Please Stop Your Crying Now ((Carey))

[Loki Fen'Rolphus G6]

The sun had long since set when Loki looked up from his staggering pace to see the lights of Hogsmeade in the distance. He hadn’t been expecting to get there that soon. He had started the journey at twelve that morning, before the sun had risen, and here he was, it must have been nearly eleven o’clock that very same night. Perhaps it was the fact that the path had been mapped specifically to facilitate quick trips and raids, or perhaps it was Loki’s sheer determination to make it back to his home, or at least, back to the woman he loved. When Loki had left the cave that he had been confined in, he had found that he was exiting a large mountain...which sounded rather strange, like there was a door at the base of the mountain. And actually in a way there was, there was a cave at the bottom, and at the back of the cave there was a large boulder that could be rolled away to reveal the entrance to a long tunnel which then led to the great cavern Loki had first woken up in. But anyway, he was exiting a mountain which was in the center of a large clearing of grass. But all around the clearing on every side there was a forest, a very dense, nasty forest. That was the first place Loki had had to go through. He had had to make his way through the forest. This meant pushing his way through bushes and brambles, and at one point even having to wade through a river. Loki had tried to catch a fish there for a few brief moments, but he had realized that it was fruitless. He hadn’t eaten all day, and he hadn’t had a good meal in at least three days, time had gotten mixed up inside that city.

Loki made it through the forest. He had discarded his robe when it had gotten stuck on a tree branch, and his shirt was torn in quite a few places...not to mention his jeans were dirty and torn at least once in the knee. He left the forest and found himself in another clearing; this one went on for much longer than the previous one had. Loki recognized this country side, or at least it seemed familiar as he walked across it. He hadn’t much of an idea where he was heading. Once or twice he would spot a large rock or tree that had been marked on the map, so he was sure he was going in the right general direction. It wasn’t until he had seen the town in the distance that he knew he was almost out of his nightmare. He was cold now, for the weather hadn’t changed much since he had left, and now he was without a warm cloak. Not to mention nearly starving, as I said before, he hadn’t eaten in a while. Food hadn’t exactly been the top priority on Anubis’ mind while Loki had been there, apparently the people in that city didn’t eat three meals a day, and they rarely ate one. Feeding Loki had been one of the last priorities. When he did eat, he was sure it was scraps from whatever Anubis had eaten. A piece of bread or two and maybe the leg of some sort of animal or another; Loki didn’t ask. When you’re that hungry, you don’t ask.

Finally, Loki staggered into Hogsmeade to find the streets nearly empty. The few people he saw didn’t pay him much mind to him and he hadn’t a clue where he was going. His first reaction had been to go to Hogwarts, but to get there he would probably need to take a carriage, or the train, and he didn’t know how to work that out. He was thinking that over when he had heard a woman talking to her children outside a shop. “Now when we get home I want you two to go right inside, no playing, earlier this morning I was attacked by a rabid owl and I think he’s still around here somewhere.” Loki’s heart just about stopped. Rabid owl? That was his rabid owl! His pace quickened as he realized that that must have meant that Carey was still in Hogsmeade, he had forgotten that, she had told him in one of her letters hadn’t she? Oh well, his mind was all foggy from lack of sleep and from lack of energy and from lack of food. He practically sprinted to the Brighton Cottage and when he reached there, he realized he had been moving with quite the limp. “Carey?! Carey!” Loki knocked on the door for a few minutes before just opening it and stepping in. No one was there, but it didn’t take long for Loki to see a rather agitated looking owl sitting on the floor by what looked like a whole in the baseboards. Loki hurried to it, and then hurried down the steps, not even caring where exactly they were taking him. When he reached the bottom, he sighed happily to see the love of his life, peacefully asleep on the bed there. Loki’s first move was to climb into the bed, but he knew he was completely filthy, so he stripped out of his clothes to his boxers and then moved carefully onto the bed, moving close to Carey and wrapping an arm around her waist, laying his head on the pillow close to hers. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, knowing full well that he would never again be able to live without Carey Brighton in his arms.

