Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The door clicked shut almost silently behind her, and she let out the smallest sigh of relief. She wasn’t into the woods yet, but she was well on her way now.

She just had to actually go through with it this time.

It was simple. She just had to… walk forward. She’d checked, and double checked, and triple checked, and she was more than prepared. Mace would be gone until 7:15 at night, and it was currently a little past noon. Plenty of time to go out, look around for a little bit, and then head on back.

He would never know. It would be fine. She would be fine.

Taking another deep breath and brushing long hair out of her face, she started across the leaf covered ground. Slowly, casually, like it wasn’t any big thing and she certainly wasn’t planning anything. She went out in the yard all the time, this wasn’t any different.

And then she got to the edge of the yard, or at least, the generally accepted barrier that she knew not to cross. The unspoken set of trees that marked the extent of her world. There was nothing different about the spot she was at and the spot she could see five or ten feet in front of her. There was no reason to not just… keep walking. A little bit.

She took another step forward, not letting herself stall for any longer. Not letting herself talk herself out of it like she had every other time. She took a step. And another step. And another.

A few feet, and when she stopped and looked back at the house behind her nothing had really changed. She was still breathing the same air, no alarms or traps had gone off. The world hadn’t immediately shattered and started crumpling in on itself and she hadn’t dropped dead.

A small, smug grin started to twitch onto her face, and she quickly made her way further into the woods. As she walked she tried to keep a strict eye on exactly where she was going, constantly having to blow and push her hair back so that it didn’t mess with her field of vision. She wasn’t going to do something dumb. She wasn’t going to get lost, or hurt, or taken by surprise. She was going to prove that she could handle this. If to no one else, then at least to herself.

Soon when she looked back she couldn’t see the house anymore. She knew which way to go if she needed to go back. When she needed to go back. She wasn’t going to risk making any sort of permanent or too noticeable marks of course, in case Mace ever went wandering around the woods and saw. She grabbed a few rocks and left them in obvious enough places that she should be able to see them and get back, and she should be able to throw them off into the woods again on the way back.

The forest kept going on further and further, and she couldn’t help but immediately start to marvel at it. Sure, there wasn’t anything immediately different from the little patch of woods she’d explored so very thoroughly around their house. Still, it was different. Different trees and leaves and plants, all things she was pretty damn used to, but still new.

More importantly though, this proved that Mace didn’t know what he was talking about. She could manage just fine out on her own, and she was going to prove it. She wasn’t going to do anything crazy, just small steps. Until she had enough evidence that he couldn’t argue with her. She had it all planned out, a bulletproof plan over the next six months that if she could stick to, he had to listen.

And today was the test run. Only the first practice, to prove to herself that she could do it and see if this had a chance of working at all. She already knew Mace didn’t know everything like he pretended to, but she still had to be sure that he wouldn’t be able to tell that she’d gone outside of the yard. That she could go out and find her way back again. Slowly she would expand her horizon, but for now she should really start to head back. It’d only been about twenty minutes or so, but still, she was being smart about this. Building up.

So she was going to head back, enjoy her small victory, and start preparing some better impermanent markers for next ti-

Wait.

What was that?

The teen stopped in her tracks at the sound of something, not too far off from what she could tell. Despite herself she tried her best to pick out the noises and place them, even though that was definitely not what she should be doing. It sounded like rustling, and metal jangling, and maybe something braying?

None of that should matter, of course, because she was going home. She had a plan and she wasn’t going to ruin it by running towards the first weird noise she heard the first time she left the yard. She was proving a point and that meant sticking to the script and doing what she decided she was supposed to.

Everything in its place.

Right now, her place was to head home.

She was just going to see what it was making all that noise first.

It didn’t take too long to find, placing the last couple of rocks down to make sure she could find her way back to the hidden trail. The noise was pretty distinct after all, and it was pretty consistent, and the trees that had started to thicken as she left the clearing began getting a bit more sparse again.

What she found was a busted up chain link fence just barely managing to keep the woods out of an old dirt road. On the other side of the road were more trees, which didn’t go far before she could make out the shimmering of some sort of water off in the distance.

The thing making all the noise was a deer. It looked panicked as it tried to pull its antler out from where it had somehow gotten tangled in the mangled up old fence.

It was trapped.

Shit.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay,” she said, keeping her voice a barely there whisper. It seemed to catch the animal’s attention despite that, the deer pausing in its desperate attempt to tug itself free and twisting its head as much as it could to get a look at her. She was walking slowly, staying out of its range as she came up to the fence.

