Update: the links I left weren't working so I've updated them. also disclaimer for cover art.
AN: Greetings, sorry I know it has been almost a full year since I started rebellion, and I should definitely finish that before doing anything else. I almost have it finished; the ending just keeps being bleh. I think I've rewritten it like seven times now… but no worries! I will get it done! Just… sorry that it has taken so long.
I wrote this fan fiction as a request for my friend Sora when I was looking up names for another fanfiction, (ironically) and came across the meaning for the name Bennett. Now I believe that names having meanings in stories is always important, but when you discover something like this it is a little creepy. So Bennett means "little blessed one" thinking this cool, so I went to look up Jamie's name to see what Jamie Bennett means. Apparently Jamie means 'supplant'…. which means 'replacement' …. Therefore Jamie Bennett's name means "the replacement of the little blessed one" 0.o I took this as Jack using Jamie as a replacement for his little sister, and after seeing the movie again I can't help but keep thinking this. Thus this fan fiction has been created. FYI Sophie means "wise" so Sophie Bennett means "the wise little blessed one"
I do not own Rise of the Guardians, or any of the characters in this story.
I also do not own the cover art I have used for this story, I found the image on google, and followed it to its tumblr source. However the account that originaly uploaded it is closed, so… yeah. It was uploaded by someone called senaizumi, and if he/she wants me to take the picture down I will.
It had been almost three months since the final battle with pitch and Bunnymund was walking toward the Bennett house, easily hauling a huge bag of art supplies over one shoulder. Sophie had been asking Jack if 'the big bunny' could come over and play ever since the battle with Pitch. It had been three months since the battle, and Bunny had spent the entire time since then diligently restoring his warren. Now, after the mess had been cleaned up, he thought he ought to visit the little ankle bitter. He was just passing through the woods when he heard the familiar voice of the winter spirit filtering through the trees "no it is green."
"No," bunny's ears perked up a little, recognizing the voice of Jamie Bennett, "it is red. I told you this before, Jack please don't tell me we're going to go through this again" Bunny could just feel the exasperation in Jamie's tone, a little wary Bunny changed his course to approach the two.
"What are you talking about?" Jack frowned, he was kneeling next to Jamie near his frozen lake, talking to the brunet boy next to him "I don't see how this is so hard, your favorite color is green, so I got you a green one." He held up a wooden green toy, presenting it proudly to the little boy, "Phil painted it himself"
Jamie laid his hands gently on Jack's hands, "Jack. Thank You and make sure to thank Phil for me as well, but that isn't the problem here." Jamie looked seriously at the winter spirit in front of him, "My favorite color is red Jack. Red not green," jack looked like he was about to say something, but Jamie held up a hand to silence him "You keep doing this and it is starting to make me concerned"
"But your favorite color is green," Jack said as if it was the simplest thing in the world, then for the briefest moment Jack's eyes fell on Bunny, who was standing over in the bushes. The winter spirit froze for a second, then looked back down at Jamie, "I- guess I forgot, sorry. I'll have Phil repaint it." He took his hands away from Jamie and shoved the green toy into his jacket pocket.
"No, it's fine that it's green" Jamie said, "It's that you keep-"
"Hey Bunny," Jack hailed, cutting off the little kid in front of him, "how long are you planning on lurking over there?"
"Not long," Bunny said, walked out from behind the bushes, "I just came up actually, what you are two up to?"
"Nothing," Jack said, "just a little misunderstanding is all" he glanced down at Jamie quickly before looking back at the giant rabbit, "I eh, had Phil paint a toy for Jamie the wrong color. Forgot his favorite color." Jack said, trying to look a little guilty for a second before changing subjects, "so, what brings you here? What's the bag for?"
"Paint supplies," Bunny said shifting the bag on his shoulder, "going to paint with Sophie, want to join us?"
"Like egg painting?" Jamie said, eyes widening, "really?"
"Well I also brought canvases, but if you want I have some eggs you can paint." Bunny smiled as the kid in front of him jumped for joy. Pretending not to see the look Jack was giving him out of the corner of his eye. The winter spirit looked ticked off, however his expression changed when the child turned back to him.
"Jack, we're going to paint Easter Eggs!" Jamie said, turning to the winter spirit, "and it isn't even Easter yet!"
