THE LITTLE RED CABIN BY THE SEA

DAY ONE: KURDA

Although it had been Mika's idea to knock down the North-facing wall of the cabin and build a second bedroom for when Gracie visited, it was Kurda who suggested asking Arrow to stay for a few extra days after the all-Princes-on-deck mission was complete. And Mika was so delighted over the prospect of an extended Arrow visit, it didn't even occur to him to question Kurda's true reasoning.

Kurda had been counting on that.

See, Kurda's a cartographer. He knows his way around diagrams and blueprints, which are practically cousins to maps. Arrow was a carpenter in another life. Literally. He knows his way around a stack of lumber. Kurda's eye for practical design and spatial awareness pairs well with Arrow's raw muscle and eagerness to take a handsaw or hammer to whatever Kurda points at. The two of them worked in perfect synchrony.

And where does Mika factor into this? For everyone's safety, it's better if he doesn't.

Mika's smart, make no mistake about that. Gods, he's so bloody clever he's practically weaponized it. He operates with mechanical precision, both in battle and politics. He's a certified strategic genius, an exceptional manager of people, a world-class speechwriter and public speaker to boot. He doesn't have to have a single scrap of inclination towards handiwork. He's got enough going for him. All that talent and charisma wrapped up in a black t-shirt that fits just right makes for an obsidian pillar of sex appeal, if you ask Kurda. Really, it wouldn't be fair for anyone to be all that plus a tradesman.

So when Mika attempted to use a hammer and somehow sent the nail ricocheting across the construction area like a deadly ping-pong ball, Kurda found himself staring across the room into Arrow's eyes, mirroring each other's expressions of shock and horror. For the first time in either of their lives, they were thinking the exact same thing: you know I love that man but he cannot be here for this.

An unspoken agreement passed between them, and they took turns making up harmless errands upon which they could temporarily dispatch Mika to a safe distance.

"Fuck, he's coming back already. You unplugged the drill, right?" Arrow muttered out of the corner of his mouth while glancing up from the nail he'd just finished hammering into place.

Gods knew Kurda and Arrow navigated their share of differences throughout the slow progression from colleagues to sworn enemies to begrudging acquaintances to awkward friends to sworn enemies (again but worse) to begrudging acquaintances (again but better) and finally proper friends.

Kurda, sitting cross-legged in a pile of sawdust, nodded his affirmation to Arrow before rearranging his face into an earnest smile as Mika appeared around the corner with the measuring tape Kurda had asked him to fetch.

"Thanks, love. I really appreciate your help." Said Kurda, setting his blueprint aside and standing up to greet Mika with a swift kiss on the cheek. He embellished the gesture with a head tilt and an eyelash flutter. Kurda wasn't proud of using his physical charms as a distraction to keep Mika from getting wise. Worse yet, it proved to be in vain.

"Yeah. Wouldn't want that one to get lonely." Mika replied, brow furrowing as he spied the perfectly good measuring tape already sitting in the open tool bag at Kurda's side. Kurda winced internally — he'd meant to close it. There'd been a few hours where Mika was simply glad to see Kurda and Arrow getting along so well, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to override his critical thinking skills. He was visibly growing skeptical of why Kurda and Arrow kept finding errands for him to run.

"You can never have enough measuring tapes." Kurda insisted.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to get rid of me." Mika lipped back. He laughed as he said it, but Kurda knew the jig was almost up. As we've established, Mika is as sharp as the nails he has no business hammering.

"You caught me! After everything we overcame to be together, a simple woodworking project proved too much." Kurda snorted, rolling his eyes. He knew he was flying close to the sun with the specificity of his sarcasm, but any other sort of response would've put Mika on even higher alert.

"You're right." Mika sighed, running his fingers affectionately through Kurda's hair. "Sorry I doubted you."

Kurda smiled and kissed Mika again. He was in the clear.

For a moment they both stood there. Toe to toe, heart to heart. Arrow sawed lumber earnestly in the background. Mika's face relaxed into the soft, familiar, safe-with-you smile he saved for Kurda. And Kurda silently recalled how cold and quiet this place used to be, during all those years of literal purgatory.

Then, as if he'd read Kurda's mind, Mika added as pointedly as the aforementioned nails, "Now what can I help with? And don't say make more coffee. Three pots in as many hours is excessive, even for me."

Arrow was positioned behind Mika, so only Kurda could see him look up and shake his head urgently. The tattoos around his temples creased with concern as he sliced his hand across his neck in an abort mission signal.

Kurda kept his composure. His smile didn't falter as his eyes scanned the cluttered construction site around them, searching desperately for something. Anything.

There.

