A/N: 'Ello, mates. Been a long time. January 15th, I believe. Last update, wasn't it? I need to finish this before it kills me. I'm so very sorry for the long wait.
Chapter Four: Rousing The Monster
Suddenly, swooping low,
On an ocean deep,
Rousing up a mighty monster
From his sleep.
- "Walking in the Air" Howard Blake
Never before had the Tooth Fairy thought of the night as empty.
She was friends with the night. She lived and breathed the night. She thrived and danced in the day, but it was during the night when she was alive, when she worked, when her duty to bring joy and happiness to children across the globe was fulfilled.
But this night had suddenly turned very empty. And Tooth knew why.
When the movie finished (rather tragically, she couldn't help but think) and they'd bid their goodbyes to Jaime, they'd begun their flight back to the Pole in silence. The North Wind was calm, its jealousy satisfied, and it didn't blow Jack away from his fairy companion as though to keep them from even speaking. Instead, it coasted him along at a friendly pace, one that Tooth on her wings was quite able to keep up with.
It was as though the Wind knew that whatever moment…instant…thing had happened between Jack Frost and the Tooth Fairy had been well and truly interrupted by the Little One called Jaime, and now it saw no reason to fling the feathered girl far and wide through the atmosphere in an envious tirade. The atmosphere between the two Guardians was sufficiently awkward, and this pleased it to no end.
Jack hadn't said a word to Tooth since climbing up on the Bennett's roof and calling the Wind to take them back to the Pole, and his silence weighed the heaviest on her heart.
Not their almost-moment in Jaime's room.
Not the way he held her hand through the streets of Vancouver, or hovering in front of their cloud-sculptures not two hours ago.
Not the way he'd laughed his long, perfect laugh as they chased each other through a December sky.
Jack Frost was as wild and restless as a winter storm, and just about as quiet. And so his silence was what created the most anxiety in Tooth's quivering heart.
She knew why he was avoiding eye contact, flying ahead with a grip on his staff like a vice, with only a cursory backward glance to see if she was following. And she knew why when they accidentally met each other's gaze, he jerked away, the tips of his ears a frosty blue. She had made him irrevocably uncomfortable when she'd placed her head on his chest like a pillow, in such an undeniably intimate position that she couldn't have taken it back if she wanted to. Somehow, somewhere, quite by accident she'd tried unsuccessfully to reassure herself, the two of them had crossed a line in their friendship, and now there was no going back.
At the thought of doing their relationship some irreparable damage by her actions, Tooth's spirits sank like a stone. She was willing to admit that her feelings for Jack Frost went beyond the boundaries of casual. She had long nursed a crush on him and his splendidly white teeth, a crush which had developed slowly and surely into something more as they spent months together as Guardians. Something that made her feel happy, carefree, brimming over with sunlight and jungle flowers.
But now Jack knew it, too. And they were feelings that he didn't return.
Tooth decided then and there that being 'just friends' with Jack Frost was much better than this particularly ungraceful winged elephant that had settled between them. So what if he never cared for her the way she cared for him? Being around him, seeing his unbridled smile and carefree happiness, was more than enough for her. She could not lose that. She would not lose that.
The newfound resolution left a stale taste in her mouth and a heavy weight in her chest, but there was no helping it. She was sure she would get over him, in time. She had been perfectly fine before he had rocketed into her blissful, work-filled life, and by golly, she would be fine again. Besides, he was part of the team. There'd be no escaping each other if they had to work together, and she knew for a fact that Bunnymund, North, Sandy, and especially the Man in the Moon would not tolerate tension among the Guardians' ranks. And so she would let go of these teenage emotions she had outgrown centuries ago, and she would do it tonight.
Having made her decision, Tooth was suddenly at a loss. Finally emerging from her thoughts, she watched pensively as Jack's blue hoodie rippled in the wind. It seemed that he'd firmly resolved to ignore her presence for the rest of the evening. The fairy queen bit her lip. How would she be able to show him that they were okay? That nothing would change? That it was just some silly little crush, and she could put that aside for the sake of their friendship?
There had to be some way to snap him out of it!
As the pair flew, Tooth trailed a little behind Jack, the tips of her pale pink wings only slightly ruffled by the North Wind that propelled him forward. Glancing around, she took stock of where they were and what was available.
Honestly, not much of anything. They zoomed over the same blanket of chocolate-colored clouds as before, with the Moon shining (if a little bit dimmer) down on them with the stars keeping him company. All around her was nothing but crisp, frosty air that collected in wisps from her mouth when she exhaled and was lost to her wingbeats moments after.
