Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He gazes upon her looking into her reflection.
She’s beautiful…. he can’t help but think, like a rose in winter time.
If roses every grew in the Winter Woods.
He remembers her from the freeze, when her blanket had flown off, and he’d caught it for her.
Sled was glad she was safe.
He takes a deep breath. Overall, it’s been lovely meeting the Warm fairies and learning about them, their customs and their brightly colored outfits seemed to light up the Winter Woods even more.
He’d been impressed with the Tinker’s snowmaking machine when introduced for Periwinkle and while her wings had nearly melted, the fact that the Warm fairies had even mad esuch creation was absolutely fascinating to him.
So he decides to go up to this Warm fairy. Besides, what harm could come to introducing himself? He’d already ‘met’ her once. Wasn’t the whole point of opening the border to make new friends?
He walks up to her, clearing his throat as the fairy puffs up her hair, she looks even more stunning up close.
Her red hair and outfit seem to compliment each other well, highlighting the green of her eyes.
“Hi,” he begins.
“Hello there,” she says, her voice has a drawl to it, but there’s something about the breathiness of it that captivates him as well.
“I’m Sled.” he adds, introducing himself.
“Oh my that’s perfect!” she cries, there’s a drawl to her voice and he only finds it more intriguing.
He feels himself go a little red and the fairy must have realized what she said when she covers up her mouth in shock, giggles nervously and turns to face him, her head bowed.
She closes her eyes as a soft smile lights up her face for a moment and extends out her hand.
“I’m Rosetta.” she says and he feels himself brighten up.
When he hears her name, he wants to shout out in excitement, so he’d been right after all.
Like a rose in wintertime indeed. Even better that her names fits perfectly.
He takes her hand and places another one on top. Encasing it.
“Rosetta?” he says, rolling it off his tongue, he likes the way her name sounds. “That’s beautiful.” he says in awe. He gestures to take her out to the ring and she follows soon after.
Neither of them let their hands go.

Chapter Text

They spend the whole day together in the Winter Woods.
After the wonderful presentation with the snowflake baskets letting down a stream of periwinkles and snowflakes Sled asks Rosetta if she would like to join him around the Winter Woods.
She agrees in delight.
He shows her the Frost forest and they go sledding together.
“I’m going sledding with Sled?” she asked, a smirk on her face.
Sled laughed, “I’m not the one who came up with my name, Lord Milori did.”
“What is he like?”
“Strict, but he cares for us.”
Rosetta hums as they get on the sled, “Don’t go too fast on me sugar,” she says with a laugh as she sits behind him and places her arms around his waist. He feels his wings and stomach flutter a bit. He hopes she can’t see his face blush pink.
He looks behind his shoulder and gives her a cheeky grin, “I won’t make any promises,”
They take off as they ride down the slope, Rosetta clings tightly onto his waist screaming. He laughs loudly as he feels the wind rush through his hair.
“Look at the view Rosetta, isn’t it wonderful?”
He feels Rosetta peek behind his shoulder and a gasp leave her mouth.
“Its beautiful, I never knew this place could contain such beauty…” she says in awe and Sled puffs up his chest in pride.
“I don’t know, maybe there’s someone else with an even greater beauty,” he says quietly as he gets off and extends his hand towards her to help her up.
Rosetta blushes and covers up a giggle.
“Did you know the tips of your ears blush pink, sugar?” she asks as Sled feels himself blush once more.
“I—I mean—” he began, brushing the back of his neck bashfully, had she heard him? Maybe she had.
Would it be so bad if she did?
Rosetta laughs and brushes his arm “Oh don’t worry sugar, I think it’s cute,” she says with a smile and Sled grins at her. Well if she liked it, then maybe he would compliment her more.
He noticed that her coat was in the shape of an upside down rose.
He’ll make her one next time they see each other.

Chapter Text

They make a plan to meet each other when they can. Since they both are busy with mainland preparations, she more than him due to being a garden-fairy and all.
She teaches him about all sorts of flowers and plants, from the most beautiful and colorful ones to even the dangerous ones.
“I’m never fond of them but a garden-fairy needs to learn her flowers!” she says, when he gazes upon a poppy, whose pollen can render one asleep.
And of course, she even introduces him to the fun activities warm fairies do.
He’s careful when playing tag with the other fairies in the Autumn woods, making sure his wings are coated snow and he excels at fairy volleyball, it reminds him of snowball fights a bit.
He even gets a shot at bee-darts, he apologizes to his bee if he misses and the bee just seems to shrug and accept its fate. Luckily, he hits the mark.
It was quite different from going sledding, skating, snowball fights, snowman building or even making igloos, but he enjoys the activities nonetheless.
He enjoyed seeing the bright colors, seeing so many types of animals that he’d only read in Dewey’s books.
He nearly melts when they go the Animal Nook.
He’s so very glad for the Snowmaker.