“That’s it. I’m gonna help you out. Just, don’t tell anyone you saw me, alright?” she continued, lips twitching up into a small smile for just a second at the joke. For the most part the deer was standing stock still now, no longer calling out and braying or thrashing around wildly. She could see its rapid breath though, the occasional hard yank of its head as it still made its best attempt to get out without her assistance.

She had made sure she was never behind it as she got close, to keep from getting kicked, but there was still something a little terrifying about standing next to the panicked wild animal. Up close now though, she could see how the deer had managed to get so stuck. The wire of the fence had either been cut or damaged at several different points, the metal twisting and curling as animals and who knows what else used the openings to get in and out of the woods.

If she had to make a guess, she’d say this hole had probably been perfectly passable for the young deer before it had grown its antlers. It must not have thought to find a new path to get to the water on the other side of the road.

“I feel ya buddy. Bodies changing are the worst,” she said, slowly and cautiously placing a hand on the side of its neck, trying to get it used to her presence before she started tugging at things. The deer instinctively tried to pull away from her, not able to do more than jerk as its antler kept it right in place.

“Shh, I’m not gonna hurt ya,” she said, petting the deer for a moment as it slowly started to calm down. She could feel the rapid pulse ease up the slightest bit, and it wasn’t much but she didn’t want to wait too long for the deer to work itself up into a panic again.

Reaching up, she quickly slapped her long hair out of her face before starting to try and figure out how to untangle the deer.

It ended up being more complicated than she expected. Somehow the deer had managed to wrap its antler up in multiple places, probably making the whole thing worse in its own attempts to free itself. It wasn’t helping that every time she would get a little piece free the deer seemed to be able to tell, starting to yank and pull wildly again. It didn’t help that her stupid hair kept falling into her face, entirely undeterred every time she flung it back over her shoulder.

She knew she should have tried to convince Mace to let her cut her hair before she started this plan. The stupid red mop was just impractical.

She was ignoring it for now though, laser focused on getting this deer out as fast as possible so that she could head back. She hadn’t intended to get all the way to anything like a road today, which was a whole kettle of fish if anyone saw her. If somehow word got back to Mace, this whole plan would be ruined, and she’d probably have to wait years before trying something else like it again. She didn’t want to waste all that time. She couldn’t waste all that time.

Eventually though, she managed to get the biggest twisted metal off of his antler, and the last little bits were small and rusted enough that this time when the deer pulled his head back, it shifted with a sudden jerk. Another hard yank and the deer pulled entirely free, snorting and shaking its head as it caught its bearings at the sudden freedom.

She’d ended up crouched down as she’d worked, and the teen moved slowly as she stood up to keep from frightening the deer.

“See? All bett- ackk!” she yelped, yanked back down when her hair decided not to come with her. It was pretty much impossible to not get a feeling of dread building up in her stomach as she took in the fact with ironic horror that her stupid hair had gotten tangled up in the fence.

“Noooo,” she whined, immediately reaching up to try and untangle herself now. This was fine. She was fine. She was smarter than a deer, she could get herself out, no problem.

Except the way she was caught made it really hard to see what she was doing, and the rest of her hair that wasn’t tangled up in metal and thorny vines kept falling back into her face, and her hands might have started shaking at some point.

She couldn’t help jolting somewhat when she realized the deer was still there, having taken a few steps closer to her again. It sniffed at her, no longer seeming all that panicked now that it was free.

“Don’t suppose you wanna lend me a hand as thanks, huh buddy?” she asked, knowing it was useless. Even still, she couldn’t help but feel slightly miffed as the deer sneezed at her, before turning and running off along the fence, through the woods and out of sight. “Fine, ungrateful jerk,” she muttered, knowing she was being stupid. It was an animal, of course it wasn’t going to help. She didn’t need it anyway, she could get out on her own.

At least ten or fifteen minutes passed, and she was still no closer to getting out. She might have actually made the tangle worse. It was hard to tell. Shit, was she going to have to cut her hair? There was no way Mace wouldn’t notice if she did, and then she would have to come up with some excuse, one that he wouldn’t immediately see through, which probably meant she’d have to intentionally mess up and-

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps crunching along the forest floor, and immediately that panic started coursing through her veins again.

“Hey, come on I just want a- whoa.”

She started trying to pull harder, cursing up a storm as the hair pulled painfully on her scalp. She needed to get out. Someone was here and she was stuck with her hair tangled up in a rusted old fence. It was so stupid, how could she have been so stupid?!

