Title:Just a Pinch of Good Dreams
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Rating: K+
Pairing: None.
Warnings: Mentions of character death, sadness/angst, some spoilers, etc.
Crossover: Rise of the Guardians with Mother 3
Disclaimer: I do not own either series.
Summery: Sandy can feel the deep need of a child who needs a good dream, and sometimes, they are much farther than the usual ones. But no matter how far they are, he'll do his best to help them as much as he can.
Just a Pinch of Good Dreams
Sandy had felt the deep tingling inside his core and knew immediately what it meant but was surprised at the suddenness and the ferocity of it. Usually he could tell when one of these 'tingles' was coming, but this one had no warning. The small man slowly closed his eyes and ignored the others in the room around him as he began to focus on the tingle.
It pulled him out of the room, although his body still stood at the same spot. The tingle pulled him out of the room and up into the sky and then space and away from Earth, going so fast that everything was a blur of space and bright stars. Finally he reached a planet that looked so much like Earth, though the small guardian knew it wasn't. He followed the tingle, letting it pull him towards the one that needed him.
He was led towards a small house that was farther away from the small village that he passed. Outside of the house was some sheep in a pen and a dog sleeping in its dog house. The dog, as if sensing him, opened its eyes sleepily and paused as it saw Sandy standing there. Putting a single finger to his lips, Sandy smiled and then sent some sand towards the dog, sending it back into dreamland. With miniature bones flying around his head, the chocolate colored dog put its head back down and fell back asleep with a sigh. Sandy nodded, satisfied, before moving towards the front door of the house and slipping inside.
It was a small house, the living room and the kitchen were all one room and an open doorway leading to where Sandy instinctively knew was the bedroom. The tingle was pulsing now, and Sandy knew he would find the child who needed him. Walking into the bedroom, he found two beds, one was empty, but the other had a small body curled under the covers. Even from doorway, the small man could feel the waves coming off from the nightmare.
Walking over to the child, who had bright blond hair, Sandy placed a hand on the boy's shaking shoulder. The fear and the sadness was even more noticeable now, there was so much that Sandy understood why the call had been so urgent now. Sitting on the edge of the bed which seemed much too big for one young boy, Sandy places some of his purest, happiest, dream sand onto the boy and watched as it slowly sunk into the boy's restless dreams. Sandy watched as the dreams which had been filled with scary images of running through a forest and hearing screams of pain turned into the boy playing with another boy who looked much like him with a woman with long brown hair in a field. The small blond haired boy smiled and cuddled into his pillow.
Feeling accomplished that he was able to help the small boy, even with what felt like it wasn't enough to heal the boy's broken heart; Sandy got up and was going to leave when the front door suddenly opened. He knew the likely hood of someone seeing him in this world was very, very low, but guardian went still out of habit and waited.
A man came into the small house, with a deeply tired look on his face. Sandy was sure that if he didn't have such a look on his face, he wouldn't look as old as he does at the moment. The man took off his hat, a cowboy hat that Sandy admired, before making his way quietly into the bedroom. The man, who Sandy was sure was the little boy's father, took the seat on the side of the bed where the small man had sat only moments before. With deeply sad eyes, the man watched his son sleep as he gently stroked the boy's blond hair. After a while of doing that, the father got up and moved towards his own bed, falling into his own uneasy sleep.
Sandy paused and briefly contemplated on what to do. It was rare for him to give good dreams to adults, seeing as children were much easier to please and were in need of good dreams more then adults. But obviously, whatever was bothering that child was also bothering his father. Without hesitation, he sprinkled some of the sand that he had given the boy onto his father.
The guardian watched as the man's dreams became more of a memory, of him and the woman with long brown hair with the blond haired boy and another boy, all of them together and happy. The dream was happier then before, but with a hint of bitter sweetness.
Suddenly Sandy felt another tingling that turned to a tug and he felt his eyes open suddenly. He wasn't in the room with the father and son anymore, but he was back in North's workshop. Blinking a few times, the small man looked up and saw Jack looking down at him with a slight grin.