When they meet again he meets her at the border, holding an ice sculpted rose in his hand. The frost fairy coats Rosetta’s wings as she clutches her coat with a mitten-covered hand and crosses into Winter with a shudder.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that!” Rosetta says with a slight grin as Sled chuckles and holds out the ice-sculpted rose.
“For you, a rose for a rose,” he says smoothly, maybe the tips of his ears are turning an exact shade of crimson like her coat.
“Oh.. why thank you!…” she says, her tone a mix of shock and awe as they both stare at the flower. Sled clears his throat, “May I?” he asks, gesturing to place it in her hair as she nods and hums eagerly.
He places the ice rose in her hair carefully, adjusting it to make sure the thorns don’t prick her head. At first when he was making it he wanted to exclude the thorns, but if a beautiful flower such as the rose had such prickly thorns then they were there for reason no?
So he kept them remembering Rosetta’s words:
I’m never fond of them but a garden-fairy needs to learn her flowers!
Once he adjusts the rose into her hair and he steps back to admire its placement.
“Perfect. Although you are already perfect. The rose just adds another touch to it.” he says as Rosetta blushes and he kisses her in the cheek.
“You look cute when you blush too.” he whispers into her ear with a smile as Rosetta nearly folds and he catches her by the waist.
“Shall we?” Sled says, gesturing to the woods as Rosetta nods.
“Lead the way love.”

Chapter Text

They go owl riding once they see each other again. While of course they can fly, Sled always felt like there was something more when one rode an animal. He could understand why Lord Milori was so fond of owls in the first place.
He offers his hand to Rosetta as they get on the owl, he holds her by the waist tightly, one hand around her and another one holding the reins.
He nudges the owl with his foot, “Let us go Glacier,” he said softly as Glacier hooted and he leans towards Rosetta, “hold on tight!”
Rosetta clutches the reins and Glacier takes off, unfurling his wings and they take off to the skies.
Rosetta lets loose a small scream as she squeezed her eyes shut, covering them with her mitten-covered hands.
“C’mon Ro, open your eyes!” Sled called out as Rosetta slowly uncovered her face and allowed the wind to flutter past her face. She looked around in awe “My! Now this is somethin’ you don’t see every day!”
“I know, isn’t it something?” Sled replied with a grin as Rosetta smiled, “It sure is sugar.”
“Now I know why you guys like to ride these owls, this is quite fun!” Rosetta said as she patted Glacier’s feathers.
"Do you guys not ride on birds in the Warm seasons?"
"No we don't, but we do have dragonfly water skiing! Maybe we'll do that next time you show up sugar!" Rosetta said as Sled laughed. Rosetta complimented Glacier and Glacier hooted and ruffling his feathers with in pride as he swopped down towards a deeper part of the Woods.
“Glacier says thanks, he’s a new arrival and was very eager to fly us across.” said Sled they flew towards the highest peak of the Winter Woods and they could see all of Pixie Hollow from here.
“Oh now really? Well you’re doin’ great sugarplum, thanks for takin’ us!” Rosetta said with a giggle as they hovered near the highest point and Sled nudged Rosetta in the shoulder, “Look,” he said as Rosetta turned her head and gasped.
“Oh my pixie dust! This is breathtakin’! I’ve never seen Pixie Hollow like this!”
“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Sled said softly as he gazed at Rosetta.
Rosetta turned her head towards him, “It sure is sugar,” she said as she leaned in to kiss him.
Even better than a rose in winter.
And when they broke apart they laughed, both of their faces were as red as rose-petals. Glacier hooted happily.

