A/N.I'm having mixed emotions.
One) I'm very annoyed with the person/people who gave me a lot more than THREE reviews per chapter (if you were trying to be the 1,000th reviewer, or the 999th, spamming me didn't help you).
Two) I'm steamed. I wrote in my order that I wanted Book 9 to be delivered within 3-4 business days, and it should've been delivered Thursday. DX Oh well, it wasn't like I was going to read it straight away -my friend's reading it first, then I'm going to start reading it in May because I say so. :D
Three) OMPUCKINGOSH! Thank you thank you thank you thank yoouu! You've all brought this story a long way. And this story is -offically- the third SG story to hit 1,000 reviews. AHHH!:D I swear -this story only had 14 reviews just in August/September. How the heck did we get to 1,000 within nine months? That isn't even a whole year! But...I'm happy. I really am. I knew I was going to make this a long story, but I didn't know if a lot of people would like it's plot: Daphne re-meets Mustardseed, but he's her teacher and finds out he's an ex-gangster. It's pretty wacky, isn't it? :) I gues that's good, though- Alice in Wonderland was pretty wacky (so wacky they banned it at one point in time) but it's so popular! ^^ But really -my legs feel like jello (maybe that's why I'm so hyper). I'm so thankful to have really great friends who like what I write. :) I'm so thankful to have really mucho gravy friends in general! XD
I think I need to confess, though -I've been been trying to avoid FF. It's not that I'm mad at anyone buuut... So many people have already gotten the newest book and I keep hearing things (I heard that there's an interesting epilogue...and something about the barrier...) ... so, don't give anything away, please? Or I'll just not read reviews until I get and read my copy. XD
All right! Because this is chapter 64 (you all know my obsession with the number 4 -yes Curlscat, just like Artemis Fowl...do you know if the last book has come out yet?), I'll be giving you a few spoilers about the sequel:
Yes, it will be as long as FTFT (well, a little less -it won't be less than 40, though...).
No, I don't have a title yet (I'm trying to do that thing with the acronym: FTFT, ABAB, DCDC, THTH, etc.).
Yes, we will see the Grimms, Wendell, Ariana, Mr. Firay, Daphne and most importantly...Sage (let's face it -we love them bisexual British men ;D Just kidding -he's not bisexual...I think)!
Yes, there will be new characters (two important ones).
No, the sequel will NOT be their marriage.
Yes, the sequel will be a continuation of Daphne's senior year (from after Christmas to graduation).
Yes,Daphne and Mr. Firay will have to keep their relationship a secret (so be prepared for more fluff and hopefully you don't gag).
All right, I think that's enough spoilers. :)
By the way, I have no idea what type of house Daphne lives in with her mom, dad, and Basil. Sometimes I say it's an apartment, sometimes it's a regular house. So...it's both. xD It wouldn't make sense to have a snowball fight outside apartments where there's such little space, right? :3 And...I said there was a forest in this chapter. I started laughing when I realized, "New York city has forests?" XDD So, ignore that, I guess. I still think Daphne lives in FPL for some reason.
DISCLAIMER: I have never ever been in a snowball fight, nor made a snow fort (hi, I'm a Floridian!), so the snowball fight will have a lot of loose ends, I'm sure.
Chapter 64: Grin (You know you want to)
After Puck's announcement, we decided we would all have an hour or two to make our forts. Then, we all scattered, putting up our defenses which wasn't very far -it wasn't like Ferryport Landing where we had space big enough for three houses. I was really excited -with Sage and Puck, I was sure this game wasn't going to be boring. I had no idea where the others had gone, but I knew the best place to build my snow fort -at the edge of the forest, where the big trees were.
