Glad you all liked the kiss scene. But psh, you thought that was hot? That was nothing *wink* Haha now onward through the Green Arc...and thanks for all the pressure to update! Jeez lmao I'm burning my keyboard here but I'm glad you're enjoying it (: I still love getting up each morning with that itch to write/share this with you! But sorry this update WAS a bit late – it would've been uploaded since Tuesday but...I'm not even gonna bore you with the crap I went through. Lol now let's get serious again. Enjoy! And don't worry lol the next chapter's much shorter. :3 Coming sooner, and thanx as always guys!
"When you've loved and lost someone close to you, you know what it feels like to lose."
Someone was crying.
"Humph...H...H-Ha..."
Tulia blinked past her blurred, purple eyes.
She was the second youngest of the four kidnapped and felt starved to death. They hadn't fed her since she'd arrived two nights earlier and when she moved slightly, everything ached.
Tiana was lying on the other metal table next her breathing heavily. She was still trying to understand what was happening because she'd just arrived.
Tiana turned her head to the younger sister.
"T...Tu..."
The younger handmaiden made a breathy gasp but nothing came out. Her throat was parched, her lips were cracked, and the sight made Tiana nearly cry out.
Is this what would happen to her in a few more hours? Is this...what happened to the other two?
Her tears leaked out.
She couldn't see which other two sisters were with them. All she knew was that they were laying on Tulia's other side – and that terrified her.
Tulia clenched her teeth when she heard Tiana sob quietly into her hospital gown.
She was known out of the eight sisters to be the most inventive, always thinking of ways to do something, especially for her more emotional sister Tiana. She had to think of a way to calm down the older handmaiden...but how?
Her right arm had been numb for hours but with an aggressive shove, Tulia managed to ease it towards the edge of the table. Tiana stopped crying for a moment when she heard the metal shift.
Looking over, she saw what Tulia was trying to do and scrunched her eyebrows.
"C-Co...Come on, Tool," she whispered urgently. She looked around quickly, making sure the vile men and women walking around in white lab coats weren't looking. Tiana then moved her left arm between their tables.
She wasn't as hungry or sedated as the others and held out her hand strongly, waiting for sister to reach it.
Tulia took a deep breath and continued to push her hand until it fell over the edge of the table. When it did, Tiana gasped desperately and stretched her fingers more.
"I'm right here," Tiana whispered and she nearly cried when her fingers touched Tulia's. The girl's small hand was cold and limp.
"And we have each other...R-Remember Toothie's eggs?"
Tulia nodded through blurred eyes but a second later her face scrunched in shame. She looked away.
Tiana bit her lip and looked up too.
The secret was out.
Now Toothie knew about all them and what they'd kept from her. And Uncle Ty was dead but the others didn't know it yet.
And the worst of it was that Tooth probably hated them now, and she was probably alone somewhere.
She felt her tears fell again as she squeezed her Tulia's hand.
"A...Are they going to take care us?" she whispered.
Suddenly–
Slap!
"Don't touch her!"
Tiana shrieked in pain when someone violently smacked their hands apart.
They'd come back again – the strange doctors!
Tulia whimpered loudly as they lifted her limp arm back onto the table but as they moved to Tiana, she tried to push them away.
There were so many hands, touching her shoulders and gripping her limbs. They kept leaving icy trails down her skin and all Tiana wanted to do was roll away. But they wouldn't have it, and as the multiple doctors kept trying to strap her hands down, she was reminded of that snake pit she and BT almost fell into back home.
She thrashed wildly.
(Thai) "Mị̀! (no) NO!"
But they didn't listen and restrained her. It made her cry more.
"M-My sister! I want my sister!"
Tiana turned her head again to stare at Tulia. When she did however, she could do nothing as her heart raced and her eyes sprung tears.
Another doctor covered Tulia's mouth with a respirator. And when the little girl turned her wide-eyed stare at Tiana one last time...her eyes clouded over.
Her mouth then relaxed and she exhaled softly into the mask, going into a deep sleep.
"T...TULIA!"
"Shut it up!" someone hissed.
The next thing she knew, they also covered her mouth before they continued their jobs.
And as her mind grew groggy and her eyes blurred out again, she watched as a doctor came near her with a long needle filled with faint yellow liquid.
Tiana then whimpered quietly into unconsciousness.
She wanted Tulia, she wanted the big fluffy clouds of Punjam Hy Loo. And like what Toothiana once wanted days earlier...she wanted home.
What she didn't know was that two hours later, Pitch Black would be standing at her bedside with a dark look dancing across his face.
He said nothing as he did the eerily calm action and the room which was normally filled with thirty, frantic scientists was deathly silent. They watched in cold fascination.
Pitch's silent presence though was a red flag to them. He had never shown up until today, and that meant they were doing something terribly wrong.
Not that they could blame him. For twenty-one years, Pitch had been working as a terrorist always cracking down on new chemical compounds to create. But this...this 'Center Gene' he kept rambling on about for months, was no doubt his greatest feat – and so far, no matter what they did to the mysterious clones he'd kidnapped, nothing was happening.
Without a sound, he pushed a lock of hair from her face. Pitch was careful not to touch her skin with his fingertips, but it was disturbingly like a father to a child and no one said a word.
"How many stimulants have you tried?" he finally asked. The tenor of his voice made their skin crawl.
One brave soul, a skinny scientist, took a step forward.
"Since the first? At least twenty-five," the man gulped and he shot Tatiana a look before he looked back at Pitch. He nearly jumped when Pitch stood nearly a foot from him. The terrorist only had an ounce of respect for his bravery before it vanished again like quicksand.
"And yet that gene...no matter what chemical, what ingredient you pump into them...they haven't been affected by any affliction."
"The gene is so complex, sir. We can't even extract it yet! W-We found it but until they react and it activates–"
"And so far the only progress any of you have been able to provide me is that their health continues to be just like the princess–"
"But why do these little girls have a center?" he interrupted and the others immediately clammed up. They'd all mumbled the same thing but knew they could never ask Pitch. And now this guy probably just signed all their death certificates.
"Why do we have to experiment on them? Why can't we just r-re-create a copy gene?!"
"...Why?"
Pitch suddenly took a step forward and grabbed him by the collar of his lab coat.
They all took a sharp inhale.
Pitch gripped the coat tightly, careful not to brush his ashen skin against the man's neck. He didn't want to risk waking up the handmaidens with the idiot's screaming.
As everyone looked on in silent fear, the Englishman easily lifted the scientist's entire body with one arm and carried him over the clones on the table. When he reached the table labelled Baby Tooth 03, he rammed the man's head into the table beside her restless, but pretty face.
"Do you see this face? These eyes?" Pitch seethed and he used his other gloved hand to lift Tiana's eyelid to show her purple eye. "All of you, do you?"
Everyone remained tight-lipped, hearts shuttering, as he tightened his grip. The shadows in the room grew longer and air grew stale.
"Commit this girl's biology to memory, ladies and gentlemen, because it doesn't exist anymore."
And in cold malice, Pitch lifted a finger just the slightest.
His ruefully grazed his dark fingernail against the man's neck and watched in satisfaction as it sent a flourish of activity to the scientist's fear cortex. The scientist cried out and tried to pull away when horrific images of things he hated and feared overran his senses. But Pitch covered his mouth.
"You'll wake up the girls, my friend," Pitch sneered. "Control yourself."
But as he shivered violently, Pitch didn't let go. He instead pulled him over to Tatiana's table, shoving the whimpering worker beside BT's sleeping face.
"Whatever was left was of the Center Gene remains only in those who were infused with it. And after my earlier company disbanded and the agents fled, those who created it did not wish to continue and all the notes were destroyed. I've spent years capturing GUARDIAN agents, trying to extract that gene and replicate it. But I've learned from past help, that they can't handle stimulants I've tried."
He gritted his teeth.
"And then I come across this little discovery."
He glared down at Tat's face like a locked box without key.
"I find a center gene, not biologically infused or attached to the DNA, but inside it. Growing with these girls...and I imagine my surprise when I figure out why."
