Chapter Forty- Happiness and Haunted Eyes
"Sorry, but you never asked!" Bunny pointed out when she called him on the shape-shifting thing. He held up his hands defensively and Jessica just tapped her foot in annoyance.
"Yeah, well I was freaking out about my new form and you didn't mention it?" She asked.
"I honestly didn't know faries could do that." He defended. She sat down with a chuckle.
"Okay, okay. So, has everyone been bugging you about something in particular?" She asked casually, examining the sparkling dye river. Bunny visibly froze up before trying to relax outwardly.
"Yeah, you?" He asked quickly.
"Yeah, like crazy." She admitted.
They sat there in silence for a while, her picking at the grass absently, him fiddling with his brush. It was a tense, expectant silence and hope was thrumming like mad through both of them. Desperate, terrified hope.
He stopped fiddling and his eyes were wide.
She was hoping.
The same hope as he was hoping.
"Jack was on me, askin' me why I don't just go ahead and ask you already and blah blah, also he thinks it'll give Jamie a heart attack and he wants it on camera." Bunny smirked. He could feel her hope blossoming and calming down which spurred him on greatly.
"Oh really? And…what do you think about all this?" She asked shyly.
"Well, after I chased him off I realized he was really right. Don't ever tell him I said that, by the way. He's Jack Frost, he can't be right because that would break the universe. It's like the big/little brother code. Anywho, I realized that there really is no reason why I haven't already asked you." He was lounging casually and absolutely loving the way she was looking at him.
"And…and you don't mind the whole, um, different species thing?" She asked. He scoffed.
"'Corse not, sheila. Besides I can shape-shift, and you've said that you can too." He offered.
"But…would that help?" She asked. He turned to face her square, took her hands, and pretty much stopped her heart.
"If you like your human form better, there is no reason you can't hold it indefinitely, and if it'll make you happy and comfortable I will stay human for the rest of my life." He offered quietly, sweetly, and she could feel her chest starting to hurt. No one had ever been this sweet to her, not even her late husband who she had realized wasn't that great to begin with. That had always stung and even though she thought she had loved him this was blowing that straight out of the water.
"But…but you…" She couldn't figure out how to work her mouth.
"It'd be fine, I know who I am, and if you prefer the human model I'll change. We can be together without the discomfort of whatever judgment would come of the interspecies thing, and don't even try to tell me you wouldn't feel better about it." He ended with a teasing little smirk that sent her heart racing.
"I don't know how you're just hitting these issues on the head, just right off the…I just…" She was having trouble concentrating, his eyes were so bright and the warmth coming from his paws were both more distracting than they would have been otherwise. She took a deep breath. "I wouldn't want you to change like that…"
"Hey, we'll figure this out later, one thing at a time?" He asked and waited, "so, whatcha say?" He asked. She seemed like she was choking for a second but eventually a huge dumb grin spread on her face and she nodded.
"I think they've been right." She grinned.
"Alright then, midnight snack?" He asked with a tone that screamed that he had something up his sleeve.
"What kind of snack?" She asked, following him to their little home in the warren.
"You like popcorn and TV?" He asked. Her eyes lit up and told him everything he needed to know. "I'll take that as a yes." He chuckled.
Sandy was back to doing his thing and waiting for that spike in belief and the essence of dreams that came with something like a relationship. It was a little while before he felt it, and he did a happy dance right there. He hadn't expected it to happen right away, but he couldn't be more happy for them. They were so perfect, everyone could see it.
He was flying by Jack's lake, a little habit he had gotten into when he had joined to make sure he was having nice dreams, and later to take him home when he crashed. He had accepted the Pole and North as home and family, which had been a relief to everyone. He mused over the beauty of how everything had turned out. It wasn't until something slammed into him that he even bothered thinking of a threat.
He was pretty sure some explicative symbols were flashing in the air above his head. Sometimes he was happy most of them couldn't track the movements with their eyes. A shadow was quick to engulf him, sending him spiraling downward with no way to slow himself. When he landed the impact was harsh enough to knock him out.
