A Better Life
Summary: Jack is beaten and abused by the Guardians every day. His only friend is Pitch Black. When Pitch pushes him through a white portal, suddenly everything has change. The Guardians are suddenly caring. Pitch is suddenly evil. What's going on?
Really, really sorry this took so long :S I didn't really check for mistakes either, so double sorry if there's any.
Nine
"Jack?" The younger winter spirit exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing here? Bunny's right outside-"
"Relax kiddo," The older Jack said, jumping out of the wardrobe. He stretched a bit, hiding in the wardrobe hadn't done much good for his back.
"But he'll hear you!" Jack hissed, "I mean he'll hear both of us. And-and if he comes in, I don't know how to explain-"
"Jack," The older Jack said, placing his hands on the younger Jack's shoulders, "I said relax, okay? Manny's taking care of it."
Jack turned his head to the window, blinking in surprise. The light of the moon shining into the room greeted him and even though the moon still didn't speak, a calm feeling wash over Jack, as if Manny was sending him a reassuring smile.
"He's put a silencer around the room so we can chat." Older Jack explained.
"Oh..." Jack said slowly.
When the younger winter spirit refused to look at him, the Older Jack a little so he could meet Jack's eyes, "No need to worry, alright?"
Jack still was uncertain. But the moonlight calmed him and the Older Jack's smile was infectious.
"Better?" Older Jack asked.
Jack nodded with a small smile. Older Jack's grin widened and he ruffled Jack's hair.
"That's my little brother."
Jack nearly laughed at the older winter spirit's antics. Instead his smile just widened a little, watching the Older Jack looked around the room.
"Besides Bunny and North cleaning it up, looks like exactly how I left it." Older Jack said.
For a moment the Older Jack's cheeky grin lessened and both Jack and Baby Tooth wondered about asking if the other teen was okay. But the large grin reappeared again and Jack had to blink at the sudden speed almost gave him whiplash. Baby Tooth seemed used to the sudden changes, the little fairy concern disappearing, for now at least.
"I'll have to show you all its secrets sometime!" Older Jack laughed. "Anyway, what was I meant to be talking about again?"
Baby Tooth piped up then, tweeting a little too quickly for Jack to fully understand. Older Jack seemed to make sense of it just fine, as his face grew more serious again.
"Right, yeah Pitch." He said. Younger Jack noticed while he didn't spit out Pitch's name as Bunny did, there was a dark undertone in his voice, making him instantly know he was talking about the Pitch from this universe.
Older Jack turned to Jack and place a hand on his shoulder.
"Listen, I don't want you to be alarmed, especially seeing as you're recovering, but I have to warn you. Pitch gave you that nightmare."
"I know that…" Jack mumbled.
"And he knows exactly what you dreamt about."
Jack's eyes widened. The Older Jack gave a gentle squeeze of his shoulder as he continued.
"Yeah. While I hate that guy, I have to admit he's smart. It won't take him long to figure out what's going on, if he hasn't already figured it out. He must have sensed you when you were asleep, seeing as Sandy isn't around. And seeing as the fact that I'm – so technecially you – supposed to be dead….yeah, that was gonna catch his attention."
"W-What do I do?" Jack asked, shakily.
"For now, just keep an eye out. The Guardians will protect you, definitely, and both me and Manny will be on the look out too." Jack said, "If things do get out of hand, I'll get involved, even if that's against the rules."
"Rules?"
"About being dead. We sorted of bended them this and last time, though I don't think Manny will object if I broke them because you were in danger. Does mean I can't stop by to just say hi though."
Baby Tooth looked disappointed at that. While she did care for the younger Jack, which she showed by perching on his shoulder, she still missed her old friend and the fact he couldn't visit broke her heart.
Older Jack looked disappointed by that too, though he shook his head and focused again.
"Again don't worry too much, alright? You're safe here."
Once again Jack repeated the word 'safe' in his head with uncertainty, more out of reflex then him actually questioning Older Jack's statement. He tried his best to push that uncertainty to one side. Older Jack had been nothing but honest, telling him exactly what was going on when he had first appeared in this universe. Jack could trust him...right?
Again the doubt was back again. Jack wondered if he would ever get rid of it.
"Listen kid, I wanted to ask you something before I go. It's kinda important."
Jack snapped out of his thoughts and glanced up at a suddenly nervous looking Older Jack. "Okay...what is it?"