Chapter Text

At this point it’s quite fair to say that he and Rosetta are a ‘thing’ as her friends like to call it. They continue to see each other as often as they can, sometimes he feels that Lord Milori and the Ministers give them less work some days just so they can be together.
Of course if he saw Queen Clarion and Lord Milori flying on owlback at night, he could say that he saw nothing.
But he’s truly grown to love Rosetta for her sass, the spunk in her personality and he never gets tired of crossing the border with the automatic snowmaker that Tinker Bell has tested out and improved.
So he crosses again and they go to her home in the Spring Valley into Buttercup Canyon, where Rosetta lived.
There he says hello to the Garden fairies and sparrowmen they encounter as he looks around in awe. The flowers here are forever in bloom, their colors clashing well. Its such a contrast from the eternal snowy white in the Winter Woods, but it captivates him nonetheless.
They sit outside her home sipping on coconuts, as Sled gets a flower necklace and crown placed on his head as courtesy of the Garden fairies. One of them, named Chloe stopped by to chat with them, and Sled noticed that she wore a ring with two crossed roses on her right index finger.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what is the ring on your finger for?” Sled asked as Chloe’s dirt-stricken face lights up in joy.
“This?” she asks excitedly, gesturing to the ring, “You really should wear it more often Ro!” she said to Rosetta and her face was struck in realization as her hands went atop her head in shock, “Ro have you not told him that we won the Pixie Hollow games last year?!” Chloe asks in shock as Rosetta sighed in exasperation.
“Wait, you won the Pixie Hollow games?” Sled asked excitedly, he’d heard of the games and had always been disappointed that winter fairies could never participate due to the border-crossing rule.
Rosetta offers Chloe a seat and looks over at Sled, “Well sit tight Sled my love, and lets hope we have enough snow for your wings when we finish the story….”
She and Chloe tell him about last year’s Pixie Hollow games and her story of how they won them,
“And that’s how you got rid of your fear of dirt?! Quite ironic, isn’t it?” he adds with a slight smirk as Rosetta and Chloe finished telling what happened after the second event and Rosetta explained her plan for the next day’s event. Rosetta tapped his shoulder teasingly “Oh hush! Now you quotin’ me sugar?”
Sled laughed, “maybe now with the border being open Winter fairies can join, I have some ideas for future events.”
“Now that would be something to watch.” said Rosetta in agreement.
“Maybe we’ll win and break your streak next year.” he said deviously as he rubbed his hands together flashing her a competitive grin.
“Oh game on!” Rosetta said with a laugh as she play shoved him and he laughs along her as well.
“Besides it was just a one year thing—” she began as she thought about it.
“One year?!— C’mon Ro! We gotta continue for at least four more years! We gotta match up to the Storm fairies!” exclaimed Chloe as Rosetta slapped her hand on her forehead.
Sled laughed, “Hey, maybe you can beat the Storm fairies streak, besides you broke both theirs and yours!”
Rosetta shruggs and looks at Chloe placing her hand in a fist, “Whaddaya say Chloe, me and you again next year?”
“Oh absolutely! We still have to tell you about Mudslide mountain!” Chloe said to Sled as they continued their story of the Pixie Hollow Games.

Chapter Text

He doesn’t know that she came to visit him until he’s flying outside at Periwinkle’s insistence, apparently an animal got stuck in the ice river by the border.
And then he crosses paths with her.
She’d forgone her winter headband and bag. Instead she’s wearing her autumn clothing, the season has been looming ever closer, prompting them to spend less time together, soon after Autumn he would have to start getting ready for Winter, but that wasn’t important right now.
Now that she’s here.
They circle each other like it’s the first time they’ve seen each other in months, which it had been. He drinks her in, the golden shimmer of her wings and how they illuminate her auburn hair, giving it a red shine. Her green eyes which seem to shine even brighter, like the green leaves of her beloved flowers. Like the stems and grasses that she grows. She looks at him under half hooded eyes, and he feels his mouth go agape, just slightly.
She’s so beautiful and he feels like the luckiest sparrowman in all of Neverland to have her by his side.
The most gorgeous rose in Winter.

Chapter Text

It’s the first time in the Seasons festival that Winter Fairies are allowed to come. He’s quite excited especially now that every Winter fairy is going to show up to the festival.
But he’s more excited to see Rosetta again, especially after he just finished coming back from the Mainland.
He endures Gliss, Periwinkle, Spike and Slush’s endless teasing of his relationship with Rosetta.
“I think it’s cute! It’s like Lord Milori’s and Queen Clarion’s!” Gliss says excitedly.
“Do you think we’ll get a full tour of the warm seasons?” says Slush as they make it to the stadium at the base of the Pixie Dust tree.
“Maybe, it’ll be nice to look around again,” said Periwinkle as she, Gliss and Spike say their goodbyes. Winter would be the first to perform so he and Slush headed to the stands.
He sat by Dewey and cheered excitedly for his friends’ performance. He manages to catch a glimpse of Rosetta from the far end of the stadium, apparently she and her friends had a special performance at the end and he was quite excited to see it.
Unfortunately, the performance would have to wait.
They get little warning and by the time it’s too late when the poppies’ pollen bursts across the stadium, encasing it in a cloud of pink dust.
He feels his eyes droop and remembers what Rosetta had said about poppies and their pollen long ago.
As fatigue overcomes him, he hopes that she is safe and to see her in his dreams until the pollen wears off.