When he woke back up he noted the familiar setting of what had been Pitch's lair. It was different though, darker, more menacing, the globe trashed and converted into a cage which he now had the displeasure of finding himself inside of. He quickly stood and took a closer look at his predicament, trying to conjure his sand weapons, and then frantically trying to control any sand at all. He couldn't remember ever being in a worse bind save the whole Easter debacle, and he had been dead for all intents and purposes.
Come on, think. Think! Breath, too, while you're at it! Sandy pretty much screamed at himself. He could figure this out. The many people milling around weren't saying a word to him, and he doubted they would be patient enough to watch for his signs. He even doubted they had the capacity from the dead-eyed thousand-yard stares they were giving. No one stepped forward as their leader, nothing was propelling them that he could tell. They were almost hive-minding and the total silence was terrifying.
Sandy took a few deep breaths and thought it through.
I've only seen possession like this one other place, and that was with Boogey. Some shreds of him did vanish, and that was what-they possessed the mortals, subconsciously controlling them. But if they have no conscious thought, then why did they specifically target me? Was it just my proximity? He riddled that out, ruling that thought out because Jack had been to his lake every day for the last two weeks at least, so it did have something to do with he himself, not his proximity.
He had begun pacing without realizing what he was doing until something sticky attached itself to his leg, tripping him. He pulled away but it just wound around his ankle, tightening. He could feel the putrid thing trying to drain him, an unmistakable sensation. He fought the dark, relentless magic for what felt like ages, more and more of them attaching themselves until they had him almost entirely covered, and stretched as far as possible. He closed his eyes as tightly as he could and did the only thing he could do; deny them his magic.
He couldn't move, but his willpower was unmatched and undamaged, he could hold the dark magic at bay. Whatever it was trying to do with his magic, he was sure he wanted no part of it. With whatever energy he had left he hoped.
They would find him, they would help him stop whatever was happening, or worst case stop it themselves. Everything would work out. He hoped, because if there was one thing he knew, it was that tracking his center was something Bunny did well, and that fueled the fire as Sandy literally fought for his life.
After a while he started to lose that battle, shards of magic were being literally busted off of his center. He pried his eyes open again to see his magic fracturing, and changing to darkness. It would fly upward and no matter how much he squirmed he couldn't manage to see that far up. Huffing in annoyance he started to try putting pieces together, he was certain these were possessed mortals, and that they were working under a hive mind. That left only the assumption that some self-preservation magic was at work, and he cursed himself for forgetting about the shards of the dark magic that had escaped before.
In retrospect I did kinda get myself into this one.
Just when he thought he was going to die of boredom something interesting happened. He preferred boredom because evidently whatever force it was that had him cocooned decided it didn't like him, and that the process was going much too slowly. He got the breath knocked out of him when all the slithering tendrils coiled tighter and he felt a pop in his shoulders.
He blacked out to the tune of Oh man, I'm gonna feel that in the morning.
At this point Bunny was nodding off, having finally switched the TV off. Jessica was asleep with a blanket pulled around her, cushioning her as she cuddled up to his side. With her head on his shoulder the little smile she had fallen asleep with hadn't gone anywhere and it put one on Bunny's face as well. He decided that they were comfy enough, and he really didn't want to wake her up, so he just curled up around her protectively and fell asleep in seconds. Only a faint spark of an intense hope somewhere in the world barred him from sleep.
Opening his eyes and pricking up his ears he couldn't get a read on who it was or why, but the surge in hope was almost…troubling.
Seeing that he had been through this thousands of times and only ever seen this in adults he couldn't do anything for he passed it off as a misread on his part and settled back down for a restful, dreamless sleep.
Alright, chapter forty! Made it! I figured what better way to celebrate than to give this thing a kick in the pants. I've got some character plot ideas for other members, and they are coming up soon, but as with our lives, sometimes things don't happen in the order you plan. This thing likes to run away from me, but that's okay because its fun when it does that. As always let me know what you think!