"A Strange Bond"

Note: Sensing that a decision has been made, Mother Nature convenes a Council meeting in The Hollow. During the course of the meeting, an argument ensues about whether or not TF should be allowed to go by 'Roy', like he prefers. Alpha makes a strong case for this to be permitted. Why is Easter Bunny so strongly opposed to the idea? A vote is taken, and a few truths come out.

"Chapter 24: What's In A Name?"

March 27th

Alpha wasn't pleased to be woken up by a telepathic message from Mother Nature to let her know that the Council had been summoned to The Hollow itself for a meeting on the subject of Halloween. For one thing, although her wounds were healing nicely, she hadn't gotten much sleep and was feeling grumpy. Not that she said as much to Mother Nature, but the woman appeared to sense this anyway.

'I do apologize for waking you up, Alpha, but this is very important. It involves your holiday.'

Alpha replied out loud, correctly assuming that Mother Nature would hear her. "That's all right. What time did you want everyone to come here?"

'At your earliest convenience, but it's up to you to choose our meeting place.'

"Hmm...Well, we don't really have a place for things like that yet. We've been having our own City Council meetings at what some call the Theater, and others call the Community Center." Alpha quickly threw on some clothes. Even though Mother Nature wasn't in the room with her, she normally slept in the nude, and even a telepathic/verbal conversation left her feeling exposed. If Mother Nature noticed this, she made no mention of it, for which Alpha was grateful. "I don't think we can offer much more than popcorn at such short notice, but I can have a room ready in half an hour."

'That's fine. I'll inform the others.'

Alpha thought of something. "Wait, how will they get here? I don't know where most of them live."

Mother Nature responded with a telepathic chuckle. 'Don't worry, I'll handle that part. Although, I think Tooth Fairy can find his own way there.'

Alpha blushed. She was curious to know how much Mother Nature knew about the two of them. Then she looked down at herself, and saw that her T-shirt had the phrase 'Because I Can' on it in big red letters. "Uhhh, no. That's a little too on the nose."

Tooth Fairy arrived at the Theater ahead of time, both to see how Alpha was doing and to help her set up for the meeting. One of the people there, a female Vampire he didn't recognize, broke off her conversation with a Witch and approached him. This woman was stocky, as tall as he was, and she wore a red bandanna over her shoulder-length black hair. She gave off a distinctive 'biker chick' vibe, and Tooth Fairy didn't quite know what to make of her, but he offered a friendly smile all the same. "Hi. Is Alpha here, by any chance?"

She folded her arms and smirked. "So...You're the boyfriend, huh? Yeah, she's here. You can find her in Room C."

"Thank you," Tooth Fairy nodded and stuck out his hand. "I'm Roy, by the way."

She grinned and shook his hand. "Sarah. Gemma and I are on the City Council, so if you're with Alpha you'll probably be seeing a lot of us." She nodded her head in the direction of the Witch she had been talking to, who didn't seem to want to approach. The Witch had green skin like the Wicked Witch of the West, but she also had dainty, feminine features. And she seemed to be a little afraid of him.

Tooth Fairy grinned back, and nodded politely to Gemma. Reading Gemma's body language, he made no attempt to approach her. He wasn't shy himself, for the most part, but he wasn't about to approach someone who looked like they wished to remain distant. "Nice to meet ya both. S'cuse me, I'm gonna go see if Alpha needs any help."

"Yep." Sarah watched him go, and rejoined Gemma. "Well, he seems nice. I don't know why you were afraid to introduce yourself."

Gemma still looked uncertain. "I just don't know if I trust this 'Council of Legendary Figures'. What do we really know about them?"

"Well..." Sarah shrugged. "Alpha's a Council member now, and she's always stood up for us before. Give 'em a chance."

Gemma still didn't look convinced, but she nodded. "I'll try."

Alpha turned when someone tapped out 'Shave and a Haircut' on the door, and she smiled. It had to be Roy. She didn't know anyone else who did that. "Come in."

Tooth Fairy came in and shut the door behind him, and he smiled as he pointed at the fading bruise on her temple. "Hey, it's almost gone. How ya feelin', sweetheart?"

Alpha left what she was doing and went up to greet him with a hug. "Much better than yesterday." She kissed him, then stepped back. "You're lookin' handsome today."

And he was. At least, to her.

Tooth Fairy shook his head. "Well, I'm glad you think so. Thanks. You look beautiful."