He wakes up to an anchor falling near the stadium and he nearly does a double take seeing Rosetta and her friends wave off from what he’s quite sure was a pirate ship.
He’d heard about pirates in the books Dewey wrote and fairy chatter along the way but he hadn’t thought one would ever make its way to Pixie Hollow.
But he’s glad Rosetta is safe, and he has a suspicion that the adventure she went on had quite a story to it.
He cheers along with the rest, pointing out the ship to Dewey as he hears Gliss exclaim about the show being ‘the best one yet’.
He doubts any of it was ever really planned.
He sees Queen Clarion fly to meet her fairies as Zarina, the fairy who’d disappeared about a year ago (Rosetta had cried when their searches for her ended up in failure), was reintroduced to the Queen.
He watches the interaction with a faint smile on his face, at least Rosetta got her friend back. The chatter about the ship and the show doesn’t end.

Unfortunately the ice block from the Snowmaker was running out so he and Slush had to go back to Winter to get another one and once they made it back, they placed it onto the Snowmaker and the show had begun.
He claps during the other seasons performances and he feels the excitement go up a tenfold for the final performance.
It is absolutely beautiful.
The way Zarina’s pixie dust talent flows easily with the showcase of the Warm season’s talents. It almost feels like it was always part of the show to begin with.
As Tinkerbell does a backflip, coated in green pixie dust, she slowly begins to uncover the music box in the center.
Rosetta goes first as a shimmer of pink pixie dust thrown by Zarina covers her and she hovers over the music box to sprinkle some of her magic as a stream of flowers emerge from the music box.
And Rosetta hovers between the arch of white lilies that tower over the rest of the flower bouquet display, posed with a hand on her waist and another stretched above her in true showfairy fashion.
Sled stands up and claps happily, it looks mesmerizing.
The whole performance was incredible really. After Rosetta, Fawn goes up, leading a group of monarch butterflies behind her as they fly in a circle around Rosetta’s display. Silvermist goes right after creating a stream of water that she forms into a crown-like display that goes atop the flowers. Then Iridessa goes next and with a set of mirrors and a diamond Tinkerbell placed around the box, a shimmering light display that caused it to fracture into several dots illuminates the stadium and the crowd goes even more wild.
Once Vidia shows up and rotates the box with her winds, the display is absolutely bright, with the teamwork of the warm season’s talents showcased in full view.
And after the fairies take a bow, he immediately flies towards Rosetta and takes her hand.
“You’re alright! What happened?” he asked as the crowd of fairies fly in and out, all eager to greet Zarina and the rest of the group and congratulate them for their stunning performance.
Rosetta sighs and shakes her head in a well mannered exhausted way.
“So much, but first I need to take a milkweed bath love.” she says as she fans herself and they both laugh.
“And then you’ll tell me about what happened? All of this looks like you had quite an adventure Ro,” Sled says as he kissed Rosetta’s cheek.
Rosetta’s cheeks flush pink and she bats her eyes, and waves her hand in a casual manner.
“Oh dear, you have no idea,” Rosetta says as Sled leans down and kisses her, “let’s meet up at the border after this, and we’ll talk, I need a looong break for now.”
Sled hummed in agreement, “Indeed.”

Chapter Text

After Ro’s whole pirate adventure it seems that things relax slightly in Pixie Hollow, but of course knowing Ro’s friend, Tinkerbell, he knew this would just be the calm before the storm.

And he was right, when Fawn discovers the Neverbeast and Pixie Hollow and all of Neverland is nearly destroyed he feels his heart sink.

Most winter fairies had gone off to the Mainland for the season's change, but some of them stayed behind like him to keep each other and the animals safe. Sled had gone back to the site where the Beast had knocked out Tinkerbell, he sees Rosetta there, crying.

Sled quickly flies towards her, holding her form.

“Fawn loves animals but she just—ugh! And now Tink! It shouldn’t come as a surprise but—” Rosetta buries her head onto his shoulder and he holds her tight.

“We’ll get through it, we always do.”

“And what if we don’t?” asks Rosetta and he stares into her green eyes, like the leaves that grew off the stems of her beloved flowers.

Sled gulped. 

