I Dream of Disney (Volume II)

Fate & Fatality; Plague and Paradise [Jack FrostXReaderXPitch Black] Part IV

Part IV - All That Lives Must Die & All That Loves Must Mourn

The party isn't over until the fat lady sings. It was an old saying. It might also have been true that the party hasn't started until the jolly fat man starts talking about dangerous weaponry, the tooth fairy has checked your premolars at least six or seven times, the sandman starts napping on the porch swing and the Easter Bunny had started stomping around in your garden looking for places to hide eggs. Of course, that was how Jamie Bennett saw it. 

"Nineteen," Said Nicholas St North, wearing his most contemplative look as he grazed the silvered cookie-crumb stubble on his chin, "Almost a man." 

Jamie Bennett grinned at Santa Claus, that slow grin of triumph, "Feels like it." 

"Who's ready for birthday cake?" Tooth called out to the expectant partygoers. 

"Me, five hours ago," Cupcake nudged her way through the crowd.

Clustered around the table were all of the friends that Jamie invited. All of them those close friends of his childhood. 

Pippa sat shivering in the wind, ears hidden by the woollen beanie that she always wore, and her hands were clenched in her lap with the tassels of her striped scarf. Monty was cleaning his glasses on the cuff of his sweater while Caleb teased him about his new girlfriend, the one who supposedly came from Canada. Claude was talking to Bunnymund, while Cupcake hungrily eyed the birthday cake in Tooth's hands. All of his friends were there, smiling at him when they noticed that he looked their way. North was still saying something about bringing him an axe for Christmas because all men needed axes when they came of age, and Toothiana was calling everyone to the table. The only person that Jamie was missing was Jack. 

When Tooth brought out the enormous piece of decadently decorated sheet cake, which she claimed to have made herself in a way that would prevent cavities from sugar crystals, she held it up so that everyone could see it. The writing looped in her rounded feminine handwriting and was embellished with sugar-free rainbow sprinkles. It gleamed with birthday candles and fizzed brilliantly with sparklers. On it was a picture of Jamie, eight years ago when they had first believed. With Tooth's signal, they started to sing. 

Jack's chest was tight. Sparklers agleam and birthday candles glowing, he knew that Tooth had to have messed up somewhere. It really wasn't her fault, he thought anxiously. It never mentioned anywhere that fairies had to be good at Math. The party wasn't ruined just because she'd put too many candles on the cake. She couldn't help it. Counting each candle, Jack felt his head go light. . . Six, seven . . . They started singing Happy Birthday. . . Eleven, Twelve. . . Around him, happy faces all centred on Jamie as they celebrated his special day. . . Fourteen, Fifteen. . . There couldn't have been nineteen candles on that cake! Must've been fifty, at least! All of the glitz and sparkle from the cake blinded Jack. His breathing quickened. Seventeen, eighteen. . . Nineteen. Jack wilted.

It wasn't the candles. It was him. Jamie. 

"Good job, everyone! Three cheers for the birthday boy!" Tooth shrilled. 

The voices rose in cheer. Those mindless screams pierced Jack's eardrums, making him sag under their sharp tone. It was agony. He grimaced against their excruciating pitch and frightful timbre. Suddenly, those happy voices were much higher, shrill in their young throats, and Jack was reminded of a time when he hadn't been believed in. A time when the Nightmare King had almost conquered them all. Pitch hadn't been seen in eleven years. . . 

And yet the fear felt like it had never left Jack's chest. 

Jamie's smiling face was staring at him. His lips were moving in askance, somehow in slow motion. Those smiling lips reformed into a wordless frown and his dark brows had pulled into question marks. The weak light from the gleaming candles spilt over Jamie's reddened cheeks, catching the light hairs where he'd forgotten to shave.