Alpha rolled her eyes. "I look like shite. Mother Nature woke me up after I got maybe three hours sleep."

He snorted and gently caught her shoulders as she began to turn away to get a few folding chairs for her guests. "You do not look like 'shite'. You look lovely, bruises and all."

Alpha kissed him again, then giggled against his shoulder. "Did you just say 'shite'?"

"Shut up," He chuckled, kissing her ear, although this was by accident.

"Eep!" Alpha twisted away, then rubbed her arms. "Now, that's not playin' fair; you just gave me goosebumps!"

He squinted playfully and pointed at her. "Did you just say 'eep'?"

"Shut up," She fake-punched his shoulder before giving him a peck on the cheek. Then she unfolded a chair and set it up at the card table.

Tooth Fairy laughed and helped her set out the folding chairs. "And I'm supposed to be sorry because...?"

"Never said you were supposed to be sorry."

"Good, 'cause I'm not," He grinned. Then he nodded at the door. "I just met Sarah. And I sort of met Gemma."

"Ah, I've been meaning to introduce ye. What did you think?" Alpha noticed his tone when he mentioned Gemma, and she thought she knew why.

He shrugged and unfolded a chair, giving a muttered 'ouch' as his finger got a slight pinch. "Sarah seems friendly enough, although when she came over to say hi I got the impression that she was testing me. And Gemma doesn't seem too sure about me at all."

Alpha nodded as if she expected this. "Aye, you're going to run into that a fair few times down here. Until recently, we've had no reason to trust any surface dwellers at all, so naturally some people will still be a bit unsure. They're good eggs, those two."

Tooth Fairy drummed his fingers on the back of the metal folding chair. "Hm...Question."

"Aye?"

"I haven't noticed a whole lot of the 'I don't trust you' attitude here. Not lately, anyway. If I wasn't dating you, would people still be as friendly as they are?" Tooth Fairy wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that one.

"Hard to say," Alpha went to add melted butter and salt to a fresh batch of popcorn. "You and the others did pull our buns out of the fire when we had the food shortage, so it probably still would've been all right. Gemma's pretty timid anyway, but Sarah definitely isn't. With her, what ye see is what ye get. If she isn't openly hostile with you, you're fine. And if Sarah's fine with you, Gemma won't be far behind."

"Okay," Tooth Fairy was relieved to hear that, and he finished setting up the chairs before going over to steal a piece of popcorn. "Mm. How'd you guys get butter down here?"

Alpha sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "Some of the more human-looking ones here will occasionally find something valuable to pawn, and they use that money for hard-to-get items. Or, and I've tried to curb this, Robert likes to shoplift."

"So, wait, this stuff's stolen?" Tooth Fairy backed off from the popcorn bowl as if it was radioactive.

"No," Alpha shook her head. "That's actually a rare occurrence, and lately he's been behaving himself. I'm fairly certain the money that paid for this came from a set of pawned candlesticks, previously owned by the two macadamias who lived North 'o the town."

"Huh..." Tooth Fairy thought back on the food shortage, and he wondered if that could have been avoided if they simply pawned off all The Founders' stuff.

Alpha saw the look on his face, and shook her head. "What?"

Tooth Fairy gave voice to his question, and she shook her head again.

"We would've been able to delay it for a while, but not for long. For one thing, selling off the stuff would still take a lot of time, and we have a finite amount of things to pawn. We're tryin' to stay self-sufficient and not to rely too heavily on them. For another, the Gremlins destroyed a good bit of the more valuable items before we discovered them. And...well, this is the first time we've had to run the show on our own, and back then we weren't as coordinated as we otherwise might have been."

Now he nodded. "That makes sense, actually. I didn't doubt you, or anything, I just wondered."

Alpha held a piece of popcorn up to his mouth, and he accepted it. "Go ahead and doubt me; I'm not always right, as you well know."

He chuckled. "I'm not taking that bait!"

They both jumped as a voice near the door chimed in. "Smart move!"

Santa and the others had arrived unnoticed as Alpha put the piece of popcorn into Tooth Fairy's mouth, and he pointed at the two of them with a slightly teasing grin. "Sooo...you guys have been keeping secrets."

Cupid raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't much of a secret. I'm pretty sure Bernard figured it out ages ago."

Alpha recovered before Tooth Fairy did, and beckoned them into the room. "C'mon in. There's popcorn if anybody wants it."

