singillatim | (closed) may catch-all

"We've met," Snow murmurs, in the sort of tone that doesn't hint at any deeper answer, but she's not sure what kind of information she would volunteer even if Bigby probed further.

She'd stumbled across Connor back when she was still staying in the Community Hall, immediately standing out in her view thanks to that tux. Naturally, she'd pegged him as a new arrival right away, but the conversation that had followed had only revolved around the standard details, nothing more significant than general impressions.

He's a kind young man, and while she wouldn't have guessed Bigby would have taken a shine to him, maybe he'd seen something in Connor that had led him to want to look out for him. It's something that has left Snow more curious than immediately suspicious, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want to hear the story from Bigby himself.

"I thought you weren't really a fan of roommates, though." Evidenced by the apartment he keeps in Fabletown, if she needs to point to anything specific. "So what changed?"

Bigby knows he's going to have to surrender something here. He can't just avoid the topic, since he knows Snow won't let it go that easily, and he also knows she's too smart. She would catch him in a lie instantly if he would try going down that route.

It just leaves the option of telling the truth, but.. how much truth? Saying it's his kid feels like it's going too far for way too many reasons. Saying he's a Fable might be too risky. It gets too close, too personal.

...

Well, there is one more thing that's true and would be an explanation by itself, right? Even if Connor wasn't related to him, this fact by itself would have been enough for Bigby to take some natural shine to him. So..

"He's also a wolf," he explains. Definitely the truth! Not the entire story, but.. still true! "And like me, he also got stuck here without the ability to turn back into one."

Bigby shifts a little. "I'm trying to look out for him so he won't get himself into trouble, especially when he doesn't have his usual abilities."

It feels like a pretty valid explanation to him. Snow knows he's not good with kids, sure, but.. if Connor is seen as a cub here, Snow might be more willing to believe it. Not like she's seen him around other wolves.

"... oh." Somehow, the idea that Connor is in any way connected to Bigby, even if it's just the simple fact of both of them being wolves, hadn't even occurred to her. Then again, how would she know, especially since neither of them is in possession of the abilities that would make something like that obvious?

Still, hearing it from Bigby directly is a surprise, not to mention the part where he's admitted to wanting to look out for Connor himself. It's an instinct she wouldn't have ascribed to him all that long ago, but maybe Milton has already changed him more than she could have predicted. It's certainly made him more likely to get up and be a leading presence at town meetings, and that sure as hell wouldn't have been the case back in Fabletown.

Fleetingly, Snow wonders what else has changed in him that she hasn't been aware of yet, and then just as quickly dismisses it from her mind.

"That's good," she adds, a little more softly. "That you're looking out for him. Really, Bigby, it is." And maybe she feels a little guilty for being more suspicious when the truth is so obvious in hindsight, but it doesn't mean she isn't impressed and appreciative at the same time.

Somehow he feels strangely more guilty than he thinks he would have felt if she had seen through this immediately. If she had pointed out that there's clearly more he's hiding. It feels selfish to hide it, but.. admitting to it would mean that he would only lose his chance with Snow even further, no matter how much he feels like it's out of reach already.

He can't give up on that yet. Bigby isn't ready to. Even less so when she stands right here in front of him like this, when he remembers her smaller body pressed against his own after the Darkwalker's attack. He just can't tell her that he's going to eventually have a kid with someone else. That's the moment it will all be over, after all.

What's said is said, though. The bit of guilt it comes with is just something he will have to live with, he thinks.

".. thanks," he says. A little awkwardly, but it doesn't seem like he doesn't mean it. If anything, it seems more like Bigby squirming in the face of a compliment - which, at least, isn't anything new. For all the abuse the man gets thrown at them, it's like he can't even take a positive word or two at times.

"I'm, uh.."

He slowly starts again.