Vaguely, she imagined that a snowball to the back of his white head would get his attention surer than anything else she could think of. Unfortunately, there weren't any snowballs to be had…
However, there was that blanket of clouds below…and it was those that gave her an idea.
Disguising her mischievous smirk, Tooth paused mid-flight, stopping short and hovering where she flew. Sensing her stop, Jack Frost halted as well, turning slowly and giving her a quizzical eye.
"What's up, Tooth?" he asked quietly. The North Wind tugged at his hoodie and hair. "We're almost at the Pole. Everything okay?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she gave him only the most mischievous smirk she could muster and then she folded her wings, tilted forward, and shot down below the cloudline, leaving nothing above to indicate that she'd even been there. Nothing except Jack Frost's startled yelp hanging in the air like a silver Christmas ornament.
Diving through the clouds soaked her feathers to the skin, and she could feel miniscule ice crystals beading on her wings, but she did not stop. She dove and dove, speeding at a vertical drop towards ground, while air bit at her cheeks and nose and made her eyes water. She was flying so quickly that it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. A few seconds more, and she'd have to slow down just to keep from fainting.
But she couldn't slow down. Not just yet. He was the Guardian of Fun, curious and mischievous and driven by challenge. There wasn't even the slightest chance he wouldn't follow her. It was in his nature.
And fortunately for the sake of her health, she pierced the cloudline and watched with a bordering-insane smirk as the surface rushed up to greet her. The trip from Burgess to the North Pole had taken them over the coast of Newfoundland and Canada, and by now they were so far out to sea that the city lights had disappeared from view, leaving nothing but an expanse of infinite ocean made glistening silver by the Moon's gentle light.
Only when the waves were in view did the fairy queen turn to look behind her, the speeding air buffeting the crest of feathers on her head almost painfully. But what she saw made her smile.
Jack Frost, staff in hand and body angled like a deep blue torpedo, was hot on her trail, watching her with a mix of shock and curiosity in his crystal gaze. Obviously, he'd thought the worst when she'd suddenly dropped from the sky. That she'd fainted, passed out, fallen. And now, seeing that she was actively leading him on a chase, he was confused.
All she could do was smile. Catch me if you can, Frost.
She was the fastest flier on the team. She had been the first to arrive at the Tooth Palace a little over nine months ago, making it from the North Pole to Southeast Asia in record time, even beating North and his snowglobes, notwithstanding her ten minute headstart. No one, not even Bunny, could beat Tooth in a race. He'd tried on several occasions.
So there was no chance Jack would catch her. That is, not until she wanted him to.
Tucking her arms into her sides and straightening her legs, Tooth shot forward towards the churning ocean. How close would she get this time? In her younger days, she'd been quite the daredevil, challenging the harpy eagles and the jungle parrots to many a game of chicken with a sheer cliff face near her home.
Just a little closer…
Just a little closer!
She waited a tad longer after Jack gave a desperate cry of, "Tooth, pull up!" before finally spreading her wings and swooping low, just short of careening into the ocean. Laughing, despite the slight twinge in her shoulder blades at the maneuver, Tooth felt her heart soar. This was what flying was all about. Elation. Weightlessness.
She slowed enough over the water to allow Jack to catch up. His grip on his staff made his pale knuckles shine even whiter, and his usually laughing blue eyes blazed with an anger that looked out of place on his happy-go-lucky face.
"Tooth, what the heck were you thinking?!" he thundered, his voice hoarse and deep. "You could have got yourself killed! What's the matter with you?!"
On any other night, she would have shied away from his anger like a skittish animal, hurried to placate him, been ashamed of her behavior.
But tonight was not that night. Only now was her heartbeat catching up with the rest of her body, having been lost somewhere above the cloudline during the freefall, and she could feel its pulse surging pure energy through her veins. She was invincible. She was the Queen of the Sky. And all trepidation about their relationship from a few precious minutes ago had vanished from her thoughts.
"Oh, Jack," she cooed, grinning, "You do care."
She could have sworn the tips of his ears turned the same color as his hoodie. But before she could allow her traitorous mind to dwell more on this than was strictly healthy, she shot away over the waves, laughing, wordlessly challenging him to keep up if he could.
They had danced together through his clouds in the open air. Let them dance now over the black waves of a rolling, gentle sea.
Relief flooded her limbs when his laugh joined hers, and she felt him behind her, tailing her closely. Their reflections stared up at them from the bottomless water, stars winking behind them in the night, and for the briefest of moments, she wasn't quite sure if reality was above them or below. Somehow, by some magic spell, she and Jack had switched positions with their mirror selves, and now they were locked in this dance for all eternity, as long as the real Tooth and Jack on the other side were alive and breathing.
