There's a lot of bullshit sayings out there, but one of them is absolutely spot on, every time. Never fails.

Everything is temporary.

The good, the bad, it's all relative. Its like every fucking day some god somewhere has a little luck meter that eventually turns on itself.

Today started with me waking up with a migraine.

I don't get them often. Usually, as long as I'm pretending to at least pay attention to my body's needs, they stay away. It's like, the basic principles of caring for one's self are drinking enough water, eating enough food, and sleeping properly. At some point I fucked up. Maybe I got into the rhythm of cooking and forgot to keep hydrated. Maybe I didn't eat enough for the energy I expelled. Or maybe I got too little restful sleep.

Fuck did it hurt.

Every ounce of air that was even remotely touched by sunlight was a dagger through the eye. Right into the back of the brain. It felt like there was a solid iron rod from the back of my head through my shoulder blade on the right side of my body. And even sitting up was enough to make me almost lose my future lunch.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

On a scale from one to fuck-me-sideways, waking up with a migraine was that asshole god's way of saying I could eat a thousand dicks raw. Nothing was going to get done today, and so much had to.

Thankfully, Mel's been with me long enough that she knew at first glance that I wasn't doing great. She flew away without a word, and returned some time later as a human with a giant mug of water and some headache powders. I could also smell food on her, but thankfully it wasn't here. Because just the scent on her clothes made me want to vomit.

"Nope, no food," I said, recoiling from her as if I could somehow avoid the scent.

"That's fine." Mel's usually puckish tone was calm and soft, decidedly less full of its usual squeaks and volume. "You should take this and then see if you can sleep again for a bit."

"But we have so much to get done."

"I'll work on it without you."

I looked for a long time at the powder. "Did you go see Karina?"

"Mhm. Jane hopes you get better soon, and Karina wants to know if you need powders on order."

I took the little sleeve of powder out of her hands. It was carefully piled on a bit of cloth, likely scraps from some old craft, or maybe even just created for this purpose. I'd have to return it as soon as I could.

Even just that little bit of movement hurt like I'd taken a pommel to the temple. "Did you tell her I'm usually fine?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"I did. She says it's not a bother to keep some on hand. You might want to consider it, since cooking draws a lot of focus."

I would have nodded, but I knew I'd just pitch sideways with dizziness. Instead, I lifted the powder to my mouth, tipped my head back, and poured them down my throat.

Bitter.

Like raw potato bitter.

Fuck, I hated migraines.

I shuddered, which only made my head throb angrily.

There isn't enough water in the world to get rid of that taste once its on your tongue, but I tried anyway. I emptied the mug Mel brought me, and she returned with a second which I also chugged.

And then, because I had no other option, I laid back down.

"Don't worry, Harps. I'll take care of you."

I smiled through the pain. "You always do, Mel."

I must have fallen asleep at some point. And slept for a good chunk of the day, too.

At first inspection, I felt marginally better. My head wasn't blaring a trumpet of constant pain, and the dizziness was really only present when I turned or tilted my head too fast.

There were three things I noticed right away.

One, I needed to pee so bad I thought my bladder might just punch through my guts and go running for the hills.

Two, I was ravenously hungry. Like eating raw meat kind of hungry. I was two steps from just chewing on my pillow to hope I could stop being so hungry.

Three, Mel was yelling at someone.

I couldn't really hear well what was being said, which spoke to how well Mel had done with the construction. But there was just volume and obvious anger.

Fuck. Was Duncan down there? It was close to when he'd show up, but I thought I still had a day. Two, maybe.

Or maybe it was Mari Belle.

I scrambled out of bed and threw my shirt on. It was stiff and smelled something fierce, which meant I needed to head in to town and visit the bath. I bet I smelled just as bad.

"-up here?" The trap door in the floor flung open at the masculine tone.

"Please! He's resting! Harper isn't feeling well!"

I could hear desperation in Mel's voice, and I instantly felt terrible about leaving her alone.

The only thing is, though, that wasn't Duncan.

It almost sounded like...

Olde Day himself emerged from the space left vacant by the door, his wrinkled brow a topographical map of fluster, anger, and exhaustion. He looked around the room twice, barely pausing when he saw me, and then struggled to hoist himself up the rest of the ladder.

"Please, wait!"

"It's fine, Mel," I said, even though it wasn't. "I'm awake." I rubbed at my temples, as if I could will the old man and the dregs of my migraine together all at once.

Day struggled with the ladder and the opening to the trap door.

I didn't move to help him.

Sure, maybe it was a bit dickish of me. But for some reason (maybe the way he yelled at Mel or the whole barging into the bedroom of a sleeping sick person) I really didn't feel like being nice.

So I sat up on my cot, leaned back against the wall, and took morbid pleasure in watching the old man huff and puff and wiggle his way up into the room.

As soon as he got about waist high in, he started to crawl, kicking off with his short little stubs of legs. It was even more pathetic to watch. Like a puppy with no rear legs pushing itself across the room.

Maybe I started to feel a little guilty.

Once on completely solid ground, Day sat in a lump on the floor and panted to catch his breath.

"Put your arms over your head. Opens the airways."

"Pah," he wheezed.

Yikes. I didn't think it was that bad. Did climbing the ladder almost kill him? Why the hell couldn't he just have waited until I came downstairs?

"I'm assuming you had something you wanted to talk to me about? Something that was so important it couldn't wait for me to come down?"

"One... minute..."