But when several eyebrows shot up, wanting more answers, Pitch ripped his hand away from the scientist.
He then turned and walked to one of their working tables in blind anger. The rest of the scientists cast a grim look at the man as he sat gasping onto the floor. He covered his eyes and clenched his teeth in a broken mess.
"That gene can never be re-created again," Pitch hissed. "So I must make do with what remains, through extraction and replication. But since the original GUARDIANs were not capable of handling either–"
Pitch slammed the table with a violent bang!
"You lot better hope you can break these girls. And soon," he growled. "My operation waits for no man, damned clones included. So lower the pH levels, administer higher concentrations, think, idiots! Because unless that gene exposes itself, you and the princess' little copies are all as good as dead."
And everyone cringed as Pitch raised his arms again, ready to tip the table over.
But–
"Haa-H...A-Ah!"
Everyone in the room fell silent and turned. Even Pitch stopped his tirade and spun around.
On table Baby Tooth 06, Theena, the youngest of the kidnapped, began to move violently in her sleep.
Several scientists rushed forward immediately and checked her.
As they prodded her and read out her stats, Theena cried out in pain and tried to roll away. She looked fine for the most part, but the arm they'd injected her with was turning white.
"It's the plant compound!"
"Body temperature's dropping!" one woman cried and pulled out a respirator.
"Nervous system is sporadic," another shouted. "Eugenol is responsive! Quick, mark it down!"
"Plant her with a sedative or she'll go into shock!"
Pitch watched with wild, golden eyes. This was the first time any of the girls had even a remote reaction to any chemical.
"Finally," he seethed and as Theena writhed in pain and cried softly in her sleep, one of the scientists moved near him with furrowed eyebrows.
"Should we stop the treatment?" he asked meekly. "Her behaviour will make hard to get the tests do–"
"No," Pitch said eerily calm again. "Continue. If anything goes wrong, I have three extra copies in case she breaks. Remember?"
The shorter scientist said nothing and nodded. He didn't want to end up like his colleague who was still being helped off the floor. Pitch then turned around, no longer interested in the show ahead of him with Theena's reaction.
"Besides," he called as he left the room. "I'm looking forward to being delivered another four remember? And the special one is still on its way."
When he left the room, he passed the master control room where sixty Nightmares were handling communication reports.
He vaguely heard of a major disturbance at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York and Nightmares who'd be dispatched to the scene immediately.
At least he could count on these men to do their jobs in a timely matter.
Still, as Pitch heard the clone's cries fading away from the science lab, a small victorious smirk twisted itself onto his face.
...
Christmas Eve, Buffalo, 9:37 pm
Aster rolled his computer chair to the door and poked his head out of the computer room.
He heard a door click and watched as Toothiana stepped out of Jack's room. She looked upset and shaken but she didn't say anything. Instead she rushed over to the table and sat for a while. After a couple seconds, she began to busy herself with the photos from the tooth box.
Both his eyebrows rose instantly.
"Princess, what's wrong?"
Tooth snapped her head up and turned.
"Oh nothing Edmund...I-It's nothing!"
"Are you sure?"
"I-I don't want to bother you," she offered kindly. "It's okay...uh...I-I'm alright."
But Aster didn't buy it.
He waited five minutes before he got up and left the room to check on Jack.
Whatever happened in there made the warm girl he'd grown fond of vanish suddenly. He wondered if maybe the kid had coughed up blood...or lost an arm, so he silently moved past her and went in the room.
Once inside, he shut the door. Jack was still on the table, unconscious as ever and he looked fine.
So what made her freak out?
He leaned in close to catch Jack's face in the light.
When he did, Aster narrowed his eyes, catching his real hair color under the brown cover.
He wondered how many other GUARDIANs went through changes like they did...
...
Meanwhile, Jack was running.
He ran and ran, but his footfalls were heavy like lead, not at all nimble or silent.
He was chasing that little girl with the long, brown hair again.
"Stop! Just stop, please! How d'you kn–"
But when he raised his hand to trace her fleeting body, she ran into the sunlight again – like she always did.
When she vanished, Jack stopped to lean on his knees.
He panted for air he wasn't getting enough of and wiped his eyes.
Pulling his hand away however, his heart raced. He had his original skin colour back before...suddenly, a giant shadow cascaded over him.
Jack spun and glared down the length of it. It was shaped like Pitch Black.
He reached for his staff at his belt and stamped his boots harder against the forest floor. Extending the hook, he aimed for the shadowy head of Pitch's silhouette.
He got closer and closer. His heart raced and his grip tightened. And as he ran, he watched the fleeting images of ELF agents sprinting out of his vision.
But just before he was ready to let loose a powerful swing and a burst of wind–
A fiery-throated hummingbird flew out of the shadow and straight at him.
He froze.
Jack's eyes widened slightly and he lowered his staff.
"W–"
When he blinked, it vanished – but Toothiana was standing a few feet away.
"T...Tooth?"
He sprinted towards her.
"Get away from him!"
Jack didn't notice as Pitch's shadow suddenly split into five, faceless figures in business suits. They all had their hands placed behind their backs and were watching him with grave expressions.
Jack was too busy focusing though, on the princess as he rushed to her.
But when she lifted her head to stare at him, she looked like was about to pass out.
"Tooth!"
At the last possible second, Jack leaped forward and caught her around the middle. She slumped into him and he threw a foot back to steady himself.
He panted slightly.
"Tooth, what's wrong?"
She didn't answer.
"Come on, look at me! What's wrong?!"
His eyes were wide as she gripped his shoulder from underneath.
"Toothian–"
BANG!
Jack stopped instantly.
He stood on his feet and his mouth fell open. His staff fell at their feet.
When he looked up from the gun shot in his chest, he stared at Tooth desperately.
She was holding her gun steady in her right hand and the light smoke from the head told him that her shot was recent...and that it was intended for him.
Jack felt his eyebrows rise on his forehead.
"T..."
But even as he started to fall, she didn't move.
Instead, she let go of him and watched him fall away. Her tears slipped down her face.
The world slowed as Jack fell backwards and when the sky swallowed his vision, his heart beat wildly.
He thought any second his head would hit the hard earth below. He waited for it.
Instead, when he finally fell back all the way, he felt himself plunge into a deep expanse of water.
Jack shut his eyes painfully as the rush of the whitewaters splashed over his face. The cold grip of the current dragged him under.
And he tried to fight it.
Jack wanted to swim upwards, back to the forest, back to Tooth. But when he looked up, everything that had been on the surface was gone.
To his horror, he wasn't thrashing, wasn't swimming...he wasn't even moving.
Jack was just watching it, letting it, happen!
In his frozen state, his pale hands floated up on either side of him, Jack merely looked up at the blue lights. But he did nothing and grew sleepy.
It felt like he was floating in the middle of an ocean – a cold, unforgiving ocean that slowly started to crush his broken chest and battered heart.
"...'y go?"
Jack squinted past the sunlight and watched as the rays changed to moonbeams. Once they did, he saw the blurred out faces of three people in labs coats.
"...'ares...ow..."
"...'re tes...s...oor boy..."
The woman who spoke leaned up from him and moved away. Jack then followed a man with a gruff voice but his face moved too fast for him to catch.
His eyelids started to grow heavy.
"Is it done?"
And when another man leaned down, Jack clenched his jaw.
He instantly felt the water rush past his teeth and into his lungs. And when he choked slightly, the first man came back into his vision and leaned closer.
Jack blinked the water out of his eyes. He saw a thick beard and the outline of glasses.
"Yes. This agent has bee-en properly d–...d –he i-is no longer-r..."
Suddenly, the man pushed a shadowy hand into the water to reach down for the brunette.
He caught the spy by a sleeve and pulled him up.
Jack felt himself float up closer to the light, he was almost out. He almost broke the surface and in a few more heartbeats, he'd see the man's face.
But something akin to rage started to boil in his chest.
Jack didn't want to be pulled back out...No, he suddenly wanted to drag the shadow in.