Kurda took Mika's hand and led him to a pile of wooden planks in the corner. Kurda had spent ages measuring and marking them. Arrow then cut them to proper size and added them to the pile. All that was left to do was smooth the edges. Kurda reached into his tool bag to pull out a triangular device with a handle, and held it out to Mika.

"You can sand." Said Kurda. "This is a sander. Pretend it's a whetstone and those planks are the blades of your custom Valderstein sword collection. You want the edges to slope just right."

Now that notion felt right at home in Mika's brain. His face lit up and Kurda knew immediately there would be no further instruction required.

Kurda went back to sketching the blueprints for the next stage of the project — the closet. Arrow shot him a guilty grin as he passed. Kurda made a wry face in return.

Safe for now.

DAY TWO: MIKA

Mika wasn't surprised that Arrow didn't see the appeal in breakfast and coffee on the oceanfront porch. Not even the finest aerial acrobatics by the local humpback whales stood a chance against Arrow's thalassophobia (a word Kurda had taught both of them several days ago). If anything, that only freaked him out more.

"They're too big! They have no business flip-flopping around like that," Arrow huffed as he retreated back inside to get started on the second day of construction.

Mika and Kurda remained side-by-side in the rickety wooden love seat (maybe Arrow would build them a new one before he left) and enjoyed the whales for several minutes more. The sounds of fin slapping and tail walloping were soon accompanied by Arrow's one-man orchestra in the background: hammering nails, cutting wood, and whistling off-key to the old radio.

Mika was taking in the ambience when out of the corner of his eye he saw Kurda press his lips together and tilt his head slightly, as if grappling with an unexpected befuddlement. Then he turned to Mika and asked, "Arrow knows the room we're building is for Gracie, not him, right?"

"Of course he knows." Mika replied, frowning at the implication. "Why would we build a room for anyone other than our daughter?"

"I'm not questioning his intelligence this time." Said Kurda carefully. "It's just that… well, don't you think he's been a little too enthusiastic about helping?"

"So? Remember how he started calling himself Uncle A while you and I still had every intention of rehoming Gracie?" Mika pushed back, wincing because the notion was unthinkable after 30 years of hindsight. "He loves her like his own. This probably reminds him his old life with Sarah and the kids. And he's just happy to be out of the mountain."

Kurda sighed. "Let me rephrase my question: "Mika, have you, at any point, told Arrow the room we're building is for Gracie?"

Mika pondered that for a moment or two as he stared out at the rolling waves, trying to remember. Then he replied with far less conviction, "…Something like that."

"What were your exact words when you mind-linked with him?"

"I said, we want to keep this cabin in our family for many centuries to come, so obviously we need to add a second bedroom so there's room for everyone. If you're not busy can you plan to stay a few extra days to help out?"

Kurda's eyebrows formed identical elegant golden arches of reproach. He didn't have to say a word. Mika had identified the problem.

So with that realization, Mika sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll talk to him."

Coffee mug in hand, Mika kissed Kurda on the temple and extricated himself from the love seat. Kurda chuckled and shook his head in exasperation as Mika headed back through the cabin, towards the construction zone.

Arrow was working just as diligently as the noise implied. Now that the walls were up, he was cutting a large rectangular hole into one of them.

"So this is going to be the closet?" Mika asked over the noise of the saw, making a point of being casual.

Arrow paused to grin proudly up at him. "That's right."

"Perfect. This should be big enough." Said Mika, glancing around and nodding in approval. Then he added just as casually, "It's beyond me why such a small person needs so many clothes."

Arrow nodded. But just to be sure there was no room for interpretation, Mika added with well-practiced diplomacy — "Thanks for your help with Gracie's room. Just don't say anything to her when you get back to the mountain. We want it to be a surprise when she visits. But I'll make sure to tell her it couldn't have happened without you."

Arrow's face dropped. Fuck. Kurda was right.

"Oh, no." He groaned, dragging his huge palm across his glistening, tattooed forehead. "I already told her before I left the mountain, right after you mind-linked. I just wanted to know if she'd want us to add a custom weaponry locker or not. It didn't even occur to me to —"

Never mind.

"It's okay, A." Mika interjected quickly. He meant it. "Doesn't make a difference to me. How big does she want the locker to be?"

Arrow grinned and showed Mika the blueprint for the thing that Kurda had already drawn. Mika nodded astutely like he knew what the fuck he was looking at. Arrow went back to sawing. Mika kept sanding. He was getting pretty good at it. The radio kept playing. Eventually Arrow started to whistle again. It was still brutally off-key, but Mika knew a win when he heard one.

"I liked being a carpenter more than I like being a Prince." Said Arrow — unprompted — after several uninterrupted minutes of sawing. "It's not even close."

Mika shook his head and laughed. He put down the sander and replaced it with the mug of coffee he'd kept on standby. He took a long sip and told Arrow, "For the love of the gods, consider your audience before you offer that up as a fun fact about yourself."

