Believe in Me

Boom

It was much less of a quiet ride than he expected. The tooth fairy sat on her knees in front of the seat in the back of the sleigh that Jack was rested on, still unconscious and, though breathing and functioning, clearly in pain. North had decided to steer the reindeer at a slower, steadier pace, leaving the pole still very far away from wherever they were now (the arctic ocean was nowhere in sight) but kept the rickety old vehicle flying smoothly. Despite saying nothing on it, the wind spirit made sure to keep the air currents flowing in the direction they were headed to help smooth out the ride even further, modestly keeping silent as he watched Tooth bandaging up his old friend to the best of her ability. 

It was obvious that she was no nurse, but the fairy had seemed to have developed a way with healing, her soft, soothing whispers of how things were alright, how they were safe and everyone was here alive and well, being muttered out gently and constantly to work their way into whatever mental state the winter spirit had fallen into. While this was happening, there was nothing short of conversation going on. The groundhog woman and the spirit of Easter were quarreling, their noses literally touching with how close they were. Bunny had a furious expression, his bucked teeth gritted slightly together as he watched how amused the new woman was. She was obviously winning whatever they were arguing about, but the wind spirit didn’t feel that it would be polite to eavesdrop. Despite that, he had a feeling from the look in their eyes, past all the hate, that there was something there driving them together. If he hadn’t been stripped clean of allowing himself to smile years ago, he would’ve found it rather cute how sincerely happy they seemed to be to be together with everyone once more, to be able to fight like this once again. Despite how it seemed on Pitch’s side, things no doubt had probably felt hopeless to the guardians… It was strange, seeing how relieved they were to be together… Back at the nightmare king’s lair, everyone together just meant more trouble, the more rowdy spirits were together, the more of a hassle it was to keep them from killing each other out of the rogue attitude that came with being suddenly thrusted into an army and deprived of the love, caring, and attention they had entered for in the first place.

Everyone else seemed in pretty high spirits as well despite the circumstances. Grey and Ilia were sitting together, the girl’s light appearance clashing with the darkness of Death’s as she hugged his arm, her head on his shoulder. She appeared to be sleeping, her chest rising and falling gently, her eyes closed with peace rather than pain, a nice change. His face was as blank as ever, not even the tiniest rise in the corner of his lips, yet there seemed to be a content gaze in his red eyes as he focused on the floor. Whether the reaper was focused on his own thoughts or listening in to the conversations surrounding him, he didn’t… seem as bad as the wind had thought he was. The few times the spirit had seen the man he was either a beast, shredding and cutting at everything in sight, or he was that essence of darkness that just sort of freaked him out. But now, despite the blood red cape and eyes, the dark hair and clothes… Grey Loss didn’t seem all that different from any other of the guardians. Well, maybe a little. But he didn’t seem as dark, the wind concluded. 

North was steering, having a conversation with the sandman, somehow understanding the figures the small golden man made with his hands and the sand that made up his body. Some of them Wind could read, like a snowflake, a figure that looked too much like Pitch to be anyone else, and a question mark... but others were crazily detailed, moving figures, flashing in and out in split seconds. Despite this though, the bigger Russian man laughed heartily, shaking his head with that unusual cheer once again stirring in those bright blue eyes. His eyes and joy were like that of a baby’s, it was strange to see such an old, buff man so excited. He would boom out in his loud, jolly voice replies to the sandman and occasional laughs to what he must’ve overheard from the argument behind him. Sandy was smiling, North was smiling, Tooth was smiling softly to Jack, Ilia was peaceful in her sleep, Grey was apparently peaceful… wherever Grey went he guessed… and the wind spirit realized that he had his own smile traced upon his lips for the first time in a long while. Everything was calm, everything was stable… he realized everything was happy for the first time since he had left Jack in the first place. Even if he wasn’t noticed, he could still laugh along with the jokes and tricks his snow friend played, he could still smile when things got good and be there for Jack when things got bad… It was hard to realize how much he truly missed being with this group until he found his way onto the sleigh hours ago.