She plunged a hand into the water just to reassure herself that she was not a reflection, but when there came a startled gasp behind her, she turned. Jack had swerved, barely managing to dodge the plume of saltwater ejected from her palm.
His playful glare only resulted in her mischievous smile. What a great idea…
Without hesitation, Tooth stabbed both hands into the black ocean water below and was rewarded with a satisfying splash and a cry of, "HEY!" from behind. Cackling madly, she turned to see a now dripping Jack Frost attempting to wipe most of the sea from his vision, all while maintaining one of those killer smiles on his lips.
"Oh, that's it," he said. "It's on now."
What followed was probably one of the grandest splash fights in the history of life on Earth. Or at least, in the history of the Guardians. Sheer crystal spikes of water shot into the sky, glowing white in the starlight, as first Jack and then Tooth took the lead in their chase across the ocean.
The Moon glowed kindly and lovingly on the two immortals, easily within earshot of their laughter and teasing as they played, and for the first time in a long time, he remembered that not so long ago, they themselves had been just as young and innocent as the children they had sworn to protect. Long before Pitch. Long before Nightmares. Long before that icy pond in New England and a gnarled wooden staff, and long before the Maharaja and an iron cage. Why should they not play as they might have hundreds of years ago? In another life? If they had been childhood friends and not soldiers battling for the freedom and safety of every child on Earth?
But the Moon's musings went unheard by the Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost who, both thoroughly soaked, shivering, and grinning like a pair of goblins in the moonlight, decided to call a truce in their splash fight to buzz a long, white cruise liner humming through the ocean just to their left.
Golden lights struck out across the black water like ribbons rippling across the waves, and adults dressed in long evening gowns chatted elegantly behind the glass windows. Safe from the wintery cold.
Most of the people on board would not see them. They were too old, too wizened, too wrapped up in their grown-up discussions and lives to remember young hearts and emotions. So Jack felt no shame in blasting them with a sudden cold breeze that ripped women's skirts from their legs and forced black ties into men's faces. Drinks spilled and skin shivered, and those who had braved the frosty December air near the ship's railing hurried back into the safety of the heated ballroom.
All except one little boy, who stared, open-mouthed, dressed in a miniscule black tie and vest, at the beautiful green girl with wings and her friend, the white-skinned, blue-eyed boy, hovering just off the starboard bow with laughter like starlight.
"Oh, Jack." Tooth was the first to notice him, having had to dodge the glances of believers for much longer than Jack. She could easily tell when she was being watched. "We have company."
She gestured to the little tuxedoed boy near the railing. Jack followed her gaze, caught sight of him, and a wide smile broke out across his features, wrinkling the corners of his eyes in a way that vaguely reminded her of North. It made her smile just to look at it.
And then, without a second's thought, he looked her in the eyes, caught her stare and held it fast, and gave her a look that very clearly said, You might not be okay with this, but I'm going to do it anyway, so just brace yourself. And then he took her hand.
There he goes with the hand-taking again and making me all flustered and just when I decided I'd had enough of this childish nonsense, oh! the insufferable—
He took her hand, wrapping her fingers firmly in his, and then, with a wave of his crooked staff, pushed them forward with a gentle breeze.
As they approached, the boy seemed caught between an urge to flee and knees that kept him locked securely in place. Tooth could only imagine what he was seeing. Surely it wasn't every day that the Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost appeared in front of you, wind catching hold of her feathers and his hoodie so that they almost glowed like ghosts, holding hands no less, looking for all the world like a cou…
No. No. Don't even think like that.
"Fun party?" Jack asked, smiling.
The boy's mouth moved in useless gasps. He clutched hold of what looked like a sippy cup of apple juice in front of his miniature tux, and his eyes were so big and brown that Tooth couldn't look away. A sudden spike of undeniable love forced its way from her heart into a smile so broad that she worried her cheeks might fall off.
"Jokul Frosti," the child whispered in awe. "I angel."
Jack frowned, glancing at Tooth. "What?"
"Jack Frost," she translated smoothly, her eyes never leaving the precious boy at the railing. "And an angel."
She'd forgotten that Jack hadn't yet become privy to her abilities with languages. She smiled at his confused expression, and explained, "I speak Russian."
"Ah."
"I'm no angel, young one," she whispered fluently, returning her attention to the boy. "I'm the Tooth Fairy."
