Author's Note: Wow! I never expected such a positive response on my little futuristic Interlude there. I was asked to update a little sooner, and people couldn't wait to see what would happen next. The only issue is that it was supposed to be a little one shot, never to be resumed. Except now I want to continue it, so..
So! It will be a spin-off and will be gaining its very own story, since I don't want to clutter up Child of Spring with it. The Interlude it appeared in will be considered Chapter 1, and I will post that on its own later when I write Chapter 2 for it, which will take place directly after Chapter 1. I have absolutely no idea how long it will be, but there will be plenty of action and you will see your favorite spirits there. Now, since I'll be writing this at the same time as Child of Spring, and Child of Spring plot isn't set in stone, you can consider this somewhat AU of Child of Spring and things that you see with the characters might not actually happen in Child of Spring! That said, it could hint at things that are yet to come in Child of Spring..
Whew! Sorry for the super long author's note.. Anyway! Now I'll tackle the reviews from the previous chapter and the interlude.
Starting with the previous actual chapter reviews:
Brenne thought Bunny and Lillian could be friends and help each other out for their season/holiday. She also wondered what North would do once Pitch finally finished explaining his side of the story and was looking forward to what was happening next! I do think Bunny and Lillian would be friends, and don't forget.. Lillian still has to visit the Warren for her book project. :)
CrossoverJunkie gave some good reasons for Jamie to not stop believing/seeing the Guardians, Jack and Lillian. She also was glad that Lillian gets to see Bunny not being a jerk for a change. And yes, everyone has layers. I loved that Shrek reference!
Wuili liked the chapter and suggested that Mother Nature return the bracelet herself and personally apologize for it. It's a good idea, since she needs to clear the air with Jack and Lillian anyway. I think she'll probably wait a little bit though, since if she went right away, feelings might be too raw.
Capricon Aquarius FOZ suggested for a plot idea that Jack and Lillian prank everyone.. And I agree! At some point, there will be plenty of pranks.
Now.. Interlude reviews:
CrossoverJunkie suggested that Jamie could go to Jack for help with life lessons, and I agree. Jack is hundreds of years old, and would have pretty good advice without going all parental on him. Jack would be the perfect person to go to for advice. She also said that she could see Pitch and the others being amused with Jamie's fascination with UFOs, since they are pretty much extraterrestrials themselves.
The Girl in the Forrest called me names and that wasn't very nice. :( But I gave you feels, so I understand! Just wait until the continuation! Angst alert!
Brenne was wondering if Lillian would ever confront the spirit of her father in her old house, or if her father would realize what he did was terrible and seek forgiveness? Or will he be trapped there forever? Or will Manny and Pitch send him away for his crimes? Dun dun duuun. I think Lillian probably would avoid the house like the plague and wouldn't care to see her father again. Although on the other hand, maybe she should to seek some closure? I don't think her father realizes he's quite dead though. His spirit seemed to be acting the way it would if he was still alive and he seemed to be confusing Jamie for Lillian there, so he probably hasn't even realized how much time has passed. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens in Chapter 2!
Liza Mondragon seemed to be surprised at what happened, and I agree. Jamie did finally find out. What will he do now?
I am so sooo sorry for the terribly long author's note. Ok, now onto the next actual chapter of Child of Spring!
Chapter Fourty-Five: Tea Time with Bunny
Pitch took a deep breath and explained all about his horrible day, which started when he saw that Jack and Lillian were missing and all he did see on Jack's bed were the invitations to Mother Nature's. So naturally, Pitch thought that he should look at Mother Nature's palace for them.
Tooth exchanged a look with North as Pitch had explained that he returned home just to make absolutely sure that Jack and Lillian weren't there, but met a number of Nightmares instead.
"Wait, what?" Tooth interrupted. "I thought they were all defeated!"
Pitch eyed her with a slight frown for interrupting him. Even though he hadn't wanted to explain in the first place, now he was getting into it and didn't like the disruption.
"Apparently not, since I found a number of them in my lair. Anyway, as I was saying.." he paused to see if anyone else would dare interrupt, and when he was met with silence he continued his story.
He explained about running into Jasper and how he convinced Jasper to help him out (completely leaving out the fact he threatened Jasper by nearly slicing his head off, but the Guardians didn't need to know about that little detail, now did they?), and how eventually Jasper and one of Jasper's sprites had led them to Mother Nature's.
"Pitch, if you needed to get to Mother Nature's palace, all you had to do is ask! Snow globe get you there the quickest," North said, giving Pitch a look.
