AN:
A song from Missundaztood album by P!NK.
Family Portrait:
"Jack Of Hearts." Ero showed his latest painted egg off.
"No sparkles?" Jack joked about making it twinkled.
"Jack Of Spades." Ero showed his second painted egg off.
"I am sensing a theme." Jack looked over the eggs.
"When you're on a roll. You're on a roll." Ero shrugged.
Jack sighed looking over the eggs one by one taking in the sights of the shades of blue dyed eggs covered in all types of shapes. Each one down in white coloring that came from the paintbrush Ero had been using when he started. Lay out on a towel to dry so the blue dye or white paint on the eggs wouldn't smear or mess up.
"One more to go." Ero was finishing up quite fast. "Off to the Workshop we go."
"Trying to sound like Mother Goose?" Jack asked in joking matter.
"Got winter season to bring in." Ero dipped brush's tip in a white pain before swiping it against a dyed shell.
Jack gave up teasing Ero about the gift for Tekla and North in the shape of extra eggs hang over pooka let go. Not that Bunnymund was around see the what was being put on each egg Ero hand done him self. Placing each and every painted over egg in a basket that was woven that morning.
"I still think it looks like Easter basket." Jack mumbled messing with ribbon tied to the handle.
"Give me a minute." Ero put his brush and latest egg down.
"No let me." Hasake's form came from a shadowy outline.
He taste in clothing hadn't changed just altered from heavy set winter wear that had him wearing gloves and long sleeves. From time to time he would be caught discarding cloaks or jackets he wore to keep warm during winter months. Not he wore lighter clothes that weren't crafted from animal's skin or heavy fabric. Since they were cotton blends with metallic features that showed more his muscular form as he moved.
"Decided to drop in?" Jack teasingly asked somewhat happy that Hasake agreed with him over a basket Ero wanted to Norths.
"Something wrong with that?" Hasake left his seat pocketing his hands.
He ended up using his shadowy touch to alter the basket to look more like gift basket then something you get during Easter season. Walking from his seat to other side of the table where bowl freshly picked berries sat.
"I heard you two might have had your first fight as a couple." He brought up an issue they already solved. "Everything all right?"
"WE'RE FINE!" Both spoke in union.
"All right! Aright!" He backed off. "I have something to give you..."
He pulled a piece of his own shadow out with his bare hand tossing the lump to Ero with wink hinting at something. Ero ended up catching with both his hands while Jack's curiosity was peaked about what was given. Over to Ero's hands he would look to find polished glass orb on metal chains. Rich black coloring the small trinket had Jack thinking of the black sand that Pitch controlled.
"Ombric and your mother finished last night." Hasake turned his attention back to the bowl of berries.
"Meaning?" Ero's voice sounded rather excitable.
"Your mother, Pitch aren't, and me the only ones that can control lack sand anymore." Hasake just stared at those berries.
He ended up explaining that the item that was given to Ero was part of his steps of becoming a guardian. How having it in his possession gave him the ability that Pitch was pretty well known for.
"Your still has to take the oath... And possibly confront your mom again." Hasake waved his hand around.
"I rather stay with Jack!" Ero wasn't going back to Edwyna.
"So..." Jack reminded he both of them he was STILL there.
Ero strapped the item onto belt loop where his Easter Egg shaped one sat before turning to Jack to with a smile. Asking if he had a better item as a gift then the basket he stopped working on agreeing theme was to Easter. Answer came from Hasake using his own shadowy gifts to form an onion shaped jar of orange coloring. A grinning Jack-o-lantern was the cork sealed over with wax and bottom of the jar was in the pumpkin. While the colorful contains splashed around inside would have Jack's curiosity. If Hasake hadn't swapped his hand when reached toward the jar's surface.
"Your frosty touch will turn what's inside into sluree." Hasake looked for a place to sit. "That I don't need."
"Is that Spirits of Hollow's Eve brew or Haunting infusion?" Ero asked about the jar contains.
"Lorre and me returned to Romania after our prolonged stay at the WorkShop." Hasake decided to sit on the table. "He created a caldron of the stuff."
Hasake ended up smacking Jack's hand one more time to keep him form touching the jar while he talked. Ero would have asked about having a jar of his own if wasn't for one being dropped in his lap. A black and orange ribbon was tied in the form of harvest bow around the neck of the jar.
"Lorre bottled the liquid in jars he crafted him self." Hasake pulls his gloves off.
Into shadow his gloves dissolved when he lay they down on the beside him telling Jack for the second time. To keep his icy fingers away from a potential gift meant for his and Ero's parental figures. Leaving Ero to cleanse the table of paints, supplies, and eggs through magical means using one his hands. Basket and two jars were only things left on the table to be stared at by Jack.
"Can you make ice crystals?" Hasake asked Jack permafrost gemstone that could never melt.
"You letting me taste that?" Jack countered.
Ero ended up getting up form his seat in hurried mattered snatching one of the Earth Ware cups from counter top. He would place on the table before Jack warning him to sip what he wanted to taste slowly and NOT chug. Uncorking the jar and pouring contains into the glass he had set before Jack. Backing away securing the cork on the jar when Jack was allowed to take hold of the filled cup.
"Just to warn you..." Hasake wore a smirk that mirrored Jack's on. "My brother always got knocked down a peg or two when ingesting that."
