Hi everyone! OMGOSH I can't even begin to tell you how happy and excited it makes me feel to read this many positive reviews and to have all these people following and favoriting this story! I'm really thankful to all of you and I hope to not let your expectations down...
I must warn you, this chapter contains dialogue extracted directly from the Rise of the Guardians movie. It's only from the very beginning, when Jack meets the other Guardians, so I wouldn't call it a spoiler (why would you be reading RotG related fanfiction if you didn't watch the movie first anyways?), and I wanted it to be the canon meeting and all because I felt the story wouldn't work well otherwise. But the rest is completely made up, by me, so yeah. Yeah. On to the story!
When North and Rapunzel arrived to his workshop, he introduced her to the other Guardians, whose hearts she quickly gained (even though she mistook Bunnymund for a kangaroo), and afterwards North allowed her to go and explore as she pleased through the workshop while he went to see how the other Guardians were doing.
"Oh, right, North, we've just brought ya something" Bunnymund said, smiling and pointing to the moving sack on the ground.
"Ah, there he is!" he cheered, as the boy in the sack finally opened it and looked around him with an amazed expression. "Jack Frost!" North greeted him.
"Woooow…" Jack muttered. "You've got to be kidding me…" The yetis grabbed him by his shoulders to get him up. "Hey, hey, put me down, put me down!" he claimed, as he was put back down.
"I hope the yetis treated you well" North smiled.
"Oh, yeah, I love being shoved in a sack and tossed through a magic portal!"
"Oh, good! That was my idea! Well, you know Bunny, obviously…"
"Obviously" Jack confirmed with a nonchalant side smirk.
"And the Tooth Fairy…"
"Hello Jack" Toothiana said, flying near him. "I've heard a lot about you… and your teeth!"
"M-my what?" Jack stammered, furrowing an eyebrow in confusion.
"Open up! Are they really as white as they say?" Tooth opened his mouth with his fingers and gasped. "Oh, they really DO sparkle like freshly fallen snow!" The mini fairies flew near Jack, letting out small squeals of joy. "Girls, put yourselves together" Toothiana scolded them. "It's not to squeeze the uniform."
"And, Sandman" North finished, but saw Sandy dozing off. "Sandy? Sandy! Wake up!"
"Hey, ho! Anyone wanna tell me why I'm here?" Jack asked, and Sandman quickly offered himself, making up images of sand quickly appear over his head. "Ah, uh… that's not really helping, but thanks little man. I must've done something really bad to get you four together. Am I on the naughty list?"
"Ha! On the naughty list? You hold the record" North frowned, and then brushed it off with a gesture. "But! No matter, we overlook. Now we are wiping clean this list."
"How come?" Jack asked with a hussy expression.
"How come? I'll tell you how come! Because now… You're a Guardian!" North raised his arms as two yetis raised two torches and the little elves trumpeted on his honour and a huge and well organized musical number began, while a huge book was brought to North's hands.
Suddenly, Jack stomped the ground with his staff, sending cold wind throughout the room, making everything abruptly stop. Just what were they thinking?
"What makes you think I wanna be a Guardian?" he asked, frowning.
North laughed heartily. "Of course you do. Music!" The elves started trumpeting, but Jack stopped them again, very angrily of course.
"No music! This is all very flattering, but uh… you don't want me! You're all… hard work and deadlines! And I'm snowballs and fun times. I'm not a Guardian."
Toothiana flew next to him with a concerned expression. "Jack, I don't think you understand what it is we do. Each of those lights is a child" she pointed her hand to the World's Globe, which had many small shiny dots of light scattered all over it.
"And good or bad, naughty or nice, we protect them" North stated. "Tooth, fingers out of mouth."
"Oh, sorry!" she smiled apologetically, taking her hands out of Jack's mouth. "They're beautiful!"
"Okay, no more wishy-washy, Pitch is out there doing who knows what!"
"Wait, you mean… the Boogeyman?" Jack asked, his expression making it clear that he didn't think he was that much of a threat.
"Yes! When Pitch threatens us, he threatens them as well!"
"All the more reason to pick someone more qualified!" Jack stated, starting to walk away.
"Pick? You think we picked? No! You were chosen, like we were all chosen! By Man in Moon."
"What?" Jack turned to face them again.
"Last night, Jack. He chose you…" Toothiana said.
"Not just you, but also three other people" North added, crossing his arms.
"Man in Moon… he talks to you" Jack muttered, thinking about all the times he had tried to talk to the Moon and he wouldn't answer. All those words wasted for nothing. And now he was choosing him for something he didn't even want to do. Expecting him to follow through with what he had already decided. How daring. "Wait. What do you mean three other people!?"
"It is the first time, ever, that so many Guardians are chosen at once. It must be something really, really bad" North explained, with a very serious look on his face. "He chose them at the same time he chose you, Jack. They'll be just as confused as you are. Maybe even more. You're not alone in this Jack. It's all… or nothing."
