Short naps didn't always work. It was more of a rarity when they did, so Frey exhaled in relief as he opened his eyes to a rested, quiet mind.

Voices filled the rooms downstairs and judging by the darkening sky it was almost dinner time, so a perfect time to rejoin the crowd.

There wasn't a single person standing still in the dining room as he entered. Side dishes Frey had never seen before were being placed on tables and sideboards, and even though it looked like people would collide with one another on multiple occasions they managed to navigate between the tables and the kitchen smoothly.

Finding no Marius in sight and without orders being shouted at him, Frey did the only thing he could think of and entered the room where the children played to sit down next to Saray.

"Feeling better?" she asked in Gralian, and Frey nodded, not without an apologetic wrinkle in his eyebrows.

"I apologise for my disappearance. I'm sure you could have used some help down here."

"I had not even expected help today to begin with." Saray waved his apology away. "You take care of yourself first of all."

She gestured to the children running through the room as if aiming to bounce against the walls.

"I just hid three keys in this room. One of them opens this little thing." She patted a small chest on the table. "And whoever finds the right key gets a treat from inside, and then I repeat it. It's not like I'm exhausting myself either."

"That's a relief." Frey smiled. "And I'm feeling better now, so I'm ready to take over if you need it."

"There you are." Marius entered the room. "Just went to check on you and you were gone."

"I'm better now, so I thought I'd come down."

Marius matched his smile, holding his arms out just slightly as a suggestion.

"What are the rules on touching?"

"I think the ban has been lifted." Frey leaned into Marius' hug as the latter sat down. "Maybe no sudden ones."

"So like with some animals?" Marius slowly held his hand up in front of Frey's face. "Making sure you see what's coming?"

He stroked Frey's cheek, and while Frey was not sure if he appreciated being treated like an animal, he still leaned into his touch.

Audible gasps suddenly landed the room in silence, and they turned to notice the children next to them, wide eyed and with jaws dropped as they stared at Marius in horror.

"He touched it." Sinem squeaked before covering her mouth while Lyros hurried forward to pull Marius away from Frey.

"What were you thinking?" Lyros was equally distraught, giving Marius an accusatory look. "Now the garm is going to get you!"

Marius looked no more enlightened by this, and Frey made a face, remembering which of his cheeks Marius had stroked.

Ah.

"I don't want the garm to take Marius!" Philipo whined, increasingly upset to what looked like the point of tears. "I don't want the garm to—"

"No no no, it's— it's fine." Frey hurriedly stood up to address them all. "There is a way. He, uh... If he scares it away before it gets too close, the curse won't work."

"How?" Sinem shook Frey's arm. "How could Marius scare a big werewolf away?"

"With..." Frey looked to Marius for help, but the latter was even more lost than he was, so he had to improvise. "... A song."

"Oh, come o—" Marius began, but Frey raised his voice to drown it.

"And a dance."

"What are you even talking about?" Marius gestured to the now crying Philipo. "Why would a garm be coming here?"

"Because you touched the scar, and the scar is cursed." Sinem threw her hands out. "How did you not know that?"

"Cursed?"

"Sing the song, Marius!" Lyros pulled Marius out on the floor. "Hurry!"

"I don't even know what song you're talking about!"

"Of course you do, I taught it to you, remember?" Frey had to pretend. What kind of partner would he be if he hadn't taught Marius the song to lift such a curse?

"The...?" Marius still stared, likely scouring his brain if there really was a song, so Frey tried again.

"The... 'Garm, go away' song." He stared Marius down, and the latter opened his mouth to object, but seeing the panicked children around him, he had to give in.

"... Oh, right..." His forehead wrinkled in thought. "... The 'Garm, go away' song. Of course."

"Hurry!" Sinem and Philipo yelled in unison, and Marius grimaced.

"Alright, uh... Garm... Garm... Go away." He tried putting some rhythm in it. "No more—"

"And the dance!" Philipo insisted, having interrupted his crying to move Marius' hands. "You need to do the dance!"