Now it was the boy's turn to look confused. He blinked up at her, down at his sippy cup, and back again. "But…but I thought it was a mouse that came and collected lost teeth."
"In Russia, it is. He is a magic mouse who works for me."
"Oh." Shyly, the boy scuffed his toe into the hardwood floor, clasping his tiny hands behind his back, before glancing up at her with red cheeks and a quiet, "Well…next time I lose a tooth, can you come instead?"
"Why?"
"You're very pretty."
Never had a child succeeded in making her blush before, but she supposed there was a first time for everything, after all. Laughing, she nodded her head. "I'll see what I can do, young one."
A woman's voice called from inside, and the boy answered. Apparently, his mother was searching for him. Although Tooth hated to see him go, she was glad he was at least watched over. Loving parents had always made the Guardians' jobs so much easier.
"Dasvedanya, Jokul Frosti i angel," he said shyly, shuffling a quick, spontaneous bow before disappearing behind glass into the crowd of partygoers. Tooth watched him until his little black suit had vanished completely into the sea of dresses and waistcoats.
Only then was she aware that her fingers were still clasped tightly in Jack's, with no indication that he would let go anytime soon. The thought made her heart flutter unsteadily in her chest, and she forced herself to still it before it got her into trouble. Again.
"Why is it that, when I'm with you, I feel like I'm escorting a princess?" he asked, the smile evident in his voice.
Matching his smile, she met his eyes, and took in the blueness, the crystal, the snowfall in his gaze. "A queen, actually, if you want to be technical. Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies, ruler of Punjam Hy Loo and all its finery. Rider of flying elephants."
"Kind of useless since you already have wings."
She answered that with a wink. Removing her hand from his, she took off once more across the sea, and he was quick to follow. They played water tag until the only thing distinguishing the skies from the sea were the waves and the way the stars rippled across one side, but other than that they might have been floating in empty space. Darkness. Pinpricks of light piercing through the black as the only reassurance that Heaven was a real place after all.
Tooth watched the night sky from its reflection below, smiling demurely, until she noticed something was amiss. Just below the surface of the black water, there was a rippling. Not from waves or surf. A rippling of movement. A rippling of a massive body.
She gave only one yelp before the sound of rushing seawater drowned it out. Breaking free of the ocean's surface like a restricting blanket rose an enormous, barnacle-encrusted head, the remainders of a long-lost song just fading on its lips. Tooth's eyes were so wide, she felt they might roll right out of her head.
A whale. A huge, beautiful, black whale.
It gave her only a cursory glance where she hovered, blinking its incredibly large brown eye at her once before its lower lid slid upwards, creasing at the sides in a way that reminded Tooth of Jack, of North. Of a smile.
Tooth couldn't move except to give it the smallest of waves. She was frozen where she hovered.
Humans had long forgotten, but whales were the wisest and gentlest of creatures on planet Earth, able to communicate with the purest form known to man: song.
Jack was beside her now, staring back into the eye of the whale, and whispering in a quiet gasp the only words that fit the situation, the first words she had ever heard him speak that day at the Pole so long ago.
"Wow. You gotta be kidding me."
The whale was alone, swimming across the ocean in a lazy migratory pattern that they had long ago learned was more fun than the destination, and it was glad for the company. With a single gasp of air that shot a geyser of steam from its forehead, the whale sank beneath the waves and splashed the pair of Guardians with a stream of cold water, drenching them from head to toe when they had just managed to get relatively dry.
Sputtering, Jack combed the bangs from his eyes, laughing. "It wants to play!"
Tooth grinned, buzzing her wings until they were dry. "Then let's play."
And for the next ten minutes, they raced a whale across the ocean. He was a formidable opponent. Just because whales are large does not mean they aren't fast. He shot through the water like a torpedo, raising a plume of crystal sea water in his wake so that it looked like a glass dorsal fin, and Tooth and Jack could only just keep up.
Once, Tooth watched as Jack reached out, hesitantly, as though scared to do some irreparable damage, and placed a hand on the thin sliver of smooth skin that speared above the surface of the waves. Once there, he held it, gasping, laughing, and gazing at the white fingers against the black skin through the eyes of a newborn child.
"It feels like ice," he whispered in awe, so low that Tooth barely heard him over the roaring waves. "Warm ice."
Smooth, slick, and warm like rubber in a rainstorm. She could imagine warm ice.