[Carey Brighton H5]

Carey had spent most of her days sleeping these days. She found that it was easier to be away from Loki if she was asleep during the time. Mainly because she didn’t feel completely alone when she was asleep. It was when she woke up that the pain was nearly unbearable. She got what she needed to get done, ate, showered, and slept. Carey just didn’t have the desire to deal with anything else during the days she spent without Loki. How long had she been without him? It felt like years when it was only days. She couldn’t ever get over the gaping hole that she felt in her heart ever since Loki had been…well…kidnapped. That term sounded so odd when Carey put it to use with Loki’s disappearance. He wasn’t kidnapped, he was Loki-napped. Regardless of what kind of “napped” Loki was, Carey was only getting more and more depressed by Loki’s absence. So she slept. She slept a lot. She slept so much that she stopped dreaming completely She dreamt a little at first, but the more she slept the less she dreamt. Carey didn’t mind, though, because all her recent dreams only made her wake up crying. She hated crying; she cried too much lately. Then again, wouldn’t you?

Carey was asleep now, hugging a teddy bear tight to her, and curled up in a little ball when Loki made his appearance in the cottage. Had she been awake, she would have passed out anyway, so maybe it was good that she was asleep upon his arrival. She didn’t wake up when he entered the cottage, nor when he entered the little room beneath the cottage. Carey wasn’t a heavy sleeper normally, but since she was so depressed her sleep was her sanctuary in which no one could penetrate. She was dead to the outside world. In a sense, that is. Of course she wasn’t really dead, because if she was dead this would not be a happy story. The fact that Loki was safe and well and back in Hogsmeade is a happy occasion and we narrators would never think of allowing something to end sadly, would we? Of course not. So, Carey slept almost peacefully. She couldn’t call it a peaceful sleep, and neither could I, because she did sleep with a knot in her stomach and with tears on her pillow – but it was a better sleep than she would have been able to get if she hadn’t known Loki was alive. She hadn’t heard from him in awhile, though (which was mostly her fault because she had fallen asleep before the owl had arrived), and so she had gone to sleep worrying again. Carey’s last thought before falling asleep was that she worried far too much. But could you blame her? No, neither could I.

When he crawled into the bed with her and wrapped his arm around her waist, though, Carey’s eyes popped open. She whirled around and started to whack him with her teddy bear. Of course, you must keep in mind that Carey was not aware that this was Loki. She couldn’t fathom Loki appearing in her cottage and so why would she immediately assume it was him? No, the word that ran through Carey’s mind when she felt someone hold her was “INTRUDER!” And of course, we all know how ugly that word can be with blinking red light around it. Carey realized her mistake, though, when Loki said her name and she immediately stopped hitting him. If she had known it was him, she obviously wouldn’t have started to beat him with her teddy bear (Which was looking quite rugged at the moment, but it was nothing compared to Loki). Once she realized it was indeed Loki and not some freak getting kicks from sneaking into her bed, she lowered the teddy bear and stared at him. Her breathing stopped as she took in the sight before her. When she could breathe again, Carey reached over and pulled him to her, showering him in kisses as she closed her eyes, “Loki..oh, Loki!” Tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked at him, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs. He was here! With her! He was safe! Carey just stared at him a moment, taking everything about him. How he looked tired and hungry, and immediately Carey’s good girlfriend mode kicked in. She didn’t immediately jump up to get him food, though, because the idea that he was back with her made her head spin. Instead, she pulled him to her again and wrapped her arms around him tight, kissing his forehead repeatedly, and whispering I love you’s over and over.

