…well, this is awkward.
So, school started, and I was stupid enough to take AP World History, knowing I suck at history, and my mom is moving, which makes it hard to do six hours of homework a night and move several dozen boxes and heavy furniture in one afternoon. I've been unbelievably busy, and have had next to no time to update. I'm sorry, too, but it gets worse. Though I don't think I'll let it take two weeks again, updates are about to get very spaced out, with, at best, one a week. I'm really sorry, I hate to do that, because I want to know what happens next just as much as y'all, but free time just got astronomically small, and I have to do most of my typing in the middle of the night.
I have several work in progress chapters in place for other stories outside of RotG, so anyone who reads Generator Rex or Young Justice, those should be up soon. I have a long weekend because of Labor Day, so I will update what I can, but after this, updates will be slow.
However, for the long wait, I have an extra, extra long chapter done as compensation, and by the time most of y'all see this, I will have started on the next one.
To my reviews! (Holy crap, almost to ninety. I swear to god, whoever is reviewer 100 will get a cameo in here with whatever name they want as long as it's human. Only rule is no relation to Willow.)
sassysaw- I made Jack lie, because it was either that, or have a very stubborn girl probably get killed because she still had hypothermia, which would be the end of the story, because my OC would be dead. Instead, I chose to create drama and tension for something will explode on an epic level and make everything get ridiculously more complicated
Fellowship of Avengers- Oh, hell yes. I'm enjoying every second of it, as I slowly kill you all with the feels I radiate whenever I can. *rubs hand together* Soon, you will all be helpless to my Angst Monster, and with this new form of control, I shall… *Pepsi truck drives by*… and that is how I come to rule the world.
KikaKatTIOI-…um, I'm not even sure I know what that means…
Snow-Nightshade- Yes. Yes it will. You will all throw your chairs into the wall because you can't take the suspense, because I will leave a cliffhanger when things hit their peak to torture you all. But I know you'll all come back, because you simply can't stand not knowing what happens. Which is why I love you guys, you always comeback, even when I'm a terrible author for not posting for two and a half weeks*hangs head in shame*
Guest- Yes, I have that song. I love Disturbed. The song is a little… intense for the type of music Willow listens to, and I don't think I can incorporate it well, given the genre it's in. But it was a good idea
kunfupandalover- Well, this wasn't exactly soon, I'm ashamed to say, but it's here now! So… yay?
PCS- *cough* itwascuriosityyouwouldhavebeencurioustooandyouknow it*cough*
shaadia- You don't mind me calling you that, do you? The whole thing is kinda long. Thanks, sweetie, I can always count on you for encouragement. I'm sorry I've been so MIA on FG,I'vejust had a lot going on, but I'm trying to get the next chapters of DM, NT and MM done, so I can update them all at once, and I also have some ideas for songfics, though I don't know what I will be able to get everything finished. Grr, damn you history.
Teshka- I'm trying, I swear. Usually, I update every few days, but school has now made that infinitely more difficult. But I have this up, at least!
MoonGirl1155- Oh, no, that violin string has quite a bit more to go before it snaps. But I can promise you I'll make it good. Y'know, once I have gotten six hours worth of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt out of my head.
So, without further delay, Chapter Twelve!
The thin shadows of her eyelashes stretched over Willow's cheeks, one a smooth, rich toffee and the other the same, save for a line of taunt pink. The scar wasn't nearly as prominent as he expected it to be, being only a couple of inches long and following the contours of her cheekbone, so it mostly blended into the shadows of her face.
Her breath was steady as she slept, golden bits of dreamsand swirling above her head. Jack watched the images dance, mostly of flight, but brief bits of the two of them made occasional appearances. Among them, were her perched high in a tree, laughing at a miffed Jack whom has just received a snowball to the back of his head, or him pulling her across the pond to help her skate.
But there were also less lighthearted ones.