So in blind fury, Jack shot his hand up and reached past the surface and grabbed the man's neck–
...
His eyelids snapped open.
Jack's pupils shrunk in the light above him but the second he awoke, he grabbed Aster's collar in a vice-like grip.
"B-Bloody hell!"
His silver frames fell off his face when Jack shoved him away.
As he stumbled back from the table, Jack languidly slid off the table. A split second later however, he had his hand around Aster's neck again.
A sharp shock sparked where their skin touched but Jack didn't notice. His eyes were blank and cold, like steel.
"My ears are not that big," he hissed darkly.
Aster blinked for a moment but he narrowed his eyes.
"G'day, mate," Aster spat.
When Jack didn't reply and tightened his grip, he raised an eyebrow.
"Is that supposed to scare me?"
"No," Jack growled. "It's supposed to demand your attention. And I think I'm doing a pretty damn good job of it."
He then bristled with frustration.
"Where is she?"
"She's out there," Aster muttered and nudged his head at the larger of the two doors adjacent to them. He turned back however and shot Jack a dark look.
"So is this how you've been running around with her?"
He wasn't asking Jack, he was telling him. When he watched the princess leave the room in a hurry, he figured Jack might've done something in his sleep – but this was uncalled for!
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he spat.
"What I do is none of your business, bucktooth."
Aster pulled away slightly, an angry vein visible on his forehead.
"Bu-Bu–Oy! I I do not have a–" Jack squeezed his grip around Aster's neck. He didn't say anything, keeping his mouth tight-lipped and his face blank.
But Aster didn't appreciate the assassination attempt and snarled.
"Lay off! It's no wonder I saw 'er leave the room so shaken. You're a bloody time bomb just waitin' to blow!"
At the mention of Tooth's presence, Jack's grip on Aster's collar loosened slightly.
"So she was here?" he muttered and gave the floor around them a quick assessment in case Aster tried anything. It was unnecessary though since the green-eyed Aussie was too busy throwing a light tantrum to even want to.
He pictured the princess' face again when she left Jack's room. With a name and reputation like Jack Frost (along with already having met the violent brunette), he didn't have to guess that she was still afraid of him...and maybe only followed him in submission.
"Yes!" he scoffed darkly. "But I tell ya. Had I known y'get like this when you're alone with people, I woulda called North straight away and told him to transport her o–"
"Transport him out now!"
Jack jumped out of his skin.
He moved away from Aster so quickly, the older brunette thought something had pulled him from behind.
His eyebrows shot up.
"Oy, what's wrong with ya?" Aster mumbled in alert.
He watched in disturbed confusion as Jack's blue eyes gazed around the room.
Jack didn't answer.
When he came to, Jack blinked painfully and stared up at the Australian. The memory behind his eyes was dying away again, but the voice, the people leaning over him, the same scent of a hospital room...it all clouded his senses.
Jack's mouth fell slightly open and he flexed his fingers. Catching a slight breeze from a vent, he tugged the cold air into the room.
Old anxieties crept up as he stared at the medical apparatus and the steel hospital table beside him. And yet, while the wind brushed comfortably against his bare skin, Jack felt goosebumps appear and the hairs on his neck stand up – something he usually had control over.
"'Ey," Aster called and scowled deeper as he looked on.
Jack twisted his head slowly and caught own his eyes in the tiny, rectangular mirror across from him.
He froze.
He expected to see his old self – peach skin, bright eyes, brown hair – he prayed he would.
As Jack drank in his appearance though, his fingers twitched nervously.
His complexion was still pale, almost snowy-white and he hadn't realized how much of his brown hair was washing out. He looked older with all his whites showing under.
Jack suddenly gasped under his breath.
And those eyes...his real eyes...he–
There was a flash of pink eyes in the reflection.
Jack spun, his brown bangs whipping against his forehead.
But she wasn't there.
She wasn't anywhere.
Jack snapped his head at Aster's and the Aussie, who was normally unflappable, felt his skin shiver under Jack's dark and disturbed stare.
"...What did you see?" the hacker mumbled.
Jack however bared his teeth.
"What the hell happened, cottontail?!" he growled.
...
Toothiana froze, dropping the Tuhina's photo.
The princess turned her head to the medical room.
Jack's voice...
Her heart beat wildly and a flush of energy ran down from her chest to her stomach.
'He's awake, he's... "
"H-He's awake!" she mumbled happily and clambered up from her chair. After she gathered up the photos and put them back in the tooth box, Tooth hastily put it in her pocket.
She then moved to the medical room.
Toothiana's breath exhaled shakily and she shivered, feeling a drop of adrenaline race through her. All her earlier anxiety washed away and like honey, a warmth spread across her skin.
She had all these questions, all these emotions, and so help Jack if he didn't tell her...Tooth's legs still felt like jelly at the thought but she rushed more to the closed door.
Her mouth open and ready to yell his name–
'Whoa, hold it!'
She screeched to a halt just short of the door – Jack wasn't alone yet! Edmund was still in there.
'Jeez Tooth!' she scolded herself. 'You almost ruined a perfectly dramatic opening!'
She couldn't go in there and hug him like they did in the movies if they knew she was coming. She wanted to throw him off and surprise him...like he'd done to her.
But they sounded like they were in a heated discussion so she decided to wait.
Tooth bit her lip as a blush formed on her cheeks.
She'd bounce on her boots near the door until Aster came out then she'd talk to Jack.
As she waited however, her smile was slowly slipping off her face.
She listened to their conversation.
...
"What d'ya think happened? You got shot by a Nightmare."
"I've been shot by worse," Jack snapped back. "But why–"
"Mate! It was laced."
His eyebrows furrowed together.
"I knew it..." he mumbled.
"But North's scientists found a secret antibody for tetrodoxin so I shot you with it."
And Jack immediately stopped.
His blood ran cold while his mouth tried to formulate words.
"That's what Pitch was using? T...TTX!?"
"You know what it is?" Aster commented and Jack glared back at him.
"Of course I do, Blizzard of '68 remember?" And Aster nodded grimly as he crossed his arms.
Jack ran his good hand through his hair.
"...and of course Pitch would use it."
The terrorist was really starting to piss Jack off! Tetrodoxin was a neurotoxin that crept into your skin like poison. And it decreased your heartbeat, lowered your body temperature – not that that would do anything to Jack; his average temperature was already below 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
But it was still fatal – he remembered something about old assassination attempts and a terrorist long before Pitch who used the toxin to kill 68 people one winter just to prove a point to the Chinese government. Since then it was banned, but it still riled up the black market.
And that's what Pitch enjoyed: biological warfare, getting inside people (physically and mentally) and destroying them from the inside out like a plague...like a nightmare.
Bang!
Aster didn't even flinch when Jack slammed his right fist against the medical bed.
As he did, both he and Aster missed Tooth rush into the room, panicking that something may have happened.
The door silently clicked shut when Aster uncrossed his arms. He eyed Jack with a stern look.
"You're lucky your body temperature was already pretty low, mate," Aster mumbled.
Jack flexed his fingers at the impact and rubbed his neck.
"Look, can you j–" he stopped.
When he finally looked up at the Aster, he saw Toothiana standing behind the Australian.
She dropped Jack's backpack on the floor.
Jack's eyebrows rose urgently.
"Toothiana?"
...
She'd fixed her hair and straightened her skirt a moment before she came in. But the second Tooth saw him, her hands began to shake and her smile slipped off her face. All her composure was gone.
Tooth's eyes grew wide.
"J...Jack?"
Jack's eyebrows rose worriedly, seeing her familiar face wash over him like a balm to his aches.
He opened his mouth as she took a step forward.
"A-Are you o–"
She stopped herself when she caught his blue eyes in a stare. This was the first time she'd seen them open since...
Since...
Her heart skipped a beat and she stumbled over her words.
"W...I..."
Jack frowned.
She wasn't running up to him like he thought she might...like a part of him hoped she would. Instead, under his careful gaze, he saw her foot shift back to her slightly.
Dread pooled into his stomach.
"What is it?" he asked seriously.