“Then lets hope there’s a nice afterlife for fairies no?” he says, cracking a lopsided smile, but he feels tears well up in his eyes and slide down his cheeks, warm for just a moment until the temperature crystalizes them, Rosetta places a gloved hand onto his cheek and he leans onto the touch, slowly removing her glove and placing both hands in hers. He feels Rosetta shiver as he closes his eyes and kisses each of her fingers, slowly, tenderly.

He has never felt such coldness from her.

She was a warm fairy, blood pulsing and emitting warmth and here he was in his frigid coldness warming her up.

He opens his eyes and sees her cheeks stained red, he loves it when her cheeks color up like that, bringing another sense of life amongst the stark white.

He’d always loved winter, the way wonders were made in the same color but different forms, but with Rosetta? She brought more life and color to his world than what he ever imagined, bursting in a warm, unforgettable red.

Rosetta kisses him, its a desperate kiss, a warm kiss, a kiss of grief and uncertainty and he leans into it, allows himself to feel her emotions because he’s felt them too, when Peri’s wings nearly got broken, the look Lord Milori had given him, Gliss, Spike and Slush had been apart of the plan. Sled had sunken into himself that day, cheeks red with shame, he pleaded for Lord Milori to be kind, tried to blame himself for the plan but the actions had been done.

Reckless miracles saved them from what happened next.

They break apart and hold each other for what feels like an eternity, cheeks flushed and Sled feels warmth inside him.

He welcomes it in the form of her twinkling eyes, shining like frosted leaves in a frigid morning and in her cheeky smile and warm hand on his reddened cheek.

And then the moment is shattered when Rosetta has to leave to check in on her friends. He can't blame, her he knows their importance in her life. They fly to the border and she’s about to take off until he grabs her hand.

“Please… take care.” he says and almost despises the way his voice cracks, he knows she will be safe, she has to, or else he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if she wasn’t. Yet fear gnaws at him, its claws hovering over his shoulders, looming over his shadow, sometimes making him wake up in literal cold sweat thinking what would happen if it all went wrong?

But he loves Rosetta all the more for it.

Because she cares .

And so does he.

Ro gives him a small smile and nods, and for a moment he thinks they’re about to again, he feels the slight stumble in their movement as they both gravitate towards each other like light and snow but if they kiss he knows they’ll never part.

Both of them realize it so they let go.

Rosetta kisses his hand before she does.

“I’ll be safe sugar, trust me.” she says in a playful tone and Sled cracks a smile, he hopes that she doesn’t see the desperate hurt in his eyes.

“I know. I trust you.” he says and she flutters off to Autumn and Sled desperately wishes he would’ve told her.

I love you .

The words hang in the frostbitten wind.

Sled frantically flies around, seeing the sky begin to turn into a murky green as rays of lightning began raining down on them. He saw how it struck the snow holes of charred ice, flaming and smoking as it traveled up the frigid air.

He gently guides the remaining animals towards the igloos and more sound ice structures avoiding the lightning strikes, most of his friends were still in the Mainland, but Peri had come back after news of Tinkerbell’s injury, he looks up and sees the Neverbeast in all its glory flying above them, horns ablaze, bat like wings soaring and markings on its fur ablaze.

Then he sees it go inside the eye of the storm and for a moment, all goes quiet. 

The wave of impact is felt all across Neverland as Sled shielded his eyes, feeling a hot and cold breeze pass him, and when he opened his eyes he saw the night sky and its stars twinkling as if nothing had ever happened.

He checks in on his friends and joins Periwinkle to the border, after all he helped Fawn get Tinkerbell back to their side after she was injured, Peri had cried and had been reassured everything would be alright.

They cross the border with the help of a snowmaker, and make their way to a clearing where masses of fairies are huddled over the Neverbeast and someone else.

Fawn.

He and Peri exchanged worrisome looks as they fluttered by amongst the crowd, the snowmaker trailing behind them, courtesy of a Tinker fairy.

Then there’s cries of joy and Sled sees Rosetta with tears in her eyes as she looks up and sees him. Her face brightens as she almost barrels into him, and he grabs her waist, spinning her around.

And he kisses her, they’ve done it before but this one, just like last time is different, its relief, a joy that they’re alive, a joy that they didn’t have to find out if a fairy afterlife existed. There is no need to tell each other 'i love you' to believe it.

Sled fusses over her, checking her face, her arms, any visible patch of skin.

“Are you alright?”

Rosetta smiles, her eyes are still bloodshot from tears.

“For now yeah sugar.” she says softly, as he cradles her face in his hands and kisses her again, its tender, long and warm, comforting.

He presses his forehead against hers and lets himself bask in her warmth once more.