Hello! I am so sorry for taking so long to post this, time just flew by me because of school (Stinking EOI's). Anyway, guess what, guess what, GUESS WHAT?! I've finally received a review! I'm going to EXPLODE from all the excitement! (Thank you MySistersSister). Please give me a sec while I try to calm down *Takes deep breathes.* Thank you, now proceed with the story.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Ranger's Apprentice or Avengers.
Jack woke up in his bed. He looked around, disoriented. The last thing he remembered was collapsing in Uncle Clint's car…
I'm back. Clint probably dropped me off then left. He's most likely not going to be back for a couple of months. Jack thought glumly to himself.
All of a sudden, he noticed that he was holding something. He saw the black appaloosa plushy that he was unconsciously hugging to his chest. He held it up and stared into its deep, amber eyes. At least now, he would have a friend to keep him company during his existence.
When he thought about it, his new friend deserved a name. Jack was never good when it came to names, most likely due to the fact that the only one he heard was his being shouted at him.
I'll figure out one for you later, he subconsciously said to the horse, making himself believe that it completely understood him.
He snuggled up to it and pulled up his blanket to keep both of them warm, there seemed to be a chill coming into his room.
He was tempted to just lie there in bed with the creature, but quickly decided against it. That man wouldn't like him to just sleep away, especially because he would have to smell the rotting odor of the leftover's from his dinner last night if something wasn't done about them. But, he never did the dishes anymore; it was the boy's job.
He got out from under the covers and stretched in a cat-like manner across it. Then Jack made the bed, which was really just straightening his pillow and blanket. He laid his new room-mate on the bed and started to head for the door.
He proceeded to the living room and his nose picked up a smell that was very different from the ones from yesterday. He plugged his nose between two fingers and went into the small kitchen.
He cautiously made his way towards the sink. He was greeted by a sight that made him sick. There were a couple of plates that looked like they had some kind of green fungus growing on top of them.
Rrrrright, I never did the dishes yesterday before I left. Woopsie.
He looked away from the moss invaded dishes and opened a drawer. Inside were about a dozen thread bare rags and towels. He took three of them out and went back towards the sink, his nose still plugged. He spread one of them on the counter next to the sink and placed another right next to it.
He slowly took his hand away from his nose, already feeling nauseous. He turned on the hot water. He poured some dish soap onto the last rag that he was still holding and quickly dived into the chore of cleaning the dishes, before he was able to make a smart retreat.
About an hour and a half later, Jack had dried the last dish and put in its cupboard. He looked over at the empty sink, thinking that it was a job well done.
A door creaked open to his left, and he watched as he stumbled out of his bedroom down the hall. His sand-colored hair was all over the place and stubble was on his jaw. His hazel eyes dazedly looked at Jack, who was standing motionless, watching him. He seemed dead on his feet, as if he had just gotten up from a sleepless night.
Jack had tensed up, unsure about what to do. He began to nervously shift from foot to foot, not knowing what could happen next and trying to prepare himself for anything.
When the man made it into the kitchen with what appeared to be a lot of difficulty by how focused he was each time he took a single step, he narrowed his eyes when they landed on the boy's.
"Y-you. You d-didn't do the dish-es last night, i-it reeked in here." His words sounded slurred, sleep was very heavy in each one of them. He was slightly swaying on his feet, but his eyes somehow still managed to stay directed on the boy.
"W-well, I-I did them now, there a-all clean and I p-put them away. S-see?" He pointed to the empty sink.
The man's eyes followed Jack's finger and looked at the sink. "F-fine, juts leave me a-alone, w-would ya." After that was said, he made his way towards the couch, walking in a fashion that reminded Jack of a zombie.
The man collapsed onto the couch, causing it to give under his weight with a load creak, than resume its normal position. He stuffed his head in-between the arm and the back. One arm was over the edge of it, just barely grazing the ground. The same was the case for the leg that was on that side.
After a few seconds, deep, rumbling snores were heard from the mass. Jack finally relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief that he hadn't completely known he was holding in. He survived the encounter, but it was mostly thanks to the nearly elusive zombie-monster of darkness being completely tuckered out.
He began to do his other chores which were: the laundry, garbage, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning both bedrooms and finally, emptying the fridge of everything that looked like it had been taken over by some kind of alien species.