After his requisite amount of resting time, Day struggled to his feet. His face was two steps from looking like a boiled lobster. I didn't know what the hell his problem was, but I hoped it was worth all the effort.

As soon as he was upright, he put his hands to his thighs and coughed hard. Spittle flew from his mouth, and when he coughed a second time, something much larger and more phlegm-y came with.

I flinched away from the expelled mucus. "Oh! Gross! That's disgusting, Day!"

He ignored me as he straightened up to his full height, which was barely even with me sitting on the cot. "Harper Everson-"

"Emerson."

"-What?"

"Emerson. My name is Harper Emerson."

"Does it fucking matter?"

"I don't know, man! I assume it does! You're coming up here to yell at me, so you better at least have the right fucking name!"

Day stared at me. "Done now?"

I rolled my eyes and motioned for him to continue. "Harper Emerson, I don't know who the hell you think you are-"

"Well, obviously, Harper Emerson."

"-What?"

"You said you don't know who I think I am. I think I'm Harper Emerson."

"What you are, son, is infuriating the fucking hell out of me. Can you just sit there, shut up, and get yelled at?"

I looked past Day to where Mel was peeking out over the edge of the floor. There was a giant grin on her face, so I assume Day had treated her like hell and she was considering this payback.

Honestly, I was just being myself. But I could amp it up, if it would make her happy.

"Right. You were saying?"

Day turned a little purple around the edges, but he continued on. His volume was a bit higher than before, which wasn't great for my head, but it let me know I was getting to him.

"I don't know why-"

"Wait. Weren't you going to start over again? Take it from the top?"

"No I was not gonna!" Day shouted so hard more spittle flew from his mouth. "I'm trying to fucking figure out why you're fucking my wife!"

"Woah." My eyes grew big as I shrunk back. "Lizbeth's a wonderful lass and all but you've got the wrong idea, man."

Mel giggled, then threw a hand over her mouth and giggled a bit harder.

"Over! Fucking over!" Day snarled the words, and looked as if he was about to burst through a seam in his wrinkly old head. "She's done nothing but be sweet as pie to you, but you're using her and it's gonna stop here!"

I stared at him for a moment. "The hell are you talking about?"

"Stay away from my wife, you fucking asshole. There's not gonna be any more of you getting a free ride to level your skills and get taught, and get free fucking food, any more. Do not talk to Lizbeth, do not come to us for something to eat, and do not drop in to say hi. I will know, and next time I'll get Roger to fucking evict you."

"Wait. Evict me? Why?"

"I'll fucking think of a reason."

He turned to storm out, but Mel was still in the way. In fact, she was more in the way, because she rested her elbows on the floor and was watching with rapt interest.

"Do you mind, Miss?"

"Oh, greatly." Mel smiled wide, but it wasn't friendly. It was the smile you got from pixies before something really bad happened to you.

"Mel," I warned.

She ignored me.

"I'd like to leave now."

"Oh, I wanted you to leave ages ago." Mel looked up at Day, and she batted her eyelashes at him. "Like, remember when I told you I'd get Harper for you? Or when you screamed at me and told me to 'go back where I came from' like my kind wasn't here before your putrid race burned our forests and ate our friends?" Her smile grew deeper. "But I understand. You've said your bit, threatened me and mine, and now you think you're done. Nothing more than a blowhard shooting his load all over everyone and then trying to sneak out the back."

"Miss, I'd just like to go home and see my wife."

"Oh, yes. Your wife, who you've ignored almost as much as humanly possible, up until you realized she wasn't in absolute misery because someone else was helping her."

Day stomped his foot, pretty close to Mel's face. She didn't flinch even a tiny bit. And her smile didn't falter either.

"Get out of my way, pixie. I'm done here."

"Mmm, but I rather like it here. It is my house, after all."

I really didn't want to correct her. In fact, I wanted Mel to forget I existed right now. She was being scary, and not in a good way. In a time-to-get-the-coroner way.

"I'm not afraid to kick you out of my way."

Mel tilted her head. "Or you could leave another way. Perhaps out the window?"

Day glanced about the room. "There aren't any."

"We could make one." She looked at me. "Harper, do you think it counts as defenestration if I need to make a window with the person I'm defenestrating?"

I swallowed. "Mel, how about you let Day climb down? He's sorry he yelled at you."

Mel wrinkled her nose. "Oh, you're no fun. Fine." In the span of a breath she was in her winged form, and she floated out of the way so Day could get down the ladder.

I'd never seen an old man move so fast.

It was like someone had set his pants on fire and his hairy balls were catching. Mel moved as if she were going to follow him out, but then circled back and turned into her human form.

"Feeling any better, Harps?"

"Was." I rubbed my forehead again, looking at the hole in the floor where Day had vanished. "Pretty sure I just got fired, though."

"That's okay. You'll find something better soon." Mel smiled, and it was her usual, non scary smile. "While you were resting, a bunch of stuff got delivered. I think we're ready to put the finishing touches on the place and get Derrick back in here."

I nodded, and looked at the building inspector's honey-do list. It was pretty light on tasks, with only a few minor repairs remaining.

"Alright. Well, since I slept the day away, I might as well take care of it."

"Hah," Mel said in a tone that didn't sound humored at all. "Don't worry about it. We'll do it together."

"Yeah...." I trailed off and looked to the floor. "Hey. Before we do anything though, can we wipe the old man snot off the floor? Bunch of savages in this town."