He was all business, albeit a little concerned, but he was otherwise just...normal.
Normal.
Like nothing bigger had happened.
Tooth blinked twice and moved her eyes to a spot behind him.
It was incredibly awkward with Aster in the room since she wasn't sure why'd she'd stopped – but it was more awkward being unsure what to do since Jack's face didn't light up or his expression soften.
Instead, it grew darker, borderlining on demanding.
And she wasn't prepared for that.
Jack's forehead creased.
"What's wrong?"
"I...I..."
The taller brunette beat Jack to Tooth and took a step closer to her. As his silver streak of hair caught the light like the sheen off a knife, he stared vehemently.
"Answer the question, mate," Aster asked in a low tone.
Moving his gaze away from Tooth's, Jack eyed the Aussie suspiciously.
"About what?"
And what was with the guy's dark look that suddenly appeared when Toothiana came in the room?
Jack didn't like it. He'd been out for...for what, several hours? And the first thing he wakes up to is the lone freak living underground?
"When you were cactus," Aster explained. "I mean, did you remember moving? Seeing a face? Touching anything? Do you remember what you did? What you were doin'? Because things can happen in stasis, mate!"
Tooth gazed up at Aster from behind, her heart racing faster.
'Things...w-what things?'
She quickly whipped her head at Jack. No one noticed her take a tiny step forward or see how badly her fingers were twitching.
Jack's mouth became a tight line. He glared at the Australian in confusion.
"How could I?" he bit out. "I was out, remember?"
Tooth froze and stared up at Aster.
"You put me in a headlock, y'bugger! Who knows what else you were doin' and she–!"
"Will you shut up?!" Jack finally bit out. He ran a hand through his hair.
Aster flared up immediately.
"What?!"
"No! No, I didn't do anything! I don't even remember the last ten fucking hours!" Jack sighed angrily.
Tooth's heart stopped as Jack continued to glare at the floor.
But she...she was there. It happened.
Didn't it?
"Even if I did," he added, growling tiredly, "it must've been something pretty stupid."
"I'm just askin' jeez!" Aster growled and crossed his arms again. "GUARDIANs do weird shit in comatose! I get ya can go on days without sleep like the rest of us. A twenty-minute power nap," he snapped his fingers, "Boom, yer good to go. But when GUARDIAN agents are out for more than two hours, we have less control over the physical world, and our bodies. And that thing y'do with the breeze, it channeled the energy away from your heart so I–"
"Stop, just stop," Jack grit out, his eyes grew wide with anger.
"I didn't do anything! I was asleep the whole damn time and my nightmares were beating the shit out of me, alright?!"
He then whipped his head at Toothiana.
"And why'd you tell him all that?!"
But she wasn't looking at him. She was still staring up at Aster, trying to focus on his hair for control.
Tooth's fingers shook and her legs grew weak again.
But no...No!
She remembered his neck moving, his hands on her around her waist, his...
She still felt touch on her lips.
It was real. It was real.
But it was something pretty stupid?
...Something pretty stupid...
Like her tiny, little heart.
"Toothiana, what's wrong?"
Immediately, her mind cruelly replayed the night's earlier memory. And where the burn in her neck trailed, she felt Jack's fingertips.
Tooth's mouth fell open but no words were coming out. All she could think about was the ache in her chest and the conflicting emotions threatening to dominate her face.
And Jack grew worried.
"T...Toothiana?" Jack called sternly.
His eyelids were floating halfway over his vision and his gaze was muddled, unseeing.
"T...Toothiana..."
Her eyes grew glassy.
Tooth lowered her eyes from Aster at the sound of his voice and stared all around.
She wanted to say something, lie, have the ground swallow her up. Instead, she felt like her entire body shrivel up.
And when her gaze finally caught Jack's, his eyes widened.
He saw a light sheen of tears mist over her vision before she looked away.
"'Ey! Leave 'er alone!" Aster butt in. She was obviously still afraid of the brunette and was afraid to speak up against his aggression. And that angered him a lot.
But Jack wasn't looking at him. He was narrowing his eyes gently at Tooth.
She looked desperate, afraid...And he interpreted it all wrong.
"...What did he do?" he breathed coldly.
Aster's ears perked up threateningly.
"Ey?"
Jack immediately glared at him.
"What did you do to her?!"
And before either could react, Jack rushed forward. He shot his fingers out and grabbed Aster by the collar of his shirt again.
"Crike–"
Tooth tried to blink away her stinging eyes and moved in to save the Australian.
"Jack, no!"
But Jack's fingers tightened like a cobra against the Australian's shirt. Aster jerked away to push them away from Toothiana but the second the hacker did, the shorter brunette let go.
He grounded his boot into the concrete then pushed off to go at him again.
Jack threw a straight punch, intending to punch the guy in the jaw, but Aster's subconscious kicked in.
At the last possible moment, Aster relaxed his muscles and moved. He bent his right arm straight up from the elbow and turned the solid trunk of his body – the nice, clean rollback of his wrist deflected Jack's fist easily.
But Jack was like lightning and the second he felt his fist go off course, he abruptly moved in to punch with the second hand. Aster sensed it immediately and relaxed his right hip joint.
"Jack! Edmund!"
Aster pushed all his weight from his left side. He pivoted on the ball of his right foot, and after watching Jack's fist coming, he twisted his torso to the right. He threw his right arm across his chest and knocked it away with a ward off. Then in one fluid motion, Aster used the momentum of his twist to swing his hands together in a cradle to his left, and timing it with two-steps forward, he swung the cradle back and shoved into Jack with the strength of his elbow.
When Jack stumbled away, Aster rushed forward. The hacker knocked down both of Jack's arms which were coming back up to hit him. The Aussie then pushed him away from Tooth with a quick front kick and Jack almost tripped before he dropped into a crouch.
"Ya bloody show pony!" Aster snarled.
He felt his adrenaline pumping and like Jack, his gene was prickling across his skin, threatening to shoot out of his fingertips.
But Aster wanted Jack to stop. He was violent and nearly hurt the both of them twice! But the brunette pulled up him from his crouch, slow and lethal, like a panther – and a second later, Jack retaliated.
He jumped into a spinning hook kick and got his boot into the man's ribcage. Then when Jack landed, he spun inwards, delivered an upward cut to the Aussie's stomach, and reached for Aster's wrist. By the time he twisted the six-foot brunette over him, he was able to push him against the counter.
And in the blink of an eye, Jack pulled a knife from his boot, ready to shove it against Aster's neck.
His blue eyes sharp and ruthless.
"YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!"
It was all too much.
"Y'BLOODY–"
But enough was enough.
Click! Click!
Both men stopped, their ears perking up and nerves bristling. Was the other really such a coward that he'd try to pull out a–
"HEY!"
When Jack and Aster whipped their heads, they froze.
It wasn't either of them who'd pulled out a gun.
It was Tooth.
And she was pointing both rifles at their feet – but she had an immense look of distress written all over her face.
"Both of you stop it!"
"Oy, princess! Wh–You can't set those off in 'ere–"
Bang!
A bullet sparked across the cement a foot away while Tooth gasped desperately.
"Tr-Try me!" she gulped nervously and Aster closed his mouth as they looked at each other.
But while the two had a silent talk with their eyes, Jack's mouth grew dry.
His earlier nightmare hit him right between the eyes.
"Get away from him!"
"Tooth, what's wrong?!"
"Toothian–"
BANG!
When Aster felt his hold go limp, he smacked Jack's hand away. The two then absentmindedly stepped apart as Tooth stalked up to both them.
"I want you both to stop right now o-or so help me..." she faded out when she neared them.
They dropped their hands at their sides.
The princess then reached into Aster's jean pocket and pulled out his only gun which was sticking out. She dumped it on the medical bed then moved to Jack and slipped her hand behind to his belt loop. She pulled his gun and retractable staff away.
He scowled.
"Seriously? You think that's–"
But she shoved the head of her gun into his abdomen – and under normal circumstances, Jack wouldn't have even batted an eyelash. But the dream and her face...he tensed instantly.