"I know it probably seems weird. I mean, I'm usually not.." Bigby's voice trails off, and he shrugs a little, as if he's leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid, only implied. It's likely it was just something among the lines of like this, since surely Snow wouldn't come and ask him about it if it just seemed totally normal for Bigby to let some young guy live in the same house as him. He knows it isn't like him. But it feels like things had already slowly been shifting a little bit back home in recent times, and the months in this place have only accelerated the process.

Enough so that Bigby knows he would have looked out for Connor even if he wasn't Bigby's future kid. Maybe not enough to let him stay in his house, sure, but-- he would have kept an eye on him around town for sure.

"No, no, it's not weird," Snow says, immediately trying to reassure him, before she clamps her lips together and lets him get out whatever else he wants to say. But then he trails off, letting his sentence remain unspoken, even though she knows what he's getting at without him needing to utter the rest of the words.

"Okay, yeah, usually you wouldn't have done something like this, but is there anything all that usual about what we're dealing with here?" The two of them might have a little more experience facing extraordinary situations given where they came from, at least compared to the mundies around them. But that doesn't mean they've dealt with the exact same difficulties — trying to find resources, keeping warm against the brutal cold, and that's not even getting into facing the aftermath of what happens each time the Darkwalker attacks.

"I'm not upset or mad, Bigby. Far from it."

Maybe she was confused about why he might have refrained from telling her, why she had to be the one to ask him outright, but now that he's explained it to her, it does make sense. Maybe, instead of being confused, she's actually pleasantly surprised that he's chosen to do something that she's genuinely believed he was capable of all along.

She intends on reaching out to set a hand on Bigby's shoulder, but instead, her palm ends up resting lightly against his front, and she feels the warmth of him emanating through the fabric of his shirt, the dull thud of his heart in his chest. Her gaze is soft, as she glances up to him, the two of them standing at the threshold — and it doesn't even occur to her, right away, that his houseguest might be somewhere inside right at this moment.

"I've always known you had this in you," she murmurs, with a hopeful smile curving up her lips. "I was just waiting for you to see it, too."

Connor? Sorry, Bigby isn't even thinking about Connor anymore right now. Who's Connor?

Instead he's very busy with this. All of it. Somewhere between the way her hand rests against his chest all the way to the specific words Snow is saying right now.. It takes up the man's entire mind. The words would have meant a lot coming from anyone, but they mean even more when they are coming from the person he wants to hear them from the most. The entire world could continue calling him a monster, as long as it meant that Snow saw him this way, rather than like that.

"You.."

It's very unlike his usual self, but Bigby can't help it. He's so thrown off by everything that's going on here that it's hard to even find his voice, let alone words to go along with it.

Maybe that's why he can only stammer: "You have?"

Always? Even during the moments where he felt like Snow surely must hate him, where it felt like he was only letting her down even when he felt like he was just doing his best to do the right thing-- She had always known?

"Okay, maybe not always," Snow concedes, with a light chuckle, her fingers curving slightly against where they're already resting over Bigby's chest. Somehow, it doesn't occur to her to pull away, when the warmth of him, the constancy of his heartbeat, feels like a comfort all its own, a reassurance of his presence amid so much that she's still not fully used to.

"You... haven't been the greatest with kids, if memory serves, but I've seen the way you try with them when you think I'm not paying attention, even if you're not always sure what to say in the moment," she adds, voice softening again. "And I know you have one of the biggest protective streaks out of anyone I've ever met."

It was only a matter of time, in other words, before that protectiveness extended out further to someone else he wanted to keep safe, and while she knows he's probably not hovering around Connor or trying to constantly monitor his whereabouts, even the act of giving the younger man a roof over his head, whether out of a sense of some kind of pack loyalty or not, means something.

"On the other hand, maybe the two of you should set some house rules so you don't snap at him after he sits in your favorite chair," she adds, with a knowing look in his direction.

