It has been years—decades—since Jack last really slept, given the whole not-human thing. So when he wakes in North's windowsill with his cheek mashed against the pane, back cracking as though he's been curled up for hours, it takes him a second to put it together. Sleep? Him? It's a weird combination. The last thing he remembers is chatting with Sandy—or whatever you'd call it, what with the muteness—and now here he is, hours later, by the looks of things. Jack stretches his arms up over his head, spine popping like candy as he rocks onto his toes.

Something clicks mid-stretch, a few beats late, as wires connect in his faulty memory. There's a strange, buoyant quality to the recall, like he's not really sure if it happened or not. A dream, supplies his distant humanity, he's remembering a dream, fleeting and fractured. Jack mentally flails to grasp at its threads, curiosity piqued by the novelty of it all. Leaning his weight against his grip on his staff, Jack scrunches his eyes shut and waits for it to strike.

And oh, does it strike. He nearly falls on his face.

It comes back in flashes—bright melts of color, cool green, mossy stone. Springtime at the Warren, and Jack laughing as usual, fingers cupped around one of his snowflakes. Bunny and Jack, meandering through flowers. Bunny grumpy and difficult, like he always is. The snowflake drifting. Sudden closeness, very sudden.

Very close, actually, is the important part.

Very.

"Ah! Jeez, what? What the—no! No, no way, that is definitely not a PG rating."Jack scrubs at his hair; his fingers get caught. The staff crackles and skims the floorboards with frost. "I quit. What am I quitting; I don't know, but I quit. Sleeping. No sleeping. Sleeping bad. What the—argh."

Twirling the staff to anchor himself, Jack attempts to untangle his fingers from his hair, makes a frustrated sound, yanks them free with a yelp. He is never, ever sleeping again. He doesn't need sleep. He's a mythical creature.

He grumbles and knocks his head against the wall. "Sleep bad. Sleep very, very bad."