Chapter 11

An Understanding Frown

Bunnymund watched them, his fingers tapping against his arm and his frown deepening. After a moment he spoke.

"One more thing North," he said. He made eye-contact with the Russian, who now had a snow globe in hand.

The few sounds stilled as the others waited for the doctor to speak.

The whiskered guardian blinked slowly before doing so.

"When I asked for help with Easter, I didn't mean it as an open invitation to come here whenever it strikes your fancy. Don´t let it happen again."

North raised his eyebrows and was about to reply when an egg with a blue body and flashing yellow and orange eyes came rushing in, ticking frantically at Bunnymund. The doctor turned all of his attention to his minion, leaving North to simply narrow his eyes, purse his lips, and hurl the snow globe against the wall.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 seconds later, at the Pole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"I feel like that could´ve gone better. . ." said Jack softly as the three of them settled into the meeting room.

Sandy accepted a mug of eggnog before shrugging and moving to the window to send out his sand streams. North brushed cookie crumbs off of his beard before he answered.

"Yes, but it could have been worse as well. At least now he is not face of stone like before," he murmured thoughtfully.

Jack raised an eyebrow at this and tilted his head to the side.

"What do you mean 'face of stone?'" he asked.

North huffed. "Is long story, but I will tell you another time, yes? I´m afraid I am not in the mood to tell that right now."

"No worries, we´ve got time," said Jack. "Right, Sandy?"

"Thumbs up!"

North began glaring at the fireplace.

"I have known him for very long time, but I still do not understand why he is always make himself so stubborn and too busy. And nervous!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, he seemed pretty chapped" said Jack hesitantly.

"Bunny, bed" said Sandy from his window.

"And tired?" asked North, looking over. "No, he did not look tired to me, only nervous and busy, as always. . .I bet he's glad that Easter is not for another year, no? He has plenty of time to prepare."

The other two nodded.

Jack furrowed his brows and then turned to his elders.

"Do you think we should´ve offered to help him out with something? The Warren seemed a little weird. . . It wasn't like that a few days ago."

Sandy and North glanced at each other.

North sighed and looked back at Jack.

"Yes, I think you are right that Warren was strange," he said, stroking his beard. "But, really, I doubt very much that he would have agreed to let us stay to help. Besides, none of us have been there after Easter before. . . it could be the beginnings of his after-holiday rest for all that we know."

Jack waited for him to say more, but the large man seemed content to munch on his cookie for a while, so Jack looked at Sandy for clarification.

A few symbols flashed above his head, but Jack wasn't able to catch anything helpful.

"So, does he often tell you guys to buzz off?" guessed Jack.

North chuckled, but it could've been a scoff. Sandy just gave a shrug, and then a thoughtful nod.

The young man leaned on his staff and chewed the side of his cheek as he processed this. Meanwhile, Sandy downed an eggnog and North´s beard became tangle-free.

Eventually, Jack turned to North.

"Well, I´m sure that if he really needed help, he would ask us; like he did a few days ago for Easter, right?"

North gave a small smile, still tugging at his facial hair.

"Yes, you are probably right, lad. He is smart, and though he has many flaws, and is very difficult to understand him most of time. . . but he knows that we are his friends."

He nodded to himself and took another bite of cookie.

"We have all worked very hard to make sure he knows we are friends, right Sandy?" he asked, turning his eyes to him.

Jack followed his gaze and saw the Sandman floating by the window, fast asleep with an empty mug in hand.

The two guardians laughed softly to each other and shook their heads.

"Well, that settles that, I guess," whispered Jack.

North just chuckled again and ate another cookie.

"Speaking of tired," said Jack as he looked back at his sleeping friend. "Do you mind if I crash in that guest room again sometime? I´m in Russia a lot, and this place is closer to it than Burgess."

North shook his head and looked thrilled, letting out a crumby laugh. "Of course not, my boy! Is good as yours!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Five Hours Later, at the Warren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Aster´s arms and legs shoved the rest of him out of the tunnel and into the charging prep room as his heart banged like a drum in his chest. His frayed yellow vest was now completely soaked, clinging stickily to him for the second time that day as he gasped for air and winced in pain.

"Agatha. . . numbers?!" he panted, pushing salty drips away from his eyes and leaning against the wall.

The small peachy egg scurried up and ticked sadly at him, shaking her small body as her flickering red and orange eyes dimmed.