"Yeah, don't forget the dance." At this point Frey couldn't hide a smile, but he quickly masked it again to not seem amused by Marius' supposedly deadly predicament.

"Uh... Garm, garm... Go away," Marius tried again, first holding his hands up next to his ears to symbolise the garm and then making sweeping gestures at 'go away'. "No more... Food for you today."

"Keep going," Frey urged. "You have to do it faster."

Marius narrowed his eyes at him, but continued with a sigh.

"Garm, garm... Go away. Take your curse and don't you... Stay." He made claws of his hands, causing the children to take a step back. "Garm, garm— Actually I don't feel it working." He held out a hand to Frey. "You gotta help me. Two are better than one, right?"

"No, I—"

"Help him!" Lyros more or less screamed in Frey's ear, and the other children joined in on the cheering.

"Serves you right," Marius whispered as Frey was placed to stand next to him, holding Frey's hands up next to his ears to begin the dance all over again.

The first verse was rough, with Frey not having paid too much attention to the lyrics, but with a slower version of the dance, he was soon able to keep up with Marius.

"What's going on?" A puzzled Symeon joined the children to watch the dance. "Is this some Unity dance?"

"No, Marius touched Frey's scar and now he's cursed, and they need to do that song and dance to scare the garm away!" Sinem explained, and Symeon chuckled.

"Do they, now?"

"That sounds terrible! Your poor brother!" Naiara, having entered along with the others to investigate the commotion, bumped her husband's shoulder, unable to stifle a smile of her own. "You need to help them, Sym!"

She turned to the children.

"We all need to help them!"

The children cheered once again and ran onto the floor to mimic Marius' dance while singing in discordant fashion. Naiara clapped along, once again shoving Symeon's shoulder to prompt him into joining the spectacle as well.

"Nipia, Nilay!" Symeon proceeded to yell to his daughters while trying out the dance himself. "Come here and help us drive out a curse!"

The two girls in the doorway did not look too thrilled by the idea, but before they could back away Jimena and Irene had already grabbed them to push them into the dance.

"You too, Papá!" Philipo ran over to grab Thalis, soon receiving help from Lyros as well.

In the end, all the children were singing and dancing, with Isa and Imran finally daring to step into the crowd as well and once Zaira was able to leave the kitchen unattended, it only seemed right that she had to help her poor son escape his curse.

"Alright I think that's enough." Marius finally called out to everyone, visibly out of breath. "I can't feel the curse weighing me down anymore, and I'm also too hungry to continue so let's eat already."

He put an arm around Frey to pull him closer as the others ceased dancing and began moving towards the dining room.

"You'll pay for this later."

Frey raised his eyebrow with a huff.

"You'll pay for this later."

"I'm not the one scaring children with werewolf stories, or forcing my husband to make up silly songs and dances on the spot."

"You forced me to do it too." Frey pouted. "I was getting even for the water incident."

"I was getting even for the water incident."

"By pouring two buckets?"

"Alright, let's not count so thoroughly," Marius decided, seating Frey between him and Emilio. "Now, I don't think riots might be to your taste, but you should at least try one."

Emilio reached over the table to grab a plate of small, braided breads, handing one of them to Frey.

"I think I remember you talking about them," Frey said to Marius while holding up the fried piece to inspect it. "Rice flour, right?"

"And you add syrup." Marius pointed to a bottle on the table, not too enthusiastic for Frey's sake. "Or honey, but both those things are sweet, so..."

"I can at least try." Frey was adamant, to his own misery, and reached for the honey. "I can't claim to have given it a chance without eating it the way it's supposed to be eaten."

By Ilara, was it sweet.

Why did people insist on chewing down things that were nothing but sweet? Frey had no trouble believing it tasted good to people who liked sugary things, but it was not for him. It just so happened that most things served during holidays or festivities were some kind of sweet and it painted him as a picky eater. Not his fault.

"He's intense," Emilio half whispered to Marius as Frey still forced the riot down piece by piece.

"In his own way," Marius agreed, giving Frey's back a light, sympathetic pat.