One has to realize, the dreamsand does not solely show images of pure joy, it simply keeps away nightmares. However, anything that is a conflict of emotion is just as easily a dream as it is a nightmare, depending upon the person. North had explained to him, that dreams are where believers are at their truest, and that is where their true feelings, decisions and thoughts dwell. If they decide they don't agree with something in their dreams, then that is their true opinion, even if they don't know it.
He watched small gilded versions of himself and Willow after she had woken up. For the most part, he remembered the conversation to match words to their sand mouth, involuntarily flinched at her soundless shouts. Time seemed to slow as he watched the no tumble from his own lips, and a pang of guilt shot through his chest.
He lied to her.
In a moment, he had betrayed her trust, distanced himself from her and hurt her in a much deeper way than he knew he would ever be able to understand.
She had spent most of her life lonely and abused. Loneliness he understood, but to be abused on a daily basis physically, and abused verbally by everyone else, he couldn't even imagine. Though everyone could see her, they toyed with her emotions until they had become cold and calloused. They offered her false trust, and smashed it with an iron fist when she was at her weakest.
And he felt no better than anyone. She chose to take a chance with him, and he let her down. He watched as the scene came to an end.
But… it didn't.
His own form dissolved, and left her alone there. She seemed to walk through nothingness for a while, before finally dropping to the ground and clutching her knees. Her body hunched in defeat, as if in realization she truly had no one.
Emotion welled in Jack, realizing the effect that his own actions could have, and he nearly woke her, but hesitated when the images stirred.
His own form returned, placing a hand on her shoulder. At first, she reacted violently, ripping from his grasp and pulling away. She shouted something at him, but his response was not quite so brash. The next time she spoke, she didn't look quite to angry. Slowly, the rage slipped from her face, replaced by a rather lost expression. Finally, his arms lifted, and she took two long steps toward him and wrapped her arms around him. Her hands gripped at his torso as his own arms slipped around her, staggering a bit at the force of her slamming into him. She buried her face into his shoulder and he stroked her messy hair.
He watched as the images before him dissolved into nothing, and the remainder of the dreamsand dissipated as her eyelashes fluttered.
She glanced drowsily over at Jack, raising an eyebrow at his intense gaze.
"What's up with you?" she asked.
His awe over the realization that she would, in time, forgive him, brought him back to the fact he had yet to tell her the truth.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you. You asked earlier about me hiding-" but she cut him off. She stared in terror at something behind him, her voice somehow both lowered, yet loud.
"Oh my god, no not again!" Her voice shook, and Jack whirled around at whatever was frightening her, staff poised to strike, but he saw nothing.
"What is it, Willow?!" he asked, confused.
"It-it's right there! Can't you see it?" He looked back to see her pointing. He followed her hand to a small table pushed beside an old bookcase, seeing a table and a bookcase.
"See what? Willow, there's nothing there." he told her, lowering his staff.
"B-but it's right there." She flinched, her hand jerking back. Her hands struggled to pull the quilt away from her body, and she began backing up, staring at empty air as if it was advancing upon her. "No, stay back! You disappeared years ago! Leave me the hell alone!" she shrieked.
Jack could do nothing but watch in alarmed confusion. "Willow, calm down. There's nothing there, I promise." He took a step toward her, but her gaze snapped to him, eyes wild.
"No, don't come any closer. I'm not crazy it's right freaking there, Jack! Stay away." Her voice hovered at hysterical, and she stumbled back several steps, almost falling. "I said get away from me, damnit!"
He looked frantically around, but there wasn't anything to see. He stepped toward her again, but hesitated to move any further when he saw the way she looked at him like a cornered animal.
"I said stay- holy shit there's more!" she tried to back up again, this time hitting the corner before dropping to the ground. "Get back! Please, just leave me al-ahh!" She screamed again, swatting at the air and covering her face as if she was fighting something off.
Unable to watch any more, Jack finally rushed to her side, trying to avoid being hit. He tried to grab a hold of her wrists to stop her flailing, being struck impressively hard in the jaw in doing so, and eventually managed to pin her arms together.