"I know. I'm not an idiot." Arrow countered gruffly. But there was a softer lilt to his voice when he followed that up with, "But I consider my audience more than you realize. If I can't tell you these things, who can I tell?"

"You can tell me anything. Just know you've never been less relatable to me than you are right now." Said Mika briskly, knowing Arrow would take it for the offering of love and support it truly was.

Still, Arrow raised an eyebrow and swiftly one-upped him: "I'm not the one who tried to resign from my alleged dream job."

Mika threw his arms up in frustration, almost sending the sander flying through the hole in the wall that would soon be a window. "To this day I'm convinced you missed the entire point of — you know what, never fucking mind. We're not re-hashing that again."

Arrow snorted in apparent satisfaction, "Thank the gods for that. Moron." But he paused for a moment and Mika could hear him weighing his words in his mind — which wasn't something Arrow did often.

Mika saved him the additional effort and answered the unspoken question that hung between them:

"I will come back to the mountain someday. I know there's still much to be done even without the Stone. I'm not going to hide here forever. But for now, I… I think I need…" Mika's voice trailed off and he instinctively busied himself with the sander again. He was getting really good at it. As far as admitting his own points of weakness, he'd gotten better. But not good yet.

"I know you're better at considering your audience than I am, but it's just us in here." Said Arrow quietly. "Your fun facts are as safe with me as mine are with you. You can admit it."

"I love the mountain. I always will." Mika started with what he felt was an obligatory disclaimer, then with no small amount of misplaced apprehension he added: "…But first I need a break."

Finally. He said it out loud. He'd admitted his filthiest secret to the universe and nothing happened. The cabin didn't explode. He wasn't struck down by a bolt of lightning hurled at his head by some long-dead Prince who'd never rested a night in his life. A hundred Generals didn't kick down his door to drag him back to the mountain in chains. There were so many layers of irrationality to that particular fear, it was laughable in hindsight. The Generals weren't even allowed to do that. Even if they did show up here, he'd simply tell them to fuck off.

And sure, the power he wielded was a direct correlation to why he felt his taking of a break would result in cosmic consequences. But he'd unpack that another time, if ever. Probably never. That sounded like work. And he was out of office.

"That's alright." Arrow replied with a casual shrug. "That's what summer's for."

Well, not really. Not technically. Not for them, anyway.

But Mika decided to take it anyway. He also took a sip of the coffee — strong with a sweet shot of vanilla, just how he liked it —glanced sideways at Arrow and asked with strategic innocence: "How's Games Master Hale adjusting to her new role?"

Arrow reacted exactly as Mika hoped he would. And still, the sight of Arrow's face dissolving into a hopeless, pink-flushed grin made Mika's heart clench. Finally. Fucking finally. Arrow replied with as much innocence as Mika had posed the original question —

"She's good."

DAY THREE: ARROW

On the third day of Arrow's stay, a scorching heat wave settled over the coastal town. The air was even sweltering after dark.

The setting sun found the newly established construction conglomerate (Mika, Kurda, and Arrow) seeking relief down on the dock. Not that waves or high tides would've been a dealbreaker to a vampire, but this part of the cove was sheltered enough to enjoy a brisk swim.

If you enjoy that sort of thing. Arrow doesn't.

Age-appropriate safety-conscious swimming lessons didn't really catch on until… well, Arrow didn't know when. But it certainly wasn't in the sixteenth century when he was born. Back in his day, you simply threw your child into the nearest lake and let them figure it out. So at the tender age of five, Arrow figured out he never wanted to see any body of water bigger than a bathtub for the rest of his life. Total abstinence was the easiest way to avoid another near-drowning experience.

Even venturing out onto the small dock is beyond Arrow's comfort zone. He wouldn't have been as bothered had they been on a pond or a lake, but this was the Atlantic Fucking Ocean. No one ever did confirm or deny if sea monsters existed. Arrow's opinion was that it was a trick question; everything bigger than him qualified as a sea monster. It was only due to his familiarity with woodwork that Arrow was able to eyeball the structure and deem it safe. He hoped there might be a breeze to be found over the water, but no such luck. He supposed he was content to sit by the edge (albeit not too close) and simply enjoy the company of his favourite person and his favourite person's other favourite person.

Kurda spent most of his time underwater, regularly surfacing with handfuls of human junk that has no business cluttering up his perfectly lovely ocean floor. He'd throw it all on the dock and dive right back down again. Mika alternated between collecting junk with Kurda and sitting on the dock beside Arrow.

For the third time in the hour they'd been down by the water, Mika paddled back over to the dock and hoisted himself up, shaking seawater out of his hair as he did so. Arrow was directly in the splash zone. Arrow shot Mika a reproachful glare on principle. He wasn't about to admit the cold water felt good on his too-warm skin.

