And At Its Center-a Tooth
Tooth is the guardian of memories, so it makes perfect sense that she remembers everything about her pre-Guardian life.
Her past stars a poor girl in a wealthy neighborhood, the daughter of the maid of a baron, or was it a lord? She never did quite understand the difference, and unfortunately, as sharp as her memory is, even she can't remember what she never knew.
What she does remember: laughing with her mother as they fluffed pillows and dancing as they scrubbed floors. Her hands had been too small to really hold the broom properly, but she'd given it her best, and her mother had tapped her on the nose and kissed her forehead. "That's all that matters," she'd said, twirling her until she was dizzy from giggling. "That's all that's important."
She'd believed it too. Still believes it. "Just try your best," her mother had sung as they washed dishes. "Keep smiling and the sun will come out," her mother had promised when they went to bed hungry again. "Don't ever lose hope," her mother had whispered, that very cold night when everything went dark.
And even when the darkness came, when she heard chuckles in the dark and screams in the night, when she felt Pitch before she even knew he existed—she held her mother's words in her heart.
That is why she was chosen as a Guardian.
2. North
North is large and loud and filled with wonder. His story wasn't easy either, but looking at his cherry cheeks and thick white beard, it's hard to feel anything but his rambunctious, contagious good cheer.
North gives hugs almost as often as she does, albeit with much more force. She's had to rescue Sandy a few times. Once, in a story that Jack will never be told on pain of death by monster eggs, Bunny fainted after a particularly exuberant squeeze. Tooth, however, is far less fragile than she looks, and she returns hug for hug. Always.
It's part of the reason he loves her. It's purely platonic, of course—he's much too old for her, and Mrs. Clause would never stand for it, but Guardian bonds transcend the words commonly used to describe relationships. "Friendship," "love," "the-daughter-he-never-had," "the-sister-he-still-misses," they don't apply.
He's never really thought of what he feels for Tooth, but when she sinks to her knees after her palace has been destroyed and her fairies kidnapped, he feels rage building in his belly.
There is a reason Pitch didn't try attacking the North Pole first.
But Tooth is hopeful and even after having her home ransacked and destroyed, she smiles when he announces his idea. And when he scoffs at her doubts, Tooth's eyes shine, because she believes in him. In them.
And when his power is gone and he's reduced to an old man leaning on his swords, she supports him, even though she can barely stand and he's easily three times her size. She doesn't give up, doesn't lose her wings even though her feathers line his sleigh and the light in her eyes is all but gone. She looks at Jack and Pitch battling it out and even though his eyes are worn and his back aches, he can feel her hope pushing away the darkness.
"Just do your best," she whispers, and even though Bunny scoffs that Jack's best means nothing if it doesn't stop Pitch, North understands.
So when Jack comes crashing down, almost-defeated and hope-less, he pats him on the back with all the good cheer he can muster. "A for effort," he laughs. And when Jack straightens, ready and strong, he catches Tooth's eye and winks.
3. Bunny
Bunnymund is tough-as-nails and proud of it. His ego may be big, but he lives up to every word, whether it be the number of eggs he needs to prepare for that one special day or the amount of one handed push-ups he can manage before collapsing.
Bunny is proud and competitive, but most of all, he's honest. Honest with others, (they don't believe in you, do they?) to the point of cruelty, but also, completely honest with himself. So he accepts the tiny flutter in his rabbit heart when Tooth flitters into the Warren for a visit, on those rare occasions when the Guardians get together for dinner and the fairy greets him with a hug.
He likes being her hero, likes handing her a sack of collected teeth and watching her eyes light up. And yes, he likes showing off his Warren to her—especially when Jack's there—because it's his territory that she's flying around, his area of expertise that's got her so excited.
And maybe, just maybe, that's why it hurts so much when he loses everything. The eggs, the children, of course, that's what matters, but the fact that she's there to witness his complete inability to protect what he holds dear—it pushes him over the edge.
He loses it and sends Jack away, curls up inside himself and shrinks back into the animal he was before—well, before his life truly began.
She finds him, and he looks away, not wanting to see his reflection in her eyes, but her hands are gentle when she picks him up. She's wounded too, he knows—out of all the four of them her status has always been the shakiest, and the weakened belief in him had compounded the damage to her.
But she's still smiling when he finally looks up. "Don't worry, Bunny," she said, and she pats him between the ears. He's so embarrassed by the gesture—and his immediate response—that he almost misses the next part.
"The sun will come out tomorrow."
And so, when North gets on his sleigh and promises that he has enough juice to get them to the last light's house, even though the sleigh looks dead and North exhausted, Bunny hops aboard and promises himself that he's not doing anything stupid.
He almost believes it too, because after all, his center is hope. And the thought gives him courage, so when they're in the air and North is concentrating on the drive—there's no way he wants the other man's protective streak interfering—he hops onto Tooth's lap and raises an eyebrow.
"A kiss for luck?"
He doesn't even care that it's right between the ears.
3. Sandman
Sandy loves Tooth, and he's never tried to deny it. She's beautiful and dazzling, completely organized and yet refreshingly spontaneous. Even at her busiest, when she's in the air directing her fairies, she takes the time to admire a child's first lost tooth, or cry over a cavity.
He asked her once, why she got so upset over a spoiled tooth. They never have trouble understanding each other, for all that he doesn't talk, and her response is quick. "They erode the memories inside," she explains, and he nods, understanding.
It's what sleeping pills do to children.
They're closer than most of the other Guardians—unlike the other two, they work daily, and Tooth depends on him to keep the children asleep as her fairies to their job. During the day, he often crashes at the palace, and they say goodbye to the moon together, then greet the sun.
Jack's intrusion into that balance annoys him a little, but really, Sandy's heart is nothing if not big, so when Jack tells him he hopes he never gets on his bad side, Sandy kindly refrains from asking him to spend a little less time with their resident fairy.
It makes sense then, when he's drowning in darkness and fear, that it's her he thinks of to keep him sane. Tooth's grin, Tooth spinning in the air laughing as they fly through the skies together.
Tooth telling him to never give up hope.
And so he doesn't. And when the children's belief pulls him out of the dark, he tips his hat at them in thanks, then destroys the man who thought he could get the Sandman to stop believing in the Tooth Fairy.
4. Jack
Jack's new to the whole "Guardian" thing, so it takes him awhile to understand the dynamics between the members of the group. Takes him awhile for him to recognize the snarking between Bunny and North as friendship, to understand how protective Sandy can be over his few hours of sleep.
It makes sense that he bonds with Tooth the fastest. She's cheerful, sweet, and she likes him, unlike a certain bunny. She can take his teasing with a grin where North might be offended, and he's developed a fondness for Baby Tooth.
He thinks he gets her, so she's the one he goes to when everyone's busy and he feels lost. She's comfortable.
It takes him a week before he realizes she is so much more.