"Willow, stop. Look at me." he told her, his voice steady and calm. She continued to struggle for another minute, before finally quieting. She looked at him with a wary gaze, the translucent blue retreating from her eyes to the point Jack wasn't entirely sure it had been there.
"Just calm down. Whatever you saw, it isn't real, understand?" she opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. "I'm not saying whatever you saw wasn't there. I'm saying that it isn't real. Whatever it was can't hurt you."
Slowly, her panic drained away, and she let out a heavy breath. Jack pulled her into a gentle hug, stroking her hair and murmuring, "It's okay, it wasn't real…" She did not return the hug, but she did not resist it, either. She simple sat there, still shaking lightly, and allowed him to whisper reassurances into her ear.
(*)
"No, she's fine, she just had some kind of… episode. She kept shouting at things that weren't there, telling them to leave her alone, but I didn't see anything." Jack explained. The others had heard Willow shout, but chose not to enter when they saw the Winter Spirit was handling it, and surprisingly well.
"Do you know what she saw?" North asked.
"No, she didn't tell me, and I didn't think it was a good time to ask."
"Well, how are we supposed to stop something we can't even see? This is getting out of hand, mate." Bunny told him.
Jack sighed. "Yes, I know, but I get the feeling this isn't something we can help her with. Whatever this is, whoever this insane woman is, she's in Willow's mind, and I think Willow is the only one who can stop her. Maybe there's a reason she is the only one of us who can see those things that were after her earlier."
At that, a warm glow washed though the room from the window, which was pushed open and Sandy rode inside on a thick ribbon of dreamsand. He went immediately to Jack, images taking shape so quickly, one barely had time to form before another was taking its place.
"Whoa, slow down Sandy!" he said, watching carefully as the flurry of images slowed.
"Jamie wants to talk to me? About what?" he asked, but Sandy only shrugged. Willow's face took shape for a moment, then vanished. "Willow? Does he know something?" but he only received another shrug.
"You should go, Jack. We can keep an eye on her, she'll be fine." said Tooth.
"But, what if she freaks out again?" he asked.
"There isn't much we can do about it, except calm her down. Like you said, this is her battle, not ours. Besides, Jamie is your friend." said Tooth. "We'll take care of her."
"Alright, I'll go." he said, if a bit reluctant. "I won't be gone long, though."
"Of course not." she said, and at that, Jack took off out the window.
(*)
Jack peered into the window of Jamie's apartment, seeing the young man sitting in the corner reading a book. He chuckled at the title, yet another mythological reference book.
He was full out laughing, though, when the book flew from Jamie's hands at the sharp tap of his staff against the window. He pushed the window open to let Jack inside, grumbling over how he had lost the place in his book.
"Sorry, Jamie. I wasn't trying to startle you."
"But it sure is convenient how it worked out that way, isn't it?" he said, closing the window.
"It sure is." Jack's face sobered. "Sandy said, sort of, that you wanted to talk?"
"Yeah. I was curious what's going on. I notice the dreamsand was kind of rushed, and it made me curious if something was up." he answered.
"You could say that. Do you know anything?"
"No, that's why I wanted to talk to you." Jack sighed, running a hand through his colorless hair.
"Um, okay, though there's not much to tell. Well, there is some psychotic woman after Willow, named Hysterium. She calls herself the Queen of Insanity. I don't really know much besides that, other than she is making her see things that no one else can." Jamie's brows furrowed.
"And you can't do anything to help her, can you?" he asked.
"No. I hate feeling so helpless, but how can you fight what you can't see?" he quoted Bunny.
"Yeah, that's pretty rough. I mean, you met her, what, a few weeks ago, and now she already has some spirit after her?"
Jack mulled over the words of his human friend. "Something like that, but something makes me wonder if she's actually a spirit. If she was, the Moon should have some kind of power over her, some way to defeat her."
"If he can do that, why didn't he just take down Pitch eight years ago?" Jamie asked.
"Because he knew we would be able to take him down. That's how the Moon works, he works through the Guardians. That's why we're here, it's our job. If she was a spirit, I don't think Manny would leave us with no way to beat her." Jack pointed out. He shuffled across the room, touching the end of his staff to Jamie's book, freezing it solid.
