26Hello and welcome to Resolute Spirit! I have high hopes for this fic so I welcome you along for the ride!
I do not own Rise of the Guardians or the books it is based of.
It was New Year's Eve in the small town of Galion. Quinn Wu and his Chinese-American family all sat in the living room of their modest two-story home, talking and having a good time. Quinn looked like most 17 year old Chinese boys: average height, short black hair, pale skin. The one thing that set him apart from everyone else were his eyes. While most of his family had brown or amber colored eyes, Quinn's were a dazzling bright blue; a very uncommon color for one of Chinese decent.
Quinn's eyes were currently sparkling with a child-like excitement as he waited for midnight. Of all the holidays his family celebrated, he always loved New Year's the most. Not even the wonder of Christmas morning could compare the joy that the end and beginning of each year brought to him. He couldn't explain it, but something about the festivities always made him giddy.
Quinn glanced at the clock and grinned when he saw what it read. It was time for his favorite part of his favorite holiday.
"It's 9:30!" He stated excitedly, gaining the attention of his family. "It's time for New Year's resolutions!"
"How about you go first this year David." Said Quinn's father, Kai, to his older sister's fiancé.
"Yeah!" Mai agreed as she squeezed the hand of her true love encouragingly.
"Alright. My New Year's resolution is to get to know each one of you a little better before the wedding." There was some polite applause to his announcement.
"I guess the same goes for me and your family." Mai said. The pair shared a kiss to more clapping.
"Who's next?" Kai asked.
"I'll go." Said Zane, Quinn's older brother. "My resolution is to quit smoking." There was gasps of general surprise and the applause was much more enthusiastic.
"I suppose I'm next." Quinn's mother, Jane, volunteered. "This year, I plan on being on time." There were several chuckles as they all thought of the times they had been late to important events because of her terrible sense of time.
"Me next! Me next!" Exclaimed Quinn's five year old sister, Lorelei. "I'm gonna get over being scared of tall places!" Their grandmother, Leann, leaned down and picked up the young girl in an affectionate hug.
"That's a wonderful goal Rosebud." The elderly woman praised.
"What's your resolution Nana Willow?" Lorelei questioned.
"I'm going to write a letter to each of you." She stated simply.
"What kind of resolution is that?" Kai asked his mother. Leann glared teasingly at her only son.
"Let's hear yours then if mine is so terrible." She joked.
"Fine. My resolution is to spend more time with my family. Now that I've been promoted, I have more vacation time." The family gasped at this announcement. This is the first they've heard of his advancement.
"Alright, alright." Kai said to quiet everyone down. "We still have one last resolution to hear." They all turned expectantly to Quinn who grinned.
"My resolution," he paused for dramatic effect. "Is to help you all with your resolutions!"
"Again?" Zane sighed in exasperation. "You've been making that goal for the past four years!"
"So?" Quinn defended. "I like helping you all!"
"Of course you do." Leann soothed. "And that's what makes you special. How about for this year, you add another resolution. One for yourself." Quinn thought for a few moments.
"How about…I try to stop biting my nails?" He offered.
"Perfect!" His grandmother exclaimed. "Now that that is settled, who wants to face me at Mahjong?"
As the adults set up the game, Quinn noticed Zane leave the room. The teen followed him outside.
"Where are going?" He asked.
"I'm going to have a quick smoke." Zane replied, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
"What about your New Year's resolution?"
"The new year isn't here yet." He rationalized as he took out his lighter as well.
"It's never too early to start working on it." Quinn argued. His older brother sighed in exasperation.
"You're not going to let me smoke in peace, are you?"
"Nope." Quinn said with a smirk.
"Fine, you win for now. But you know it's impossible for someone to quit cold turkey." The two brothers returned to the living room, where the tile-based game was in full swing. Zane began to watch as Quinn made his way into the kitchen. He was surprised to find Lorelei sitting at the table by herself with a troubled look on her face.
"Hey Rosebud." He said cheerfully as he sat next to her. "What's up?"
"Quinn, is Santa real?" The five year old asked up front. Quinn raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, Cousin Matt told me he wasn't real." Lorelei answered with watery eyes. The teenager scowled.