“Hey! Calm down, you’re just gonna make it worse,” a voice called out, clearly at her, because she was the only one out here. She could still twist her head around enough to see them, which was at least something, even if she was still trapped.

It was some boy, probably around the same age as her. If she hadn’t been trapped she would have been able to get away from him without any issue, she was sure. As it was through she was stuck and panicking and he kept on getting closer.

“Don’t touch me!” she shouted once he started raising a hand towards the tangled mess of her hair in the fence. It seemed to be enough to at least give this guy pause. She could see the way he hesitated before giving her a smile that was probably supposed to be comforting.

“It’s okay, I think I can-” the boy started, speaking softly and with a deliberate calmness, like she was some spooked animal. It was frustratingly similar to how she had spoken to the deer that started all this. Suddenly his hand was in front of her face, and she was moving before she could think about it, operating solely on rage and fear.

“Ouch! Did you just bite me?!” the boy shouted after yanking his hand back and out of her mouth.

“I said don’t touch me!” she snapped again, not feeling any sympathy for this guy. She warned him, very directly, and she had managed not to get bit or kicked by a wild deer, so this was on him. He was staring at her in complete disbelief, and after a moment she grimaced and spit onto the forest floor. “Ugh, you taste like sweaty boy.”

“That’s not my fault! I can’t help being nervous, you’re really scary!” the boy insisted, not that she cared in the slightest. If he was scared that wasn’t her problem.

“Then go away! I didn’t ask for your help,” she shouted, making to turn her attention as much as she could towards where her hair was hopelessly tangled. She still made sure to keep a watch on the boy out of the corner of her eye, not about to let her guard down with someone else around at all. It wasn’t… none of this was unfixable yet, and she wasn’t about to let this kid ruin it.

Thankfully, that last round of angry shouting seemed to be enough, and he took a step back. His shoulders slumped some and he was holding the hand she’d bitten, so she couldn’t really see if she’d done any damage. She couldn’t taste blood, so she probably hadn’t broken the skin.

“Fine, be that way,” he said, taking another step back before turning away fully. She didn’t quite let out a sigh of relief, but it was a step in the right direction.

It was also the last straw. She couldn’t stand around here struggling with her stupid hair for another ten, twenty, forty minutes. This was completely off the rails from her plan, and now someone had seen her on top of everything else. She’d figure out a way to explain it later, but right now she needed out.

Digging around in her pockets for a moment, it didn’t take long to find the box cutter. She thought it would be a useful thing to bring, she just hadn’t imagined like this.

Grabbing her hair in a tight fist, she pushed the blade of the box cutter out with a little click.

“I said I was leaving! Jeez!” the boy shouted, suddenly sounding full of fear again. She paused, glancing over at him in confusion to see what the problem was now. She was looking at the box cutter in fear, and she rolled her eyes.

“It’s not for you,” she said, pointedly giving the large chunk of hair in her hand a shake. She could see the moment he realized what she was doing.

“Oh. Right. That makes sense,” he said, and okay, that was enough of that. Ignoring the boy, she carefully lined up the box cutter with her hair, right below where she was holding it still with her fist. She could have cut down a little lower and saved more of her hair, but if it was gonna get cut either way, might as well make it take as long as possible to get back to this stupid length.

“Fine, have fun with that,” she could hear the boy muttering behind her, but she was ignoring him. “Okay, where’d that deer go?”

“Deer?”

She ended up jolting without thinking, trying to turn her head to look back over at the boy. It happened fast, her head yanked back as her hair pulled tight on the fence, sending her forward. Before she could grab the chain links to steady herself she hissed in pain as the box cutter sliced across her eyebrow, immediately dropping it before it did any more damage.

“Fuck!” she snapped, catching herself on the fence finally, right eye automatically closing as she could feel a small trickle of blood staring to make its way down her face.

“Shit,” she heard the boy curse, could hear him walking closer to her again. He stopped after a certain point though, but she could still feel his eyes on her. She tried to ignore him and ignore the panic near about bursting in her chest.

She’d fix it when she got home. She just had to get home. She’d dropped the box cutter, where the hell was her box cutter? It was hard to see, she couldn’t open her right eye if she didn’t want blood getting into it, and she didn’t have a great range of motion with her head stuck where it was.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, that boy decided to close the distance once again, coming and kneeling down next to her.

“Here, let me help,” he said, moving much slower than last time (and pointedly keeping his hand away from her mouth) as he reached down to grab something off the ground. It didn’t take a genius to realize it was her box cutter.

“I don’t need-” she started to insist, but she didn’t get to finish her sentence before he was cutting her off.

