I am so sorry about how long it took me to write this. School was nuts and I had such a hard time getting the words out. Thank you to all who followed or favorite this story! Now without further delay, enjoy!
It's been hours since Keria left and North has yet to stop pacing. While the rest of the Guardians were sleeping, Tooth has been watching North the entire time, concern crinkling her feathered forehead. What Keria said before her abrupt departure sat heavy on her heart and worried her mind with many questions.
What did Keria mean by Chaos being free? Wasn't he sealed away thousands of years ago? I saw him sealed myself! How did he break free? Her thoughts were broken by Bunny's groan of pain as he shifted in his sleep. He almost looked like a mummy from the sheer amount of bandages; the smell of medical supplies filled the room and it made her eyes water from the sheer amount of it. The bleeding had finally stopped a little while ago as Bunny slept due to the drugs North gave him for the pain and the extensive blood loss. Tooth wrung her hands as her wings flickered nervously. She just didn't know what to do and her fellow hard-headed Guardians were not helping.
Suddenly, a deep sigh from the fur clad Guardian made her feathers ruffle once she saw him stop pacing, looking so much older than before this whole crisis. His eyes barely held that sparkle of wonder and his cheeks, where a rosy tint would usually be held, were now pale from pure exhaustion and stress. North rubbed his face trying to ease the exhaustion from his eyes and somehow make sense of this situation.
"What are we going to do North? We can't just sit around and wait if Chaos really is free," Tooth whispered as her and North were the only ones awake and Jack barely slept anyways. North just sighed and stared in the burning fire. The giant fireplace was able to hold a fire big enough to warm up the room, but also not too warm where Jack would be uncomfortable. The bright flames illumined the man's face, every wrinkle and crease clear to Tooth's weary amethyst eyes.
"Vhat can we do? Not without Death or Keria." North looked so tired and Tooth couldn't help but feel so useless. She did not like that at all. She had to do something, anything, to get rid of this itching feeling beneath her skin from doing nothing. She looked at Bunny, who groaned in pain while he dreamed, and then above her in the beams where Jack and Sandy were sleeping together on a dream sand cloud. She had to protect her family and she knew what to do.
The shimmering lights of London were a stark contrast against the clouded dark sky. Neither the moon nor the stars shone through the clouds, the street lamps one of the few sources of light in the middle of the night. It was the witching hour, well past midnight, and most everyone was asleep… in more ways than one.
Tooth fluttered from window to window as she followed her little fairies, looking for something. An urgent chirp had her speeding down the street; her wings were ever so silent as she hovered in front of a dim lit room have a small nursing home. The elderly man inside seemed to be resting, but that was not the case. His chest was still, the lines on the silver haired man's face almost ceased to exist and there was no fluttering behind his eye lids. If one just glanced at him, they would assume he was sleeping ever so peacefully, with peaceful dreams to keep him company. No, this man had died in his sleep just a few minutes ago and while Tooth silently grieved for the unknown man as he had most likely been a believer in his lifetime, she was comforted by the thought of the long life he had lived.
A shift of the shadows in the corner drew her attention away from her thoughts and she held her breath in anticipation. The darkness curled around itself, forming a human shape bubble until, a second later, a soft pop noise could barely be heard as a man steeped out from the corner.
Now, Tooth had heard stories through the ages. Of how terrifying Death was or how one should never cross infamous "Grim Reaper" because he would strike you down with his equally infamous scythe. The man who had steeped out from the darkest of shadows in order to collect an old man's soul was not at all like the man she imagined from the never ending tales. This man was not a living skeleton covered in a cloak of doomed souls, nor did he carry a long ageless scythe that was rusted with dry blood. No, this man was not that horrific image in Tooth's mind that left her thoughts completely because she was struggling over the fact that Death, the spirit no one wanted to come near, looked like a hung-over college student.
She had to cover her mouth from laughing out loud and some of her fairies had actually flown a couple windows down to make sure the spirit they were spying on didn't hear them. Unfortunately that was not the case.
"Well. This is certainly a surprise." He spoke while he ushered in Tooth, slowly walking to the bed in the middle of the room. She just looked at him, taking in his sloppy bun resting at the nape of his neck and his bloodshot dark bark colored eyes.
"Wanna tell me whatca doin' here? Cause I do have a job to do ya know." Death spoke as he reached one hand out to the body's forehead, touching it lightly as it caused a small burst of light to travel from the corpse to the palm of the spirit's hand. The soul's light shined upon a small tattoo on his granola colored wrist as it rested in palm while he reached into the pocket of his jacket; two scythes forming an X while their blades faced the opposite direction. Death just looked at Tooth with a raised dark bushy eyebrow as drew an empty small glass jar from the inside of his hooded jacket and shoved the soul inside. Tooth finally spoke and he almost dropped the jar while screwing the top close, his mouth wide open in shock.
"You tried to out-drink the Leprechaun, didn't you?" Tooth looked like she knew the answer already, not needing him to say a word. He stood there in shock, the glass jar glowing with the soul inside as it rested in his grasp, and Tooth just waited as her fairies fluttered in and out of the window, chirping as they went out. Blinking twice, Death silently placed the small glowing jar back inside his jacket, the abrupt change in light made Tooth blink a couple times to help her eyes adjust.
"How didja know that?"
"You look how I do every time I have a drinking contest with him. Though, he's the one looking and feeling even worse." She spoke while floating over the body in the middle of the room, her arms crossed and her legs curled up to her chest as her wings blurred in the air. Tooth heard him run his hands over his rumpled unbuttoned plaid shirt over a very well-worn Nirvana t-shirt in an effort to straighten out the wrinkles. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the overwhelming odor of alcohol and stale sweat. She continued to look down at the pale body, silver hairs catching the dim light of the lamp in the nightstand. She turned her head to the many framed pictures that crowed the top of the nightstand and her thought were immediately filled with the childhood this man had as well as the long life he lived after the loss of his last baby teeth.
"By the way, you may want to get a new pair of jeans. Those look decades old and I don't think those alcohol stains are coming out any time soon." She glanced over at the other spirit to seeing him shrug as he shifted his scuffed-up red converses and black sharpie drawn skulls lined the edge of the shoes.
"What can I say, these jeans are vintage and I had a hell of a time. Every decade, in fact. Now, tell me why a pretty lady like you would be looking for a spirit such as myself." As he spoke, she slowly flew back over to opposite side of the bed, across from Death, and she hovered in mid-air with her legs crossed-crossed to meet his exhausted dark eyes with her determined amethyst ones. He winked at her but she just rolled her eyes. He was not at all her type. Her type was in fact just one person but he would have to wait. This was a serious issue and she did not have time for love at the moment.
"It's about Keria." Nothing was said for a minute while he searched her face for any hints of falsehood. Finding nothing but the truth in her eyes, he sighed as he closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, his wide shoulders tensing from the unavoidable stress that was to come.
"Is that so? Well, you can tell me on the way to Pole. My guess is that this also invoked the rest of the Guardians." She nodded her thanks and slightly grinned as he led her to the darkest corner of the room, the same one he entered from. He waved her into the moving shadows before him, the darkness swallowing them as they walked into nothingness. Before they were taken completely by the shadows, Death's words echoed in that room for the time, each word quieter than the last before his question ended.
"Now, before we get started, how in the hell did you out-drink the Leprechaun?"
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