Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or qualities of any of the characters. I do not own the excerpt written by Michael Buckley at the beginning of Chapter 1.
Lots of Puck x Sabrina in this chapter! 3 Please Review, and let me know what you think!
And please check out my other Sisters Grimm story, called "Grimm's A Christmas Story" (:
Chapter 3- Sweet Dreams. Or not.
Sabrina was shocked. "How could they take him?"
Puck was the only one who responded. "They must have taken him while you left to find us. I guess that means he's not coming with us."
Both Daphne and Sabrina glared at the fairy. "This is not funny. He could be hurt!" Daphne said to Puck.
Puck only laughed. "No, he can't. He's made out of straw, remember?"
Sabrina though that out for a moment. He couldn't actually get hurt. Only severely burnt to a crisp and possibly, to the point of death. "Good point, Puck."
Daphne was starting to get creeped out in this place; she repeatedly heard rustling in the branches nearest her and Sabrina. "Hey…Sabrina and Puck… ca-can we g-go now? I-I'm starting t-to g-get creeped out."
Sabrina's look on her face instantly softened as the visage on her little sister's face looked terrified, frantically searching around her. It was nice to baby her little sister again, yet she hated seeing her terrified. "Sure. Puck let's go."
"You got it. Flight 284A on Puck Express Airlines now boarding. Last chance to board. I repeat, last chance to board." Puck's attempt at humor lightened Daphne's mood up a little, and even made Sabrina crack a smile. Daphne hopped onto his back, careful not to crush his wings and out of the way of them. Puck gently picked Sabrina up bridal style, careful not to drop down because of her and Daphne's extra weight. Sabrina was confused to why she didn't go on his back, and carry Daphne instead. The more she thought about it, the less it made sense. But, on the other hand, Daphne and she were almost the same height and weight, so it really didn't matter anymore. Ever since Granny had banned Puck from carrying them by their collars or holding them up by their hands, she had proposed the rule that the person had to either be securely hanging on to his back, or be carried bridal style by him. It was 'much safer,' Granny had said.
Puck knew that look on Sabrina's face. It was confusion. He knew that she was thinking about why he was carrying her, but he would NEVER tell her that. The only reason he was holding her was because he liked the way she felt in his arms.
Sabrina blushed at the close proximity of their faces; they were less than half a foot apart. And when Puck turned his head to face her- less than 3 inches. It felt like her face was on fire from all the embarrassment. What was the worst thing, though, was when Puck half-smiled at her. She felt her heart skip a couple of beats. Daphne was oblivious to this little exchange between them; she had fallen fast asleep on Puck's back. It was almost dark outside after all—Puck and Sabrina had deemed it unsafe to rest in the nighttime while the Scarlet Hand was lurking around.
When they did reach the forest, it was already nighttime, and they decided against flying into the woods— they would just walk. Puck landed ever-so graciously. He set Sabrina down, who was wide- awake, not being able to fall asleep with Puck so close to her. She was extremely tired though. Daphne, however, was still fast asleep. Just as Sabrina was about to pick up Daphne, Puck stopped her in mid-track and picked her up, bridal style, with ease. It surprised Sabrina, for Daphne was heavy (but not fat-heavy), and that Puck would take over that responsibility.
"How can you pick her up so easily and just walk around carrying her? After just carrying me for eight hours?" Sabrina quietly questioned Puck, for she didn't want to wake up Daphne, or any of the dangerous/non-dangerous creatures in the forest.
"She not that heavy. Are you calling her fat and me weak?"
"No! I'm just asking because even I have a hard time lifting her up."
"Do you underestimate me, 'Brina? Because, I can lift you and her both at the same time and not have my arms fall off or even drop to the ground."
Sabrina laughed at Puck's ego, it was so big. "Really, I believe that." She said sarcastically. "I'd like to see you try."
When Sabrina had said that, she hadn't actually meant for Puck to pick her up. But when he did, he gently held Daphne in one hand against his body, and lifted Sabrina into the other hand, before she could even say, 'Puck please put me down'. Sabrina blushed again, for the second time in less than an hour. It seemed as if she had a disease whenever Puck was around that made her blush all the time.
Sabrina nervously said, "Well, I believe you now," and yawned.
Puck laughed. "I told you so."
After Puck took a couple more steps, Sabrina timidly said, "Uhhh…Puck? You can put me down now if you're tired."
