Perfectly Imperfect

Chapter Three

Felix was running low on booze.

Not the cheap, watered down, almost effective sewage that was so popular; they bought that in bulk to keep up with the needs of the average housewife in his village. Every house had to have at least a barrel of the stuff to drink with meals, otherwise... well, Felix had seen the bruises women would walk in with after running out in the middle of dinner. The tavern kept enough stocked that all anyone had to do was pay up, and a bucket was theirs with no real loss of inventory. No, it wasn't that crap that was running low. It was the mead.

He had brewed enough of the stuff in mid-fall to last until the apples were ripe again around All-Hallow's-Eve. Apples were never out of season in Avalon, of course, but certain ones only ripened at certain times in the year. One of these was known as the Midnight Apple, brought over by Merlin from a faraway realm called Arkansas. Its deep red skin was almost black, even in broad daylight, and it had the most unique flavor of any apple Felix had ever come across. It had taken him two years to get the recipe right and another three to figure out how much to make so that his father wouldn't run out until brewing season came around again in fall. He'd finally gotten it right and had been working on a pattern ever since.

Then Peter had come along. The stupid palace rat that always seemed to have the right words at the right time and enough money to buy a tankard of Felix's mead at last a few days a week. And Felix could never bring himself to tell the boy no. Now it was midsummer and he was down to his last few barrels. It would be at least two months until the Midnight Apples were ripe again, and the way his father had been guzzling the stuff it wouldn't last half that.

"Then just use another apple," Cordelia suggested one night. Peter had gone off to do... whatever it was he did every fifth day of the week and wouldn't be here until long after sunset, and the regulars hadn't quite shown up yet. "Didn't you do that once?"

"Yes, and look how well that went over." Felix touched his scar absentmindedly, knowing that if he didn't come up with a solution fast, there would be far worse in his future.

Cordie rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I don't see why you're still here, Felix. He treats you so terribly and you're--"

"Used to it," he snapped. "We're not having this discussion again."

"But if you'd just come live with me, you'd be--"

"No." Felix avoided her eyes. Elias was a complete ass of a man. He knew that, and yet... He was the only son. Even more than that, Elias was the only family Felix had left and he'd be damned if he left that behind to go live with a woman like Cordelia. They'd had this discussion far too many times, and known each other too long; she knew exactly what he was thinking, and it was usually the end of it.

"What about Peter?"

Damn her. "I couldn't live with him either. He's a palace rat who lives and breathes trouble. And besides--"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Family and all that." Cordelia rolled her eyes and took a sip from her tankard, and that was the end of that conversation.

The hours rolled by without another mention of Elias, but Felix couldn't stop thinking about how to manage more alcohol. He had no more than a week to pull enough Midnight Apples out of thin air to make two months' worth of drink and no idea how to do it. It was useless worrying about it at this point, he knew, but he couldn't stop himself.

It's my fault for not noticing sooner, Felix realized. I should have seen that it was running low and refused Peter. It might have lasted-- well, think of the devil. Is it that late already?

Apparently so. Peter walked in an took his usual seat at the counter, lowering his hood. He watched Felix for a moment before speaking. "You seem troubled, Felix. Can I help?"