An Absence of Black and White, a guardians of childhood series fanfic

1. An Absence of Black and White

The night was still, silent but for the soft sighs of the branches above. Moonlight slipped through windows to light the dark treehouse.

The spectral boy stared silently out the open doorway. Back from his nightly search for Pitch, he would now, as he always did, spend the remaining hours till dawn guarding the dreams of his youngest and most precious friend. He scanned the surrounding darkness, the shifting clouds, the beckoning stars. His was a child especially coveted by Pitch - it would certainly not do to let his guard down.

"Nightlight?"

Nightlight turned to his Katherine, her head raised from the chest of her dozing snow goose. Her eyes were heavy and her hair a knotted mess - Nightlight grinned at her.

Katherine squinted. "Is it morning?" Nightlight shook his head, adjusting his staff so he could lean against it. "Then come sit with me."

Able to deny her nothing, Nightlight walked over to the foot of her small bed and quietly sat down, crossing his long, thin limbs beneath him. Katherine returned his smile with a sleepy one of her own as she slowly sat up in the bed. "Are there any signs of Pitch?" Katherine asked, rubbing her eyes and stroking Kailash's folded wing.

Again, Nightlight shook his head.

Katherine nodded, placated. "That's good."

Caught by a sudden impulse, Nightlight's long, thin fingers reached out, curling a moment in hesitation, to lightly touch the soft skin of Katherines hand. As always, the contact with her skin caused his chest to clench with something he'd never before known - akin to a frightening grey clouding the simple, black and white world he'd lived in for so long. Nightlight looked at her, watched her examine their fingers as she intertwined them further, a small smile on her face.

For her, he knew at least, he'd face the grey.

"You should try to sleep."

If she was shocked be the melodic tenor of his seldom used voice, soft and clear despite its misuse, she hid it well. His Katherine tightened her warm hand around his, making the somethings in his chest clench even tighter. "Alright. Goodnight, Nightlight."

He stepped off the bed as she settled down under the covers. "You'll be here in the morning?" she asked quietly. Nightlight brushed aside a lock of her hair and nodded.

Smiling, his Katherine drifted to sleep and he returned to his post.

2. In Want of Silliness

Growing up is never easy, and it is even less so if you are an elfin boy whose age was temporarily stunted during centuries of voluntary isolation within the endless darkness of the Nightmare King's heart. Despite this, however, Nightlight still managed to have time for the occasional bout of silliness.

Snickering into the wind, Nightlight chased an autumn breeze passed shivering leaves and swaying branches. He deftly ran along the rooftops of a sleepy Santoff Claussen and leapt to the dewy grass below, slinking behind an ancient tree before he could be spotted.

There she was!

He slapped a hand over his lips to contain the giddy laughter bubbling up in his chest and pressed closer to the tree.

And since Nightlight wasn't the only one going through the small yet necessary annoyances which came along with oncoming adulthood, he felt it was therefore his duty to spread this silliness around. Sitting quietly on an old stump, a book gripped tightly in her fingers and a look of acute concentration furrowing her brows, was one such candidate.

Nightlight sneakily whispered a suggestion into the wind and, after some minor coaxing on his part, watched it blow towards the young girl. It began with a light, teasing brush against her curly hair and when she lifted a hand to tuck the strands behind one ear, a stronger gust targeted the pages of her book. Katherine gasped in shock as the pages fluttered rapidly and flew out of her hand.

Nightlight laughed from his hiding spot, so hard in fact, that he failed to noticed the annoyed stomps closing in on him.

"Nightlight."

Nightlight turned to see Katherine, her arms crossed with a decidedly exasperated expression on her face (for, try as she might, she could never actually be angry with the spectral boy). He grinned at her and it was a matter of seconds before a similar smile eventually won over on her face.

Taking her hands with a happy laugh, Nightlight pulled her to him for a quick kiss and then up into the air as, together and for hours after, they chased the wind.

