New Year's Child.
Ch. 10
Now edited!
This is a fill from DreamWidth from the RotG KINKmeme. Please enjoy!
Pairing: N/A
Genre: Humor, fluff, family, angst (mild).
Rating: T (for swearing)
Enjoy!
~S~
~s~s~S~s~s~
"We're dead…"
Moments ago, Tooth, Bunny, and North were busy trying to figure out how Gaia got away, when she got away, and where she was. The moment the three Guardians noticed her missing, the entire room was spontaneously turned upside down in their attempts to find her. But after ten minutes of searching, Bunny seemed to resign himself and sat in the middle of the room in a miserable haze.
"We're dead…" Bunny muttered again, sitting rather hopelessly in the middle of the room, resigned to his fate.
"Nyet! We are not dead!" North shouted, turning over the couch for what had to be the tenth time in his search for Gaia – she still wasn't under it, "We will find Gaia before they get back, everything will be just fine!"
"Pitch is going to kill us, mate…"
"Well if someone would quit feeling sorry for himself and help us look, maybe we won't have to die!" Tooth snapped in a rare display of agitation as she searched the large bookcase for the little girl.
Bunny glared at Tooth, but no sooner groaned and got back to looking. He hated to admit it, but she was right. Feeling sorry for himself wasn't going to give him a chance at living the rest of his life in moderate sanity. He might as well at least try to save his own skin.
"Where could she be?" Tooth rasped, looking inside a large vase by the window, "How did she even get out of the basinet?!"
"I do not know," North grumbled, groaning as he found nothing in the trunk near the fireplace, "Girl is clever."
"Girl is evil…" Bunny growled.
"She isn't evil!" Tooth protested, planting her fists on her hips, "She's only a baby, she doesn't know what she's doing."
"She hates us," Bunny pointed out.
"She does not-!" Tooth groaned, rubbing her forehead, "She has preferences. Not that I can blame her, look who she has to work with. We can't even keep an eye on a baby for two minutes without losing her…"
Bunny made as if to protest, but North cut him off with a muttered 'don't'. The boys sighed, dejected. As much as it pained them to admit it, Gaia just did not like them. The only one she loved beyond measure and allowed anywhere near her was Pitch. She only tolerated the Guardians on a good day – and those were few and far between. Most days she just spat up on them or scowled at them.
It was quite a bit disheartening to know a child didn't like them…
Tooth sighed, "Maybe she left the room…?"
"How? The door's closed." Bunny pointed out, gesturing to the closed door.
"Then where did she go?" North asked in exaggeration.
Right at that moment, an elf scurried out of the open elf tunnel in the corner near the bookcase, carrying one of Gaia's bottles and happily chugging the formula. It passed by the stunned Guardians, and vanished into the second tunnel on the other side of the room.
They blinked, looking to one another in stunned stupidity.
Pitch was going to kill them…
~s~S~s~
Slipping away from those dummies had been nothing short of child's play. The big dumb fat man, the giant fur ball, and the annoying bird-lady hadn't been looking when she climbed out of her basinet and plopped right onto the floor. It had hurt a bit, but she sucked it up and made a quick beeline for the little tunnel door those weird short people that liked to eat her formula used.
Gaia had to admit, they were the weirdest and ugliest babies she had ever seen…
But she shook the thought off, crawling further down the tunnel in determination. She was, after all, on a mission. And a baby on a mission was a very serious baby that needed to remain serious.
Her mission? Find her papa.
She had obviously been kidnapped by those three idiots, why else would she be with them? Certainly her papa wouldn't leave her with them willingly. Thankfully she was still in a place somewhat familiar to her, so finding her papa and telling him to go teach those three dummies a lesson should be easy enough.
She crawled further down the tunnel, coming to a fork. She contemplated the two tunnels for but a moment before going down the left one.
She paused for a moment, pushing open the door blocking her way down the relatively short tunnel. Peering inside, she cocked her head.
It was a room…with lots of stuff, is what she deduced. Though what this stuff was, she honestly could not say. All she knew was that a lot of things were spinning, jumping, twirling, and a few things were even growing and shrinking. Weird metal wheels with blocky spokes spun and meshed into one another, while large pistons pumped and jumped steadily like marching soldiers.
Steam hissed from a pipe to her left, startling the girl. She scowled at the pipe; how dare it scare her. Huffing, she crawled further into the large room, staring up at the various metal contraptions and confusing arrays of wiring.
Was her papa in here perhaps?
She frowned, uncertain as she planted her butt on the floor to think. Considering she was just a baby, this was a great effort on her part.
So far, nothing was coming to her small mind, and she glared at the metal contraptions around her. This place was dumb, she thought. There aren't even any toys to play with! And her papa wasn't here either!
About to get up and leave, Gaia paused, looking up. Her eyes widened, reflecting in them the long lever with the bright, candy red ball at its top.
Was that her ball? How did it get down here, she wondered. Then she scowled; those weird dummies probably took it and stuck it to that stupid stick for some stupid reason. Cheeks puffing, Gaia pushed herself up onto her unsteady legs, and quickly reached up to grab onto the long metal stick.
Hmm, her ball was quite high up. If she could just pull the stick down though…
~s~S~s~
"Gaia?"
Bunny peered into yet another elf tunnel, but still, no little girl was present. The Pooka sighed, grumbling to himself. He wondered why exactly he was calling for her to begin with. Likely if she heard him, she'd turn tail and crawl away from him.
He and the others had split up some minutes ago in the hopes of having a better chance of one of them locating Gaia, and he somehow ended up looking in what North dubbed, 'the wrapping room'.
