Val skipped around int he air as the sun set over the mountians. She loved this time of day, it was so romantic it almost caused her to puke. Val - AKA Valentine, AKA Cupid - found her job ironic. Here she was bringing joy and love to others but she lacked anyone to love herself. Sure, she loved people, but those people were more like family love. Like North. Val loved him like a father and Tooth like her Mother and Bunnymund like her awesome uncle. But she had never met anyone who truly loved her.
Val hummed softly to herself as she floated down to her favorite tree, a passion fruit tree no less. She smiled as she picked the sweet fruit and ate happily, watching the sky go from blue, blue/pink, pink, orange, red and finally purple. She had made three people find their soul mate today, it wasn't easy, so rarely did it happen and so very often she saw women leave their soul mate and go for the wrong person. If only Melanie knew John was going through a rebelious faze that would end in five months, and he'd be the good boy Melanie fell in love with. But Melanie was now wth Brent and Val saw that in seven months, John would give up on her and date her best friend, Hillary. Val could see who people would fall in love with and what their outcomes would be up until they died.
"Hey, love bug! 'ows it hanging?" Bunny asked from the ground. Cupid sat up and looked down at Bunny, who was checking in with her, as was comon practice with a new Guardian.
"Pretty good, yourself?" She called down. Bunny only shrugged and staredup at her. She was used to it, anybody who looked at her saw something different and it was always their ideal person. Bunny saw her as a red haired farmer girl we freckles, a memory of when a farmers daughter would set carrots out for him before he was the Easter bunny. Santa saw her as a starry eyed child of six years. Tooth saw her as a suave ma with the most perfect teeth in the world and Sandy as a sleepy eyed baby. Val had yet to meet the guadian who came before her. Jack Frost. She guessed he'd see her as a beautiful woman in a snowsuit.
"North wants to have a quick meeting." Bunny called up.
"You got it, coming." She called down, setting her fruit down and jumping down. Her wings spread as she floated down. She didn't think her wings were anything special, just your basic angel wings that stuck out from her back. Val prefered to wear halter tops so she wouldn't have to cut holes in her hoodies, not that she had any, though, but if she did!
Bunny tapped the ground and a hole appeared between them. "Ladies first." He said, gesturing down.
"Thank you, dear sir." She said, curtseying and jumping in. She loved traveling by tunnel, wings really wore you down after a while.
Her and Bunny skidded down the tunnels till she saw a light and jumped for it, landing in the middle of Santa's Globe room. Tooth sighed when she saw her and Val shrugged it off, she was used to it, no one ever saw the real her.
"Good to see you again, friend." North said happily.
"Zdravstvuyte , Sever, ya nadeyus', chto vse idet khorosho?"
"Very much so, thank you." North said as he laughed.
"Hi, Val! How're the teeth?" Tooth ased, reaching slowly to Vals mouth.
"Toooooth." Val warned, holding up a finger.
"Sorry." Tooth squeak before zipping off. Val yawned and kicked the ground.
"So what's this meeting about, huh?" She asked, flapping her wings once to give her enough lift to land ontop of the globe as she looked it over. "The lights are okay, I see."
"It is not children problem, this is simple check up." North said, gesturing for her to come down. Val jumped and spread her wings, catching enough air for her to float safely down.
"Simple check up? Alright, I get it, so what's up?" She asked, snatching a cookie from a passing elf.
"Please, sit at table, more comfortable." North said, leading her around the globe to a large table. Someone was already sitting there, someone she didn't expect to see.
Jack Frost himself.
Val laughed and flapped her wings quickly, flying over to him. "So I finally get to meet my senior Guardian?" She asked happily, landing on the table in front to him.
"Senior, I'm younger than you!" Jack laughed. It was true, Jack was 337 years old while Val was only 94,834 years old.
"Still, you became a Guardian before me! That's pretty cool. No pun intended." Val giggled.
"How has your time as Guardian been, dear?" Tooth asked, taking a seat herself and motioning for Val to do the same.
"Fairly easy." Val commented, standing on the table and taking the seat opposite Jack. "But I think I work a little differently than you." She said as she plopped down, grabbing another cookie from a passing elf.
"How so, Valentine?" North asked. Val stiffened at the name 'Valentine' but continued.
"I don't make every single couple I see fall in love." She told them, taking her bow and arrow from her back and laying them ont he table in front of her. "Yes, I know I'm probably causing people pain if I don't set them up with the one they believe to be 'The One', but what kind of Guardian would I be if I did?" She asked, suddenly looking around the table. "If I did people would be stuck with the wrong person and learn it the hardway."
"It's not your job to decide what's best, merely to help people find love." North said simply.