It takes absolutely every single last bit of effort within Bigby to not actively blush in this moment. It's so hard though. Her words are still so touching - not to mention that they show that she pays attention to him even when he thinks she isn't, which is wild - and her hand is still on her, and it's all a little overwhelming.

Not even in a bad way. Just in the sort of way he can't really show her, though he makes no motion to step away from the hand or the touch whatsoever.

(He likes it. Is it so bad to wish for it to linger a little more?)

Even her remark at the end can't drag his mood down under these circumstances, though there's a slight tug at the corner of his lips.

"I already let him have the bed, thanks." It's a little dry, but it's almost as if Bigby is smiling a little bit.. "And some things are-- they're easier because he's also a wolf, you know?"

Whatever Snow is imagining (a potential mess in the house, perhaps) is likely to be very accurate. Bigby does mean it in the most plain of ways.

"We get each other without having to say everything out loud."

"Probably a wise move," Snow counters, but she also knows how to read between the lines on that answer; the only reason Connor has the bed in the first place is likely because Bigby doesn't really ever use one. Even back in Fabletown, his apartment there hadn't included a bed for sleeping in, but then again, the apartment hadn't been all that large enough to even fit a bed in it, so perhaps it hadn't been too surprising.

Her hand slips away from him, but it's more of an unconscious thought rather than anything she deliberately chooses to do, and she's still lingering in his space, standing with him at the doorframe, the conversation between them flowing easily and reassuringly — a reminder of how good it can be, when they're lock and step on something instead of butting heads.

"So some of that instinct, the wolf ability, is still there, even though you can't — ?" She doesn't have to finish the sentence for him to know what she's referencing, she thinks — the fact that he can't change into a wolf, which she has to assume is a similar predicament for Connor as well, even if they may not be the exact same kind of wolf.

He nods.

".. It's still me."

There's a slight pause before he says that, because.. well, in some ways his wolf nature can be a little problematic. Not for Bigby himself, since it does feel like a large part of his identity. Even if he shed the big and the bad, he is still a wolf, no matter what he might look like most of the time. No matter how much this place has tried to tear the wolf right out of him.

But it is a little more problematic when the wolf is not viewed with his own eyes, but with someone else's. He knows what people see when they look at him. The Fables often enough make it very clear just what they think of him, that they practically just see a monster. And with Snow-- He thinks she does see him, most of the time. But there have been moments where that thought has been more hesitant, where he wonders if the wolf also might just be a monster to him - like when she asked him if he secretly enjoys it.

It makes this reminder a little double-sided, rendering Bigby unsure whether or not it's a good thing to remind her that what she's seeing right now isn't all of him.

.. he does it anyway, even if he isn't sure.

"Sure, they can keep me from transforming. But everything else.. It's still in there. It's always been." Ever since that day she found him out in the wilds of the mundy world. When she turned him into a human, when she took him back with her to Fabletown.

There is some reassurance there, at his words, even if Bigby may not feel the same by expressing them. His inner nature is something that Snow has never truly forgotten about — just to look at him would provide more than enough proof that he's something more than a man, but she's been witness to other traits that are clear evidence on their own that his protectiveness, his instinct, isn't always the worst thing in the world.

She also recognizes the fact that for most people back in Fabletown, especially those who have had their own less-than-desirable encounters with the Big Bad Wolf, it's difficult for them to separate the wolf from the man — and, to a point, they're right too.

"I know." She has known, even before she asked the question — but the real question had been more in line with how much he can feel beneath the surface, under his skin, even if he can't necessarily reach for that side of himself. Here, she's not the only one who's been made somewhat more helpless; she hasn't even really stopped to think about the possibility that they could even age at all, if the rest of the magic that normally surrounds them no longer exists.

"Is he... the same kind of wolf you are?" That question has been hovering on the tip of her tongue but only just makes it out now — in other words, is he a Fable like they are, from their world. Thinking back on her conversation with Connor from before, that confirmation one way or another hadn't quite emerged between them — maybe because she hadn't even thought to ask.

