Disclaimer: I own Rustle O. Thunder. Hands off. Dreamworks owns Rise of the Guardians. Duh.

Warning: There is fluffy stuff in this chapter. Yes, fluffy things and our first hint of boy/boy attraction. So. Yeah... fair warning.


Chapter 6

The flight home seemed to take only seconds. Something about flying on a warm breeze combined with a cool jet stream just made things faster, or Jack could have been lost in thought. All he knew was that he could see Burgess on the horizon and even though the sun was about to rise, there was still a familiar sight there to welcome him home.

Jack spotted the golden sand streams all converging on a large cloud, and he knew that Sandman was ending his route in Jack's hometown even before he saw the tiny, golden man.

"Is that?" Rustle asked nervously.

"Yep! That's Sandy," Jack grinned, "Looks like he is finishing up for the night."

Sandman was probably the Guardian with whom Jack had the best relationship. Perhaps it was because Sandy never spoke, so communicating with him was always a simple affair, or perhaps it was because the golden Man of Dreams seemed to treat Jack like an equal rather than a child? All Jack knew at this moment was that he was glad to see Sandy.

It wasn't like this was a rare occurrence. Ever since they had defeated Pitch, Sandman had changed his route to end with Burgess. Jack suspected that the eldest of the Guardians was constantly checking to see if Pitch might return to get revenge on the children, whom Sandy owed his life too. Had it not been for the bravery of Jamie and his friends, Sandman might have been lost to the darkness forever, and ever since he had returned in all of his golden glory, Sandy had made it his personal mission to keep these particular children safe.

It made Jack feel reassured too. With Sandman watching over Jamie and his family every night, Jack didn't feel badly about leaving the country to tend to his wintry duties. It was also comforting to know that every night, after a long day of Guardian's work… he could return home to a familiar face.

Sandy must have caught sight of Jack as well, because the large cloud of golden dream sand had morphed into a gigantic manta ray and had begun flying in his and Rustle's direction. Jack met the dream keeper head on, tackling the pint-sized, golden spirit in a flying hug. The two of them went spinning through the air, Jack laughing and Sandman creating a laughing emoticon above his head. Lately Sandy had really been upping his repertoire of silent, pictographic communication.

"Nice one, Sand Man!" Jack grinned.

Sandy shrugged, but he grinned back nonetheless. He looked over Jack's shoulder, and his eyes widened, an exclamation point appearing over his head.

"Oh! Sandy," Jack pulled Rustle over, "This is my new friend, Rustle O. Thunder."

Above the dream keeper's head appeared a quick series of pictures: Rustle, followed by a bucket of water, followed by an umbrella, followed by a picture of Rustle surrounded by a circle with a slash through it.

"Wait, you've met before?"

Sandy nodded. His arms crossed as he stared daggers at Rustle.

Jack looked at Rustle, "What is he talking about?"

"Um…" the blue haired spirit blushed slightly, scratching the back of his head. "He's probably referencing the time that I tried to pour a bucket of water on him."

"Wait…" Jack was torn, caught between laughing or being horrified at the incredibly ridiculous idea of Rustle chasing Sandman around with a bucket of water, "Why would you do that?"

"To see if he turned into mud!" Rustle explained, holding both arms out towards Sandy, pointing with emphasis, "Haven't you ever wondered what Mudman could do?"

Sandy looked mortified, hiding behind Jack and poking his head out. A finger appeared over Sandy's head, wagging at Rustle and clearly saying: "No. No. No."

Jack sighed, and pulled Sandy out from behind him, "He's not going to pour water on you… right?" The winter spirit hesitantly looked at Rustle, not certain if Sandy were actually safe from the blue-haired spirit's curiosity.

"Nope," Rustle held up his right hand and used his left to make a x-shaped motion over his chest, "Cross my heart."

"There! See?" Jack smiled at Sandy, "We can all be friends. Speaking of which…" Jack turned to look down the street at a familiar house, "Is Jamie still asleep?"

Sandy nodded, giving Jack a knowing smile.

"Rustle! Come on, I want you to meet someone!"

"Who's Jamie?" Rustle cocked his head curiously, unruly locks of blue hair flopping in front of his eyes.

"I'll show you!" Jack sped off through the air, treading lightly across rooftops so as not to wake any of the children from their last moments in dreamland. Sandy's dreams were all masterpieces and should be enjoyed for their fullest duration if possible.

For his part, Rustle followed just as delicately. He was a bit nervous about meeting a kid, after all… he'd never met one personally in all of his years of being a spirit. The prospect was a little daunting. What did one say to a kid?

Jack landed lightly on the roof of a white house, smaller than some of the others they had traveled across, but still decent sized for a growing family. He dropped down off the edge of the roof and came to sit on the window sill of Jamie's room. The boy was still warmly snuggled under his blankets, and, lo-and-behold, a golden dream of a snowball fight was playing around in the dream sand above Jamie's head.

Rustle floated down beside Jack. "That would be a good dream," the blue-haired spirit grinned, recalling the fight he and Jack had previously waged that night.

