39 Suns- Family, Fluff, and Friends

— Jon ---

Waking up to the blaring of his phone’s alarm, he couldn’t help but groan at the various aches and pains still filling his body after that mess at the Gamer Guild’s Dungeon.

(Thought it was just the exhaustion yesterday.) He sighed, running a hand down his face before sitting up and trying to stretch out some of the pain, hoping it would loosen him up enough to make it through the day like it had several times before but alas, “Yeah, no that’s not helping…”

Glancing over to the small bundle of pillows and blankets -(closer than usual)- that Pix had claimed as her nest, he was briefly tempted to wake her to see if she could do something about the aches that the Dungeon’s Heal hadn’t managed to take care of. Something he was reluctant to do, especially given how stressed she must’ve been waiting on him to recover the day prior.

He watched her for a moment before shaking his head as he decided, “Eh, I can suck it up until she’s actually awake.” and forcing himself onto his feet so that he could make his way towards the kitchen to get a start on breakfast.

“You’re up early.” He told his ma as he passed her already drinking a cup of coffee as she poured over several documents.

“Up late actually.” His ma corrected, before looking at him and frowning, “And you’re kind of dead at the moment.”

“I’m what?”) He swallowed.

“I said, you look half-dead kid.” His ma repeated, eyeing him with concern. “I’m guessing you’re still not over whatever put you down early last night?”

“Right, I… I guess not…” He admitted, pinching at the bridge of his nose to make the ache in his eyes go away as he remembered texting his ma that he was crashing early and that she’d have to grab dinner on her way back.

“Well, I’m too tired for training today anyway, so why don’t you take the day off too?” His ma told him getting up from her seat.

“Yeah, maybe I’ll just go for a light jog today.” He half agreed.

Rolling her eyes, his ma ran a hand through his hair as she passed. “Taking a day off isn’t going to kill you, kiddo.”

(Maybe not today, but what about tomorrow?)

“Look if you’re lucky this’ll just be a twenty-four hour thing and you’ll be good by dinner.” His ma continued. “And if not, well you’re always the one telling me to take care of myself, so why not follow your own advice and take it easy for a few days, huh?”

“Well, given how our roles are reversed I guess that means I’m supposed to ignore that advice, right?”

His ma snorted at that. “Smart ass.”

---

“Morning sleepy head.” He greeted Pix as she looked up from her blanket pile. “How are you feeling?”

The little fairy made a tired chirping sound before seeming to get a bit more energy when she noticed him setting a plate of pancakes on his desk.

“Glad to see you’ve got some energy after that disaster yesterday.” He admitted, earning a shrug of sorts from Pix as she happily -and literally- dived into her breakfast.

(Sometimes I wonder just how different a fairy’s logic is for her to get over everything so quickly or how badly I’ve messed up to make her numb to it all.)

He shook his head at that though, before wincing as the action pulled at something in his neck and shoulder.

Pix’s attention snapped to him with an odd sort of intensity, and he felt compelled to explain that, “The Dungeon Heal from yesterday fixed the worst of my injuries but given how I was yesterday, I guess it missed a couple of things here and there.”

The little fairy frowned as her entire face seemed to scrunch up, before she suddenly shot into the air and started circling around him, a glowing trail of magic following her as he was surrounded by her magic, so much warmer than his own.

Slowly the warmth soaked into his muscles as bit by bit every ache and pain in his body slowly faded from existence as all of the small bits of damage were mended by Pix’s magic. Until after a (too quick) moment the little fairy cut off the flow of magic before flitting around him to see if she’d missed anything.

“Thanks, you didn’t have to-”

Pix zipped barely an inch from his face, a stern look on her own as she cut him off.

“Hmm, thanks.” He couldn’t help but smile in contentment.

---

Given how much like his Ma he was incapable of sitting inactive for too long, it barely took him an entire day before he eventually found himself pacing in front of a large Spell Circuit drawn on a piece of cardboard laying on the floor of his room.

“Okay, so… theoretically this Spell Circuit should allow me to summon an F-Rank Magical Creature.” He told Pix as he continued to read out of one of his contracting books before switching to his Contractor’s Creature Compendium. “And then if I tweak this… and this… it should allow me to summon a Flufflepuff.”

