Thanks for the positive feedback! It makes happy, more than you know. Special thanks to my friend Sara for pointing out my typo's after I mess up writing at 3 AM. - Not the Milk
Annamore opened her eyes. Something was wrong. She wasn't on her cloud, or even in Sandy's now familiar plane. She was floating in a forest, a forest that was dreadfully familiar even after so long. She looked around in a panic, wondering how she got here. Sandy was next to her, staring at her with obvious concern. He motioned for her to calm down, then pointed to the ground.
Following his arm, she noticed someone laying up against a tree. She flew closer, realizing with a shudder that shook her whole body that she was looking at herself, bleeding, all those years ago. Her eyes flew back to Sandy's, tears welling in her eyes. "Why are we here? What are you doing?"
He looked slightly hurt, like this hadn't been his intention. Settling on a tree branch, he patted next to him firmly, then pointed out above the trees. She flew back up obediently and looked again where he was pointing. She saw the golden cloud that Sandy usually used as his base of operations. The normal tendrils of sand were spinning off from it as it moved slowly towards them. "Wait... Two of you too?"
He shook his head.
"A memory of yours?" She asked, wide eyed.
He nodded, then held a finger to his lips. She turned her gaze back to herself, enthralled. The cloud got closer then stopped moving overhead. The Sandy from the past popped his head over the side of the cloud curiously, before floating down cautiously. He stared at the bleeding girl, who could not see him. She made no sound, but tears rolled down her face as he watched helplessly. Eventually,she fell unconscious, and almost instantly black nightmares started swirling above her head.
The golden guardian clenched his fists in anger, pulled back and arm, and punched the nightmares, turning them into golden sand. He sat down next to the girl and held her hand, replacing the nightmares with his own dreams. He gently pulled her down so her head head rested on his shoulder comfortably.
He stayed with her until the dreams vanished suddenly. He stood up slowly, sadly, and put her hand back in her lap with a sigh. Concerned, the current Annamore flew down to investigate herself. "I didn't wake up, so why did the dreams leave?" She glanced back up at the Sandy sitting above her.
He looked at her with a sad expression on his face, waiting for her to realize the truth.
"Oh." She looked back at her lifeless body. "I guess I didn't sleep for as long as I thought. At least, it wasn't sleeping." She wasn't as distraught by that thought as she could have been, she'd known of other spirits who died before they became spirits. Some did, some didn't. Once immortal, how you got that way didn't always matter.
Moments later the dream memory dissipated, and she opened her eyes for real. This time she was laying on her cloud, Sandy sitting next to her like he had so many years ago. She sat up slowly, carefully, and thought about what she just saw. "Sandy?"
His eyes met hers with a concerned expression, likely worried about how she'd take that memory. "Has anyone ever told you that you are a wonderful guy?"
His expression lit up with an embarrassed smile. She leaned over and gave him kiss on the cheek. "Thank you. For caring, I mean. Did you know that I'd become Cupid that night?" He shook his head emphatically, his cheeks slightly red.
"You didn't know I was her until I shot you?" She grinned, reaching over and ruffling the hair on his head.
He shook his head again, taking her hand down from his head, a question mark appearing over him.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. You should get back to work though." She laughed and stood up. "Go on. I'll see you later."
The next few months flew by with her spending an odd amount of time with the various guardians. Mostly Sandy, of course, but the others seemed to have taken it on themselves to go out of the way to invite her to join them, or just show up unannounced. Her life was different now, and while she'd complain and gripe to herself about being too busy for it, or not having the personality for it, she found herself enjoying it.
Plenty of nights would go by where she saw none of them including Sandy, of course, but never more than a few days in a row. Christmas was a big one for that. Both Jack and North were busy then, one with gifts, the other trying to give kids a white Christmas. And Tooth was flying madly about because the holidays meant family, family meant people doing stupid things, and stupid things meant kids lost teeth. Annamore herself was incredibly busy too - Christmas was a big time for couples. After Christmas, though, North invited her to the Pole to join them for a celebration.