Any thoughts about the rest of the matter vanish from Bigby's mind the moment she asks him that question. After all, it's getting a step closer to the truth, when he had purposefully kept his own answer from earlier a step further from the truth than this.

.. on the other hand, Bigby doesn't think he can lie well to Snow. Not this directly. They've been trying to support each other too much here for him to lie to her about this one. Even though telling the truth here is so dangerous. It gets so close to what Connor truly is to him.

He swallows. He gathers himself. It's just one answer. This still doesn't have to mean anything.

"Yeah."

She may say same kind, but Bigby knows what she means without her having to use the word.

Fable.

"You don't recognize him from back home either, right?" He knows Snow couldn't have, given what Connor is, but it probably seems more natural if he brings it up first. "He didn't seem like any Fable I know, but he told me he's from our future."

There's a slight pause, as if to let that slowly sink into the other's mind, before Bigby adds: "I know it sounds ridiculous, but.. If this place could bring us here months apart despite remembering pretty much the same stuff, then it's not like that's impossible either, right? Besides.. he doesn't seem to me like he's lying about it."

Some of that previous feeling Snow'd had — this strange, creeping sense that she'd known Connor from somewhere, even if she couldn't precisely put a finger on it — suddenly begins to take new shape, new understanding in her mind, as soon as Bigby confirms the truth for her.

"No," she murmurs, when he asks whether she recognizes him specifically. "I just... had a feeling, I guess, about him. The same feeling I would've had about any Fable, even if there's nothing here that would necessarily make us any more than what we normally are." They've all been stripped of their power, whether it involves the capability of shifting into another being or simply that longevity that all Fables possess, the capacity to endure for many more years than their appearance would suggest.

What proves more confusing, but even more intriguing, is the fact that he's apparently from their future, someone neither of them would have had reason or opportunity to meet in person yet — and when Snow thinks back on her previous conversations with Connor, nothing in his answers even gives so much of an indication that he knows her, either.

"It sounds like... maybe there could be a new generation of Fables running things now. Beyond us," she admits, with a small shrug of one shoulder. After all, Connor had made mention of the organization he's a part of, some kind of spy group capable of running missions that he would need to be undercover for. They don't have anything like that in Fabletown now, last she checked.

"It would explain why neither of us knows him, if he's from that far in our future."

"Could be," Bigby answers. He isn't so sure himself though - but that's mostly because he's gotten way different information from Connor than Snow has. Most of what he knows about the kid is that he's his son, and that he's got a whole lot of siblings.. and while Connor is a pretty good kid, Bigby can't exactly see him as sheriff material. He's got the toughness for it, but something about his attitude is almost more like Jack than it is like Bigby's..

Still, he figures that Snow's assumption has to come from somewhere. And she has clearly spoken with the kid as well. So--

"Did he tell you something about that?" He must have given some clue that made her think about it. Snow is smart, but Bigby thinks she always bases her assumptions on some sort of fact, rather than pure speculation. "He hasn't mentioned it to me so far."

"Not really. He didn't even mention he was a Fable to me directly, just that he was a spy working for this secret organization, but now that I know that, some things certainly make much more sense."

Snow's already thinking back over the course of their conversation, dwelling back on whether Connor might have had any inexplicable reaction then that she hadn't fully understood at the time. Nothing specific comes to mind, though, and she's brought back from her reflection by Bigby's next question, which prompts her to shake her head.

"Maybe there's a reason he didn't want to explain too much," she points out, with a sudden, urgent look that always accompanies her feeling like she's on to something. "Besides, isn't it bad for anyone to know too much about their future? What if they try to change it and run the risk of creating more problems?"

He lets out a huff of breath - mostly because this all is a lot to think about, what do you mean, his son is part of some sort of secret organisation and a spy on top of it, like Connor isn't the most unsubtle guy Bigby has encountered in his entire life--

But he still agrees with her. Bigby is well aware that it's why Connor has still kept certain things from him, like the fact of who exactly his mom is. He doesn't even really mind not knowing, considering that he does realise how awkward it'd be to already know who he's going to have a kid with one day.