He figured seeing as how they were considered one of the easiest creatures to summon as well as the mascot of the Arcane Association made them the ideal first summon with a circuit he’d designed himself. (Well that and they’re supposed to be good with kids.) (That’s the most important part.)

“Right, so all that’s left is to give it a bit of magic.” He nodded, setting aside his books.

“Here’s hoping this works.” He swallowed as he placed both of his hands on the circuit.

Steeling himself he began channeling the magic from his amulet through his body and into the Summoning Circuit, causing electricity to flow and dance through the circle occasionally sparking into the air as the magical energy sought out a purpose for itself. The energy slowly picked up speed around the circuit as read out the plan he’d given for it to fulfill, until at last the energy leapt into the center of the circle before blasting out in a wave of light.

(He couldn’t tell how long the light burned for, whether the screaming in the air was him or the beast, when he hit the ground, or even when the light had finally stopped. All he knew for sure was that the light could hurt far more than broken bones and seared flesh.

But slowly, laying there, a blurred vision began to return to him, and though both severely damaged by the light and likely never to fully recover on its own, it did assure him that the light had indeed, mercifully stopped.)

He gasped as his eyes shot open, taking in a number of deep breaths before letting them out in shaky bursts. (Great, another memory to have flashbacks of.)

A twitch of movement caused his contracted pupils to dart to the center of the circle where a fluffy white ball of fur about the size of a large melon laid, before twitching ever so slightly.

Seeing that the thing was (probably) harmless he forced himself to calm down before crouching closer to the twitching sphere of fluff, and as he neared it the ball uncurled revealing a fluffy white creature with four stubby little paws, two beady black eyes, a large yawning mouth, and an odd brown pattern over its left eye.

The little creature that he recognized from the pictures in his compendium drowsily rubbed at its eyes before blinking and looking around the room. It eventually spotted him looming over it and blinked once more before raising a paw into the air and waving at him with a large smile.

“You are adorable.” He told the little flufflepuff with unrepentant honesty.

Pix gave him a look before landing in front of the Flufflepuff with crossed arms and an unimpressed look.

The little Flufflepuff tilted its head as it eyed the equally little fairy curiously.

Pix seemed to scoff before reaching to shove the flufflepuff and freezing the moment her hand touched its fur.

Not a moment later the little fairy had tackled the flufflepuff and was rubbing her face into the little creature’s fur while making a repeating chirping sound. After a moment of this Pix sat up and pointed at the flufflepuff with an astonished look on her face.

He couldn’t help but smile at that. “I’m guessing you’re liking how fluffy they are, huh?”

Pix nodded happily before turning back to the flufflepuff and receiving a large tongue across her face, freezing the little fairy in place with a look of absolute disgust and horror.

The flufflepuff continued to smile happily.

Seeing the oncoming storm, he quickly separated the two by picking each of them up with one hand before setting Pix on the bed and handing her a piece of a blanket to wipe her face off with.

“Right, so um, you need a name.” He told the flufflepuff.

Briefly he considered coming up with a name based on ‘flufflepuff’ before quickly remembering what Ying had said about his naming skills when he’d first contracted Wolf a few weeks prior. “Uh, any ideas Pix?”

The little fairy gave him a hand gesture that he had no idea where she learned it from, but he wanted to know so that he could (break someone’s fingers for teaching her.)

Shaking his head he held the flufflepuff up with a frown as he tried to run through a list of names in his head, before recalling his initial description of the flufflepuff. “Hmm, how about… Melon? Melon, the Flufflepuff.”

The little flufflepuff stared at him with wide eyes before seeming to vibrate -(No, wait, Melon is actually vibrating.)- in his hands as their mouth slowly opened to almost double their body diameter.

“Uh, Pix, something is happening…!” He warned the little fairy as Melon began to glow, before exploding in a small blast of sparkles leaving the flufflepuff panting happily (with a bow in their hair?) (What.)

“Oh, uh, I guess this means you’re a, uh, female flufflepuff?” He asked a little unsurely, not entirely sure why the bow appeared out of nowhere, or what the light show was about.

Melon gave him a happy sounding yip while one of her paws fiddled with the bow.

“Okay, then.”

---

Nearing his meeting place with Ying he couldn’t help but pause as he actually saw the Draconic teen sitting on a park bench and looking emptily into space.

