Hewwo! Don't get used to this, but here is the final chapter. You all know I don't update like this often, so please don't expect it. Cause I'm a slow-ass writer and nya'll know that.
Anyway, since this is the final chapter to my Understanding Arch, it's gonna be written slightly different. There are a lot of hidden meanings here, or maybe a few, I didn't bother to count. So let's see if you can figure it out.
Enjoy the reading :)
OoOoO
Understanding: Silence
Jack didn't know what is was, but he was forgetting something. Something important.
He just had that feeling. He knew he was forgetting or missing something, but he just didn't know what. It was that feeling you get in the back of your head that was nagging and taunting you that you were forgetting something but you couldn't place what it was no matter how hard you think, or how much of a headache it causes you. And you couldn't concentrate on anything no matter how hard you tried because you had to figure out what you were forgetting.
Jack sighed and put the book he was reading down. He was currently at the North pole, and he knew he wouldn't be getting any snow days for the next few days. It was summer and it's spirit was going all out with the heat waves. He had a feeling that global warming was to blame for the massively hot temperatures in the recent years too.
He took out his small book of snowflakes so he could draw in it when a folded piece of paper fell out of his hoodie pocket. He opened the thin paper gently and found some random designs he'd sketched. But these weren't random ideas that popped into his head and he quickly jotted down. These were carefully designed and thought of , over hours - more like hour - of hard thinking, and driven by the sheer boredom that summer brought him. Then it hit him.
He had to give Bunny some designs for next Easter. The designs were done, they were all folded up in his pocket - maybe he should get a bag, that didn't seem very professional. Bunny had asked him for new designs and at first he just laughed and that really didn't give the rabbit a clear answer but his pride wouldn't allow him to ask the winter spirit again. Jack had eventually did it, but he just didn't want to promise anything incase he wasn't able to fine time. Turns out he had all the time in the world, so he would do it - mostly out of boredom. That must be what he was missing, but it still felt like that wasn't it entirely.
He took out more pieces of paper and straightened them out and stacked them. He could go out the window but just as he was about to fly the door to the library opened. It was North.
"Jack? Where are you going?" North asked. Normally North wouldn't care, Jack was a free spirit and could take care of himself well. But Jack wasn't surprised to see his concern, it was too hot for the winter spirit to be out and about.
"I gotta give some designs to Bunny, I'll be right back." Jack said casually. North tensed and Jack noticed. He looked back at North with a raised brow.
"It is hot, no?" North said evenly, but there was something about it that made Jack narrow his eyes suspiciously.
Now Jack quietly prided himself in the fact pretty damn good liar. Probably the best. He could hide just about anything, from emotions to Bunny's boomarang and still seem totally innocent. He got away with far more than the guardians realized. So therefore ,to him ,everybody else in comparison was terrible at it. Especially the Guardians. So he knew when one of them was lying, and he felt insulted, not because North was trying to keep something from them - he'd be a hypocrite if he said that - because they actually thought they could lie and he'd not notice? Oh no, that was his area of expertise. No roll reversing allowed.
Usually North had no reason for lying, so if he was something was up. Something that would affect him enough for North to resort to lying - cause honestly he, and the other guardians but especially North and Tooth, hated lying more than being lied to. Everyone had their reasons, Jack can respect that more than anyone. Doesn't mean he'd let his pride get out of the way though.
He looked at North with an unresponsive, unemotional face, and North was already breaking under the pressure which was very uncharacteristic for the usually jolly man - he was a Russian Bandit before a gift giving children lover after all. "Well yeah, but I'll cut down the middle of the pacific and I'll only be on the surface for 5 minutes. The Warren is always a cool enough temperature. I'll be fine." Jack said blandly and North seemed a bit more tense. The temperature dropped slightly, not a threat not even a warning. Just enough to say I know. He turned around and North cracked.
"Fine." he said and Jack smiled a little. North looked at him, the kid could be scary if he wanted to be. He'd be a master interrogator. "Don't go to the Warren, Bunny have no good day."
"Why?"
North sighed "It is the day his clan vanquished. Well, two days ago technically. But he need time to mourn. Leave him be." Jack furrowed his brow.
