WHAT IF ASTER COULDN'T STAY AWAY FROM SARA? WHAT IF PITCH FOUND OUT ABOUT HER? HOW WOULD ASTER REACT TO DISCOVERING SARA WAS PREGNANT?
This is something that I have been thinking of writing for some time. Only that I was planning to make it like a GUARDIANS WATCH THE MOVIE or something except they would have been watching beats and pieces from the future. I am actually still thinking of doing that…
I just felt like I didn't write about Sara enough. This is just the first part. I think I can wrap it up in just one more.
Anyway…
I hope you like it.
1699 – Seven and a half moths before Jack was born / Two days before Sara found out she was pregnant:
E. Aster Bunnymund sighed in defeat as he watched the chocolate-haired beauty from behind a tree.
He tried to stay away.
He really did.
He knew it was for the best. He's the one that proposed it for MiM's sake!
Well… the spring sprites proposed it, but they were right. It was too risky. That's why no one ever heard about a relationship between a mortal and a spirit. Maybe two or three one-night things, but nothing long lasting.
He and Sara had no future.
And that was killing him.
He tried to stay away. To leave her alone and not look back, but he found himself coming back to watch her almost every day since the night they said goodbye.
He watched her hide before fake smiles and smirks that looked so real she actually managed to fool everyone in her small home, but Aster would sometimes catch her look nostalgic towards the places they used to hang out. She continued playing with the children of the village, telling them stories (some of them that he told her about), she continued climbing every tall tree in her path and she continued singing.
She had definitely the most beautiful voice in her village. Soft, but strong, she sang most nights at the campfire sometimes with the village, sometimes alone. Most of the time alone. But not because the rest of the people didn't like to sing. But because they wanted to listen.
And Aster came and listened too. Watching silently and marveling and how the birds stopped their flight and sat in complete silence just to listen her.
He ducked his head again when she turned, probably sensing someone watching her, and Aster sighed again, closing his eyes as he felt his heart break once again. He tapped his foot on the ground and watched the tunnel appear, ready to take him back to his lonely Warren, but he didn't jump right away.
He heard her come closer, her light feet barely making a sound as she approached, making him shift slightly so that his back was now touching the tree and his feet were not even two inches away from the tunnel.
Sara Rogers looked curiously at the lonely tree. She was feeling watched, but not in a bad way.
A warm feeling started burning inside her and she approached the tree slowly, like she didn't want to startle it.
She didn't want to do this again. To feel disappointed then lonely then angry at herself for being disappointed, but she refused to stop hoping. She knew how powerful hope was. How beautiful and how strong it could be. She was not ready to let go of it yet. Maybe she'll never be, but she didn't care.
She put her hand on the tree, but didn't look behind.
She bit her lip then moved so that her back was now touching the tree and closed her eyes, not daring to look yet.
And they stayed like that for a few more minutes, neither of them moving or daring to look, neither sure if the other was still there.
They each took a deep breath and finally, a decision was made.
Sara opened her eyes and turned around…
…where no one was.
She sighed, a few rebel tears falling down her cheeks, before her eyes spotted a well-known flower and she smiled.
Because she knew Aster still loved her.
And that was more than enough for her. At least for now…
In the shadows, gold eyes watched with glee the painful scene before him, and the Nightmare King smiled cruelly as he formed a new plan to destroy the Easter Guardian.
Six days later:
The Guardians were frustrated.
A few spirits came and claimed – more like yelled – that some type of almost-solid-shadow was terrorizing them and interfering with their work. They followed more routes, but every single one of them turned up to be a dead end.
Now they were walking inside a cave, somewhere in Arabia, so creepy that it just had to be the right place.
"Well, well… All four Guardians coming to visit dear old me?" Pitch asked, his voice echoing inside the large cave, but all the Big Four could see were shadows.
"Get down here and fight ya coward!" Aster yelled, boomerangs ready as his friends followed suit.
"Bunny! What a surprise!" Pitch said fake enthusiasm. Aster growled at the walls where at least twenty shadows of the Nightmare King were circling him and his friends. "I honestly wasn't expecting you." He continued and Aster narrowed his eyes. "Weren't you supposed to stalk some brown haired mortal?" Pitch asked making Aster freeze, his heart stopping.
The rest of the Guardians were so startled that they didn't even attack when Pitch finally appeared on a rock above them, smirking.
"She won't be there forever, you know… Humans are so breakable." He said and disappeared again, his laugh echoing into the cave.