Arrow kept his knees against his chest while Mika dangled his feet carelessly in the water. It was clear and shallow here. The moon was so bright they could see all the way to the bottom. Arrow had never realized how many things lived down there. For a moment he almost forgot how on edge he was.

"Don't you worry about sharks?" Arrow asked.

"No more than sharks worry about me." Mika shrugged and ran a hand lazily through his wet hair, splashing Arrow a second time.

"Are there sharks around here?" Arrow pressed.

Mika's lackadaisical expression sharpened into shrewd fascination. He asked, "Why? You planning on taking a dip?"

"No! Don't be stupid." Arrow grumbled. He almost left it at that. But the air was so hot, even for four o'clock in the morning. It was as if the moon had taken over for the sun. There wasn't even a breeze to bring relief. So he added after a pause, "…I just want to know whether or not I'd still have both my feet if I was to stick them in the water for a second. That's all."

Mika's eyes widened. Arrow's rolled.

"Hey, Kurda. Are there sharks around here?" Mika inquired with renewed purpose as Kurda reappeared with a fresh bunch of junk.

"Sometimes. But not usually." Kurda called back before dipping below the surface again.

Mika turned back to Arrow, as if that answer settled the matter even a little bit. "See? Perfectly safe."

Arrow let out a huff of derision. But — wincing all the while — slowly unfurled his legs from his body and lowered them from the wooden ledge so the appendages were submerged up to his calf. The sudden cold made for a hit of relief so powerful for a moment he forgot to watch for sharks. He leaned back, stared up at the blanket of stars above them, and sighed in contentment.

"Kurda! Look!" Mika exclaimed. He was brimming with the excitement of a parent witnessing their child take their first steps — except Arrow was there when Gracie did that, and he was positive Mika was more keyed up about this.

Kurda, bobbing in the water a few yards away, didn't share the enthusiasm. He pushed his hair back out of his eyes and frowned. "What am I looking at?"

Mika pointed emphatically at Arrow, who rolled his eyes again.

"…Yes. That is Arrow." Said Kurda, scratching his head with uncertainty.

"Look at his feet!" Mika insisted.

Kurda's nose wrinkled in apparent revulsion. "Why? Do I have to?"

Arrow tried to decide whether or not he should feel offended by that. Meanwhile, Mika ran out of patience. Because how dare his significant other not have his best friend's embarrassing fears committed to memory?

"They're in the water!" Mika practically shouted, throwing his arms up with great indignance.

For a moment Kurda just gawked obliviously at the pair of them. Then his face lit up with great excitement as it clicked in his brain. Arrow decided not to feel offended. Maybe a little patronized. But very, very safe here.

There truly was something about this place. Arrow was only a guest here and even he felt it. No wonder Mika no longer did that thing where he digs his nails into the edge of whatever chair or table is nearby like it's the only thing holding him back from taking out everyone and everything in the vicinity including himself.

Maybe it was a microdose of that old summertime magic that children live for and adults are so quick to forget. Maybe the salt breeze was imbued with healing properties they weren't meant to understand. All Arrow knew was that this was a season of healing. For whoever happened to need it.

"Oh! Yes!" Said Kurda brightly. "The cold is so refreshing on days like this. Just like being back in the Hall of Perta Vin-Grahl, only with more things living in the water."

Arrow flinched on instinct. Mika facepalmed. Kurda retconned.

"The fish aren't going to bite you. You aren't part of their food chain. And sharks don't get this close to shore." Kurda assured Arrow.

"Fuck, that reminds me." Said Mika abruptly, turning to Arrow with more serious expression. Now he looked more like his usual mountain-dwelling self. "There's channel on the TV that's going to show nothing but shark stuff for a whole week. Starts today. I wrote it on the calendar and everything."

"That sounds awful. Count me out." Said Arrow, grimacing. Then he shot Mika a reproachful glare as something else crossed his mind. "Wait. Isn't your television in the same room I sleep in?"

"Yeah. That's why I'm warning you in advance." Said Mika, unperturbed and unapologetic.

Arrow pushed him off the dock and into the water. Mika paddled there, spitting seawater and laughing carelessly. He didn't give a fuck about being pushed in. And no wonder; now he got to make out with Kurda as they bobbed in the waves beneath the moonlight. Arrow didn't even blame him. Arrow would've done the same in his position. Maybe not make out with Kurda specifically, but you know what he means.

This silent acknowledgement stirred a strange contradiction deep in some part of Arrow's chest. A part he didn't think he still had access to.

As great as it was to be a spectator to their hard-earned peace, suddenly Arrow was all the more ready to return to Vampire Mountain in search of his own. It had nothing to do with Shark Week.