"Ooh!" Jack Frost went to join Tooth Fairy, who handed him a small bowl. "All that's missing is a movie! Love your shirt, by the way."

Alpha looked down at her green T-shirt out of reflex; emblazoned on the front of it in white letters were the words 'I found this humerus', and underneath that was a drawing of a bone. "Thanks. And sorry, Jack. As fun as a movie day would be, Mother Nature called everyone here on business."

Mother Nature came forward and embraced Alpha, which the Werewolf gladly returned. "Once again, I do apologize for the lack of notice, but I'm afraid I'm quite busy myself, and this shouldn't take long."

"Och, it's fine." Alpha waved a hand, then nodded at the grandfatherly figure who leaned on his staff. "Father Time, welcome."

"Pleasure to be here," He returned as he and Mother Nature stood at one end of the card table. Everyone who wanted popcorn helped themselves to a bowl before sitting down. Sandman yawned and rested his head on the table.

"Somethin' to drink?" Alpha offered.

Easter Bunny twitched an ear. "Do you have any carrot juice?"

"Um..." Alpha was rather taken aback by the question, mostly because she had never heard of such a thing. Juicing apples was one thing, but carrots? Blecch! "No, I'm afraid not, but there's water, and I could get you some cider if ye like."

"No, thanks anyway," Easter Bunny waved a paw. "Interesting place."

Alpha made a mental note to keep small batches of carrot juice on hand. She had come to know that there was no telling when a meeting would be called, but surely someone would drink it before it went bad. As far as she was concerned, they were welcome to it! "Aye, we're not very formal here. Sorry it isn't much to look at. Someday we'll find a better place for this kind o' thing."

The other Council members were quick to reassure her that the setting was just fine, and with the exception of Mother Nature and Father Time, they sat comfortably at the table, waiting for things to get started. Alpha sat next to Tooth Fairy, and it didn't go unnoticed by Cupid that they were holding hands under the table.

Sandman began to snore, and Santa shook him. "And we just lost Sandman. Wake up, Sandy!"

Sandman snorted awake. "Hm, whuh...oh. Sorry. I did it again, didn't I?"

"Yes," They all chorused in unison.

Mother Nature didn't bother with her gavel this time. Formal this place was not, and while she liked to stand on ceremony she wanted Alpha to be as comfortable as possible with this intrusion. "Alpha, do you have a status report?"

You know I do, Alpha thought to herself, then blanched when Mother Nature smiled and replied without saying a word.

'I do, but it's polite to ask.'

"Uh...right, so..." Alpha cleared her throat and let go of Tooth Fairy's hand, folding her hands on the table as she collected her scattered wits. "We...that is, Roy and I...were talking about magic yesterday, and he helped me figure a few things out."

Easter Bunny twitched his nose and scoffed, but no one seemed to notice.

"Up until now, we've dreaded Halloween, but I won't get into the reasons why. At first, no one here was interested in doing anything on that night. That's really not possible now, though, so a few of us have been trying to think of something everyone would enjoy. These days, Halloween isn't supposed to be all scary. It's supposed to be fun." Alpha paused for breath, and to see what their reactions were.

"Mm-hmm," Mother Nature nodded encouragingly.

"I like where this is going," Jack tossed a piece of popcorn into the air and caught it in his mouth.

"Robert had a notion I really liked. Before he came down here, he'd been to a few Halloween parties on the surface. The way he put it was, 'We've been going out on Halloween and putting ourselves in the line of fire.' He suggested that we reclaim it and make it ours. Basically, he wants to have what he called a 'block party' on Main Street." Alpha looked at Tooth Fairy and knocked her elbow against his. "And Roy had an idea for how I can make that work."

Again, Easter Bunny grew agitated, and now he interrupted Alpha. "Would you please stop doing that?"

Alpha blinked, rather taken aback and more than a little confused. "Doing what?"

Tooth Fairy, who had dealt with this kind of thing on and off for years, knew exactly what was coming and he put a hand over his face. "Come on, E.B., don't do this now..."

"His name isn't 'Roy', Alpha, it's 'Tooth Fairy'." Easter Bunny answered her as if Tooth Fairy hadn't spoken.

Alpha's expression grew so cold that Jack Frost looked impressed, and her voice was positively glacial. "Your opinion is noted. Now, gettin' back to what I was say-"

But the Easter Bunny interrupted her. "It's not an opinion, Alpha. It's a fact. His name isn't 'Roy', so stop calling him that."

Angered now, Alpha stared him down. "No."