3. Assumed Assumptions

Nicholas St. North whistled joyfully as he sauntered through the labyrinthine hallways of the Lunar Lamadary. He was in a particularly good mood that afternoon, for he had gathered the Guardians for a very special meeting indeed - one regarding the progress and application of his new city. Eight years had gone by since the day he stood beside his comrades and declared his dream - Katherine's dream - to the Man in the Moon, eight years of meticulous planning and organizing that was finally coming to fruition.

"How could this have happened?"

"Well, it's not like we planned on it!"

North paused when he heard the familiar sound of one of Katherine and Nightlight's signature one-sided conversations. He was about to see what they were talking about when the subject matter made him abruptly halt.

"Of course, we can't hide it forever. It's going to pop out eventually!"

"God, what were we thinking?"

"I know it was fun - okay, yes, it was a lot of fun - but look at the consequences, Nightlight!"

"Oh, Ombric's going to kill me - no, he's going to kill you and then he's going to kill me."

"What do you mean, 'why?' Because it was your idea!"

North felt a cold sense of dread wash through him as he listened just outside the door. Good God, the lad must have gotten Katherine pregnant - it was the only conceivable explanation! North wracked his brain, trying to work out how this could have possibly happened. They were older now, and it was certainly true that they'd always been (rather oddly) close, but both Nightlight and Katherine had always been more interested in adventure and fun (though they did spend a lot of time playing "tag" up in the clouds). Was it possible he'd failed to notice the development of that kind of relationship between the two? Surely his work would not cause him to miss such a drastic change in the lives of his friends.

More importantly, did Ombric know?

"North, what on earth are you doing?"

North turned to see the great wizard himself, and beside him a, disgruntled as usual, Pooka.

"You seem off. Could it be that you lack eggs or chocolate in your diet?" Bunnymund pulled out a chocolate egg. "Possibly a combination of the two?"

"No, you blasted rabbit! We have much more serious issue on our hands."

Bunnymund sniffed. "More serious than chocolate? Hardly."

Ombric laid a hand on his former apprentices shoulder. "What seems to be the problem, North?"

"Well-"

"Ombric! Thank goodness - we have a problem with - North!"

North turned to see Katherine and Nightlight in the doorway. Katherine was staring wide-eyed up at him, and any sneaking doubts in his mind vanished when he saw her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach. "North...ing. We have a problem with nothing!" Nightlight rolled his eyes and he must've said something in Katherine's head because her face took on a distinctly martyred expression before she sharply elbowed the spectral boy in his side.

Was she afraid of what he'd think? Of course, she was terribly young, but she was still Katherine. North shook his head and raised his hands. "No, no. It's alright Katherine, you two don't have to hide it."

Katherine blinked, exchanging a quick glance with Nightlight. "We don't?"

"No, I overheard the both of you talking just now."

"You... you did?"

North sighed, laying both hands nobly on her shoulders. "I want you to know that, no matter what, we'll still love you. If you fess up now, and promise to name it after me, then no one is going to be angry."

"...Alright," Katherine lifted her shirt with a grim face and... and pulled out a robot. "Well the villagers back home wanted to give you a present in celebration of your project finally going underway. Since you're always complaining about styling your beard, they made you a robot to do it for you in their spare time! We were just in the room wrapping it when Nightlight had this idea - okay, yeah a great idea to see who would win in a one on one robot fight between this robot and one of Bunnymund's egg warriors. As you can see," Katherine lifted the mangled limbs of the tiny robot, his scissor hands bent and scratched, "the egg won."

"Naturally."

Katherine ignored the Pooka. "We were going to call it the Moustache-Be-Gone bot, but if you really want us to, we can call it North after we fix it. We are really sorry."

North looked from the tiny robot to Katherine. "Wait - that's the secret?"

"Yes, why? You were expecting something else?" Katherine asked.

Bunnymund sighed in exasperation, dramatically rolling his eyes. "Goodness, isn't it obvious? He thought Nightlight had impregnated you."

"What!?"

North huffed. "Well what was I suppose to think?"

