As much as Sabrina had always felt an affinity for the woods back in Greendale, she’d never actually gone camping in it. There had been plenty of late night treks, searching for ingredients and failed rituals for one thing or another, but camping had never been on her agenda. That had changed in Vallo and she’d gone on one camping trip with Archie before he’d been pulled back to his zombie infested world. Her own nightly not-quite-sleeping sessions didn’t count as actual camping. That was more laying around and not allowing herself to sleep while Salem sat guard.
Vallo probably had more dangerous creatures in it than Greendale did, but it also had countless waterfalls and other bits of scenery that she’d been intent on exploring. Especially now that the weather was becoming nicer, snow absent from most areas except the highest peaks. Plus she’d been looking forward to some one on one time with Nick.
Or as much one on one time as they could get with Salem, Shadow, three hellhounds and a hell lizard trekking along with them. But whatever, there was still stargazing to happen and s’mores to be eaten. Another attempt toward normal for the two of them.
“I think this works as a good spot to set up.”
Sabrina had mentioned camping and Nick had jumped at the chance. He loved the mortuary and all its residents, but a break where it would be just him and Sabrina? That was definitely a welcome interlude.
They'd talked about sleeping out under the stars, but had brought a tent for options, and Sabrina was right. This was the perfect place to set up. With their entourage seemingly taking the cue that this was where they were stopping, the hounds and Shadow headed for the water, still in sight and Salem perched to observe Nick as he set up the tent.
Which he insisted he could do.
In the end, he and Sabrina managed, but he'd only relented in letting her help because she pointed out he was dangerously close to puppet stage and did he really want to waste their camping trip as a puppet who was mad at a tent?
No, he did not.
It would have been two of them as puppets if it had gotten to that point. Him mad at a tent and her mad at him for being mad at the tent. If they couldn’t actually enjoy Lupercalia--and she loved Shadow, she did--then they were going to get to enjoy camping damn it. Not everyone was going to fit inside of the tent, but Sabrina figured the hellhounds would enjoy sleeping under the stars and there would be enough room for Shadow and Salem to join them.
Salem would have been an absolute jerk if that wasn’t the case.
The cat headed inside of the tent to take a midmorning nap, flicking his tail at them as he passed.
She looked over toward where the other animals had headed, grinning as she watched them swimming about in the water. “I think they’ve got the right idea.”
"You think so?" Nick replied, pulling off his shirt and tossing it into the tent. The ensuing meow that followed had him apologizing, and choosing to be more careful with the rest of his clothes.
"What are the odds someone else finds us here?" he asked. Because there were two options before him when it came to his state of undress. Of course, the other question was, did he care?
Sabrina arched a brow at the question. They were on their own in the middle of the forest in a place where no one else was likely to venture. Locals probably knew about the spot but she doubted that many Outlanders did. “I’d say very, very slim.”
She easily shimmied out of the dress she’d chosen to wear, tossing it at Nick’s head before setting down the rest of her clothes inside of the tent, and then making her way down toward the water. It was cool, but no obnoxiously cold, a nice refresher after all of the walking that they had done while carrying the tent and other camping equipment.
It wasn't long before Nick joined her, quickly acclimating to the water before swimming over to Sabrina.
"Hey," he said, smiling. Relaxed. It felt good to get away a week after nonstop performances. Wicked had been fun, just time-consuming. Now, there was nothing on his schedule except this weekend.
He leaned in and kissed her, before swimming toward a waterfall, looking at the paths above them and wondering if it would be deep enough to jump. "How'd you find this spot, anyway?"
“Blue and Gansey found another place not too far from here last year and posted about it. It looked gorgeous in their pictures and so I wanted to do my own exploring.” It had seemed like the perfect last weekend trip before school started back up.
She nodded back toward the trail they had come from. “Archie and I camped back that way where the others had come and after he was sent home I came out here sometimes with Salem and we found this little oasis.”
She hadn’t found it until ghosts had come to visit everyone in Vallo and she’d gotten Nick as her ghost. Not that she really wanted to mention that part. Ghost probably wasn’t the right term anyway. Since not everyone who showed up was dead. ‘Visitors’ was probably a better term for that particular Vallo weirdness.
"Ah," Nick grinned. "The boyfriend before me."
That had been a bit weirder when another version of Archie had been around, especially as he was one of the few people Nick talked to in the snow globe. But it hadn't been the same Archie and Nick wasn't threatened by him, or by Aidan.
The open communication thing with Sabrina was working out really well. So well that he had to tease her. "So you bring us all here, then?"
Two could play at that game.
“Only the ones I think are cute enough.” She peered over at him before pursing her lips. “You’re passable.”
