Feel I should share that one scene this chapter would have been changed entirely had Sara not caught my typo. Pitch almost talked about vermin in his panties. Enjoy that thought, my friends - I laughed so hard when I found out. Also, this took a little longer than normal, as I accidentally left my laptop at work overnight this week. - Not The Milk
The air buzzed with rain, and Annamore was enjoying it. The day was grey, but not sad or depressing to her. It was warmer than it looked, and the humidity felt like a cozy blanket as she flew about hunting her targets. The past couple of months had seen her filled with fresh enthusiasm for her job.
"47!" She shouted, unafraid of being heard, as she took aim from the sky. A smooth release and one more person felt more than just the sense of butterflies in their stomach. They felt like the world was made new, just for them and the one they loved, and they were going to make something of that world.
A child glanced up from the rainy streets and gasped as she flew by. The cupid waved, and was out of view with another strong push of her wings.
Hours later found her landing on Sandy's cloud. The rain and clouds had dissipated, and left the night mostly clear. The residual humidity made the stars flicker and dance in the sky. Her hair, still damp from the rain, had bits of glowing sand sticking to it thanks to her wings stirring it up as she landed.
"So... I've been thinking." Annamore said, dusting her hair out as a cover for her slight nervousness. A caution sign appeared over Sandy's head. "Yeah, yeah. A very dangerous thing, thinking is." She snorted. "Imp."
He smiled teasingly and raised a question mark instead. She cleared her throat dramatically. "I was thinking that you know where I live, and I've never seen where you live."
The Sandman appeared to ponder that for a moment before a clock appeared over his head. "Great!" She grinned, ruffling his hair.
Taking a moment to peer over the edge of the sand cloud, she noticed twice as many dreams flying out from it across the sky. "Going into overdrive?" She asked, reaching out and touching one, causing a golden kitten to pounce out from it.
Laughing, she plucked a feather from her wing and wiggled it in front of the dream cat. It tripped over its own paws as it tried to chase the feather, making her laugh even harder. Righting itself, it tried again. After she let it catch the feather, the golden fuzzball rolled over with it between its front paws, kicking it fiercely.
A minute later she felt a tap on her shoulder. She picked up the dream kitten and blew on it, turning it back into a stream of sand that went to join the rest. "There already?" Annamore asked her companion. He pointed over the edge, and she peered back over. There on the ocean was a large island made of the same sand as the clouds. In shape it resembled a rather calm hurricane, in that tendrils curled out from the center. Stretching her wings out she slowly glided down and landed near what she realized was a castle in the middle. "You know, I'm not sure I expected you to have a place this fancy. I'd want to build a sandcastle but I think you beat me to it." She stated, peering around wide eyed.
He look pleased by her reaction, standing by and watching her take in the details of his home. She nearly took flight in shock when a mermaid appeared to greet their friend. First one siren, then another appeared on the shore of the glowing island. They stared at the stranger, their eyes wild. Seeing she was a fellow creature of mythology, they relaxed slightly. "They must not be used to you having guests." She whispered at Sandy. He nodded, then various images appeared over his head in rapid succession. "Slow down, I can't take in a story that fast."
"He's trying to tell you how he arrived here, long ago." A lovely green haired mermaid assisted from where she basked nearby.
"That's right. All these months and I still haven't heard his origin story." Annamore walked over to the water's edge near the mermaid and, sitting down, stuck her feet in the warm water. Sandy sat next to her, and between the two of them pieced together where Sandman came from.
After hearing the story, and a minute of pondering, she came to a conclusion. "So basically, you're an alien from outer space."
He facepalmed while the mermaid laughed. "You must be Cupid. He's 'told' us about you, in his own way, of course." The winged girl gave him a sidelong glance. "Has he now..." Before he could defend himself she scooped up a handful of sand and poured it onto his hair like a child at the beach. He looked surprised for a moment, then fell over asleep.
