Chapter Text
After all the chaos of Easter-That-Almost-Wasn’t, meeting his spirit-siblings for their seasonal family get-together was refreshingly normal. Their secluded meeting place- somewhere in the Franco-Belgian area, he didn’t keep strict track of borders- was the same as it ever was, thick with magic and perfectly round. The nymph of the glade waved as he flew overhead, preparing to circle down for a graceful landing, and Jack waved back. A moment later, hot air blasted through the wind wrapped around him, and he yelped as he plummeted the remaining few dozen feet. Spirits didn’t splat like mortals did, but slamming into the dirt face-first was still far from comfortable. Especially when a certain perpetual toddler sat her toasty little ass on the back of his neck and shoulders and started drumming on the back of his head with her hard little fists.
“Gots Fwosty, gots Fwosty!!” Mali laughed, planting her palms on the back of his head and kicking her feet. “Gotcha gotcha gotcha!”
“So you did.” Belinda chuckled. Jack heard her footsteps rather clearly, being embedded facedown in the dirt, and she came to a stop nearby, dress rustling like a disturbed leaf pile as she knelt to ruffle his hair. “Planning on peeling yourself out of the dirt before Brian and Mother arrive?” she teased.
Jack grumbled, but Belinda’s presence helped smooth the jarring interaction of his and Mali’s magics, and when he pushed himself up he managed to keep the little spirit of summer perched on his shoulders. “Nice to see you too, brat.” he reached up to flick Mali on the nose, his little spray of frost melting quick on her sunny-warm skin as she giggled. “I’m surprised we’re the only ones here.” he said to Belinda, settling to sit cross-legged, his staff at his side.
“Brian is taking his time in the British Isles. You know how he gets.” Belinda shrugged, a few firey leaves drifting free of her crown and fluttering to the ground around her, where they disappeared into her skirts. “I’m not sure why Mother has been delayed, though.”
“Momma’s getting Gwanpa.” Mali piped up, curling around Jack’s head to rest her chin atop his hair. “Who’s Gwanpa?”
Jack silently savored the rare sight of Belinda lost for words. For all that she’d been the youngest, before Mother adopted him, she was a total know-it-all. “Well, for mortals it would be her father.” she answered after a moment. “For us... perhaps the spirit who mentored her, when she was new?”
“Momma’s poppa.” Mali nodded, and Jack laughed, helping his eldest sibling down off his shoulders.
“Yeah, Momma’s poppa.” he agreed. Arguing with ancient spirits rarely went well, and when the spirit in question was frozen at the age of about three you were guaranteed to lose. Or fail, depending on the type of argument.
“So, what kept you this time?” Belinda asked as Mali plopped herself down on the ground and started pulling up dandelions, her hot wind scattering fluffy seeds around the clearing. “More snowball fights outside your season?”
“Ha ha.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Snow in April is perfectly normal, far enough North. And the clouds haven’t actually been cooperating with me, this year.”
“Oh?” Belinda’s eyes widened in mock shock as she lifted a hand to cover her mouth. “Our darling baby brother, distracted by something other than his seasonal duties?”
“Shut uuup.” he groaned, flopping backwards, to Mali’s giggling delight.
“What were you up to, though?” Belinda asked, smoothing her hands over her skirt, shifting the leaves against each other.
“Oh, nothing much.” Jack shrugged. “Just helping the Guardians stop the Boogeyman from smothering childhood belief in our kind.”
“What?!” Belinda shouted, and Jack beamed, pulling the collar of his hoodie down and to the side, displaying the thin lines of blue ink which Bunny had painted onto his skin after they left Burgess. It was magic ink, supposedly. A less painful alternative to tattoos similar to what made the patterns in his fur. If it wound up fading, whatever, it was the thought that counted.
“I know, right?” he grinned wide. “I’m glad we’re meeting now and not like, a week ago, so I can tell you all about it.”
“Jack, this is amazing.” Belinda beamed, grabbing his hands as soon as he released his collar. “You have believers now?”
He nodded, smiling so wide his face hurt. “Seven of them, in my hometown. They’ll believe in you too, if I bring you to visit. They’re the best.”
“I’m fine not being known to mortals.” Belinda laughed softly, giving Jack’s hands a squeeze. “But I’m glad you’ve finally been seen as you wish to be. Mother will be as well, I’m sure of it. Though...” she paused, lips curling in a slight frown. “You may want to leave out the bit about the tattoo.”
Jack laughed, twisting his hands to return her grip. “Thanks, Bell.”
“Bo’ed.” Mali huffed, crossing her arms.
“If Mother will be busy a while longer, collecting our grandfather, perhaps we could venture to join Brian in the isles?” Belinda suggested.
“Bwy!” Mali threw her hands up in excitement, and thankfully didn’t launch herself into the air by accident. Belinda stood, the leaves of her dress rustling as they re-shaped from her usual full, layered skirts to something sleeker for flying in. Looking at her, Jack thought- hardly for the first time- that she looked like she could’ve modelled for statues back when she first woke as a spirit. Or... back when she was alive, he supposed, if they’d all been normal people before being reborn as they were now. Had every spirit really once been a mortal? Or had Tooth just meant ‘we’ as in the Guardians.
“Coming, Jack?” Belinda asked, and a crisp, cold breeze threw him to his feet, staff in hand.
“You know it!” he grinned. “Race ya!” he shot off into the sky, leaving his sisters behind on the ground, though they quickly caught up. Mali may not have much in the way of finesse or restraint, being eternally a toddler, but damn she sure had power. Times like these, when she came roaring through the sky at speeds rivalling a fighter jet, Jack could easily believe the eldest child of their little family had been born of Mother Nature’s own power. The rest of them had been filtered through intermediaries, the powers channelled and refined, but Mali... well, she was a toddler with the power to bring summer heat waves wherever she went, and she’d only gotten stronger in the last few centuries.
Jack didn’t slow until they were cruising over the big island in the British Isles, and Mali slowed with him, their conflicting winds making the clouds do funny things around them until Belinda caught up, her cool autumn wind mediating between Mali’s searing heat and Jack’s own icy cold.
“Vento, lead us to Brian!” Belinda instructed her wind, and the three of them curved over the land, cutting through mist until finally they landed atop a hill. Down below, past more hills dotted with sheep, was a small town, but they were far enough out no mortals would likely wander across them.
“Think he lost track of time again?” Jack asked, catching the back of Mali’s shirt with the crook of his staff and tossing her up for Belinda to catch. His sister opened her mouth to reply, but a blood-curdling scream rent the air, and both of them froze as Mali burst into wailing sobs. That was Brian’s voice.