[Loki Fen'Rolphus G6]

Loki climbed into the bed, wrapped his arm around Carey, and immediately closed his eyes to go to sleep. It was like sleep was pulling him into some sort of dark abyss and he wanted so badly to follow it there. He wanted to just sleep. To sleep and sleep and sleep just keeping as close as possible to Carey. Now that he was so close to her that’s where he wanted to stay. And if he had his way he would. So he closed his eyes, and he was half asleep in an instant. But that instant was broken rather quickly when Carey opened her eyes, turned around, and started beating Loki. Of course she wasn’t beating him with a bat or anything, just a teddy bear. But most of the time those things have really hard beads for eyes and if they hit you in just the right place it can hurt really badly. Besides, Loki didn’t really know how he felt about being greeted by his girlfriend with a beating. He’d much rather have just gotten kissed, but instead he got beat by a bear. He covered his face with his hands and groaned. “Honeeeeey, it’s me! Carey it’s me!” And soon enough Carey had stopped hitting him, which was quite the relief. He let his arms fall and he sighed happily before looking up at Carey lovingly.

Soon enough Loki was in her arms and he was being showered in kisses, which was much more the welcome he had wanted. He just snuggled into her embrace and enjoyed it; because he had been missing it so long it was more precious than ever. When she said his name his heart stopped and he had to think really hard to make it go again. Just hearing her voice made him so happy he couldn’t think to do anything but smile. Loki smiled lovingly again when Carey stroked his cheeks and just looked at him. He didn’t have anything really to say, except the first thought that came to his mind. “You are so beautiful.” When he went to speak he found that his voice was starting to go, his throat was rather sore and he expected he had come down with some sort of cold. Loki cuddled close again when Carey wrapped her arms around him and held him, kissing his forehead. He closed his eyes and just listened to her tell him she loved him, which was the most wonderful thing she could ever say to him. It was all he could ever want to hear. He had missed it so bad. Finally he looked up at her and whispered back, “I love you so much Carey Brighton.” As he smiled up at her, he could feel his eyes start to droop and he knew that he was boarder line falling asleep on her. Which he didn’t want to do, and yet he knew if he stayed up that he would start to go a bit insane with his lack of sleep. But he could already feel that coming too.

Loki cuddled against Carey more and closed his eyes, yawning. “I really need some sleep honey...stay here ok? Don’t go anywhere...just stay right here with me. Forever and ever.” He wrapped his arms around her as best he could as he nuzzled his face against her chest and yawned again. “And play with my hair ok? I missed that...I missed it a lot...” Loki’s mind was starting to drift in and out of thoughts. “I like it...it’s almost like...like...hey honey? When we’re married and stuff, will you pet me on full moon nights? I think that’d be nice, calm me down and all, that way we can both get some sleep instead of me running around the whole time.” Loki yawned and snuggled against her, grabbing the blanket and pulling it up around them. “Don’t ever let me go ok? No more pubs for me, I’m staying right here.” Loki yawned once more, and snuggled tight, clinging to Carey. “I love you so much, wake me up ok? Don’t let me sleep for too lo-“ Loki yawned mid sentence, and then made a noise that sounded like mmmm before dozing off into a well deserved sleep. The best one he’d ever had in all his life.

[Carey Brighton H5]

Carey had started to feel bad that she had greeted him with a teddy bear beating, but her guilt had immediately disappeared because the thought that Loki was with her had entered her mind. So after she had realized that it was Loki and had pulled him into her arms, Carey hadn’t any intention of letting him go. She looked at him lovingly with tears in her eyes. It was so great to have Loki back with her that she just felt like crying. Not a bad cry, of course, a good cry – one that Carey hadn’t ever done before. When Loki told her she was beautiful, Carey smiled through her tears and whispered, “I think a dog who had just walked through a mud storm would look beautiful to you after being held hostage for a week.” She smiled lovingly at him and then smoothed his hair as he moved to snuggle against her. She closed her eyes, counted to five, and then opened them again to look at Loki and make sure he was really there. She smiled down at him and kissed his forehead when he told her he loved her. His voice sounded completely shot and Carey thought about the tea in the cupboard. Before she could even mention getting up to make him some, he told her he needed sleep.

