Title: Believer's Oath

Rating: K+

Summary: You know how the Guardians have their oath? Well, Jamie has one for Jack.

Warning: I JUST HAVE A LOT OF JACK/JAMIE BROTP FEELS OK? They shall be friends for life, it is law. Jamie will be a kid at heart so he will always see him. *headcanon accepted*

HERE IS THE PROMISED FLUFF! Can I thank you all for the love you've shown to "Fizzled Candles"? I'm STILL getting faves/reviews about it. Where are you people coming from?

I found this BEAUTIFUL photoset of Jack and Jamie on Tumblr by fudayk and felt the plot bunnies breeding in my mind instantly. (Sorry Bunnymund.) The words of the oath are actually song lyrics from "Oath" by Cher Lloyd feat. Becky G and it's so great for describing best friends, especially the words fudayk chose for the photoset. I can't even.

On another note, I really want to write a fic that focuses on Mother Nature, another Guardian. Conjectures for her character are raging inside me.

XXX

The sun had never felt as alive, as hopeful, in Burgess as it did a week after Pitch had tried to plunge the world into an eternal nightmare, only to be thwarted by the Guardians of Childhood. Its rays casted themselves on the town, bouncing off the frosted windows and melting snow, for spring was on her way ever since Easter had come and gone.

The golden rays soon found a group of children sitting in a circle next to a frozen lake, protected from the chill by their winter clothes. They seemed traumatized, unaffected by the warmth seeping into their skin.

"I can't believe I didn't believe in them!" A pale blond boy with glasses exclaimed, near the point of hyperventilation. "I mean, I've believed in Santa since my first Christmas!"

"I know Monty," a girl with shoulder-length brunette hair said glumly, wrapping her green and white scarf around her more securely, "it was those dreadful nightmares."

Twin boys, Claude and Caleb, nodded in agreement. "Pippa's right; I can't think of anything besides a nightmare that would make me not believe in the Easter Bunny," Claude said, twirling his orange hat, remembering the happiness he felt when discovering the eggs.

"Bunny! Hop hop!" a little girl with long blond hair said immediately, rocking back and forth on crossed legs.

The kids all shared a laugh, until a broader girl with short, choppy brown hair had her say. "I feel so guilty for not believing in the Sandman. He gave me those dreams about riding unicorns."

"There's no need to blame yourself Cupcake," a boy with a closing gap between his teeth and glimmering brown eyes spoke up, catching the little girl as she attempted to hop like a bunny and fell. "Pitch was extremely powerful."

"Not against you Jamie," Pippa said quietly, looking at him with respect, "you believed in them, even though we didn't."

Jamie flushed when all the attention was on him. "W-well I had some help. If Jack Frost hadn't shown up that night, I might have stopped."

"But why did he show up?" Caleb asked.

"Jamie believe!" the blonde girl giggled, snuggled in Jamie's lap. "My brother the believer!"

"Sophie has a point," Monty chuckled, "you were kinda the last child on the entire earth who believed in the Guardians. That's sort of important." The children nodded in agreement as the sun began to warm their hearts.

Caleb, after much inner deliberating, put his hand in the middle of the circle with resolute. "Come on guys, this is something that grown-ups do when something important is about to happen. Let's make a promise right now that we will remember the guardians for as long as we can."

"And even when we do grow up," Pippa reassured them, "we gotta tell our kids their stories so they will believe too."

Jamie beamed. He put his hand on top of hers and Monty placed his hand above his own. One by one they did so, until little Sophie placed her hand at the very top, looking at the determined faces.

"Besides," the brunette boy said, "Jack told me that since the Guardians are in our hearts, I'm a Guardian too; all of us are. We are Guardians!" he grinned at the others. "Come on guys, say it with me!"

"We. Are. GUARDIANS!" At the last word the children threw their arms into the dappled sky, alight with hope and adventure. Laughing and calling out to one another, they raced away from the pond and along the road to the town square to have a snowball fight.

They didn't notice a teenage boy hidden behind the rocks, twirling his staff and smiling as his eyes fluttered shut.

HIS OATH TO YOU

The moon streaked across Jamie's bedroom window as he flipped through his Guardian scrapbook, grinning as he traced the handwriting of someone named Phil while jotting some words down on a sheet of paper. Sophie was on the floor playing with her stuffed rabbit, asking it, "Are you Bunny's brother?"