"Just trying to do this right." Frey downed the last piece with a swig of the same kind of beer from earlier. "Get the full experience, and all."

"If it helps, we're not exactly following every tradition the way they're supposed to be." Emilio gestured around. "To begin with, mar selerhe is supposed to be done on the spot, or second best under other waterfalls. We don't live near any, so we created this tradition instead."

"And these teardrops are not the original recipe." Marius held up a small, tear shaped piece of white confection with dots of what looked like nuts inside. "The almonds, dried oranges and orange blossom water is correct, but our mother added the walnuts and cinnamon."

"It's some kind of nougat?" Frey picked one up as well, wondering if he should ask to bring some back home for the nougat loving Noah only to change his mind in mortification because it would be way too nice of him, but perhaps he could suggest it to Marius and have him do it instead.

"Yup, so essentially just sugar." Marius smiled sheepishly, and Frey sighed on the inside before trying to look on some kind of bright side.

"I might not be much for dried fruit or the sugary part, but the nuts are appreciated."

"Oh you like nuts too?" Emilio raised his eyebrows, and while Frey failed to discern if it was a joke on behalf of their shared preferences, he still nodded.

"Ah, there we go," Marius said as Zaira placed a large plate of some kind of meat in front of them, and Frey exhaled. At last, something to eat.

The meat had been skewered along with some larger, pepper-like vegetables and was still sizzling as Frey put one on his plate along with some roasted potatoes.

His moment of relief was ruined just a little as another small glass of that thicker drink Veysel had offered him before was placed in front of him, but this time, Marius was ready.

"I'll bet Zinon would be willing to trade." He nodded over to his youngest sibling. "He's still stuck with the child-friendly drink, which is mostly lemon, but less sweet than this at least."

"Oh, good." Frey frowned. "Get the children drunk."

"He's sixteen and there's barely any alcohol, I think he can handle it." Marius snatched the glass out of Frey's hand before walking over to Zinon, who actually didn't look too interested in trading but Marius seemed to ignore whatever he was saying and was on his way back with the other glass before Zinon had finished talking.

"Shall we get on with the triumph stories perhaps?" Symeon suggested as Marius sat down. "Last year it went on for so long we were here all night, so might as well do it early."

Frey gave Marius an accusatory look. Would it kill him to fill Frey in on traditions? But at least Marius caught on quickly.

"So, there's a tradition that we all take turns telling everyone about an obstacle we've had to overcome this year." He slowly placed a hand on Frey's. "But it can be any form of obstacle, big or small, so don't feel pressured to bring up some of the... Bad things, unless you want to."

"Well, there are a lot of obstacles to choose from." Frey couldn't begin to count them all in his head. "I'll think of one."

As Marius had suggested, the obstacles were indeed of the lower stakes kind, with each story ending by the person in question downing their drink. Veysel and Irene had to rethink their travel route because their ship was delayed, and Gisela had struggled with getting Ferran to eat solid food.

Before the turn could be passed to Thalis, however, Symeon cleared his throat.

"And in light of, uh... Recent events, Thalis, I think we'll keep the stories to a maximum of two minutes."

"That's fine." Thalis laughed it off, though before Zinon could stop him, he'd reached over to grab the glass Marius had exchanged for the lemon drink, leaving Zinon drinkless and visibly resigned. "Not everything has to revolve around that."

Yet as it turned out, apparently it did.

"Alright that's enough." Veysel held his own drink out of reach while patting Thalis' back as he found even more minor obstacles to eventually spiral into the larger, separation-related ones. "Much more than two minutes already."

"I can't stop now," Thalis protested. "I haven't reached the overcoming part yet."

"And I don't think you will, because you don't have a story like that to tell." Symeon reached over to pat Thalis' shoulder as well. "And that's alright. Maybe next year."

"How about you, dear?" Zaira smiled at Frey, who hesitated before nodding.

"I, uh... Never set foot inside a kitchen before this year," he admitted. "And the first time Marius and I tried baking bread it was a disaster, but... It was fun, and we kept trying and finally succeeded, and now we know how to bake bread."