"Y'know, I actually liked that book, Jack." he said wryly.
Jamie's brown eyes narrowed a bit as he focused on Jack's face. "What happened to your face?"
He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Your jaw. It's this weird dark blue in one spot." Jamie said.
Jack's fingers lightly brushed his face, surprised when the feather touch brought forth a dull sting. "Oh, I think that's from when Willow clipped me. She was trying to beat off something, though I didn't see anything. I managed to pin her arms, but not before she nicked me. I didn't even know my skin could still bruise."
There was a moment of silence as the words on the snow flipped through Jamie's mind.
"What's the blue mist?" he asked, and Jack glanced up, raising an eyebrow.
"I thought you didn't know anything." he said pointedly, but the brunette adolescent merely said,
"I don't. I have a hard time understanding Sandy's little dreamsand pictures, so he wrote on the snow 'stay away from blue mist'. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, just that it's important." he shrugged.
"Well, as far as we've noticed, whenever this weird blue mist, fog, whatever, is around, bad things happen. That's usually when Willow has some kind of episode of seeing or hearing things no one else can." Jack explained.
"Geez, Jack. You say episode as if she is crazy." commented Jamie.
"Well, what else am I supposed to call them? She's reduced down to shaking in a corner trying to beat away something that isn't there, while screaming nonsense! Sounds a lot like an episode to me."
"I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that, by calling it an episode, it makes you realize just how bad this whole thing is getting." he clarified, and Jack sighed again.
"Yeah. Actually, I wasn't even sure if I should have come here, because anything could happen. Tooth convinced me, though."
"Well, I'm glad she did, though I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be offended she needed to or not." he teased.
"Maybe you should. I might be replacing you with a different human friend." said Jack, grinning.
"Well, then, I'm very offended. Seriously though, I do get it. I would want to keep an eye on her too, just because of her home life. I would be hesitant to leave her anywhere." Jack nodded in weary agreement.
Jamie sighed internally as Jack sent the window another sideways glance while fidgeting his staff.
"Go." he said, and Jack glanced at him. "I know you're just anxious, so go. Now that I'm caught up on what's going on, you need to get back to her."
The young Guardian's tense posture relaxed a bit."Thanks, Jamie."
"No problem. Now go, before you freeze something important by accident." he teased, and Jack grinned before leaping out the window.
(*)
Willow brushed her hair from her eyes once more, before returning her attention to her sketchbook. She looked up again the column that rose up in the middle of the Shop, before sketching in a few of the strange revolving ellipses that whirled around it.
She sighed in dissatisfaction at the page, the soft shadows aligned almost perfectly, but it was... flat. Though the drawing looked remarkable close to the scene before her, it lacked that touch of magic that radiated from everything, and wasn't quite sure how to re-create it.
"Is something on your mind?"
She turned at the deep brogue, the large bearded man peering curiously over her shoulder.
"Oh, it's nothing. It's just, everything here has this feeling of whimsy, but even though I can draw what I see, I can't draw the magic." she explained. North studied the sketch for a moment, before offering a small grin.
"Look carefully at what you see. What is different?" Her eyes flicked back and forth a few times, not sure what she should have been looking for.
"Um, Wonder?" she guessed, looking lost.
North chuckled. "Good guess, but the answer is actually much simpler, child." For the first time, she noticed his speech wasn't so fragmented, and he actually spoke in complete sentences.
"Color. Your drawing is beautiful, but it is dull. You need color, my dear!" he said, a note of excitement slipping into his usually deep and intimidating voice.
She looked down at the gray strokes of graphite. "Color? I've never really put color on my drawings before. It always just seemed like too much."
"Well, it is a wonderful time to start." he said, eyes glinting like dark, vivid sapphires.
"Yes, it is." She stopped, realizing something. "But I don't have any colored pencils, or anything. Since I don't use them, I don't carry them." She admitted, and North chuckled again.
