And the adventure, whose ending is only known to me, has begun ^_^
Pairing: N/A (Gen)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Adventure
Rating: K+ (depressing themes, no smut/direct cursing)
Word Count: 4,239
Chapter 1 - Questions
''Anyway, it doesn't matter how much, how often, or how closely you keep an eye on things because you can't control it. Sometimes things and people just go. Just like that.''
''North?''
The Santa Clause mumbled something beneath his breath, not taking his eyes off his newest invention, which he was making as carefully as he would handle brittle glass. The ice in front of him, in fact, might as well be glass, and the delicate shape resembed a fruit cake. Next to it, its brothers and sisters sat, gently placed on a silver plate, each a different size and with tiny jewels differing in color. The fruit cakes looked as if they were sprinkled with the jewels, glinting in the white shine coming from the window of his office.
The Russian tapped his foot against the chair he was sitting on and addressed the frost spirit. ''Yes, Jack?''
North continued to softly hit the rough patch of ice into shape, the sound small and not unlike the sound wind chimes made in a slight breeze. The frost spirit at first didn't answer, but after North quirked an eyebrow, his eyes never leaving his invention, Jack spoke. ''How did you come to be?''
North startled so badly that his hammer went berserk beneath his hand and went into a different direction, cutting off one raised corner of the ice fruit cake. The Guardian of Wonder frowned at his mistake, shaking his head at his jumpiness. After a moment, he took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, gazing at Jack, whose eyes were slightly wider in surprise. The Guardian of Wonder kept his hands at his desk, then smiled.
''Why do you ask, Jack?'' he camly questioned, without a hint of mocking in his voice.
''Oh, it's just-'' Jack started, but then stopped.
Why did he ask in the first place? Now that he thought about it, Jack had asked the question without thinking. He just thought it another common question to ask any spirit, really, but why now? Why did he want to know where North had come from? Was it maybe... Was it maybe perhaps that he wanted to know how North had died? Or Tooth or Bunny, or even Sandy? But if North told him his story, he would ask the winter spirit his own.
And Jack wasn't ready to tell him how he had died.
''Oh, nothing, nevermind,'' Jack said, an easy chuckle escaping him, his turmoil forgotten in the split second, ''What are you making there?''
North narrowed his eyes, and was about to speak out again, when there was a loud, crashing noise just outside his office.
''Chto teper'!?'' North loudly exclaimed in Russian and got out of his chair. He carefully manevoured around his desk, and walked past Jack. He briefly addressed him. ''Must be broken toys. I'll be right back, you don't break anything here.''
Before Jack could retort, North was already out of the room, and he could hear him yelling more in Russian outside, and the jingles of elves and grumbles of the Yeti. Left alone, the Guardian of Fun slumped and put his fists into his pockets, his staff in the safe confines between his side and elbow. But his contemplative demeanor changed at the sight of the empty room.
Jack smiled mischeviously, fun twinkling in his eyes; he never actually got to explore North's office. He had only seen it once, and back then, North was pointing a finger in his face and asking what his center was.
Careful not to lead trails of frost patterns, Jack hopped along the many shelves lining the wall, swiftly turning around and making a twirl, catching sight of the doused fire. Late June had showed itself as wonderfully warm, hot and moist to the point where the fires ceased to happen around Europe. And there were a lot of fires, while the humans scrambled in front of televisions and screamed on pictures of newspapers about 'Gobal Warming' and 'future generations'. Jack had tried to stop a few fires himself, but there was just so much a single spirit of winter could do.
Jack stopped walking, his thoughts halting to the sight of the candles in the walls. Checking them for no more than second or two, he turned toward the desk. But not before freezing over a few of them, making them fall to the floor and shatter. He grimaced at the mess. He wasn't intending it, but alas, the candles lay motionless and in dozens of pieces on the floor.
''No matter,'' Jack muttered, staring at the floor in disdain. He would clean it up later.
He turned back toward the desk.
Despite himself, he couldn't help but to run his fingers over the cherry tree, feeling the dents and bumps worn by time and constant use. How many inventions did cross over this very desk? How many times was this desk touched and by how many people?
Jack couldn't help himself but to imagine North having friends over, friends which would admire his work and widen their eyes at the sheer wonder filling North's home. But then again, North never mentioned any spirits, let alone friends that come over for a cup of warm cocoa. As a matter of fact, Jack hadn't seen a single spirit associate with Guardians in his short three years of Guardianship. Not even friends of Tooth, who, Jack assumed, everyone would like once they met her.
Jack halted to a stop in surprise, his hand freezing where it lay.
He turned his blue eyes to the desk, and stared at the specific spot his hand chose to run over. It looked like any normal patch of the desk, brown and new-looking, yet with ridges, signifying its old age. The entire desk was a darkish light brown color, just like the cherry tree, but this one spot - it was an appsolute light brown, as if someone kept smoothing their palm over the space for the course of many years.
