips, pink wings opening and closing in distaste. Ashton towered over her, looking uneasy but curious as he peered into the pond's depths. Niles wondered if he considered going into the water now that his wings were gone.

"So, what, you've never used your gills before?" he heard Lucy demand next.

Ashton shook his head. "No, I have," he corrected. "Back when I visited my grandparents as a youngling. But my little brother wasn't born with gills, so my dad convinced his parents to start coming out of the pond to spend more time with us."

Niles was surprised to hear Ashton mention anything about his family, and he slowed down his work to better catch their conversation.

"Oh, so your dad is a water sprite?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah," Ashton said. "My mom's a woodlands."

Lucy looked him up and down. "You're a true halfling, eh?"

Ashton lobbed a stone into the water. "Mhmm," he confirmed, distracted.

If Lucy was surprised, she didn't show it. "Don't see many of those," she said lightly. "How does that even work? Does your dad still live in the water then? Or does he live aboveground with your mom? I thought sprites couldn't be out of the water for more than a couple of days."

"He splits his time," Ashton said. "My dad's pond and my mom's tree are next to each other, so it's pretty easy."

"Huh, that's nice," Lucy remarked. Niles continued to listen in, shocked by how much Ashton was sharing. Seeing pictures of his and Lucy's family that morning must have loosened his tongue a bit.

The two faeries stood there in silence for a minute before Lucy suddenly broke it.

"Oh," she blinked. "So that's what your family crest means."

Ashton stiffened, and his fingers flew up to the mark on his chest. Lucy pointed at it.

"The dragonfly for your dad, and the tree leaves for your mom. Is your mother's tree an ash tree?" She brightened suddenly, like she was recalling something. "Oh! Is that why they named you Ashton?"

Ashton took a step back and glanced over at Niles, who pretended not to notice. "I... umm, I don't..." he stuttered.

Lucy quickly shifted gears and patted his arm. "Don't worry about it; I was just a little curious. Speaking of woodlands, though, I was thinking about going to visit Mara and her clan tomorrow."

"Huh? So suddenly?" Ashton exclaimed, sounding horrified. If Lucy had wanted to calm Ashton down by changing conversation topics, she certainly failed by choosing this one.

"Yeah, I'll just be gone for a few weeks, though. I wanted to see her before the winter, you know? It will be hard to visit her when it gets even colder."

Ashton was silent for so long that Niles snuck another peek at him. The faerie was staring at Lucy pleadingly, like he wanted to beg her to stay.

Lucy noticed and nudged him. "What?" she demanded. "Why are you looking at me like a kicked puppy?"

"Do you really have to go?" Niles heard Ashton say, his voice scarcely above a whisper.

"I mean... no, but I'm still gonna," Lucy answered. "Now's the last window of time to go see her before we start getting snow."

Ashton didn't respond, so Lucy poked him again. "Come on, what's wrong?" she asked. "Do you not want me to go or something?"

"I just..." Niles caught Ashton quickly shoot him a glance before turning away again. The sprite's voice dropped even lower, and Niles found himself straining to hear him. "I'm... scared."

Lucy cocked her head to the side, looking unimpressed. "Of?"

Ashton's shoulders were hunched up protectively, as they always did when he was nervous. "I'm scared of being alone with Niles."

"Niles?" Lucy asked incredulously. "You're still scared of Niles?"

Niles winced at her tactlessness. Despite living together for two and a half months, it wasn't unexpected for Ashton to still be uneasy around him. It would have been stranger if the faerie had already warmed up to him. Lucy should know that, too.

Ashton hurried to shush her. "Shh!" he exclaimed, glancing back at Niles again. "Don't be so loud."

Lucy stretched her arm up to flick Ashton on the forehead.

"Niles won't hurt you," she reminded him. "But if you're that worried about being left alone with him, then you can always hide out in the pond until I get back."

"I can't hide from Niles!" Ashton immediately said, sounding aghast. "He'll be so mad at me!"

Lucy shrugged, skinny shoulders rolling. "Nah. And even if he was, how could he get to you when you're safely hidden away underwater?" She snapped her fingers and pointed in Ashton's face. "You know I'm right. Just say I'm right."

Ashton pushed her finger away with a frown. He shot another look at Niles surreptitiously, who pretended he couldn't hear the two faeries at all.

"No way," Ashton protested. "You're crazy, is what you are."

Niles wanted to let the little faerie keep talking, but he noticed that Ashton was already shivering. He stood up and took off his work gloves, both faeries turning to look up at him in surprise. 

"Come on, you two," Niles called down to them, already walking towards the house. "Let's head back inside."

***

Ashton fell asleep almost immediately after they came back inside. Niles took his nap time as an opportunity to pull Lucy into the next room to talk with her. He was quiet for a moment, busying himself with making tea and settling at the table to gather his thoughts. Tired of waiting, Lucy kicked at him.

"Alright, what's bothering you this time?" Lucy prodded. Niles jerked out of his thoughts and looked down at her. She was leaning on his hand and looking up at him expectantly.

Niles sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I overheard your conversation in the garden," he admitted. "Are you really leaving? Tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Lucy said. "Gotta visit the girlfriend before the winter snows make the trip impossible." She tilted her head to the side and stared up at him. "Ashton doesn't want me to go, though. Should I stay? Do you need me here?"