There came from the water a sound like rolling thunder, followed by a high keening that rippled the water. Song. The whale was singing to them, a baritone, a mezzo, and a soprano all at once, rising and falling across the notes like an ocean wave. The beat was slow like a gentle swell, and the rhythm was a mystery, known only to others of its kind. To any person's ears, the sound was beautiful, if a little loud and melancholy.
Jack's face lit up with an idea. Sweeping close to the water, he opened his mouth and let out a moan.
Tooth first thought that Jack was suffering from indigestion, especially when the moan's pitch ascended to the point that his voice cracked, but when he lowered the pitch again, Tooth realized that he was trying to talk to the whale.
The whale, after a moment, fixed Jack with a look that one might give a toddler trying to read the Bhagavad Gita in its original language: one of a smile that was a mix of pity and appreciation of what was attempting to be accomplished.
Tooth might have laughed, seeing as Jack was completely oblivious and continued his moaning, but the whale began to speak again in a voice Tooth knew only she could understand. She was gifted in all forms of animal speech, especially jungle animals, but she was ashamed to admit that her Whale was somewhat rusty from disuse. She hadn't spoken Whale in quite some time.
But it was not difficult to decode the enormous creature's message, rising and falling over the surface of the waves like wandering tendrils of song.
"The lonely iceberg at the ends of the earth is purposeless and alone until it meshes with the rest of the ocean in the warm, sweet waters of a tropical sea."
Tooth blinked. She had obviously missed the whale's point.
It seemed to understand this, and clarified: "The Heart of Ice yearns to melt."
When the whale flicked an eye at Jack as a means of gesture, Tooth felt a blush bloom over her cheeks. The whale seemed satisfied, but when Jack let out a particularly off-key moan, it could only gawk and blink a few times in what seemed to be exasperation. "And tell the boy that he would do well to never repeat that phrase in polite society."
The whale remained for only a few moments after before it gave a cheerful goodbye, and began to sink beneath the waves for the remainder of its voyage.
Jack straightened his hoodie with a smirk. "I think I made a good impression."
Tooth's impulse to facepalm was overridden by the sheer magnitude of what it was they had done. They had talked to a whale! It was then that the reality of what they had just done began to take hold, and Tooth and Jack, overwhelmed with the experience of flying over the ocean, swimming with whales in an endless sky where they couldn't see the hint of a horizon, laughed.
Their laughter rang heavenward, and the Moon glowed as bright as the Sun, punching crystal through the spire of seawater the whale raised in salute with the tiniest flick of its tail. It was under this crystal spire that the Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost came together for the second time that evening, brimming with joy and happiness and sheer indescribable wonder that usually brings two people together in this way.
Lost, without adequate words to describe what filled their hearts, they wrapped their arms around each other, Tooth's around Jack's neck, and Jack's around Tooth's waist, and they reveled in the closeness and the warmth as water exploded around them.
Music filled Tooth's ears, and she closed her eyes, humming along with it, feeling nothing but the crisp December air, the starlight on her skin, and Jack Frost's arms encircling her in softness and his scent like a fresh January snow in a pine forest. This was flying. This was weightless.
This was…the complete opposite of what she'd just decided not more than a half-hour ago!
Only when she had opened her eyes and gently pushed at his chest did her stunned brain recognize the dazed expression on his face. His eyes were half-lidded, his cheeks and the tips of his ears had turned that adorable blue color again, and his gaze was focused on somewhere a few inches south of her eyes.
He was going to…!
Tooth's heart stopped beating. She was almost knocked clean out of the air.
But self-preservation is a powerful motivator, and Tooth had perfected it over many a thousand years of practice.
Gently, she cleared her throat, placed her hands on his chest, and extricated herself from his arms.
"I…I think we'd better go," she smiled. She was certain her face was glowing a brilliant red, and the Moon was shining bright enough that she suspected he could see it too.
Before she had a chance to second-guess herself, to seize the front of his hoodie and finish whatever action he'd intended, she turned, shook her wings, and shot upwards towards the safety of the clouds. They'd be back at the North Pole soon. They'd be back in the safety of the other Guardians' watchful eyes. Maybe then they could pretend that this entire, beautiful, spectacular, magical night hadn't happened, and they could go back to being just friends.
Just friends.
So, when Tooth buzzed away as fast as a streak of green light, she missed Jack Frost's face blossom into a blissful smile. He'd seen her blush in the moonlight. He'd felt her heart bounce against his chest, almost as fast as his.
And, contrary to what the Tooth Fairy fervently believed, Jack Frost had ceased thinking about her as just a friend from the moment she'd spun him around in a celebratory hug after the Battle of Belief all those months ago.
A/N: One more chapter to go...