“Yes you do! I mean seriously, look at yourself! You’re bleeding,” he insisted, and she wanted to bite him again and tell him he had no idea what he was talking about. Instead though she was silent, just sitting on her knees, still holding the fence with one hand as she glared daggers at the boy with the only eye she could keep open.

The irritation on the boy’s face softened some as she stayed silent, and after a moment he continued.

“Just let me do this, and then I’ll leave you alone. I promise,” he insisted. It… it sounded genuine, and as much as she wanted to say otherwise, she didn’t have much of a choice.

Instead of saying anything, she nodded as subtly as possible. The boy noticed though, letting out a clear sigh of relief.

“Okay, if you hold your hair here I should be able to cut you free without much issue,” he said, and she nodded as much as she could in this position. Twisting her loose hair around her hand, she kept her one good eye locked on the boy’s as he brought the box cutter up. She could already start to feel some of the tension on her head decrease as he carefully cut through the tangled mess.

“So uh, my name’s Jesse,” the boy, apparently named Jesse, said. She didn’t respond, staring straight ahead and waiting for this nightmare to be over with. “Um, what’s your name?” he asked next, and again, she didn’t say anything. “Uh…”

“You won’t know me long enough for it to matter,” she insisted finally, because it didn’t seem like he was going to give up. This was exactly why she didn’t want to deal with people, not yet. She didn’t have anything planned, that was why the whole plan had been about doing things slowly. So that she would have time to formulate an idea of how to go about it.

She couldn’t even introduce herself yet.

“Oh, um, okay?” he said, obviously confused. That didn’t matter though, because at that point she felt the last bit of hair holding her captive get cut, and she immediately scrambled back from the fence and the boy. Her hand went up to the side of her head, which now felt lopsided. She’d have to take care of the rest when she got home.

“There! Was that so bad?” Jesse asked, but she wasn’t about to humor him. The only reason she hadn’t run away immediately was because he still had something of hers.

“Give me back my box cutter,” she demanded, the order seeming to take the boy by surprise. He glanced down at the plain black blade in his hand, quickly closing it and nodding.

“Sure, here you go,” he said, holding it out for her. For a moment she considered making him put it on the ground, but if he wanted to hurt her it would have been a hell of a lot easier when she was tangled up. Carefully she took a few steps closer, grabbing the blade as fast as she could before moving back again.

At that point, there was no reason for her to not turn and run. She’d only been out for about an hour or so, so she still had plenty of time to get back before Mace came home, but now she had to deal with all of… this. She couldn’t afford to waste any more time just standing around.

But for some reason, she was still standing there. It seemed like Jesse might have been just as confused by that as she was.

“Are um, are you okay? You should probably get that looked at,” he said, pointing towards his own eyebrow. She wasn’t going to do that, but she didn’t say that, instead nodding sharply.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, making herself sound certain enough that he might even believe it. He nodded either way, and there was another moment before she reluctantly continued, taking a deep, shaky breath before speaking again. “Thank you. For your help,” she said.

“Oh! Hey, no problem!” Jesse said, smiling brightly and seeming very pleased with the gratitude. “Thanks for not biting me a second time,” he added, and it was almost funny.

“I’m not forcing myself to taste sweaty boy twice in one craptastic afternoon,” she said, the boy immediately pouting at that.

“Hey! Once again! You are terrifying,” he insisted, and this time she actually did smile. Just for a second, before pushing it down again.

She needed to leave. Now.

But she still had a question. She cut her damn forehead for it, so she was going to get an answer.

“You said something about a deer?” she asked, Jesse seeming surprised by the sudden change in topic. He nodded though, despite the bewildered look on his face.

“Huh? Yeah. I was chasing some weird deer when I found you,” he said, and she couldn’t help but blink in surprise at that. Alright then.

Guess she couldn’t be mad at the deer for leaving her high and dry then. That had to be as close to helping as it could manage, being a deer and all.

“Oh, okay,” she said, hesitating for just a second longer before turning away. “Bye,” she added, because he had gotten her out of there, so there was no need to be rude. She could say bye.

“Hey wait!” Jesse called after her, and immediately she could feel her hackles rise again. “Are you sure you’re okay? I mean it, that cut looks pretty bad. I could walk you back if you want. Where do you live, I’ve never seen you around here be-”

Before he could finish she spun back around on her heels, snapping a large stick off of a nearby bush and brandishing it out in front of her, keeping him from getting any closer.

