It's Dark; It's Cold; It's Winter

Rise of the Guardians fanfiction

Pitch/Jack/Pitch, eventually

Disclaimers: All I own are the ticket stubs to this movie that I'm collecting (three so far). I don't own the characters, nor do I own most of the ideas herein other than what is technically just my headcanon (and there is lots of headcanon in here). Haven't written fanfic in an extremely long time, so I apologize if it gets weird. M rated for later funness, all of which will be consensual, go figure. We're gonna start off with some nice in medias res, and then jump back for some explanation which will take a few chapters. Drop a line if you guys like how it's going so far.

Chapter One

"Jack? Jack, are you in there? What's wrong?"

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong, I'm fine!" He was horrified to hear that his voice cracked slightly in panic as he spoke; the voice outside his door ceased for a moment before a hand hammered on the wood that acted as the only barrier between his room and the factory outside of it. North had been very kind in providing him with his own space at the Pole, considering that he didn't really have what could be called space of his own; but what had he been thinking, coming back now?!

"Jack, mate, open up!"

Bunny. Wonderful, Jack thought sarcastically as he moved over to the mirror, pulling down his collar and wincing at the bite mark that still stood out, stark and red against his frostbitten skin. A bite mark made by Pitch's teeth. "I'm okay! Just… just give me a minute!"

If only he hadn't run in here like a bat out of hell, scaring the elves and the yeti to the point that they notified the other Guardians of Jack's unusual entrance. Then he wouldn't have both Tooth and Bunny demanding to know what was wrong. If only he hadn't tried to speak through his panic they wouldn't have had further reason to worry. Of course, if he hadn't been panicking in the first place, he wouldn't have run in here like a bat out of hell. No, correction, if he hadn't been panicking he wouldn't have been stupid enough to come back, he would have just stayed somewhere to calm down, cool off, hide the evidence (as it were) and just act as though nothing was wrong.

But it was. It was so very, very wrong.

Oh, man, I need to calm down, Jack thought as he took a few deep breaths, still staring at his reflection. His mind raced as Bunny called out to him again, his eyes flicking wildly as he thought. Why? Why did this start? Because I came back here- no. No, no, no, not my fault, this is not my fault. Okay. Okay, uh… Pitch. This is his- no, dammit, this isn't his fault either, because I'm the one who found him- but it isn't my fault! Okay. Back. North. If I hadn't had that talk with North- no, it was before that. I had a reason that I asked him, and… Uh… Sandy. If it wasn't for those dreams- no, dammit, he doesn't control the dreams. Tooth! Tooth is the one who encouraged me to keep looking at those memories- no! No, it was before that!

And then it struck him.

Bunnymund.

Somehow, all of this, everything that had happened to him, was absolutely all Bunnymund's fault.

"Oh, come on, Bunny. How bad could it possibly be?"

"I'm not having this discussion with you." Jack's lips curved in a crooked grin as the Pooka waved one hand over his shoulder, attempting to walk off. Unwilling to let it go that easily, Jack took a quick few steps forward and jumped a bit to coast on the air next to the other guardian, his staff hooked behind his neck and a self-satisfied smirk plastered on his face. Bunnymund cast him an annoyed look. "What?"

"Nothing, I just want you to tell me," Jack said with what he hoped was an idle, totally unsuspicious shrug. It clearly wasn't, as it just earned him another eye roll. "North thinks it's funny."

"North finds a lot of things funny, mate," the Pooka said, favoring the winter spirit with a mild glare. "Just because he thinks it's funny doesn't mean it is."

"Oh, come on," Jack said, adopting his best pleading tone and twisting himself a bit to look at Bunnymund upside-down while he continued to glide along next to him. "I'm a Guardian now! You know, you've gotta know your allies! Why do all of the other Guardians get to know and not me?"