She nodded understandingly and kissed the top of his head as she started to lie back and pull the blankets up as he did, “I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere, Loki, I’m never going to leave you. I promise.” She smoothed his hair as she knocked the bear off the bed with her other hand and listened to him ask her to play with his hair. She was about to say something more when he continued on to ask her to pet him on full moon nights…when they were married. They had never talked about marriage. It was a topic that they just hadn’t covered. Carey looked at Loki a moment and then smiled and nodded, “Of course, sweetheart.” And from that moment, Carey knew that no matter what happened, she would be with Loki forever. She had thought about it before, but now she realized that this was for real, this was forever. He wasn’t going to disappear from her nor she from him, and they weren’t ever going to be a part unless necessary like at school – and even then it wouldn’t be for a long while. They would both graduate and they would get married and have a family and… Carey wouldn’t ever be forced to give up one of her children to another woman like Louise had been forced to give up Carey to Angela. She blinked back the thought of her past and at that moment decided not to tell Loki…for now. She would eventually because she told him everything, but she wouldn’t tell him any time soon.

Carey smiled lovingly down at him, “No more pubs, honey, not unless I’m with you.” She reached a hand up and played with his hair, listening to him start to tell her that she should wake him up, when he fell asleep mid sentence. With a chuckle, Carey held him tight and ran her fingers through his hair; moving her fingers through it easily. Normally, playing with his hair would put her to sleep, but at the moment it wasn’t. She was wide awake. Perhaps it was because she’d slept so much while he was away or perhaps it was because she had him in her arms and she was afraid that if she fell asleep, she’d wake up to find him gone. Either way, Carey stayed awake as she held him and played with his hair. She had no intention of waking him up like he had told her to because she knew he was exhausted and she knew he was coming down with a cold. The best thing for both of those was most definitely sleep, and so she held Loki close to her for hours and hours. He slept for awhile; Carey wasn’t sure how long it had been, because she didn’t have a clock in the room they were inside but he slept for hours and he still didn’t wake up. She just held him and sang quietly because it was so amazing to have him in her arms. She had missed him so much. Carey looked down at the sleeping love of her life and kissed his forehead, which she probably shouldn’t have done.

The moment she did that, it caused Loki to stir. She smiled at him as he slowly woke up and waited for him to become awake enough for him to comprehend what she was saying. Then she ran her fingers through his hair to straighten it out and waited a moment before saying, with a loving smile, “So, I was thinking. How about you get cleaned up in the bathroom over there and we’ll go out to eat. I’ve got some clothes that you can wear – yes I’d pretty much anticipated your return, so I went and got you some clothes. Once you’re ready, we’ll go to the Three Broomsticks and get something to eat. Does that sound good, sweetheart? We could stay in here, but you look starved and I’ve not got any food here.”

[Loki Fen'Rolphus G6]

Loki slept for a long time of course, seeing as he was rather tired. He felt like he could just curl up in a ball and sleep for days. Days upon days upon weeks upon months. It was strange. He really hadn’t done much physical labor, well except for walking miles and miles back to the town. But other than that he had mostly just walked around the town or sat and listened to Anubis go on and on. So it more than likely was a lot less about Loki being physically tired, as being emotionally and mentally tired. He was completely drained. Confused, lost, lonely, angry, sad, nearly every emotion you could possibly have, even happy surprisingly when the young boy had given him a map and helped him escape. But overall Loki had in fact been tired, and so he had in fact slept quite a bit. It was different then the sleep he had been getting though, in fact it was different than any sleep he had ever gotten. Just the knowledge that he was falling asleep in the arms of the one that he loved somehow made his sleep deeper and more soothing. He knew that he had dreamed, but about what he couldn’t be sure, because it was just a million and one happy dreams and happy feelings. Being back with Carey was another thing that must have added to his emotional tire, for now he was back with his one and only love, and that of course made him so completely full of joy that nothing could compare to how good he felt right then. Even his exhaustion and starvation couldn’t bring him down. Well until he woke of course.