“I don’t need any more help. You’ll never see me again, so forget about this and go away,” she hissed, watching as Jesse took a few more hesitant steps back. Once he was a safe enough distance away she tossed the stick, turning and sprinting as fast as she could back towards her house. She could hear Jesse call after her once more, but he wasn’t following her, so she ignored him. He'd promised to leave her alone after all, and she intended for him to keep that promise.

Once she was alone, knocking away stone markers as she moved through the woods, she finally started to catch her breath. None of this had gone how she planned. Next time she would do better.

She just had to get back and figure out a way to explain her hair and a cut down her face before Mace got home.

Otherwise, there wasn’t going to be a next time.

Chapter Text

By the time she got home the clock let her know it was a little past one. Not terrible, giving her about six hours to figure out how to handle this.

First though, she needed to deal with that cut and the blood on her face.

Heading to the bathroom, she started working quickly and as efficiently as possible, her brain going a million miles a minute as she did to try and figure out a believable cover story. Even more so, something believable and that wouldn’t be as bad in Mace’s eyes as her running off and immediately getting trapped and hurt like an idiot.

Like, the cover story was still going to be pretty bad, since she couldn’t exactly hide her hair or her face. Still, as long as it was not as bad.

She couldn’t help but grimace at the sight in the mirror, even more so than usual. The cut over her eye had pretty much stopped actively bleeding at this point, but that just meant the line down her face was starting to get dry and tacky. That wasn’t even getting into the mess her hair was in. Most of it was still long, but it was all pretty incredibly frazzled, and then there was the chunk that ended unevenly and choppily just a little over her shoulder.

Wetting a rag, she started by cleaning the blood off her face, inspecting the cut once she could get a clear look at it. Probably didn’t need stitches, but it might scar. Either way, it left a clear, red line over one eyebrow.

Which… honestly looked kinda badass. If she did say so herself.

Still, she bandaged it for good measure, not wanting to accidentally reopen it right now. Throwing the wet rag into the sink once she was done, she’d wash it once she figured out how to deal with the next problem staring her in the face. The hair thing.

Twisting some scissors around in her hand, she leaned on the sink, frowning as she contemplated her options. A part of her wanted to chop off as much as possible, tell Mace she’d gotten tired of the annoying mop always getting everywhere and decided to fix it herself, consequences be damned. Except that wouldn’t work, and she’d still have to explain the cut. Too many stories at once would definitely let him know that something was up. It all had to fit together.

She wasn’t going to be able to hide the fact that she messed up, that would be too suspicious. She just had to make him think she’d messed up in a way that wasn’t her fault. Or at least, not entirely.

Getting an idea, she wrapped a handful of her hair around her fingers, right next to the original spot that kid had cut off, and chopped it off with the scissors. Placing the chunk on top of the toilet for later, she started focusing on actually fixing the rest. Brushing out the tangled mess so that she could get an idea of what she was doing, she reluctantly decided against doing anything too drastic. Instead she kept it at basically the same length as that initial cut, just evening the whole thing out.

What she came away with was something like a straight, shoulder length bob. Not great, but honestly, it was at least better than before, if anyone wanted her opinion. Her head was a lot less heavy for one thing, and she was almost smiling as she shook her head back and forth once she was done.

She didn’t clean up just yet though, instead grabbing the chunk of hair she’d put aside earlier. She’d had an idea, and it was… stupid. She was definitely going to get in trouble, but the important part was Mace should believe it. She just had to make sure that he wouldn’t see through it.

Which meant everything had to be perfectly messed up.

By the time Mace got home that night, she’d managed to get everything in place, and then cleaned it all up again as if it had never happened.

She was sitting on the couch, reading a book when she heard the door click open right at 7:15, like clockwork. She could hear the familiar scrape on the wooden floor as Mace took off his shoes right by the door, and she didn’t look up as she spoke. She wouldn’t have been able to see into the entryway from her spot anyway, which was part of the reason why she liked to sit there. It wasn’t much, but it was nice to get to at least pretend at privacy sometimes.

“Before you get mad, I fixed it,” she called, trying to keep her voice casual and confident. If she didn’t treat it like a big deal, maybe he wouldn’t either. Kind of a fool's hope, the teen was well aware, but she also knew it wouldn’t help anything if she was melodramatic about it all either. Basically she was in a no-win scenario, but she was at least going to have as much control as she could on how she was going to lose.

The sudden silence let her know without having to look that Mace had paused. She wasn’t quite holding her breath, but she could still feel herself frozen as she waited for some sort of response.

“There wasn’t anything that needed fixing when I left,” he said finally, and she could hear him coming down the hall now. She kept her eyes on her book, flipping to the next page even though she hadn’t really absorbed anything in front of her.