"No, that's okay. I'm not tired. You are more tired than I will be, so you can take a break from walking. But hold on just a sec…" Puck quickly hoisted Daphne onto his back piggyback style, so her arms were tightly wrapped around his neck. Sabrina, on the other hand, was shifted so now Puck was holding her bridal style. "There. How's that?'
Sabrina was surprised. Now, tonight, more of Puck's nice and mature side was coming out, like the night before. "Comfy. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
It was more comfortable sitting in Puck's arms than she would have imagined. Of course, she would never tell him that. After awhile, she began to feel herself dozing off to sleep, due to the fact that her head was rested upon his chest. The coldness in the air also didn't help, and Sabrina could feel herself losing conscience. To keep herself awake, she started talking to Puck. "How about we play 20 questions, so I don't fall asleep? But let's play the modified version, where you just ask the other person a question and they answer, instead of trying to guess what the object is or something."
"Sure. I'll go first." Puck liked the idea of playing that game, for he was beginning to get tired and cold. Not that he would say it to Sabrina.
"'Kay, question number one. Are you ready?"
"Yeah, sure."
Puck then asked Sabrina, "What is the capital of Greece?"
Sabrina gave Puck a funny look, then replied, "Uhhh, it's Athens. But Puck, you're not supposed to be asking historical or scientific questions or anything like that. It's more like get to know you type of thing."
Puck nodded his head. "Yeah, that's what I thought. But in school on Friday, Mr. Pattreto said the capital of Greece was Thessaloníkí, the second largest city. So I debated with him the entire class period, and still he didn't believe me, and I ended up getting a detention after school on Monday, which was a couple of days ago, so I guess I don't have to go. And you're the smartest person I know, so I knew that you would know the answer."
"That's so stupid. But thanks for the compliment. Mr. Pattreto can be so stupid and clueless sometimes. I'm glad he's not my History teacher."
"You got that right. Now back to the game. Your turn to ask the question."
Sabrina thought for a moment, trying to think of a good question, but failed. "Hmmm…are you tired?"
"Ummm…No?" Like he said, he wouldn't ever tell Sabrina.
Sabrina giggled at that. "Sure you aren't, Fairy-boy. Your turn."
"How about… are you cold? Don't even try to lie." Puck knew she was cold, because he was kinda cold. And he had on one more layer than Sabrina. It didn't help that she was only wearing a thin long-sleeve shirt, and kept shivering. The dress she had been wearing earlier had only appeared on top of her other clothes that she had been previously wearing before entering the books of Everafter. She was wearing a thin, white long sleeved shirt, dark jeans, and a pair of moccasins.
"A little bit, I guess. But I'll survive."
"You're lying, you're freezing. Here, take this." Puck gently helped Sabrina stand up for a second, and handed over Daphne to Sabrina. Sabrina, who could definitely not hold her younger sister's weight, supported her while Daphne was still standing up. Then, Puck graciously took off his green zip-up hoodie. He handed it took Sabrina, who had a questioning look in her eyes. Puck grasped Daphne lightly and carefully set her on her back. Without a word, she put it on, and instantly felt the heat radiating from it. It also smelled as of Puck, which surprisingly, was not of body odor. It smelled more as of pine trees, gingerbread cookies, grass, soap, and all the other pleasant things that she could imagine. It was very large on her, but that was only because Puck was so much taller than her. He was over half a foot taller than her, with Sabrina at 5'4, and him at almost 6 feet (5'11 ½), taller than her own father. At the rate Puck was growing at, he'd end up being over 6 feet tall. It was pretty funny to watch them argue over things, because Puck would usually end up losing, and he looked down upon Henry when fighting with him.
Speaking of heights, Daphne was almost Sabrina's height, at 5'3. She was tall for her age, because she most likely inherited her height genes from her mother. Sabrina, on the other hand, mostly inherited hers from the very short (5'1) Granny Relda. Granny Relda was really the only short one in the family; Sabrina's mom, Uncle Jake, and Mr. Canis (if you would consider him 'family') were all fairly tall and above average in height, especially Uncle Jake, at 6'5.
Sabrina felt guilty, though, so because now, he was only wearing his jeans and a short-sleeved black t-shirt. She didn't feel guilty about the fact, though, that she could see muscles through his t-shirt and on his bare arms, and the t-shirt did no justice in trying to hide them. "Are you sure you won't get cold?"