A lot of snow covered their tops, and if you shook the trees hard enough, the snow fell like hail. It had been snowing quite hard yesterday that I didn't have to do that. With all the snow drift already set on the ground, I could just use that pile and start early. I thought it best to do the most common way -a wall, but with three sides. The side that wouldn't have a wall would be facing the forest and any unused piles of snow. It sounded like a lot of work, but I had done it countless times before. The first part of the fort didn't take me very long -Sabrina and I had had snowball fights ever since we had lived with Granny Relda. I shaped the snow into blocks (I used a comb because I forgot my other tools in the house -it was actually very effective and left a nice pattern on the snow) and put them in rows on top of each other. Halfway through the next side, I realized that Mr. Firay could have teamed up with me! And we wouldn't have been bothered for an hour or so... I blushed and smacked myself. Sage was starting to rub off on me.
I heard Basil shouting that the game was starting just as I started the snowballs. Checking my watch, I guessed that it had almost been two hours to prepare. Oh well. I don't think I would need more for a while. I stayed silent and heard the crunching of feet in the snow. I almost snorted -Basil could be sneaky, but he couldn't be quiet. He was about a foot away when I jumped out and aimed a snowball at him. Or, I thought it was him.
"Whoa!"
I blinked at him, lowering my hand. "Oh. Hey, Mr. Fira -err, Matt."
"Enemies are we?" he asked with a smile. Mr. Firay slipped into the fort and took a seat next to me.
"Well we are at war."
"It's a snowball fight."
"Same thing," I said, returning his with a grin of my own. "Shouldn't you be at your fort?"
"You don't want me here?"
"I do," I said quickly, not meaning to.
He smirked. "You're-"
Cutting him off, I said, "Shouldn't you be guarding your fort?"
Mr. Firay shook his head. "I didn't make one."
"What? Why don't you want to play?"
"I never said that," he said, tapping my forehead. "You're assuming things again."
I blushed. "Sorry."
He ruffled my hair. "Nothing to apologize for."
I asked, "But really -what have you been doing this whole time? And why didn't you make a fort?"
"Wouldn't it be nicer to team up with each other? Though, I really should have done this earlier -then we'd have a lot more alone time," he said with a smirk.
My cheeks reddened -no surprise there. I mumbled, "Sage is rubbing off on you."
"That's actually a good retort." Mr. Firay looked thoughtful. "I bet you were thinking the same thing about yourself earlier."
How could he know? "No, what are you talking about? You're crazy!"
"I can read you like a book, Daphne. And you suck at lying."
I pouted at him. "Do you have some...some sort of uncanny ability that lets you read people's minds?"
He snorted. "I'm not some supernatural book character, Daphne. I'm just an Everafter."
"With wings. Who happens to have a brother that can shapeshift and belch fires."
"Touché." Mr. Firay grinned at me, then noticed something. "Hey, when did you get those earrings?"
I touched my earlobes. "These? Oh, Sabrina gave them to me as a late Christmas present. And she gave me a matching bracelet as a birthday present." I slid off one of my mittens to show him.
"They sure match," he said with an amused smile. It sounded like he was having an inside joke with himself. Mr. Firay touched my earrings and leaned close to admire them. "They look expensive."
"Y-yeah." Even though it was freezing outside, I could feel heat rise to my cheeks as I noticed our proximity.
Mr. Firay raised an eyebrow, smirking at my flustered face. "Something wrong?"
"No."
"All right."
As much as I wanted to pull him closer, I knew he'd tease me. So to keep me from enduring, I said, "Could you move back a little?"
"I quite like this position."
"Really, Matt, someone's bound to come by and see..."
"See what?"
I tried to duck my head. "N-nothing."
Just when I put my head down, he tilted it back up. "You're so stubborn," he said before pressing his lips to mine. We had been out in the snow for quite a while, but his lips were warm. Wrapping my arms around him, he shifted us so we were in a more comfortable position. With his hands on my back, one moved upwards and entangled itself in my hair, pulling me closer.
Our moment was interrupted when I saw a snowball soar over the trees and land next to me. I pulled back quickly and accidentally knocked one of the sides down. "Shoot," I muttered. We looked over the standing sides and saw Basil and Jay carrying many snowballs. I almost laughed when I saw their faces -they had put smudges on their cheeks like those fake Indians in that one movie and had almost mimicked my warrior face.