Slowly he trudged towards the recliner and quietly curled up into a ball on it. He kept half an eye on the man, making sure every couple of seconds that he was still asleep.
His eyelids slowly drooped close, but he tried to will them to become open again. It was to no avail however, for after he accomplished the feat they only closed quicker the next time. It was a loosing battle, so what if he fell asleep? He looked like he would be knocked out for at least another couple of hours. Who knows? By the looks of it, it wouldn't be surprising if he slept through the entire day. Of course, he should probably consider such a thing to be a normal occurrence by now however.
Jack yawned, and finally surrendered himself to the comforting darkness. That is, until there was a knock at the door. He stiffly got up with an annoyed groan and tried to make his way to it quickly. He really didn't want his father to wake up, no matter how slight the chance for it to happen.
He didn't even look through the peephole, too depressed that he couldn't take a nap in peace. He opened the door and looked out with half-closed eyes. Well, they were until he saw who it was.
"Uncle Clint?" Jack said. He thought to himself that he must have fallen asleep and was already dreaming of the next visit, which had to be it.
"Hey kid, did you miss me?" Clint said as he strode in.
"Uhhhh, I'm dreaming, right?"
"What are you talking about? Why would you think that?" He knelt down and with a strangely anxious expression, looked Jack in the eyes.
"Yeah, I'm definitely dreaming." Man, this was probably one of the best dreams Jack had ever had. None of them had ever seemed this life-like before.
"Jack, you are not dreaming. I'm right here. If you want, I can hug you to prove it," Clint said as he stood up and opened his arms, a twisted smile contorting his face and making the previous odd emotion quickly disappear behind its mask.
Okay, not dreaming, not dreaming. Jack took a step back, putting his hands protectively in front of himself. His back was feeling sore just thinking about another one of Clint's hugs. This pretty much proved that he was in fact, not dreaming.
And then after reaching this conclusion, Jack was shocked. "Wait a minute, why are you here then? You just visited yesterday. Did you forget something?"
Jack was thrilled that he was seeing his uncle two days in a row, but it had to be due to something other than him.
After hearing his nephew, Clint knew the path that Jack was thinking on.
"Jack, I'm here to see you." The man said comfortingly.
The boy couldn't believe what he was hearing, someone wanting to see him again? Even though they had already spent time with him the day before?
"W-why?" Jack replied, shocked.
"Because Jack, I'm going to take you somewhere where you'll be safe." Clint pulled Jack into a hug, this one a lot more comforting and a lot less suffocating then the one he had given him the day before.
Jack looked at Clint like he was crazy. He hadn't ever been somewhere else before, he hadn't even been to Uncle Clint's house. Then the idea came to him that his uncle's house might be the place.
"Where? Are we going to your house?" Jack said, excitement rising in his voice.
For some unknown reason, Clint gave a chuckle at this. "No, no, it's just a little farther than that."
"What do you mean?" Jack was now very curious, but, somehow, he was also a little resistant at the idea of leaving.
Of course he wanted to leave this place, even a cardboard box in an alley sounded better to him in some ways. But at the same time, he sort of didn't. He had lived here his entire life, it was all he knew. To just get up and leave it all behind in one day?
Clint noticed the hint of resistance, and tried to quickly reassure the boy. "There's a friend of mine who's agreed to take care of you Jack. He's nice and he lives in a cabin, right beside a forest."
That sparked Jack's interest again. If he was a friend of his Uncle Clint, than he must be pretty amazing. And the idea of a cabin next to a forest sounded spectacular, it sounded like something out of a fairytale or movie.
"Really? When do we leave? How do we get there? Are we going to take your car or-
"Hold on, just give me a minute." Clint put up a hand to stop the onslaught of questions. He reached into his pocket and produced a small, metal object. It had a red knob near the bottom and a screen taking up most of the remainder of the space. It reminded Jack of Clint's iPhone.
"This is what we're going to use to get there." Clint replied, with that glint in his eye once again being there.
Man, I really need to work on my ability to make longer chapters, that was just puny. Anyway, I've got a question to all of those people who are reading this: what should Jack's plush's name be? Keep in mind, he is a boy, so nothing to, well, girly. Please tell me! I've got no imagination, just like him, when it comes to names.