"Bunny-" North tried to say, but Aster was not listening.
He tapped his foot on the ground and jumped down into the tunnel while his fiends continued yelling, but he didn't hear them. The only thing he heard was his own heartbeat beating faster, harder, louder.
His feet were leaving marks on the ground, his legs were burning, but he felt like he was barely moving.
He jumped out, not even checking if there were other people around and spotted her immediately.
She was lying down on a low branch of some tree, playing with a bracelet. The bracelet with a blue Easter egg with white designs that he gave her.
She moved a strand of hair out of her face and Aster let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
She was safe.
Nothing happened. Pitch lied.
A cold feeling washed over him.
Pitch knew.
He didn't get to ponder on that for long before he saw her turn to look towards him and he ducked on instinct, hiding before the exact same tree he watched her from last time.
Pitch knew.
He hadn't been careful enough. Fast enough. Good enough.
Pitch knew.
He continued to come back. Because he couldn't just stay away. Because he couldn't let her have a normal life. A safe life. One that he couldn't offer.
A hand touched his forearm and he jumped a foot in the air, but the hand didn't move.
And when he turned, warm chocolate eyes locked into his, and he couldn't see a hint of remorse or anger in them. Only love, support and something else that he couldn't exactly pinpoint.
"Rough day?" she asked and he couldn't form words to explain himself.
So he took her in his arms to make sure she was real, that she was here, and she didn't complain.
He didn't get to say anything else before the Guardians appeared.
"Bunny!" Tooth yelled while North stopped the sleigh.
"See? I told you vhey would be fine!" North exclaimed, grinning at them.
Sara gaped at the rest of the Guardians. Sandy conjured a hat with his sand and politely saluted her. She waved back with a small smile then looked at Aster for explanations.
"She's even prettier than you describe, my friend!" North exclaimed and Aster blushed, making Sara giggle.
"Your teeth!" Tooth cut in, flying straight for the brown-haired girl, taking her by surprise.
"My-my what?" Sara shuttered and it was Aster's turn to chuckle. This was the first time he ever saw her at a loss of words.
"Open up! Oh, look how white they are!"
"Fingers out, Tooth." North said, sounding extremely used to it.
"Sorry." The fairy said a little embarrassed. "They're very white!"
"Well? What are you waiting for, slowpokes?" North asked. "In the sleigh!"
"What?" Aster and Sara asked at the same time once they realized he was talking to them.
"Best way to protect her is by taking her with us!"
"What?" Sara asked, frowning at the Guardians.
"She'll love vhe Workshop and I'm sure she can leave the village for a week or so."
Sara smiled understanding enough to figure out she was invited to Santa's Workshop. Who would refuse that?
"Now wait just a minute, mate." Aster said then turned to Sara. "Your brother-"
"Is away with some work for the rest of the week. I can easily find some excuse if he comes back early."
Aster didn't doubt that. He knew that even if Peter was in the village, she could probably leave for two weeks and then use that silver-tongue of hers with some puppy eyes and it would be like nothing happened.
"Perfect!" North exclaimed and rushed back to the sleigh with Sara right behind him.
They explained her everything that happened in the cave with Pitch on the way to the Pole and Aster couldn't bring to let go of her hand the whole ride back, not only because of North's terrifying flying skills that Sara actually seemed to enjoy, much to his annoyance.
"Welcome to the Pole!" North exclaimed as they entered and watched with the rest of the Guardians as her eyes filled with wonder, a smile getting bigger and bigger with each step she took.
But the real fun began when they were passing the Yetis who were working on toys.
"I thought the elves made the toys."
"That's what we let them believe."
As if on cue, an elf flew over their heads covered in glitter.
Sara laughed and looked around, but didn't let go of Aster's hand, which made him feel a little smug.
"You know…" she suddenly said, looking at a Yeti. "It would look way cooler with some wings and maybe, bigger eyes?"
The Yeti and North stopped what they were doing and looked at each other, then at the toy, then at her. The Yeti – which Sara found out later was named Phil – was running to make the adjustments before North even finished agreeing with her.
They spent the rest of the way to the Globe Room getting ambushed by Yetis with toy plans and looking at how Sara seemed to be able to find some way to improve everything they showed her. North and Phil started taking notes at some point while random elves brought her cookies and all kinds of fruitcakes. Aster thought some of them were seriously disgusting, but Sara seemed to like everything they gave her and even rewarded one of them with a kiss on the cheek, making the elf faint and the others scramble to get her more sweets.