"Wow, Spellman," Nick said, turning back to Sabrina. "How many amazing locations am I missing out on because I didn't reach the next level?"
“Guess you’ll never know,” she deadpanned, lips twitching into a smile before she swam toward him. “Maybe you could convince me to show you some of the other ones?”
Sabrina trailed her fingers up his arm once she was close enough before moving forward to try and dunk him under the water.
"Maybe…" Nick said, before Sabrina was attacking him.
She easily dunked him, but that was partially because he used the opportunity to pull her under with him, smirking at her before swimming out of reach, surfacing to orient himself toward the waterfall, figuring she'd follow.
She’d known she was going to get pulled under too and had stuck her tongue out at him before he’d started swimming away from her. She followed after him, letting the water from the waterfall slide down on her and reminding her of a scene in the old Peter Pan film or was it the Little Mermaid? One of them had mermaids washing their hair under a waterfall.
“What’s something you want to be doing five years from now?” Because Sabrina was just going to keep believing that they would still be in Vallo then, living their lives and together. Dan, Allison and Claire would still be around and Lucifer. Maybe Roz and some of the others.
"Five years?" Nick replied, blindsided slightly by the question. He'd barely considered the next couple of months. "Haven't thought that far ahead, Spellman. Have you?"
“Definitely still attending university.” Though instead of Vassar she figured it’d be the Unseen one. Mortal college didn’t seem as appealing when she could attend somewhere that taught various types of magic. “I think by then maybe we’d be looking at finding our own place. Just you and me.”
Sabrina nodded toward where all of the animals were laying out in the sun. “And our gaggle of creatures probably.”
Nick grinned because he had the same thoughts with school. He wanted to learn as much about magic as possible, and Vallo provided seemingly endless opportunities. How long would he be in school? Even now he couldn't have given an answer other than a while.
"Our own place, huh?" he asked. "In the woods, because of the animals?"
It was a nice idea, thinking that far ahead, though he didn't know that he trusted it.
“The woods would probably be the most comfortable place,” she agreed. It was the part of Vallo that felt more like home to her. The mortuary had been on the edge of the woods and she’d been born in the Greendale woods as well. “But I dunno. Maybe the city could be nice for a little bit? And we could get enough space for all of them too.”
Plus the animals all had their own version of teleporting so it wasn’t like they’d be stuck inside a cramped apartment.
Sabrina shrugged, pushing off of the rock she’d been leaning on. “Maybe it's a silly idea to think like this?” She just wanted to be optimistic even if nothing was ever certain.
"No, it's not silly," Nick said, now trying to picture them living in some place like Morningside for a little while, the sounds of the city present at all times, the stars of the night sky replaced by city lights. For some reason, it was appealing, and he could imagine it vividly.
Of course, he could also see himself in some little cottage in the woods, also with Sabrina present. And she was obviously the important part, that made it easier to picture their future. If they were together he knew they'd make whatever work.
"I'll actually have opened Dorian's," Nick said sheepishly.
She laughed at that. “Do you have a better idea of what you want to do with it?”
Sabrina knew it could be overwhelming to try and figure out what to do with the random buildings from home that showed up. And Dorian’s meant something to them. Especially with Dorian being dead back home. In some ways it was nice to have it as their own place but it could be a good thing for the community too.
"I'm still thinking about keeping it open during the afternoon for day drinking, then turning it into a club at night, but then rehearsals started and then all those nights of the musical, it's just not been a priority."
Nick shrugged. Whatever he did with Dorian's, if anything, he wanted to do it right. "I liked using it for the party," he mentioned. Well, until things went south but that was him and Sabrina, not the party itself.
"It worked well for the party." Everyone who hadn't been in their core group and Hazel seemed to have had fun.
They'd come a long way since that night though and all of the issues it had brought up for them. Though Sabrina thought Roz was still suppressing a lot of things. She couldn't force her friend to talk to someone though.
"You could always hold party events at it? Like still do the day drinking and club too. But I think my dad does private events at his place. He might have some tips?"
Nick wasn't sure why he hadn't thought of asking Lucifer before, but once Sabrina suggested it, that made perfect sense. When they were back from the weekend he'd reach out.
"Anyway, Spellman. Glancing five years into the future, I'm with you. Whether that's still at the mortuary or some cottage in the woods, or an apartment somewhere in the middle of the city, I can picture us."
Sabrina grinned at that, swimming back over to him. The two of them being together in five years was the part she liked to think about the most. Daydreaming about what they would be getting up to and how much closer they would manage to be by then. They had come so far since just January and while she was sure there would be some bumps along the way, Sabrina was certain they’d withstand any of them.
“I can picture the two of us, too. That’s the consistent part of every future plan I think up.” She nodded back toward the beach where their animals were lounging. “Plus all of them.”
