And here's chapter two. Enjoy!
Later that night, Jessie woke up on the tallest shelf of Bonnie's room. She blearily looked around. A few hours ago, her trusty stallion had somehow gotten all the way up there, incapable of getting down without human help. Jessie took pity – they've been through thick and thin together, and it didn't feel right making him spend the night alone. But as far as she could see now, Bullseye was nowhere to be found.
She struggled to her feet, swaying dangerously in her drowsiness, and began checking any places in the shelf he could have wiggled himself into. Despite the shelf itself being way out of Bonnie's reach, her parents had grown accustomed to putting aside some of her stuff somewhere she couldn't trip over the middle of the night.
"Bullseye? C'mon buddy, where are you? Bullseye?"
Then strange, soft music flowed into her ears. She lifted her head wonderingly from examining underneath Bonnie's trinket box, filled with little knickknacks the little girl would usually scatter around during the day. The source of the music came from somewhere she wouldn't have expected – Bonnie's toybox at the foot of the bed. After a second thought, she reckoned that it must've been that music that woke her up in the first place.
Curious, she took advantage of every nook and cranny to aid her descent down to the floor – if Bullseye were ever to pop out later, she would just have to apologize. Then she proceeded to duck-and-roll her entire way to the box, just so she could feel like a secret agent (despite it being totally unneeded – there were no toys in sight, probably all sound asleep somewhere), and pressed her back flat against the outside wall, listening carefully.
The music indeed came from inside the toybox. But it was strange. At a closer range she could tell it was a string ensemble, and they were playing something gentle… and calming. But Jessie was pretty sure Bonnie didn't have musical toys that could play that well. Strangely though, the composition did sound vaguely familiar.
She dragged over the building blocks, the same ones Dollie used for her speech earlier, and used those for leverage as she quietly lifted the toybox lid a few centimeters, just enough to peek in without disturbing the musicians inside.
At first, she couldn't see anything. Then eventually, it struck her that that should not be. Where had the all the other toys gone? The bin was completely empty.
But she proved wrong yet again. When she looked down, at the floor of the toybox was centered a circular table draped with a white cloth, possibly a handkerchief. It was tiny, but just perfect for her size; it may have been part of a dollhouse. Jessie confirmed that soon enough, spotting two chairs from the same set positioned at either side of the table.
Almost everything in there seemed arranged just for toys actually, except for a couple of semi-large battery-operated candles set up at different sides of the box and handkerchiefs taped over the walls, acting as wallpaper. The source of the music remained a mystery. But with it, the entire toy box resembled a restaurant setting. How odd.
"Star Command! I'm approaching the escape hatch!"
She wheeled around, and it wasn't hard to spot the certain space ranger attempting to sneak away. Even in the middle of the night and having been kept out of the sunlight so long, the stickers on his suit were still capable of glowing reeeally brightly.
Jessie hopped down and skipped over, still at wonder by the toybox's new interior design. Buzz had completely frozen up after accidentally activating his voice function, so it was easy for her to catch up. "Hey Buzz, where'd everyone run offta? Oh, have you seen the toybox yet? It's crazy!"
As a closer distance, Jessie then noticed that he was holding something. A small bouquet of tulips and irises, wrapped together with a bit of plastic, emitting an exquisite aroma and also appearingto be freshly picked. She could see the petals still lightly sprinkled with nightly dew. Undoubtedly, whoever did the wrapping did a poor job, but Jessie realized that she couldn't take her eyes off the flowers. They were absolutely beautiful.
Then Buzz quickly concealed them behind his back. "T-The toybox, huh," he stuttered slightly. "That's very well and all… So you've seen it already?"
"Heck yeah," Jessie laughed loudly, her earlier spy activities completely forgotten. She began to circle around the space ranger knowingly, and Buzz tried to counter by spinning in the same direction. This went on for some time, and just when she was starting to get dizzy, Buzz finally gave up. He embarrassedly took out the flowers and held them out to her face.
"This is for you," he mumbled, his eyes stubbornly cast downwards.
Jessie happily received the gift and brought them to her face, breathing deeply. "Heh. Never knew flowers could smell this good!"
Buzz smiled. "Glad you like them."
She peered through the flower petals first at Buzz, then at the toybox. "So… are we going in or not?" she chirped, lowering the bouquet and holding it like a baby in her arms.
Buzz's smile faltered slightly, and he looked disappointed. "I was planning to make it a surprise, but…"
Jessie laughed again and poked his forehead gently with her index finger. "Cheer up, ya ol' coot! The idea that you, of all people, would try to pull off something like this' too big of a bee for my bonnet to contain," she told him truthfully. "In other words, you already surprised me one time too many tonight, Buzz. Now shut that bazoo and let's get this wagon a rollin'! I'm dying for a first-class tour of what you did to the toybox. And it'd better impress me, city boy."
They walked to the block stairs Jessie constructed for her spying operation, which would now serve as an entrance. Jessie had just taken the first step when Buzz suddenly grabbed her by the arm.
"Wait!" he urged meaningfully. "Let me go first so I can help you in from the other side."
Jessie was awestruck. All that said, and he wasn't even in Spanish mode. Flattered, she promptly stepped down.
The space ranger climbed up until the last step, and there the rim of the toybox fell short, only leveling to the top of his head. Jessie watched expectantly for the famous Buzz Lightyear to throw open the lid and magically hoist himself over the formidable wall.
Buzz, on the other hand, stared at it for a good long while. Then he glanced back. Spotting something, he spun around and reflexively aimed his laser at the darkness.
"What's that!"
Jessie turned as well, poising her arms in front of her torso defensively. "Where!"
