Disclaimer: I own nothing but this story and any Ocs used.

Chapter 1

You know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, right? Of course you do. It's a beloved classic story about a little girl facing a big bad wolf on her way to her Grandma's house with a basket of treats that she whipped up just for the old woman. And when she got there, it ended up being the 'Big Bad Wolf' instead of her Grandmother? Everyone knows this to be the true tale of Little Red. But, guess what?

That's not exactly what happened.

E. Aster Bunnymund could tell you that first hand, this fictional 'Little Red Riding Hood' was a bad version of someone that he has come to know and love.

He had learned at first hand that the fable was nothing but a lie by the original Red Riding Hood; though what exactly had happened to her, he still does not know. Don't think he hasn't asked the red hooded girl herself about her past, he could count how many times he has by the eggs in his Warren. No, it's simply that she refuses to speak of anything regarding what happened to her back all those years ago.

Bunny had been silently dropping little questions about it every so often in a majority of their conversations, but somehow, the girl always knew when he was trying to pick into her past and always answered with the same, "Not now, Bunny." that would be met with a slightly agitated look about being shot down again.

Well, there was that one time that he got her to admit that she hadn't had her red cloak with her four hundred years ago, and she had said that everything was in too much of a panic to bother with petty things like cloaks at the moment. Then she realized what she was saying and who she was talking to, and just sort of clamped up. She hadn't said anything after that, and Bunny feared that she might have drifted too far into herself to be brought out again any time soon, so he went back to his Warren while she returned to the forest that she had occupied for her entire spirit filled life.

That was the last they had seen each other, at least two hundred years ago.

And now, as he looked at the smoky, red hooded image of the, now four hundred and sixteen, year old girl, he felt a surge of something warm inside him when he realized what exactly MiM was trying to tell them.

Tooth shrieked in delight, "Its Rue! Rue's the new Guardian!" she chirped happily as she zoomed about the room with a few of her Fairies following close behind, waiting for her to send them out somewhere for teeth to collect.

Jack was starting to get dizzy as he watched Tooth fly around North's workshop, chirping happily with her little fairies, so he turned his head down to look at the other three men in the room, "Who's Rue?" he asked them. In all of his three hundred and seventeen years, he had never once heard of this girl. But, he realized that he must have heard of her from sometime in his past life as he looked at the blood red cloak outline of the girl with a matching scythe held in one hand like he held his staff.

Bunny watched Sandy answer the boy's question, flashing multiple images at an increasingly fast pace in his excitement that was dangerously close to Tooth's; it had been a while since he saw Rue himself besides in her dreams, and he couldn't wait to see her again. He flashed the same symbols over again with each second; a wolves' head, some sort of cloak looking thing that seemed to be a little darker than his usual golden sand, and a woven basket with a blanket on the inside.

He kept flashing the images with a wide smile on his face, thinking this summed up what the winter spirit was asking, but in truth, not even Bunnymund could quite get what he was saying.

Jack squinted his bright blue eyes, tilting his head to one side as if that would help decipher the jumble of pictures, "She's a cloak wearing, basket holding, wolf? What?" he got.

The silver haired rabbit shook his head with an irritated sigh, "Naw, mate. Crikey, ya don't remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood? I mean, that whole legend is centered around Little Runey Girl there." he pointed at the still shining outlined form of the girl.

"Bunny, you know she does not like being called 'Little Runey Girl'." North chided with his thick Russian accent, but he was smiling. Every year, despite how close he cut it to fulfill the 'Deliver in one night' thing, he always stopped to have a short chat with Rue. If she was anywhere he could see her, that is.

The Pooka simply rolled his vivid green eyes at the man, "I've known her longer, North. Plus, she told me once that she didn't really not like it, but, that sheila has never been one to talk about things she doesn't like." he admitted as he reached up one paw and rub the back of his head, then the sight of Tooth suddenly appearing in front of him startled him.

Tooth looked like she was going to explode with excitement, "We need to go get her! Like, now, please!" she shrieked as Sandy floated next to her and nodded his head in enthusiasm, never speaking one word.

All at once, everyone started talking in front of Bunnymund.

"We shall use sleigh, it much faster, and flying over her forest would give better chance of finding her hood." North suggested.

"Uh, North. She doesn't always have her hood up, remember? Besides, if she did, it would be near to impossible to actually find her from above those thick trees. Which is why, I think, it would be best if I had my fairies comb through the area until they find her." Tooth added in.

Sandy made a few signs above his head, but they were still too fast for anyone in the room to comprehend.

"I honestly have no idea what this girl is like, but if she doesn't like snow, I could freeze her forest until she came out into the light, then you guys could stuff her into a sack like you did to me. Though, she might be able to get out with that scythe of hers..." Jack was of no help whatsoever.

Bunny stood there, listening to all of these suggestions that his fellow Guardians passed around themselves, his eyes drawn to the red hooded smoky image of the girl that was still floating above the rock; he suddenly remembered something that she had told him at one point before they had stopped talking to each other:

"If ever MiM decides to make me a Guardian, don't let the other's take their cockamamie ideas and use them to get me. You know where I hang out and who I am more than any of the others in the entire group. So, I want you to come and recruit me in the only way you know how." she had been looking up at the tree canopy above her as she told him this.

