He was always an impulsive character. Impulsive; naïve, almost, to the point of being blind to his surroundings, blinkered so he could not view anything but the utopia he had created in his mind. Like nothing ever was in his way. Like he was in charge.
She thought he would have learned his lesson after getting his stupid wings ripped off by the Jabberwocky, but no, he had to go and put himself in mortal peril time after time. Heh. Mortal peril. He tried to convince Sabrina he wasn't in mortal peril simply because he was immortal, and received a punch in the shoulder as a result.
The night before the battle, she found him swinging his wooden sword and slashing at a dummy, poking it in the belly and smacking it upside the head. He wasn't even taking it seriously, smiling and laughing as he danced around the straw-stuffed burlap sacks.
"What's wrong?" he asked, eyeing her concerned expression. "You look a little—dare I say it? A little bit Gri—"
She cut him off before he could finish the pun she had heard so many times before. "Puck, you're not taking this seriously."
"Why should I?" he responded. "It's too much fun!"
"That's the point," she snapped. "War isn't supposed to be fun, or fighting, or dying. None of it is supposed to be fun."
He snorted gently. "Dying? Grimm, I've saved my butt and many others' for more than four thousand years. You think I'm going to die after all that time? Fat chance." He swung the tip of the sword so that it was inches away from Sabrina's throat. "En garde!"
She took the sword and bopped him soundly on the head with it. Puck winced and rubbed his head, taking his sword back with a scowl and shoving it back in its scabbard. "Alright, alright, I'll try and take it a little more seriously. But the Scarlet Hand is no match for the Trickster King!"
"Don't talk like that, please," she said. "I don't want you to get hurt. Like when the Jabberwocky ripped off your wings. I hate being so scared that after every battle, you might not come back. That the next time I might see you will be your dead body in a box."
For once, he had no snarky comeback. The Jabberwocky incident was the only one he had ever taken seriously. But he covered up his seriousness by saying, "You care about me? Aww, Grimm, that's the sweetest thing. I'm going to get a cavity." A playful smirk twitched his lips upward.
Sabrina tried to hold a straight face, but failed and allowed herself a small smile. "Don't let it get to your head, gasbag," she said, subconsciously using the same words she had when the two shared their first kiss.
Apparently, Puck remembered too and his face lit up in a grin. He went back to fighting his dummy, pink wings fluttering and carrying him around in loop-the-loops. "So are you going to just stand there and watch me work out? Or do you want something a little better from me?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at her.
Sabrina refrained from slapping the boy and just said, "'Night, fairy boy."
"'Night, Stinkpot."
The moon glowed blood red behind the murky screen of clouds as she walked out.
Feelings were high and tense the next morning, with all the soldiers quietly whispering amongst one another about the coming battle. Charming, Snow, and Seven were huddled in a circle, presumably discussing the plans. Sabrina sat down next to Puck, who was wolfing down half the oatmeal on the table and about five apples simultaneously. She picked at her food nervously, not touching her scrambled eggs.
"You gonna eat that?" Puck asked, pointing at her eggs. She shook her head and watched the boy devour her food.
The ground crunched lightly beneath their feet as they walked out, bidding tearful goodbyes to their loved ones. Daphne had clung to her like a monkey, peppering her with kisses and reminders to be safe, as did Veronica.
A three hour trek later, menacing shapes loomed up out of the fog, and a tinny, amplified voice rose high and shrill above the crowd. "Charge!" the Queen of Hearts shrieked.
"Ready?" Puck looked her in the eyes, searching the deep blue oceans for a glimmer of treasure.
She took a deep breath, inhaling the scents of mingled sweat, fear, and desperation. "Ready."
They ran into the fray, braving beasts and monsters of all sorts. An enormous Cyclops was towering over the army, using its huge fists to swat flying soldiers out of the air and its feet to crush all those on the ground. "I'm taking out ol' big and ugly," Puck shouted. Sabrina stabbed the Cyclops in the foot with her sword, and it yelled in pain. She danced out of its way and landed another lucky shot.
"Let me help you," Sabrina shouted back. "But next time, pick on someone your own size!"
"I'm fine!"
She hadn't even noticed what sort of a position she had worked herself into until she realized that a giant shadow was being cast above her head by a Cyclops foot. She gasped, trying to find an exit, but her legs were locked in place.
"Grimm, get out of the way!" someone yelled, and whisked her back out of the reach of the Cyclops foot. It came down with a sickening crunch.
She panted and mopped the sweat from her brow. "Thanks, P—" Where was he?
The Cyclops chuckled. The faintest glimmer of pink shone out between its crusty toes.
x.X.x
"Nurse Sprat," Sabrina sobbed, "is he…can you…?" She couldn't bring herself to look at the mangled body lying pathetically on the operating table.
There was no answer, but Sabrina knew anyways.
x.X.x
With trembling fingers, she unfolded the piece of paper she wrote her eulogy on. The bright sunlight and beautiful weather mocked the horror that she had just faced head-on. A crowd waited silently, watching the slight blonde girl bravely step up next to the coffin and turn to address the crowd.
"I wish I could say that I didn't know Puck very well. It'd be a lot easier to stand up and read this if I didn't," she began. "But I did. His favorite color was green, the same color as his eyes." She started to choke on her words, the messy scrawl blurring before her eyes. "He's always hated following rules. He loved to pull stupid pranks on everyone. He hated baths. He was allergic to books." She swallowed, tears spilling out in earnest now. It felt like a lump of gum was caught in her throat, burning and throbbing. Her words came out in a slightly hysterical sob, smearing the ink on the paper. "But most of all, I knew that even though he was a s-self-proclaimed villain, he was really a hero at heart. Yeah, he was stupid most of the time, and reckless, but he was a hero."
She could not find the will to go on. The tears poured out of her uncontrollably, despite the fact that she was exhausted and felt like curling up in bed for eternity. She ran from the stupid wooden box, away, away, away, back to Puck's room where his hoodie was lying on his bed. She buried her face in it, his words echoing in her ear like ghosts from her childhood.
"I am a villain—"
"—of the worst kind. I know."
Yeah, he was stupid most of the time, and reckless, but he was a hero.
A/N: Well, I think I've written a fic for every major character to die except for Puck, so...whoomp, there it is (name that movie). I'm also aware that it's a song, and yes, the song came before the movie, but I like the movie.
Anyways, thanks for reading, please favorite this story and leave a review!