"Have you forgotten where you are, dear? Come with me!" He said, waving her forward enthusiastically.
He led Willow to a simple, dark red door. He pushed it open to reveal every kind of colored pencil, paint, pastel, chalk and more filling the room. Dozens upon dozens of intricately engraved sketchbooks and notebooks were stacked high, leather, cloth and paper covers peeking out in a dizzying array of colors.
"Help yourself." North said, his voice lowered as she basked in the awe at the sight before her. She stepped inside slowly, earthen eyes moving gradually over the space as she absorbed the sight before her. Her slender fingers danced lightly over an open box of chalk pastels that rested in a simply carved wooden box.
She turned to North, who still stood beside the door. "Thank you." she said.
"Just enjoy yourself. I know you will appreciate what is here, and make the most of it with your talent." With that, he walked away, leaving her in the room of colors to make the drawing whole.
(*)
Tiny dots of ice dotted the ground as the window swung open upon Jack's arrival. He looked around the room, but it was empty of everything, except the fire crackling softly in the hearth.
He stepped out into the heart of the Workshop, momentarily distracted by the rush of color and movement. He drifted up to the one yeti who always seemed to know what was going on.
"Hey, Phil." he said, grinning. The yeti shot him a small glare, speaking garbled mush.
"Hey, now, I'm not here to bother you. This time. I just wanted to know where Willow was." Phil gestured vaguely to the burgundy door with another incomprehensible slur.
"Thanks, Phil!" he called in a mockingly cheerful tone.
The door was rather simply, with an intricate border, and an engraving in the door.
"I wonder when North will realize he's the only one who speaks Russian." He muttered, turning the polished brass knob. The door gently swung open to reveal Willow at the wooden desk at the back of the room, asleep.
Jack took a few steps forward, realizing North must have shown her this room. All of the extra art supplies went in this room, and in the past few years, the amount of things in the room had increased, from kids preferring the digital drawing programs and whatnot.
Her face rested against the cover of her sketchbook, hair strewn messily around as usual, and her jacket had been draped over the back of the chair. A box of colored pencils rested beside her right hand, several pulled out, and a small tin of chalk pastels sat near them. She had pulled her thumbs from the holes in her sleeves to bunched up to her elbow. Judging by the amount of multi-colored chalk on her hands, she didn't want any on her clothes.
Jack reached forward to wake her, but his hand hesitated. His brows furrowed at the thin shadows on her arm, brought to his attention by the soft golden glow of the light. For a moment, he was unable to comprehend what they were, but his eyes widened in shocked realization when the penny finally dropped.
They were scars.
Dozens of the thin little lines striped both of her arms, and Jack stared at them, unable to fathom what could cause her to do such a thing to herself. Didn't she face enough pain from her mother without bring more of it to herself?
He reached out and lightly skimmed his fingertips over the raised abrasions, eyes scanning for any fresh ones, but they were all well healed and old enough to match her olive skin tone. A touch of relief managed to momentarily distract him with the knowledge she hadn't cut herself recently.
He jerked his hand back when she began to stir, her two-tone eyes flashing warmly in the soft light as they fluttered open. She smiled at Jack as she straitened, pushing her hair from her face. She didn't fight with the knots long, though, before ripping in into three sections and quickly braiding it.
"Hey, Jack." she said, wrapping a purple band from her pocket around the end. She placed the various supplies back into their boxes, before snatching up her sketchbook. "I want to show you something."
She grabbed her jacket from the chair's back, slipping it on. He watched as the almost invisible scores vanished beneath the thick material. She walked across the room, more bounce in her step than usual, before opening the door for him with an excited glint in her eye.
They both stepped from the room, and Willow practically ran back to where her backpack rested by the fire. She slid her pencil bag into it, before waving Jack towards her.
"Okay, long story short, I was trying to draw the Workshop, and it looked the same, but it didn't feel the same. North came up behind me, and I told him as much, and he told me what it was missing was color. Well, I don't really color, so he showed me where all the different art supplies were and let me use some of them." she said, her voice picking up speed with every second. Jack had never seen her so worked up over anything.