I grabbed one snowball from my pile and threw it up and down. "Let's do this."
Mr. Firay rolled his eyes. "You're so dramatic sometimes." He then winded up his snowball in slow motion like a baseball player and threw it straight at Basil. It hit him in the cheek.
I grinned at Mr. Firay's smug face. "And you say I'm dramatic." He ignored the comment and threw another ball of snow.
We exchanged snowballs with each other. Though, we didn't see Puck or Sage -I wondered where they were. I knew Puck wouldn't miss out on an opportunity to play, but I didn't dwell on it. I hit Jay in the chest a few times, and Basil had gotten my face quite a number of times. Mr. Firay probably had the most hits out of all of us. He threw snowballs like they were grenades about to explode at lightning speed -like a pro. But then when we ran out did we have a problem.
Mr. Firay was trying to form a snowball in his hands, but it kept crumbling. "How do you do this!"
I raised an eyebrow at him. "You can't form a snowball?"
"Hey, my brother was the one who did all the fun -I was the one involved in Everafter debates and politics, remember?"
I grinned. "Finally! I can do something you can't!"
"Shut up." I didn't take any offense and grinned wider. After our little spat, I showed him how to make one without breaking it while ducking the snowballs thrown at us. When Mr. Firay finally made a snowball, that was when Puck showed up.
I wasn't expecting a fastball to make a hole in my fort, gasping as it flew past me and smashed into a tree behind me. I looked out and saw Puck holding two Nerf guns filled with -I don't know how- snowballs. He probably put something on them because they looked very solid (that was probably why they weren't mashed up like I expected), yet, I knew they were snowballs.
Jay asked him, "Isn't that cheating?"
Puck smirked. "Your boyfriend never said we couldn't use weapons."
They both shouted, "We're not dating!" The two looked at each other and blushed.
Puck fired wildly, but with accuracy (somehow). He hit all of us at least once in the chest and face, letting out a cackle each time. We all fired back at him, but then we began to lose snowballs. I blocked my face with my arms to protect myself -the fort was reduced to piles of snow. It seemed like Puck was going to win until a gigantic snowmobile came.
I clung to Mr. Firay just as the avalanche practically wiped us all out. I stayed under for a really long time; it was freezing. I didn't feel any movement, and I had probably lost Mr. Firay touch -I couldn't tell, feeling numb all over. It felt like hours under the snow that I thought I was going to die until I felt someone pull me upwards by my jacket. Mr. Firay looked concerned as I shivered. "Are you all right?"
I shuddered, but forced a smile. "Cold, but I'm fine." In reality, I was numb. I probably looked really blue.
Mr. Firay didn't believe me, so he pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around me. I was going to protest when he gave me a look. "I know what you're going to say -I'm fine. But you, you're a little more fragile, so no objections."
I gave in and looked around. Basil was with Jay -they were safe, thank goodness. Puck was being held aloft in the air by his wings, looking at the driver of the vehicle through the window indignantly. He pointed his finger at the driver accusingly as the window rolled down. "You cheated!"
Sage grinned at him and gave him a salute. "You never said we couldn't use snowplows to win this game."
"You're not playing fair."
"You never said we had to play fair either."
Puck huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Where'd you get this thing anyway?"
Sage got out of the gigantic snowmobile with a smug smile. "Matt and I took this to get here, but I'm surprised he didn't get the idea to use this to his advantage in the game, too."
Mr. Firay scowled. "You almost killed all of us!"
"Well it would've been an accident," Sage said in his defense. As he looked around at the mess he had made, Sage let out a whoop and danced victoriously. "Whoo-hoo! That was freakin' awesome! We have to do that again!"
"You sound so concerned. Look at Daphne! She's like a blueberry!" He pointed at me. I looked at myself, but I just looked really pale. Maybe it was just my face that was blue.
Puck tsked. "We better take her inside -Jake might have something to help."
We all marched inside -Sage, happily, and the rest of us slower. Basil and Jay ran inside and towards the kitchen where it seemed everyone was. The table was all set, and Sabrina was already eating as were Mom, Dad, and Uncle Jake.