“Hmm…” He frowned before shaking his head and getting a bit closer as he slipped on a (fake) smile. “Hey.”

“Oh, hey.” Ying greeted back, though just from her voice he could tell she was lacking her usual drive.

But rather than calling her out on it he took a seat next to her and waited, because while he knew he wasn’t the best when it came to grown people he did know they’d rather people not pry into their business if it could be helped, meaning the best he could do was wait for her to talk about it.

“So… what did you want to meet about?” Ying asked after a moment of silence.

“Oh, I uh, I figured out this summoning thing and figured you might want to meet them.” He shrugged, beginning to shift the flow of magic in his amulet to his new contractor’s mark, a small emblem on the back of his shoulder that he couldn’t quite make out in the mirror.

“Heh, barely a day later and you’re already diving back into the thick of things.” Ying chuckled, just a little morosely.

“It’s… I, I don’t like sitting still for too long.” He tried to explain, rubbing the back of his hands.

“Yeah, you always were moving, I don’t think you’ve ever really taken a break even at camp.” Ying nodded, leaning back in her seat.

(Because any time I try to relax while it’s peaceful someone messes with the peace.)

“How do you do it?”

He tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“I know for a fact that the Beast screwed with your head as much as he did mine, and yet that’s never really slowed you down.” Ying turned to him with tired eyes. “How do you do it?”

(Repress my trauma until I snap and kill something.)

“Heh, I just… I don’t think about it.” He swallowed nervously. “It’s one of the first rules of dealing with Madness: ‘Don’t think about it too hard or it’ll drive you mad.’”

That was probably the lesson from Rogers that had helped him the most in the early days, back when his eyes would bleed whenever he looked at a Corrupted for too long. It was also the only lesson that made him cut the quartermaster some slack on his drinking habits.

“Don’t think about it.” Ying repeated with a wry grin. “That sounds easier said than done.”

“It is.” He agreed. “But the best I can do is keep moving and hope things get better.”

“And if they don’t?”

(Murder whatever ‘s messing things up.)

“They do, one way or another.” He told her, grabbing her knee to ground himself as much as reassure her. “And if it ever gets to be too much, me and Pix are here for you.”

“I know.” Ying told him with a half smile.

He nodded, before taking a deep breath and pushing away the shadows in his head, the memories reminding him that just because he accepted the beast as part of him didn’t change the fact that he was a monster.

(No, I’m not.)

He ran a hand down his face before turning back to Ying. “What exactly brought all of this on?”

Ying was quiet for a moment. “I thought I was strong enough to resist the Beast’s call, but he just… he just took me over like it was nothing. Turned me into a monster a-”

“You’re not.” He told her even more forcefully than he told himself. “You’re not a monster.”

“I almost believe you but the thoughts that ran through my head when the dragon took over, I can still feel them in my head.” Ying confessed tapping at the side of her head as her eyes became more draconic in nature. “And it, it reminds me that no matter how hard I try I will always be part dragon now, that these impulses for violence, lust, and greed are never going away.”

Part of him wanted to tell her that it’d only been a few months since the first time she’d been Corrupted, that if she gave it time the voices and instincts would fade, and eventually she’d be able to readjust to her old normal, but… The Beast knew that’d be lying.

“Yeah… those don’t go away.” He admitted, feeling the Beast watching him from within. “The, the best advice I can offer is to… distract yourself by… reminding yourself of… who you are.”

“Who I am?” Ying asked, her face scrunching up in confusion.

“Yeah, who are you?” He nodded, turning in his seat so that he was facing her. “I mean, I know who I am, or I like to think I do. I’m Jon Whitaker, son of Minerva Whitaker, the only person in my household who can cook, the best counselor at Camp Bet, an avid reader and fighting enthusiast, magic apprentice of Edna Donovan and Alexander DeSade, friend to kids, and best friend of Pix the fairy and Ying the teen.”

He made sure to look her in the eye, to make sure she was listening to his words and understood something he was still coming to terms with himself. “What you need do to do is ask yourself who you are, and then focus on that person, distract yourself from the Madness by reminding yourself who you are at your core with or without the Madness and magic flowing through your veins.”

“Focus on who I am…” Ying repeated once more as she leaned back thoughtfully. “So the question is, who am I?”