She flipped open the sketchbook, holding it so Jack couldn't see what was on it. She chewed her lip a moment, before flipping it over, a grin tugging at the corners of her lips.
For a moment, Jack was simply overwhelmed by explosion of color on the page. After a moment, he was able to focus on the details of the page, and how the vibrant colors were actually the various components that made up the Shop.
"Whoa, you drew that?" he asked, amazed that so much could fit into such a small space.
"Well, yeah. It took me a pretty long time, but I did." she answered, an unmistakable touch of pride in her voice. "And I didn't stop there, either."
She turned the page to reveal an image of Bunny on the page, drawn in her style that hovered somewhere between realistic and cartoon-ish. Soft lines of pastel formed the markings in his fur, and various shades of green streaked through the bright emerald if his eyes. She turned the page again, this time showing a portrait of Tooth. Magenta eyes sparkled and little ruffled bits of her feathers had been lightly outlined in pencil to distinguish their texture.
There were also full color drawings of North and Sandy on the next pages, all smiling widely on the paper. She turned the page one last time to show another picture of Jack.
He could tell she had spent considerably more time on his drawing than the others. He could almost count every strand of white hair and the frost on his hoodie could have been added to the page by him, if someone didn't know any better. The features on his face leaned more towards realistic that cartoon, unlike the others, and the light blue of his eyes shone with mischief.
"…I, I don't really know how to respond to that." he said, unable to tear his eyes from the page.
"Don't bother trying, your expression did a spectacular job." she told him. "I spent almost as long on this as I did on the one of the Shop. That one was full of ridiculous detail, but I was trying to make this look more real. I used to draw a lot of anime, and now anything but landscapes looks kind of like a comic book, unless I have a reference." she explained, closing the sketchbook.
"Is that why you draw so many landscapes?" he asked. "I saw several pinned to your wall, and I recognized most of the places from the forest."
"Yeah. I draw the forest because I don't like to do the city, it moves too much to make it both accurate and realistic. Secondly, the forest is much quieter and I like the peace of nature." she said, slipping the book into her bag, which rested next to her backpack.
For a moment, she was silent, the firelight reflecting off of her hair, highlighting the deep auburn a fiery copper where the light hit. Jack felt a spark of warmth spread through his chest, unable to help thinking how beautiful she looked, without even trying.
"Sing."
She glanced over at him, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"
"If you can sound as good as you had before, without trying, I want to know what you sound like when you meant to sing. Please?" he asked, his eyes growing wide in a way she found irritatingly adorable, like that ever-persistent puppy.
"Fine. One song." She paused a moment, considering the songs she knew, before closing her eyes.
You shout it out,
But I can't hear a word you say
I'm talking loud not saying much
I'm criticized but all your bullets ricochet
You shoot me down, but I get up
Jack watched in awe as the smooth melody flowed from her lips like honey. Her voice was clear, despite the soprano of the words. She was a better singer than artist, which was saying quite a lot.
I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose
Fire away, fire away
Ricochet, you take your aim
Fire away, fire away
You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium
You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium
The words slipped into his mind, and he was unsurprised to find it to be something else to describe her. He had come to realize, albeit slowly, that she seemed to listen to music that she could relate to. Titanium, in the sense she didn't let the words and actions of others faze her. At least, not on the outside. As far as anyone else saw, she brushed it off and carried on with life.
Cut me down
But it's you who have further to fall
Ghost town and haunted love
Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones
I'm talking loud not saying much
For a moment, he wondered if the thin scars on her arms had anything to do with the death of her father, before pushing it away. He felt enough guilt as it was, without dwelling on it. Besides, it wasn't as if he could just ask, or she would know he saw the book.
I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose
Fire away, fire away
Ricochet, you take your aim
Fire away, fire away
You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium
You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium
I am titanium
I am titanium
The pure notes rang out, and he saw Tooth and Bunny peering around the corner, obviously having heard her singing. After a moment, Sandy also appeared, eventually followed by North. The Tooth Fairies hovering around Tooth's shoulders all sighed dramatically.