"Yeah," Jack sighed, "Jamie loves winter. He was the first kid who ever believed in me, y'know?"

"Really," Rustle pressed his forehead against the window to get a closer look at the child's room. There were pictures all over the walls. Pictures of snow forts, sledding, Christmas trees, and even pictures of Jack Frost. They didn't do the winter spirit justice, Rustle thought, but… there he was. Jack Frost was hand-drawn by a child, and Rustle had the sudden feeling of sadness. He wanted that too.

"What's the matter?" Jack asked, picking up on the Summer spirit's obvious mood swing.

"How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Jack asked, looked back at the sleeping Jamie.

"Get him to believe in you?"

"Honestly?" Jack chuckled at the memory, "I made him believe in the Easter Bunny first."

"What?" Rustle looked shocked, "Really?"

"Yep!" Jack chuckled, "Long story short? There were some bad things going down a year ago, and Jamie almost stopped believing in everything. I made a snow bunny, well a bunny out of frost and snow is what I mean, and I sent it into Jamie's room. He tried to touch it and the thing dissipated! His whole room started to get covered in snow, and when one of the snowflakes touched his nose… he just seemed to know. He said my name, and I was so excited! And then… he saw me."

"Wow…" Rustle breathed. That must have been one magical night. Any time spent with Children had always seemed magical to the Summer spirit, even times where he was sitting in the parks, unseen, but still causing little things to happen. A warm summer breeze to make their kite's fly higher, the grass to be higher so they wouldn't hurt themselves rolling down a hill, making puddles for the kids to jump in… Rustle enjoyed children.

But how do you get a child to believe in you, when they don't even know your name?

"You're lucky," Rustle sighed.

"How so?" Jack wondered. He wasn't arguing with the Summer spirit. Jack knew he was lucky. He had children who believed in him, he'd been made a Guardian, and now he had a new friend. If anyone was thankful for how lucky their life had turned out, it was Jack Frost.

"You have that song," Rustle whispered the few lines from one of the only Christmas song's he knew, "Jack Frost nippin' at your nose."

Jack blushed slightly, "Yeah…"

"So that's your secret, eh?" Rustle looked at him mischievously, "You nip their noses, and they believe."

"Excuse me!?" Jack almost fell off the window sill in embrassment, "I have never nipped anyone's nose! At most a random snowflake did the work for me!"

"So you have a no nose nipping policy then?" Rustle grinned, turning from the window to look directly at Jack.

Jack Frost was suddenly aware of how close the two of them were, both perched there on Jamie's window sill, and the blush on his cheeks threatened to turn a deep violet, which confused Jack. Why on earth was he blushing, now of all times? "Um, not exactly? Just haven't really felt the need to… y'know? Nip."

"Well then, whoever gets that first nip will be the luckiest person on the planet," Rustle's smile was warm as he said it, completely genuine in his sincerity. The Summer spirit's eyes seemed to sparkle as the first rays of morning sunlight peaked over the horizon, shining like twin sapphires.

Jack was a little mesmerized. At a loss for anything to say, he found himself leaning forward. Just to get a closer look, he told himself, but then why was his heart starting to beat so quickly? Was it his imagination or was Rustle blushing as well? They were only inches apart, Jack closed his eyes as he leaned over to close that last little gap, guided by a desire he couldn't quite explain.

"Jack!?"

Jamie's voice cut through the fog in Jack's brain, apparently Rustle's too because both spirit's startled and quickly put space between one another. Jack felt like his face must be nothing but blazing violet at this point, but luckily Rustle was looking the other way and couldn't see. Jack thanked the heavens for small miracles.


E. Aster Bunnymund came soaring out of his tunnels into the middle of a Burgess alley. It was the tunnel entrance he always used when coming to visit Jack, because it was where he was least likely to be spotted by anyone. There was even less of a chance that someone might accidentally walk into his tunnels, which had happened before actually, several times actually in the seventies. Those hippies, always wandering around in a daze, were a nightmare to work around. They may have seemed out of their minds half the time, but for some reason they were always able to spot his tunnel entrances. It ended being turned into some drug user's saying about "tumbling down the rabbit hole", which Bunny guessed would explain some things to a person who was high. Thankfully none of them actually remembered enough about his tunnels to accurately describe them, but, it was hard to get work done with hippies falling in your hole every time you opened up your tunnels. The whole experience had taught Aster to be much more careful with where he chose to enter and exit a town.

The rabbit's ears stood at alert, listening intently for signs of anything out of the ordinary. When he was satisfied the coast was clear, Bunny dashed into the shadows and headed for Jack's lake...

Which was abandoned. Bunny stood around looking at the frozen body of water and frowned. "Now... where would I be if I were Frostbite?" he muttered, ears bending down to scratch the top of his head as he thought. Then it hit him, "Jamie! Of course!" Bunny chastised himself for not checking the boy's house first. He sprinted off through the forest, swiftly on his way to Jack's second-favorite place in the world.