Pitch avoided his gaze and didn't comment on it. He continued on to explain that he had gotten Mother Nature to tell him where Jack and Lillian were and then went on to explain how he found them fairly easily in a cave near a frozen waterfall.
"You should have come to us in the first place," Tooth said gently to him. "Instead of taking hours, it could have taken you minutes to find them."
"Da, is best you come to us.." North agreed with Tooth, "But is long time you ask for help, no? We used to be enemies, it must be difficult for you."
Pitch cleared his throat, looking somewhat uncomfortable. He jumped a little when he felt Tooth rest a hand on his arm, comfortingly. Sandy would have normally been the one to do so, but Sandy had offered to stay behind in Jack's room. Bunny was still with Lillian, which probably was for the best since all Bunny would have done is fume at Pitch.
"You know we'll be there for you if you ever need help," Tooth said with a smile. "And if we ever need help from you, we'll ask you!"
Pitch scoffed a little at that.
"What am I, a Guardian? What would you possibly need from me?"
North gave Pitch a considering look.
"Now there is a thought!"
Pitch gaped at North.
He couldn't be serious!
After their talk, things settled back down. Tooth took over Lillian duty, as Bunny had said he needed to return to his Warren to make both Jack and Lillian some medicine that should help with their colds.
Since it would be difficult for Bunny to carry two mugs of medicine without spilling any through a snow globe, he (very reluctantly) asked Pitch if he would come along. Bunny tried at first to see if North would do it, but North claimed to be busy with making toys.
Bunny had rolled his eyes at this, seeing it for what it was. North was trying to force him to be with alone with Pitch, so they could make amends for their fight. It didn't take a genius to figure it out.
So Bunny had gotten a snow globe from North and then opened up a tunnel to his Warren. Pitch looked uneasily at the tunnel and was about to tell Bunny that his shadows would be safer, when Bunny "accidentally" bumped Pitch into the hole.
Whoops!
Pitch let out a yell as he tumbled down into it and Bunny hopped in after him with a smirk. North shook his head as he saw the flower appear in the floor of the hallway, and had a yeti add the spring flower to his growing collection he had around the workshop from Lillian's many attempts at breaking in.
A little while later, Pitch tumbled out of a tunnel and into the Warren, landing in a heap in the grass.
Bunny hopped out of the tunnel, landing gracefully on his feet and looked down at the heap that was Pitch.
"Have a nice trip?" Bunny asked him with a smirk.
"I'll see you next fall!" Pitch snarled at him as he grabbed Bunny's foot and tugged.
Bunny looked surprised as he was suddenly yanked off his feet by Pitch.
"Why I oughtta..!" Bunny growled as both he and Pitch got up to their feet. "What was that for?!"
Bunny glared at Pitch, and Pitch glared right back.
"You bumped me on purpose!" Pitch snarled at Bunny.
Bunny couldn't exactly deny this, since he did accidentally on purpose nudge Pitch into the tunnel.
"Ya were takin' too long!" Bunny finally answered. "Now are ya goin' ta stand there and sulk all day like a kid, or are ya goin' ta help me with this medicine?"
Pitch grumbled darkly as he saw Bunny turn and walk off, and reluctantly followed after. He was so intent on being grumpy at Bunny that he barely noticed the wonder of the Warren and didn't pay any attention to the little eggs with feet he saw running around everywhere.
He did glance around after a few minutes of muttering and noticed how bright everything seemed. It was all so idyllic and spring-like, and he noted that it was a place that Lillian would love to visit when she was well. He saw the dye river with its rainbow of colors. He looked up at the sky, which was a lovely shade of blue and didn't have any clouds.
Before long, Bunny had led Pitch to his house and ushered Pitch inside. Pitch was led to the kitchen, where he sat at a table. He was about to ask if Bunny needed his help, when a steaming mug was set before himself.
"Ya can have it while ya wait," Bunny said brusquely to Pitch and went about gathering the ingredients for the medicine.
Pitch looked down into the mug to see that it was in fact, a mug of tea. Looking startled, Pitch took a tentative sip of the tea to see that the flavor was unlike any other tea that he had had before.
He also noticed that Bunny had used tea leaves instead of a tea bag, which meant that it was something that Bunny had probably grown right in his own personal garden.
Pitch stirred his tea a little as he waited for it to cool before he started drinking it. He watched idly as Bunny went about chopping things that needed to be chopped and stirring things into a medium sized pot on the wood burning stove.