Curious, Jack leaned on his palm, the other hand clutching his staff. The wood gave a high creak, and the frost spirit grimaced, immediately looking to the door to see if anyone had heard. But another loud bang from the other side of the door, like Coincidence was playing and wanted to inform Jack specifically that no one noticed, made Jack sure that North wasn't coming in a few more minutes.
Jack pressed the palm of his left hand into the surface harder; although it didn't creak again, it also didn't give away. Honestly, Jack didn't know what he was expecting to happen. For some secret door to be opened in front of him, where the fire place was? Or maybe the ceiling would open up in a secret escape path?
Nonetheless, moving his cold hand away and approaching the desk so that his hips touched the corner, he pressed both his hands into the small, circular spot, one of which was holding his staff.
And the spot moved.
Jack jumped back in surprise, almost tripping over his feet and hitting the windows behind him. He watched in mild apprehension and fascination as the spot went deeper into the desk, lowering and lowering. No sooner did it stop than the moving slate went to the right and revealed a secret space.
Jack could only stare, both hands now clutching the staff.
He noticed at that moment that his staff was... glowing?
The winter spirit kept his gaze on the staff, whose light blue light shone from beneath the gnarled wood, bounded and controlled. It soon stopped, but by that time, Jack had already approached the desk, albeit gingerly. He glanced once at his staff and back at the space, which Jack could now tell boasted a clutter of indistinguishable things. It was too dark to tell what it held.
Jack bit his lip, and glanced worriedly at the door. North could come in at any moment, and see him snooping around. What if he wasn't supposed to see whatever it was in the hidden space? What if North accused him of some heinous crime of stealing?
But then why did his staff help him open it then? The winter sprite was too curious for his own good.
It's just North, Jack thought, putting his hand into the space, It's not like I'm stealing anything. I'm just looking around. North would allow.
His fingers grazed against something smooth, and Jack pulled it out and dangled it in front of him.
It was a small picture, framed, and looked well-drawn. In the middle was a little girl Jack didn't know, with auburn hair and a lovely face. She was smiling and holding a book, opened and toward him. If Jack looked closer, he could see the two pages held two pictures, of which one represented... something dark, and the other held three people Jack could only assume were Tooth, Bunny and North. The little girl, Jack noted, had beautiful grey eyes.
He smiled, lowering the drawing on the space next to the hole, and fished around for something else.
He pulled out a piece of paper, and was startled to see the neatly written letter of sorts. He caught sight of the first words at the top.
Dear North,
But Jack couldn't, wouldn't read it. It was private and he was intruding already as it was because of his stupid curiosity. He put the paper, which felt older than him, yellowed and crinkled in many places, on top of the frame. None the less, his eyes unintentionally caught sight of the sender.
Ombric
He dug around, feeling metal and cold, giggling occasionally at how comic the scene would look to someone else, and at some point he thought he touched something slimy and gross. But right next to that, he felt his fingers twitch against a hard material. Contemplating for a moment whether he should take it out or not, he grasped it almost subconsciously and took it. It was going to be the last thing he touched in that secret place, lest North came back and saw him. And of course, he was going to admit snooping around a bit, he wasn't a liar.
His eyebrows lifted in confusion.
It was a... gauntlet? Short enough to only cover some of the elbow, it was purely made of gold, with a silver star in the middle. North star, Jack thought nonchalantly. It looked a bit childish, because of its small size which made it resemble a longer bracelet and not a gauntlet, but Jack felt something twitch inside of him when he looked at it. It was old, he could somehow tell. And he could also tell it hadn't been touched in a long, long time. There was a thick coat of dust over it, which Jack gently wiped away, revealing that the gold resembled dream sand in texture. Grainy and rough, but Jack imagined it wouldn't bother anyone if someone were to put it on.
There was a noise outside the door, and Jack almost dropped the gauntlet to the floor, were he not clutching it like a lifeline. He quickly shoved the frame and letter back inside the secret place, flinching a little when he heard the paper crinkle. He backed away, eying the door in unresonable fear. But the secret place didn't cover itself again.
Jack glanced to his staff just as soon as he heard boots clicking against the floor. He hit the dark hole in the desk, a bit too hard than he expected, and much to his relieved heart, the top of the desk moved out from its hiding, and raised itself.
No sooner did it click into place than North burst in through the office door.
''Silly elves,'' he mumbled, then stopped himself in the middle of the room. Jack didn't meet his gaze, because his horrified eyes were stuck on the gauntlet in his right hand.
He just took something from North. And North saw it.
Jack raised his sorry eyes to North, excuses and apologies at the tip of his tongue, mouth opening to portray them, but North was already talking.
