Unfinished Smurfs

Chapter 17: Pranks And Punishments

"It was jus' a joke!" Jokey dismissed, still giggling, as if the last few hours of terror had no effect on him.

"You almost smurfed us all killed!" Hefty shouted, his face turning vaguely purple in a way Brainy hadn't seen on him before but had seen on others enough times to guess it meant he was really angry.

"Eh, y're fine." Jokey shrugged, laughing harder. He winked. "But if ya really didn't like this joke, y're gonna hate th' surprise I have fer next week!"

Brainy felt a cold shiver of fear go through him, but not because of Jokey's words, as horrifying as they were. No, his reaction was due to the growl that had emerged from Hefty's throat. It was unsmurfy, like something a cat might make. It was a dangerous sound.

Dangerous enough to finally phase Jokey, apparently, as he turned on his heel to run. Jokey was fast, but Hefty was too close and with too long a reach for that to matter, his hand easily closing around Jokey's arm and pulling them both to the ground.

Brainy had never seen... Well, actually, that wasn't true — he'd seen Hefty hurt other Smurfs, because Hefty got into fights with his bruiser friends all the time. This was, however, the first time he'd ever seen the other beat a Smurf who had little to no chance of fighting back.

Laughter got switched for pained grunts, and Brainy wasn't sure if he should try to stop this or not (he wasn't entirely sure if he could stop it), but in the end it didn't matter. It was over quickly, with Jokey sporting a purple eye and a handful of light bruises, but nothing worse. Nothing like what Brainy might've expected. Nothing like what he knew Hefty was capable of.

Hefty looked calmer, yet vaguely sick, eyes avoiding Jokey even as he continued restraining him. Hefty breathed deeply, and Brainy was surprised to recognize a meditation pattern, before turning to the other from where he sat on the ground.

"Jokey and I will smurf here for the Redcaps, you guys go find Doctor," Hefty told them, ignoring Jokey's look of horror at the prospect of being left alone with him. Or maybe it was at the idea of facing the Redcaps. Or maybe it was both. "There's no reason for you guys to stay and maybe smurf in trouble, you smurfed nothing wrong."

"Neither did–" Brainy tried to insist, but Hefty interrupted him. For once, he couldn't bring himself to be upset by that.

"Yeah, I did." And Hefty was still so calm, his tone leaving no room for argument.

So what else could they do but obey?

//Later

"Hefty, apologize to Jokey," Papa ordered, and Brainy winced from the crowd. Just this once, he was absolutely 100% certain he knew what was about to happen better than Papa, because he knew Hefty better than Papa.

//(Change it to Brainy being certain that Hefty will, because Papa said to and he always knows what's best, even though a part of him doesn't feel like Hefty should?)

"No, sir," Hefty replied, standing at attention. Before Papa could say anything more, he continued, "What I did was wrong, I should never have smurfed violence against a fellow Smurf like that, and I will accept whatever disciplinary action you see fit. But I will not apologize when Jokey still doesn't smurf that what he did was wrong."

"It was jus' a joke!" Jokey scoffed.

"A joke that's going to add to Brain-man's nightmares," Hefty replied quietly. Quietly, but with something dangerous enough to make Jokey take a half-step back. "A joke that Smurfette's going to pretend didn't bother her, but she doesn't always bounce back as easily as the rest of us, so it will. A joke that made Clumsy cry."

"He cried?" Jokey asked, but not in the excited, self-satisfied tone Brainy would expect. Instead, he just sounded... horrified.

"You might smurf it's a joke, but the four of us are going to spend weeks getting back to normal." Hefty sighed. "Even me. Hitting you was wrong, Jokey, but if being scared I'll smurf it again is the only way to keep you from smurfing this again... So be it, I'm not apologizing."

Everysmurf held their breath as they waited for Jokey to respond. Out of all the possible responses, from laughing to screaming to half-hearted lies, nosmurf expected Jokey to turn and pick out specific faces from the crowd.

"I'm sorry, Clumsy, fer makin' ya cry. I'm sorry, Smurfette, I forgot how much this stuff affects ya." He locked eyes with Brainy, smirking. "Sorry, Brainiac, I didn't know ya had nightmares."

Thank you so much, Hefty, for revealing that little fact. Brainy was going to get him for this.

Jokey turned back to Hefty and Papa, serious again. Or, as serious as he ever got. "I probably owe ya an apology too, Hefty, but my eye still smurfs, so... Let's smurf th' no apology thing even an' just accept our punishments?"

"Deal." Hefty nodded.

"Don't think this means I won't prank ya," Jokey warned, giggling. "I just, heh, won't prank ya that badly."

//Still Smurflings? Snake involved?