"Sure, I'll get cold, but, I'm an Everafter. I can't die from the cold, and our body temperature is made to withstand extremes. You, though, can die."
Sabrina smiled, and gave Puck a one-handed hug. "Thanks Puck. 'Preciate it."
"Anytime."
Puck felt the urge to carry her again, as her frail, small, short, fragile body shivered violently as she huddled in the too large sweatshirt.
"Sabrina?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you want me to carry you again? You look tired." For some odd reason, he suddenly felt embarrassed. But wait, how could he feel embarrassed in front of Sabrina? He'd never before, why now?
Something inside of him told him it was because he was beginning to have what some people called "Romantic feelings" for a person, in this case, Sabrina. But there was no possible way. Uncle Jake and Henry had pulled him aside once and asked him if he had any feelings for Sabrina. Even though HE DID NOT have ANY feelings for Sabrina (except those of revenge and trickery), he wasn't going to admit it to her father, and Uncle Jake. But he DID NOT have any "romantic feelings" for her. Though, he still didn't have a backup explanation or a reason behind the whole 'growing up' business.
While Puck quickly thought this through, Sabrina was thinking something of the same lines. She couldn't believe Puck was being this mature and nice to her, though he was, in fact, growing up. This could explain why she was beginning to question her actual feelings or him.
Sabrina blushed and ducked her head away, hoping Puck wouldn't notice. But, unfortunately for her, he did. "Ummm…that's okay. I can walk. Thanks though."
"No prob," And Puck knew it was a lie as soon as he had said it. He brushed it off though, as if it were no big deal.
"Now that we've gotten so off topic, let's get back to our game. Whose turn was it to ask the questions?" Sabrina said.
"I think it was yours."
"Okay… Let me think." Sabrina thought through millions of questions she could ask him, but decided on one that had always stumped her and she wondered about. "Why do your eyes change color?"
Puck was taken aback at the question. Clearly, he had thought the question would be something silly like the other ones, but this one he actually had to think through. "You know, I don't actually know the scientifical reason behind it, but I have my own theory. People always tell me that my eyes change color all the time, but you're the first one who's cared to ask me why. It's a long explanation though."
Sabrina gently smiled. "We've got nothing but time right now."
"Okay. My eye color ranges from mostly six different shades; light blue, red, dark blue, purple, brown, and green. I haven't actually seen my eyes, because that would be physically impossible, unless I looked into a mirror. But, people have told me that there is quite a noticeable difference between almost all of them. I hear the answers all the time. Red colored eyes, they have said; occur when I'm extremely mad. Depending on how mad I get, they turn a darker red when I'm extremely mad, and light, golden color when I'm just frustrated. Most of the time, though, my eyes aren't all that red. They used to be like that a lot when my father was around me, ordering me to do something."
"My green ones are when I'm happy or content, which is quite often. They've gotten to this color when I moved into your house. I finally felt appreciated then. My brown eyes mean confusion. Next are my dark blue eyes. They mean extreme sadness, and like my light blue eyes, they get darker when I'm really sad, not as dark when I'm not all that sad. My light blue, hazel-ish eyes are quite interesting, for they mean teasing or playful. Granny Relda has told me all the time that this is one of the shades she sees all the time, along with light blue and green. That's it."
"That's really interesting. But… wait… that was only five noticeable shades. And at the end you mentioned purple, though you never explained those."
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that. I'm actually not all that quite sure what my purple eyes mean. Everyone tells me that they happen a lot. But, it's never been this often that I've had them appear."
"That's weird. How can you know all of them but one?"
"I don't know," Puck replied, looking on straight ahead.
"Wait, let me see what color they are now," Sabrina asked him, curious.
Puck looked down, and what Sabrina saw surprised her. "Well, they were a green color, and then changed to a dark, dark purple once you looked at me."
"Interesting. I was happy, then, it changed… to what?"
"I don't know. But does it really matter?"
Puck sighed. "No, I guess not. And, let's get back to our game."
Sabrina giggled. "That's for like the second or third time we've gotten off topic."
Puck chuckled as well. "Yeah. It's my turn to ask the question now. Hmmmm…" He though for another moment or two. " 'Brina? Will you get offended if I ask a question, that is, well, sort of… personal?"
