Teenage Days

Chapter Eight

Aster had a hard time looking Jack in the eye now that he knew Jack loved him, he also would blush quite often when Jack would get close. Jack seemed very concerned about him, though he thought it was just Aster's cold that was making him behave strangely.

He shivered slightly as he slipped out of Jack's house. Jack had gone out to "work" while Aster should be in bed, resting, but he had to talk to someone, try to comprehend what was happening. The North Pole was the first place he thought of to go; all the other Guardians should be there, Tooth should be there. Tooth was the easiest Guardian to talk to for Bunnymund, she was very understanding and would try to help in any way she could.

Trudging through the snow, he looked for one of his concealed tunnels that he knew to be around. "Ah ha!" Aster exclaimed out loud as he found a tunnel, opening it. He jumped down and closed the tunnel behind him.

It was slow going as he couldn't race down the tunnels like he normally did in his Pooka form. But he finally made it to the North Pole through the tunnels. As he popped his head out of the hole, he shivered at the cold that greeted him. Why did North have to live in such a bloody cold place?

He crawled out of the tunnel, closed it, and ran for the Russian's workshop, not wanting to be in the freezing cold for longer than needed. He slammed the door closed behind him once he was in, ignoring the Yetis as they made a fuss over his sudden appearance at the workshop.

Aster looked around, aimlessly wondering. Now where is Tooth? Is she even here?

"Bunny! What are you doing here? And where's Jack?"

The former Pooka turned and saw, Tooth flying toward him. There she is. "Tooth, I was looking for you. Can we talk?" he asked, not answering her questions.

"Oh, sure!" the fairy chirped, though her eyes held concern as she looked over the tall teen. "What did you want to talk about?"

Aster suddenly hesitated. What was he supposed to say? 'Hey, so Jack is in love with me. What do I do?' No, that'd be far too embarrassing, plus he didn't want to give Jack's secret up.

"Well…" He started and cleared his throat. "I saw these two humans, you see. One kept acting strange and looking at the other human, I figured it out that the human was in love with the other human, but it was obvious the other human didn't know. But what if the other human did know? What if he just didn't know what to do? What should if he do if he knows?"

Tooth scrunched up her face as she thought about it. "Is this a game, Bunny? You know I don't like these types of games," she told the former Pooka.

Bunny fidgeted and scratched the back his head with a hand. Well that didn't work. How else was he to speak about it without giving Jack and himself away? He suddenly sneezed, remembering himself that he still had a cold.

"Are you okay?" the Tooth Fairy fretted, hovering over him. She gasped, "You have a cold! You should be in bed, Bunny!"

"I'm fine!" Aster grumbled, he didn't want another person mothering him; Jack was already doing a wonderful of that alone.

"Tooth! What's taking you so long?" North exclaimed as he walked through a door, Sandy right behind him. "Bunny! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Jack's? And where is Jack anyway?"

"I…" Aster started, but trailed off as he tried thinking of a good excuse for his reason behind escaping Jack's while he was sick. He couldn't just tell them the truth.

"Bunny's sick!" Toothiana told the others.

The teen rolled his green eyes as the others, even Sandy in his silent ways, began telling him off for doing something so stupid. He was sick! Why would he leave Jack's when he's sick!

He turned to leave, but North's hand shoot out and grabbed him by the back of his shirt, lifting up like he normally did with the Pooka's scruff. "Oh, no you don't, comrade!" North boomed as he began to carry the struggling young man through the halls. "You're going straight to bed to rest. Tooth will send Baby Tooth to Jack; you must have the boy worried sick with you disappearing on him."

With most of his energy being used to fight the cold, Aster was quick to tire from his struggles and resigned to letting himself be carried. It of course didn't him from cursing at North harshly.

None so gently, North dropped Bunnymund onto a bed. "Stay," the large Russian man told Aster.

"I'm not a dog!" Aster complained with a huff and began to move to get out of the bed.

North sent him glare that caused the teen to freeze and obey. Santa turned to the small yellow Guardian, who was tossing a ball of dream sand up and catching it before tossing it up again. "Sandy," North said, nodding.

A smile flashed on the small mute's face before he threw the dream sand at the Easter Bunny.

"What? Sandy, no!" Aster tried to dodge the dream sand, but the Sandman rarely missed and he was hit square in the face with the sand. He fell over face first on the bed, deep asleep.

Toothiana moved toward him to right the teen so he was lying normally on the bed. She then turned to the two other Guardians. "Did Bunny seem to be acting strange to you?" she asked, her eyes flickering toward the sleeping Aster.

"He must still be loopy from his condition, Tooth. Do not worry about it," the large man told her.

Sandy nodded his head in agreement.

"But North, Sandy, he was trying to tell me something in a round about way. He never does that," Tooth told the two, her voice filled with concern.

North and Sandy looked at each other and started to think about, maybe Toothiana was right.

Jack suddenly burst in the room with a Baby Tooth hovering above him, two yetis trying to catch the fretting teen not far behind him. His eyes whipped around the room, before landing on the sleeping form of Bunnymund. He visibly relaxed at the sight. "There he is," he breathed in relief.

"There you are, Jack!" North said with a large grin as he saw the youngest Guardian.

"How's Aster?" Jack asked as he moved over to the bed to watch the sleeping Guardian.

If Jack had looked at the others, he would have seen they were taken aback at what he had called Bunny. Bunny never let them call him Aster, so why was Jack calling him that now?

"Besides that cold of his, he's fine. Sandy just put him to sleep," North told the white haired teen.

Jack nodded and sat at the edge of Bunny's bed, not taking his eyes of him. Baby Tooth sat on Jack's shoulder, trying to comfort him.

Tooth nudged North and Sandy, pointing to the door. North nodded and led the others out. Tooth closed the door behind them and turned back to the other two Guardians. "There's something going on between Jack and Bunny," she said.

"They've just been bonding, Tooth," North said.

Tooth shook her head. "Didn't you hear Jack? He called Bunny Aster! Bunny never lets us call him that," she said, a bit annoyed that North wasn't seeing it as strange.

"Jack lives to tease Bunny, maybe that is all it is," North said and began to walk away. "I have things to do, but feel free to stay."

The Tooth Fairy narrowed her eyes at his retreating back. He wasn't taking her seriously! She turned to the Sandman and asked, "Sandy?"

Sandy just gave her a knowing smile before following North.

Toothiana sighed with frustration. She began to wonder if she could find Cupid and get him to tell her what was going on; Cupid seemed to know that something was going on between Jack and Bunny when he visited the Guardians.

Hooray, chapter is longer than usual! Hope you enjoyed. :3