Stone-hard, machine gun
Firing at the ones who run
Stone-hard, those bulletproof glass
They all watched in silence as the mood of the song softened, causing Jack to realize with a bit of disappointment that it would soon be coming to an end.
You shoot me down but I won't fall I am titanium
You shoot me down but I won't fall I am titanium
You shoot me down but I won't fall I am titanium
You shoot me down but I won't fall I am titanium
I am titanium
The last notes of her rich voice hung in the air for a moment, and she opened her eyes.
Five sets of eyes gazed at her with an awestruck intensity, if you didn't count the fairies, and Jack slowly raised his hands and began to clap softly. Willow blushed at it was soon followed by applause from the others.
Her eyes met Jack's and her blush deepened at the glow in his eyes as he grinned at her.
"Wow… I knew you could sing, but that was something else." he said. She glanced at the others behind him, nods and murmurs agreeing with him.
"Only because I've been working on that song for a while. I'm only good at a few songs." she said quietly, brushing several strands of stray hair that had slipped from her braid behind her ear.
"I find that hard to believe." Jack said, smirking. Various images that were obviously praise circled Sandy's head. The Tooth Fairies twittered amongst themselves as they gushed, and Bunny gave her a warm smile.
"Jack is right. You have talent." North chuckled. "I can only imagine the Christmas carols."
Everyone laughed at the comment, and they began to disperse, leaving Jack and Willow alone once more. He turned back to her once more, still smiling as she shyly looked up.
"You know, I usually don't sing in front of other people." she told him. "If I had known North and the others were listening, I probably would have stopped. I was only okay with singing in front of you, because you've heard me sing before, even if I hadn't realized it at the time. I've been working on that song for a long time, which is the only reason it sounded like it did."
"Even so, that was incredible." he said.
"Thanks. My instructor has been teaching me for about four years now, so I've had a lot of training and practice, but I couldn't have been all that bad to begin with, since I got the scholarship." she commented.
Jack stood, holding his hand out to her. She grasped it and he pulled her to her feet.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
A sly grin curled across his face. "You'll see." He gestured for her to come with him, and she raised an eyebrow. Curiosity was stronger than the hesitance, however, and she looped her arms around his neck. His hand clasped her waist, and he leapt out the window. Snow buffeted Willow's face, causing the shorter strands of her hair to pull loose and flutter around wildly. The snow had considerably lightened, no doubt courtesy of Jack, and only a few cottony flakes fluttered past as he brought her to the very top of the Workshop.
Just before they reached the top, he stopped and looked at her. "Close your eyes." he said. She gave him a curious look, opening her mouth to say something, before stopping. Her eyes close.
They drifter up the last few feet and he set her down on the tower. "Okay, you can look now." he said.
Her eyes slowly opened, and they widened at the scene before her. Twin hill of ice rose on either side of her, and the ocean stretched out before her endlessly. The water by the shore was frozen, but spread into cracks and drifting blocks as it shifted to liquid. Sunlight reflected off of everything, making it shine like the gates of Elysium.
"You said you liked to draw landscapes, and it seemed like before you needed practice drawing the sun on the snow." said Jack, hovering near her ear.
"Oh my god, this place actually exists." she breathed, still in shock that she was actually seeing this.
"Yep. And you're going to draw it." said Jack, setting her bag down beside her.
"When did you…?" she looked at it quizzically.
"Just now. I can fly pretty fast when I want to." he said.
She turned back to the crystalline landscape, before pulling her sketchbook from her bag, brushing the snow from under her feet, and curling onto the bare spot.
She began to draw.
Yes, we needed some happy. Because it's the last you'll see for a while. The second arc of the story appears next chapter, so I figured I would cram as much lighthearted as I could into this chapter as possible, before I get back to the actual plot and start giving y'all panic attacks.
Aren't I so nice?