"Two days?" Jack mumbled and had a concerned look on his face. It shouldn't take that long to mourn, if it had just happened he'd understand. But it's been centuries. It should only take a day out of respect by now, not a few days. He'd get Bunny up to his normal self. "Well, I'll just give him the designs. It will only take a second, he probably won't even know I'm there." Jack said with smile that hid what he was thinking to North. It worked.
"He ignore you or snap. Do not rile him up. Please." North warned in a worried tone.
"When does he not." Jack said happily as he laughed and Noth gave him an incredulous look, like he wasn't all for the quick visit. Maybe cause he wasn't. Oh well, Jack could do this solo - he always has. Even if North was for the plan, it was expected of him to.
"Who knows. This might even cheer ol' Cotton tail up?" Jack said cheerily, and blast off with the wind. North could only shake his head.
OoOoO
E. Aster Bunnymund was officially gone from the planet. When Jack had arrived at the Warren he found absolutely no sign of the giant rabbit.
Now Jack could've just given the designs to the golem, like a normal person would and be on his way. No thought. No mischief. But if he'd done that, then he couldn't live up to his title as Number one on the Naughty List - which despite popular belief he actually liked to be on.
Jack did, however, have a respect for the deceased. As the Herald of Winter, it was plain obvious that there were more death and destruction in winter then all the other seasons - although summer did have some pretty nasty forest fires. I mean the outskirts of San Francisco were nearly torched last night.
So yes, he did understand if and why Bunny wanted to mourn, but as he thought earlier: it had been many many centuries. A day for respect was only needed. If Jack had done this over all the people he's killed by accident, he'd never get anything done. So what if the rest of the Guardians were okay with the mourning for days on end, he was not. It had to be unhealthy for him.
When Jack had finally found the Guardian of Hope, he looked...hopeless. The rabbit was just sitting under a tree staring into a spring with a lifeless expression in his eyes. Yup, Jack was putting an end to this.
Thing is, he couldn't speak. He wanted to. He wanted to tell Bunny to get up and back to painting his eggs. He wanted to throw his designs in the Pookas furry face and tell him to get to it. He really did...for the first 5 seconds he stood next to Bunny, and then he sat down. Bunny made no move to acknowledge him, and Jack didn't even think he knew that the frost boy was there. Making a sound seemed disrupting. Even if that was what Jack had come to do - disrupt his mourning - it just doesn't seem to be the right way to approach this. So Jack just sat there in silence.
Jack was honestly surprised he didn't want to talk. He'd spent 300 years in silence. With someone there silence seemed like a waste of a good conversation, and Jack wanted to believe that more than he ever did right now, but he couldn't. This wasn't the painful silence he'd endured all his life. It was peaceful.
It took Jack all of 30 seconds to understand that this would probably help Bunny more than anything else he may have tried. He had no choice but to acknowledge that, for he was frozen in place for now. Okay, he'd make this work. He already had a pretty good idea of what he had to do. He smirked internally, if he wanted the plan in his mind to work, he couldn't show any emotion.
His plan was effective immediately.
Bunny, on the other hand, noticed the frost boy, even if he didn't acknowledge him. Bunny wanted to get mad and yell at him to get out and leave him alone. But he couldn't, much like Jack's inability to speak, Bunny didn't want to disturb the silence first.
North and Tooth had tried to 'help' him at this time of year, but they only aggravated Bunny and he'd snap at North and ignore Tooth and they just made the situation worse. But Jack's presence made it… somehow better.
Bunny knew subconsciously that Jack's season was a season commonly known for death. He'd probably seen more death then the other Guardians, maybe even more then himself. And he'd continue to see death and destruction cause by himself. He couldn't control that part of winter though, it's not his fault. So yes, as the years go by he'd eventually see more deaths than him. Maybe not now, but he was certainly close.
Jack knew what it was like to see death and not be able to do anything about it. Even if Aster didn't want to believe he had anything in common with the kid, they shared that burden.
So Bunny just didn't speak and fell asleep in the silence.
OoOoO
The first thing he acknowledge when he woke up was the smell. Carrots. And the second was a direct ricocheted off the first. He was hungry. It was a weird feeling to him but it made sense. Cause unlike Jack, Bunny didn't get his energy from the wind, rather hope but right now Bunny was hopeless so that only left one other thing keeping the Pooka from starving to death: food. And Jack seemed to be absolutely certain the Pooka had none of it. Because even though he just seemed to be sitting there looking casual next to the rabbit with his staff. There was this sudden urge in the air that he had to eat, and Bunny couldn't do anything but agree with it. It made sense after all.
