Jack was lounging in Toothiana's palace of teeth again.
He did this often, so he could see his new found friend Baby Tooth, and to be near the Queen of the Fairies herself.
Unfortunately, Toothiana was usually too busy barking out orders to the mini fairies to be able to spend much time with the Winter Prince, so he contented himself with watching the fairies flutter about, and the queen managing what seemed like chaos to him, with ease and a seemingly never ending supply of energy.
Every once in a while though, Jack got lucky, and was around when the queen took a break. She would put Baby Tooth in charge and fly up to sit with Jack.
She would ask him if he had waited long for her, and even if he had been there for hours he would still reply that he hadn't been there long. She would smile tiredly and the sight would warm the winter prince.
Then she would rest her head wearily on his shoulder, and he would wound an arm around her to keep her close to him, and they would just talk.
These were Jack's Favorite times, because he could tell her anything, and he knew she would keep it a secret if that was what he wanted, and vice versa.
He honestly loved the Tooth Fairy with all his heart. Her kindness, her gusto, her willingness to keep trying, no matter how dark things seemed, these were just some of her best qualities.
Her every thought, and bit of energy went to the children of the world, and even though he knew it was selfish, Jack wished she would rein in a bit of that energy and save it for him.
He wanted to be important in her life. He wanted to be a part of her life.
But he knew that the children came first, and so he would have to simply cherish the time he got.
He really did love her, but he didn't tell her. He didn't want to cause problems. As much as he would love to be with her like that, to have her return his affections, he had never seen any sign that she could ever feel the same way, and he didn't want to make things awkward between them. He valued their friendship, these stolen moments in time, too much to risk it on a whim.
V_V_V
She knew he was there.
She always knew the moment he came into her domain, it was her palace after all.
Plus she may have been more than a little hyper aware of Jack Frost's appearance into her world.
If she felt that he was on his way, she always tried to look at least a little better. Smooth her feathers a little more, fluff up the feathers on her head.
She still had a job to do, so she still would continue to send fairies out, but she tried to find a lull in the flow as soon as she could.
She didn't want to keep her Prince waiting too long after all.
Sometimes though it would take hours for a break to come, and Jack would leave before she got a chance to see him.
In those moments she just wanted to scream. But that wouldn't be fair to the fairies around her.
It wasn't their fault that their queen was so enamored with a boy that she was impatient to get out of work so she could spend a few precious moments with him.
She had come to terms with the fact that she loved Jack Frost a long time ago.
The ease with which he played with the children, and that mischievous grin of his whenever he regaled her with tales of the pranks he had pulled on the other guardians. She loved all these things and so much more.
But she could never tell him. Underneath it all she was scared. Scared of scaring him off and him never coming to see her again.
None of the other guardians ever visited, only Jack, and she drank in his visits like a flower does sunshine. They were more precious to her than something silly like having her feelings returned.
As long as he kept coming back to her palace, that was all she needed.
Because when she did get that rare break, and he was around, she would seek him out.
He would be lounging someplace high, and would greet her with a smile that could light up a room.
Even though she knew he had been there for a long time, he would always tell her he hadn't been waiting long. She assumed it was to not make her feel guilty for taking so long to see him.
When she would sit, all the exhaustion that she felt would suddenly hit her, and she would lay her head on his shoulder, and he would let her, pull her closer even.
It was in those times she felt safe and like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. As if all her problems had just floated away with these simple touches.
And then they would just talk, and talk, and talk. She could tell him what she thought about, instead of the only words out of her mouth being orders.
It was a wonderful time, and she wouldn't ruin it just because she wanted more. No, this was enough for her.
V_V_V
Baby Tooth watched all of this.
Jack was her friend, and Toothiana, her queen.
She could easily see how much they loved each other, but couldn't understand why they couldn't see it themselves, and so she talked to her sisters.
After a fashion, they came up with a plan, perfect and fool proof, that would certainly get their friend and their queen together.
But first, they would need the help of another friend, and E. Aster Bunnymund would do nicely.
V_V_V
Baby Tooth had just finished explaining the plan to Bunnymund, and he had to admit, it was a good one.
He had noticed Jack had taken a liking to Toothiana, but hadn't known that the girl had felt the same.
Of course, something had to be done about this. There was no sense in letting this little problem go on forever.
Besides, if Jack was with Toothiana, maybe he would stop freezing his river so much.
V_V_V
The plan was set, now to simply wait for Jack to come back to the Tooth Palace again.