He furrowed his eyebrows, mumbling under his breath worriedly.
"Toothiana..."
She spared him an quick, upset look before she looked away.
Then reaching down, she pulled the blade from his fingers and lowered all the way down to his left boot. She pulled out the other one, hidden discreetly on its side and tossed both onto the table too.
Tooth then stepped away from both of them and gestured to the door.
"Both of you go into the kitchen."
And they obeyed without a word.
As they walked, Tooth continued to regret more and more how easy it was for her to lift a gun.
But when their backs were turned, she looked down at the cement floor and tried to ignore Jack's blue-eyed gaze, the long scar still on his torso, or his fingers as they twitched ahead of her.
This wasn't how she'd pictured things when he woke up. Not at all.
...
10:29 p.m.
Aster opened the door and went out into the Warren. Jack followed in a daze from behind.
When the three reached the table, Tooth sighed shakily under her breath and re-holstered her guns under her skirt.
"Now sit," she ordered and they both took seats opposite the other. Aster and Jack then had a stare-off, cold and commanding as ever, while Tooth moved around quickly.
With her mutely distracted by the clinks she was making at the counter, Jack crossed his arms over his chest.
"That was a Grasp the Sparrow's Tail," Jack mumbled, still tired from the gunshot surgery and the comatose. "Where'd you learn Tai Chi?"
"None of your damn business!" Aster spat. Tooth looked back with the corner of her eye.
So that explained it. That's why the Australian had remarkable stamina and such a mental freshness despite living underground...He used the martial art to relax his mind and channel his outward aggression as inner strength, rather than Jack who used his the other way around.
Aster pushed his glasses back on his face.
"An' like hell you'd tell me where you earned that black belt," he added. "What're ya like, 5th dan?"
Jack gritted his teeth.
"I'm 7th."
And Aster froze as Jack darted his eyes around the Warren. He took in the moist heat, the flowers, and the few old, stuffed rabbits hiding around the room in mild discomfort.
"At least I think that's where I stopped," and he shot the twenty-seven-year-old a cold look, "So don't you think about messing with me, Peter Rabbit."
"Is that some sorta pick at all the fluffy ones 'round here?" Aster griped. Jack shrugged nonchalantly and Aster raised a finger.
"You lay off 'em," he muttered darkly. "They belonged to my family."
And at that, Jack stopped eyeing them to look back at the Australian uncomfortably. He opened his mouth to say something...but then a smell started floating around the room.
When he looked up from his chair, he watched Tooth's skirt float away from the fridge as it closed itself. In the smell of the hot cooking oil, she held two eggs in one hand.
He raised an eyebrow and the green-eyed brunette leaned away from him to stare too.
"Princess?" Aster asked lightly.
"What the heck are you doing?" Jack squinted in confusion as she leaned out to Aster.
"Could you please?" she asked.
Jack watched in horror as Aster tilted his head before he raised his hand. A second later, a deep crack surfaced across the eggs and split the shells in two. When the hacker pulled his fingertips away, Tooth expertly dropped the yolks over the pan.
Jack didn't say a word.
She was silent for a moment, letting the crackle and pop of the heat settle the tension. She didn't know why she thought this was a good idea – especially now that she'd realized two very highly-skilled (and attractive) operatives in their respective fields were assessing her from behind! But they'd stopped fighting because of her and as she embarrassed herself, she hoped this would work.
It also helped to quell the aching pain in her heart as she thought about something else other than Jack and his unintentionally hurtful words.
Tooth blew out a breath.
"W-When my sisters Tiana and Tulia start to fight, there is nothing no one can do to stop them. Not even my tutor, Mr. Sandy and he's the gentlest person in the castle."
Jack and Aster bristled slightly in their seats.
Was she implying that they acted like brothers?
'Brothers, my ass,' they both thought. They wanted to murder each other.
And Aster would've told her that...had he not seen her face grow sullen and distant.
"So one day," she continued. "I didn't say anything. I just went into the kitchen and I started to cook. I read somewhere that the smell of cooking oil can help lower anyone's adrenaline. And you know what? It worked! It helped them to stop fighting. So whenever they started fighting again, everyone expected me to play the cooking referee. And they've been closer ever since."
"That stuff true about the oil," Aster agreed and Jack eyed him funny.
The hacker caught it and scowled.
"Oy, I know Tai Chi, remember? I read up on alot of calming techniques."
"Yeah and you need it," Jack grumbled coldly, "considering how easily you blow a fuse at everything I say."
"You're one to talk, mate!" Aster protested. "Should we replay who went off first back there and whose knife was at my–"
"Guys, I swear to god!"
They both shut up.
Tooth was looking at them still sad and shaken. She flit her gaze between them (albeit a little longer on Jack and his new, unforgivably blue eyes) before she turned back to the stove.
"So that's what you're doing?" Jack asked as his forehead creased. "You're...You're making us food to calm us down?"
She rolled her eyes as she plated the finished eggs.
"Psh, please don't flatter yourself," she retorted and turned around. When she walked to the table, Jack leaned forward slightly to catch her eyes in the light. They were downcast but he could tell...she was trying to avoid him.
"I'm doing this for all of us," she explained and put the plates in front of them.
They both frowned and looked at her. Aster tilted his head again.
"Why? What's wrong, sheila?"
"Nothing! L-Look I'm not expecting you to eat it all. But even if it's just one bite, that's all I want. Please."
The tone in her voice was so tired and insecure. What was making her such on edge of all sudden?
They cast each other dark looks, taking a hint – Tooth picked up on it though and frowned angrily.
"You know I'm the only one with a weapon on me!" she argued and they looked back at her. Tooth crossed her arms.
"And there's a table between us, so while I might not hit both of you, one of you is bound to end up going through a sew-up again."
And Jack paled slightly.
Aster didn't know it yet but Toothiana's aim with a gun was pretty clean.
"Fine, Tooth," he mumbled lightly and she handed him a fork. Aster blinked between the two of them (hearing Jack say the princess' name funny) before Tooth offered her him another. They both eyed the food, suddenly craving the smell and the look.
She waited.
And finally, they started to eat for her sake.
The second they did though, they spit it back out.
"TOOTH! WHAT THE–"
"Crikey, sheila! What's in that laundry detergent?!" And he rushed to the fridge to get him and Jack two bottles.
When he rushed back and tossed one to the brunette, the both of them guzzled a long sip. Tooth watched as they both gasped afterwards and tried to collect themselves. She found it funny that two powerhouses like themselves were suddenly squeamish after one tiny bite of her trick.
She rubbed her head sheepishly.
"Sorry," she mumbled and Jack glared at her.
"No you're not."
"Okay no," she admittedly shrugged. "Not entirely...Not even a little actually."
And when she laughed a little, the sound of her voice calmed both boys down, their facial expressions relaxing from their hard muscles. That was sorta impressive. But she didn't have to play the sob card – they would've done it for her anyway if she'd just asked.
"I'm more of a soup and baking type of girl!" she twirled the spatula in one hand. "I'm not very good with foods in pans, especially frying!"
'Which is sorta embarrassing to my culture but sue me!' she cried to herself in her head.
"Then why insist on making us one and w...How did you even manage to cook eggs wrong?!" Jack demanded and Aster threw her dirty look.
"Probably because she'd rather watch us die at the hand of her chef skills than her gun, mate."
Jack scowled down at the eggs.
"I think I would've preferred the gun," he muttered but Tooth puffed her cheeks. She shot Jack a, 'Are-you-SERIOUSLY-saying-that-after-what-you-just -went-through' look.
When he caught it, he lifted his eyebrows.
"Right, sorry," he mumbled and looked at the Australian for a little help.
When he did, they both chuckled.
But that stopped not even a second into it.
They instantly stopped.
What the hell?
Jack and Aster immediately shot each other disturbed looks. They tried to glare at each other again, but they caught Toothiana staring at them. She was hugging the spatula tightly.
"So..." she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and frowned. "Ar-Are we okay?"
Aster was the first to blink.