He had hoped they would have gone to the Warren. At least he didn't have to share her with anyone there.
He wrapped his hands around her middle from behind and had to hide a frown when she flinched. It was short and she relaxed so quickly he almost thought he imagined it, had it not been for the fact that she was more tensed than before.
He opened his mouth to ask her if she was alright when the whole Workshop shook.
North started barking orders and asking what happened, but then shadows started dancing on the walls and everything turned into chaos.
Aster caught North's eyes, but the old Cossack won the argument pretty quick. He sighed, but tapped his foot on the floor, not before throwing his friend one last look, a promise that he'll be back.
Sara started protesting the moment her feet hit the ground of the Warren.
"We have to turn back and help them!"
"He's not after the Pole." Aster said, keeping his hands on her hips to make her look at him.
"All the more reasons to go back."
"I'm not letting you get hurt."
"I'm not letting them get hurt."
"They're a lot stronger than you think."
"And you think I'm not?!"
Their faces started getting closer to each other, not that either of them noticed.
"I don't want to lose you." Aster admitted and for the first time since they met, Sara could actually see a few touches of fear in the forest green eyes she loved so much. "I can't." he said and her breath caught in her throat as he and leaned in until a hand on his chest stopped him.
"I wanted you to know – I was – You should know – I found – I am – I mean – " she started shuttering, for once that silver-tongue of hers failing her, but Aster was more concerned about how nervous she looked. How tense he could feel her as he tried and failed to make eye contact.
"I'm-I-"
She cut her off with the kiss he had been dying to take from her and he felt her melt in his arms, the tension she'd been carrying finally disappearing.
He rested his forehead against hers, both of them breathing heavily.
"I-"
"Well, aren't you two getting close." A well-known voice sneered and Pitch appeared a few feet away from the couple.
Aster pushed Sara behind, taking out his boomerangs.
"Get out of my Warren!" he growled and took out his boomerangs.
"Is that how you treat guests here, rabbit?" Pitch asked sarcastically. "And it's not like I came to talk to you. I was just curious about who could stand being around you for so long. We don't really need you around." He finished and Sara suddenly yelped, making Aster turn.
A shadow hand got out of the tree behind them and grabbed her. She disappeared before Aster even got close.
He heard Pitch yelp and turned to shoot at him but the Nightmare King already held her hostage. Aster couldn't shoot him without accidentally hurting Sara, too.
Her hands were bind behind her back, probably with the same shadow that took her and Pitch was covering her mouth with a hand and holding a knife at her throat with the other.
An already purple bruise appeared on the Nightmare Kings cheek which almost made Aster smirk.
"You should let the Sheila go before she punches you again." Aster said, sounding way more calm than he was. "Or before I get close enough to kill ya." He finished with a promised of murder in his eyes.
Pitch didn't look angry, but Aster could swear he nearly saw him smile as he pressed the knife a little closer to Sara, making her stop struggling, so she won't accidentally cut herself.
"It was a good hit, I'll say that. Whoever said that pregnant women punched worse was right." Pitch said and allowed a smirk to appear on his face.
Aster stilled, the words repeating again and again in his mind.
Pregnant?
Sara? Since when? With who?
She never spoke of a potential husband – only complained about a few.
"That one tried to kiss me the other day. I would have punched him twice if his friend didn't drag him out of my face!"
"The idiot started blabbing to me about how lucky I was he liked me. I stepped on his toes so hard I think I broke three of his fingers!"
"The guy didn't even have the guts to ask me! He just went straight to Peter and started offering things for me, like I was something he could just buy. I was in the room for God's sake! And I would have killed him if Jonny didn't hold me back. Peter was so startled by what the hell was happening he didn't even say anything to him by for twenty minutes!"
The moment she flinched when he wrapped his hands around her appeared in his mind. And the fact that she loved every dish the elves brought her at the Pole. Why she was shuttering and why she looked a little scared when he tried to kiss her.
And the look in her eyes. The one that he didn't recognize.
Conflict.
Because she felt like he should know? Because she didn't know how to tell him? Or even IF she should tell him? Was she scared of how he was going to react?
Was she married? The villages frowned upon single mothers. She was probably married. But with who?
Jealousy started burning inside him at the thought of another man around her. Anger boiled inside him for every reason and no reason at all.
And then the desperation appeared. The thought that he lost her forever.
Pitch must have seen something on his face, because he continued.
"Aw, don't tell me you didn't even say hi to your own child yet!" He laughed as Aster completely froze.