My sister gasped when she saw me. "What did they do to you?" She instinctively turned to Puck who put his hands up in defense.
"Whoa! I did nothing! It was all this kid," he pushed Sage in front of him who took Sabrina's hand and kissed it.
Sage smiled charmingly at her. "My name's Sage. It's great to finally meet Daphne's attractive sister!" Mr. Firay snorted while I had to stifle a laugh -Sage's magic was working.
Sabrina smiled at him. "It's nice to meet you, too."
"I'm terribly sorry for almost giving Daphne hypothermia, by the way. We had too much fun having our snowball fight."
Dad came over to me and did an inspection of me, sighing. "Jake, do you have anything that'll fix Daphne up? I don't want her getting sick."
Uncle Jake fished in his pockets, and pulled his hands out empty. "Nope -unless you want side effects. If I remember correctly, Hank, last time I gave someone a potion with a side effect -which was when Puck gave Sabrina a water toadie egg, you complained about magic. How about a cup of hot chocolate instead, pumpkin?"
I smiled. "That works." He winked and went to make my chocolate while we all took seats at the table.
I sat next to Sabrina on one side, and Mr. Firay on the other. Next to Sabrina was Puck, Basil, Jay, Uncle Jake's open seat, Dad, then Mom, and Sage sat next to Mr. Firay on the other side. When Uncle Jake came back, a delicious, chocolate-y smell wafted in the air. It slid down my throat and I sighed. "Thanks, Uncle Jake." It was good. Maybe not as good as Mr. Firay's, but it was tasty nonetheless. "So," I said, taking another sip of my coffee, "what's the news, Sabrina?"
"I'm having a baby," she said, grinning. Puck let out a loud, "Ahem." Sabrina spared him a glance and said, "Oh, yeah. I'm nine months in."
Puck sighed. "You're so cruel."
"That's why you married me, isn't it?"
Mom clapped gleefully. "Grandbabies, grandbabies! Oh, I hope you have twins! Or triplets! Or quadruplets -oh, but not eight children. I don't want you to turn into that octomom I've been hearing about."
Sabrina about choked on her food. "No way!" She coughed loudly, and Puck patted her back soothingly even though his face was red, too. "We're only in our -well, Puck is physically- twenties!"
"But you will have quadruplets later, right?"
Puck grinned at my mom. "If the mother of hormones says so."
Sabrina turned red, coughing again. "Puck!"
Jay sighed. "This is such a wonderful dinner."
"You mean it?" Basil asked, trying not to sound too happy.
"I mean it."
"So, Mustardseed, what lessons have you been teaching Daphne?" Henry asked. "I'm sure there are a lot of cuisines you guys cook in class."
Sage snorted and side commented loudly. "That's what she said."
No one understood what he meant until he explained it to us. We had to block our Basil and Jay's ears to protect their innocence. I won't say anything because I don't want to remember anything he said.
After that, the dinner was full of laughs and shouting. Sage made [many] perverted comments here and there after we proved to Sabrina that he wasn't so well mannered. Mom made embarrassing comments about all of us at dinner -from baby experiences to present. Basil looked like he wanted to crawl under the table and die when Mom mentioned to Jay that he wore a bunny costume for Halloween only two years back. It was a great late Christmas dinner with the family -we exchanged presents. Even Sage and Mr. Firay had presents for everyone. I didn't get one from Mr. Firay for some reason. He looked guilty, so I didn't press him for an answer on that.
Mr. Firay and I didn't mention anything about our relationship, but I don't think we had to -after Jay, Mr. Firay, and Sage had left, Sabrina mentioned to me that there was something going on between us. Puck already suspected something, so I don't think they had to think hard on it. Though, I assumed Mr. Firay would have a hard time with Puck. Even if they were brothers, Puck still seemed to want that over-protective older brother title when I overheard him talking to Mr. Firay one day. Something about forcing him to "eat a horse" and never ending pranks. Whatever it was, it didn't sound good.