The rest of the family cheered, and Frey was permitted to empty his glass. It was better than the sweetness he'd tasted before, but there really was a generous amount of lemon in it and Frey struggled not to scrunch up his whole face.

"Personally, I think my greatest obstacle must have been recently." Marius held up his glass to get his turn. "How often do I stumble into werewolf curses, after all?"

"Surprised you don't do it more often given how carelessly you touched him." Symeon smirked, receiving an eye roll in return. "Thought you'd be well acquainted with that dance by now."

"I'll bet he usually keeps his hands busy elsewhere." Veysel looked smug, causing Irene to elbow his side.

"There are children present."

"Right." Symeon hurriedly left the subject before it could get too child unfriendly. "Nilay, Nipia, why don't one of you go?"

As Symeon had implied, the storytelling took its sweet time, and by the time Jimena had finished talking about learning the ropes at her new job, Frey had finished both the main course and forced at least half the desserts presented to him down.

"So, if everyone's done, should we clear the room?" Zaira suggested, and Frey once again sent Marius a look.

"Dancing," Marius defended himself. "Not much to prepare for. Well, aside from learning the dance."

"You're unbelievable." Frey shook his head. "You had every chance to teach me."

"I honestly thought you wouldn't want to, and would feel pressured if I taught you the steps." Marius still looked guilty. "We switch partners every once in a while so it would be a lot of physical touching with people you've just met."

Another instant where Frey's reservations proved to be a curse.

"Stepping outside is one thing, but people are gonna judge me if I don't dance."

"Not if we both escape." Marius waggled his eyebrows. "Let me get out of clearing the room as an added perk."

"Lazy stable boy."

They still snuck away through all the commotion as plates and leftovers were removed from the tables and grabbed their coats to sneak outside.

It had stopped snowing, giving way for clear skies and thereby a colder weather, but Frey didn't mind much. Aside from lights and voices from a bigger street nearby their surroundings were silent and it was a welcome change.

"Looks like the market stands are still up." Marius nodded towards the busy street. "Probably because Dyris' day is coming up."

"People can't get enough of it." Frey shrugged. "It's the biggest holiday we got, after all."

"Do you want to go there? See what they got?"

Frey shook his head.

"This is dumalain. Dyris' day can wait. Besides, I could use some quiet... And less light."

"Oh! I know just the spot." Marius pointed in the opposite direction of the large street. "It's not that far."

"Looks very dark," Frey remarked, noting the lack of streetlights.

"You wanted dark." Marius slid his hand into Frey's. "Besides, I'm here, and I know these streets."

Fair enough, so Frey let Marius lead him through chilly gusts and narrow alleyways to reach an overpass, granting them a view of the lower part of town.

There wasn't much to see there either, not that Frey saw much to begin with.

"So... What am I supposed to be looking at?" He threw a hesitant glance in Marius' direction. "There's nothing here."

"Isn't there?" Marius raised their linked hands to point upwards and Frey tilted his head, eyes widening at the sight.

"I don't think I've ever seen stars this clearly," he whispered under an awestruck breath. The sky had been powdered with sparkling dots all over. He had at best seen the brighter, larger stars on late evening walks at the country house before, but nothing compared to what he was witnessing at the moment.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Marius grinned. "Not a lot of places like this, but I found it a couple of years ago and try to come here at least every winter. Didn't think I'd get to today since it was snowing, but I'm glad it stopped so I could show you."

"I understand navigation better now." Frey laughed softly. "I never grasped how ships could use stars for it, but seeing this... Well, it makes more sense when there are so many to look at."

"Wanna look for constellations?" Marius suggested. "Make a game out of it? See how many each can find?"

Frey sucked air through his teeth, wincing as the cold stung.

"I'm not that great at stars. They were mentioned in a book about navigation that I had to read for work purposes but I haven't really looked for them in real life."

"Then I'll show you." Marius pointed up again. "See the crossed lines of stars over there? That's the two roses."

Frey looked, fairly certain he could discern the ones Marius was talking about, so he nodded.

