I finally got to see Rise of the Guardians and I am excited to know I'm not the only one who likes the pairing of Tooth/Bunny. So, hey, fanfiction time!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Rise of the Guardians.
Bond of the Guardians
Chapter One
The Warren's looking good…all my little googies are safely bundled up and Easter will be coming 'round the corner in a matter of a few weeks. It's certainly been a bloody good time getting back into the swing of it after the mess Pitch made of my holiday last year.
But, there is no sign of that rat bag, and now we're all getting back to work. 'Course Jack's gone and made a couple of blizzards for me to deal with (thanks for that one, you bloody show pony) and the others merely laugh it off and let him run rampart. Well, rather, Santa gives that old belly laugh of his and turns a blind eye, Sandman remains silent as ever, though hardly seems to bat an eyelash, and Tooth... Needless to say, everything that kid does just charms the ever loving daylights out of her and her wee fairies.
I personally don't see why she swoons over the boy, especially since he's such a wandering, reckless child most of the time, but I suppose it really isn't any business of mine. I've got a holiday to prepare for, after all, then a year to enjoy myself and see some more of the world. Even the Easter Bunny takes some time off to travel, mates.
"Aster!" My ears instinctively give a twitch and I move toward one of the tunnels at the familiar voice. There's only one living creature that refers to me by my middle name… Toothiana appears a few moments later, a beaming smile on her face.
"G'day, Toothiana. What brings you to the Warren?" Tooth is really the only guardian who comes to visit once in a while, but it's still pretty rare to see her down here. My Warren isn't exactly the easiest place to find, though I keep a few passages ready in case any of them need to find me right quick. Just as a courtesy.
"It's little Sophie! She lost her first tooth!" she squeals, her feathers ruffling with excitement and I can't help but chuckle as she goes on about the specific tooth and the method of which she lost it.
"Is that right? So the little ankle biter's growing up, eh?"
"I came to see if you wanted to come with me to collect her tooth!" Toothiana says, her eyes practically glowing with delight. Some days I'm honestly surprised she's the guardian of memories, rather than the guardian of enthusiasm and energy or something along those lines.
"I dunno, Toothy, I don't want to get in the way of your tooth collecting."
"Oh nonsense! Remember last year? You were one of the best teeth collectors out of us! And it's been a while since we've seen Sophie or Jamie."
"Alright, alright. I'll join ya." She let out a happy squeal and flipped in the air.
"This is going to be such fun!" I chuckle and she flies out the tunnel again, waving at me and telling me to come by the palace in a couple of hours. Well, this ought to be an adventure, if nothing else. And it would be nice to see that little ankle biter and her brother again.
Well, since I'll be going out, I figure I may as well leave the Warren for a bit before heading to the Palace. I dash out of one of my trusty tunnels, running up to the surface to catch the sun setting at the Uluru site. I tell you, mates, it's quite a sight to behold. I never tire of seeing it.
The air is nippy with the last threads of winter cold but the sun provides warm, vivid bands of yellow and orange in the purple and pink night sky. I take a seat in some soft grass and enjoy the brisk wind as the last remnants of the sun fade under the horizon line.
Once it grows dark, I take another tunnel to the location of Tooth's palace. Now, granted, her palace is well hidden above the clouds, but there is a route I can take to the mountain, it's just a bit sticky when I have to actually climb up the rest of the way, but it's not like I'm forced to do it every bloody day…thank heavens for that.
I pop up and the familiar wall of rock greets me and he let out a little puff of air before grabbing at the rough stones and beginning my decent up. The mountain acts like a shield - the clouds hide the actual path to her palace, concealing it within the valley. The area within the mountains holding up her palace is too unstable for me to tunnel directly to, so I settle for climbing.
Don't get me wrong, mates, if I wanted to tunnel straight there I certainly could. But I don't object to the climb, and it really is the safer route, if you can believe it. So long as I don't…look…down…
Shivering, I continue on and finally find the small cavern that hides the stairway up into the heart of her palace. She's quite cunning, Toothiana. The odds of a human ever finding this place are zero to none, but if they ever did, the caverns automatically change whenever anyone enters them, and they move to eject intruders unless you know the little trick to get through.
There's a small, silver stone shaped like a tooth on the ceiling, so miniscule that it is near impossible to notice. But, if you remove it from the ceiling, it will unveil the stairway to her palace. And, by Jove, it surely is quite charming; all gold with various minerals in the walls, much like her palace itself.
The climb up the stairs is a breeze and I eventually arrive to my destination.
Her little fairies whiz by, a few squeaking a greeting at me before continuing on with their tasks; undoubtedly they've got their hands full with teeth collecting today. Toothiana is in the midst of her fairies, excitedly chanting out the teeth and their locations and directing each fairy to their destination.
I tread up, waiting til she takes a moment to catch her breath before clearing my throat. She spins and beams, flying down to my level in an instant.
"Aster! Good to see you."
"Aye. You certainly have your hands full, dontcha, mate?" She giggles a bit and nods.
"Yup! Now that all those candy-infested holidays are over, the kids are losing teeth left and right! I can hardly keep up." I chuckle a bit at her zeal.
"Well, are we the only ones heading off to visit little Sophie?" She nodded.
"Sandy's got to make dreams tonight, North's having some kind of problem with these paintball robots making a mess out of the pole, and I couldn't find Jack."
"Really now?" I know I shouldn't be happy that Jack isn't tagging along, but I can't say I'm not pleased with the news. Nothing much against the kid, I do like him well enough, he just likes getting under my fur some days like an annoying rash or mite.
"So it'll just be the two of us! Baby Tooth, you're in charge while I'm gone!" she calls and Baby Tooth nods and squeaks out to the rest of the fairies. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"
She flies off for the exit at full speed and I follow her, keeping up with relative ease. Toothiana is gushing on about various teeth along the way, but I honestly don't mind it. Her endless chatter and energy are honestly quite amusing from time to time. It is who she is, and I really would hate to see her any other way.