"But you will have to find your own way here. The reindeer are tired, need a break." North explained to her through the little magic globe.
"I can always fly there." She flapped her wings for emphasis.
"Eh, not recommended. Jack went overboard... Said he was trying to help me decorate. Bad weather to fly in, can barely see."
She saw Bunnymund peek in over North's shoulders. "I'll come pick you up, mate. You've never travelled my way, I daresay."
North shrugged and his face disappeared from the globe. A minute later a hole appeared in living room floor, with the big rabbit popping out. "I'm on a cloud. How does that work?" She peered into the hole incredulously. "Very carefully, hon. Jump in." He winked at her.
"Can't I fly through it?" She was a sky creature, holes weren't her thing. She was glad she hadn't actually made fun of him for his fear of flying, now.
"Not how I work. In you go." He grabbed her princess style and jumped in, ignoring her shout of protest.
"Falling. So much less fun than flying, and harder on the wings!" She complained. "If we go splat, I'm not going to forgive you!"
The rabbit shook his head and before she knew it they appeared in the middle of the party. Glancing around she noticed other spirits that she rarely crossed paths with, like the Leprechaun. She sheepishly climbed out of Bunny's arms and stalked over to Tooth, who was resisting giggling. "I think someone got jealous."
Annamore followed the fairies gaze to Sandy, who was glowering slightly at the oblivious rabbit. "Oh dear, that's cute. I better go calm him down before he punches someone."
She walked over to the dream guardian and leaned over to whisper conspiratorially in his ear. "Hey, I'm actually on a special mission today. Want to help?" His glower dissipated instantly, and he gave her a thumbs up. She held out her magic scroll and unrolled it. "Only one name left on it tonight, but I figured it was easier to wait till I was here." She grinned as he read the name.
He gave her a look easily translated. "We don't have to do anything yet. If we strike now, we run a risk of someone noticing I'm on the job. I'd prefer to be slick about this. No walking up and just shooting him in the face, you know? And having a slightly bigger crowd might actually help, too." He looked amusingly disappointed at not being able to do a frontal assault.
She thought quickly. "But you know, I could probably use you as a distraction tactic. You lure him away from the others, I sneak behind him, bam!" He smirked at the thought, glancing at the target, obviously wondering how to lure him out.
"Can't help you there, friend. I'd say find something to talk to him about, but..." She smiled at the joke. Unexpectedly his face lit up, and without an explanation he wandered over to Jack Frost, who was talking to Toothiana quietly. Figuring he had a plan, Annamore walked over to North and Bunny to listen in as they talked while allowing her to keep an eye on Sandy.
"Hey, Sandy. What's up?" The young man grinned cheerfully at his friend, while Tooth stared at his teeth in fresh awe. Sandy pondered for a moment, causing a bunch of various things to appear over his head in quick succession, too fast too make anything of it. "Whoa, slow down buddy." Sandy looked aggravated, paused, then pointed at the Cupid. She pretended to be too busy listening to the old "which is more important" argument to notice.
"Oh. Uh, girl problems?" Jack glanced at her too, nervously. "Not the best place for that conversation, Sandy. Want to go elsewhere?" Sandy nodded and started walking for the door. Jack looked at Tooth apologetically. "I'll be back shortly, OK?"
Annamore nearly choked with laughter once Jack walked out the door. She pretended to have gotten hot chocolate down the wrong tube to cover for it, faking a coughing fit. This allowed her to excuse herself from the room too. Once out she stopped and listened for Jack's voice. It was coming from her right. "So tell me you've at least kissed her?" She raised an eyebrow and quickly snuck to the room. Jack's back was turned towards her, but Sandy was facing the both of them. He nodded proudly and a hand appeared over his head.
"You kissed her... On the hand?"
Another nod. "Sandy, what is this? Go in for the kill! Don't you want to kiss her on the lips?"