His child?!
His eyes unconsciously found Sara's and he could see the guilt and panic in them.
His child.
The conflict in her eyes… She knew a child could change his decision of leaving again and she didn't want to influence him like that. But she also thought he deserved to know he had a kit.
He had a child.
He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he didn't see the shadow shift behind him until it was too late. He didn't see Sara widening her eyes in warning.
But he did feel something hard hit him from behind and send him flying into a rock.
And then everything went black.
Sara hated feeling scared.
She had been looking after the children in her village, playing with them, caring for them, since she was what? – eight? – nine? years old. She simply couldn't afford being scared around them, because if a child saw a grown up looking nervous it became scared and she didn't want that.
She had been thinking how to tell Peter. She thought that was going to be the hard part until Aster suddenly dropped back of out of nowhere and she panicked, thinking that he somehow found out, but he didn't. And now she wasn't sure if it would have been easier if he did.
Aster didn't say anything about what was going to happen after the fight was over. Was he going to stay? Was he going to leave again? She wasn't sure she could handle it.
She saw his face when Pitch revealed she was pregnant. He stiffened, pale, unbelieving, and she thought he didn't want the child. But then the Nightmare King clarified he was the father and Sara didn't know which of the men in front of her she wanted to hit first.
The monster that kidnapped her, held her hostage and then told her love she was pregnant…
…or the idiot that actually thought she started sleeping with other men.
She didn't have time to figure out Aster's expression before she saw the black mass that ran straight into him. She could only struggle as the shadows seemed to grow around her and everything fell into darkness.
Sara woke up to someone tugging her arm painfully and she found herself walking – being dragged by a man.
She stumbled and nearly tripped before she could yell at him, and she noticed that she wasn't wearing her short leather dress and brown pants anymore. She was wearing a very uncomfortable white and long wedding dress.
She remembered an older friend of her, Mary Evans, wearing the same dress the day she became Mary Olsen - the wife of a doctor named Octavian Olsen.
The long sleeved horrible dress reached her ankles and went a little up her neck and had a corset that made it difficult to breath. And to make matters worse – Sara had her hair carefully fixed in a bun up her head, totally not her style.
Mary had been her best friend. She was three years older than Sara, but her father married her off when she was sixteen to that stupid doctor.
It's probably what made Sara scared to death of marriage.
It was like everyone forgot Mary, the girl who sometimes helped at the bakery just because she felt like it, the one who organized the Christmas parties every year, the person who helped her and Peter the most after their parents died.
She became 'Ms Olsen' or 'Mr. Olsen's wife' or even 'the doctor's wife'.
She stopped singing with Sara, she stopped playing with her or any of the other children, she even stopped going to the bakery and Sara knew it wasn't just Mary 'finally growing up' as most idiots in her village told her when she tried to point out how depressed Mary seemed sometimes.
Marriage became Sara's nightmare. Because for her it meant she was going to disappear. Because nobody was going to see her again. She was going to be Someone's wife and she simply couldn't live like that.
Her brother knew she didn't want to get married, even if he didn't know the real reason, so he never went looking to arrange anything, but that didn't stop the men – most of them that she didn't even know – to try and ask her hand.
If they somehow got past her fists and her mouth, Peter was there to say no. But a girl didn't look good in the eyes of the village if she didn't marry until she was 20, 19 years old, really. And her brother already started implying to her that she should at least consider someone. She wasn't sure how long she had before he married her off too, but she dreaded it with all her soul.
She started recognizing the trees around her. They were very far from the village and she could see a cabin appear ahead just as she formed a fist, finally felling the cold ring on her finger.
She was a bird.
A songbird, really.
Free to fly with the wind everywhere in the world and to sing as loud as she wanted while she passed the clouds.
The man that had a ring on his finger opened the door and pushed her in making her stumble again, her legs trembling as she was dragged up the stairs, fear freezing her blood.
This couldn't happen to her. This wasn't supposed to happen to her.
Another door opened, this time leading to a bedroom and she started hyperventilating as the man she still couldn't see the face of prepared to break her wings.
She fell on her back on top of the bed, feeling the panic overtake her.
Aster ran down the halls of Pitch's lair, the sounds of the battle between his friends and the Nightmare King growing quieter as he ran faster, trying to sniff the air and find his love.
Sara was pregnant. She was pregnant with his child.
He never thought he'll ever have a family again. He just couldn't be that lucky.
He never hoped. Because he understood hope better than anyone. He understood how hard it could be to hope and hope and hope and then suffer when you realize it just won't happen.