"Sophie," his mother called from downstairs, "bedtime."

The girl pouted. "No," she said with as much stubbornness as the Easter Bunny himself, "Wanna stay here with Jamie."

"Aw, Soph," her brother leaned down, "it's nice of you, but I need to go to sleep soon too."

After considering this new bit of information, she nodded and picked up her bunny before trotting to the door. "Ok Mommy!" she called out, "I'm going to bed!"

"Good girl! You'll get an extra bedtime story for that."

Letting out a delighted whoop at the news, the blonde scuttled from the room and disappeared into her own bedroom. Jamie sighed in relief and fell back onto his bed. As much as he adored his little sister, there were times when he needed to be alone with his own thoughts. Speaking of his own thoughts…

Turning himself onto his stomach, he reached out a hand and grabbed the paper, reading over the words. He had to admit, compared to his last attempt, this one was better. "Yeah," he decided, "I think that's a good start."

But how could be put into words what he felt? That he never wanted the Guardians to have the fear that they would lose their believers? Especially Jack, who went through 300 years of loneliness and had his first believer (him) just a week ago? Even Pitch, although he wasn't afraid of him, needed to be believed in—fear was good for some things, Jamie reasoned, like Halloween.

So how do you put those feelings into words?

"Good start for what, kiddo?"

Yanked out of his thoughts Jamie gasped, leaping to his feet as soon as he heard that familiar voice. "Jack!" Rushing over to his window, he threw himself at the new Guardian, grinning as he hugged him. He heard Jack's chuckle as frosty hoodie-clad arms wrapped around him in return, pulling him close.

"I thought you were with the other Guardians." Confusion clouded his eyes as he pulled back his head to look at the winter spirit, whose eyes were closed in a moment of pure bliss. He blinked and opened them, twin blue crystals now gazing at Jamie.

Giving a nonchalant shrug, Jack hugged the boy one more time before letting go. "I was," he replied, letting himself into the room, "but 'cause Pitch is beat its all back to normal, even though I do have my own room at the Pole. Besides," here he smirked softly, "I had to see my first believer before I took off for Canada."

"Canada?" the mortal boy's eyes nearly bugged in excitement. "I've never even left Burgess! Tell me everything when you get back! What the snow's like, what the people there are like, what—"

"Ok, ok," Jack laughed and put up a hand to stop his rambling. "I'll tell you about it when I come around next time." Jamie simply smiled and bounced back onto his bed. "So," he heard the Guardian say, "what are you starting on?"

Oh crud, he forgot about that. "Oh! This! Uh, it's something for school!"

"School? Really?" an amused grin played about Jack's pale lips. "You do schoolwork on a snow day?"

Double crud. "Uh…" already flustered by the spirit's piercing blue eyes, a blush crept onto his cheeks.

"C'mon," Jack coaxed, reaching out for the paper, "lemme see what you're working on."

"No!" Jamie yanked back the paper and kept it close to his heart. He saw the Guardian's eyes light up with mischief as he tried again and was once more eluded by the boy. "Get serious here Jack!"

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" And with that the chase was on as Jack chased his young friend around his room, blowing snowflakes into his face to deter him from getting farther away from the winter spirit.

Jamie let out a laugh despite himself, whirling through the snowflakes and swerving around the room, catching the grin on Jack's face as he suddenly tripped and fell onto the carpeted floor. "Oof!"

"Gotcha!" the white-haired boy sang gleefully, zipping over to where he lay and hovering down to sit on him, cross-legged on Jamie's back. Delicately plucking the paper out of the protesting boy's hands, he flicked it open and scanned the page, eyes going from bright with victory to soft and vulnerable in seconds.

"'Oath of the Believer'?" he questioned quietly, looking at Jamie with the look in his eyes still present. The moon cast its beams through the window, reflecting off of those crystal blue eyes to become stardust.

The boy sighed and rubbed his head awkwardly; there was no going back now. "Um, yeah," he said hesitantly. "I mean, you have one for Guardians, so I figured…" he trailed off as Jack silently read the words he had written, "…I figured that believers would need one too."

He paused, unsure of what to say next when the answer came to him. "I…I thought of you when I wrote that."