Annamore exchanged glances with the mermaid. "You know, I didn't think that through."
"Can't quite use this like regular sand." The mermaid laughed at her. "You're a fun one. Come back sometime."
"Thanks." Dusting the sand off of his head, she hefted him onto her back and carried him up into the castle, where she dumped him unceremoniously on a couch. She poked around only long enough to find a blanket, which she used to tuck him in. "Sweet dreams, Sandy." She watched him for a moment before flying off to her own home.
Kirai dropped into a hole in the ground, below a broken bed. He absolutely detested visiting Pitch in his lair. Pulling his sword, he rattled cage bars as he walked by them, just because he knew Pitch hated it. Some bats, disturbed, flew past him to the outside world.
"Enough, boy." Predictable. The avatar of hate resisted the urge to roll his eyes and sheathed his sword. "Pitch. Hope you haven't missed me too much."
"No more so than I would miss the vermin in my pantry." Pitch slipped out of the shadows and stepped forward where he could be seen.
"Vermin? Have you ever tried cleaning?" Kirai sat down precariously on a cracked chair. It creaked, but didn't fall.
"Why clean when I can torment people with my fear?" His voice greased with the usual mockery.
"Made headway on that, have you?"
"Oh, very much so. Your groundwork helped greatly." Pitch held out a hand and summoned a nightmare. "I'm already so much stronger now. The nightmares obey me again. We can start making our move now. But slowly, carefully. I do not want them suspicious."
"One shot here, one shot there. Right?" They'd been over the plan before, but when it came to Pitch confirmation was always a good thing. He did not tolerate mistakes, while the incarnation of hate didn't relish the thought of failing. He wished he'd discovered who Cupid was before she'd gotten caught up in the Guardian's radar.
Pitch tapped a finger against his cheek. "Weaken love, you weaken them all. But how do you weaken love? Our main plan of attack should manage to an extent, but we need to shake her."
"I have a few ideas there." Kirai smiled maliciously. "Remember, I knew her."
"Very well. I'll trust your judgement on that. In the meantime, I'll give you a gift." Pitch summoned a new nightmare, this time of riding size. "A war horse just for you, boy."
Kirai opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. The fear spread just from being in the presence of such a nightmare would assist him on his own errands. He nodded, and taking the reigns, found himself outside. He shook his head - he hated it when Pitch did that.
He climbed onto the nightmare, who snorted in anger at him. Annoyed, he gave it a quick jab with his heels, and galloped off towards the closest city. The night was young, and he had a lot of hate to spread by morning.
A couple of weeks after the sandcastle visit, Annamore got a rather odd invitation from Bunnymund, who tunneled up to her cloud when she was out gardening. "How would you like to come and help paint Easter eggs the day before Easter?" The large rabbit scratched his back with one of his boomerangs as he asked. "We had an interesting time of it last year, and I thought it might be fun to have a little party. We are even having a couple of human kids over. You should see Sophie, the little sheila.."
He trailed off when he noticed Annamore staring at him, wide eyed. "Uh, something wrong, mate?"
"No... No... I just don't think I've seen you get this excited before. I assume... Tunnels?" She winced at the thought.
"That's right. And this time you're going to jump in yourself." The rabbit told her firmly.
She nodded her acceptance of that. "I'll just have to rush through my work. I'll give North a holler when you need to come get me."
The Pooka waved and disappeared back down the dirt hole, which became solid cloud again seconds later. "... How does he do that?" She asked, poking at the spot with her foot.
The day before Easter she did as she was told. Her workload was a little low for the season, so it didn't take her long to finish up, but some years were like that so she didn't think anything of it. Breaking out her magic globe she got a hold of the party already in progress. "Hey North, tell Bunnymund that I'm goo-"
"Hey, sheila." She turned her head to see the rabbit suddenly leaning on her wall. "This is my living room!" She gaped. "Seriously, how are you doing this?"