Bunny had decided that she was joking, so he had laughed, "Ya mean ta tell me, that ya'd rather have me come in and talk ya into joining; instead of have Tooth bombard ya with reasons that ya should join?" at this, she had glared halfheartedly at him while he turned back to look up at the canopy.

Now, he realized why she had wanted him to recruit her.

He shook his head with a smile, "Brilliant lil' git." he said to himself as he turned back to his teammates, who were still arguing about how to get her, "Quit yer yapping. I'm gonna be the one to get her here." he said, which quieted down the others as they turned to stare at him in disbelief, "What?" he asked.

North shared a glance with Tooth, "You've never been one to volunteer on recruiting, Bunny." he said tentatively.

Bunny's ears flattened against the back of his skull as he looked unamused, "Who all have we had to recruit? Frostbite was the only one to join in hundred of years. Who else have we been told to join?" he retorted.

North made a motion with his hands as if to say 'True.', "But still, are you sure you want to go? It is winter where Rue is, Jack might be better option." at this, said Winter Spirit looked at the Guardian of Hope with one of his signature 'Mischief' smirks, his eyes glinting with a bright silver tinge.

Bunny's unamused face turned into one of anger and untrust, "There is no way in hell that I'm letting that Snowflake anywhere near Rue with the way he is. Naw, mate. I'd rather freeze my tail off than let 'im go." he said.

North looked like he was about to protest, but stopped himself, it seemed like Bunny wanted some sort of alone time with the red cloaked spirit, so he nodded, "Very well, Bunny. You go, bring back Rue. We welcome her when you get back." he said.

Bunny blinked at the sudden change, but nodded and opened up one of his rabbit holes to jump down; the ground closing behind him and leaving a little red flower behind.

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

"Oi! Rue! Ya out here, Hood?" Bunny hollered as he walked around the dense snowy forest, his hands cupped around his mouth as a makeshift blow horn.

As soon as his giant feet touched down on the cold snow, he wasted no time in walking around and shouting for her to come out so he could talk.

He had been walking for the better part of an hour and a half, his feet were numb, how he was still standing, he wasn't sure; his ears felt like they wouldn't swish around his head, but they still twitched every so often whenever he thought he might've heard something; and his tail felt like it was frozen off his backside.

"Runey! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" he called again, then waited where he stood for a few minutes, then sighed. It was obvious that either she was ignoring him, or she was just busy doing whatever she did in her free time.

Turning around, he was about to start walking back to the tunnel he had left open, when;

"Hey, Million Dollar Bunny! Long time, no see!"

He swiveled his head around to look up into the tree tops, only to have a huge smile spread across his face at the sight that crouched on a fairly high tree branch.

Rue sat there, her hood up over her head, hiding her hair from view. The cloak portion of her red hood, cascaded down from her shoulders and ended about a foot under the branch she was perched on, every so often moving with the slight breeze of the wind as it blew towards her. Underneath her cloak was a black tunic with a neck that stopped about an inch above the base; her sleeves went down all the way to her middle finger, on her waist was a blood red belt that slung off one hip and crossed to the other. She had blood red tights covering her legs, it looked like they were pretty warm if she was walking around without actual pants like North or Jack, so he thought that secretly they might've been actual pants or at least something close to them. And on her feet were a pair of black boots that stopped half way up her calf.

His green eyes moved to her face, incredibly pale, almost as pale as Jack, with intense, blood red eyes and a half smile on her face.

Bunny smiled back, "Hey, Little Bit!" he called happily as she jumped down from her perch and landed not too far in front of him, her blood red scythe that he hadn't noticed was there, swinging in one of her hands as she held it in front of her and leaned against it much like Frost does with his staff, "I've been callin' for ya, sheila. Got somethin' important to talk to you about." he said.

Rue looked at him curiously, "What is it?" she asked him in a voice that he hadn't heard for two hundred years.

Bunnymund smiled at the girl as he walked forward and stood in front of her, there was a reason he called her 'Little Bit', he thought to himself as he saw her head came up under his chin, "Guess who's going to be the next Guardian?" he asked her.

He was immensely glad that she caught on quickly, he was starting to freeze in place. Her eyes widened in surprise and her half smile turned into a bigger, full on smile, "Me?!" she cried happily.

Bunny nodded, "MiM gave us the message not too long ago; your lucky I volunteered, otherwise everyone else would have made a big deal and overreacted over everything. Tooth was going to send each one of her lil' helpers through the forest until they found ya." he said, before he had to take a step back when she hugged him around his middle, her scythe cluttering to the ground when she dropped it.

"This is amazing." her voice, while muffled against his fur, rang out clear to his frozen ears, and he found himself smiling at her joy as he wrapped his own arms around her back.

He leaned his head down towards her ear, "What do ya say we get back to North's place, huh? The others wanted to celebrate your new Guardianship when I brought you back." he said.

She pulled away from him, grabbed up her scythe, turned around and looked at him with a smile, "Let's go." she said, motioning for him to lead the way.

And that night, as he puled Rue back to where he was standing when Jack started trying to flirt with her, he couldn't help but think of that old Red Riding Hood nursery rhyme, and how far fetched it was from the real girl.

Such was proven when she sucker punched the Winter Spirit when he got a little too close for comfort. In her defense, she did warn him to get back.

Hey guys, thanks for reading the first chapter!

Just to tell y'all, I take requests for this story.

So, please let me know what you think, leave a review, give me a request, volunteer for the Hunger Games, I don't care.

Just, please, don't flame me.

-Zabby