"I did do that! 1957, April 13th...I shot a girl with an arrow and fired the matching one at her boyfriend because I only saw the love they had for one another...I didn't see the girl was horrible and the only love she felt for him was his money...I just saw the looks they gave one another...three years later they were married...three weeks later she was dead because he caught her cheating...the man she was having an affair with was her Soul Mate...if I hadn't of shot that arrow at them then I could have set her up with her Soul Mate!" Val said, her fists slamming into the table at the end of her rant.
Everyone was silent for a while, looking to one another for advice. "What happened to the guy?" Val looked up at Jack, who was leaning across the table. "What happened to him?"
Vals eyes lost some of their hostility as she sighed, "his next wife was his Soul Mate..."
"You lost one but helped another, it's not much of a win but you helped him in that way. I"m guessing he would have never would have met that girl if it wasn't for him killing his wife?" Val nodded.
"She was an english student and started a pen-pal assignment, he was her pen-pal and they fell in love..."
Jack looked at her as though she had finally realised the answer was in front of her face and smiled. "You messed up, we all do. Trust me, I've messed up A LOT, ask North, I hold the record on the Naughty List." Jack said. Val knew of his mess ups. All those blizzards where people were caught int heir cars for days. No matter how hard they tried, each Guardian made huge mistakes that sometimes ended in lives being lost, but this was very rare. Bunnymund had one case where a small girl saw what she believed to be an egg on the bottom of a pool and jumped in, unable to swim. They found her when it was too late.
North one day ona Christmas round was seen by a small ten year old who had run form his house to follow him. The poor boy was new to the town and didn't know how to get home and wandered the street cold and frightened before hypothermia set in.
Val had her share too, but mostly in her older days when she would shoot her arrows willy-nilly at anyone who looked goo-goo-eyed at someone. Someone once made the joke that she had a hand in creating AIDS. She always groaned at that. They were HIPPIES! It was so confusing the way they looked at everything in such a loving way and she had shot so many arrows that day she had lost count.
Val was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't know that the meeting was continueing without her. Right now, Tooth was explaining the problem with bullies these days, and how they'd take teeth from their victims to get money. Val shook off her funk and leaned back in the chair, looking at the dark wood of the table as she twiddled with an arrow, running her finger over the tip which was carved from Rose Quartz. These particular quartz's came from a large hidden mine under Paris, France, making their magic more potent. Across from her, jack had his hands on his hands. He was still a young guardian like Val and he hated these meetings.
Val yawned silently as the conversation moved to Bunnymund and his trouble with the tunnels. Jack turned his attention to Val and rolled his eyes, sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth. Val held back a giggle and shot a playful glare at him. Jack smiled back happily as the the conversation moved to Sandman, whose talking was reduced to images made over his head by his dream sand. Jack and Val held in their laughs as Sandy went on, gesturing wildly.
"Yes, cafiene is becoming an issue in children these days." North agreed, nearly causing Jack and Val to loose their cool. Jack looked at Val as her gaze was fixed on the other and smiled. She looked perfect. Perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect everything. Val turned her attention back to him and smiled brightly at him, flashing pearly white teeth behind rose red lips.
"Hey! Jack! Wait up!" Val called, flying after him, her wings aching slightly from the cold.
"Hey, Valentine, what's up?"
"Please don't call me 'Valentine'." Val grumbled. Jack watched her for a moment and stopped flying.
"Ok, I won't, so what's up?"
"I want to know what I look like to you." Val said simply.
"What you look like? I don't know...like you?" Jack said, confused. He didn't know people viewed her differently.
"You see, everyone who looks at me sees me differently. Bunnymund sees me as a red haired farm girl from his past, Tooth as a handsome man with perfect perfect teeth and so on, so what do I look like to you?" She asked, tilting her wings so she could hover.
Jack looked her up and down for a moment before smiling, "what I'm looking at now is a woman with long dirty blonde hair, it could almost pass for brunette, maybe down to her mid back...She has dark blue eyes like the night sky...pale pink skin...rose cheeks, rose red leps...wearing a baby blue halter top and a long black skirt." Jack recited what he saw. Val just floated there, staring at him blankly. "Did I say something weird? You asked what I saw ad I'm telling you I see-"
"I know what you said...and I don't believe you." Val said sternly. "You don't see me that way, it's impossible."
"No...because I see that, I see a mole - or is it a beauty mark - on you neck, right there!" Jack said, poking her neck. "You also have a single freckle, there, and you-"
"You see me..." Val siad breathlessly.
"Of course I do..."
"No...you see ME...the real me...what I really look like..." Val said, a blush on her cheeks.