In the end, it was a great Christmas. We would probably do it next year -heck, we would probably do it for every big holiday. I grin when I realize that during those times, there won't have to be a secret relationship. Around the people I love, I could be myself, and I'm sure Mustardseed agrees with that, too.
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A/N. All right, I know that sounds a lot like "the end", but it's not, I promise. Well, it kind of is. It's the last chapter, but there is an epilogue. :D And I know this needs so much editing –gah, it's so messed up. There are a lot of loose ends I need to fix…I also wanted to add something in, but it's so late now…ehhh…I'll probably do it later.
It's 10 PM, but maybe I'll be able to reply to a review or two:
PenguinLoverGurl: I don't even have the book yet. D: I should get it by tomorrow…Actually, it came out the 24th of April. :3 All right –THEY LIVE. I think. Oh, LOL, maybe Sage is up for it. XD Hahah, I'm glad you loved the chapter! True, true, and I wasn't planning on publishing this too. LOL. MtLBaSOYaYLO! XDD
nothin'likeME: I'm not sure on the baby's gender…
awesomesauce (Ch. 15): Lol. XD OMG! FINALLY! Someone who gets me! TADAMU FOREVER!
(): If you're from Australia, I guess the release date there is different. But yeah, it came out the 24th of April. :3
awesomesauce (Ch. 63): LOL. :D Me too –I'm so sad…D: AAHHH! NO SPOILERS! Yeeesss…Ariana and Sage FTW!
unheard: Thank you, but please don't spam.
() (Ch. 63): XD Oh, thanks for finding that error! Hmm…I thought it was ten…ah, I probably mixed that up again. XD Yes –the city's messed up. Or that's just me. XD Thanks!
Candygirl101: Yes he did. XD Thanks so much!
emma: Thanks so much! :D Well, there's the sequel to look forward to. Thanks so much for your awesomesauce reviews!
Airene Archerway NLI (Ch. 62): XD Thanks for your review! :D I loved that line, too.
Kathie (Ch. 18): XDDD Thanks! Lolol –you can have him for now. XDD
killer bunnies (Ch. 58): Sorry this is long overdue, by the way. :3 XDD My mom and dad aren't teachers so…no, lol. XD LOL. :DD Hahah, Matt's awesome. I know the feeling –just the other day I almost made a mermaid, but then we had to leave. UGGGGH. Lol. :D Thanks!
EoT NLI (Ch. 58): Oh, I see. XD Yep, a wedding. Just writing about Sage makes my day. :D Scars for scares. I would hope so. :D …You went to Australia? YOU COULD'VE MET ELLI FOR MEEEEE. :D But really –that sounds awesome. :D
Puckabrina-Percabeth-Fax101: :3 Sorry for the scare, but I get bored, you know? :3 Sorry, sorry, sorry! :3333 Thanks for the review!
killer bunnies: (Ch. 58): XD I'm glad your day got brighter! GO MATT! BOO BRYANT! Hahah, XD Sorry –it was actually really tempting to put Sage in it, but I had to restrain myself. :D Pssh, it was long enough. XD
Carina Carstairs: Aw, thanks so much! :D AHHH! AN OHSHC LOVER! FINALLY! :D True that, my friend, true that. :D I love Honey-sempai so much…
You know what? I take that back –I just replied to all anon reviews in my inbox. YAAAHH!
:D Well, one more chapter, folks! Thanks so much for being with me on this journey! When the last chapter/epilogue comes out? I don't know. But before the end of May, promise. :D I'm really busy this week! NJHS ceremony, Talent Show, preparing for Recital, Graduation dance for Eighth graders…bleh. But I'll make time for FTFT. :D
Oh wow...I just realized: I'm ending this story when SG ends...WAAAAHH!HH! *sobs* Oh man, this is so depressing...SIGH. I must stay strong!
Next chapter: I will reply to all reviews that are still in my inbox (or via PM), and write all the reviewers to thank. :D That is my goal for next chapter...and to make you guys happy. :D
See you soon!
~Lara