"Just because they found out somehow doesn't mean I'm going to tell you!" The way Bunnymund's voice rose a bit was the cue that Jack took and he dropped to the ground, shrugging his shoulders and walking backwards to keep the other spirit in his sight at all times.

"All right, all right, calm down," he said with a smile, holding up one hand in hopes that it would quell the rage now being directed at him. "Just curious. You can't blame me for trying."

"I blame you for breathing."

"Harsh," Jack said, the word punctuated by a quiet laugh as he noted the faint smile that Bunnymund was trying to hide. His crooked grin reappeared as he tipped his head back a bit, somehow managing to dodge a table and an elf without looking backwards. It was the early part of September, meaning that North was only just now really getting started on Christmas preparations, Easter had a long way to go before Bunnymund even had to start worrying about it, and there weren't enough places with heavy enough snowfall to warrant Jack's full attention, as it was Spring in one hemisphere and Autumn in the other. Toothiana and Sandy had their usual gigs, of course, but the other three guardians had found themselves at the North Pole for a combination of wanting companionship and having absolutely nothing better to do. Of course, North was currently working, which meant…

…well, what better way to kill time than annoying the crap out of Bunnymund?

Humming contemplatively, Jack tilted his head to the side. "Okay, so, I got a question for you."

"Not interested."

"Oh, come on, it doesn't have anything to do with embarrassing stories of your pre-Easter childhood."

Raising an eyebrow Bunnymund stared Jack down, but after a moment relented with another eye roll and a heavy sigh. Recognizing the fact that he had won, Jack grinned a little and tipped his head back once more. "How did you… y'know, find out everything about your past?"

The look Bunnymund gave him made Jack think he wouldn't answer for a moment, but upon realizing that he was serious and not pulling his leg (not that Jack knew why he would think that), he frowned a bit. "From my memories, of course."

"Right, I figured," Jack said, waving one hand quickly to dismiss that. "But I mean… when I looked at my memories that one time, right? All I saw was… a few flashes of me and my family, and then when I saved my sister right before I…" He trailed off, averting his gaze for a moment before he continued as though the pause held no significance at all. "…drowned. That doesn't really tell me anything about what I was like other than I was a goofwad and a protective older brother." He smirked a bit as Bunnymund mouthed the word 'goofwad' with a disbelieving expression. Ah, if only he'd said it out loud, too; he would have laughed about that for years, more than likely. "So what does that mean, I didn't have any other significant memories?"

"No, that's not what it means at all," Bunnymund said, shaking his head. "It just means that those were the memories you needed to see at the time."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, you heard what Toothiana told you. They hold the most important memories of childhood, but more than that, I think. They're used to help people remember what's important. I guess, at the time, you needed to be reminded of why Manny decided that you would be a good guardian."

"…huh," Jack muttered thoughtfully, his voice trailing off slowly as a thoughtful look crossed his face. "So, you mean, I could technically go to the Tooth Palace at any time and go see other parts of my memories, depending on what I need to see?"

"That's it exactly. Why don't you go do that instead of annoying me?"

"But you love my company."

Responding to the withering look with another grin, Jack was out the nearest window in less than five seconds.

The quick rambling voice let Jack know two things - Toothiana was currently there, and she was currently extremely preoccupied.

He ducked and weaved between each little baby tooth that zipped around, gathering quarters, dropping off teeth, getting new orders, and generally trying not to run into things as his quarry came in sight. Jack had to admit that she really was pretty, even though her tooth obsession was a little… well, weird. With her blue and green plumage that shone as she zipped around a background of gold… yeah, this was definitely a nice place, and it was a shame that the constant work just made it feel so chaotic. Not to say that he was one against chaos, of course, but when it was work chaos, it just wasn't for him in the slightest.