"I…guess not. But I can reject if it I want to. Ask away." Sabrina was nervous about the question, but really, what could Puck ask that would be that bad?
Puck sighed in relief. "Are you still mad at me for when I kissed you three years ago?" He winced, as if expecting a punch to be thrown at his face.
Sabrina was taken off guard. She'd expected Puck to ask such a deep and personal question, but this was FAR beyond personal. She thought about it for a moment, then gave Puck an answer as she had to crane her neck up quite a bit. "Well… I guess I was never mad at you. Yes, at the time I was, but now, I forgive you. I think I was madder at the fact that you drew a moustache on my face with permanent marker and it didn't come off for two weeks. I was beyond aggravated at that point, and with everything put together, I guess that was my 'breaking point'."
"Gee thanks. You could have thought about all of that before you punched me in the gut. And, sorry about the permanent marker."
Sabrina snickered, but this one was much weaker, for she had gotten considerably tired in the past few minutes. "A little late for apologies, don't you think?" She let out a huge yawn, and Puck had noticed.
Puck, in reply to Sabrina's yawn, had gently switched to carrying Daphne Piggy-back style, and placed one hand on Sabrina's back and the other on the area of the back of her knees. Then, careful as to not startle her, Puck gently picked up her, and balanced Daphne on his back as he held Sabrina bridal style.
Sabrina was beyond embarrassed to speak. Something like what just happened only happens in romance movies or novels. She decided to take advantage of the moment; it wasn't every day that Puck was this nice to her. She rested her head against his chest, and she could feel his muscles and heartbeat through, because of the thin, black t-shirt he was wearing underneath. His heartbeat sped up slightly when she rested her head against his chest, and went back to normal a moment or two later. "My question next. Since when do you have a chest?"
"I was born with one, 'Brina."
"You know what I mean."
"I've been in sports for the past year, and I constantly have to run around to save you all the time. It's a full-time job. I should be getting paid."
"You wish! But you don't exactly get a toned and defined chest without working out constantly."
"I don't know why I got it! I will admit; I have been going to the gym three times a week with either your Dad or Uncle Jake. That could be it. It also could just be a part of growing up." He paused for a moment, contemplating whether to say what he had in mind next. He knew it would make Sabrina flustered and embarrassed. "Why? Do you like it?" his eyes, almost instantly, turned a light blue color.
"What? No—wait… yes—maybe! I mean… I was just… I was just wondering!"
"Sure. It's okay if you like it. I know I'm hard to resist."
"Shut up. You know what I meant, and I did not mean it that way." Sabrina was too tired to argue, so she closed her eyes. Puck decided to not wake her up, so he settled in hopes of finding a safe place to rest for the rest of the night, and possibly even some of the morning. Just as he thought Sabrina fell asleep, he came across an old house just along the side of the pathway. It looked run-down, and Puck prayed that there was no one occupied the place.
Holding Sabrina gently in one arm and steadying Daphne on his back, careful not to jostle her as to wake her, he kicked the door open with his foot and stepped inside. Thankfully, it was vacant. He could tell, because there was dust on every possible surface, and scarcely any furniture. There was only one twin bed, a fridge, a kitchen table, one chair, and a dresser with all of its drawers open. He gently set Sabrina down on top of the bed, and Daphne right next to her. He resolved to sleep on the floor next to the bed and the girls, seeing as there was nowhere else to sleep. But before he collapsed from exhaustion, he looked around to inspect the place.
There were only a few things in the refrigerator, meaning a half-eaten loaf of bread, a basket of five apples, and a water jug, which was also half-way drunken. Going back to the small bedroom, he thought he had heard voices outside, but decided that it was only his imagination. It would be too dangerous to leave Sabrina and Daphne unprotected in the dark in the middle if an unknown forest to go check outside, if only for a second. As he kneeled down beside the bed to succumb to sleep, he whispered a faint 'sweet dreams' to the two girls.
Puck smiled to himself as he gently swept Sabrina's hair away from her face, and whispered in her ear, "My turn to ask the last question. Will you mind if I kiss you again?"
Sabrina gently smiled in her sleep, and Puck did not know whether it was a yes or no, or not even relating to his question. But, he decided to take it as a yes, and brought his face over to Sabrina's, and kissed her forehand as lightly as he could.
Little did he know, Sabrina was still halfway awake, felt the touch, and faintly smiled again, finally sleep overtaking her.