''Jack, Jack,'' North chuckled out, stomping over to the broken candles, ''What do you have against my candles? You always break them, naughty child.''
Out of pure instict, and nothing more, Jack shoved the gauntlet into the pocket of his hoodie, heart hammering against his chest.
''Sorry, North,'' Jack said, unusually somber. North glanced up from his crouch next to the pink candles, his favorites, and chuckled again.
''Don't be so serious, Jack,'' North said, and got up, approaching the desk, ''All is fine.''
For one horrible, horrible moment, Jack thought North was going to put his hand on the same spot he had put, and simply know he had tinkered with it.
But the Russian merely pulled out his chair and sat on it, touching his completed ice fruitcakes and the one he had damaged.
''No sleeping tonight, I guess,'' he rumbled with a jolly chuckle, fingering his white beard and looking to Jack, who stood next to the candles and seemed to stare at the ice sculptures North had made. ''Es something wrong, Jack?''
Jack looked up with wide eyes, before he composed himself and plastered on a joking smile. ''Oh, nothing, nothing.'' He waved North off, another smile overleaping the first one. The Santa stared at Jack for a few moments more, eyebrows knitted in confusion, before he blinked and shook his head.
''Your question, Jack, da?'' he said, and leaned against his chair, hands folded over his belly and his eyes staring intently at Jack. Patiently, he waited.
Jack was caught completely unprepared, and stuttered, ''N-n-no. Some other time. I need to go... visit Jamie.'' Jack grinned widely, and then lowered his head as his expression bordered on funny and serious. ''I promised him.''
Although North slightly nodded, face features serious, before he said anything else on the subject, Jack was already opening the window, and the sound of rushing wind and biting cold drowned out North's statement, which got lost in thin air.
Cutting swiftly though air, Jack's expression was worriesome, so that even the Wind questioned him.
Jack gave no answer, and instead thought back, way back to where he had seen last seen such a gauntlet. Identical almost. His thoughts gave him no rest, and he wondered even further back to the statement that had plagued him ever since Tooth last said it.
We were all someone before we were chosen.
North, how did you die?
Before he went to Jamie, however, he somehow ended up at Tooth's Palace.
He didn't know exactly how, or more importantly why, but it felt right to visit her. Maybe it was because he found comfort in her motherly personality, or because that place was the place where he found out he was someone before he was Jack Frost, but he felt safe and secure under the myriad of colors and patterns. The buzzing of small fairies was a comfort of its own, and as Jack circulared the pillars, he heard Tooth's voice loud and clear.
''Sector P2, Colorado! That third house on left by Witcham Street! Bosnia and Herzegowina at Ilidža!''
Jack took a moment to listen to Tooth give out her orders, the sense of productivity reaching him. He stood on the pillar nearest to her, and watched her buzz to and fro, never stopping her frantic talk.
It took her full five minutes to notice him, and when she did, she squeaked indignantly. ''Jack!''
She flew down from her pink and golden pillar, coming up to Jack and leaving a few dazzled fairies behind. She smiled widely, but her face showed exhaustion and there were dark circles beneath her eyes. Although spirits didn't need to sleep, they too could get exhausted, and it was easily noticeable on Tooth's usually lively face.
''Tooth, you alright?'' Jack asked with a chuckle, but there was an undertone of concern to it as he twirled his staff in his left hand, his right one limp and at his side.
Tooth's grin fell away, and she gave him a small, but sincere smile. ''Could be better,'' she said, turning to gesture to her palace, to the constant buzz and noise of it. ''Only a week or two and things will be back just as they were before the war.''
Jack nodded, looking at the powerful scenery, colors bursting. He turned to her when she said, ''Even better than before.''
''Good. That's good,'' Jack said, and continued looking at his surroundings. Tooth noticed.
''Are you alright, Jack?'' she asked. Her wings beat consistently behind her as she clasped her hands at her front. Jack turned to look at her, a bit surprised. And then the eager question he wanted to ask nagged at him.
Of all Guardians, he had a feeling that perhaps Tooth would be the least prying of his own past. ''How did you came to be?''
The reaction was similar to North's, but unlike him Tooth didn't have a hammer with which she could make a mistake and show to Jack how startled she was. Nevertheless, Tooth's face went slack in surprise, and she lowered down to the ground next to Jack, her wings stopping their beat. Concerned, Jack was about to ask her if she was okay, but she spoke. Her surprise had disappeared, and instead of it, sorrow placed herself on her expression as she looked at anywhere but Jack.
''Just like any other new spirit, Jack. I was raised, from scratch, by an older spirit after being chosen,'' she said, and Jack noted the the small, sad voice she was using.
