I can love a block of wood (septiplier nutcracker AU)

Chapter 28

When Rose was finished measuring him she sent him on his way; she also asked for him to send over Tyler and Ethan in a bit. Mark went to find Jack, wanting to spend some time with him before he got pulled away to start strategizing and planning what they would do when they got there. He didn't see Jack around on the floor so he figured that Jack had gone up top. Sure enough, when he went up there Jack was leaning against the rail, just staring out at the kingdom he was going to soon be entering as some unknown prince.

"There you are." Jack turned and looked at the real prince and smiled a bit.

"You were looking for me?"

"I was. What were you thinking?"

"Who said I was thinking?"

"I did." Mark smiled while Jack chuckled a bit before looking back out. "So?"

"I was thinking that I have never done this before."

"Well, I would hope that you had never been to my world before all this. That would have meant that there was another toy."

"Would you be jealous?"

"Yes, I would." They both chuckled as Mark joined him in leaning against the railing. "Anyways, what is it you were really thinking?"

"That I never had to pretend to be a prince. I don't know what to do, what to say."

"Jack, you are worrying about things that we just haven't started working on yet."

"Huh?"

"Did you think I would just leave you hanging and not tell you what to do?"

"Yeah, a bit."

"Oh so little faith. Don't worry, I won't leave you to do it all on your own."

"Thanks." They both smiled at each other. "How is Rose doing? Does she have her hands full?"

"Oh yeah, especially since Ethan and Tyler are insisting on joining us."

"Seriously? Oh, that poor girl has so much work to do."

"Yeah, I know. That is going to take a while. Hopefully, we will have enough time to get them finished and get you royalty ready."

"How long do you think we have?"

"I have no idea." Jack looked at him with a head shake. "What? I don't know everything." The man laughed at his friend's honest statement.

"Of course you don't. If you knew everything then we wouldn't be here."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, you would know how to break this spell on you, you would know how to defeat that rat, you would know how to get your family back. I wouldn't be here, you would be gone."

"Well, I'm not so sure about that."

"What do you mean?"

"I still would have gotten you."

"No, you wouldn't have."

"How do you know?"

"Because you could have gotten to your friends on your own." Mark thought about that and realized that he was right. He wouldn't have gotten Jack. Things really would have been different if he already knew everything.

"Yeah, you are right. But you know what? That didn't happen and now we are here. So let's enjoy what we got." They just shared a smile before looking back out at the kingdom.  It was twilight so the stars and the lights of the kingdom twinkled. It was a beautiful sight to see and both men were glad to enjoy it together.

"So what do you plan on doing once you get there? Are you going to try and talk to your brother?"

"On no. Definitely not. I want to live to see the next day." There was a chuckle from both men. "No uh... I want to talk to my mom. I want to let her know that... Well... I want her to know... Oh god, there is so much I want to tell her." Jack put a hand on his back and gave him a few comforting pats.

"I'm sure when the time comes you will know just what to say." Mark couldn't stop the laugh that came out of his mouth. "Hey! That was sincere!"

"No no no. I thought you were going to pretend to be my mom so I could figure out what to say!"

"Why would I do that!?"

"I don't know, because you would be trying to help!?"

"When does that ever help!"

"It doesn't!"

"I know!" Their laughter could be heard at the bottom of the stairs where both Tyler and Ethan were standing, waiting for Mark to come down.

"Well, at least he sounds happy." Tyler remarked calmly.

"Yeah. Happy." Ethan echoed his words more quietly, very deep in thought.

"So which one is going up?"

"You can do it Tyler. I did last time."

"Alright." The taller general headed up the spiral staircase to separate the two men. Ethan had a frown that kept growing as he thought of what Tyler had said. Mark was happy with Jack, but why was it bothering Ethan? No one could tell what exactly he was feeling, but anyone could tell it wasn't pleasant. The pair of men came down with Jack staying upstairs to admire the scenery.

"Alright, let's get this planning started. We need to make sure we do this smart. I don't want anything to go wrong and end with us all burning in a fireplace." Mark ended the statement with a hint of a grim tone. Tyler looked confused and tried to understand what He meant.

"We are all wood Tyler." Ethan clarified for him.

"Oh." He dragged out his 'oh' as he realized he was right. The prince did let out a chuckle at his general's reaction.

"Ok, now that we have cleared that up let's get started."