“I know. We’re down a glass, I dropped it. Sorry,” she said, chancing a quick glance up towards the doorway. It was pretty clear that Mace had noticed the obvious changes, but of course, it felt next to impossible to guess what it was he was thinking. His face was in that same disapproving frown that it was almost always in, which gave nothing away. Which, as loathed as she was to admit it, was kind of impressive. She expected some sort of reaction to seeing all her hair chopped off and a large bandage slapped above her eye. If she had to guess though, she would say he was probably pretty damn pissed.

There was a long moment where he didn’t say anything though, longer than she was used to. Not the best sign for sure, it had been a while since she’d made him mad enough to be speechless. Sure, he would never admit to being speechless, but she was smart enough to piece it together. Finally he took a deep breath, turning and taking off his coat as if everything was normal.

“What did you do?” Mace asked finally, coming into the room but not sitting down. She closed the book, any pretense of this being a normal conversation having gone well out the window at this point, and tried to go for that same stern emotionlessness that Mace had. If she could meet him at his level maybe one of these days he’d actually bother to start respecting her.

“Before I say anything, it wasn’t my fault. My hair was too long,” she tried to insist, already able to tell that it wasn’t swaying Mace in the slightest.

“What did you do?” he asked again, voice clipped and harsher than before. Right, there was no more delaying this. Letting out a grumbled sigh, she wasn’t doing a great job of staying emotionless. Which, whatever. It didn’t matter as long as he bought her story.

“I was trying to grab a cup and my hair fell into the burner when I was cooking. It was either this or walking around with a burnt chunk out of my hair,” she said, and well, maybe the cover story was a little bit extreme. Catching yourself on fire wasn’t exactly something she wanted to pretend she was capable of doing.

It was bad enough though that Mace would have no reason to believe it was a lie. It was out of her control enough that cutting her hair would have been the only sane option, and she needed some way to explain getting hurt. There was nothing that could ever point to her lying either. She'd gotten rid of all the hair, but if he wanted to dig around in the trash he'd find a good chunk that she'd burned, just in case. The smell had dissipated by now, but it had been there on the off chance that he came home early. She'd been sure to think of everything.

She could feel her stomach drop a little when Mace didn’t even respond, turning and heading straight towards the kitchen without another word.

“I already fixed everything! It happened at lunch,” she insisted, jumping up from the couch and trailing after him. Of course, Mace didn’t seem all that bothered to listen to her, going over the kitchen and looking for the slightest hint of anything out of place. There wasn’t of course, because she was smarter than that. Mace seemed to forget sometimes that she was smart, even though that was part of the deal.

The only sign that anything had happened in the kitchen was a blank spot in one of the cabinets next to the stove, where a glass was supposed to go. The shattered remains had already been carefully wrapped up and tossed in the trash with everything else, just to be sure the ruse held.

Mace still wasn’t saying anything, and it was hard to tell if he was trying to wait her out or not. Whatever it was, it didn’t take too long before she broke, wanting to defend herself from whatever conclusions he was drawing up in his head.

“I swear, it wasn’t my fault. I told you it only happened because my hair was too long. I wanted to get it cut, it was only an inconvenience,” she argued, hoping despite her better sense that for once Mace would agree with her. That he’d see she wasn’t just being petulant and knew what she was talking about.

Then Mace turned around to face her again, and any hope that he would actually listen for once dashed in an instant.

“No, it happened because you were careless,” he declared, stating it with the same amount of certainty that someone could say the sky is blue. It was enough to get her to flinch, even though the story she was giving him was a lie.

Because he was kind of right, if they were actually looking at the real facts of what happened. She hadn’t been paying attention, and she’d freaked out, and she shouldn’t have even tried to get the deer out in the first place. She hadn’t stuck to her plan, was careless, and it backfired right in her face like Mace always said would happen.

“I’ll make it up to you for the glass. It’s not a big deal,” she still tried to insist, because she wasn’t about to back down from any of this yet. Even the stuff she was definitely not going to let Mace know about. It didn’t matter if she botched this first attempt a little, she would be smarter next time.

“And how are you gonna make it up the next time you almost burn my house down?” Mace asked, closing the kitchen cabinets again with the slightest bit more force than was necessary. She didn’t flinch, she was more than used to these measured displays of anger. Even still, she couldn’t help but puff up at the accusation.

“It wasn’t that bad! I had everything under control! It was just- I didn’t-” she could feel herself fumbling, it was getting frustratingly hard to remember how to defend herself. It never seemed to matter how many carefully scripted practice conversations she played in her head, how much she told herself she was going to be calm and level headed.

