A/N: Yikes, meant to post this earlier but traveling held me up. Thank the lord for reviews, they reminded me that I even had this fic to update. Next part is gonna be heavier on the Jack/Tooth, promise. And longer. Damn, forgot how short this part was.
Acclimation
Part II
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It was clear to everyone that Bunnymund was the next to notice, and that was pretty much were the conversation ended on who noticed what first.
Because when Bunnymund noticed, everyone noticed.
Jack's grin went from ear to ear as he took in the fuming Easter guardian. "Now, what were you saying about being taller?"
Bunnymund snarled, "I am taller."
Arching a brow, Jack mused to himself, "You still think so, huh?" His mischievous gaze flickered to the side. "Hey Sandman, what d'ya say?"
The gold man frowned at the unintended jab and held up the sand-formed measuring stick for the perusal of the group. At the six-foot-one mark there was an indentation labeled with a bunny picture, and a little above that, at around ¾ of an inch more, there was another indentation of a snowflake.
"You cheated."
Jack's eyebrows flew up in amusement. "And how did I do that?"
Bunnymund's mouth flew open and he looked about to shout an explanation from the rooftops before visibly deflating as he realized that he had none. "Damn."
"Told ya so."
North chuckled and intervened, "Now, you should know when you've been beat, Easter Bunny. In this case, eh, it was two months back."
Bunnymund bristled with irritation and launched into a rant about even if the no good upstart was, like what, two leaf-blades taller than him it didn't mean anything, especially since he could run circles around him any day of the week. But that still didn't change fact.
Jack Frost was growing up.
In some ways it was to be expected, what with the sheer amount of people believing in him now. And that number was growing by the day due to a urban legend about snow days that had gone viral thanks to a certain internet savvy group of little kids. And in truth, the boy had been in a sort of stasis during the years where no one had known about him.
Not every guardian's form changed. But as Bunnymund himself could well attest to—belief was the backbone of every single one of their powers. Even their appearance. North was just glad that it had happened when it had, taking care to remind himself that despite the boy's previous appearance, he was already centuries old. It was about time for him to start adjusting.
That's not to say that North didn't already anticipate that the frost guardian would be almost unbearably smug for the months to come. But eh, they'd go down that road eventually.
As for Bunnymund, he took a break from his accusations of bribing the man on the moon to notice that the object of his attentions wasn't paying him much attention at all, seemingly intent on gathering the response of another particular guardian. Jack stole glances from the corner of his eyes at the giggling Toothiana, who was watching Sandman mime the contest with exaggerated sand puppets. Jack puffed up his chest involuntarily and straightened when her gaze fell on him, sending her a quick grin that she didn't seem to notice as her tooth fairies crowded around her.
As she relayed information to them about a bask-ice ball game in Minnesota that had reaped buckets of teeth, Bunnymund watched the frost guardian visibly deflate as Tooth turned away. An almost uncharacteristic look of disappointment flickered across Jack's face before it was quickly replaced with the all too familiar smirk, which was lacking just a hint of something to make it actually all that familiar.
Bunnymund exchanged glances with North, who had been watching the exchange as well, and soaked in the meaning of the elder guardian's slow nod.
A shit-eating grin plastered itself onto the face of the Australian rabbit.
So this is about a sheila, yeh?
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