Didn't stop Jack from looking to Ero's retreating form for an answer about what he was given or the effects. Had him putting the glass down on table next to Hasake excusing him self to see Ero. Chasing after him asking in his loudest voice if something was wrong with what he wanted to drink.
"Take your time you two." Hasake called after them popping off the table.
He ended up using his shadowy gift one more to wrap around the bowl of fruit he been eyeing since he arrived. He had placed in his arms picking a single apple from pile to bite into welcoming the tart taste. Had him thinking about asking Lorre or Tekla to bake him a pie made of these apples. That meant he could try to barter with Bunnymund on getting a glass tub of these apples.
Just one little problem the Pooka had toward him...and his brother
"Why does my day always end with me potentially getting black eye. " He heard rustling coming toward him.
Into the Borrow's dinning / kitchenette area was tired out Pooka wondering if Ero was keeping Jack out of the chocolate. What Bunnymund found was Hasake eating out his fruit bowl standing in middle of the room. Who would wave to the Pooka like their wasn't centuries of hastily between them. Asking if about the apple he was currently munching on was grown in hsi Warren.
"I'm willing to make peace with you." Hasake lifts the apple. "If I get a basket of these."
Bunnymund had to fight make the urge to hop over toward the Spirit of Helloween and hit him. Pointing out his dislike for Hasake was more aimed at his brother, Pitch, then him since they didn't share ideals. Changing the subject to why Hasake had was here about official Guardians business, and unannounced. To Black Sand charm he delivered to Ero and how youth time was coming.
"Can't believe just yesterday he was ankle biter wondering why I was the lost of my kind." Bunnymund remembered those years.
"Now his involved with someone you can't stand." Hasake finished for him.
Hasake ended up taking both youths from the Warren to Kitchen area of the workshop through his shadowy tunnels. Scene they all walked in on was busy apron clad Tekla standing over a heated oven. Absent-mindedly standing before two burners she would stir with wooden spoon not noticing when a slight chills or swirl of magic. Came on either side of her when two voices caught her off guard. One telling the other she was making stew with chopped beets and some type of meat. Who answered him in low whisper that Hasake couldn't hear that he was having an enough vegetarian meals.
"GRATEFUL YOU MUST BE!" Tekla ended up hitting both Jack and Ero on the end with her wooden spoon trying not to cry.
Jack was one that was given the hardest hit while Ero was pulled into a breath steal embrace by her lace-covered arms. To congratulate him on his newly received trinket hanging beside Easter Egg shaped one sharing her joy. Insisting the two of them stay for a quick meal shifting her hug from Ero to Jack showing how she missed him so. Making him release his staff as she drew him fully into her arms telling him how Aleksandrina miss them. How the infant couldn't' stop crying if North held her, she cuddle with a pillow from Ero's or Jack's room, or song to by her.
"Bunnymund told me that Ero could stay the night and day." Hasake closed up his portal.
"They stay in their rooms while here." Tekla's hold on Jack tightens.
Ero would have pointing out that she was squeezing he life out of Jack if he was a normal human who needed breath. If wasn't for Jack being a spirit like Ero that didn't need air to breathe when caught in the woman's iron hug.
"Dead, yet?" Ero was one that caught Jack's staff trying to not laugh.
"I needed to change." Hasake noticed his clothes didn't fit the mood.
A Yeti ended up taking him to wear he needed to go since Tekla wasn't easy to pull away form Ero and Jack. From the time Jack left to bring in the winter season and start his pranks with kids of the world. Ero left to live with Bunnymund after agreement was reached he back visit. She started to suffer from Empty Nest Syndrome that North couldn't find away to cure to make her smile again.
"The gifts!" Both Ero remembered.
He reached toward his massager back where gift basket filled and bottle of Spirits of Hollow's Eve brew were. Be careful not to drop either one when he handed to Tekla taking in their sights. Which she handed to another Yeti advising him with a sharp tongue to not drop or lose one. When putting them away as she released Jack from her arms asking the two ifs them wanted anything.
"Some of your stew since last time we ate was this something Kangaroo made." Jack wasn't one for Breakfast casserole.
"You didn't like the tofu he used in place of ground meat." Ero rolled his eyes at the comment.
"Guys can't survivor on vegetables alone." Jack leaned against a counter.
He then started to rub his sides in order to get the feeling back in them when started to breathe regularly once more. Leaving Ero to still hold his staff telling him he shouldn't have allowed her to hold him so long. Reminding him sore sides of being squeezed to long be going to take place in the most uncomfortable way. Jack agreed with when he slowly ran his hands up and down his clothed side wanting the chill to numb the pain.
"Here." Tekla hands Jack a glass jar filled with her herbal blended tea. "Help with achy sides."
He took in one hand while she shoved in another glass to Ero's hands before she removed her apron. She threw on the table she wanted to the sit at telling some other Yeti to fetch North from his office for mealtime. Not one would she accept back talk or excuses from the Yeti telling her he was over his list. Threatening to shave every inch of hair from the Yeti and knit the hair into sweater got him going like she wanted.
"She still has a hold on them." Jack sipped his tea in between smirking. "Miss it?"
"Like repeated visit form you." Ero knew Jack was addressing him.
Done Jack using his own in form of a silent toast that Tekla out of the corner of her eyes tap his glass. Put the smile North had wanted to see back on her face when she started to pull out bowels and silver ware.