"I suppose," Aster mumbled and got up to move the dishes away. "But I'm doing this for you, sheila. Not for the bloke."
When he moved past her to wash the dishes, she smiled up at him and he returned it.
But once he wasn't in their line of sight, Jack looked up at her. His eyebrows furrowed together.
"Are we?" he mumbled under his breath worriedly and Tooth looked at him – but then she caught his tongue flick out to catch the salt still on his lips.
Tooth couldn't look at him after that and tried to avoid his gaze with a heavy heart.
And he hated it.
...
10:41 p.m.
After Aster finished and went back to the table, Jack eyed him acutely.
"So what do you down here anyway?" he said and crossed his arms again. "You some kind of hermit?"
Tooth bit her lip.
"No, Jack. H-He was a tech analyst for your company. For the GUARDIAN program."
"You're a hacker?"
But when Aster nodded proudly, Jack scoffed.
"Compared to what I do, that's nothing," he said dryly.
"Jack, you don't get it!" Tooth argued. "He's ELETRONICALPHA."
And Jack's eyebrows actually lifted up.
"He is?" he asked and blinked up at Tooth. She nodded, still avoiding his eyes.
"Yeah...Hue, your account, the complinks, he does all of it for North!"
Jack looked around the Warren for a second, taking it all in, and blowing air passed his teeth.
"Wow, that's pretty impressive for a nerd," and Jack paused to look at him sardonically. "No offence."
Aster didn't take to that lightly. Even Tooth was a bit hurt by it, considering how much she was a techie herself.
"W-Wh..." he sputtered but he grew angry again. "How is that not offensive?!"
He shoved his finger in Jack's face again.
"I have North's ELFs, and a world to look after. While all you do is creep in the shadows and kill people."
Jack narrowed his eyes.
"What I do actually matters, mate," Aster finished. "It actually has a purpose."
And Jack stopped. Something in his chest (not counting the healing bullet hole) was tugging him achingly.
He bit the inside of his cheek and glared at the floor behind the green-eyed Aussie.
"I used to have one," he mumbled bitterly. Aster said nothing.
"And that's why you need to go back," Aster finished and Jack nodded, quoting North.
"Back to where it all started."
Tooth watched him rub his eye distractedly. She could almost see his immediate pain when his blue iris swiveled around for a moment – both she and Aster guessed it was another memory.
When he came back, Jack looked around desperately for a moment before his eyes landed on the Australian again. Aster pulled away and glared at jack.
"You need to remember who you were too so you can help North, the princess, and yourself."
Jack's intense glare on the hacker immediately let up. He blinked warily.
"Seriously? Just like that you switch opinions? You're like a wayward rabbit."
"Oy, you're still a stick in my ass, mate, but like it or not, you're a GUARDIAN," Aster cut Jack off before he could say anything. "We were all one in the same before they shut us down. So it's not only North's job to look after us..."
And he brought his firm gaze back to Jack's.
"It's mine too, mate."
Jack's eyes were guarded and he didn't say anything as he looked up at the blue-tipped brunette.
Aster however saw Jack's through blank look.
In a slight flicker of the light, the Aussie was able to see underneath it all – Jack's confusion, his desperation, and his hostility. The kid's ability to channel his inner aggression like it was nothing was impressive. But he understood Jack's character to bottle things up – it was part of being a spy.
Aster then frowned. He moved away from the shorter brunette entirely.
"We'll leave in ten," he said. "And since it's Christmas eve, I doubt many people will be on the roads so that'll give us good cover."
"Okay. Well..." Tooth mumbled out loud and Aster turned to look down at her. She sent him a tight smile before she moved around the counter again. The princess then backed away from the kitchen toward to the rooms on the right again.
"Well, I'm going to go and get my things together," she jerked a thumb at her room beside the medical one and the Aussie nodded.
"Thank you, Edmund."
"Alright, sheila," he agreed and after he shot a smile, he moved away from the counter. "And I'm gonna go send a quick notice to the ELFs. Let 'em know where I'll be."
Tooth spun and moved quickly, shooting Jack another weak smile of her own.
But once her door was closed again, Aster's light expression became dark again.
He leaned down to Jack (who was still sitting at the table) and to brunette's surprise, the hacker switched to the GUARDIAN's secret language.
(Луна) "And oy, you lay off her," Aster muttered coldly and Jack's eyebrows high on his forehead.
"Excuse me?" he hissed but Aster narrowed his eyes.
"You're supposed to be protecting her. Not teachin' her how to be a gunslinger," he whispered back hotly. "She shouldn't be running around like–s-she's tiny! Haven't you got a brain in that skull of yours?"
Jack immediately stood up and moved around the table. He pointed back in the Australian's face.
"Don't talk like you know me," Jack threatened. "Or her. I've done a good job so far making sure she isn't afraid of punks of like you. And frankly, I'm pretty sure that if she heard you say that, she would have kicked you in the balls right now."
Aster was thrown off by the last comment and blinked.
Just as quick though, he was back in Jack's face with a determined protectiveness.
"But she's a princess, mate! You're corrupting her, and without good purpose!"
"And you'd better show her some goddamn respect. She's a lot tougher than you think. So if you believe for a second that I would take your judgment on that, then–"
"Was I blind ten minutes ago? I know she's capable! But you heard me. And y'know it too, so stop lyin' to your bloody self."
"Argh, you know what?" Jack switched back to English. "Fine, fine!" He then raised his good arm and waved his hand in a mock surrender. "You're right. Codename Kangaroo is right."
"Co-Code what? What did you call me? I'm not a kangaroo, mate!"
Jack rolled his eyes to the ground.
"Oh and this whole time I thought you were," he mumbled sarcastically. "If you're not a kangaroo," and he leaned in dangerously close, "what are you? A bunny?"
"I'm not a bunny. I'm The BUNNY," he threatened Jack. "Codename EASTERBUNNY. And people believe in me."
Jack pulled away.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He exhaled angrily, his nostrils flaring, but Aster continued.
"Like I said before, I've got a purpose. People know how I am, what I do, and they need me. But y'see, you're invisible, mate. It's like you don't even exist! And what good is that to her or anyone else?"
Jack refused to comment – but that didn't mean Aster didn't see the slight shift in his cold expression.
He was second-guessing himself. Aster then bared his teeth.
"So don't come in 'ere, actin' like y'know what's better for her," he muttered. "She's clearly still afraid of you, and until ya get that sorted out, I can't blame 'er. Yer a walkin' number."
And with that, Aster moved around Jack and went back to his computer room.
As he left, muttering something about 'bloody American blokes', Jack's gaze lowered to the floor where the Australian had stood. He couldn't control the dread that dripped into his stomach – it was the same foreboding feeling that Pitch had left there just twenty-four hours ago.
He was still afraid that he didn't matter to anyone.
And he was still afraid, that he'd never figure out why.
...
10:52 p.m.
Jack shut the door of the medical room and sighed.
He then dropped to the floor, landing flat on his palms, and did fifty, easy push-ups. He grunted from the dull pain in his chest but wanted to assess his physical condition and do something to get his nervous energy pumping.
When he was done, he paused in mid-air and glanced at the stain of blood on the floor nearby – apart from that, at least he was normal again. Jack then did a light handspring and leaped upright.
But it was a bit messy.
"Shit!"
When he stood up, he pressed a palm to his chest. The muscle in his forearm had a slight spasm and he frowned at the floor.
'Guess that won't be seeing any action again for a couple more hours,' he thought before he bent down.
Tooth dropped his backpack on the floor earlier and he was grateful that he could rummage through it in peace.
Well, sort of.
His thoughts were still racing – there had been so much tension just now between the three of them.
What the hell had happened? Jack didn't know what to think and normally he had such conviction in those kinds of situations. He always liked to have control but, in his defence, he'd been knocked out for hours. When he woke up, he was in a tiny room underground with no windows or any means of mapping out his escape routes and exit procedures – and like the airplane washroom he'd been alone in with Tooth, he always felt uncomfortable in enclosed, dark spaces.
He moved his bag up to the medical table and sighed angrily, shoving his knives back into his boots.