"Trade secret. How do you think I'm able to hide baskets?" He smirked and pushed her down the tunnel in her floor.
She kept her wings pressed close to her body to avoid damaging them as she slid down and attempted not to feel sick. As the rabbit caught up with her she grabbed a hold of him. "I don't like this!"
"Hey, come on. One freebie is all I give!" He tried to get her to let go, causing her to bare her teeth like she was going to bite him. "What are you, a dingo?!" They flew out of the tunnel and landed in a pile on Jack and North.
"Well, that was dignified." She stood, brushed herself off, and sheepishly walked over to Tooth, ignoring the confused looks on people's faces.
"Whoa, this is Cupid?! Is she a guardian too?" A very young voice asked. She glanced over and realized that Jack and North had apparently been playing with the young humans Bunny mentioned, before she knocked them down.
The boy, who'd asked the questions, ran over to her. She held her hand out. "Annamore, also known as Cupid. Not a guardian, just a friend of theirs. Nice to meet you...?"
"I'm Jamie. And that's my little sister, Sophie." He pointed at the little girl, who had pounced on Bunny instead of letting him stand up after their crash landing. Finally noticing the winged girl, she rolled off of the rabbit and ran over, her hair surrounding her face like an out of control mane. "Pretty!" She reached up and tugged on feathers of Annamore's wings.
"Come on now, none of that. I need those." Smiling, she picked up the little girl and glanced around the warren. "Looks roomy enough for a small flight. Want to have a go?" Sophie nodded, an awed look on her face.
Stepping away from the others Annamore opened her wings and tried to take off as gently as she could. Her wings were massive, so she tended to be slightly less than graceful about ground landings and takeoffs.
The child squealed with delight as she did a flip.
"Whoa, not going to let your sister have all the fun, are we, Jamie?" Jack asked.
"No way!" Came the enthusiastic response. Grabbing Jack's hand, the kid floated into into the air. "Heh, floating would be more convenient, but let's face it... Wings look cooler." Annamore winked at Toothiana. With a dive, she let Sophie buzz her brother and Jack.
The boys chased her and sent a gust of wind at them. She flipped expertly in the wind, then used her wings to send a gust back in retaliation. A minute later they heard a loud "Oy!" And all four of them paused in the air and glanced down at their friends on the ground. "Eggs?" Bunnymund said pointedly.
"Ooops." The four in the air exchanged guilty looks and landed. Sophie ran back to her large rabbit friend and started babbling to him about flying.
Eventually Annamore found herself seated in between Sandy and North at a work table, a wire basket full of eggs in front of each of them, and various paints, paint brushes, bowls of water or cleaner, and sponges scattered over the table in easy reach. Opposite of them sat the two kids, hemmed in on each side by Toothiana and Jack. Bunny was stationed at the head of the table with his own, much bigger pile, and he would occasionally hop up to offer advice or help, especially to the youngest members of the group.
After a little while, she glanced to each side of her. Both North and Sandy had entertainingly large amounts of paint on their faces. A snort escaped her before she could stop it, she had plenty of paint on her hands but was pretty sure she didn't have any on her face. North looked at her and realized what she was laughing at, and smiled good naturedly. Sandy remained oblivious, deeply focused on the egg he was painting blue and gold.
She focused on the egg in front of her again, adding simple butterflies and flowers around the center. Once finished with that, she glanced again at the Sandman, who caught her glance this time. Looking innocent, he pointed to a spot above her eye. Instinctively she reached up and touched it, assuming he meant she had a smudge. He nodded approval, then pointed to her nose. Confused, she brushed at that spot too. After a minute of this, both Sandy and North nearly fell off their stools with laughter.
"... I really shouldn't have fallen for that." She grumbled ruefully, her face now covered in paint. "Revenge for the sand accident?"
Sandy nodded cheerfully, an equal sign appearing over his head.
"I guess we are." She acknowledged, defeated... For now.