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credere

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From:

yedinyy

You--

Would you like to tell me about it in person? I don't like talking on the phone like this for anything important. [And it sounds important.]

From:

credere

I don't know that there's very much more to tell, but - alright. [He does prefer speaking in person, he's finding.] Where would you like to meet?

From:

yedinyy

Could you come help set up in the kitchen with me while we talk? I could use the help.

[If Elizabeth were a warden, 90% of her strategy would be 'put them to work.']

From:

credere

Oh - yes, I'd like that.

[He's there not long after, a few minutes at most. It's not as if he has far to come.]

Elizabeth...?

From:

yedinyy

[She opens the door for him, smiling, and she puts a friendly hand on his shoulder, pulling him in.]

You made it. Hi.

From:

credere

"Hello, Elizabeth." He takes off his hat and ducks his head as he steps into the kitchen. "What can I do?"

From:

yedinyy

"Hang your hat on there," she tells him, indicating the peg the aprons are hanging from.

"Tie one of those on, and we'll get to peeling potatoes."

From:

credere

"Yes," he says, and has to forcibly close his mouth before the ma'am comes out after it. This is good, comforting, familiar, after a very peculiar sort of day. He hangs his hat and ties on his apron - and washes his hands.

Just some good, simple work. He needs it; it's grounding.

From:

yedinyy

She sits them both down on some stools and puts a large pot in front of both of them, and then just hands him a knife and a bag of potatoes.

"So," she says, then smiles at him. "A fox."

From:

credere

"Yes."

He makes a start with the potatoes, and it's good, it's easy - something familiar and useful and mundane to do with his hands. He falls into a well-practiced rhythm, taking only the barest slivers necessary, wasting nothing.

"The Admiral returned his magic, and -- he said it was better to do it with someone else."

From:

yedinyy

She sees that, and she peels just the same way. No waste- and the peels go into a neat pile, to be boiled later.

"How did he do it?"

From:

credere

"He just - put something on my forehead," he says, still rather taken with the utmost simplicity of it. "And it happened. I thought it would be strange, or confusing, that I wouldn't know what to do, but it wasn't like that at all."

From:

yedinyy

"You just-- turned into an animal?" She leans forward, drops a potato into the water. "So what was it like?"

From:

credere

"It was..."

Animals can't speak. They don't think like humans do. So it's exceptionally hard to put into words, except:

"It wasn't like anything else I've ever experienced before. It was wonderful."

If giving himself up to the Obscurus is becoming anger and fear and pain, then the fox was curiosity and affection and joy.

Being Credence again, that's the hard part.

From:

yedinyy

"I'm so glad he got to show you that," she says, very sincerely, and reaches out to wrap her damp hand around his wrist.

"You should see those things. Things that make you remember how wonderful they were."

From:

credere

He startles very slightly, though not nearly enough to shift his grip on the knife, and looks at her hand.

"I'm glad I was able to - to give him something he needed."

From:

yedinyy

"He sounds like he needed that," she agrees. "Will you do it again?"

From:

credere

"If he asks," Credence says, with a brief nod.

He doesn't think he can ask himself - it's Quentin's magic, after all. And if he asks once, well, he doesn't know that he'd be able to stop.

From:

yedinyy

"I'm so glad you want back to him," she tells him. "I know it must've been hard."

From:

credere

There's a long silence, and then a tiny little nod. Yes. It was hard. It was very hard.

"I..."

It's such a small thing to say, and yet he can't remember the last time he honestly asserted an opinion..

"I like him."

From:

yedinyy

"He's a good person," she agrees, sitting back now to go back to peeling to potatoes. "Enthusiastic. A little bookish." But she thinks Credence likes that, too.

From:

credere

Credence follows suit, a little guilty for having abandoned his work in pursuit of idle chatter.

"I don't mind that. I read a lot as well."

From:

yedinyy

"What do you read, apart from the Bible?" She wonders, wanting to get him talking a little more as they work. It's so much easier to talk when your hands are busy.