Truth be told, seeing her at her lowest point last year helped me see how I would hate to see her, or any of my fellow guardians, change at all. As much as North or Jack can annoy me, they're best off as they are.
"Aster, keep up, you're falling behind!" she chides.
"Oy, sorry mate. Just daydreaming!" I call back, quickening my pace.
"Daydreaming? About what?"
"Eh, nothing too specific." She merely glances at me curiously before shrugging it off and we continue on until we get through the cave. Tooth agrees to take a tunnel to Sophie's and it becomes a bit of a race between us. I'll admit, she's probably the fastest guardian next to me, but I don't plan to go easy on her tonight and outrun her.
"No fair!" she protests with a pout and I merely laugh a bit.
"Don't be a sore loser now, Toothy." She makes a face and we both head up to Sophie's room, where the little one is curled up, snuggling a giant stuffed rabbit and breathing softly. She hasn't changed much, except for having her hair cut off a bit shorter.
I feel a fond smile spread on my mouth and Tooth reaches over with gentle care, plucking the small tooth from under her pillow and sliding a shiny quarter underneath. She observes the little gem in her hands with a warm smile that seems almost motherly and curls her fingers over it before looking over at Sophie.
"It's a little sad to think she's already growing up. This is such a special time, being so young," she whispers.
"Aye. But at the same time, it's nice seeing how these kids grow and what they learn along the way. Someday, she and Jamie will be all grown up, and maybe they'll each have their own ankle biters for us to protect."
"I hope they do." We sit there quietly, observing Sophie as memories of our time with her last year resurface. While that whole ordeal was an awful, trying mess, we did get to experience some new, wonderful things as well. It really did remind us what it truly meant to be a guardian, and how precious these children really were.
"We better be off soon," I finally whisper and she nods.
"Want to see Jamie before we go?"
"Sure." We both manage to creep into Jamie's room and find him dead asleep as well. The tooth he lost in the sleigh accident grew back, but he lost another one in the back and it's only half grown.
"He only has three more baby teeth to lose before his box is filled," Tooth sighs, smiling sadly. "I'll miss collecting his teeth. His memories are some of the dearest in our library."
"We owe a lot to him. He saved us."
"Yes. He's a good kid. I hope that never changes." She hovers over him quietly, stroking his hair gently. I watch her when a soft noise from outside the window catches my attention. I look out to see wings flapping as a dark bird flies away and Tooth turns her attention to the window. "What is it?"
"Nothing. Thought I saw something, but it was just a bird." She nodded and looked down at Jamie again before flying over to me.
"We should probably go, it's getting late."
"Yeah, you're right." We slip out of the house unnoticed and walked outside together. "Thank you for inviting me along."
"Thank you for coming with me," she says, bowing her head a bit. "Do you want to come back to the palace for some tea?"
"Sounds nice." I tap the ground with my foot and we embark toward her palace again, Tooth determined to redeem herself in another race. (But of course, I win again) Her fairies greet us both and resume their work as she leads me to a small hall that takes us to her kitchen. It's not nearly as breathtakingly wondrous as the rest of her palace, but quite quaint and comfortable.
Tooth gestures to one of the silk cushions and I plop down as she begins to brew some tea in a blue and green teapot she got from China (at least, I think it was China…).
"Good news, Aster, I still have some carrot cake."
"Heh, how long have you had that, love?" She blushes slightly as she looks thoughtful.
"Er…well…not too…terribly long…" she trails off, tapping her fingers to her lips. The pot begins to whistle as the water comes to a boil and she quickly brews the tea for us and flies the pot over with two matching cups, pouring it.
"Thank you, Toothy." She nods and looks at a plate of carrot cake with slight concerns and I grin a bit, plucking a piece off the plate. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, eh?" I asked, grinning a bit as I lift up my cup. "Cheers." She giggles and clinks her cup to mine.
"Cheers." We each drink the tea and I take a bite of the cake. Yeah, it certainly has gone quite stale, so it's rather dry and tasteless…but I finish the piece off to be polite and enjoy the rest of my tea. Tooth always adds a bit of honey to my cup, just as I like it. "Are you planning anything extraordinary for Easter this year?"
"Twice as many eggs and making them look even better than usual. I suppose it isn't too grand, but it's something. I know how you hate us distributing more candy to them." She makes a face.
"Yes! And I thank you sincerely for not giving them more of that saccharine coated garbage that ruins all those lovely little teeth." She shuddered a bit as I'm sure she recalled some of the rotting, yellowing messes she'd had to extract from under pillows in the past and I can't help but start laughing. "H-hey! What are you laughing at?!" she shrills, her feathers ruffling as her face flushes.
"S-sorry, Tooth. I just thought the face you made was a bit of a riot is all." Her blush deepens and she glares at me as I attempt to stop laughing, but to very little avail.
"Alright, enough already! It wasn't that funny!" she cries and I only laugh harder at her. I can't help it. If you could only see the way she reacts, I'm certain you'd have a good laugh too. She huffs and flies up, shoving me down and I am finally able to get a grip again and merely smirk up at her flushed, pouting face.
"Lighten up, love." I pick myself back up when Baby Tooth flies in, twittering and squeaking anxiously and Tooth looks up and gasps slightly.
"Aster…we might have a problem." I blink and look up to see the end of those familiar rainbow lights casting their curtain in the sky and cringe slightly.
"That can't be good…"
"Come on!" We both take off for the pole with a few of Tooth's fairies following us.
And that'll be all for this chapter. Please review, but no flames. I always appreciate constructive criticism, but issue it with respect. Thank you!