Mother Nature intervened, her voice sharp. "Easter Bunny! Alpha wasn't finished speaking. If you want to bring up a different order of business, you'll have to wait until she's done."

Tooth Fairy's annoyance began to show, and he folded his arms. "Yeah, or we could just not talk about it at all."

A look from Mother Nature shut both his mouth and the Easter Bunny's, and Alpha took a deep breath before continuing. "So, Roy's idea was that I could choose to have the party here influence how much fun the humans have up there. The more fun the people down here are having, the more fun the humans who celebrate Halloween will have. And then we can use that energy to improve a few things down here. Although, I'm still not sure how I'll know what to do when it comes right down to it..."

Tooth Fairy nodded, sharing a knowing look with Santa. "You'll know. It's hard to explain, but there are some things ya just gotta learn by doing. The only thing you gotta watch out for is, releasing that much magic in one go will tucker you out big-time. You could probably sleep through an earthquake afterwards."

Alpha snorted. "I've actually done that before."

"I believe it," He bumped his shoulder against hers.

Cupid tapped Tooth Fairy on the head with the end of his bow. "Okay, lovebirds, break it up. That's not a bad idea, though."

Santa was definitely on board with this. "It's a great idea! You guys get some urban renewal thing going on, the humans aren't left out, and everyone has fun. It's a win-win!"

"I love parties!" Jack gushed, spilling what was left of his popcorn. He scooped it back into the bowl and added, "You want me to do a few ice sculptures? No chainsaws required."

Easter Bunny rolled his eyes. "Let me guess. Jack Frost statues?"

"Ugh, what is your deal today?" Jack threw up his hands in defeat. "No, I was thinking more along the lines of a Werewolf here, a Witch there, maybe I could do an ice mobile with little bats...Really, I'm open to anything."

Alpha chuckled at Jack's enthusiasm. "Thank ye, Jack. I'll keep you posted."

"So, do I get an invite?" Cupid asked. "I'm curious to see how you'll do, and I might be able to make a few love connections down here. Not for me, mind you."

"You're all invited, if you can make it," Alpha replied. She glanced at the Easter Bunny, whom she was still annoyed with, and thought, Even him.

Sandman yawned, covering his mouth a little too late to avoid showing off his molars. "A few of us won't be able to stay for the whole thing. I'll have my work cut out for me with how hyper kids get after they eat candy. I can't do my job at all until the parents get them to lie down, and on Halloween and other holidays, that takes a while."

Tooth Fairy nodded in agreement with him. "I'll probably be extra busy for a few nights after that. Milk Duds and loose teeth don't get along!"

"I can imagine!" Alpha chuckled.

Father Time exchanged a look with Mother Nature, and they nodded. "It's a fine idea. And it will go a long way towards solving some of the problems I've noticed down here."

"Problems?" Alpha cocked her head.

"Unsafe living conditions. It's through no fault of your own, but these buildings aren't up to code." He explained, then added, "No offense."

"None taken," Alpha relaxed; they were still on the same page. "I was thinkin' o' that, too."

"So," Cupid adjusted his quiver, "we done here?"

Mother Nature could see that Easter Bunny was bursting to speak, though she wasn't sure why he was being so tenacious about this, and she reluctantly shook her head. "I believe Easter Bunny has something he wants to say."

Tooth Fairy closed his eyes and shook his head, folding his arms across his chest and muttering, "Here we go again..."

"Look, this isn't something we can change. These laws are in place to keep us from getting too far from what we are. Once Alpha's magic is set, there won't be any changing it, and if, Heaven forbid, something happens to her, it'll pass on to whoever gets her pumpkin. With you and me, Tooth Fairy, it's all down to blood. My eldest child is called 'Easter Bunny', like me." Easter Bunny explained.

Tooth Fairy waved an impatient hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know all that. But the odds of me ever having kids are a big fat goose-egg. I never found love with a Fairy woman, and...well, if things ever went in that direction, Alpha and I aren't genetically compatible."

Alpha blushed. "Isn't that a little premature? Children, I mean?"

"No, it's a lot premature, but it's relevant. My sister is gone, and I have no other family left. My bloodline stops here. And then what?" Tooth Fairy turned red as well, but not with embarrassment. He didn't often allow himself to acknowledge it, but children weren't just a sore point for Alpha. He thought he would have liked to be a father someday, but life had dealt him a cruel hand, and he didn't like to talk about this particular card. "There's no guarantee that something won't happen to me someday, either."