Her hand involuntarily went to her forehead. She had to hand it to the little guy, he knew how to distract people. But this conversation needed to stop. She took aim and shot quickly, then snuck back to the main room before Jack could discover her... And most importantly, before she had to hear any more of that conversation.
A few minutes later the two guys wandered back in, Jack instantly going back to Tooth, an odd look on his face. Sandy walked over to Annamore again, an oddly smug look on his face. "You know, we make a good team." She told him as she sat down on a couch, wielding another helping of hot chocolate. "And now my work is done for the day. Also, I feel I should admit that it was very satisfying to shoot that little punk."
Sandy snickered silently, climbing onto the couch next to her with a very large mug of eggnog. They watched Tooth and Jack for a while, pleased with their good work. Eventually, Annamore nudged her friend in the side. "Well, Jack doesn't know what hit him, but I bet Tooth would thank us, don't you?"
His eyes twinkled in reply. Not long after she noticed a few of the Guardians were acting a little bit different. Jack had gotten louder and more annoying, the Easter Bunny was friendlier than usual, North was getting even jollier than usual, and even Sandy had an odd look on his face. She didn't know the other spirits well enough to tell if they were affected.
She was about to mention it to Toothiana when Jack demanded a snowball fight. The group was dragged out with oddly little fuss, confusing her. She threw on a cape, scarf, and gloves - Christmas presents from North. The cape even had cut outs to allow her wings to fit through. The snowball fight went normally at first, or as normal as it could be with a bunch of spirits playing together. Spring and Summer looked nearly miserable in the cold, while Leprechaun just watched and laughed at the players.
"... Eggnog." She muttered, dodging a magic ice ball.
"What was that?" Tooth gasped as she got hit between the wings.
"I think our little green friend spiked the eggnog. Look at the guys. They are acting weird. I drank hot chocolate, and you drank water..." She took a snowball in the side from Bunny. "Ack, he's got a mean arm." She retaliated quickly, then ducked behind a bank with Tooth. "I think they might be at least a little tipsy."
"Oh dear." They gathered ammo and started chucking it all around. "I got North!" The fairy clapped her hands.
"You're not concerned?" Annamore asked, surprised.
"Wouldn't be the first time it's happened. They never learn." Tooth shrugged.
"Hmmm..." Picking up a snowball, the Cupid sprinkled a little bit of gold dust onto it.
"What are you doing?" Tooth asked, looking at the snowball.
"Just an experiment. Same stuff my arrows are made of, but will wear off real fast." She threw the snowball at Spring. The pretty girl took the snowball right in the face. Bunny made the mistake of popping out of the ground right in front of her, arm raised to throw another. She grabbed his arm and yanked the shocked rabbit into a kiss.
"Maybe that's not the best use of my powers." Annamore stated solemnly as Tooth burst into laughter.
A little while later the snowball fight dissipated, in part because a few people ended up asleep when Sandy got annoyed with snowballs and started attacking with sandballs instead. Yeti's dragged the sleepers in, while the survivors of the fight filed back into the main room.
"That was good." North said enthusiastically. "Need to do that again. But I'm thinking party is done. Feel free to stay the night, there's plenty of room."
Sandy summoned his sand goggles and looked at Annamore expectantly. "Nope. You're staying here for a while." She told him firmly. A question mark. "Because you're drunk."
He held out a dream. "You can work later. The kids will survive a few hours." She sat back down on the couch they'd been sharing earlier, her voice cajoling. "Come on, it's not like we get to party every day. We can take a nap, even."
Sighing in mock aggravation he climbed up next to her. "Yeah, yeah. I know you're not complaining." She shook her head at him. "Here, what do you think of those two?" She pointed across the room where Jack and Tooth were snuggling under a blanket. Sandy pondered for a moment then held his hand over his mouth like he wanted to whisper to her.
Instinctively she leaned down to hear, only to feel Sandy's lips brush hers quickly. She felt her face go red. "I should have never let you talk to Jack..."