So, sorry for the long wait. I went to the beach, then I went back to school, ran into an unexpected stroke of major luck with classes (karma will take that back from me later, I am notoriously unlucky with stuff like this) and studied for the PCAT. No excuse, but just reasoning. I will get to responding to PMs and reviews from the previous chapter, but the PCAT is Friday, and I only managed to write this much because I was afraid it was going to disappear if I didn't.
Not like it makes much difference there at the end. Kinda cobbled together, I know, so I beg your forgiveness. Enjoy it for what it is.
This is more of a fluff piece, that I kinda wanted to write, but sorta failed at. My bad. We'll have more plot next.
It was not his intention for him to enjoy himself. But he did. For a few moments, even the ever-present nausea had dissipated, and he felt like a younger him again.
But that was only for a few moments, after all. Real life is not so easily banished.
"Stop the wagon," he choked out. But his voice is only a feeble whisper, and neither Tooth nor North, conversing animatedly in front of him, hear him.
"Stop the wagon." He repeats it a little louder, but to no avail.
His stomach begins to clench once more, and the only thing that occurs to him is that he refuses to vomit in Santa's wagon.
So he pulls his knees close, tucks his head, and rolls.
The effect is immediate. Both the joggers promptly turn in shock, and start to move towards him.
But he backs away, crab-walking on the rough ground.
"I know what you're doing."
They stop.
His voice is low as his eyes narrow at them, "You're doing it again. Trying to bribe me to play along with your sick complexes."
"Jack," Tooth's voice is soft, but he just shoots to his feet.
"I am twenty years old," he says stiffly, dusting off his hoodie and sticking out his chin petulantly, "I am no child. Do yourselves a favor and stop treating me like one."
"Jack, we only want to help," North moves toward him, but Jack steps back.
"Yeah, well, you're doing a shoddy job at it." Yeah, he knows he's being horrible, yeah, he's being rude, his mum would wash his mouth out with soap if she caught him at it.
But she hasn't been there to do that for many years. And his stomach keeps lurching and twisting deep inside his gut.
He has to get out of here. He won't let them see him weak. He won't let them see him at his lowest. That's all he can control right now, and he refuses to let that be taken from him too.
It's not like he can just skip his 4:50 vomit.
"Please, Jack," Tooth tries, but he just moves back even further, trying his best to look dignified when the world is spinning around him. He keeps his feet close to the ground, sliding them just barely above the surface of the sidewalk, afraid that if he moves too sharply, moves jerkily, that his effort will be in vain.
He knows he looks like a whiney child. A little kid who just got told by his parents that no, he can't have dessert. That it's bedtime. That he has to eat his vegetables.
Whatever.
"Jack? Are you alright, you don't look so good..."
"I'm fine," he growls, turning his head so he can't see the hurt look on her face, "Just leave me be, already."
"Jack?" a different soft voice calls out to him. He turns slowly to look, mindful of his quaking stomach, and his shoulders slump with relief.
"Anna," he greets her with a slight smile.
"Is something wrong?" she asks, hurrying over, giving the two members of the Guardians a suspicious look. She places herself in between the two older professors and Jack, in a move that she thinks of subtle. Given her nature, it is anything but, being a more accurate approximation of an elephant guarding its young against a lurking lion. Tooth and North clearly recognize the challenge she is presenting, and Jack feels a little comfort for the protection she is offering, as ridiculous as it is.
"Nah, just two idiots trying to offer me candy to get into their white van," he shakes his head, "I'd like to go home now."
"Jack, please listen to us..." North tries.
"You've had your chances over and over again," is the cold response, winter evident in Frost's bright blue eyes, "It's not my fault that you continue to insist on wasting it by treating me like a child. I don't need saving. I don't want you to save me. Get that through your thick skulls now."
Anna gently rests her hand on his shoulder, "You're staying with Doctor Pitchiner, correct?"
He nods, his eyes not leaving the guilty-looking Guardians.
"Come on," she says, "I've been meaning to go talk to him about my residency anyways."
He nods, and walks away with her.
