Yet again a chapter that had some really fun to write scenes. Excuse me while I go wallow in my fluff writing shame. XD - Not The Milk
The next day, as promised, Jack and Sandy showed up at Tooth's palace. Jack was perfectly fine, but Sandy was having problems with the daytime and kept falling asleep. "Hey, sleeping pilots kill people. I learned that in college." Annamore joked, attempting poke him awake. "Consider this revenge for the other night."
"It's alright, Anny. If he wants to sleep, I can fly you." Jack asserted loudly, with a smile at Toothiana.
Sandy snapped awake and grumpily waved the ice boy away. "That's more like it." Jack smirked.
Annamore leaned over and winked at him. "If I have to go on a double date, I at least expect my date to stay awake for it." She turned her gaze back to the other two. "This is no fair; I'm the only one here who can't fly."
"For now – you'll be able to fly again once we get your powers back." Tooth said optimistically, flying high into the air to lead the way. Jack joined her as Annamore climbed obediently into Sandy's plane so they could follow.
The place they were going had been decided on by Jack, it was a decent sized pond surrounded by overgrown woods, and it was obvious that humans rarely came here. Jack floated out to the middle of it, and despite the warmth of the early fall day, he started to freeze the surface of the pond.
"Why is he doing that?" She asked, sitting down on a fallen log. Sandy answered with a pair of ice skates appearing over his head.
"That sounds fun. But we don't have any skates." She smiled at the flaw in the plan. Sandy raised an eyebrow at her and grabbed one of her feet, yanking a shoe off, making her yelp. "Hey! Give that back!" She stood up and hopped after the Sandman as he waved her shoe at her, sticking it on a tree limb above where she could reach it. She sat down under the tree and grabbed her other foot protectively, giving him a look that was half unspoken challenge, half threat.
His reply was a look that said that the challenge was accepted, and threats don't work on him. Moments later she found herself tied up with a sand rope, her other shoe off her foot while she kicked her legs in protest. "That's not fair! I'm going to get you for that!"
He held the shoe out only a foot in front of her, taunting her cheerfully. He flew up and sat that next to the other one. He glanced over the pond to check Jack's progress, and saw that it'd still be another minute before the pond was frozen enough for Jack to feel safe letting her skate on it. He looked back at his captive, a slightly evil grin slowly spreading over his face.
"What fresh devilry are you planning?" She asked, struggling uselessly against the ropes, knowing some new torment was to come.
He grabbed one of her feet again and started tickling as an answer. "Aaah! Get him off! Stop it!" She laughed uncontrollably as she tried and failed to kick him away. Tooth just watched, giggling, too amused by their antics to be of any help. After a minute Jack flew back over and landed next to them, watching for a moment, an entertained expression on his face. "The ice is ready." He commented, not moving to rescue his friend.
Sandy looked mildly disappointed as he stopped tickling her feet. He used sand to form ice skates over them, releasing her. She stood up on them, legs wobbly, and stared at him as if she suspected a trap. He did the same thing for the other immortals, and then himself. Gingerly, she stepped out on the ice and tried to push out over it. Her legs flew out and she promptly landed on her posterior. Tooth skated up to her, using her wings to cheat and help her balance, and helped her up.
Standing upright, she watched Jack skate for a minute, trying to see how he was doing it. She tried again, moving her legs a little smoother, her arms outstretched for balance. It worked well for a short time, but she soon found herself getting friendlier with the ice than she'd have liked. Standing back up stubbornly, she looked over to see Sandy laughing silently at her. Narrowing her eyes, she used her few seconds upright to ram into him with all the speed she could muster, knocking him into the ice. "Hah! Who's laughing now?"
His eyes sparkled, an arrow appearing over his head pointing down at himself. "Why are you still laughing?" She raised an eyebrow, annoyed. He pulled her into a hug, his face happy. She grumbled and pushed him away across the ice.
"You guys are adorable when you're flirting." Jack joked at them, gliding by on one foot, at perfect ease on the ice.
She glowered at him and stood up again, managed to make a lap around the pond before falling this time. She stretched out on the ice, ignoring the cold, as she tried to will herself back up. "My pride is sore right now, but tomorrow my body will be sore." She watched as Sandy attempted to skate over to her and fell himself. "Hah, it's not just me!" She crowed, sitting up and scooting over to him. Standing up, she carefully offered him a hand.
To account for her niceness, she explained. "I figure if we skate near each other, I can use you as a cushion when I fall."
He smiled good naturedly at the joke, taking her hand and managing to stand without pulling her down again. Jack skimmed by again, spinning with his staff against the ice to fortify it against melting. Getting close to Tooth, he lifted the staff from the ice and grabbed her hands, pulling her into the spin too.
Annamore glanced at Sandy, whose eyes had lit up on seeing Jack's move, and admonished him before he could even think about it. She might have only known him a few days, since she had lost her memory, but she already knew how his mind worked. "Don't get any ideas. We fall enough as it is."
He pouted slightly, so she took his hand and skated forward instead, trying to use him as a counter weight. He accepted this as a decent alternative, obviously pleased she was holding his hand. They skated for another hour or so before she started feeling worn out, so she made her way to unfrozen ground and sat back down on the log. Once there, she pondered her dreamsand covered feet and wondered how to free them, and more accurately, how to get her shoes back.
"What, done already, Cupid?" Jack asked cheerfully from the ice.