He heard the words 'incisor', 'molar', 'cusped', 'canine', as well as a bunch of numbers that were probably degrees of latitude and longitude, but he really couldn't keep up with it and that made it hard to listen. The squeaking of a baby tooth drew the faerie's attention and she turned, obviously surprised to see Jack's half-smile and slight wave from where he stood, leaning against his staff. "Jack! Hi!" she said, quickly reaching up to smooth down the feathers on the top of her head with a sudden jumpy nervousness that always seemed to come over her when he took her by surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to ask a couple of questions when you have a moment," he said with a shrug. "Didn't mean to interrupt, I can just hang out until you can take a break."

"No!" she said quickly, overriding the end of his sentence and quickly moving one hand up to cover her mouth in embarrassment. "No, no, it's okay, you aren't interrupting," she continued in a calmer tone of voice, though the last part of her sentence trailed off in an embarrassed laugh. "You… it… sorry, you just caught me by surprise, that's all. They can handle it for the time being, I've been working for about three days straight anyway."

"I really don't know how you do it," Jack said with a sigh, shaking his head. "It's because you're part hummingbird, isn't it?" he added with another half-smile, pointing at her briefly.

Grinning a little, she reached up to rub her upper arm and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess… come on, let's get out of the eye of the hurricane, it's easier to talk when we aren't in the center of the palace."

The ledge she picked was indeed much quieter, and she sat down on her knees while he let his feet dangle freely, his staff held across his lap. Adjusting her feathers much the same way as someone would a skirt, she focused her attention on Jack and took a deep breath. "There! Much better. So, what can I do for you, Jack?"

Bracing his weight on one hand, he looked out around them at the intricate wrought gold work that covered every surface. He wondered, idly, how long it would take to build something like this if a human tried to replicate… and how much it would cost. "I was talking to Bunnymund before I came here, and I kind of wanted to ask you about memories."

"Well, you've come to the right place. Is something wrong?"

The recounting of the conversation he'd had earlier didn't take terribly long, especially with him leaving out some of the finer details. When he was done, she nodded in comprehension. "You were… how old when it happened?"

"Eighteen," Jack responded, tilting his head as if silently asking why that mattered.

"Eighteen is still technically in childhood," Toothiana said, nodding slowly. "You'd lost all of your baby teeth by then, of course, but it's my job to guard every important memory." She moved one hand to gesture around; from where they were, they could just make out a huge row of compartments housing the metal tubes that held the teeth, and that was only a very, very small portion of everything. "It isn't just the good things, or the things that were happening right when you lost your teeth. It's all of the memories of youth that shapes a person into who they become when they grow up. It's amazing how many things that may seem so small in retrospect really were so important when they happened, or were so crucial in forming a person. After all, the thing that makes one person different from another is experience."

"That makes sense," Jack said with a slow nod. "So… what, can it tell what's important for you to remember at the time when you… activate it, or whatever?"

"Basically, yes. There are so many memories that it would be impossible to suddenly remember all of them at once; that would be overwhelming. So, it's just what you need to remember to help you get through hard times, or even just through a problem. When you saw your memories, you saw what made you a guardian, right?" When Jack nodded, she continued, "And you had been wondering, at the time, why the Man in the Moon had chosen you, right?" A second nod. "So, clearly, what you had done for him to choose you was the most important memory to you at that moment. I'm sure if you took a look now, you would see something completely different."

With a hum of comprehension, Jack nodded again and looked around once more. "...will you seriously not tell me what Bunny was like before he became... him?"

A sort of scandalized giggle escaped Toothiana as she looked sideways at Jack. "No, I couldn't do that!"

"Aw, why not?" he asked, putting on his best smile and making her giggle again. "Come on, how'd you find out, anyway? Did you watch his memories or something?"

"Oh, no, I can't do that," Toothiana said, raising one hand to her cheek to cover the blush that had risen there.

"Really?" Jack asked, genuinely surprised by that answer. "Why not?"

Shrugging a little, she lowered her hand as her smile turned to something smaller, but still genuine. "Well, honestly, because it isn't my business. People require privacy, after all. If I could see all of their memories without their consent, that would be invading their privacy as well as their trust. Even if I could, I wouldn't."