But afterwards, when he finally pulled out a shirt, he froze.
Jack gripped it tightly in his hands and looked around the room. A frown etched itself onto his face again before he looked up worriedly.
He saw the two doors exiting the room – the one they'd all used to go back into main room, and the one he hadn't bothered to check.
But he had a feeling, and he moved toward it.
...
10:57 p.m.
Tooth was busy reapplying her pink eyeshadow. She threw on a little eyeliner out of blind anxiety and it accented her thick eyelashes.
As she moved away to look in the mirror though, her composure was still shaken.
"Don't say anything, Tooth," she mumbled bitterly to herself. "Don't say anything...All the love you put out is gonna come back to you one da–"
Click!
The door beside her flung open immediately.
"H-Holy crap!" she gasped. She slammed her hand on her chest.
Jack stepped through with a vehement look on his face.
He was still shirtless (even though he was holding one in his hand) but Tooth couldn't really appreciate it at the moment as he stood in front of her.
"D-Don't do that!" she squealed quietly. "I've already gone into more cardiac arrests than one person should be able to handle!"
Jack didn't say anything to answer and for that, she blinked.
"H-Hey, what's wrong?" she asked lightly. It came out innocent and genuine (like she wanted) but underneath, her heart was a tempest and her skin was crawling with desperation. "Are you...okay?"
Jack rubbed one side of his head. When he pulled his hand away to make sure the dye wasn't rubbing out, he looked back at her.
"Yeah, I'm getting there," he mumbled.
When she only nodded however, he eyed her curiously.
"What about you?"
Tooth took the opportunity to turn back around and collect her fallen makeup case on the shelf.
She had a small smile on, but it was like plastic.
"I-I didn't get shot," she pointed out. "You did and I–"
"Was a complete mess when I passed out? Yeah, I remember."
Tooth paused to look at him through the mirror's reflection.
The second their eyes met, she froze.
She'd have to get used to those eyes...his real eyes, including how stunning they were, and how much they really suited him against his smooth, white skin. Tooth dropped the gaze pathetically and moved around him to her bag.
But Jack crossed his arms and looked at her worriedly.
The first time they met, he thought he'd only have to see her freak out over his change in clothes – but eye color was different, a bigger change in fact! Yet she was barely reacting. And Jack couldn't understand why.
"Is this freaking you out?" he finally asked.
She snapped her head up.
"What?"
He lifted a finger from his crossed arms to point at his face worriedly. Tooth shook her head however.
So he frowned.
"Peter Cottontail didn't do anything or make you feel uncomfortable while I was out, did he?"
Tooth packed what little she had and flicked her gaze at him. She kept moving around to distract him, like a scared little bird.
"We're still back to that?" she tried to joke lightly. "Honest Jack, he's nice, and look! You're fine, and I'm fine, w...W-We're all fine! Okay?"
"I'm just asking because when I first saw you, you looked...I don't know. You didn't look right."
Tooth stopped pushing into her bag and looked up at him. She made a show to roll her eyes but her heart tugged inside her again.
"Really? Really, I didn't look right? And there's no reason, whatsoever, as to why you think that?"
Jack squinted at her and bit the inside of his cheek.
Meanwhile, her lips were smacking.
Would he even get the code in that message?
But when Jack clenched his jaw, all her hope was killed.
"Did something happen between you and him?" Jack spat. He then glared darkly. "Because if something did, I mean that's...actually it's not fine, we don't have time for that kind of shit right now! Especially whe–"
"What?! N-No! Stop being paranoid!" she tried to laugh but it came out so pathetic, Tooth had to avoid him.
She moved past him, wanting to go back into the medical room and away from his line of vision but her entire body was going into tremors–
Jack's hand shot out and grabbed hers.
The second he did though, that cold tingle pricked all the way up to her neck.
Tooth gasped.
"Jack, everything's okay!"
She bit her lip and pulled herself away. Now every time he did that, all she'd imagine were those same hands on her waist and gripping her neck.
But he froze.
He wasn't prepared for that – Tooth normally turned to stone (or jelly) when he touched her. Now it was like he'd burned her and that disturbed him.
He wanted answers and he kept moving forward while Tooth tried to keep distance.
"Then what's wrong with you?!"
"I'm fine!"
"No, you're not!"
"I AM, you psycho!"
Tooth backed up until she was up against the sink counter. But that was as far as she could go.
Jack wouldn't let her go any farther as he lifted a hand and tried to reason with her.
"You can tell me anything," he said firm and serious. "You know that, so don't be like this!"
She gripped the edge of the counter, watching his lips move a mile minute.
"Tooth, I know more about you than you knew about yourself in the last two days a...and you know more about me, more than anyone."
He frowned.
"I've told you everything I can, there are no secrets left with me!"
And that hurt.
Tooth needed to breathe, she needed a little bit more time to prepare for another possible battle (unlike him). And for all his perfection and all his flaws, Tooth needed to calm the racing in her heart that wanted to tackle him and punch him in the throat at the same time!
She arched her back slightly as Jack came closer to her than she thought he'd come – but it was only because he was leaning down to stare into her face, trying to read her thoughts.
He was right there.
Alive, able-bodied, and annoying just as she wanted. But dammit it all to hell, he didn't know how much he'd just destroyed her several hours ago with those eyes and lips of his. How painful was it that he couldn't remember putting her cloud nine then have her fall again like it was nothing?
Tooth looked away. She kept trying to pretend that she was looking for something around the room – and that upset him.
Normally she was an open book, her emotions running across her eyes and in the corners of her lips like a coloured cartoon. But since he'd woken up, Jack couldn't read her.
His eyebrows furrowed together heavily.
"Come on," he said sternly. "Look at me. What did he do?"
"Jack..." she groaned and she shut her eyes.
He would continue to play that Aster-is-the-one-blame card, and that continued to break her heart more. But it seemed like he didn't think he was the problem.
He didn't remember, which meant it...it really was just a center gene reaction.
'And maybe...' she thought. 'Maybe his subconscious only did it as an end-of-the-world sort of spur of the moment. I was just a 'Let's get kissed one more time before we croak' type deal, and oh look! It's princess too...Oh god, Tooth...'
She couldn't bear it, but she smiled sadly, hoping to bury it.
Tooth should've known better though.
Jack had an aptitude for muscle configuration and knew what each quirk of the jaw meant. And through her tight smile, he knew she was lying.
She tried again more urgently.
"H-He didn't do anything Jack, honest!"
"Then what's wrong!?" he demanded.
Tooth shut her mouth.
"Tooth!"
"What's wrong?!"
Finally, she stepped up to him.
"What's wrong...What's wrong is...y...you...y-you almost died!"
She then moved around him and threw her hand all around the medical room.
"Y-You got shot, and there was blood everywhere, and I had to watch your center get all freaky winter magic on me, a-and I..." She covered her eyes. "Ugh, and I never want to perform an emergency sew-up on anyone ever again!"
And Jack finally blinked.
"But we've been through worse. Hell, I've been through worse!" he said and his blue (his blue, blue, heartbreaker's) eyes were surreptitious.
Tooth couldn't look him properly after that. She looked all around his face as he frowned deeply.
"Tooth, I'm sorry I freaked you out," he mumbled.
She bit her lip in response, but she didn't look up. He was making her dizzy, with all these emotions running rampant across her head.
Her heart was having spasms.
But Jack continued desperately, his fists tightened at his sides.
"I'm trying to make things as painless for you as possible but everything I do just keeps wrecking that! But don't lose hope in me, okay? As long as I'm still breathing, I won't stop. I promised I'd help you get your sisters back and we're gonna take down Pitch toge–"
She shook her head, her brain sloshing in pain.
"No, Jack!"
He froze.
"What?"
"No, no, no! It's not you, honest!" She was balled her hands into tight fists, thinking if she said it a few more times it would come true.
"Then what is i–"
"It's not you!" Her chest grew tight. "It's not, it's...y-you're awesome and you..."
His eyes widened.
"T...To–"
Tooth took a few gasps of air.