Jack hesitated and looked at the Moon, but the fact that there were more people being dragged into this didn't change what he thought. He still didn't want to be a Guardian. He did want to meet other people who were being dragged into it, though. Maybe, just maybe they would be able to see him.
"See, you can't say no… it's destiny" North said, making Jack snap.
"Why couldn't he tell me that himself? After so many years, this is his answer? To spend eternity like you guys, cooped up in some hideout making out new ways of bribing children? No, no. That's not for me!" he aggresively declared, and then stopped on his tracks to look back at them. "No offense."
"How, how is that not offensive? I mean, what does this clown know about bringing joy to children anyway?" Bunnymund contemptuously asked his companions, scratching his ear.
"Have you ever heard of a snow day?" Jack replied, ticked off by his words. "I know it's no hard-boiled egg, but kids like what I do."
Bunnymund approached him with a frown and spoke condescendingly. "But none of them believe in you, do they? See, you're invisible for them, it's like you don't even exist."
"Bunny, enough!" Tooth demanded.
"No, no" Jack countered. Those words had hit his weak spot, but he was determined not to show it. "The kangaroo's right."
"What? What are you calling me? I'm not a kangaroo, mate" Bunnymund's face at that moment wasn't exactly what you'd call friendly. Seemed like Jack had hit his sensible spot.
"Oh, and all this time I thought you were! If you're not a kangaroo, then what are you?"
"I'm a bunny. The Easter Bunny. People believe in me."
Now that did hurt. Jack's eyes were filled with tears he definitely wasn't going to release. Sandman huffed in his silent way and patted North's leg, motioning for him to do something before things got more out of hand than they already were.
"Enough of this! We don't have that much time to spend with you alone, Jack. We need to get the other chosen ones and explain to them too!" North said, ending the argument.
"Well, that's not my problem, I already told you I refuse…" Jack declared. "So…"
"The sleigh!" North claimed, clapping his hands. "Jack, come with me." North caught him by his hood and dragged him along.
"What? But I said no!" Jack yelled, trying to break free from him. "I don't wanna go onto your stupid sleigh!"
"We need to go fetch the others! And you're coming, whether you like it or not!" North stated, and started calling someone whose name Jack couldn't recognize. The winter spirit had to dodge the yetis running around to be able to go after him.
"I told you I'm not going with you guys! There's no way I'm climbing into some rickety, old…" Suddenly, he saw Rapunzel, who majestically emerged from behind the sleigh. Jack stared at her for a brief second, and then stated: "I'm in."
North laughed heartily as he climbed onto the sleigh. "Everyone loves the sleigh." North didn't seem to notice that Jack wasn't coming along exactly because of the sleigh. He stared at Rapunzel for a few seconds, having those silly hopes again, but then averted his eyes. It wasn't like she'd be able to see him or something…
Rapunzel looked at Jack with suspicion in her big eyes. "Who are you?" she asked, suspicious. "I didn't meet you before" probably because she was too busy feasting her eyes with all the wonderful toys North and his yetis had built. And well, this got Jack off guard. He stared back at her again, his eyes now glimmering. She actually saw him!
"Oh, right" North remembered, and motioned at Jack with his big hand. "Rapunzel, this here is Jack Frost. He's another one of the new chosen Guardians. And he's the one I told you about… you know, with your same problem." Jack didn't understand that one thing, but that made Rapunzel's eyes lit when looking at him again.
"Well, if all the new Guardians look like this, I won't be complaining anymore" Jack mumbled to himself, whistling in admiration to Rapunzel's beauty. And maybe… maybe the other new Guardians would be able to see him, too. How great could that be?
Maybe he would come along after all.
Rapunzel, meanwhile, was quickly approaching him with the intention of asking him loads of questions, but North stopped her.
"There will be plenty of time to talk about that later! We have a job to do now. Let's go!"
Rapunzel was upset, but she quickly recovered her happy face when thinking about a new ride on the sleigh. Pascal, on the other hand… wasn't so happy. Rapunzel smiled and left him with one of the yetis she had befriended, promising to be back soon. She took her frying pan and quickly climbed on the sleigh, fetching some of her hair in her hands so no one would step on it. Jack was already sitting, and only then he noticed the enormous amount of hair she had.
"That's uh… that's quite a lot of hair" he noted, and hesitated, wondering if it would be alright to ask the question he had in mind. She smiled, guessing what he was thinking, and sighed.
"Seventy feet."
"Oh. Oh, I see" he stammered, scratching his head. Having a conversation with someone other than the Guardians felt awkward and incredibly good at the same time. "I was thinking about eighty or so." He showed her his lopsided smile, and she laughed.
"It already takes enough work to brush it like this!"
"Off we go!" North announced, and the sleigh took off with a squeal of delight coming from Rapunzel.
And that's that for now. I do hope interactions weren't awkward... gosh interactions between newly met characters are hella difficult for me, I assume you noticed that and you will keep noticing it on the next two chapters because INTRODUCTIONS.
But yeah, I'm very glad you enjoy the things I write! You really make me want to keep this going. See y'all next week!