"Do you know the stories behind them?" Marius continued, and Frey blinked.

"Stories?"

"Of course." Marius put an arm around him. "They all have stories. The two roses, for instance, are from the tale of how Sihlea was tricked into switching places with a mortal by receiving one of those roses. Didn't end well, of course, because what mortal could hope to handle whatever goes on in a deity's world and mind? Fortunately Sihlea got their body back afterwards."

"So the names and stories are from Sihlean culture?" Frey raised his eyebrows. "I had no idea."

"Where did you think the names came from?"

"I thought they had something to do with more... Mortal history, I guess." Frey stretched his own hand upwards. "Or possibly archonic, because I assumed the swanwing had to do with Dinthia. Swan symbolism and all"

Marius followed his pointing.

"The swanwing is not a swan," he then said, and Frey's eyebrows dipped.

"What?"

"The swanwing is a butterfly, but I understand the confusion." Marius joined Frey's hand to adjust the direction slightly. "Then I'm guessing you don't know about the eyes?"

Frey truly had no idea, so Marius continued.

"The swanwing contains smaller constellations, called the clear eyes and the faded eyes. They're much smaller and weaker in brightness so they're easy to miss, and I suppose that's why few outside of Sihlean culture know they exist."

"Eyes as in the spots butterflies can have on their wings?"

"Exactly." Marius opened his coat slightly to show part of the embroidered symbols on his robe. "See the butterfly here? It's a symbol of life and death. It's said that if you see a swanwing with clear, white spots on its wings it's a sign of health and good fortune, but if they're faded in colour or speckled it's a sign that something bad is coming."

"It's like a huge storybook, huh?" Frey let his gaze wander. "What about the badger, then?"

Marius looked around until he spotted the constellation.

"Oh, the badger is chasing an orange." He pointed to a smaller set of stars nearby. "Honestly, I don't really know the story behind that one."

"Does it ever catch the orange?"

"Does it look like it?" Marius smirked. "There are some who celebrate when the moon lines up with those stars though, because at least it catches one ball."

Frey laughed through his nose.

"Any chance to celebrate something."

"Speaking of, are we celebrating the two of us on Dyris' day?"

"How so?"

"It's the day you first confessed to me, sort of... Accidentally." Marius leaned his head against Frey's. "And our first non-drunk, non-vulnerable kiss."

"And my concussion?"

Marius chuckled.

"Horrible as it sounds, I'm still glad we slipped on that ice."

"Because you landed on top of me." Frey curled his lip with a reluctant smile. "I'd personally prefer less ice reliant kisses."

"Well... We're not lying on ice now."

Frey raised a hand to his mouth to breathe into it.

"I have garlic breath, from the sauce."

Marius blew raspberries.

"If you think I'm not used to the smell of garlic breath after growing up in this family, you're silly."

"A ninny, even?"

"A big one." Marius tilted Frey's chin up. "Also, I have garlic breath too."

So they cancelled each other out. Neither of them minded the other's breath as their lips met, and could instead appreciate the warmth they breathed into each other.

"I think I prefer this to dancing," Frey whispered while catching his breath in between. "Getting to be with you under the stars like this."

"I'm in no hurry to get back from this either, so do enjoy yourself." Marius placed a hand on the back of Frey's head to pull him closer, and Frey responded by wrapping his arms around him.

"Might have been nice to dance with you, thought," he mumbled into Marius' neck, and the latter laughed before pulling away to hold Frey's hands.

"Just a little, perhaps?" He raised Frey's arm to twirl him around, catching him before a repeat of their ice tumbling could happen and instead leaned him down in his arms to give him another kiss. "Something like that?"

"I'm half worried you're going to drop me now." Frey glanced over his shoulder at the ground while holding Marius tight.

"Not with these arms." Marius held him even closer, and Frey had to admit he felt safe in his embrace, so he smiled.

"Happy dumalain, Marius," he said again. "May you always witness peace."

"You too, Frey." Marius helped him regain his balance with a smile back. "And may we witness it together."