Once they leave the Guardians' visibility, Jack's knees buckle. He recovers immediately, but Anna catches the small moment of vulnerability. With practiced movement, she slides him to the side of the path, close to the woods, and holds him up as he empties blue vomit onto the grass.
He heaves, feeling horrid about, well, everything. Violent tremors race up his body, and he buckles again, dry heaving, nothing left to bring up.
She gently lowers them both to the ground, him to his rear, her to her knees. Once she's certain that nothing more is coming out, she leans his head against her shoulder, stroking his white hair with one hand as she fumbles in her pocketbook for a Kleenex or napkin or something.
She finally finds something and pulls it out with great enthusiasm, only to wilt a little as she sees stains of lipstick stains on it.
Quickly, still stroking Jack's hair, she adjusts the napkin so that he won't see the stains, and dabs lightly at his mouth.
"Rough day, huh?" she says awkwardly, out of lack of anything else to say.
He snorts, "You could say that." He takes the napkin from her and she busies herself to find that bottle of water that she just KNOWS is in there somewhere. Mary Poppins has nothing on her in how much stuff she can pack in her bag. However, Mary Poppins is definitely better at finding stuff.
"Is this lipstick-"
"No," she responds quickly, before giving him a smile, her other hand still fumbling in her bag. She fights down a wince as her fingers snag on something sharp (what on Earth could that be?), and finally she can feel the smooth cool surface of the water bottle.
She hands it to him, "I promise there aren't any germs."
Jack accepts, "Not like it matters," he gives her a wry grin before gesturing with the napkin, "And by the way, this shade of red-"
"LALALA NOT LISTENING!" she yells out, and is rewarded by a slight chuckle.
She sneaks a peak at him out of the corner of her eye. He's looking a little less green now, but still shaky. She tries to think of where the doctor's house is in comparison to where they are now, but she's not so sure that Jack can make it that far. And she definitely can't carry him if it comes to that.
"Let's go to my house," she suddenly says. It's closer.
Jack looks at her, confused, "Huh?"
She nods, warming to her idea, "C'mon Jack! You've gotta come!"
He raises an eyebrow, "Why?"
She flashes a blinding smile, "'Cuz it's my birthday."
Jack hadn't been sure just what he had been expecting of Anna's and Elsa's house. Having only heard of Elsa from her younger sister, he supposed that he had shaped the house based on Anna's sunny personality. A slipshod cottage wouldn't have made Anna appear out of place, especially one in the middle of a meadow, or maybe at the edge of a bright forest. And flowers. Lots of flowers. Big windows. And it would probably be some outrageous color that should be painful to the eye, but it would all look too happy to be obnoxious.
A mansion that is equal to Kozmo's in prime horror-movie location was nowhere on the list of possibilities. It is dominated by dark colors, and the few light places are a pale icy blue. Instead of the gently rounded lines of the envisioned cottage, everything is geometric in the extreme, with edges so sharp that it is easy to believe that touching them might slice open a finger.
And yet Anna seems completely at home (which is understandable, considering that it IS her home, as Jack keeps reminding himself) in the frigid atmosphere as she skips to the garage door, and quickly types in the code key.
"Well, are you coming?"
He suddenly feels nervous in front of the intimidating structure, "I don't want to intrude on your party."
She looks at him, confused, "What do you mean?"
"Well I imagine that I'm a little young compared to all of your friends."
She blinks, "I don't understand?"
"They probably won't want me there," he smiles at her, lifting a hand to wave her on.
She bites her lip, and looks at the floor, "Um...Jack? You're the only one here."
It surprises him when he receives a message on his phone. No one really texts him. Jack says it's because he's an old man, but nevermind that.
Kozmotis fumbles the phone out of his pocket, and peers at the screen.
What...?
Anna doesn't seem to notice Jack messing with his phone as she pulls out drinks for them. Warmed milk for him, a nice base to quell the acid bubbling inside his stomach, and a bubbly mixed drink she called "Unicorn Tears" for herself.