Niles gently played with one of her wings. He also wanted to ask her to stay, as Ashton was much more comfortable when she was around. Niles had no idea how Ashton would act once Lucy left. Would he withdraw back into his shell? Start crying at the sight of Niles again? But then Niles remembered how sad Lucy looked earlier when she had stumbled across that photo of Mara. She had already done so much for him and Ashton over the past month. She should be able to take a break.

"No, you should go," Niles said finally. "Ashton and I will be fine here for a few weeks. And it's not like Mara's clan is that far, anyway. I can take him to visit you if he's really upset."

Lucy beamed, but Niles held a finger up to stop her next remark.

"Before you go though, Luce, maybe you could give me some ideas about Ashton's sleep?"

Lucy tilted her head to the side. "His sleep?" she echoed. "What about his sleep? He's sleeping right now."

"Yes, but he barely sleeps at night, and his nightmares seem to be getting worse," Niles pointed out. "I don't know what to do. I don't think there's really anything to do except let the memories fade with time, you know?"

"Hmm, yeah, you could do that," Lucy remarked. She stood on her tiptoes to peer into Niles mug, and he put a little of the tea on a spoon for her. She took a sip, satisfied.

"Or you can start changing out his bedding in the carrier more than once a week. See what that does."

"I..." Niles blinked. "What? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Haven't you noticed?" Lucy chirped. "He gets most anxious and tired on the days when you haven't replaced his blankets recently— when they smell the least like you."

Niles stared at her and considered it. He did laundry every Saturday, where he would take out Ashton's old sheets and blankets, replace them with clean ones, and then wash and store the old bedding in his drawer so that it would be ready for the following week. He never thought much of it, but looking back, he realized Lucy was right. Ashton always seemed the most well-rested during the weekend. Lucy stared back at him, smirking.

Niles blinked. "I... oh. No, I hadn't. I hadn't really put those two together."

Lucy scoffed. "And you call yourself a fae doctor?"

"Hey," Niles protested. "I figured he wouldn't have such a heightened sense of smell because he's a water sprite."

"And half woodlands," Lucy reminded him. "They have the most sensitive noses out of all of us. Ashton must have inherited that trait."

"Hmm," Niles propped his chin on his hand and looked at Lucy, reaching out with his free hand to gently poke her forehead. She frowned and batted his finger away. As a garden pixie, she was much smaller than the other fae subspecies, and much more colorful. Pixies had adapted that way to blend in with the butterflies and hummingbirds that frequented human gardens. Like woodlands, their senses of smell and hearing were heightened, though woodlands had the additional gift of exceptional eyesight.

Water sprites were different from both— an odd outlier that humans still didn't know much about. They almost entirely relied on touch so that they could feel the temperature changes in the water and vibrations from the movement of predator and prey alike.

Ashton was very sensitive to touch, and he looked so much like a water sprite that Niles hadn't considered that he probably had a lot of woodlands traits as well. Indeed, it seemed that Ashton identified more as a woodlands anyway, given how much he was mourning the loss of his wings and how he never seemed interested in exploring the pond in Niles' garden.

Niles shook his head. "Well, I also never considered that my smell would make him feel safe," Niles explained, defending himself. "He's always so skittish around me."

Lucy shrugged. "You probably smell really different from that awful human captor, so waking up from a bad dream and being surrounded by your scent is probably the quickest reminder for him that he's no longer trapped there. You know how scent is closely linked to memory. I'm sure your scent helps a lot."

"Hmmm..." Niles mused. "Alright, I'll try changing out his bedding more frequently. Thanks."

Lucy pulled on Niles' fingers until there was an opening she could slip into. She settled into the hollow of his hand contentedly. "Now, what else is bothering you?" she questioned. "Surely you didn't want a private conversation just to discuss Ashton's poor sleeping habits."

Niles glanced back towards the office, where Ashton was still sleeping. Niles doubted that the faerie would like what he was about to request from Lucy, but he would worry about that later. He lowered his voice automatically, though that wouldn't have done much good if Ashton had been awake.

"It's about Ashton's clan," Niles began. "Did I hear right when he said that he's a true halfling?"

"His mom's a woodlands," Lucy offered. "And his dad's a sprite. He was probably raised with his mother's clan, but his father lives in a pond nearby. My guess is that their magic source is an ash tree. I looked more closely at his crest, and it looks like the dragonfly wings might be ash leaves."

"That's so odd," Niles commented. "Woodlands and sprites don't get along well enough to live near each other."

"I know," Lucy agreed. "Sprites are extremely territorial, so it's not common for woodlands or water sprites to live by each other."

"Hmm," Niles murmured. "Well, when you visit Mara, could you ask her about any woodlands clans living near water sprites? I'm sure there can't be too many."

"Ashton's probably from a deep woods clan that hasn't had any contact with humans," Lucy pointed out. "Mara might not know anything about his clan. She's not deep woods."

"I know," Niles admitted. "But she would know better than either of us. And I know it's late in the year and not many faeries are traveling before winter, but maybe you two could ask around and see what you can find out."

Lucy gave him a thumbs up. "You got it," she assured Niles. "Just leave it to me. We'll find a way to get Ashton home."

_____________________________________________________________

A/N: Don't you just love being sneaky and conspiring with your friends? Niles and Lucy sure do. And they've finally figured out some clues about Ashton and his clan! Hooray!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment or ask questions. See you in the next part!