His proximity made the world spin, the air thin. His skin was so close, his eyes were so clear, and that meant her heart was at war with itself.
"Y..." She shut her eyes.
"You..."
And instead of finishing, she did something she thought she'd never do.
Tooth took a step forward...
"You–"
...and moved to throw up in the sink.
Ick.
She upchucked what little she had in her stomach into the medical sink and nearly cried when the muscles in her abdomen protested. But what with Jack's near-dying act, Tuhina's tooth box, that kiss, Edmund's misguided worrying, and well, everything...Tooth heaved again and leaned more into the counter.
Jack cringed as he watched the princess' body tremble.
"Okay, didn't see that coming," he muttered and he rubbed his head. He couldn't see her face though since her hair got in the way and Tooth frowned into her sickness.
When she finally stopped, Tooth gasped for air. She was so upset with everything and herself for getting worked up like that – they had a terrorist to stop, and sisters to save!
'Oooh, Tooth!' she cried to herself as she coughed bitterly. 'Just stay like this with your face in the sink forever and die!'
But then Tooth stopped moving.
She felt her hair on the right side of her face moving.
When Tooth peeked through her closed eyelids, she watched Jack move her hair away from her face.
He was frowning gently.
He gathered it behind her neck in his large palm until she finished coughing down what little she had left in her stomach. When she did, Tooth shut her mouth and turned her head up to look at him.
"Sorry," she mumbled, cheeks pink from embarrassment and he patted her back awkwardly.
Tooth then lifted her head from the sink and wiped her mouth. He let go of her hair and as she moved to wash her hands, he went over to his backpack.
When he came back, he was holding the toothpaste they shared.
"Here," he offered gently.
And Tooth blinked thoughtfully.
"W..."
But she stopped.
It was at that moment, as Tooth held the tube in her hand that she knew she could never tell Jack about the kiss. For all that it could've symbolised, all that it might have meant, she couldn't do that to him. Because for all his damned idiosyncrasies and the way he made her feel, that's what Tooth respected about him and why she had the biggest crush on him of the century.
Jack would never mention the kiss unless he wanted to hurt her and it seemed like he didn't even know. So all she could hope was that in their one moment, maybe a small part of him wanted to kiss her back, just to see what it was like. And that was enough.
'And you're a selfless, little Tooth, and you choose not to lose the one thing you have left that you care about, to all of this!'
At least she just had to keep telling the flame in her heart that.
"Thanks, Jack," Tooth smiled.
Jack moved away after with a small smile while she squeezed paste onto her finger.
She swallowed down a big sob before a trying smile found itself on her face.
...
When she was done, he walked back to her.
"So are you okay?"
"As long you're fine, I'm happy," she mumbled. Then with a flit of her pink eyes to his bandaged shoulder, she timidly reached up to pat over his heart.
"Does that hurt?"
"No."
And his answer made a bigger smile blossom across her cheeks bright enough to blind him.
"Good. And as long you keep going, and you keep fighting, this (she pointed to her smile) won't change."
"Don't apologize, Tooth," he mumbled loudly and pressed his cheek to her hair. "Just keep fighting."
Jack looked down at her hand.
When she tried to move again however, he grabbed it.
"Wait."
Toothiana spun around.
Her eyes grew wide as she watched Jack stumble. He took a moment to glare down at their joined hands.
Then he looked back up at her with a concerned look.
"So are we...We're...sorta like friends now, right?"
Tooth's heart stopped.
"We-We are?"
Jack looked like he wanted to crawl up and hide...or a punch a guy, she wasn't sure which.
He frowned slightly.
"Well, yeah. After everything we've been through, sh..." Jack's eyebrows furrowed. "...shouldn't we be?"
She couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth and her mouth ended up sputtering like a fish.
Jack stood there awkward, looking down at her while his fingers twitched.
Eventually he rose an eyebrow.
"Tooth?" he tried again.
Finally, her pink eyes grew wide with shock. Tooth tilted her head and squinted up at him.
"Really?" she breathed.
And he nodded.
"Yeah, I do."
And his conviction stirred the same parts of her heart that his kiss had.
And it skipped a beat.
She knew this was a big step for him – Jack didn't really want to keep anyone close and it was such an honor to her...but had he said it nine hours ago, she would've been over the moon.
Instead, her hands were shaking and something in Tooth's chest cracked. She felt like her ribcage was physically twisting under her skin.
'No, Tooth!'
And a second later, she swallowed down her nervousness and a small smile crept onto her face.
"Y-Yeah...Friends who threaten to ditch each other, fight, have mental breakdowns, drop half-naked on each other and scream...i-if that's what it called, I like it."
Jack exhaled a breath through his nose that he didn't know he was holding.
"Don't ever hide yourself from me, Tooth," he said sternly and she huffed.
"I'm fine, Jack. I promise. So just...relax, okay? You got me."
Tooth then moved away.
"I'm gonna...go back to my room now. So put on that shirt already," she joked. But the second he couldn't see her face, her smile fell away and her upset expression cracked through.
Not even watching her feet, Tooth's calm walk became rushed. She felt like she couldn't breathe every second she stayed in the room – she needed to get away from Jack.
Through dizzy eyes, Tooth reached blindly for the door leading to her room and opened it.
...
When the door shut, Tooth leaned against. She covered her mouth and exhaled as quietly as she could.
She shut her eyes.
'Go back and pretend...pretend like it didn't happen.'
Yeah, pretend like it hadn't ripped her heart out and starved her of questions she would never ask. But her selfless heart, like the holiday that was currently being celebrated all over the world won over her desires and she bottled it up forever.
Keep going, and help get Jack, help everyone, out of this hellhole.
And that meant there was no time for romance. Friendships maybe, but that was enough.
'This is for the best...I know it is,' she reassured herself then moved away from the door. 'I just wish I hadn't set myself up for it.'
But at least she had that moment, and now, she could tuck it away forever and be in a better place with Jack.
Tooth wiped her eye.
And despite her aching heart, she sighed in relief.
...
What Toothiana didn't know was that Jack had followed her to the door until it closed.
With the steel blocking him from her, he stopped and stared at it.
As his forehead creased, Jack placed his hand on the door. His blue eyes moved around in concern before they landed on the bin beside him – it was filled bloodied cloths.
He shut his eyes.
"This agent has bee-en properly d–...d –he i-is no longer-r..."
Jack's palm on the door tightened into a fist – he felt his company and Pitch slip into his mind and wash away Tooth's eyes like footprints in the sand.
"You precious princess and her little copies can't hide in my shadows for long."
With a look over his shoulder, he glared at the other door.
Jack swore to himself, everything and everyone that made him like this would suffer.
They had no right, and they were corrupting what little he had.
...
11:03 p.m.
When Jack and Toothiana finally emerged from their separate rooms, Aster was all ready, standing in his fur-trimmed coat and his arms crossed.
He nodded at the two of them as they slung their bags over their coat sleeves – Jack was in his black turtleneck, a blue hoodie, and his stolen leather jacket since his trenchcoat was totalled from the blood. Meanwhile, Tooth was in her coat with her purple scarf wrapped around her own turtleneck.
Aster nodded.
"You guys ready?"
Jack nodded. Tooth looked up at him briefly before she turned back to Edmund and gave a weak smile.
When they moved past him however, Aster leaned down to Tooth.
"I heard you guys talk in there," he mumbled. "Did he apologize?"
Tooth paused for a second to nod tiredly.
Aster grew visibly more relaxed.
"Good on ya," he said. He then moved to one of the closed doors of the Warren. Then with a tap of his boot, he pressed a light blue activator on the floor and the door slid open sideways – it revealed a dark tunnel that would lead up to a secret car lot.
He nudged his head.
"Now let's go find your memories, mate."
Chapter's soundtrack: "Not Like the Other Girls" – The Rasmus
If you know me by now, then you know I never leave things unsettled. And alright guys, participation time! Haha anyone who can speak anything other than English please PM me – I require a little help (seven things translated) for one of the chapters coming up. (; Cred if you do!