"Hey there Sandy, time to wake up! North wants to talk about plans for Christmas this year and if I have to stay awake, so do you." Jack grinned and Sandy grinned back at him.
Sandy had attempted a couple of times to explain the 'tingles' to the other guardians but it had never gone over very well. They had enough trouble trying to read the normal day to day signs, and trying to understand the concept of helping children of other worlds would be too confusing and time consuming. Though Sandy thought if he tried to explain it to Jack, the boy might understand. The winter spirit was frightfully good at figuring out what he was trying to say.
Shaking his head with a smile, Sandy decided to put it off to another time.
XxXxXx
A couple years passed when Sandy felt the tingle again. It was just as urgent and unsettling as before, and before he knew it, Sandy was visiting that world once again. Instead of visiting the house like last time, he was guided towards a castle. Once inside and when he finally found the way, Sandy found a room with three people in sleeping bags in what seemed to be a sleepover.
There was a girl with pink hair, sprawled out on her bedding, slightly nudging a slightly older man with brown hair with her foot. The man slept soundly and deeply enough, but Sandy sprinkled some happy dreams onto the both of them and watched as they both seemed to sigh happily and dream.
The boy from those couple years ago was there with his dog cuddled next to him. Of course, Sandy wasn't surprised to see that it was the boy's bad dreams were the ones who needed fixing. The sadness he felt from the boy seemed worse than before, and the nightmares plaguing the boy were proof of that. Sandy stood next to the boy and the dog lifted its head and looked directly at Sandy.
While the dream guardian wasn't surprised that a dog could see him, the sadness in the dog's eyes as it looked at the boy and then back to him did. It seemed that the dog understood that the boy was having a nightmare and seemed to beg Sandy to drive them away. Touching the boy's head, and his dreams, Sandy saw the boy's dreams.
Over and over the blond haired boy watched as another boy, one that Sandy recognized from the boy and his father's previous dreams, smiled before taking a bolt of lightning straight to the body. The brother, who had become some defiled version with metal and a strange mechanical red eye, died in the boy's arms over and over again with nothing able to save him. Not knowing the full story, but feeling nothing but empathy for the young boy, Sandy began to work.
Slowly but surely, Sandy's magical sand began to take away the sad and the horrible, peeling away the metal and blood and misery from the brother, and bringing back the cheerful and happiness that was once there. The background, which seemed to be a cave, blurred into a field and with a bright blue sky above. The brother smiled widely and waved at the blond haired boy.
"Lucas!" The brother called out, "Come on sleepy head! Let's go see the drago's baby! I bet they'll even let us play with them!"
The blond haired boy, Lucas was his name, blinked and with tears in his eyes gave a smile back.
"Okay Claus." Lucas smiled, radiating pure joy and love, and ran towards his brother and holding the other's hands as they ran off in the dream.
Pulling away from the dream, Sandy smiled at the young boy. He would be fine. Maybe not right away, but by the looks of it he had friends who loved him who would take care of him. Tapping the chocolate colored dog on the nose, the loyal friend fell asleep before his head even touched the ground. Feeling satisfied, Sandy let his 'tingle' begin to take him back.
Before he was pulled away though, he saw a woman with long brown hair and a red dress who was transparent standing over Lucas with a small smile. She turned to Sandy and he knew that she saw him. She mouthed 'Thank you' to him and all Sandy could offer was a quick nod before he was back in his body.
Feeling a sense of accomplishment, Sandy smiled and spread out more sand to not just children, but to adults too.
Everyone deserved some happy dreams.
Owari
Inumaru12: I have this weird little headcanon that Sandy can reach children of other worlds if they really need him since he is a star and all (at least, I think so. I haven't read the books yet). So yeah, Lucas isn't the first child he's touched and it leaves it open for lots of crossover ideas (though I don't think I'll be writing any of those soon).
Thanks for reading!