"Not that!"

"I don't know you two are awfully close..."

"North!"

Ombric chuckled as the two continued to bicker, amused over their red, flushed cheeks and embarrassed faces. His laughter instantly died, however, when he turned to see the carefully blank expression on Nightlight's face accompanied by an admittedly disconcerting glint of mischief in his eye.

Perhaps North's assumption wasn't as far off its mark as they'd initially though...

4. Little Susie and the Pot of Stew

As a whole, Nightlight was quite fond of Nicholas St. North - the man was brave, kind, and intelligent. Sometimes however, that intelligence did seem in short supply...

"And the deformed man raised his blood soaked knife and said, 'I'm gonna make you into a tasty stew! You'll make just enough to last through winter!' Little Susie was never heard from again, but on cold nights, some say they can hear the soft cries of a child crying out, 'You added too much salt!'" North said, clapping his hands together. "What do you think, Katherine? Will it make a good storybook?" The girl stared wide-eyed at North. "Katherine?"

North turned to the spectral boy perched atop Katherine's bed frame. Nightlight gave him a deadpanned stare.

"What?"

Sighing, Nightlight ushered the confused man out of Katherine's room. Ignoring the muffled "What did I do!?" from beyond the oak door, Nightlight moved back and sat down beside his friend. Wordlessly, he took her hand and let her squeeze his in return.

Nightlight rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, all the while thinking up a particularly nasty prank to play on North.

5. The Repercussions of Bonding

About two months ago, North had decided some "quality bonding among comrades" was in order and had suggested the Guardians have a game night. Surprisingly, the night was a success and had become somewhat of an unofficial weekly ritual for the group. More surprising still, was the sheer competitive urges Bunnymund emitted - shocking even himself with his raging desire to win.

Most of the time, Bunnymund, with his never ending knowledge and sharp rodent-like reflexes, did win. He dominated in trivia games, bluffed his way to victory in card games, triumphed with impeccable aim in darts, and even gave Nightlight a run for his money playing the newly invented game Twister - but he had yet to win a single game of team charades.

And boy did it chafe.

"One more time!"

Toothiana sighed, having had the misfortunate of being picked as Bunnymund's partner. "Really, this has gone on long enough. I actually have a job that needs doing."

"Ah, one more couldn't hurt!" said North, who, paired with Ombric, had been doing fairly well in the game thus far. Toothiana sent him a death stare.

"Mr. Qwerty!" Ombric called to his librarian. "Would you mind repeating the scores?"

"Bunnymand and Toothiana: 2, Ombric and North: 12, Katherine and Nightlight: 31," Mr. Qwerty recited dutifully.

Toothiana rolled her eyes as Bunnymund quietly seethed beside her. Katherine and Nightlight, when on the same team, were unbeatable at charades. The teams were, of course, chosen at random - but if they were lucky enough to be together, nobody (not even Bunnymund) had a prayer of winning.

Ombric strroked his beard. "I suppose one final round would be alright. Toothiana?"

With a straight face, Bunnymund stealthily slipped a chocolate egg in her pocket and she grudgingly nodded her acquiesce.

"Wonderful, here is the card and on the count of three we shall begin, ready?" Toothiana looked at the card and showed it to Nightlight who nodded. "Ready on 3-"

"It's an egg!"

"Shut-up!" North whacked the pooka upside the head.

"2, 1 - go!"

"An omelette!"

"It's chocolate!"

"It's white chocolate!"

"Dark chocolate?"

Toothiana stopped acting and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"Egg chocolate!"

"It's the Djinni!" Katherine shouted. Mr. Qwerty chimed the small bell to signal victory.

"You weren't even looking at me!" Toothiana growled at Bunnymund.

"These subjects are awful," he sniffed back and was promptly punched in the face.

As Ombric and North struggled to separate the two, Katherine and Nightlight sat watching from their spot on the couch. Wordlessly, they fist bumped.

I was going to post one a week, but they're pretty short and I get lazy...