A/N:
Sky: Okay so, here's the thing. My family situation is TONS better, and people have been so nice about reviewing and voting for No Matter What for best fic, I'm in such a better mood. ^^
Thanks so much to the wonderful reviewers: redfirepixie318, Twilight0, bluejeans12, Trickster ueen464, ZOMBIEfiedCrayons, no one, MoodyRuby227, Tanglenight, dog9girl, silent-entrance, Eulalia95, Zeorzia, BoOkLuvEr303, Ascaisil, grimmgirl, lexi, msjezzi-bella, Lara D, curlscat, RainbowofSmiles16 and Heart Of Punks!
And YES, I do take requests for this, although please note I already have plans to do: The scene from book 2 where Mr. Canis tells Puck love will be his undoing or w/e, the scene from book 1 where Puck meets them for the first time, the scene from book 5 where Puck meets his future self, the scene from book 6 where he handcuffs himself to Sabrina, the scene from book 5 where Puck meets his past self (/grin), the scene from book 7 where Puck finds out they get married in the future, and others I can't recall right now XD
That being said, what else is there? Lawl. But really, if there's something you wanna see, leave a review with your request and I'll try to squeeze it in :P Also, I forgot to mention it, but if you haven't already, go check out Curlscat's "My Side of the Story". It's a collection of Puck journal entries, and it's awesome ^^ While it's unrelated to this series and not the inspiration like someone asked in an e-mail, it still rocks my socks and you'll love it.
This scene is from Puck's POV and takes place in book 4 after Sabrina has been poisoned and put into a cocoon.
*****
Musings of a King
Chapter Four: Why Did It Have To Be Roses?
*****
So, apparently cocoons work differently for mortals. I did not know this. Had I known, I might not have stood so close to the stupid thing while waiting to see if the girl I occasionally had to rescue would come out. And of course, no one bothered to warn me either. In their defense, I guess they might not have known. It's not like we put mortals in cocoons that often. I had a feeling Mustardseed had known though, and just wanted to see me humiliated.
Still, when the cocoon had pulsed and sprayed me right in the face with the most disgusting thing I'd ever smelled, I had thought I was going to die.
The Marshmallow had ventured closer with a delicate little 'sniff', but I didn't need her to identify it. I knew what it was.
"Roses!" she said in surprise. "Puck, you smell good!"
Mustardseed might have busted something from how hard he was laughing. That jerk.
"Shut up," I muttered. "Stupid Grimm."
Thankfully, her cocoon was the kind that didn't move around, so it didn't follow me when I tried to get the smell off.
Now, a few hours later, I stood a safe distance away from the smelly thing, scowling at it. "How long is she going to be in there? It's not like she had her arms ripped off."
"Patience," Mustardseed said. "You should be taking care of your affairs. It's not like the cocoon is going anywhere."
I rolled my eyes at him. Mustardseed was always telling me to be patient. Patience was so overrated…
Besides, if I didn't watch the cocoon, with my luck it would detach from the ground and roll into the nearest atomic bomb, setting it off and destroying the city. That was the kind of luck Sabrina Grimm had.
"You know why you smell the way you do, right?" Mustardseed glanced over.
I shrugged uncomfortably. "Grimm gets a kick out of annoying the crap out of me?"
"She trusts you more than her own family."
"I was closer," I said defensively. "It would have gotten one of them if I hadn't been in the way."
"You know that's not the case, Puck. Be honest," Mustardseed's tone is so matter-of-fact that I want to smack his concerned look right off his face. Why was he so concerned, anyway?
I didn't bother answering, looking over at the Grimm group. Heh. Grim… Grimm… Bad pun. The Marshmallow was still watching the cocoon in worry, gnawing away at her bottom lip and encouraging her. That was a new development; I'd told her if she encouraged the cocoon, Grimm,'d heal faster.
The Marshmallow reminded me of a baby bunny or something else that was cute and sugary sweet. But she was more like… Like a drunk baby bunny. You could convince it to do a lot of things, but if you weren't careful, you'd turn around to see the drunk baby bunny was about to jump out of a tree to prove a point to all the other woodland creatures. Like, a squirrel had told her drunk bunnies could fly, and she wanted to see.
I needed to keep a closer eye on her. I didn't want anyone else manipulating my drunk bunny marshmallow.
That image reminded me of a bad accident involving shoving a pixie into a pink marshmallow peep. I couldn't help but shudder, trying to block the memory from my mind like I had for years. Any time someone talks about putting a peep in the microwave, I get wrenched into the memory of endless marshmallow explosions.