Loki felt the kiss on his forehead, and in his mind he convinced himself to wake up for obviously his darling wanted him, and how could he refuse her company? He opened his eyes slowly and yawned, his mouth widening like a lion...or possibly a wolf. He closed his eyes tight and then stretched and rubbed his eyes before finally allowing his focus to go to Carey. He smiled lovingly at her and waited as she ran her fingers through his hair and fixed it, like she normally did, it was one of his favorite things that she did, and then nodded as she spoke. “I am starving honey.” He nodded more enthusiastically and stretched again as he sat up and looked around the room. He hadn’t really taken it into account where exactly they were before hand, and so now that he was a bit more mentally there, he had time to evaluate things. Loki had never known that this room had existed, and in his mind he reminded himself that it was below the cottage Carey’s father owned, which only confused him more. Why would her dad possibly have a room under his business cottage, he had a whole manor to live and sleep in. Loki assumed it must have been for the times when he needed to have long over night meetings or something, but that made no sense either, especially since the room was most obviously decorated in Hufflepuff colors and the only puff in their family was Carey. So maybe the room was made for Carey? But that didn’t make sense either, she would have told him about it. Loki shook his head, figuring he’d ask Carey about it later.

“So what kinds of clothes did you get me? No pink I hope.” Loki grinned at Carey. He was feeling much more himself, and just seeing her smiling face made his whole world spin again. Before he could answer of course, Loki took her hand and pulled her to him, planting a soft kiss on her lips. He held it out for a long time before he connected another to it, this one slower and more passionate. All he could think or feel was how lucky he was to be back with her. How wonderful it was to hold her close. And so he did hold her close. He pulled her as close to him as he could and wrapped his arms around her tight. When he finally broke the kiss all he could do was move a hand to stroke her cheek, and then he stopped and looked down at himself with a pathetic chuckle. “I’m a total mess huh?”

[Carey Brighton H5]

He was so cute when he woke up in the morning. Carey had realised this awhile ago, back when he had first fallen asleep on her and woken up a few minutes later; stretching and yawning. She had smiled at him with so much love, and she had to contain an ‘awww’ that threatened to break from her lips. He hadn’t lost the cuteness since his absence, Carey was happy to see. He stretched and yawned, opening his mouth wide, and Carey smiled at him before she fixed his hair and talked about her plan for the day. She continued to smile as he sat up and looked around the room. Her smile faded slightly as she looked around, too. She wasn’t looking forward to telling Loki anything about what she learned, but she knew she would have to eventually. She’d have to tell him that she wasn’t her mother’s daughter and that half the reason David treated her differently than any of his other kids because she was the product of an affair he shouldn’t have had. Besides the fact that it was a confusing thing to understand (or perhaps not so much confusing as something that Carey didn’t want to understand), Carey didn’t want to tell Loki because she didn’t want it to seem like she was stealing his thunder, if he even thought of it in that sense – which she doubted he did, but still. It was possible, and Carey wanted to just spend her time with him…all of her time, all the time that she had in the world. She wanted it to be spent with him. And it would be.

Carey shook her head when he asked if she bought him pink clothes; of course she hadn’t bought him anything pink. Carey smiled brightly at him as she smoothed his hair back slightly, eyeing him lovingly. She really did love him. It didn’t frighten Carey, but it was something she had never ever experienced before, and it was something she didn’t want to ever be without ever again. Carey loved Loki and she was in love with Loki and she was incredibly certain that she would spend the rest of her life with him. The rest of her life with Loki. Wow, that was quite the thought. They hadn’t ever spoken about marriage or anything like that, but Carey knew that it was a thought they had both thought of many times before. The idea that they would have to ever be without each other had been a ludicrous one, until this past week, and now it is once again a ludicrous one… perhaps even more so than before because now they were determined to stay together forever. Could they possibly beat all the odds that said they would part? Yes, easily. There were to be obstacles, no doubt, but they’d get past them. Their love was too strong for them not to. Before she had been able to answer him, though, Loki had pulled her to him and kissed her softly. The kiss was most definitely welcomed, and it made her melt and her heart speed up. She had missed his kisses, a lot, and she was so glad to be able to see him and hold him and kiss him and just… be with him. Carey kissed him back, just as passionately and just as slowly, and savouring it just as she had the first time they had really kissed. That seemed so long ago, that September night, but it wasn’t that long ago at all. Carey shivered at the thought.