Older Jack reached up and rubbed his neck, seeming to be dithering on how to go about asking Jack what ever he wanted to known. Eventually he just blurted it out.
"Okay, Manny's concerned that me asking will just bring back up bad memories, so I wasn't sure if I should. But I always hated being left out of the loop of things and I'd feel weird about doing this without you and Baby Tooth knowing. You know me and Manny looked at your memories right?"
Now Baby Tooth and the younger Jack were sharing a look of concern.
"Yes...?" Jack replied.
"Well seeing your memories kinda raised a few questions. And so Manny wants to have a look at the universe you came from. It might mean just viewing it the way we viewed your memories or it might mean me going through a portal to explore a bit..."
He trailed off at the shocked expressions the two were giving him.
Immediately Baby Tooth snapped out of her shock and started squawking loudly, flying right up to Older Jack's face. Jack only made out 'are you serious?' and 'you could get hurt!', the rest of her shrieks too fast for him.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't worry about me! Already dead, remember?" Older Jack exclaimed, chuckling a little.
At the death glare Baby Tooth sent him, his chuckling faded and he gulped nervously.
Younger Jack stopped paying attention as the shock faded and a thought occurred to him. He didn't really want to think of theother universe, especially after the nightmare he just had. But it was that nightmare that made him realise something and he caught Older Jack's attention.
"If...if you're looking into the other universe," Jack faltered, taking an unsteady breath, "Could you...could you find out what happened to Pitch?"
He was sure Pitch was dead, just as his nightmare had shown him. But there was a small part that hoped, no, wished that Pitch was still alive. And until he knew sure, Jack knew that small part would keep wishing, even though it would just end up hurting him in the long run.
"Kid, I don't even know if it'll even work..."
"Please?"
Older Jack sighed, as he saw the expression on Jack's face.
"Now I know why Tooth always gave in to my requests too easily," He mumbled to himself, chuckling a little, "Alright, little brother, I'll try. No guarantee promises though."
Before Older Jack could react or before younger Jack tackled him into a hug.
"Thank you," The younger boy mumbled.
Older Jack grinned and return the hug. The younger Jack, who had suddenly realised realised what he had did and feared he had overstep the mark, relaxed a little, especially when Baby Tooth joined the hug too.
Pulling apart, Older Jack pulled down his sleeve to glance a small wristwatch.
"We still got roughly two minutes before Bunny comes through that door." He said.
The two winter spirits sat on the bed, Baby Tooth sitting on the younger Jack's left shoulder so she was in between both Jack's. The Older Jack suddenly beamed and turned to his little brother.
"So," He smirked, "What's your favourite prank to pull?"
North knocked on the door, entering when he heard the gruff 'come in' from Bunny.
"Hey, mate," Bunny greeted, not looking up from where he was correcting Jack's grip on his paintbrush.
When Bunny had re-entered the room after the five minutes up, not knowing that the real Jack had just left, Jack had been left wide awake and so had asked Bunny if they could have another egg painitng session to past the time (and in Jack's case keep from thinking about what Older Jack had told him).
"You having the next watch?" Bunny asked, finally glancing up at the Russian.
"Actually no. Several elves fell from one of the balconies. They're unharmed but they ended up breaking massive amount of toys in fall. I've contacted Tooth and she should be here soon as she finished up." North explained, "Thought maybe Jack would like to stretch legs for a bit before she gets here."
"Ah right," Bunny said, one eyebrow raised. He knew exactly the unsaid part in North's speech. North knew as soon as his watch was over, Bunny would hurried back to his warren, rush to get whatever he needed to get done there, and then be back to look after Jack, all without taking a break himself.
While Bunny wanted to call North out on it, he didn't want to raise an arguement in front of Jack. Besides, he was a little stiff from sitting for so long.
"What you say, mate?" Bunny asked, turning to Jack, "Fancy a walk."
Jack glanced over at Baby Tooth, who was using his shoulder as a bed, making sure she wasn't going to fall off if he was moving, "Um, sure."
As Jack refused the crutches Bunny and North offered, despites their best attempts to persuade him, Jack floated rather than walked, following Bunny and North as they strolled through Santoff Claussen.
"How long it'll take to fix the toys the elves broke?" Bunny asked.