* * *
Later that evening, Nick was thinking about that conversation as they laid outside, gazing up at the stars. Everything seemed possible in that moment; his usual lingering cynicism lost to the skies above.
"So you're really alright with never going back home?" he asked.
His question pulled her out of Sabrina out of her own thoughts, and she tilted her head up to look at him from where she laid beside him. “Yes.”
That probably wasn’t enough of an answer though, but she let the silence linger between them for a moment as she tried to gather her thoughts. “I do a lot here, probably more than I should sometimes, but it doesn’t feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.” She’d gotten a lot better at not thinking like she had to keep doing good to cancel out the awfulness of her heritage. “Like...everyone helped in their own ways with stuff back home, but I’m tired of being manipulated by Lilith and Lucifer and the Terrors and Blackwood’s constant need to try and destroy my family.”
“I get to just live my life here. I can help when I want or audition for plays. Go to school. Have tea parties. I don’t even mind Pandemonium half the time anymore. Not if it gives the hounds a place to stay.”
She looked back at him, lips pulling into a frown. “Does that make me selfish?”
Sabrina may have frowned, but Nick had to hold back a laugh. "No, Spellman. It doesn't make you selfish. There's nothing wrong with not wanting your life to be one major episode after another, finish off one threat, be greeted by a bigger one. Maybe Vallo is just making that right, since our world seems incapable."
He thought about home, and the people he might never see again. He'd miss Prudence, as she was one of the few people who got him and never put expectations on him, allowing him to be who he was without judgment. In spite of their history, or maybe because of it, their friendship seemed pretty solid.
But other than that, his future was clearly with Sabrina, and he'd have followed her anywhere, especially if it meant she had a chance at a normal life.
"This is home now," he mused.
There were people she’d miss, mostly her mortal friends and her Aunt Hilda. But she was going to lose Roz, Theo and Harvey in a few years anyway. Their mortal lives only went on so long and she knew they’d drift into different paths sooner rather than later. Though maybe that wouldn’t be so with Roz considering the whole witch thing. And her aunt had Dr. Cee. Sabrina knew she’d missed him when she’d been there before. Back home she’d get a chance to live out a life with him.
Sabrina poked Nick in the side though at his laugh before scooting closer so she could rest her head against his chest. He really did make the best pillow. Him calling Vallo home had her smiling and she reached out for his hand, curling their fingers together.
“So you don’t want to go home either, huh?” Because he was who she would miss most if he did. And Ambrose. Though Sabrina wondered if her cousin would be happier at home sometimes.
"My future is with you, Spellman," Nick answered, adjusting his positioning slightly so she could be more comfortable. "And here, we have one that we can dream about, you know? I don't know that I'd ever thought five years into the future before today. But I didn't have any trouble thinking about all the different things that we could do here without being under constant threat."
At least, the threats they faced here were almost inconsequential compared to back home, and he hoped that they stayed that way.
He was right. As awful as Vallo could get sometimes it paled in comparison to what they had experienced in less than a year back home. There were weird political games with some of the covens but they didn’t go around poisoning their followers like Blackwood had. And while the occasional monsters that randomly turned up could be dangerous, no one had died. No one was being needlessly tortured. Just turned into puppets.
Sabrina traced her fingers along his chest, smiling at the fact that he’d started to think about his future--their future. “Just wait until I start getting you to think about fifty or even one hundred years in our future together!” Because she had ideas.
Nick's eyes went wide.
"Fifty or one hundred years?" he asked. Was she being serious?
“Don’t worry, we can keep it in the five year plan stuff for now, Nick,” Sabrina promised, trying to hold back a laugh. “Our futures do kind of stretch on for centuries though.”
"Am I still in the picture in one hundred years?" he asked. That was really what he found himself most concerned about.
Sabrina arched a brow at that and pushed up so she was resting on her elbow and could look down at him. “You are when I think about what I’d like it to be like. I’m keeping you around as my pillow, remember?”
"That's all I need to know," Nick replied easily, smiling at Sabrina as she looked down at him. She was right, they had centuries, even if he couldn't imagine fifty or a hundred years down the road. He didn't need to. They had right now to focus on.
Sabrina moved again so she was laying down beside him. They had no real say in tomorrow, let alone fifty years ahead, but she’d always been stubborn, refusing to live in fear of people disappearing from Vallo at any second. She hadn’t expected it to ever bring Nick, or Roz even, so every minute with them was a gift. Even if she would probably need to be talked down from setting the place on fire if Nick was ever sent home.
“I love you,” she murmured, thankful for another chance to tell him so.
"Love you too, Spellman," Nick said. "For at least the next hundred years."