Tearing himself away from the words on the page, the stunned spirit regarded Jamie with an undisguised defenselessness that threw him. Slowly hovering off his mortal body, Jack allowed Jamie to scramble to his feet. His only response was, "Why?" but that single word conveyed everything.

Well, he thought, I did want to discover how to put my feelings into words. Fate was funny like that. After taking a deep breath, he began to speak:

"Because…I thought about how you must've travelled the world all alone for a long time—" he glanced briefly at the other male, "—and even though you have more believers than you ever did, you must still feel slightly alone. 'Cause I don't think you get used to being believed in overnight.

"Maybe that's why I wanted to write this; no matter what, I wanted to give you something that you can think about wherever you are."

Wherever you go just always remember

He sat down on his bed, determinedly not looking. "I want you to know that…that even though things change, some things don't—like Burgess." He glanced out the window to view the snow falling like rivulets onto the ground. "No matter how much time passes, it'll still be close to you. When everything you know changes, Burgess will still be here."

He looked at the moon, which seemed to encourage him. "You're like the moon," he smiled at the comparison, "you may be gone for a while, but you will always come back here, where Burgess is."

That you got a home for now and forever

"And…where I am." He brought himself to look at Jack, who stood stock-still in shock. "I mean," he laughed a little, "Burgess is my home, and if you need anything, anything at all, find me. I-I mean, I don't know how to deal with your problems, they must be a really big deal, but if you want someone to talk to, or have snowball fights with, or go sledding with, look for me, 'k?" His face froze for an instant, "Just not when I'm in school. I don't think the teachers would like that."

And if you get low just call me whenever

Okay, he could do this. He was almost there. "And…you know how the Guardians promise to be there for the children?"

The only thing Jack could do was nod.

"Well," Jamie's face hardened with youthful determination, "I'll be there for you, Jack—snow day or not. What happened with Pitch can't happen again. Our belief is stronger than ever before thanks to you. You and the other Guardians go through so much for us...and for a long time you've never had anyone believe in you."

And we'll never change no matter the weather

"So that's why I,Jamie Bennett, promise to believe in you for as long as I can. You made me believe when I was about to lose hope," Jamie's honeysuckle eyes shone bright as he smiled. "And that's the reason I wrote this promise for all believers to say. So you won't have to go through what you've gone through in the past. After all, I am your first believer." His smile turned into a grin.

"This is my oath to you."

Long monologue over, he shuffled his feet on his bed covers. "So whaddya think Jack?" After about a minute's pause he glanced up at the Guardian. "Jack? Jack?"

The winter spirit wasn't listening. His mind had drifted off somewhere between utter euphoria and complete shock. Jamie had actually gotten this idea to write a promise that all believers made to their Guardians from believing in him. In order to make sure that he wouldn't have to suffer another 300 years of loneliness. It was the same feeling he had felt that one night when Jamie first believed in him, only the relief and happiness in his heart returned ten-fold.

Where had this kid been his entire existence?

Leaping onto the bed out of pure ecstasy, he threw his arms around the boy, who let out a startled "Whoa!" and nearly toppled off bringing the other with him.

"Thank you Jamie," voice trembling, Jack hugged the boy tighter. "I could not have asked for a better believer."

If Jamie hadn't been crushed against the blue hoodie, he would've seen the tears sparkling in his friend's eyes. "Y-you're welcome." Bringing his arms around to return the hug, he could've sworn he saw the moon smiling as beams of moonlight shone brighter than before. "I don't think I could've gotten a better Guardian." Twin smiles on their lips, they held the other close in silence while the snow fell outside. Savoring the quiet moment while it lasted, Jamie glanced upward towards the glowing moon, whose light bathed the two boys in its white aura.

There was no doubt about it—there was a definite smile on the moon's face.

XXX

Ugh, how do you write a speech by a ten year-old boy? Hopefully, I did it right. Oh the brotp feels, let me love you boys! I think I'll get a tumblr tomorrow; definitely by the end of the week for sure! So be on the lookout!

I'm not sure if I should do my Mother Nature fic next or a crossover fic I've been thinking about for a while. Ah well! The author gets what the muse wants, so I shall eagerly await inspiration.

Believe in your favorite Guardian and be sure to review! :D