Chapter fifty-four- IDEA!
Back in his office North was pouring over various books and spells, potion bottles were everywhere and his ice sculptures were messier than usual. He had been taking breaks from his search for a spell to break the connection Sandy and Jack had made to carve and Phil had to remind him to eat. He hadn't yet but he meant to, honest!
He couldn't seem to focus for more than a few moments on his work with such a life-altering pressure on Jack and Sandy. Jack was staying at the pole for the most part, remembering after the fact that he needed to stay home rather than wander. He had been momentarily terrified by the prospect that he might have met Sandy on his way. The feeling passed but it was more than enough of a kick in the pants for North to go nuts searching for the solution.
When he did turn to preparing for his holiday he didn't so much carve as fabricate. He wasn't carving from blocks as he so often had with wood when he was human, he was fabricating like Jack and Jamie could, as he had taught Jamie to do. He was too rushed and worried to really enjoy his work like he normally would.
He couldn't get that memory out of his mind. It was resting there, on the edge of his conscious. Jack's face when he had come into North's office with cookies and milk for a snack and caught a look at the spellbooks…
He had forgotten.
He had done his best to reassure the younger spirit but Jack had been in a momentary panic. He had to bring Jack down from it like he so often did, cookies were usually the answer. He was always up for something with sugar.
"Jack? Jack look at me." He had gently demanded of the boy who had been pacing his office in a panic, a guilty, terrified panic.
"What?" He asked as if he were expecting a scolding. North crouched to one knee to be a little lower than Jack's eye-line.
"Everything is fine, Sandy was at home and you needed to help Jamie. Sandy would want you to, and he knows you well." He assured, Jack shook his head angrily.
"Sandy shouldn't be stuck at home because I forget the biggest problem we've had in ages when something small comes up!" He argued, probably more to himself than anything. North let out a sad sigh and put his hands on Jack's still too-small shoulders.
"That was not a small problem, Jack. Jamie needed you." He insisted calmly, his eyes searching the younger spirit's unflinchingly. Jack shoved his hands in his sweater pocket as he deflated, the wall of anger crumbling and taking with it his panic to leave behind only exhaustion, worry and guilt.
"What if I'd met him? What if he'd been counting on me to be home and-"
"No, Jack. No, don't think like that. Never." North urged as Jack let him pull the boy into a hug. "This was not your fault, none of it was. We all acted as best we knew to keep our family safe. Since James joined us, since you took care of us all that time ago, we always acted from love. You acted from love, and that is never something to be sorry for. Never."
After a few moments North had bribed him with even better sugary treats than the cookies he had found, ice cream and cake galore! It had worked wonderfully, and he had taken to making sure he didn't relapse back into panic as only a parent could.
Snapping back to the present North heard a knock on his door and Jack stuck his head in.
"Hey, lunch?" He asked with a smile.
"Ah! Of course!" He nodded eagerly. Sometimes Jack's company was the only reason he ate. He knew Jack worried when he holed up for too long. He remembered his promise to himself to eat as his stomach rumbled.
"You forgot again, didn't you?" Jack eyed him.
"Well, uh, not exactly." He rubbed the back of his head nervously under Jack's scrutiny.
"What does that mean?" He asked, raising one of his eyebrows into his hairline.
"Well, I meant to, I…um…just…"
"Uh huh, yeah. Come on, food time." He turned and walked toward the kitchen without questioning if the toymaker was following him because he knew he would. North actually had to catch up with him.
"Why does this seem familiar?" North asked suddenly, causing Jack to chuckle because he had thought about it every time he had to drag North to a meal.
"Because it is." He offered vaguely.
"How?" North asked again and Jack couldn't stop chuckling. North hadn't changed much as it turned out.
"Remember how all this family-extending happened?" He asked.
"What? The babysitting thing?" He asked cheekily. Jack busted out laughing. He actually doubled over, he ended up hacking and clutching his chest. Crying, he did his best to stay upright and reign himself in as North chuckled, trying to haul him to a chair. When he finally got a grip he explained, leaning on his staff.
"You would never want to stop playing." He huffed. "You were, I don't know maybe…wow I forget. Fake memories tend to be a bit fuzzy but you were definitely a toddler. But you loved play dough and clay and stuff like that. Once you got going I'd have to take it from you so you'd eat or…really anything but fall asleep and get it in your hair." He couldn't stop chuckling and he was smiling so much his face hurt. "So really not much of a leap between toddler-you and normal-you." He teased.
"Did I do that?" North couldn't imagine it.
"Sure did. I'll show you guys the memories one day, I really wish I had taken pictures." He sniffled. "So what brought that memory on?" He asked.
"I don't remember any of that, but the face you made is familiar." He offered.
"Well I got pretty good at it." He shrugged, still sniffling and chuckling. "Come on, I'm starving." He continued toward the kitchen. North couldn't stop grinning. He had always known Jack was responsible for being an eternal fourteen-or-so-year-old, but…maybe more than he knew. From the bits he could remember he knew that Jack had been eighteen/ninteen-ish when he had been caring for them but…he didn't seem different, just visible and looking like a legal adult. He figured that Mani couldn't have actually matured him, just outwardly aged him and that thought sent the man reeling. He hadn't thought of that before.