"But Sandy knows what people dream, and North knows, like, every bad thing that everyone's done... ever, right?"

Laughing a little at Jack's confused expression, Toothiana shook her head. "No, of course not. Children appear on the nice or the naughty list of their own doing. North just takes over from there. And all Sandy can ever see of anyone's dream is what appears in the dream sand, if he's even close enough to look."

"Huh..." Trailing off slowly, Jack tipped his head a bit. "...what's so private about it?"

Blinking slowly, Toothiana began blushing hotly and moved her hand back over her face. "Jack...!"

"What?" he asked, laughing a little at her reaction. "No, seriously, I don't get it. Like, memory-wise. What could possibly be so private that it would be soul-scarring for someone else to see? I mean, people see what others do all the time."

"Well, yes," Toothiana agreed, her face growing more red. "But that isn't the... it... it's just... the point is..." She waved her hands in front of her face before taking a deep breath to calm down, though it didn't regulate the color on her face at all. "Like... like I said, different things are important to different people. And different things shape how you grow. So... um... for instance, a... an encounter with... someone special... if it's the first time, or... there's something very... very impacting about it..."

"An encounter with someone special?" Jack echoed with a raised eyebrow. "I don't get- oh. ...oh." His voice trailed off a bit before he found himself laughing nervously, looking away quickly. "You mean- right. Uh. Yeah. I can see how... that would... yeah. Right. Okay. ...sorry."

"No, nothing to be sorry about," Tooth said with another wave of her hand. There was a silence that stretched out to a long and painful point before she broke it with a very bright, "So!" Jack jumped a little at the sudden sound, turning to face her; he was glad that he was incapable of blushing, because he would probably have been the same color that she was. "So, um, you wanted to see your memories?"

"Yes! Memories! Right, thank you," he said quickly. "I didn't... you know, want to just go look for them because there are so many and it would probably take forever and... yeah." He moved his hand to the back of his neck and rubbed it, still finding it hard to make eye contact with Toothiana at the moment. The only questions on his mind were those that would have been completely inappropriate to ask.

Had she had one of those encounters? Was that why she had turned so red?

Had he had one of those encounters, before he had drowned?

He followed her along the rows, keeping his staff far away from the tubes of teeth to ensure that he didn't accidentally end up freezing anything. She pointed him to the right tube, told him how to remove it, and also granted him permission to come back whenever he felt the need to, assuring him that the more he learned about himself, the better off he would be. With a shy smile and a little wave, she quickly flew off to get back to work.

Jack came back several times over the period of nearly a year, just to see one or two memories at a time. He didn't feel any pressing, urgent need to find out everything; being an immortal, he knew he quite literally possessed all the time in the world and he didn't particularly want to rush through it. The things that he saw, bits and pieces of Jackson Overland's life, warmed him all over in a way he wasn't accustomed to. Watching the boy that had been himself playing with his first ball, holding his baby sister for the first time, learning how to ice skate... all of it was like a window into another life, and for some reason, seeing everything didn't fill him with a sense of loss, just further purpose. He didn't feel as though he had been cheated out of anything; his death had been a noble one and he couldn't have been happier with that.

And, though he loved to watch the bits of memories the teeth afforded him, he was positive that there was absolutely nothing that he would be desperate to get back.

Nothing, that was, until he saw a night in early Autumn beside the same lake in which he drowned... a night between Jackson Overland and his best friend, the miller's son.

Well, there's chapter one out of the way. ...damn, that was long (for me). Sorry. Though everything else will probably be just this long. There is Black Frost to come in future chapters, I promise. Working up to it. Exposition is good, and good for you! Anyway, I hope this wasn't too slow of a start and I didn't lose people. Again, drop a line if you like it! And, no, there will be no Jack/Tooth in this story, don't fret, slash fans! I just found her crush on him completely impossible to ignore.