Believe in Me

Hold Back on Regrets

The hard wood floors greeted him before he realized that he needed to prepare himself for the impact. Jack was thrown out of the tunnel skidding along the uncomfortable and slightly rigid planks of the pole. They had made it! He didn’t doubt Bunny and Jayna’s means of transportation, it had just been so long since he had last been in a place so homey and warm. The winter spirit looked up to see Grey already standing, Ilia laying on her back on the floor, her bright eyes wide with awe and excitement, a joyous look that filled his own positive heart with a light feeling he hadn’t gotten in a long while. North gave a groan from somewhere behind him, and Jack turned to see the large man rising back to his feet, rubbing the back of his neck and  brushing the dust that had flaked in his pale grey beard out as much as he could. Everyone was here… they were home safe. Jack watched from the corner of his eye as Wind stood slowly, looking around the pole with remembrance, pale, icy-blue eyes blinking around to each little detail, from the fireplace that still crackled heartily to the stockings that decorated the frosted windows. “Home…” He barely made out as the pale lips of the spirit of air breathed out a nearly silent word. Home… Jack felt himself smiling as he looked around the large room, never realizing how welcoming the place felt until he had been cast away from it for so long. North exhaled deeply before giving a hearty laugh, looking around with his bulky hands on his hips. “Well then! I will go to see yetis and elves! They must miss us after so long! Will be back to discuss plans later!” He then made his way rather quickly out through one of the hallways expanding from the room. Ilia crawled to her feet, her smile bright and her eyes glowing with happiness. Everyone except Grey was smiling, and even the reaper seemed less flat in emotion than usual, his eyes holding less of a gloomy tone despite there being no other sign of any feeling running through him at all. Even if he didn’t show it, Jack was sure that Grey was glad to be back as well.

After a few minutes they were all seated, North off somewhere with the workers that cared so dearly about him, Tooth in the corner of the room whispering to a group of tooth fairies that had huddled together with her, their squeaks and chirps filled with their own excitement to see the head fairy once more. Jayna attempted to sit on the same couch as Bunny, putting her furry elbow over his arm to prevent him from trying to move away. Despite how against being around her, there was much less hesitation in giving in to her than before. He remembered to tease about that once things got to normal; the opportunity was far too big to resist. Sandy floated to plop down on a cushioned chair, Wind sitting next to Jack on the floor. It was like they had been inseparable, but he didn’t mind at all. He was glad that his friend trusted him as much as he did.  Everything was happy… but quiet. It was like after the entire mess, everyone was either at a loss of what to say or just wanted to enjoy the first silent moment in ages. For once they didn’t have to immediately discuss a horribly important matter, for once it felt truly safe just to sit down, to rest.

Then he noticed as he looked over that Ilia’s smile had faded, a sadly aware expression dawning on her face before out of nowhere she got up and ran down one of the hall. “Ilia!” He called, standing quickly, but she didn’t stop. Right off the bat he turned to Grey who nearly always knew what the kid was thinking. His eyes were focused on the ground but still held complete expressionlessness, though it was like the taller man could feel Jack questioning him before the teen even asked. “Her animals, now that I’m back…” He sounded almost bitter, but Jack could understand that as he felt his heart drop slightly. The animals she had been caring for were injured to the point that they’d die if Grey hadn’t been locked up by Pitch. Now that the reaper was back, the flow of death would continue… which meant that there was a high chance that all of them were dead from the second he had stepped foot out of Pitch’s lair. Jack thought over it, giving a small sigh before quickly turning back to the caped spirit. “But wait, weren’t you able to bring Ilia back that one time a long time ago? Can’t you do it again?” But he was only answered with a small shake of the reaper’s head. “She had only passed seconds before I arrived. These have been gone for at least hours, they’re already in their afterlives. I can’t retrieve them from a place I’m forbidden from entering.” That was right… Grey couldn’t go into either the heaven or the hell. He had probably saved Ilia in the notch of time before she had left herself to pass on. Death truly was a complicated thing… Jack looked down, before scanning the room, realizing that everyone had looked up from their quiet conversations, focusing in on the hallway that the child had ran off to. After a few seconds of silence had passed, Jack rubbed the back of his neck at the base of his snowy hair, his bare feet starting to motion in the direction the nature spirit had dashed down minutes before. “I’ll go see how she’s doing,” he exclaimed, turning back to take a slight glance at Grey once he reached the wooden arch separating the cozy room from the decorative hall. He had intended to give a word of comfort, to tell him that it wasn’t really his fault that Ilia would be upset about this, but Grey seemed hardly affected. Either his stoic, emotionless nature was returning from the small bits of a smile they had seen him pull off more recently, or he was just fine after all. Jack figured the first option was the most likely.