"I think you're forgetting that I'm currently mortal." She replied with a grin. Her stomach added its own thoughts to the conversation. "Ah, and hungry."
"Can't have that." Jack put his staff against the ice again, using it to skate to shore. Tooth and Sandy followed, a little slower. "I figured you'd get hungry, and going to a restaurant in town when three of us are invisible would be rather awkward, so I ordered in."
"What?" Tooth looked at Jack curiously.
"Yeti's make the best delivery guys. Unless you happen to be what they are delivering, which is slightly less fun." Jack reached around a tree and pulled out a large basket. "Picnic, anyone?"
"Please tell me the elves didn't pack it. Man cannot live on cookies alone." Annamore joked as they walked through the woods, looking for a better spot to eat.
Hours later, they eventually called it a day and flew back to Tooth's palace, the guys staying with them late into the night, until eventually duty called them away. "It's time to start turning the leaves, you know. Look at the trees tomorrow and tell me what you think, Anny." Jack casually kissed Toothiana on the cheek before flying into the air. He waved as he rode the wind away.
Sandy's exit was slightly more dramatic. He floated over to her and took her hand, bowing over it and kissing it before flying away.
Shaking her head, she walked over to Tooth. "Are they always like that?" She asked, not actually complaining.
"They are usually worse." The fairy smiled cheerfully. "Not feeling any traces of your memory yet?"
"Nope, but I'm getting some odd inclinations. I really feel like I should go shoot something right now." Her hand twitched involuntarily.
The next day she was taken by magic portal back to the garden outside of her college. She hugged Tooth as she said goodbye, and thanked her for the wonderful weekend. She spent the next week walking a fine line between trying to get enough sleep to make it through classes, and hanging out with various guardians at night. She now left the window unlocked in her dorm room for easier access.
One afternoon she sat rushing through her homework near the garden, underneath one of the large trees that bordered the large area. A few students strode by dragging large foam targets and large cases, making her glance up. "What are you guys doing?" She asked curiously.
A small bodied woman smiled at her and pointed at the two men with her. "These guys bought themselves bows and are now begging me to teach them archery."
Her blood quickened and she stood up, putting her books down. "Care if I join you?" She asked with a casualness she didn't feel.
"Go right ahead. It'll be fun to have someone help me laugh at these guys." The woman, who introduced herself as Alice, waved at her to follow. They wandered over to the far edge of the field and set up the targets.
"Wish we had some bales of hay to put behind these for when you guys miss, but can't have everything."
"Would bags of leaves help?" Annamore asked curiously.
"Oh, yes! You have some?" Alice grinned broadly.
"Check near the compost pile – didn't want to add them until we turned it." She pointed over her shoulder back towards the gardens. "Just make sure you return them without arrows still imbedded in them."
"You heard the woman, go get them." The guys were pushed back the way they came, while Alice sat down on one of the targets and removed her bow, checking it over. "Haven't used this in months, been too busy."
The guys came back and piled bags of leaves behind the targets, and got to work learning how to shoot.
Annamore watched for a few minutes, an odd expression on her face. The woman eventually glanced at her and noticed. "Ever done this before?"
"Supposedly. I hear I was a pretty good shot, too."
"Wait, are you that girl who lost her memory?"
Nodding, Annamore stood up and walked closer, holding out her hand. "May I?"
Shrugging, Alice handed her the bow. Holding it in her left hand, Annamore found it incredibly familiar and reassuring. She picked an arrow up out of the case and turned to the guys, a smirk on her face. "Move over, kids. I'd hate to tag you."
"Kids?" One of the guys commented, a grumpy look on his face.
"You heard her. You can argue with her if her aim is worse than yours, and it'd take effort to be that bad." Alice dragged them off to the side, waving off their protests.
Raising the arrow to the string, Annamore realized that she'd probably never used this style of bow before, but she ignored that. She drew back the string with the assured confidence that only years of doing that could have given her, while she didn't remember doing it, it was clear her muscles did. Within seconds, she'd released the arrow, and it struck the target nearly in the center. Frowning at the target, she stooped for another arrow and waited a few seconds. She fired again.
A few minutes later she'd exhausted the arrows and the targets were looking porcupine-like. Her breathing was heavier than normal; she felt a slight tremor in her muscles. It wasn't from the effort, either. She looked back at the people whose practice time she'd taken up and saw something like awe on their faces. "Oops! I'm sorry about that." She handed the bow back to Alice, a little sheepishly, and ran off.
She grabbed her back pack from where she'd left it and ran behind the shed, sitting down against it to deal with the images slowly flooding her mind. Her head started pounding, especially near her scar, making her press against it with a hand. Two thousand years of memories. They were right. She thought to herself, a little sadly. She hadn't minded the human body too much before, but now that her memories as Cupid were starting to trickle in, she really started to miss her wings and her home.
After dusk fell, a familiar gold cloud approached. She stood up and waved at it, with her headache having subsided she felt like a new person. A stream of sand dropped down to the ground and formed itself into a rope ladder. She climbed it cheerfully, looking over the cloud with what felt like new eyes. Sandy questioned how her day was wordlessly, making her smile. "Hmm, how should I put this? Today was this good!" She tackled him and kissed him, trying not to laugh at his obvious shock. After he had a moment to recover, she grinned impishly. "Let's get to the Pole, space jockey. I have some good news."