"Over there, across the room!" Buzz's voice answered. "Is that Bullseye!"
Jessie's attention was driven even more, and she frantically scanned the scarcely visible objects across the room. "Bullseye! Is that you! Come on buddy, get over here! Follow the glowing green light!"
But despite how much she called, nothing stirred in the darkness. Disappointed, she turned back to Buzz. "No good."
He nodded, and returned to his task beforehand. He pushed up the lid with one hand, and used the other on the rim to swing himself inside. The cover dropped shut with a dull 'thud!' behind him.
Jessie clapped shortly, and then it was her turn. But she noticed that, while she stood on the tallest step, the rim of the toybox mysteriously reached the base of her neck now, when just minutes ago she had to tiptoe a little when she was peering inside. As if someone had planted an extra block on the tower since she made it…
She did not dwell too long about it, though. Buzz was waiting for her, after all.
She jumped in after him without much thinking, and because of that she miscalculated her take off and found herself falling horizontally rather than vertically. Before she could even assess the idea of changing her position, she had already landed… in a certain space ranger's arms.
She gaped at him speechlessly, then in the next second she could feel her face getting uncomfortably hot. "U-Um…"
Buzz, for the moment oblivious to what his arms supported, had his eyes on the ground and wore a frustrated frown. The flowers he went through so much trouble to pick and prepare had come out of their wrapping and scattered during Jessie's fall. "What a waste…"
Jessie fidgeted, reminding him of their current situation. His face burning an incredible shade of red, Buzz quickly put her on her feet and cleared his throat as if nothing happened. But before he could speak, Jessie got on her knees and began gathering up the flowers.
"S-Sorry," she said softly, keeping her head bent guiltily.
Buzz did not say anything. But he did pick up her hat while she focused on the flowers, and put it on her head when she stood up, arms brimming with disheveled flora.
Then they proceeded to the table, where Buzz naturally, but silently, pulled back Jessie's seat and let her sit before going to his own. He also took out a vase from under the table (also from the dollhouse) and had her place the flowers inside before setting it aside. And after that… they just sat there silently.
Jessie found it to be especially difficult, considering her personality. And they could even pass eating as a polite means to avoid talking – the plastic plates and utensils on the table made pretty decoration, but neither served their purpose here. They were made of plastic, after all. The most toys ever fed on were batteries.
She awkwardly fumbled with her hands on her lap. "Sooo…" she began slowly in what she hoped was a conversational tone. "What did'ja wanna talk about? Or are we supposed to just sit here until daybreak?"
Buzz's brow furrowed, and she feared she might've said the wrong thing. Then he leaned back his head and stared hard at the box's ceiling. He sounded quite troubled as he spoke. "I had prepared some topics a while ago to chat about, but I seem to have forgotten all of it…"
Before she knew it, a guffaw escaped from Jessie's mouth, and she quickly clasped both hands over it, also to hide the high amused grin it was beginning to form. Buzz brought his head back down, looking hurt.
"I heard that!"
"I can't help it," she giggled, pounding on the table with a fist. "Y-You forgot! And after setting up all of this…"
Buzz glared. "You're one to talk! You messed up the entire operation from the beginning. You weren't supposed to know yet!"
Jessie stopped laughing. "My fault?" she repeated indignantly. A frown crossed her lips. "Excuse you, but I had no idea that this was even a surprise! It's your fault for making it so obvious anyway."
"All this from the toy who instantly believed me when I 'spotted' Bullseye! How gullible can you get?"
"W-Well," Jessie sputtered. "AT least I don't have'ta add extra blocks just to get inside a toybox!"
Buzz was caught speechless for a brief moment, but he shook it off fast. "At least I don't have a detachable hat, and I don't start tearing up the place like a rabid animal whenever it goes missing!"
Jessie gasped, and automatically brought up a hand to clutch the rim of the accessory. "You dare insult the hat!" That made her so furious, she spit out the first thing that came out to mind. "Stingy!" she cried.
"Crybaby!"
"Malfunctional!"
"Outdated!"
"SHOW-OFF!"
"REDNECK!"
"P-PURPLEHEAD!"
They jumped to their feet, chairs ignored as they toppled to the ground. "I don't even know why ya bothered with his get-up in the first place!" Jessie exclaimed angrily. She waved disgustedly at everything inside the room: the table, the candles, and even the vase of flowers that minutes ago she had been positively delighted to receive.
"What is this, a soap opera! You even haaaad to make it look like some fancy-schmancy do-and-duppity restaurant gig, huh? For Stinky Pete's sake, Buzz – WE'RE TOYS! We don't even need to eat!"
"Of course I know that! But there are reasons why –"
She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll play with it for a while. Your Spanish counterpart convinced you to do all this, and then bring me here to show-off how 'romaaaaantic' you can be. Well, ain't that swell, you've done yerself a great job! But you know what, I'd best be going now so I'll be seeing ya, alright?"
"I'm not doing this to show-off, I'm –"
"What, Buzz! Trying to make a fool of me? Make me feel like the bad guy for spoiling my own surprise? Well, congratulations, you just did all of the above!"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"Then tell me, in plain words that even a stupid 'redneck' like me can understand, why in the world did'ya have me put up with all these gimmicks!"
"Because I still haven't told you that I love you!"
In that instant, the entire toybox seemed to freeze in silence, save for the unseen string ensemble forever playing in a loop.
Well, I hope you like it so far! The next chapter's coming up in a few, so stay tuned!
(P.S. Oh, and I'll let you in on a little secret. You know what fanfiction authors REALLY love? … Reviews. It's true! Try it on me – I swear, it'll work. XDDD)
