Title:Fireworks
Summary: After a rousing Fourth of July playtime, Buzz plans a surprise for Jessie
Characters/Pairings: JessiexBuzz
Notes: Wrote this on the 4th so it's a little late. Still not sure I'm happy with it. It's longer than a lot of the things I've been writing and it could have been more but I kind of stopped it. I had lots of fun w/ the playtime and the Jessie/Buzz fluff. (Also this the canon based on my other story, so I mention Bo cause she's in Bonnie's room) The end's a little anticlimactic I think but idk.
If one thing could be said about the bedroom of Bonnie Anderson, it was that there was never a shortage of games for her to play with her toys. The little girl's imagination was infinite and she was always creating new stories. Especially during the summer months, between swim lessons and time at Sunnyside, there was always something going on.
On July the fourth, the particular game of the day had a distinctly patriotic tone. High atop two cardboard boxes was Mr. Pricklepants who, with his immense acting talent, had adopted the role of Uncle Sam. Bonnie had taped cotton balls under his chin to give him a beard indicative of his character. In actuality, the effect made him look more like a hedgehog Santa Claus then the personification of the American spirit. To the highly trained imagination, though, the resemblance was uncanny.
"Uncle Sam" was being held captive by the nefarious, Evil Dr. Porkchop who, as his villainy mandated, was trying to take over the world by stealing fictitious symbols of liberty, peace and love. His army of dinosaur warriors, played by Rex and Trixie clad in aluminum foil armor, were charged with guarding the prisoner. It was now up to the dynamic team of Woody, Buzz and Jessie to save Uncle Sam, defeat the evil tyrant and assure freedom to the United States and in turn the world.
The rescue team reached the fortress and hurried toward the cell block where Sam was captive. They hid around the corner and waited for the opportune moment.
"I've got this one boys," Bonnie said for Jessie and traipsed her out of hiding near the dino guards. The little girl did her best cowgirl yodel for the doll in her hand. The dinosaurs- also assisted by Bonnie- looked at each other and then to Jessie. They advanced on her quickly.
Juggling the other toys, Bonnie made Woody and Buzz exchange worried glances.
The two dinosaurs were quickly in the cowgirl's face but she held her ground. Rex let out a terrifying roar, but Jessie still wasn't moved. "Say, that's not very nice, you know," she said, as Bonnie moved her hands to her hips. "I was just trying to be friendly."
"It's not? Oh I'm so sorry," Rex said, looking at the floor in shame.
"Hey," Trixie said, "How did you make that sing-y noise?"
"My yodel?" Jessie asked. "Oh that's easy, I'll show you." As Jessie began instructing the dinosaurs on proper yodeling techniques, Bonnie subtly moved her hand as the high sign to the rest of the team. Buzz and Woody, quickly snuck past the now dejected guards and Jessie, though Bonnie continued their dialogue.
Once they were out of danger, they reached the tower were Uncle Sam was being held. Woody looked up at it. "How are we going to get up there?"
"Leave it to me," said Buzz as Bonnie pressed the red button on his chest deploying his wings. She put Woody's arms in Buzz's hands and, with the obligatory call of "To infinity and beyond," they were off and flying. Bonnie added a few extra turns and flips that, while not necessary, added to the effect before they landed on top of the tower.
"We're almost there Buzz."
"Not so fast," Came a voice accompanied by as hearty a cackle as a four year old could manage.
"Look out, Woody, it's The Witch!" Woody and Buzz both fell to the ground as Dolly, the witch, flew over them. "She must have teamed up with Evil Doctor Porkchop."
Just as the two heroes were propped back up in preparation for their fight with The Witch, a call came from the hall outside Bonnie's room. "Bonnie, put away your toys, sweetie. We need to get to the Ranft's for the barbeque tonight."
"Aww man!" Bonnie said, her shoulders slumping dejectedly. "Just when we got to the good part." She slowly started picking up her toys and laying them carefully on the bed. Pricklepants was taken from his perch, the aluminum armor was stripped from the Rex and Trixie and the tower was dismantled. "We'll have to finish this tomorrow guys."
After depositing Jessie and the dinosaurs with the others, Bonnie told everyone goodbye and left for the night.
Once she was gone, the toys came to life. They all began chattering about the epic adventure they had just had and wondering how Bonnie was going to finish the tale. "Hey guys," Woody said, just as some of the toys were starting to get down off the bed. "That was a great playtime! Just fyi though, the house'll be empty tonight since Bonnie and her family are at the barbeque. That means anywhere you want to go is fair game as long as no one outside can see you and remember it's the fourth so their should be fireworks somewhere."
"At Tesla Park at 8:30," Trixie said. "I checked the website."
