Title: mathematically speaking
Fandom: Rise of the Guardians
Characters: Bunnymund, Tooth and the other Guardians
Genre: General/Romance
Warnings: This is another highschool AU. Author is not a fluent english speaker. A small drabble series.

A song for this chapter: Suck it and See by the Arctic Monkeys

01. the basics - in basic mathematics we have the four arithmetic operations: addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (x) and division (÷), which are mainly performed by using the one digit numbers (1 to 9).

those small heartbreaks

It's hot – too hot – and the ventilator in her room can barely be suggested as a sort of relief. Not that he wants to complain about it or anything.

Summer in Burgess is almost as unbearable as the winter season, with the heat raising from the pavement and threatening to fry anything – or anyone, for that matter – that barely touched it. There were never enough ice-cream trucks or stores with air conditioners – a blessing from god – around; it was the epitome of intolerable, hell on earth. The boy wondered if that's how Pompeii felt like when it was being covered by fire and ashes, because damn if it wasn't painful. Damn temperate weather. Damn small town that had just one public pool. Damn summer season.

Aster really wished he was back in Australia right now, with the beach and the sea nearby his house. If he closed his eyes he could imagine it, Sydney, the fresh salty breeze and the cold water on his skin, the waves clashing against his body - almighty and pulling him further into the ocean - bringing relief.

"Bunny, did you finish those exercises?" All it takes is six words, six words and he is all the way back to Burgess and on his neighbor's room, which is – quite tragically - far, far away from Sydney.

"No." He answers and by the disapproving look she gives him he wonders if he should have lied to her instead. "Sorry, Tooth." His green eyes try to focus on the worksheet in front of him, his 2B pencil hammering an absent-minded tune at the recent polished floor. The boy is trying hard to think about equations instead of the unbearable heat and the sweat making his shirt stick to his skin like paper on glue.

Tooth's room is not very big, which explains why they are lying on the wooden floor, textbooks and worksheets surrounding them as if it they had lost some kind of battle. The place is a sort of mix of pinks and greens and blues and every other color you can imagine with cute plushies and girly posters and dentist models. Being there would almost be an insult to his masculinity if he weren't so used to it anyways. Being on her room with her, that is. It's embarrassing how thinking about it makes him blush so fast, cheeks a hue of red she never seemed to notice.

To say that he had a crush on his neighbor/childhood friend/the cutest –prettiest, most perfect - girl he has ever met would be a gross understatement.

"You really need to finish these, you know?" Tooth says, voice smooth as if trying to make him continue the homework their teacher assigned for the summer break. "You almost didn't make a C minus on our last test."

"I know…" Aster answers weakly while still trying to figure out the questions that looked more like greek to him on his worksheet. "I'm stuck on number five."

"Let's see…" The girl shuffles her papers until she finds that one problem her friend mentioned. "Find a and b so that the rational function f(x) = (ax4 + bx3 + 3) / (x3 - 2) has an oblique asymptote given by y = 2x – 3." It's definitely greek, or chinese. It sounds like it.

If there's something he hates more than summer in Burgess that thing is math.

It doesn't matter how much or how hard he tries, it never makes sense to him. Not with all the formulas, numbers that are not even supposed to exist or the bloody stupid quadratic equations. What was the big deal with math anyways? He would use only twenty percent of what he learned on real life situations, and twenty percent was being generous about it.

"Can't I just get another C and be approved to another grade as a below average student?" By the way she punches his arm the answer is no, no you can't. "Crikey, Tooth! What was that for?" Aster rubbed the beaten limb pretending to be hurt – she's so tiny compared to him -, laughter and playfulness dripping out of his voice along with that thick Australian accent. Teasing her was a little game he enjoyed playing since he was eight and he usually never lost.

"That wasn't funny, you're not even trying!" She tries to scold him but it doesn't really works since she is giggling as much as him. "You're smart Bunny, you just have an issue with numbers that's all."

"An issue? More like a personal problem." Aster scoots closer to her, forcing his eyes to look at her face instead of her tights and the cute floral skirt she is wearing today. Damn hormones. Damn those nice legs. Damn summer. "Why are we doing this, anyways? Our break just started!"

"Because we don't want to do homework one day before the break ends." The girl moves a bit to the side so he can have space to sit beside her, lilac eyes getting back to the worksheet and her pencil working fast on the equations. "At least I don't."

"Aww c'mon Tooth!" Aster whines, bumping their shoulders together so she would stop writing, it was quite a failed attempt. "At least let's go get some ice-cream, pretty please?" And he tries doing that lost puppy look that used to work until they were on the fifth grade; after all she still indulged to his wishes sometimes.