When he arrived at Jamie's house it was very easy to spot the winter Spirit. He was perched by the boy's window, just as Bunny had expected. What Bunny hadn't expected was for that Summer spirit to still be with Jack. A twinge of anger caused Bunny's ears to twitch, and he crossed his arms, leaning against a tree on the edge of the woods as he watched the two spirits talk and look into Jamie's bedroom.

"Now that's not creepy at all, Mates," Bunny muttered, "Just have your conversation and watch the little ankle biter sleep." Of course Bunny was completely oblivious that he was the pot calling the kettle black at this exact moment in time.

Why he was so irritated, Bunny couldn't rightly describe. He figured it had something to do with his resentment of the Summer spirit. What was his name again? Rustle? Yeah, that was probably it. Bunny had spent a good third of a century being angry at Jack for the Blizzard of '68, and the only reason Bunnymund had gotten over that incident was because Jack had more than made up for it during the fight with Pitch Black.

This Rustle on the other hand? Bunny was still angry with him. Why? Because Rustle had denied the children of hundreds, nay thousands, of wonderful Easter eggs, and his little prank had led Bunny think that there was some giant conspiracy going on. Then to top it off, that blue-haired brat had caused Jack to get angry at Bunny for no apparent reason! It wasn't Bunny's fault that twilight spirits ended up as bad eggs; it was just the way things had turned out. Look at Pitch Black!

But Jack was so protective of everyone. The winter spirit was naïve, too kind for his own good. Jack didn't realize that some people just couldn't be helped. This Rustle O. Thunder… something was wrong there. Bunny couldn't put his paw on it at the moment, but he would.

A sparkling light caught Bunnymund's attention out of the corner of his eye, and the Easter Bunny looked up to see a rope of golden sand drop from the sky and land on the ground beside him. A few seconds later, Bunny was greeted with the sight of Sandman sliding down the rope.

"Sandy! You golden rascal! How've been!" Bunny hadn't actually seen the Sandman in months. Their only direct line of communication had been through North. Bunny had been busy working on Easter prep, considering it was only four months away now, and Sandy had changed up his dream route, so the two Guardians didn't cross paths like they used to

Sandy created a series of pictures above his head. They told a story of how Sandy had seen an actual whale tonight when he was crossing the ocean, and how the creature had given him new dream ideas; how he had just finished his dream route and run in to Jack Frost; and how Jack now seemed to be hanging out with Rustle.

The last picture was a little golden Rustle O. Thunder, and then it was surrounded by a circle with a slash through it.

"Not a fan of the little blighter I take?" Bunny grinned.

With a frown Sandman shook his head, No. Then he paused and looked back at the house. Jack and Rustle seemed to be having a good time together. It brought a smile to Sandy's face, and he shrugged. A picture of Jack Frost appeared next to the crossed out Rustle. The image of Jack started brushing the circle away, removing the "no Rustle" sign. Once that was done the little golden Jack started holding hands with the little golden Rustle.

"Are you telling me you're gonna give the kid a chance?" Bunnymund frowned.

Sandy looked serious and nodded, fixing Bunny with his gaze. A fast stream of sand images appeared. It would have been incoherent to most, but Bunnymund was fluent in speaking to Sandy and got the gist of the message: If Jack says he's okay, then the kid deserves a chance.

"Yeah, well!" Bunny growled, "Did you know that Sunshine over there is actually a Twilight spirit?"

Sandy looked shocked, a question mark appearing over his head.

"Yeah, mate. He told us so himself," the rabbit sighed, "Said that Nyght told him he was special."

With a look of confusion, Sandman produced another series of images which asked: Couldn't he be?

"Maybe," Bunny growled, "I just don't like him." The Easter spirit turned his attention back to watching Jack and Rustle, so he couldn't see Sandy's silent laughter at his expense; however, Bunny could see the scene that was developing on the window sill. Jack was leaning in towards Rustle, and Bunnymund felt the fur on the back of his neck rise. Jack was going to kiss that annoying little summer brat!? No way!

It felt as if a ball of lead had settled in the pit of the Easter Bunny's stomach. He couldn't believe what was happening. Not only was he outraged at the thought of Jack kissing Rustle… but he, E. Aster Bunnymund, was jealous of the blue-haired summer spirit. That two-fold revelation was enough to make Bunny want to crawl in a hole somewhere and wallow in shame. The Easter Bunny was not supposed to get jealous.

Aster was transfixed, intently watching the scene before him, when suddenly the two spirits were startled, jumping apart. Not knowing which deity to start thanking first, Bunny sent out a silent thank you to all of them; then Jamie appeared at the window, and Bunnymund had never been so thankful for one particular child in his entire life. "Good on ya, Jamie. There's a good lad."

Sandy tugged on Bunny's elbow and gave him a look with a raised eyebrow. There were no sand pictures accompanying this look, but Bunnymund understood it all the same. The look asked: And just why are you so happy?

"No reason, Sandy…" Bunny sighed, "No reason at all."


A/N

And we are moving right along. I feel a bit of action in my bones, and I don't mean the romantic kind. Chapter 8 is shaping up to be quite a change of pace for this story. So, you better get ready!

As always, I appreciate the feedback. So, Read/Review/Recommend this story to other people. I'll see you all next time.