"There ya go. That gives us about 40 minutes," Woody said. "Be careful and have some fun." The rest of the toys seemed to grow even more excited at the prospect of being free range. They all started to go off to their own activities.
The last one left was Jessie. In the hurry surrounding the end of playtime, her hat had gone missing and she was combing the bed for any sight of it. She asked Woody first but he had no idea having been fighting the witch at the time. Her next thought was to ask Buzz, but like her hat, the space ranger was no where to be found.
With no sign of the illusive accessory, she flipped down off the bed and to the floor. She began surveying the room for the missing object assuming the bright red color wouldn't make it too hard to find. Checking the area that was the former site of the tower offered nothing but a few of the cotton balls from Pricklepant's beard.
Jessie scratched her head, fingers resting in the mess of red yarn. "Have any of ya'll seen my hat?" she asked as she passed Hamm and Potato Head setting up for a game of cards. If she couldn't find it on her own, maybe one of the other toys had seen it.
"What is it with all you cowboy's losin' your hats?" Hamm quipped, use to Woody being in the same predicament.
Jessie shot him a glare. "Watch it, or next time your cork goes missing, I'm keeping it."
Potato Head laughed as Hamm protectively held his hooves over his cork and Jessie walked away from them.
As she reached the bedpost she heard Mrs. Potato Head behind you. "There you are dear," the female spud said, hurrying up to Jessie. "I think Bullseye found your hat near the closet."
"Thanks," Jessie said, tearing off around the bed. She quickly reached the closet but found no sign of the horse in question. Closer to the closet door she finally saw the edge of her hat hidden behind the door.
"Bullseye, there you are. And you found my hat." Jessie said, with a smile, trying to take the hat from its current position between the horse's teeth. He didn't relinquish his hold though, pulling back from her. "What're you playing at? Can I please have my hat back?"
Bullseye shook his head and looked at her with big eyes.
"Can we strike a deal? We haven't gone riding for a while. Wanna do that?" Bullseye's eyes lit up and he bucked back on his hind legs. As he came down he placed the hat back on Jessie's hat as she giggled. She quickly jumped up on to his saddle. "Ready boy? Ride like the wind!" Bullseye reared again and took off like a shot out of the closet.
He raced around the room at top speeds leaving a strong gust of wind and pieces of Jessie's laughter in his wake. The cowgirl held on to the horse's saddle with one hand and her hat with the other determined not to lose it again. The horse galloped under the bed, rounded a delicate Lego structure and hurdled the little green men who let out an appraising "ohhh" as he did. Finally they made it back to the closet and Bullseye slowed his pace. Jessie was still laughing. "That was a great ride boy" she said, patting his neck affectionately. "Ready to call it?"
Bullseye shook his head and before Jessie knew what was happening, took off again. At a full gallop, he leaped onto a chair and then up on to the bed. As they neared the edge he made another jump and landed on the desk finally coming to a stop. Jessie jumped down off his back. "You're such a show off. Why'd you come all the way up here?" she asked, scratching behind his ears. Bullseye nudged her slightly and Jessie turned around to find Buzz waiting for her a short distance away. "Was this all a set up?" she asked attempting to turn back to Bullseye.
Before she could, Buzz caught her hand. "Maybe a little," he said, indicating the measurement with his thumb and forefinger. "But there's something I wanted to show you."
Bullseye paraded around desktop, ignoring Jessie's perturbed look, ran up licked her cheek and took off leaving the cowgirl and space ranger alone. Jessie followed Buzz until they reached the window.
Buzz started to duck out the half open glass when she let go of his hand. "Won't Woody be mad if we go outside?"
"He'll be fine," Buzz assured her, stepping out onto the sill, "He's preoccupied with Bo."
Jessie looked over to see the two toys in question walking arm and arm through Bonnie's door and into the hallway and turned back to Buzz, "Well lookit you, Mr. Rule Breaker."
Buzz smiled sheepishly. "Guilty as charged. Come on."
Without another second's hesitation, Jessie hurried after him and was soon on the sill by the space ranger's side. The ledge was thin and just barely wide enough for Jessie to stand without her heels falling off the edge. She looked down at the ground two stories away and couldn't help but gulp. "Now what?"
"We go up," he said, as if it were the simplest solution. Jessie didn't move as she watched him step over onto the shingles and begin climbing. "You comin' cowgirl?" he asked looking back at her with a cocky smirk. Steeling her resolve, Jessie stepped off the window sill and quickly but carefully followed Buzz up the slope of the room.
Buzz stopped suddenly and Jessie nearly plowed into his back. Carefully she stepped closer to him and peered over his shoulder. "What're those?"