"I will NOT walk six blocks to Mr. Bennet's store under that scalding sun just so you can have your ice-cream." She chides while ignoring his pleading look and answering another mathematical problem. The way she could do it so easily has always been a mystery to him. "Bunny, can't you concentrate in anything besides arts class?" Tooth giggled a bit at that part.

"At least he has an air conditioner." The boy rolled his eyes at that. What he wouldn't give to be at Mr. Bennet's store, cool air all around and a Cinnamon Bun flavored Ben & Jerry's on his hand. Tooth would probably get the Cake Batter one, they would chat and laugh and it would be way more fun than doing math homework at the start of the summer break. "And no, no I can't."

"Wait a minute… Did you just complain about my ventilator?" She asked feigning an offended expression, a strange glint of mischief on her eyes.

"Maybe." Aster said, a bit of laughter on his voice, as if defying her to do something about it. "Admit it Tooth, the poor thing can barely keep the heat away. Let's just follow my plan and go get some ice-cream."

"Oh yeah…?" And she turned the ventilator off, a satisfied smile gracing her lips.

She. Turned. The. Bloody. Vent. Off.

"Tooth you'll turn this thing on again right now!" The old fan could barely cool down the room and it was a bit noisy, but no ventilator at all would be even worst. "It's hot like hell already!"

"Weren't you complaining about it a minute ago?" The smirk on her face does the trick and he knows that right now they weren't studying anymore. It has always been like this between them. Well, not when they were children, the sassy remarks came much time later, but the playfulness and the mischievous undertones has always been the same.

He tackles her to the ground without much of a warning, tickling her sides on all the spots he knows that make her laugh louder and squirm and screech beneath him. She laughs and laughs – "Bunny, stop it! We need to finish our homework!" and "Stop being such a killjoy!" between their ragged breaths – and now they are six year olds again. The papers and the textbooks around them all move to make space. Tooth's skirt slides up her legs just a little, revealing more of her tights and the smooth tanned skin and – suddenly – Aster is very much aware of well, everything - mainly that they are not kids anymore - and it doesn't makes him stop at all; her laughter like a pleasant tune to his ears. She tickles him too – because, just like he knows her like the back of his hand, she knows him too well - and what started like a joke becomes much like a kind of war, the heat, the worksheets and the ventilator way past forgotten.

When they stop to breath, the telltale of giggles and laughter still escaping their mouths, they are sweaty and the hot weather seems even worst, but there's this weird happy feeling that never failed to linger between them. Aster is laying on his back on the floor, casually counting the fluorescent star stickers she has glued on her ceiling since a long time ago. Tooth is with her head leaning on his chest and it's impossible to not think about how right it feels, with his fingers absent-mindedly removing the small tangles on her hair and their limbs in a mess on the floor.

Her cellphone starts ringing – that annoying Lollipop tune he insists she should remove – and when she gets up to answer it it's hard to ignore the emptiness she leaves behind on his arms. Aster shakes his head a little, trying to deny what is certain since a long time.

Stop it, will you?

"Hello?" Her voice is soft while answering the phone and – just by the way her eyes glimmer just a little bit brighter – he already knows who is on the other side of the line. "Oh, hi Jack!"

He does his best to not show any sour expression.

"Yeah, sure." Aster can't really hear what they are talking about save for Tooth's part in the dialogue, and maybe he doesn't want to know at all. "Okay! See you." When she hangs up the pink cellphone all he can do is stare from his place on the floor.

"Frostbite?" The boy knows the answer already but asks for the sake of keeping the conversation going. He wonders where all the laughter from minutes ago had gone.

"Yes." She turns to him and smiles that smile. "He's coming over here, it seems he's having problems with the homework too." She starts to collect all the scattered papers on the floor while humming a stupid pop love song.

Yes. Yes, which for Aster is only one of the billions of ways Tooth unconsciously has to tell him no. No Bunny, no. So, this is the personal problem he has with mathematics. It never works for him in any way, not the complex questions and certainly not even the basics of the basics from elementary arithmetic. Because, you see, one plus one is supposed to be two.

But in his case, one plus one always ended up resulting three, an odd number that only meant that something was being left out on the equation.

And you learn to count using the chips and cracks on your heart.

Author's Note: Oh, the joys of young love. (laughs)

I enjoy heartbreaks. Not the big ones though, I like those small cracks that are barely audible and that hurt like hell. This will be a small Sweet Tooth drabble series and I'll try to keep all the chapters number or math themed, also I'll try to not be overly dramatic like I use to be (try is the keyword). Oh, and the chapters won't be in a chronological order.

Please tell me what you think! Criticism is always welcome :)

shizu.