"That´s still too low, damn it all!" he huffed with a scowl, reaching for the jug of water that she offered him.

Charlie came forward and held out a full tray of food that looked identical to the platter that was inadvertently served to their intruders a mere five hours earlier.

His master spent a few minutes to finish the water, taking frequent breaks to breathe. It took him longer than usual, and the wince in his furry features stayed in place the whole time.

"Thank you Charlie. You can put that on the table by the other things. . . I´ll get to them in a minute" he said finally.

"Tika," said Charlie, but he stayed in place, watching carefully as his master took his own pulse, frowned, and then hopped closer to him, grabbing a butter-colored carrot from the tray. He chewed it, and his eyes darted back and forth, looking at nothing but imaginary numbers. It was a look that Charlie in particular knew very well.

"Alright everyone," he said after devouring the whole root and grabbing another. Charlie´s three other coworkers perked up and waddled closer.

"Here´s the plan: We´ll take a quick recess, and then we´ll try this all again. For now, check on your stations and have the others report on their progress and any new changes that they´ve found. Meet back here in an hour. Go."

All of the eggs, save Charlie, scattered to the exits after shouting a community "Tika!"

Charlie held his ground, the platter still in hand as his red lighted circle eyes flicked orange a few times as he watched his Master.

Aster practically inhaled a good half of the platter before making eye-contact with his minion.

"Don´t look at me like that, Charles," he said as he chewed. "You know how this works. I need all of you awake in order to get everything done, and there´s no way to keep you all going without a constant charge of at least 84%."

"Tik Tik etakate. Tik etakatakate. Kartee err Tik orre," said Charlie, red turning to orange as he spoke.

Aster listened and gave a small smile before cramming some more food into his mouth.

"Thank you, but we have other priorities now, and I´m not going to let the children down again. Once I can get it up past 84%, maintaining the charge will be less strain."

Charlie stood a hair taller and took a step forward, the orange in his eyes brightening.

"Auu Tik etakate?"

"Yes," answered his master without hesitation. "Even then. Besides, this is nothing compared to a few decades ago," said Aster as he motioned to two ugly metal contraptions that were hung on the nearby wall, just above the table. They had several straps and buckles, and looked disturbingly like large three-toed feet.

Charlie said nothing, and kept his stern gaze on his master instead of turning away. As usual, his glare had little effect on the one he´d learned it from, but it was worth a try.

Aster finished the food, then began stretching his wet limbs.

"I appreciate you doing your job Charles, I really do. But for now, we just have to keep going until things get back to normal," he said.

Charlie kept staring.

His master frowned grimly at the floor.

The green egg intensified his glare.

His target took a deep breath, not seeming to notice the light as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Charles. . . I need you to bring me one of the white-wrapped chocolates from the small freezer," said Aster as his eyes raised to stare back.

Orange flicked briefly to yellow as Charlie shook his head, not even needing to think about it first.

Two green orbs stared evenly back, as still as stone.

"That wasn´t a suggestion, Charles."

The minion egg stood motionless for three full seconds before turning obediently away and waddling through the exit, the orange lights darkening to the usual red again as he focused on his task.

His master watched him go with an understanding frown on his wet face.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Please leave a review if you enjoyed this chapter!

Selkiesong22: Hello again! Responding to these reviews is one of my favorite parts of posting chapters, so if you ever have a question or thought, please don´t hesitate to send it in a review. I´ll be more than happy to answer!

Guest! I want you to know that you are one of my favorite people on this earth. Your thoughts from last chapter were so helpful to me, and I enjoyed every answer. So, thank you! Now, I was very impressed by your very clever explanation of how North got a scar on his stomach, and why duels were mentioned. If ever you make that a story, please PM me so that I can read it. It would be so interesting to see how Bunny and North´s attitudes would change from before the duel, to after, to the experiment accident, and after again. Very intriguing!

Also, I´m glad things worked out with you and your friend. Junior High sucked for me (as I´m sure it did for most people), but I´m glad that you were able to make it out with a friend by your side.

What do you think?

What have you observed about North and Bunny´s relationship so far, versus North and Sandy´s, or Bunny and Sandy´s?

What do you think the disagreement between Charlie and Bunnymund was about?

Have any of your questions about what Bunny has been up to been answered from this chapter?

Have you ever been the new guy in an established group, like Jack? What helped you to learn the ropes?