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The package was very nondescript.

It was a small thing, simply boxed up, without any bells or whistles or frills. It didn’t have any return address that Caspian had ever heard of, nor did it seem to come from any of the academic places that Michael ordered from occasionally for school things. There wasn’t an Amazon sticker or anything from Caspian’s secret guilty pleasure of sometimes getting things from Etsy.

He shrugged and carted it inside, dropping his bag on the floor by the table in the hall, reaching to hang up his keys on the hook above it - a determined and meticulous habit now, because Caspian had a notoriously bad habit of losing said keys.

He ambled into the living room, still carrying the box, and flopped down onto the couch. Michael was at school; but Cassie might be around.




Definitely around. Since being released from the hospital Cassie had come to stay with Caspian and his husband while she recovered from the attack she’d suffered at the park, and though she was probably well enough at this point to look for a place of her own she’d been...dragging her feet a little about it. Which may or may not have had anything to do with lingering nightmares and anxieties that sprang up at night or when she was on her own and her own inability to really cope with those things in a healthy manner.

Which meant she wandered into the living room with a throw blanket draped across her shoulders over a pair of jeans and worn hoody as she heard Caspian moving around first in the kitchen and then out here. “Hey.” It was her standard greeting for her twin. Casual and easy.

“Whatcha got there?” She asked it as she flopped down beside him to nosely peer down at the box in his hands.


”Yo, loser,” was Caspian’s very mature greeting in response, still squinting down at the box. Cassie’s presence was a happy thing for him in the house; he’d gone from not seeing her for a year and change to being able to have her around constantly, and while sometimes it meant cuddling with Michael was met with smirks from his twin, he was still pleased.

He also wasn’t going to stop the cuddling anytime soon, so she would just have to deal with it.

“I dunno,” said Caspian, and held up the box as his sister sat next to him, giving it a little shake. It wasn’t very heavy; he glanced at the nondescript, unhelpful return address again. “I found it on the front porch. I thought Michael might have ordered a new watch or something, but it doesn’t feel like that.”

He began to pry open the cardboard flaps with his fingers.

“Were you napping or some s**t?”



Cassie gave a half hearted snort back at him, as she settled against his side, dropping her head on his shoulder. It was nice living with her brother again. When he’d moved out of their mom’s house initially Cassie had been kind of thrilled by it, but it hadn’t taken long to realize how much she missed having him around. Then she’d gotten in trouble, and well…

“Are you sure it’s not a ********’ bomb or something? Why’re you shaking it?” She wasn’t being serious, or not completely anyways, but she still shot the box a wary look as Caspian began to peel back the flaps. If it was a bomb they could go out together, that seemed fitting.

“I was catching up on a show on Netflix. I missed a lot while I was gone.” There were a number of shows she’d fallen behind on, and a few she’d been meaning to start as well. Being unable to be as physically active as she was used to sucked, but it ahad t least gave her a chance to catch up on s**t. Now? Now she suspected she was just wallowing, but she thought maybe she’d earned that right. For at least a little bit.

“Just, if it starts ticking throw it in the kitchen,” she suggested, eyeing the package more.



Cassie’s warm weight against his shoulder made him smile to himself, head turned just a little so that she wouldn’t see just how pleased he was. It was one thing to be brother and sister; it was entirely another thing to be twins, as cliche as that might have sounded. The two of them were irrevocably and unbreakably linked, even if he could never tell her the other half of him, the part that was Remus, because he did not want her to be involved in the same life as he was.

“It’s not a bomb,” Caspian said with a roll of his eyes. “And I shake everything. It drives Michael crazy,” he added, as he continued to pry at the cardboard flaps. “What show were you watching? Anything exciting? Spoiler: Snape kills Dumbledore.”

He finally managed to get one flap open and set to work on the other. “It’s nice having a TV and s**t in your room - well, Peter’s room. The guest room. Peter only stays here sometimes, and he doesn’t like to, because he keeps walking in on me and Michael making out and says it’s gross.”

Which had happened on too many occasions to count, but, well. It was Michael and Caspian’s house, after all.

Another flap was yanked open. Caspian peered inside.

“I think it’s a pumpkin. Is it a pumpkin?”




Cassie snorted softly, smirking. “Gee, I can’t imagine why that’d drive him crazy, it’s not annoying in the least.”

Her shoulders rolled in as close to a shrug as she could manage given the way she was leaning against him. “I was watching a show called The Blacklist. It’s about this crime mogel guy that’s on the FBI’s most wanted list teaming up with the FBI to catch criminals they don’t even know about it.” It sounded a little hookey, but she still really liked it. The main dude had this mysterious charm to him, and she liked the acting and the soundtrack.

“And Peters just gunna have to deal with it.” She knew she’d taken the room he liked to stay in but he had a home, and she didn’t. Nevermind the whole almost dying thing and needing Cas and Michael to help take care of her for a couple of weeks. “He’ll get his room back soon enough and you and your man’ll be grossing him out again in no time.” And it was gross, but whatever.

She blinked down at the gourd in the box. “Looks like a pumpkin. Michael ordered it?”