Where Do We Go From Here||Heartbeats

Chapter Summary: Sneak attack! Tooth's heart beats fast, Jack's beats slow, but so what? That just means they balance each other out!

Chapter Rating: K for Kute Rainbow Snowcone moments


Disclaimer: I do not own...


Jack waited for his opportunity to strike. His staff was set off to the side and he was hidden in shadow. It was nighttime on this side of the world. Then, he saw his window and ran.

"Oof!" Tooth exclaimed softly, jumping a little in surprise. "Jack?"

"Mmhm," he murmured into the feathers of her back. He was nestled between her wings with his arms carefully around her waist and his face resting between the tops of her shoulder blades. She had finally stopped fluttering her iridescent wings and had stepped down onto her platform, so he had snuck up on her from behind and hugged her. "Yeah Tooth?"

She hesitated. "What are you doing?"

"Hugging you," was his muffled reply. His cool breath on her feathers sent shivers down her spine.

"Okay then?" Tooth wasn't exactly sure what to do, since she couldn't go back to work with a Winter Spirit as a belt. She really had no option except to stand there and wait for him to let go. Not that she wanted him to release her; she had needed a break anyway, and here was a perfect excuse to take time off. Her fairies could manage themselves for the time being.

Good, he thought, she didn't push him away or whap him with her wings, and those were the only things he worried about. Jack inhaled softly, smiling into her back as he hunched over. She smelled like tropical fruit and mint.

Tooth rested her hands over his, for once unsure of what she should do with herself. She began playing with the sleeves of his sweatshirt, tracing the delicate frost patterns that never faded.

"Geez, Tooth, calm down," Jack said after a while of silence. "You make me want to hyperventilate or something."

"Why? Is something wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"No, your heart just beats really fast." He whispered into her feathers against the rapid lub-dub-lub-dub-lub-dub audible through her back, "And you're really warm and soft."

She didn't hear him whisper, only felt his mouth move. "Well, I do use a lot of energy," she chuckled weakly.

"Right, 'cuz your wings... I know what it's like."

"They have to flap really fast to keep me up. It's rather tiring, especially since I fly when I give out directions." She relaxed; his face was like an ice pack right where her wing muscles were sore, and the coolness felt good.

"Was I bothering you? Should you have been working?" Now Jack was the worried one.

"I needed a break anyway," was her reply. "You gave me a reason to stop."

"Good." He unknowingly rubbed his cheek against her, like she was plush toy, making her cheeks redden. "You need to rest more often. Working 24/357 isn't good for you."

"I was made to do this. I don't need to sleep very often anyway, you know what that's like."

"I know, but still... fine. We'll discuss this later."

"Hmm," she murmured absentmindedly. "Hey, if my heartbeat makes you hyperventilate, how fast is yours?"

He hesitated. "Slow. Very slow."

"Can I listen?"

"If you promise not to freak out."

Tooth twisted in his arms, tucking in her wings so she didn't hit him in the face, and she pressed her ear to Jack's chest. For a while, she didn't hear, well, anything. "I don't hear it."

"Wait for it... now." The Spirit of Winter held her head to his chest just in time for her to hear a lub...dub that was so sluggish and quiet that she almost missed it. "That was it."

"...Is that normal for you?" She kept her head against his torso and left her hands on his chest, listening for the next beat.

"Yeah. I mean, technically my body is frozen, so all my life processes are slowed if they still even work. You're not freaked out?"

"I promised I wouldn't, right? Besides, everyone's different." Of course, her heart was beating faster with invisible anxiety for her friend, and he could feel it speed up, but she wasn't going to comment and neither was he.

His arms were still around her waist and he rested his chin on top of her head. "Aren't you cold?" Lub...dub.

"Not really." Lub-dub-lub-dub-lub-dub. "Are you warm?"

Lub...dub. "A little." He rocked them back and forth. But it's from the hug, not the climate. "I don't mind though." If it meant spending more time with you, in this hug, I would live on the sun.

"You make me melt, Toothiana," Jack whispered into her crest of feathers, his heartbeat hastening. "But in all the right ways."

Tooth heard his heart under her ear. Lub-dub, it went, to her surprise. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Still slow, but faster than before. She wanted to say something, but more than that she just wanted him to keep his arms around her and make her feel safer than she had ever felt, so she stayed quiet.

In the end, it was Baby Tooth that split them apart, chirping excitedly about a shiny right central incisor she had retrieved.

They jumped apart, brushing themselves off and blushing slightly, even though they tried to convince themselves it was just a completely platonic hug between friends... that lasted about half an hour.

Riiiiiight.

"Oh, Baby Tooth, that's beautiful! Look how he brushed!" Tooth cooed halfheartedly, taking the offered tooth.

"Sorry Baby Tooth, was I stealing your mama away for too long?" Jack scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Whoops. You should probably get back to work Tooth. Sorry for distracting you."

Somewhere in her mind a flirtatious voice purred, Oh, you can distract me any time, Jack, but Tooth ignored it with an only slightly darker flush. "No, it's fine, you're never a distraction. Visit whenever you want!"

Jack shushed the little voice in his head that whispered, I might just take you up on that offer. "Thanks Tooth, but I'll just be going. Winter to bring and all. It was nice talking to you."

"Y-yeah. See you soon." Tooth pushed at one of her feathers shyly like it was a stray piece of hair and Baby Tooth realized she'd interrupted something much more than just casual Guardian interaction.

The little tooth fairy hurriedly tried to nudge the two back together, but she was too late, the damage had been done.

"So, um... bye." Jack shuffled and took his staff from the edge of a floating tower where he had hung it.

"Bye," Tooth whispered, looking after him mournfully as he jumped over the edge and away from her palace. "Come back soon Jack. It feels less lonely when you're here."

The Wind carried her whispered words to him in fragments. "Come- soon- lonely-" Tooth's voice was blown into his ears. Jack glanced back over his shoulder at the still-standing fairy and waved with a smile promising his return. "Later, Tooth!"

She smiled back and waved, finally buzzing her wings and leaving the ground. Her feet hurt from standing that long. "Goodbye!" she called with a dazzling smile, returning to work. As she headed back to her command center, she did a backflip and cheered. "He hugged me, he hugged me!"

On his way to Burgess, Jack let out a large whoop and did a flip in midair. "I HAVE A CHAAAAAAANCE!" he yelled to the heavens.


A/N:
So I'm starting to ship this more and more... Rainbow Snowcone is awesome! Now I know how cool this cannon ship is! It feels great to be back with shippers again...
Sorry for the lack of updates, but my ideas have run dry. Any suggestions?
Also, I have a lovey-dovey arc between Jack and an OC of mine (because it was colonial times, there's no way he could have stayed unmarried that long).
And I have a Zombie AU arc, but I need to fine-tune it and make sure it makes sense out of context.
Winter Prince is coming, but it's slow. I'm fitting all three days of the ball into one chapter and some heavy shi+ goes down, plus jack4ss Guardians.
I just rewatched the movie and fell in love with it all over again, and now I'm revising my a-hole Guardians because as much fun as it is to write it's also very OOC and it no longer sits right with me.
PLEASE LEAVE SUGGESTIONS!
Oh, and I want to try writing JackRabbit/BunnyFrost/JackxBunny for the first time ever. Let the horror show commence...
This is Cat Lunanoff, over and out! *mock salute*