No one had an answer, and Alpha looked down.

Mother Nature sighed and held up a hand. "We are getting way off topic. And there is no need to pick at that wound, Easter Bunny."

Easter Bunny was sorry. He had only meant to prove a point about why the name was so important, and it never occurred to him that Tooth Fairy had been keeping something like this under his hat. "I'm sorry. I didn't know about any of that. But the name is still important."

Alpha had heard enough. "Why is it important?"

Tooth Fairy put a hand on Alpha's shoulder and shook his head. He was genuinely touched that she was so quick to jump to his defense, but he didn't want this to turn into a big scene. "Alpha, please, it doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does matter," She argued.

Easter Bunny shook his head. "Alpha, you're not listening. 'Roy' is not his name!"

"And 'Alpha' isn't mine," She pointed out. "Look...Easter Bunny, you did make a fair point with that last bit. Santa used to go by 'Scott Calvin', which was the name his parents gave him when he was born."

"So, what's your point?" Easter Bunny was now crossing well into rude territory; this behavior wasn't like him, and his fellow Council members were all privately shocked by it.

Tooth Fairy gave up. Trying to stop Alpha once she was determined to do something was like trying to hold sand in a colander. It simply couldn't be done.

"I'm getting to that. My given name is 'Fenella'," Now she allowed herself a small chuckle, "Which I've never quite forgiven my parents for."

There was a bit of subdued laughter around the table, and she continued, "But you have no problem with calling me 'Alpha', and Carol always refers to Santa as 'Scott'. Why is that?"

Mother Nature answered before Easter Bunny could put his foot in his mouth again. "She is his wife; that is her right, Alpha. And 'Alpha' isn't your job title. For Tooth Fairy, his job and his name are one in the same. When it began with his ancestor, the reason for this was to avoid confusion."

"Well, I'm still confused," Alpha shook her head.

Jack Frost saw an opening, and his smile was rather devious as he addressed Alpha with a wink that only she and Tooth Fairy saw. "It's not like the kids will know the difference."

Alpha shot Jack a grateful smile. "That's exactly my point. We're not allowed to reveal ourselves, so how would the humans find out anything about him one way or the other? They aren't even aware of his gender! What does it matter what he calls himself?"

Frustrated, Tooth Fairy flung up his hands. "That's what I've been trying to say. You won't get anywhere with them, Alpha."

Cupid thoughtfully scratched his cheek. "Why 'Roy', though? Why not something more mainstream, like 'Steve'?"

"Well, it's not like any of you thought to ask me before, but if you have to know, it's the name my mother would've picked," Tooth Fairy folded his arms, feeling very hurt by his supposed friends' opposition, and by the slight against what his immediate family called him in the privacy of their home. "But that choice was taken away from her because some ancestor I know nothing about had the bright idea to name us all the same..."

Mother Nature, now visibly distressed, looked at Father Time as she remembered Tooth Fairy's mother. She had asked them to refer to her as 'Cori', not because her own mother had called her that, but because that was the name she would have chosen for herself. And the only one who had honored that request...when he remembered, that is...was Bernard. Tooth Fairy's mother...Cori...had only mentioned it once or twice, but she hadn't been nearly as vocal about it as her son was. Did that mean she'd been less unhappy with it than he was? No...Not if she defiantly gave him a different name behind everyone's backs. Maybe some laws should not be absolute. Mother Nature shook her head. "We had no idea..."

"Well, why didn't you say so before?" Cupid flew in low and gave Tooth Fairy a playful swat on the noggin.

Tooth Fairy shrugged, trying not to look like this was affecting him, but he gave Alpha's hand an appreciative squeeze under the table when she took his. "For the most part, I don't like talking about my family..."

Easter Bunny was silent, his ears tilting back a little.

Sandman looked thoughtful...and a little less sleepy than usual.

Alpha hadn't known this little detail about Tooth Fairy, but that just made her all the more determined to keep calling him 'Roy', even if no one else would. "I understand that certain things can't change, but again, if the kids won't know, what's the harm? They'll still know him as 'Tooth Fairy', because that is his job. And his name is 'Tooth Fairy', because that's not something that can be changed. But knowing what you know now...with all due respect...your continued refusal to call him by his preferred name, the name his mother would have given him? It's more than just disrespectful; it's hurtful."