He had a whole new respect for Jack at that moment.
Back at Sandy's palace/island in the sky the little golden man was peeking around a corner.
"She's gone, Sandy." James assured as he tried to hold back a chuckle. He was still smirking though. Sandy crossed his arms and stated tapping his foot, giving him a pointed glare that should have scared him.
The black eye took the sting out of it though.
"Hey, you did that to yourself, I had no part in it." James defended, taking another sip of his tea. Sandy was almost convinced that James wouldn't relapse into his cold/drained sickness. Almost, and he wasn't going to push it.
'A heart, an outline of Tooth beside himself, and an image of Sandy with a checkmark beside it.' He raised a little golden eyebrow at him and smirked, which was ruined completely by the darker-gold-than-usual eye which wouldn't quite open all the way.
"Well sure, but there were much better ways of doing that, though." He defended. "Besides, you knew she'd be furious."
'A meter filled up, then overflowed and an explanation point.' His swirling symbols were getting fuzzy, but James was fairly good at reading them.
"Hey, mad is mad and if you were willing to risk her anger I applaud you, sir." James chuckled, knowing full well Sandy was exaggerating. He knew she'd be close to that furious, and he was just trying to pretend he hadn't. "You thought it was worth the risk, and nothing is going to convince me otherwise." He crossed his legs and reclined back on the couch.
'A clock, then an image of Tooth with steam coming out of her ears with an X over it."
"Oh come on now, you're saying you've never seen her that angry?" He clarified skeptically. Sandy shook his head with wide eyes.
'An image of himself with an arrow pointing to himself, there was an X over the whole image.' James busted out laughing.
"Well I think you've learned a lesson here. Don't get on her bad side again." Sandy rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch. He had to admit, James was right. He wasn't going to let him know that, but he was. So, he proceeded to the next best thing he could think to do for entertainment.
He bumped into him and created a slew of little golden hearts which swirled around him endlessly as he sang in his head. 'James and Tooth-y, sittin' in a tree…' Of course that came across in images that James missed entirely while running around swatting at the pesky hearts while Sandy shook with laughter. He rolled off the couch in the process and got James laughing, too.
"Oh, shove off." He half-chuckled as he helped Sandy back up onto the couch. "You know, she was having so strange dreams the other night though, what the heck did you put in that stuff anyway?" James asked. He had been meaning to inquire about that but it had slipped his mind. Tooth going super-nova on poor Sanderson was more than his brain could handle. He had been laughing too hard while simultaneously fearing for his health.
Sandy shook his head. A big X appeared, then a coffee pot.
"Just coffee? Darn, those dreams from simple coffee?" He asked, unable to wrap his mind around it. Sandy stopped. "What?" He asked.
Sandy's mind was flying a mile a minute, he was on to something. His images were too fast for poor James to follow.
"Woah, woah! Slow down!" He urged, Sandy spelled it out, literally, over his head.
'You can manipulate good and bad dreams. That means you have a direct magical connection to the subconscious and the dream-realm. Your magic is like mine, it can fill a room like air or sunlight without being seen! Your magic is older than mine, too. Raw. Raw dream magic. Raw magic of the subconscious. Raw magic of wishes. No one else has that magic or ever had before you, or after. You're so unique your magic isn't in any spell-book. North's been looking and there is nothing about any kind of mental link like this, because only your magic can do it! You can reverse this! The link is through the dream and wish magical realm! That's the key!' Sandy looked so excited that James had a hard time focusing, but once he got the message he was floored.
"I need to tell the others." He hopped up. "I-I don't know how to do it, but if I can…this fixes it! This changes everything!" He was gathering his magic to leave but Sandy floated up in front of him again shaking his head and holding his hands out in the universal 'wait' signal.
'We need to try first.' He spelled, fearing his excitement would again blur his sand.
"Okay, but…how?" They both deflated for a moment.
Sandy perked up and flashed a golden symbol of a man sitting cross-legged.
"Meditation?" James asked, confused.
Sandy nodded and spelled again in the air; 'We both meditate, I let you into my subconscious and you break the tie.' James nodded.
"Worth a shot."
They both crossed their fingers that this would work, and settled down on the balcony Sandy had overlooking the ocean. Neither one knew what ocean, but it was an ocean.
Alright, if nothing can go wrong in the world while we do this, that would be great. Sandy mused sarcastically. It was an over-exaggeration but it did seem that they were always getting into one mess or another. Ah, the joys of children and large families…and immortality.
"Here goes nothin'." James chuckled as they closed their eyes, ready to begin.
Alright, here we go! I was taking a little unexpected time off, sorry! I'm gonna be trying to update a little more often! I promise I'm not ever abandoning this, it's kinda become my baby. The next semi-exciting fluff-piece/drama installation who's genre I could never name will be coming at you ASAP! Have a wonderful day! PS-Yes, the chapter title is to be read in North's voice. ^.^