"Awesome," Jack said matching the kid's enthusiasm immediately, however bunny could feel that the spirit was only acting, "go get your sister and bring her here, me and bunny will set up the supplies"
"Okay, I'll be right back" Jamie said, as he ran off, nearly tripping as he looked back at them before reaching the trees.
As soon as the child was out of earshot, Bunny confronted jack "what was that?"
"What was what?"
"That looks you had on your face when Jamie wasn't looking at you"
"What look, I don't know what you're talking about" Jack said avoided, Bunny's gaze "I didn't make a look, I mean well there had to be something on my face. But I… don't know what look you are… talking about." he finished uncertainly, tapping his fingers on his wooden staff.
"You know what I'm talking about" Bunny said accusingly, then blinked as he realized, "oh my god you're jealous. Jealous because Jamie was happy to see me!"
"What no!" Jack denied, voice going high "well, maybe a little mad but jealous?" he snorted .
"Jack this is ridiculous" Bunny said, shaking his head, "I know Jamie's your first believer, and you are the best of friends, but you can't get mad just because he believes in another spirits. That's like saying he's only allowed to have one friend in his entire life"
"Well, it's just that I had planned to hang out with just him today" Jack mumbled angrily, shuffling the dirt at his feet, "then you showed up and ruined those plans"
"I'm sorry I ruined your plans" Bunny said honestly, "I didn't mean to do that. But jack" he made the teen look at him, "kids are fickle, they like doing things differently. You shouldn't get angry or resentful if they want to play with someone different every now and then. "
Jack nodded, then stepped away looking guilty, "yeah, I know. It's just… she finally sees me, you know?"
"She?" Bunny said quirking up an eyebrow, "I know I'm not exactly human but I'm pretty sure Jamie is male"
"HE" Jack said, frost accumulating on his cheeks in a blush, as he corrected himself "He- I know he is a boy stop laughing! It was a slip of the tong" Jack hit Bunny on the shoulder to stop him from laughing, "come on, let's set up your stupid rabbit paint supplies."
"Yeah, yeah" Bunny said placing his bag of paint supplies on the ground, "hey maybe you could repaint that toy you were going to give Jamie now, instead of bugging Phil about it later."
"oh, that's a great idea!" Jack said as they spread a small tarp out onto the ground, "Thanks Bunny!"
Soon the two of them had the paint supplies out, and Jamie returned with his sister. The next three hours were spent painting with the children, Jamie doing eggs and Sophie and Bunny painting on small squares of canvas that Bunnymund had brought. Bunnymund wish he could say they all had fun, but the entire time a cloud of awkwardness hung in the air between Jack and Jamie. It was almost as if Jack's presence was making the kid uncomfortable, and Bunnymund could only assume it had something to do with the almost argument the two had been having earlier. It didn't help at all that Jack was completely oblivious to Jamie's attitude, cracking jokes and being his usual self. The awkwardness reached its max when Jack gave Jamie his repainted toy at the end of the day.
"thanks Jack," Jamie said taking what appeared to be a wooden toy from Jack "do… you mind walking us home? It's getting pretty dark"
"uh yeah, no problem. Bunny I'll be back in a second to help clean up, okay?" Jack said referring to the mess of brushes and paint on the tarp beside the rabbit. He took Jamie and Sophie's hand and started walking away. As the three walked off, Jamie turned around and looked back at Bunny. He gazed strait into the rabbit's eyes, a very serious look on his face, almost as if he was trying to convey a message, before turning to reply to something Jack was telling him. Bunny frowned, wondering what the kid was trying to tell him. He found out when he turned back to the tarp beside him. Jamie had left behind his wool hat, which upon inspection had a piece of paper inside it. Need to talk. no Jack. Was scrawled on a torn sheet of paper in a child's handwriting.
Bunny frowned at the message, but smiled at the ingenuity Jamie showed at sending the message. He quickly crumpled the message, though, when he felt the wind stir around him signaling the winter spirit's return. "hey, did the kids get home okay?" Bunny asked without even looking at the spirit behind him.
"yup," Jack said happily "just in time for dinner."
"that's good to hear," Bunny said putting the caps back on the paint and stowing them away.