It didn’t matter, because every single time Mace barely had to say or do anything before it all came crumbling apart again.

“This is under control?”

“Hey!”

Before she could react he had what was left of her hair clenched tight in a fist. It was rare for him to ever actually grab her, and she was immediately wishing that she had said fuck it and cut all her hair off like her first impulse had been.

“Let go of me! It wasn’t my fault! If I wanted to burn this stupid fucking house down I would have done it by now!” she shouted, struggling and fighting every step of the way as Mace walked her across the house. She had no idea if he was listening to what she was saying, hell, she was barely paying attention to what was coming out of her mouth at this point. She was too angry and upset to even try for reasonable anymore, cursing and shouting.

It was like screaming at a brick wall for all the reaction Mace gave. Still, even if he could ignore her words she knew that his legs would be feeling the bruises from her kicking for at least the next couple of days.

Mace only let go once they arrived at the door to her room, throwing it open and shoving her roughly inside. Before she could even turn around she heard the door slamming shut behind her, heard the bolt on the other side click in place.

“I hate you!” she screamed, as loud as her lungs could manage, the kind of shriek that left her throat feeling sore and raw afterwards.

“I don’t care,” the reply came through the door, the words barely raised enough to be able to be heard through the barrier.

It was far from the first time they’d had this exact exchange.

Fists clenched almost tight enough to bleed and tears of rage pricking at the corners of her eyes, she collapsed down onto her bed. Grabbing her pillow she screamed into it again, and again, and then a third time for good measure. Just needing something to get the rage out that wouldn’t result in breaking any of the few things she actually had.

If anyone had existed to ask her later if she’d cried afterwards, she would have said no. She wasn’t even sure if that would be a lie. She didn’t think crying should really count if it was out of anger, and that was all this was. Mace pissed her off. He knew that, and he did it on purpose, and she would fight back and get under his skin just as much. As long as they were both miserable, then it was almost bearable.

And besides, it didn’t matter if she was grounded.

It worked.

Mace had no idea she’d ever left the house. He brought the story hook, line, and sinker. She’d have to wait a while before she could risk making another trip out, since he was going to be pissed and on alert for her to screw up again for a while, but that was a relatively minor setback. It still left the main core of her plan completely uncompromised.

See?

Smart.

She’d also been smart enough to eat before Mace got home, since she figured there would be a decent chance that he wouldn’t be in the mood for a Family Dinner. So instead of trying to occupy herself with anything, she decided to just go to sleep. There wasn’t that much to do in her room anyway, she didn’t have a lot of junk, and even less of it was actually kept in her room. Mace figured that would make locking her in here a pretty shitty punishment, and he was right there.

Besides, today had been long, and exhausting, and now her throat hurt from screaming and she was definitely going to get a headache from crying soon.

Thankfully, it didn’t take very long for her to pass out.

Waking up the next morning was a groggy experience, which she could have predicted. There was a moment of confusion when she went to brush the large mop of hair away from her face as she sat up and it ended a lot sooner than she expected it to. The events of the previous day came back to her pretty damn quick though, and right. A lot had happened.

Pushing herself out of bed, she changed into some new clothes, having accidentally fallen asleep in her outfit from yesterday. She didn’t really pay attention to what she threw on, it was all the same to her. Mace picked out her clothes, so they were all respectable blouses and long skirts and junk. She had a few pairs of pants for when it got cold or the few times Mace let her help out with something more physical, but overall she never found herself particularly invested in what she wore.

Looking at herself in the mirror though, there was a small smile tugging at her lips now. The haircut wasn’t perfect sure, but it was certainly better than the stupid fucking Rapunzel locks she had before. She took the opportunity to check the cut on her eyebrow, and it seemed healed enough that the bandage probably wasn’t necessary anymore. If it had been on an arm or her hand or something she would have kept the bandage on for another day or so, but she wasn’t going to be running her face into anything.

Staring at herself in the mirror definitely wasn’t what she wanted to spend her day doing, of course. she doubted that she would have much of a choice otherwise though, since it was pretty damn unlikely that Mace had unlocked the door already. Still there wasn’t any harm in trying, at any rate.

To her surprise, the door actually pushed open when she tried the knob. There was a pause where she stared down the empty hallway, not sure how to proceed for a moment. Was it a trap? Some sort of test?

Screw it. She wasn’t going to stay stuck in her room if she didn’t have to.