Their cousin had been at their house about a week ago for Christmas. Quinn loved his entire family and would do anything for them, but Cousin Matt irked him to no end. He was a total jerk, always saying mean or discouraging things to his younger relatives whenever he had the chance. Quinn made a mental note of bringing this up to his Aunt and Uncle the next time he saw them.
"Matt doesn't know what he's talking about."
"So, Santa's real?"
"Of course he is!" He confirmed with a smile.
"And the Easter Bunny is real too?" Hope shined in the young girl's eyes. "And the Tooth Fairy and the Sand Man as well?"
"Yep, even Jack Frost is real." Lorelei seemed confused.
"Who's Jack Frost?" She asked.
"Who's Jack Frost?!" Quinn exclaimed. "He's the reason we have winter!" He glanced out the window. "In fact, he's making it snow right now."
His younger sister gasped and turned to see that it was indeed snowing. Squealing in delight, the five year old ran into the living room.
"It's snowing!" She shouted as she jumped up and down in excitement. "Jack Frost is making it snow!"
Quinn chuckled at her enthusiasm and turned to watch the snow fall. His eyes widened in surprise at what he saw. A boy, no older than he was, with snow white hair and bright blue eyes, was peering through the window at his sister. A smile was plastered onto his face as she danced around the room. The boy looked up and froze when he met Quinn's gaze, his own eyes widening.
"What're you looking at Quinn?" Quinn glanced over to Lorelei for a second and then back to the window. The boy had vanished! Quinn blinked in confusion. He was certain he hadn't imagined him…
"Quinn?" His younger sister seemed concerned. "What's wrong?"
A slow smile spread across his face. "Nothing's wrong. Jack Frost was just waving through the window." His smile grew wider when she went into an even bigger fit of excitement. He gazed out of the window at the falling snow without a hint of doubt of who he had just seen.
Jack Frost landed at the front door of North's workshop where the annual Legend New Year's party was being held. He was still smiling like a kid in a candy store at what had happened. A teenager believed in him! A teenager! Sure it was great that more kids were starting to believe in him, but a teenager? The snow spirit had heard stories from the other guardians of the few rare children that grew up into teens, but still believed in them. But he had never expected it to happen to him. He couldn't wait to tell them.
Jack knocked on the door and waited for it to open. After he had caused a huge snow storm across most of North America so that the children could have something fun to do for the first day of the year, Jack had gone to Jamie's house to change for the party. Instead of his hoodie, Jack now wore a military style tunic that was light blue with a silver border around the edges and a simple black belt with a matching silver buckle. Underneath it he had a skin-tight, black turtle-neck shirt. His old brown cloak that shimmered in the light completed the ensemble, clasped at the base of his neck by a silver snowflake.
North had made the formal attire for the young guardian and had insisted that he wore it to all special occasions. While Jack, being the protector of fun, hated dressing up for anything, he had to admit that the clothes made him look good.
A large yeti opened the door and spoke in excited gibberish to the winter spirit.
"Hey there Phil," Jack greeted with a smile. "I'm not late am I?" The yeti just spouted off more happy nonsense and ushered him inside. Spirits of all shapes and sizes mingled throughout the workshop. Jack recognized most of them, but there were still a few he couldn't name. The frost spirit scanned the crowd, searching for four faces in particular.
"Jack!" He turned to where the shout had come from just in time to be tackled by a blur of green and blue feathers. The spirit laughed as he returned the hug.
"Tooth!" The pair spun in the air for a second before gazing into each other's eyes. Jack leaned in and kissed her passionately.
"How was work today?" The Tooth Fairy asked teasingly when they had separated.
"Exhausting!" He mock complained, leaning on his staff. "I went to cover most of Asia and Europe in frost and snow and then to top it all off, I decided to give most of North America a huge blizzard! All that flying back and forth killed my wings!" Tooth laughed at this. "But still…" He said with a seriously. "It would be nice to be able to cause snow storms from anywhere. That way I could spend more time with you."
"Oh Jack!" Tooth punched him playfully while blushing. The snow spirit pulled his love into another kiss before taking her hand and wading through the party guests.
"So where are the others?" He asked as they wondered without a real destination in mind.