(Especially when it feels really weird to think that he'll actually move on from Snow one day enough for that. He can't imagine it. It's easier to just not think about at all.)

"Yeah. I'm not getting the feeling at all that he's being secretive to try and trick us in some way." Because Bigby just knows Connor is his son. He can feel it in every part of his being. So it sweeps the possibility that Connor is lying to them right off the table. "He's probably just worried about messing with time too much. "If anything, sometimes he seems to me like he's having real trouble with keeping so much to himself to avoid screwing anything up. It's got to be tough for him on his own."

D-Don't mind the surprisingly large sense of sympathy there, Snow. It's clearly just the way Bigby has improved himself over time, and nothing to do with Connor specifically!

It's more understanding than Snow would outwardly expect to hear from Bigby, evidenced by the brief look of surprise she gives him, that glance paired with a subtle rise of her eyebrow which should serve as indication enough without her even needing to remark on it.

And hadn't she just outwardly noted how different Bigby seems to be — more willing to extend a open hand to someone he barely knows, even if they happen to be a fellow Fable? No doubt that Connor being a Wolf too has something to do with it; there might be a level of kinship and understanding there that she couldn't even begin to understand on the outside looking in.

"Besides, for all we know we're... gone by the time he and whatever organization he works for are running things," she admits, with a minute shrug of one shoulder, trying to downplay the fact that she's just proposed the theory that either she or Bigby (or both of them) are dead at the point in time that Connor hails from. It's difficult, but not impossible, for Fables to die, and it would explain his attempt at being coy, especially if she or Bigby has achieved some kind of notoriety that makes it difficult for Connor to tell them too much without getting into details they shouldn't know themselves.

"So maybe we just agree not to press him about too much." Making it a promise to Bigby, but making him promise the same thing, feels like the best way to move forward at this point. "If he wants to tell us anything, he can, but it's probably not a good idea for us to go sniffing around for any information. Metaphorically speaking." Even though she's pretty sure that Bigby's senses, including his capacity to scent things, is still fairly intact.

He huffs.

"Something about the way you word it tells me that you think a specific person is going to be the real problem here," he points out.

It's not meant in a way that's too catty, really. Maybe there's something vaguely offended about him, but it's just because it gets so close to what other people always accuse him of back home. Like he wasn't the one forced into this role in the first place. They act like he likes digging around stuff. Metaphorically, anyway. Of course he likes literal digging as a wolf.

"There's already been stuff he refused to tell me." .. like who his mother is.

Not like he's going to mention that to Snow though.

"And I didn't press him on it, for the record. Last thing I want is for him to freak out and do something stupid here. Even if he's a Fable like us, he's also tied to the same circumstances here as us. We're all human, and freaking out and doing dumb shit will get any of us killed."

"I didn't say that," Snow counters, with a soft click of her tongue against her teeth. "You inferred."

But she doesn't think she's wrong in pointing that out — not because she thinks there's anything bad about his inherent tendency to go and investigate things, but because caution does seem like the best approach at this stage. His deep instincts make him much more qualified for his line of work than many other Fables can claim, but she's also spent enough time around him to know that he tends to barge into a situation first and ask questions after the fact.

Still, Connor himself seems a little more careful when it comes to not revealing any information they're not supposed to know, as if he's either aware of any potential ramifications that might change the future irrevocably or he's just trying to spare them knowledge of a future they can't change.

"I would have put it a little less bluntly than that, maybe, but you're not wrong," she murmurs, reaching up to brush a curl of dark hair away from her forehead with a quiet sigh on her lips. "So we agree not to push for details. Sounds easy enough. Anything else we should be on the same page about, Sheriff?"