"Elsa had a conference and didn't realize it was today," she babbles, pouring out the gin, "She wanted to cancel, but I couldn't let her do that. I mean, it's silly, right? No, she's not silly, I am. I mean this situation is silly! Right, um, but yeah, who really needs to celebrate turning older? I mean, I've already said buh-bye to my twenties, right? I'm practically an old maid now!"
Her personality appears deflated as Jack frantically searches for something to say, trying to balance his multi-tasking, the phone hidden under the table. But he needn't worry about her seeing, as Anna turned around to grab a much-used bottle of peach schnapps. "What about Kristoff?"
Wrong thing to say.
Her shoulders slump even more as an uncharacteristically bitter smile finds its way to her lips. "He got offered his dream position. Lead researcher at the Antarctica station. I couldn't keep him from it. He asked me to come with him," she abruptly turns around, giving Jack the chance to throw out another text as he watches her back, "But I wanted to stay and finish my residency. But it's not like that!" she spins around, "He did remember my birthday! He said that we'd skype the morning of..." she immediately lost steam and drew back into herself, "There must be some interference at the pole or something. Yeah, that's gotta be it, right? He didn't forget. He didn't."
Well, that's one can of worms that he's NOT touching with a twenty-foot pole. And he's floundering, afraid to ask about her friends.
He's startled when she flounces over and plops down next to him. He quickly shoves his phone into his pocket, but she's not looking at him. She just takes a large gulp of her ridiculously pink drink.
She pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps an arm around them. She leans against him, balancing her drink in an oft-practiced motion, "Sorry I can't offer you any cake. Didn't bother to get any."
"That's alright," he responds, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "I probably wouldn't be able to keep it down anyways."
"Right," she sighs, "So, what do you kids do for fun these days?" She chuckles a bit at her joke.
He gives her his own smile, just as brilliant as her blinding smile.
"We give them the best party ever."
The voice comes from behind them. Anna jerks to her feet, her drink sloshing over her hand.
"Koz?" her voice is incredulous, "What are you doing here?"
He smiles at her, "Bringing over the birthday cake, of course."
She's still stammering, "But, but, but, HOW?"
His smile becomes more enigmatic, "That's my little secret."
That wasn't the best party by any means. The guests were largely uninvited by the birthday girl, and were composed of her boss, the people from reception, and her boss's daughter, and a client. Activities were thrown together haphazardly, and presents were chosen for comedic and easy-to-get value. The birthday girl was spun around in many MANY circles that night, for quickly thrown-together games of "Pin the Thermometer on the Sick Kid" and a pinata shaped like a unicorn (somehow Anna managed to shatter it with one fell blow, but the candy was good anyways). Operation was brought out, of course, and to everyone's amusement, Kozmotis was the absolute worst at it. He took the jeering and taunting with good humor, but Jack suspected that he was losing on purpose. No one can be THAT bad, right?
But Anna was laughing, and appeared to have forgotten about her previous plans to spend her birthday alone. And that was more than enough for Jack.
Reception had gone home some time ago. Emily had left too, to work on homework (for Jack's class, but let's not split hairs, shall we?). Anna has fallen asleep, her head drooping on Pitch's shoulder, and her feet propped up on Jack's lap. She smiles in her sleep, and both men are willing to ignore the little dribble of drool forming on her cheek.
"You did a good thing, today," Kozmotis says to Jack, taking the offered napkin and dabbing Anna's cheek lightly.
"You too," Jack responded, leaning back against the back of the couch, "You didn't have to get all those people."
"Nah-uh," the doctor wags his finger at the young man, "This is on you, Jacky. You're the one with the good heart, remember?"
"Then what was all of this?" he gives a vague gesture.
"Selfishness."
Jack raises an eyebrow.
"I've never lost a patient," he explains, "I'm not about to start now. And this is one of the few things you've had interest in for a while."
Jack snorts, "Keep telling yourself that."
"I'll admit it if you do."
So, I know I said that Frozen wouldn't be interfering with this story too much, but I had the idea for the opening scene, and Anna was the best person to "come to the rescue". Not to mention, it led well into the next scene, and allowed Jack to show us a bit of his "Guardian of Fun" personality.
So, yeah. Excuse the lackluster party.
Have a nice day!