Balanced on the only flat portion of the very top of the roof was a pile of colorful cylindrical objects. As they got closer, Jessie saw they each one had a small handle with a long piece of string coming out of it. She couldn't see Buzz's face but something told her he was smiling at her confusion. He sat down next to the pile and motioned for her to do the same. Jessie plopped down next to him but couldn't get the perplexed expression to leave her face as he picked up the closest of the mystery object. It was bright blue and about the size of his chest. Buzz positioned it carefully on his knee before taking the string in his hand. "Just watch," he said and pulled the string.
Suddenly, there was a loud pop as the end of the device exploded in a mass of colorful streamers. Jessie gasped her eyes still wide but this time with excitement rather than confusion. Buzz chuckled. "Somehow I figured you'd enjoy that. You wanna try?"
Jessie grinned ear to ear and shook her head enthusiastically as Buzz handed her a red popper. She positioned it the way she had seen Buzz do it, grabbed hold of the string and pulled it. The explosion emitted more force than she expected and she bounced back a bit before slapping her leg excitedly and erupting into a fit of laughter.
They went back and forth for a while, checking every so often to make sure than no one could see their rooftop activity. Jessie continued to giggle with each pop and Buzz simply smiled at her infectious excitement.
Finally, they were down to only one. Buzz offered it to Jessie who offered it back and then the decision was made to do it together. Buzz grabbed the end of the popper and Jessie put her hand over his feeling familiar butterflies as she looked into his eyes. Buzz swallowed hard before shaking off whatever was on his mind as the both held on to the string. "On the count of three," he said. "One, two, three."
The cowgirl and the space ranger pulled the string and were soon both staring in shock as the sky lit up a brilliant blue and red. The streamers at the end of the popper paled in comparison to the fireworks that had suddenly started lighting up the sky from the local park. Jessie's head whipped so she looked at Buzz, her green eyes large in astonishment, "Did you plan that?"
Buzz shook his head still looking at the sky with his jaw hanging open. "I wish I had."
Jessie began giggling again, scootched in close to Buzz and kissed his cheek, "It's perfect, regardless." She leaned closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.
Looking down at her with a smile, Buzz put his arm around his girl. She took his hand in hers and laced their fingers together as they sat watching the fireworks. Every once in a while Jessie would point out her favorites and Buzz would do the same. She loved the glittery ones that hung in the air or corkscrewed in crazy patterns; he liked the ones that looked like planets and the ones that changed colors mid-burst.
After a good twenty minutes the show came to a rousing finale filling the sky with tons of shells, exploding in succession, illuminating everything in reds, whites, blues and every color in between. As they faded away, they left a resounding boom that rattled the entire neighborhood. "Yee- haw!" Jessie said as the silence began to come back, "The finale's always my favorite part."
"Somehow I figured that," was Buzz's reply.
Jessie sat up and glared at him. "What's that suppose to mean?"
"Well, it's loud and flashy and crazy and exciting and it's beautiful. It's a lot like you." he smiled and watched her expression soften considerably. "And that's why it's my favorite too."
Jessie grinned and threw her arms around the space ranger's neck. "You're such a cheese ball," she giggled, before pressing her lips to his.
They pulled apart and sat in silence for a while. Neither one spoke and neither one needed to.
"We, we should probably get back inside," Buzz said, though he wasn't sure he really wanted to go.
Jessie looked at him innocently and ran her hands across his arm. "Do we have to?"
He was about to tell her no; that they could stay up there forever if she wanted when they heard Woody's hushed whisper from the window below. "Buzz? Jessie? Are you guys up there? Bonnie'll be home soon."
The both sighed, knowing their rendezvous would have to be cut short this time. Buzz stood first and pulled Jessie to her feet before carefully leading her down the roof and back to the window sill. He helped her back inside before closing the window tight. When he turned around Jessie was still waiting for him. Her hands played subconsciously with a loose string on her chaps but her eyes were on him. "Thanks for a great time." She said, smiling. "Even if you can't take credit for all of it."
Buzz took her hand in his and kissed it gently. "It was my pleasure."
Her smile grew and she reached out her free hand, placed it on his cheek and pulled him in for a goodnight kiss.
"Am I interrupting anything?"
Jessie broke away and sighed. "Woody, your timing's impeccable as always."
"Hey," he said, indignantly, "I can't help it if you two keep acting like crazy teenagers. The car just pulled up we need to get back to positions."
Jessie rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, I see how it is." She kissed Buzz again quickly and started to make her way back to the bed. Woody and Buzz stayed behind for a second.
"So," Woody said giving Buzz a knowing look and a friendly punch on the arm, "I take it that all went well."
"I heard that!" Jessie shouted over her shoulder.
Both toys cringed but quickly regained their composure as they walked across the desktop. "Better than I could have imagined," Buzz said with a grin and they hurried back to the bed ready for Bonnie to return.