There was more silence as her words sunk in, and even Easter Bunny seemed to be wavering. Finally, Santa spread his hands. "Look, I have no problem with calling you 'Roy'. All you had to do was speak up."

Tooth Fairy smiled a little. "Thank you, Santa. To be honest, I like 'The Molinator', too. I mean, a pun on 'The Terminator'? Come on!"

"Hm..." Cupid was seriously considering it now.

Jack shrugged airily and swiped a handful of popcorn from Sandman's full bowl; Sandman never even noticed. "Well, I'll probably slip up and forget a few times, but I'll try to remember."

"It's a fair compromise," Mother Nature finally declared. While she couldn't change the rules, she could allow one of 'her children' to exploit a loophole, if it would make him happier. "Let us put it to a vote. All in favor of referring to the Tooth Fairy as 'Roy' when he's among his peers, raise your hands." And she raised hers.

Alpha and Tooth Fairy raised their hands so quickly that Cupid was startled by the sudden movement and nearly fluttered backwards into a wall. He quickly came back, acting as if that hadn't happened.

Santa raised his hand next, followed by Father Time and Jack Frost. Then Sandman nodded and followed suit.

Cupid folded his arms. He still wasn't crazy about the name 'Roy', but knowing why Tooth Fairy wanted it put things into perspective for him, and he finally sighed and raised his hand.

Easter Bunny did nothing, and Mother Nature turned to him.

"Easter Bunny?"

The rabbit's nose twitched, but he remained silent.

"Easter Bunny? In favor, or opposed?"

Easter Bunny finally scoffed and shook his head. "Look, we're in the same boat! If I can't change my name, why should he be able to?"

The others gaped at this. Easter Bunny had never expressed displeasure with his name! Now his current poor attitude, while not really excusable, began to make a bit of sense.

"You never mentioned wanting a name change before..." Mother Nature said gently.

"No one ever asked!"

Tooth Fairy was inclined to be more sympathetic than most of the others, having known firsthand what it was like to be saddled with a name that he hated, and his anger was immediately gone. "Well, we're asking now. What would you prefer?"

The rabbit was flustered, and he blinked as he fumbled with his words. "I...I don't know. I never thought that far ahead."

Alpha, who had long since stopped being angry herself, spoke more gently than before. "Well, if ye think of something you like better, you can always speak up, right?"

"Oh, forget it..." Easter Bunny folded his arms, embarrassed to have caused such a scene, but he felt like he was in it too deep to back down now. "There's no point in my voting anyway, if I'd be the only 'no'."

Mother Nature sighed in disappointment, both with the Easter Bunny and with herself. How could she not have noticed that these two were so unhappy? Tooth Fairy had made his wishes known ages ago, but he had never explained why, and she hadn't asked. It was rare for this to happen, but she had failed 'her children'.

Alpha could not resist a little zinger. "I know how that is."

She was, of course, referring to how she and Tooth Fairy had been outvoted on the subject of The Founders' punishment. Her memory was long, and while she had forgiven, she let that statement make it known that she would not be forgetting anytime soon!

"Oooooh..." Jack Frost averted his gaze.

Easter Bunny frowned at her. "That's a little petty, isn't it?"

"You're right," Alpha held up a hand and sat back. "And I apologize. But you still have the right to cast your vote, unless there's something I missed."

Mother Nature smiled faintly. "There isn't."

The tension was so thick that even breathing felt like an endeavor, and finally the Easter Bunny heaved a deep sigh and raised a paw. "Okay..."

Tooth Fairy looked down sadly, but looked up again in surprise when Easter Bunny continued.

"In favor. I guess I was being petty, too. I don't know what got into me!"

Tooth Fairy wore the first genuinely happy smile he'd had since the Easter Bunny decided to pick on him. Knowing the reason why, he quickly forgave him.

"Then, it's unanimous," Mother Nature beamed. "Motion carried!"

Tooth Fairy grinned and pulled Alpha into a gentle hug, remembering at the last second that she was still too sore for one of her favorite bear hugs. He never thought this day would come! He was so happy that he could have cried, but he kept himself in check and laughed instead. "Finally...Finally..."

Note: During the 'name change' scene in TSC2, I noticed that Easter Bunny seemed disgusted by the whole idea, while Cupid simply wasn't a fan of the names TF picked (To be fair, the name 'Plaque Man' sucks ass...). Also, while TF threw a little shade Cupid's way, he pretty much just took it when everyone but Santa shut him down. He looked so disappointed! :( So, I got this idea.