He knows that it's not like Snow knows what he's hiding. But sometimes when she says stuff, it almost feels like she does. Maybe it's since he feels more self-conscious around her than he does around other people in some ways, but it's like she can sometimes look right through him.

For a moment he wonders whether he should mention after all what Connor is to him.

But-- no. Even if he could admit to two other things he wasn't sure he should share, this one feels like a step too far, and Bigby drops the thought entirely. Instead he rolls his shoulders a little bit into a shrug.

"You're the boss," he replies.

More now than ever, given Crane is gone now. Even though they're far away from home.

"You tell me how you want to handle this, and I'll handle it." Especially since he doubts Snow is going to tell him to kick Connor out of the house.

It shouldn't hit Snow as something of a defeat, the response she earns from Bigby, but it does, especially because it had felt like, if only for a moment, he'd been about to say something entirely different. There's nothing she can point to as evidence for that, though, other than an instinct that quickly passes by as soon as it finds her, but his willingness to defer to her in this instance does shift them back into roles that she's more accustomed to, at the end of it all.

"Okay." She looks a little more wistful, for a moment, but then schools her features into something more determined, since he's essentially turned authority of the situation, and how they should proceed, over to her. She's not going to take that for granted or dismiss it outright.

"Well, I don't think it would hurt to keep an eye on him, like you've already been doing. He's a Fable, like we are, regardless of what we have or don't have here, and we need to stick together."

"Might be a little harder than it seems. That kid is a real handful."

.. Not that it's saying much, considering Bigby is so notoriously bad with kids - though he has been trying so hard here, even before Snow showed up, out of an instinctive desire that she would be proud of him if she'd arrive here one day, or if he'd be able to go back one day to tell her about all of this - that he'd probably find every single one of them a handful.

But in this case? He sure means it. Connor seems to have a knack for finding situations where he can put himself into trouble.

"But maybe we'll manage. Y'know, between the two of us." Because even if he turned authority over to her just now, they're still in this together. "Besides, maybe he'll listen better to you than he'll listen to me. You're better at that kind of thing."

"Is he?" That remark does take Snow somewhat by surprise. "He seemed like he had a good head on his shoulders, to me."

That said, she could readily tell he was going to be a handful in the sense of having charm and good looks to his advantage — the kind of kid who no doubt would prove to be a headache to his mom from time to time but flash a smile endearing enough to get out of trouble at every available opportunity. It's unclear whether that tendency will serve him well here or only land him in deeper trouble, but the worst thing either she or Bigby can do now is leave him to completely fend for himself.

"Better at... what? Talking to younger people?" She shrugs once, even though she takes the compliment with a brief smile flitting over her features. "Most kids just don't want to be talked down to. You have to meet them on their level. And I feel like you're pretty good at assessing the truth of someone even before they open their mouth."

When she gets to that last part, Bigby starts to look like he's about to grumble. Nothing too severe, at least. It's the kind of grumbling that makes him seem petty or like he's pouting, completely unfitting of someone who used to the terror of a realm.

"Yeah, sure, but if you give these kids an inch, they'll take a mile." See? He's grumbling. Like he's pouting. "Do you know how many of the kids here think they can walk all over me, Snow?"

Snow, you don't get it. These kids are trying to bully him, Snow!! :(

Snow's long suspected that Bigby has a softer side, one he doesn't often let anyone else see. She's certainly glimpsed it, in quieter moments between the two of them, but most of the time, she's not surprised when he leans into the persona he's most-known for, embracing the title of the Big Bad Wolf and all the preconceived notions that come with it.

But they've all changed — it's not as if she's the princess who got her happily ever after anymore, not when she's definitively divorced from said prince. In that time, she's also been witness to more facets of Bigby himself than many other Fables have.

"And what would have given them that impression, I wonder?" she murmurs. There is something particularly endearing about the fact that he's all but pouting right about now.

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bigbaddy - 2024-08-10 19:21 (UTC) - Expand