But the winter herald wasn't doing anything. Jack wasn't fiddling with the staff or drawing or reading or doing perpetually anything except breathing - he didn't even look like he was doing much of that, but then again he didn't need to. He just seemed to be lost in thought, but at the same time alert. Bunny knew he wasn't that lost in thought and somehow knew he was being watched, but not critically. Which made him didn't make him uncomfortable but not exactly comfortable. Jack hadn't made any move or showed any signs of noticing his awakening, yet Bunny knew that Jack knew he was now awake.
Somehow Jack had spoken to Bunny - demanded he eat and drink more like - without saying a word, or even giving him any looks. Just the air around him spoke volumes and Bunny wondered if this was how Jack asks for things. The air around him… because Bunny's never once heard Jack ask for anything. Not memories or food or believers or rides on the wind - not permission either, Bunny had scolded him for that but he still never asked. Not even acknowledgment, although the Guardians still somehow just knew that was what Jack wanted - sans food, they were still working on it. He'd never asked or implied anything in his speech - not even drop hints, which made getting christmas gifts hard for him, or at least that's what Bunny heard through North's complaining, and the only thing that ever bothered to just feel the air was air itself. The wind gave him rides, but he'd never ask. He never demanded you'd just have to know.
Yeah, the kid was way more complicated than he'd ever expected or gave him credit for.
Another thing, the winter spirit seemed so natural about this. Like he'd been in a situation like this before, because Bunny would damn anyone who told him that Jack's never...done ... this? Bunny didn't even know what this was? But whatever it could be: Jack had surly done it before. Multiple times. Bunny was sure, but he'd never ask Jack. What this was or even how he had gotten so good at it.
He took the carrot and munched on it slowly. When he was finished Jack's lips turned upward a little - like a big brother watching his siblings amusing antics, wishing they'd never grow up so he could take of them and things could just stay like this - and Bunny then noticed the water next to where the carrot had been, and he drank that too. Jack's smile increased a little and Bunny couldn't help but feel indigent. There was no way he was acknowledging that Jack was taking care of him like he was a kit pining for his parents.
Wait. Was that what this was?
No way.
OoOoO
The last time he woke up to see Jack, he felt the same indigent feeling he did when he went to sleep. Except this time tenfold.
Jack had been 'taking care' of him for what? 3 days now? But Bunny just looked at him, he hadn't made any aggravated signs, but he just knew that Jack felt his childish aggravation. Like a 4 year old asking to stay up late. His mind supplied in Jack's voice and the worst part is he could actually imagine it coming out of his mouth. He actually thought it did for a second.
"Ye're NOT taken care o' me Frostbite!" he yelled before he could stop it. And somehow he could see Jack saying I won! You talked first! He knew Jack didn't but the look on his face did as he floated up.
"Now who said that Cottontail?" Jack said mockingly, knowingly, like he knew what Bunny was thinking.
"Stop playin' mind games ya gumby." Bunny grumbled and stomped away.
" I like games."
"Tha's not a real game ya drongo."
"Yet it has the word 'game'. How misleading." Jack shook his head in mock disappointment. And then his head shot up with a smile, that would be disarming to anyone but his target. Bunny was the target. "Still I won." he said as he left. And Bunny couldn't help but think to what? And the fact that Jack seemed to know everything going on in that silence.
He'd never lose again.
OoOoO
"Mission accomplished. Let's see how North chews on that?" The wind couldn't help but give a small flip in it's currents, Jack flowing along with it and the sounds of his laughter being carried throughout it.
If there was anything he knew, it was: his silence.
OoOoO
Jack is a lot smarter than anyone gives him credit for. At least I like to think of him as such. He's clever and cunning, and knows how to make just about any situation a game. So yeah.
Well that wraps up this arch, though as I was writing it I got more then a few prompt ideas, so this is only the beginning. I hope to make my next chapters longer then these though. So yeah.
OH and before I forget. When I came back the other day I checked my email and saw a bunch of you followed and reviewed and favorited and I was like 'well would ya look at that?' So I just really wanted to thank everyone who did that. I don't know, it seems wrong not to, and I really don't wanna seem ungrateful, especially to those of you who take the time to do that. Not gonna lie, it makes me happy.
Until next time!