"oh no," Jack paused from picking up the brushes when he caught sight of Jamie's hat, "Jamie left his hat."
"oh, yeah you guys had already left when I noticed it" Bunny said, picking the piece of clothing up.
"Pass it here; I'll drop it off at his house once we clean this up, before I head back to the south pole"
"wait, the south pole? What are you doing there?" Bunny frowned.
"well, I have a storm system that needs to be moved, and another to start, but I'll just drop it off, it's on the way anyhow" Jack said holding his hand out for the hat.
"nah, I got it, you go on ahead and get to your storms," Bunny said, "wouldn't want something bad to happen, weather wise I mean" he then gave jack a stern look that clearly said if you had work like that what were you even doing here playing with the kids? And don't think I won't be telling North about this. Jack paused, torn for a second, before saying farewell and heading south. It's like he's obsessed with the kid or something Bunny noted, watching the spirit fly off right time to get to the bottom of this.
The Bennett family was busy with dinner, but Bunny was content to wait until the family was done eating passing the time in the back yard, cleaning off the paint brushes. When Bunny heard Jamie's mother close the door with a 'sweet dreams' did he tap the roof with his foot and jump into the boy's room. Jamie sat frozen on his bed for a second, before visibly relaxing "oh, good I was starting to think you didn't get my message"
"after such an obvious clue, I'm not your average rabbit mate," Bunny chuckled, "here's your hat back, by the way"
"thanks," Jamie said, taking the hat and throwing it on his bedside table, "I'm really glad you came. I think something's wrong with Jack. I tried talking to him about it yesterday and today, but he keeps acting like nothing's wrong. I was actually considering mailing a letter to The North Pole to get into contact with Santa. But you came so I didn't have too."
"really now?" Bunny couldn't help but smile, trying to imagine North's reaction to getting mail this out of season "Well it's a good thing I came by then, what's up?"
"Jack keeps acting really weird" Jamie said, "and by really, I mean really, really, really weird. Like the toy he gave to me today" Jamie pointed to the wooden figure on his desk. This close Bunny could see that it was a toy horse, carved from some tree wood, and painted green and red "he insists that I asked my dad for a toy horse the other week, but my dad's been in California this entire month and I'm pretty certain I didn't ask for a toy horse. I don't hate the animals, but I would rather have a robot."
"Is this the first time this has happened?" Bunny asked, once Jamie had finished his small rant.
"no," Jamie said, "Last month he came up to me as told me that Mom wanted us to do the house chores. Not that mom was looking for Sophie and I to do them. Like he thought that my mom and his mom are the same mom. After I asked him what he meant he gave me this funny look and then snapped out of it. He tried to play it off as a weird joke. But then the next week he asked me how my knitting was coming along. Knitting, Bunnymund. I don't knit. I'm a ten year old boy, not a grandma." Jamie paused to take a breath and calm down. He sat on the side of his bed and looked up at Bunny with his deep brown eyes, "Is Jack going to be okay?"
"I don't know kid" Bunnymund admitted, sitting down on the bed and patting him on the shoulder "I'm not a shrink. But I will get down to the bottom of this. Jack will be back to normal before you know it. Thank you for telling me this. I'm going to go talk to the other Guardians, and we'll confront Jack about it. We'll figure out what's going on and help Jack."
The kid smiled, obviously relieved, "thank you, I've been so worried about him. I mean I've heard from shows how much people can get wrapped up in their own worlds and end up not being able to accept reality"
"don't you worry about a thing," Bunny smiled, "I'm gonna head off now. Good night"
"night, tell everyone I said hello" Jamie yawned climbing back under his covers, "thank you for coming Bunny. You should come by more often, Sophie loves painting with you"
"I know kid, I'll try and come around more often" Bunny said, before jumping into one of his tunnels, looks like I'll be having guests over tonight.
AN: If you don't believe me about the names by the way here are the sites I found this out on, just copy the URLs into your browser (remove the spaces)
think baby names meaning / 0 / jamie
for Jamie's name, Sophie means wisdom, I got that from this same site.
uk. answers. yahoo question / index ?qid = 20100309032408AAwyTei
look at the second post around the middle and you will find Bennett.