"I think North and Sandy are talking with Father Time." The Guardian of Memories said, looking around. "Oh look! There's Bunny and Rose!"
Jack turned to see the Easter Bunny and Mother Nature sitting on a bench together, simply enjoying each other's company. The spirit of the Earth was beautiful girl that looked no older than Jack. She was about his height and normally wore a short, flowing green dress decorated with leaves. Tonight however, she wore a full-length white ball gown with green vines embroidered into the border of the sleeves and skirt. Her waist long brown curly hair had been straightened and pulled up into a bun and was decorated with flowers. Her skin was pale with a slight green tint, not needing any makeup or jewelry to add to her graceful appearance. Like always, she wasn't wearing any shoes.
The Guardian of Fun remembered when he had first met Rose. It had been four months after they had defeated Pitch. He had been depressed due to the memories his teeth held. While they showed him images of happy times he spent with his sister, they did not tell him what her name was. That was when Tooth brought him to Rose's garden. There he learned that the nature spirit's center was Family and considered herself a guardian even though she hadn't been officially chosen by Manny. He also learned that she was Bunnymund's ex-girlfriend and that the blizzard he had caused in '68 is what caused them to break up.
Using her connection with the Earth, Rose had led him to where his sister was buried. He had finally learned his sister's name. It was an extremely emotional moment for him. Of course, that was exactly when Pitch decided to resurface. He attacked them with a frightening new power. He was able to control the fear inside of Rose like a puppet master would control a marionette, forcing her to attack them. They had been able to pull through the battle remotely unscathed, but it put them all onto high alert.
A few days later, the Boogeyman struck again. There had been a close call with Rose nearly losing her life. She was saved however with a magic rose she had given Jamie earlier that evening. She had then dealt with Pitch herself, uprooting his entire palace and beating him to a pulp, forcing him to retreat back into the shadows.
Throughout this adventure, Rose and Bunny's love for each other had been reignited. In fact, those events had been the main reason Jack and Tooth were together now as well. That had been about four months ago.
"Tooth!" Rose had called out when she noticed the pair, pulling Jack out of his reminiscing. They made their way to the bench where the other couple sat.
"Hey there Frostbite." Bunny said to the young guardian.
"Hey there Kangaroo." Jack responded with a grin. They had long since gotten over their bitterness towards one another and always greeted each other in such a playful manner. Sure, Bunny still got angry at the pranks Jack played on him and always retaliated by tackling him to the ground, but it was more like a sibling rivalry than anything else.
"How's the party going for you two?" Tooth asked.
"It's kind of boring to be honest." Rose said with a sigh. "At least Bunny's here to make up for that." Bunny leaned down and kissed her on the cheek affectionately.
"A boring party? We can't have that now can we?" Jack said with a mischievous grin. "As the Guardian of Fun I know just how to fix that." Several of the Legends nearby overheard him and immediately became interested.
"How do you plan to do that?" Asked Jack 'O Lantern, the spirit of autumn.
"Yes, please enlighten us." Added Eros in a curious tone.
"Follow me and you'll find out." The winter spirit answered. He led Tooth, Bunny, Rose, and about eight other Legends to a round able. As they all took a seat, Jack accepted an empty apple cider bottle from the yeti he had requested it from. He placed it at the center of the table and grinned at them all. "Anyone ever hear of 'Spin the Bottle'?"
The rules were simple. One would spin the bottle and whoever the spout pointed at when it stopped they would have to kiss, on the lips, for at least five seconds. Hilarity ensued once the game got under way. First Jack 'O Lantern had to kiss April Showers. Then it was Lucky the Leprechaun and Rose. Bunny had to be restrained as laughter rang out. Their loud merry making caught the attention of the rest of the guests, and soon the entire party centered on the round table, Legends jumping in and out of the game at their own leisure.
It was Bunny's turn to spin. He grabbed the bottle and gave it a flick. The bottle spun round and round until it began to slow. The crowd waited with baited breath as it continued to reduce in speed. There was a short pause when it finally stopped.
The spout was pointing to Jack. Not Jack 'O Lantern, but Jack Frost.