"What sort of recipe are you using?" Pitch finally asked Bunny, as the silence had been stretching on for too long.
Bunny glanced back at Pitch. A part of him still couldn't believe that Pitch Black of all people was sitting right there in his kitchen, drinking tea!
"It's an old one," Bunny said sadly. "It's supposed ta be fer sick kits, but it seemed ta help Jack when I gave it ta him before. I think it should help Lillian too, since I'm sure she's gonna get a doozy of a cold too."
Pitch nodded at this and took a sip of his tea. He remembered the last time Lillian had a cold, and how it took her pretty much an entire week to get over it. If this medicine helped her get better faster, then he wouldn't object to it.
He thought of the Guardians and how they let Jack and Lillian stay there while they were recovering. He realized being stuck in his lair with two sick child spirits would have been a nightmare in and of itself, especially if it made their powers go haywire every time they sneezed.
A small part of him was grateful to the Guardians for their help (even Bunny's!), but there was another part that bristled at it and told him that he was more than capable of handling things on his own. He rescued them all by himself, didn't he?
Ah.. But he could have done so much sooner if he had sought help. Perhaps Lillian would have been saved from getting a cold in the first place.
Pitch sighed and drank some more of his tea while his thoughts swirled around. He realized that perhaps he didn't need to do everything on his own. After all, he was always telling Jack that he would be there for Jack if he needed any help, and the Guardians were merely doing the same for him.
He glanced at Bunny, but Bunny seemed fully absorbed in his task didn't seem inclined to speak much further with Pitch about anything.
Before long, Bunny had the medicine separated into two steaming mugs. He set one down next to Pitch. Pitch looked down at it, but the medicine didn't look too much different from tea, except that it smelled unlike any tea he ever had.
Speaking of unusual tea..
Pitch looked at his own empty mug and then over at Bunny.
"What tea did you give me?"
Bunny studiously avoided Pitch's gaze as he fiddled with the other mug of medicine he was holding.
"It's from special tea leaves.. Last of its kind," Bunny told him.
Pitch looked back down at the mug and realized what Bunny was saying.. It must have been one of the few things Bunny had managed to salvage from his former world.*
"You would share it with me..?" Pitch asked in complete surprise. If anyone was the last person who deserved this tea, it was him. He might not be able to remember everything he did as Pitch Black, but he realized he did a lot of terrible things, and a number of them were to a certain Pooka.
Bunny looked down at the mug he was holding and there was a long, awkward silence.
Finally in a voice so low that Pitch almost missed it, Bunny finally muttered.
"..Yer different now."
Pitch stared after Bunny as Bunny walked off, leading the way out of his home. After a moment, he realized he was supposed to be following Bunny, so he grabbed the mug of medicine on the table and followed after.
Was that some sort of apology? Pitch mused as he followed Bunny.
He wondered if things would be different now, between him and the Pooka. As the two of them disappeared into a portal created by a snow globe, he figured only time would tell.
*I'm using my author's privilege here to assume Bunny rescued some tea plants from his world before Pitch destroyed it. Just go with it. :)
Author's Note: Did you see that coming? I'm not sure how it happened, but it went from me wanting a little time to pass (so Neve and Neva could finally show up!) to suddenly Bunny shoving Pitch into his Warren and then tea time happened out of the blue! It wasn't a traditional tea time since Bunny didn't sit at the table with his own mug of tea, but Pitch was there and he drank tea, so.. tea time.
I think Bunny finally realized that Pitch was different when Pitch didn't act all evil like he normally would have, and Pitch didn't even make any snide remarks about Easter.. or about the reference to Bunny's home world. So maybe while they won't be friends, maybe they'll be able to be in a room together without biting each other's heads off. It's a start!
Oh, and on the little reference to Pitch being a Guardian, don't forget.. Jack still needs to be one first before anything else happens. I realized I sort of.. put it off, but.. but.. there was plot! And Jack is still just getting used to being friends with them again and things. But it'll happen, don't worry. I'm sure there'll be an awesome (fire free!) ceremony. Maybe Jamie and his friends can be there in this version too. :)
Soo.. if you guys have any comments or plot suggestions or anything, feel free to let me know!
Chapter 2 of the spin-off fic will be posted probably either tomorrow or Mondayish maybe. At least sometime soon! I won't post Chapter 1 until I'm ready with Chapter 2 so as not to tease you.
Edit: I fixed about a bazillion typos. I have no idea how that happened.