He nearly tripped when Sara's scream filled the tunnel. His heart forgot to beat and his blood froze as the terror in that scream imprinted itself in his mind. He started running even faster calling her name as he tried to find his way in the maze of darkness around him.
"Aster! Aster, help! Help me! Please!"
Then the screaming continued and then suddenly there was only silence.
Aster couldn't even feel the pain in his legs as he continued to ran, his own fear rising, until he finally reached the door.
Sara let out a scream as she sat up abruptly and tried to shake off the hands that were trying to wrap themselves around her. She continued to struggle until her eyes finally adjusted to the poor light in the room and she saw Aster bend over her to check for injuries that weren't there.
She let out a sob as she let him wrap his arms around her, mumbling shooting words in her hair.
Nearly two years had passed since that day. Jack was a year and a half and things couldn't be better.
Until Pitch started acting again, this time trapping the Guardians inside the North Pole.
Bunny was drowning in worry. Pitch had been playing with them for a few hours already, but he disappeared completely about ten minutes ago.
Sara and Jack were alone in the Warren and even if he had faith in his sentinels to keep intruders away, his worry just kept growing. Sara wasn't a spirit. They weren't sure if she could become one that easily, but Aster always thought she'd probably end up as a wind sprite.
But right now she had nothing to defend herself if Pitch attacked the Warren, much less protect Jack. The thought spiked a little more determination in him and he lunged to the door. He was going to have to get a new one for North, but he couldn't bring himself to care for that now.
He tapped his foot on the snow outside and didn't wait for the rest of the Guardians as he jumped down.
Sara kissed Jack on the forehead before placing him gently down in the crib. She heard the remains of the sentinels scatter on the grass outside their home and she prepared for the worst, not that she could do much against the Nightmare King.
"Not even locked the door?" Pitch asked, appearing in the other side of the room.
Shadows already started growing towards her and Jack, who was still cooing at his mother, wanting to be picked up.
"I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed." He continued, eyeing the crib.
"I lock the door only when there's really a threat approaching." She shot back as she took Jack's hand, not even bothering to turn to see him fuming. "Not some second rate shadow with a few party tricks."
"You're calling this a trick?" he asked dangerously and all the lights in the room flickered.
"Actually, that I call overdramatic." She said, this time turning around and threw him a smirk.
"You know I can't let you two get away this time."
"Because it would make you look even more like a loser than last time?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, challenging.
She had to stall for as long as she could. She knew whatever was holding Aster wouldn't be able to keep him away forever. But nervousness started growing more and more inside her and she wasn't sure if Pitch already knew about it, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out.
"You think you can stop me?"
The light bulb next to him exploded.
"If you're threatening my child, I'm gonna do a lot more than simply stop you."
Two more light bulbs exploded leaving only the one on her left standing. If that one went out too she won't be able to see what the hell was around her.
Pitch started approaching.
"Don't you know it's not wise to anger the Boogiem-Gah!" he yelled as Sara threw a paint bomb at him, turning his left arm red.
"Don't you know it's not wise to annoy me?!" she asked and threw another pain bomb at him, this time turning his hair green.
Little Jack started giggling at the scene and Sara's hope started rising slightly, but then Pitch growled and a shadow lunged and hit her arm making her hiss and drop the rest of the bombs. Jack stopped giggling.
A black scythe started forming in Pitch's hands making Sara panic just as Aster's voice finally reached her ears.
"Sara?!"
He was still pretty far, probably just reached the entrance where the sentinels were.
"Aster!"
Pitch raised his scythe, but she didn't move. Not because she was afraid, but because if she moved he could hit Jack and she couldn't let that happen.
The scythe came down and she herd Aster yell her name just as a boomerang hit the weapon making Pitch pull it back slightly. She managed to catch Aster's green eyes one last time before the scythe changed its direction and rushed back down on her again.
But there was nothing to stop it this time.
Okay, now I just feel bad…
I seriously didn't plan the cliffhanger, but… Ops?!
I'm going to continue this with how Jack became a spirit and then how the movie is going to change SLIGTLY. Nothing too big, but I promise I'll make it good.
How does this sound?
P.S.: I know a lot of you wanted the ASTER FOUND OUT THE TRUTH chapter and trust me I read every one of your reviews, but I just didn't know how to do that and I really don't want to write something stupid so I'm just putting that on hold and hope inspiration hits me soon.
Please tell me what you think.
Frostbite out