"Should not be long. Just do not want to fall behind schedule. Not after..." North stiffened for a split second before changed subjects, pointing out the toy planes flying over the workshop to Jack.
Bunny fell silent. The first year Jack had gone missing, North had indeed fallen behind schedule. So behind in fact, that all four Guardians had stay up the whole night of Christmas Eve trying to get toys finished before the morning rose. They managed to get the majority of toys done but there was still children that woke up with no Christmas presents and lost their belief that day.
Not wanting to remember just how stressful that time period was, Bunny changed to subject also, "You've got Jamie and little Sophie's presents sorted yet then?"
North let out a deep chuckle.
"Do not worry, you softie, Sophie's presents are all wrapped and waiting to be delivered." He replied, ignoring Bunny's protest at being called a softie, "As for Jamie's I hae some presents finished, but was hoping Jack might be able to help."
The two turned to Jack, who was giving them a look of confusion, eyebrows furrowed.
"Who's Jamie?"
Bunny's mouth dropped open. He stared at Jack for a few seconds before lifting his head to meet North's gaze. Surely Jack hadn't forgotten Jamie?! The kid meant the world to him.
North gave Bunny a stern look and the rabbit finally realised his paws were curling into fists. He unclenched them quickly, not wanting Jack to see.
"Isn't he that kid that didn't stop in believing you guys that time when you were fighting Pitch?" Jack asked, thankfully not noticing Bunny's anger.
"Yeah, mate," Bunny said, slightly relieve that winter spirit hadn't forgotten Jamie, "He almost stopped believing. But you made sure he didn't, by using your frost display, remember?"
"Yeah..." Jack said. Bunny and North shared another glance, a hopeful one this time, until Jack said, "He still didn't see me."
North had to step on Bunny's toe to stop the Pooka from blowing his roof.
Bunny had every right to be fuming with rage. Pitch had robbed Jack the memory of being seen by a child for the first time in his spirit life. But even though North wanted to get mad himself, Jack was still in a vulnerable state. Yelling and swearing would only scare Jack and set them back another few weeks.
"Ah, North that was my foot!" Bunny yelped, holding his injured foot and hoping on the other. He shot an angry glare at North.
North shrugged, "Sorry. Can't help if big foot gets in way of my feet."
"What did you just say?" Bunny growled.
North just smirked and didn't say anything, pretending he hadn't heard the question. Bunny's eyes smouldered.
Before they could get into one of their famous arguments, they were startled by a sound. Their heads whipped over to stare at Jack.
Jack was laughing.
The boy had his hand over his mouth but that couldn't contain his giggles.
He immediately stopped, however, as soon as he saw North and Bunny staring at him, going rigid as he realised he had just laughed at them. Quickly he ducked his head, his eyes automatically squeezing shut and his body tensing, expecting someone to hit him.
Bunny was about to say something but North hushed him with a shake of his head. He turned back to Jack and the two waited.
Eventually the boy cracked opened an eye when nothing happened. Realising he wasn't going to be hit, he opened his eyes fully and lifted his head back up, only to glance away again, this time out of embarrassment not fear.
"Sorry," He mumbled, fidgeting with his staff as his cheeks flushed slightly.
"Nothing to be sorry for, Jack," North said softly.
Jack looked up again shyly. North gave him a reassuring look. Slowly, a small soft smile spread on his lips.
"When I am done with that boogeyman-"
"Bunny, enough," North warned. They had left Jack with Tooth and Phil for a bit in the living room as North took Bunny to his office, but when Bunny was really mad, his yells could be heard all over to the other side of the workshop, let alone to the living room.
Bunny started pacing the room, "He thought we were going to hit him again; just for laughing!"
"He still needs time," North said softly, stepping over to stop the rabbit's pacing, "And is first time he has laugh since it's all happen. It's a start."
"He shouldn't be so terrified of laughing-"
"It's a start." North repeated.
Bunny sighed, his ears drooping sadly as his emerald eyes looked down at the floor.
"Yeah I guess," He spoke quietly, "It's just...it's just so hard to see him like this."
He felt North placed his hands on his shoulders and he looked up to see North staring at him with understanding blue eyes.
"I know."
Bunny dropped his eyes again, "Sorry mate, I know you see the kid as a son."
North pulled Bunny into a hug. Normally Bunny would squirm and try and pull away. He was never one for hugs and showing emotions.
However, instead he sighed and rested his head against North's chest.