There was uproarious laughter and loud cat calls as the two guardians sputtered and tried to excuse themselves from the table. There was to be no escape however as they were shoved towards each other. Accepting their fate and blushing furiously, they closed their eyes and leaned into the kiss. The crowd cheered loudly and several cameras flashed.
Once the five seconds were up, they pulled away quickly and made their way to their girlfriends, only to find them missing. When they asked where they were, they were told that they both had received bad nose bleeds all of a sudden and had rushed to the restroom.
"Great. Now we're never goin' to live this down." Bunny grumbled in embarrassment.
"It's the other way around." Jack said with a grin. "We can have so much fun messing with Tooth and Rose now."
"What do ya mean, mate?"
"What causes nose bleeds?" Bunny scratched his head in confusion.
"Lots o' things, mate; high altitude, gettin' punched, seeing something suggestive…" The dots connected in his mind as he realized what Jack was implying. "No." He said sternly.
"Come on! It'll be fun!"
"No."
"Just imagine the looks on their faces!"
"No."
"We don't have to kiss again. We can just…"
"Absolutely not." The Easter Bunny growled.
"Fine, but we're missing out on loads of pranking opportunities."
The game finally winded down as the guests made their way to the main hall. There, Father Time would be giving his annual yearly report on everything important that had happened. The Legends all quieted down as the time keeping spirit stepped onto a small podium that had been set up for him.
"Before I get started, I would like to thank North for hosting this year's get together." There was hearty applause as the jolly Russian nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Now, many things happened this past year, many great and tragic things. But I would like to focus on just three this year." There was a murmur of surprise at this announcement. "The first major event of the year came about around Easter. Pitch Black, the Boogeyman, had attempted to destroy the children's belief in the Guardians. He had nearly succeeded too if it wasn't for MiM's newest hero. And so, I name the first significant event of the past year to be the choosing of Jack Frost as a Guardian!" There was thunderous applause as Jack rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Next, almost exactly four months later, Pitch had reappeared and attacked the guardians directly. He was defeated once again, but that is not what I found important. No, it was the love that bloomed afterwards that caught my attention. And so, I name the second significant event of the past year to be the love between E. Aster Bunnymund and Rose and Jack Frost and Toothiana!" The cheering was deafening as the two couples shared a loving kiss with their respectful partners. Father Time waited until everyone had settled down before continuing. His face had fallen into an expression of deep sadness.
"It is with a heavy heart that I name the final event. On December 14th, twenty precious lights were snuffed out in a small town of Connecticut. Twenty innocent children were taken from the world in a violent manner. Twenty families were forced to grieve over their lost young ones. Let us all now have a moment of silence for those children. As we do so, pray to Man in the Moon that such a tragedy may not happen in the coming year."
The entire workshop fell silent as they all paid their personal respects to the fallen children. Jack held Tooth close as she wept silently into his tunic, Rose doing the same for Bunny. After several minutes, Father Time spoke up one last time.
"Thank you all for showing your respect. May the coming year be filled with much more joyous occasions. Thank you all for attending."
With a spattering of respectful applause, the guests returned to the party, waiting for midnight. With such a somber thought left in their minds, they all wondered what the New Year would hold. The guardians were especially thoughtful, each wondering what they could do to prevent another terrible disaster.
Jack sighed as he gazed at the other guests. The fun and happy atmosphere he had brought was gone. He debated whether he should try livening things up again, but decided it might be considered disrespectful. So he held Tooth close in an attempt to comfort her as they waited for the New Year.
Thank so much for taking the time to read this! I'm sure there's a lot I can improve on, and there are probably a lot of mistakes in this, so thanks for reading!
Now for shout outs!
First, would like to thank MagentaCarther for allowing me to use Rose. Go check out their fanfic "Frost Smitten."
s/8735218/1/
Secondly, I would like to thank Malakialagatta on deviantART for allowing me have Jack 'O Lantern cameo in this. Here's what he looks like:
art/Autumn-Bringer-322167757
And if you want to play with Google Translate, here's the fanfic he's in (it's in Italian):
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Now, Jack's outfit is based off this picture:
favourites/49236573?offset=48#/d5nl2nz
And I think that's it for now! Please review and stay tuned for chapter two!