"Puck," Mustardseed saved me from the enlarging pink goo in my mind, and I looked at him again.
"What?" I scowled at him to prove how annoyed I was, but he ignored it.
"You also chose her to be your protector when you were in the cocoon," he pointed out.
I tried to make my scowl look more fierce. At first, it had been freaking awesome that I had gotten her with the cocoon gunk. I mean, I didn't get to play any pranks for a while, so it was nice to know I could annoy her while incapacitated. Then I'd had to deal with the fact that it meant I trusted her more than anyone else, and I was getting way too attached to her.
"Puck," Mustardseed looked at me in irritation now. "You're falling in love with a mortal."
"WHOA!" I grabbed his arm and yanked him to the tiniest corner of the room—but I could have sworn the Old Man had smirked in our direction from near Grimm and the Old Lady.
"Listen to me," I said in a hushed tone. "I am not, nor have I ever been, falling in love with a mortal!"
"Being stubborn won't change anything," Mustardseed said, shaking his head. "Why else would you have told mother you were making arrangements to go?"
I faltered at that one—he had a point. Sort of. Not the love thing—ick, love? Not for the Trickster King.
The point was, I DID tell Mother I planned on going back to Ferryport Landing. Most Everafters spent their lives trying to escape. Here I had succeeded, and I wanted to go back. It wasn't like I really had another home anymore—sure I was the new King of Faerie, but that didn't mean I wanted any responsibilities or anything like that.
"I don't want to talk about it right now," I muttered to him, shaking my head. I hadn't even gone to see mom since initially telling her she'd be taking over Faerie for me. That had been before Grimm had gotten me with her disgusting girly cocoon scent.
"You'll have to face it sooner or later, Puck," Mustardseed said, shaking his head. "You're falling in love—or you're already in love—with Sabrina Grimm."
"Actually it's my unrequited love for the Old Lady," I said sarcastically.
When he didn't respond, I glanced back over at him to see the oddest look of mortification on his face that I'd ever seen before.
…Was it that believable? What the crap!
"You're joking, right?" Mustardseed blanched. "I mean, I can understand if it's Sabrina, she's lovely and young—but Relda is… Er… I'm sure she's lovely too, but I mean she's a bit past her prime…"
Now I want to strangle my brother. He did not just call Sabrina 'lovely'.
"Whoa," Mustardseed shook his head and took a step back. "Sorry for saying anything."
At first, the statement confused me. Then I saw that reflected in his eyes, I looked ready to attack. Was my reaction really –that- bad to my brother complimenting Grimm? It had to be the rose scent. It had soaked into my brain.
"I'm outta here," I muttered, turning to leave. I only stopped because the cocoon was starting to shudder and creak.
Everyone in the room was looking at it now—and sure enough, Grimm got free and stood from her cocoon, looking like she'd been swimming in an eggplant and pudding soup. If I hadn't been so relieved to see her in one piece with the best 'oh what the crap' look on her face, I might have laughed or teased her.
Her eyes met mine, still too bewildered to realize where she was or what had happened, and I smirked at her. "That was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," I said nonchalantly. "Why don't I carry a camera with me?"
Without responding, she looked down at the remains of her cocoon and turned a little green. I had to choke my laughter off before it started. Luckily Mustardseed knew as well as I did that Mother would want to see me now, so with a quick goodbye and all that fun stuff, we left them behind in the room.
Once outside, I laughed to my heart's content. I really did wish I'd had a camera to capture the image of Sabrina Grimm's horrified goo-covered face in more than just my memory.
Mother nodded to Mustardseed, still quietly seething over the whole 'dad was murdered for a stupid reason' thing. Personally I didn't care much… So I told myself. But Mother actually cared for that guy.
"Sabrina Grimm is awake, then?" She asked, glancing at me.
"Yep. Goo-covered and confused. Looks like the cocoon worked on her. So now we hafta discuss my plans," I said with ease.
"Alright…"
She turned to Mustardseed, paused, then turned back to me with a smirk on her lips. I looked at her warily. "What, mom?"
"Why do I smell roses?"
…Damn it.
*****
A/N:
Sky: Sorry for the delay and then such a short chapter :X Been a hectic busy month at work, and Ayns and I are scrambling to edit No Matter What, which takes priority over this one, seeing as how NMW is epic and MoaK is my solo project :P
Next up will probably be the finishing off of book 4—funeral, Sabrina jumping into the rope, Puck going back with them, etc :P Then I might backtrack to book 2…
Thanks so much for the awesome reviews ^^ I'll try to update faster! (With longer chapters too!)