It didn't take long. Once he did, everything was set into motion.
Baby Tooth intercepted Jack, bringing him to a more secluded section of the palace, while some of her sisters went to alert Bunnymund that now was the time to act.
While the other fairies were getting Bunnymund, Baby Tooth confided to Jack that she thought her queen had feelings for him.
Jack could hardly believe his ears, and he really wanted to find out if it was true, but was afraid that if Baby Tooth had read the signs wrong, then Jack could lose Toothiana forever. He could deal with unrequited love, but a broken friendship was something else entirely.
Meanwhile, Bunnymund had already received his signal, and had already shown up to see Toothiana.
Once she had gotten over the shock of the other guardian being there, he told her about his suspicions of Jack liking her. Her face began to glow with happiness that the object of her affections could possibly feel the same way, but, she had to be certain, she couldn't act on this information all willy-nilly, her friendship with Jack meant too much to her to let her do that.
She had to be certain though. She needed to know, like a baby bird needed to fly. She made up her mind to ask the Prince of Winter directly.
Bunnymund urged her to go seek her answers now, while she still had the desire to want them, and Toothiana knew she had to go now, if she ever wanted to know for certain. If she waited too long, she would chicken out, and would let the desire die like so many other times.
Toothiana flew to where she knew Jack was, finding Baby Tooth there with him and asking her to cover for her while she spoke to Jack.
Baby Tooth was more than happy to do so, and flew off to do her queen's bidding, leaving Jack and Toothiana alone.
An awkward silence prevailed, broken when Toothiana mustered up her courage and looked Jack directly in the eyes.
"Jack... If I tell you something, can you promise that you won't stop being my friend, no matter what it is?" Her violet eyes drilled themselves into Jack's own icy blue with their intensity.
"Of course I wouldn't Toothiana, you're stuck with me for life." Jack assured her, and took a few steps forward in order to give her a hug. Toothiana returned the hug and found that, despite Jack being so cold, the hug warmed her heart regardless.
She took a deep breath to calm her sudden nerves.
"Jack... I really like you... I really, really, do. And what I want to know, is if you would ever consider feeling the same about me." Toothiana asked as steadily as she could, but her nervousness still added a tremble to her voice.
Jack felt like Easter and Christmas had come at once and both had just delivered him the best present he could ever receive.
"I really like you too Toothiana, I have for a while now. I just didn't know you felt the same way." He confessed.
The last thing he expected was two armfuls of Tooth Fairy and lips pressed to his as a camera flash went off and clapping and cheering sounded from everywhere.
The new couple sprang apart and turned to see Baby Tooth, quite a number of the mini fairies, and Bunnymund all stood around the room cheering, Bunnymund holding a camera, and waving a picture in his hand to develop it faster.
Toothiana's face burned and Jack pulled her to him and let her bury her face in his chest, wrapping his arms protectively around the queen, his queen.
He grinned at Bunnymund and the fairies. "I take it you all had something to do with this?" He asked.
"Jus givin you two the push ya needed is all," Bunnymund said with a grin, before looking at the photo, then handing it to Jack.
They had captured their first kiss really well. Jack's hands had automatically gone around Toothiana's waist, as her arms clamped themselves around his neck and Toothiana eagerly brought their lips together.
Jack knew a keeper when he saw one, and sent Bunnymund a grateful look, to which Bunnymund nodded in understanding, and turned to the other fairies, and started shooing them away from the new couple.
"I know ya all have somethin betta ta do, so clear out and give them their privacy."
Once everyone had left Jack looked down and moved back a little to see Toothiana's face.
Her big violet eyes took his breath away as she looked up at him with that tired smile of hers that he knew so well.
He sat her on one of the nearby benches in the room, and let her put her head on his shoulder, as he pulled her in closer with an arm around her.
He showed her the picture, and it made her giggle to see. Oh yes, Jack decided, this was defiantly a keeper.
After that, they simply talked, and talked, and talked, about everything they could think of. What this would change about their friendship, if anything, How to arrange for more free time for Toothiana so she could spend more time with Jack, and many more topics, until there was nothing left to be said.
In the end, they both knew this wouldn't change much, they were still friends, but now, now it was even better, because both knew that the other loved them, and there were no more secrets.
The Winter Prince had his Queen, and vice versa.
Life was good.
V_V_V
This was written for someone very close to me. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review and tell me what you thought. Thank you and have a great day.