He groaned, scratching his head as he looked around. Boxes littered the entire room, along with hundreds of rolls of different Christmas themed wrapping paper. In the back of the room were several conveyer belts, and a dozen or so machines they led into. The wrapping machine, as North called it, was effective and saved much time for the Yetis and elves, giving them more time to work on toys and other things.
It was shut off right currently since the Christmas season was over. That, or perhaps an elf broke it again – that seemed to happen a lot.
Bunny paused, ears lowering. Oh Moon, what if Gaia was caught in one of the machines? What if they weren't just off, but broken because her little body was somehow wedged somewhere in the deadly mechanisms?!
"Gaia?!" Overcome, Bunny sprinted onto one of the conveyer belts, peering his head into the machine.
He looked around, but was unable to see anything but the exit where wrapped presents were spit out, and some very strange arm-like mechanisms that he could only assumed wrapped the boxes.
"Gaia?" He called, crawling in a bit further, "You in here, sheila?"
Biting his lip, Bunny sniffed the air, but found no traces of her scent – he was certainly grateful he didn't smell something like blood or something equally concerning. But he did smell something; it was faint, like he was just picking up its scent through a crack in the wall.
What was that…baby powder?
Clank!
"Eh?" Bunny startled, freezing as the machine whirred to life around him.
It vibrated and trembled under him briefly, before it settled into a steady hum. The strange arm-like contraptions inside sprung to life, a long roll of wrapping paper sliding in through a slot over Bunny's head.
The wrapping machine was on…and Bunny was inside of it.
"Aw CRIKEY-!"
The poor Pooka never stood a chance…
~s~S~s~
Gaia growled, glaring at the red ball and stick, now turned down to her level. It was odd, the weird stuff around her had made strange noises when she pulled the stick down, and now everything was moving fast and pumping steam. And did she just hear someone yell a minute ago?
She huffed, glaring at the red ball. Wait, wasn't her ball green? And this ball was hard; her ball was soft and bouncy.
Huh, guess it wasn't her ball after all.
Oh, look, another door!
Dismissing the weird ball and stick, Gaia crawled for the new door just hidden between a few pistons. She easily squeezed through, and pushed the elf door open.
Now this room looked a bit more interesting. Sort of – there were lots of boxes, but too much colorful paper. It was a bit nauseating.
Nose scrunched, Gaia crawled out of the wrapping machine, looking around. A thump was heard, and she looked up.
The machine rumbled and sputtered, as if it were having a bit of trouble with what it was supposed to be doing. And she could hear someone inside the machine…?
Ooh, they were saying bad words. And words she didn't know were bad or not. What did 'crap' mean?
She blinked as the other side of the machine trembled, the square vent groaning as it worked to push something out. She stared in both parts awe and surprise as a rather long, lumpy thing wrapped in candy cane wrapping paper was spat out and onto a table. A metallic arm reached out of the machine, holding a large, garish red bow. It slapped the bow onto the rump of the wrapped thing, startling a muffled yelp, before it retreated back into the machine.
Gaia blinked, brows raised. That…was by far, the weirdest looking present she had ever seen. And it was…moving?
"Ugh…!" a pink nose poked out of one end, the other end tearing as a puffy tail broke loose.
Bunny groaned, dazed and wrapped up tightly with tape and industrial strength wrapping paper. He made a mental note to kick North for making such strong paper…
"Guh, aw my aching…!" He paused, sniffing the air. He looked down over the table.
He gasped, seeing Gaia sitting just below him.
"Gaia! Oh thank the Moon, where have you been?" He snapped.
Gaia did not look the least bit impressed with the Pooka.
He groaned, "Aw forget it, just…" he struggled, trying to break free of the paper, "Just…hang on, I'm going to take you back with me to your room as soon as I…!"
Gaia blinked slowly, like a very bored cat. She looked around in the same bored manner, then back up at Bunny. She cocked her head, as if contemplative. Bunny continued to struggle, but found himself unable to escape his candy cane printed prison.
"Just…! H-hang on, I almost…!" he looked down, but no sooner blanched as Gaia made to get up and crawl away.
"W-wait, wait! No, don't leave! Gaia!" He called, struggling like an overturned caterpillar.
Gaia looked back at Bunny, her expression flat. Bunny pleaded with his eyes, mentally begging her not to just crawl off and leave him like this. It was bad enough they lost her, but now he found her and she was trying to leave while he was trapped in the binds of horrendous Christmas paper and tape!
"Gaia, seriously, j-just wait there, okay?" He pleaded, giving a strained smile, "I-I promise! Once I get out, I'll, uh…I-I'll give you chocolates! Yeah, you have any idea how great my chocolate is? I'm the Easter Bunny, no one makes candy better than me!"
Gaia seemed to think on his words, as little as she understood them…
…and Bunny was soon crushed, as Gaia turned her little rump on him, and crawled right off.
"Wait! N-no! Gaia! GAIA!" He yelled, wriggling and squirming as she crawled for the open door of the room.
"No, wait! GAIA! No! Bad girl! Sit! Stay! I-WHOA!"
Gaia ignored the Pooka, and didn't so much as look back, not even as he fell off the table and landed on his back. She huffed; served the dummy right…
Bunny groaned, his ego and body pained, trapped, and the brat had rejected his chocolates. No one ever said no to his candy! The very nerve of that girl!
…he blatantly ignored just how creepy he sounded when he ran the situation through his head.
He hoped the others had better luck than he did at catching Gaia…
To be continued…