Heading cautiously further into the house, it wasn’t long before she noticed the smell of something cooking. Moving quietly towards the kitchen, she wasn’t too surprised to see Mace in there, standing at the stove. No, the only surprising part was when she glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and saw the time.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” she asked, pretty sure Mace must’ve already figured she’d been standing there by now, even if he hadn’t reacted.

“Took the day,” Mace said simply, and since his back was turned she didn’t even try to hide the grimace on her face at the news. Great. It was definitely bad news if he was going so far as to call off work to deal with her screw up.

“I can take care of myself,” she insisted as she pulled out a chair, sitting down at the small kitchen table. She knew that was what all of this was about. The last thing she wanted was for Mace to take this as an excuse to take away the few privileges she did have. She would have been dumb not to see this as a possibility though, especially when it came to being in the kitchen. Still, she hadn’t thought that he would go so far to stay home today. He hated having to go out of his way for her, especially if it ever interfered with his work.

Instead of answering, Mace came over and placed an omelet in front of her without a word before heading back to the stove. Giving a frustrated huff, she started poking at the eggs with a fork, hesitantly trying a bit. It was… fine. Mace never exactly bragged about his cooking skills.

Still, this wasn’t what she was expecting.

“Why are you being nice today?” she asked bluntly after a moment, suspicion clear in her voice as she took another bite of omelet. She immediately grimaced, getting up to grab a drink. “Never mind, you put onions in there on purpose,” she grumbled. She was pretty sure Mace chuckled at that, but it was hard to tell.

Sitting back down with her water this time, she continued eating the omelet, carefully picking out as much of the onions as she could. Mace finished up the rest of the food he’d been working on, packing it up in tupperware and throwing it into the fridge.

“No more stove. If you need something there’s food you can heat up in the microwave,” Mace said finally, laying down the new rules from her screw up. Immediately she started groaning, slumping forward and resting her chin on the table as she glared up at the man.

“That’s bullshit. It wasn’t my fault and-” she started to argue, cutting off when Mace loudly dumped the pan he’d been using into the sink. She sighed, not wanting to drop this topic but it was pretty damn clear that Mace had made up his mind.

Instead of trying and making him pissed again, especially when all things considered, he was clearly feeling generous today, she kept eating while he went about washing the dishes. Once she was done she scraped the large pile of onions off into the trash before handing Mace the plate to clean as well.

“So,” she started, and she wasn’t letting her guard down, but the fact that Mace was actually being his version of nice might mean that she hadn’t actually messed up as badly as she thought she might’ve. “You never said what you think of my new look.”

Mace finished setting the last of the dishes away, before sparing a quick glance over at her. She didn’t actually care what he thought of how she looked, she mostly just wanted to see how close she could poke at what happened without getting in more trouble.

“You looked better before,” he said simply after a moment, starting to head towards the living room. She made a face at that, although honestly, if Mace disliked how she looked now, that was even more reason for her to like it.

“I don’t think you know anything about fashion,” she said, heading after him for lack of anything else to do.

“And you do?” Mace asked, which was… honestly a bit fair. She didn’t know shit about that kind of stuff, but that wasn’t important. He already had some files from work set up at the desk by the window, and she wasn’t surprised when he went and sat down to start working on them. She went over to the couch, grabbing a textbook off of the side table and starting to flip through it. She didn’t get to go to school, but Mace wanted to make sure she was still educated.

It was quiet for a while then, Mace working on whatever while she tried to teach herself algebra. It wasn’t going all that well, at some point she’d gotten distracted and started drawing deer in the margins of her notebook.

“I thought you’d be madder,” she mumbled after maybe an hour of silence. It was bothering her after all. She thought for sure that she would have been grounded for longer than just the one night. Sure, Mace wasn’t letting her use the stove anymore but otherwise she’d gotten off pretty close to scot free.

Mace didn’t say anything for a long moment, to the point where she was pretty sure he was going to ignore her entirely. It wouldn’t be the first time. So when he did respond, she was taken a little off guard.

“It wasn’t entirely your fault,” he said, and she immediately sat up at that. Turning to look at Mace, she was pretty sure the shock was written all over her face. That wasn’t- he’d never admitted that she was right before. She didn’t get any chance to feel vindicated before he continued, however. “It’s mine. Giving you too much freedom lately.”

The excited smile that had been on her face immediately dropped into a disappointed frown. Groaning, she slumped heavily into the couch. Mace clearly didn’t care about the complaint, continuing working without so much as a glance back towards her.

Instead of going back to her math work, she kept on drawing deer on the edges of the pages.