Loki pulled her closer to him and held her tight as they kissed, and Carey touched his cheek as she kept the kiss passionate and slow. All too soon, Loki broke the kiss and reached a hand up to stroke her cheek as she let her hand drop to take his free one. She played with it a bit before bringing it to her lips, kissing it softly, and linking their fingers. It was something she did often and now she would do it even more often because it was… it was something she surely missed while he was away. She missed a lot of things while he was away and they were all little things that they both would have taken for granted beforehand. But now that they had missed them, they weren’t going to be taken for granted ever again. She smiled at Loki when he mentioned being a mess and shook her head, “You look amazing to me.” Her tone was soft as she looked at him and then she threw her arms around his neck and just sat there, hugging him; “I’ve missed you so much, Loki Fen’Rolphus.” She didn’t know how long they sat there holding each other but finally, Carey pulled away and stroked his cheek; “Go get cleaned up, honey, I’ll be here when you’ve finished.”

[Loki Fen'Rolphus G6]

Loki had missed the comfort of Carey’s arms. He had missed her touch and her voice and everything about her. Loki had thrived completely off of memories when he had been away. He had spent every single moment that he could just thinking about the times they were together. He had thought about the first time he’d met her, walking along the street of Hogsmeade over the summer. And about how she had played her drumsticks on his head, and told him that he had a very nice, big head. And he thought about writing her letters, and sitting by his window waiting for her to write back, and he thought about that whole summer he spent telling Shaant that he didn’t have feelings for her. Wow was he fooling himself. He had sat and thought about asking her for kisses, and about that day in Hogsmeade when he had given her a rose and she had said she didn’t like red roses because they symbolized something she didn’t believe in. Well that sure had changed. He thought about how he had made her cry, and about holding her and telling her that he wasn’t ever going to just bounce off to someone new. About telling her that she was different. That had been the moment he’d fallen in love with her. Sure, he had liked her since he met her, but he had fallen in love with her that day. That first day he’d held her in his arms. He would have to tell her that sometime today.

Loki sighed happily as Carey wrapped her arms around him tight and hugged him. All the memories of her holding him rushed back into his mind. And as he sat and held her tight he thought about the time that he had laid in her lap while they were at a party. And then about leaving the party and spending the rest of the night at the nearby playground with her. Loki could remember just laughing and smiling none-stop that night. And talking to Carey about their families and their likes and dislikes. He had really gotten to talk to her for the first time that night, and still really enjoy himself just spending time with her. And most of all he could remember all the urges he had to hold her hand and to kiss her cheek. As Carey pulled back and stroked Loki’s cheek, he closed his eyes and let one of his favorite memories flood into his mind. “Oh, shut UP you ridiculous minuscule tin can! Before I burn you out of that painting and out of existence!” He sure had a girlfriend who knew how to speak her mind alright. She had gotten Cadogan to leave them alone so that they could actually talk, and that had turned out to be the best conversation of their lives. The night he had told her he was in love with her, and the night she had told him the same. Loki knew then that he’d never be anything without Carey, and every day he woke up and found out that it all wasn’t a dream he just knew it even more. He knew that she was his everything. He knew she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He could feel it when she touched him, when she looked at him, when she spoke to him. Everything about their relationship screamed ‘meant to be’.

Carey spoke again, telling Loki that he should go and clean up. A part inside Loki ached at the thought of leaving her arms. He leaned and laid his head on her shoulder, wrapping his arms around her as he considered his options. “Do I absolutely have to go? Maybe...maybe you could come with me and just sit outside while i shower or something...I don’t want to be anywhere that I can’t hear your voice and know that you’re two seconds away from me. I’ve been away from you for far too long and I never want to be again. I don’t know how I’m going to stand sleeping in my own bed at nights.” Loki looked up at Carey, smiling weakly. He really didn’t want to be anywhere without her ever again. Just the thought of it brought back the pain he’d been feeling for the last week.