''This spirit...'' Jack started, ignoring the next nagging question of 'And what were you before you were chosen?' and the few more at her confusing statement. Tooth cut him off before he said anything else, shaking her head.
''Dead... Actually I don't know,'' she said, her voice no longer sad but normal, like she was saying facts. She shrugged and closed her eyes, ''I don't remember him much. Don't even know who he was.''
She seemed to return to her usual self, normal albeit Jack noted the hint of dullness in her eyes that was not from being tired.
''You don't remember anything of him?'' Jack asked, disbelieving. Tooth rose into air again, her wings making the only noise in their closeness. She seemed to ponder on the question, and then she answered.
''I still have the gauntlet he gave me. But I gave it to North, in exchange for Bunny's gift,'' she said and hurried away. Jack stood shocked for a moment, then moved to fly off after her, feet somewhat heavy and hard to move. Yet she was back before he so much as approached the end of the platform. In her small, petite hand, she held out a flowery ring.
It was just like any other ring, the light green emerald reflecting light and standing out from the much softer colors of small, diamond-like flowers that adorned the sides of the ring. But when Tooth offered Jack to hold it, and Jack took a closer look, he saw something in the emerald. He gingerly took it from Tooth and inspected it.
Every time he twisted the ring, looking at the emerald, he saw a different picture in it. First was of a small, grey bunny, childishly drawn. Then two of the Sentinel Eggs, and in the middle was a golden flower. Then a white bird, beneath which were a cluster of colorful eggs. And then a lake, on which floated a basket of trinkets resembling chocolate.
It seemed that no matter how many times he turned the ring and stared into the emerald, the pictures and images shown inside the tiny rock changed over and over. A countless amount of symbols and memories. A precious gift... from who?
''This was Bunny's?'' Jack asked, looking up at Tooth and shaking the ring a bit. Tooth nodded.
''After our caretaker died, we exchanged gifts that we had in memory of him. What was left, that is,'' she explained, smiling, ''North got my golden gauntlet. I got Bunny's ring. And Bunny got North's sword handle.''
Jack nodded, staring intently at the ring. He frowned. ''But how did he die?''
And Tooth's eyes glazed over with an unreadable emotion. She closed her eyes again, and sighed. ''He was killed.''
Jack's eyes widened in surprise, and he spoke without thinking. ''By who?''
Tooth opened her eyes and instead of hatred, her eyes held simple acceptance. ''Our greatest enemy, Jack.''
Pitch, Jack thought, and didn't say the name out loud, lest he wanted to break the acceptance in Tooth's eyes. He shoudn't be feeling so surprised, but the shock wouldn't leave his body as he stared at the bird woman. He expected a lot from Pitch, from scaring little children to bringing misfortune to adults, but all those things were almost childish, silly.
He never knew the Boogeyman could be capable of murder.
And as he gazed into Tooth's tired and dull eyes, the gauntlet safely hid in the pocket of his hoodie, it feeling like it was burning and warning him that he should return it to North, that it was too precious a memory for Jack to even consider touching it, he thought of the strange texture and the northern star in the middle. He had seen it before, he really did recall, if it was possible.
''Dwelling on the past is futile,'' Tooth said and shrugged again, ''You accept it and learn, and then you don't look back.''
''But what if you want to?'' Jack asked, holding the ring and looking at her in curiostiy. He didn't ask that question for her - he was wondering about himself.
''You can't,'' Tooth stated and snorted, ''All that live must die, passing through nature to eternity. Ever read William Shakespeare, Jack?''
Jack smiled and nodded, mouth thinning and his clutch on the ring increasing. ''If music be the food of love, play on.''
Tooth smiled back and held out a hand; Jack put the ring on the smooth palm and twirled his staff. Tooth's mouth quirked up at the corners, just the slightest and barely noticeable, like she was remembering a fond memory.
''Love is like a child, That longs for everything it can come by.''
It didn't take him long to find Jamie. He and his friends were chilling by the local pool, sitting at the edge and telling each other something. Well, his friends, excluding Cupcake and Pippa, who for some reason refused to come, despite the horribly hot weather.
''Hey, kiddo,'' Jack laughed out, but Jamie and his friends felt him much before they saw him; the cold gust of wind blew and some people stopped talking and a few stopped swimming to relish in the sudden cold breeze that swept over the place.
But the commotion started again, and cheers and laughs and squeals of children and the soft murmuring and gossiping of grownups started back up again. Jamie's mother was nearby, putting sunscream on herself, as it was her turn to take the children to the pool and watch over them.
''What are you doing here!?'' Caleb squeaked out, and Claude nudged him roughly, warning him that no one here could see Jack. No one wanted to get the reputation of 'that kid'.
''Oh, just came by,'' Jack said and smiled, perching himself on the corner of the pool, careful to look around if anyone was passing them. But his friends had picked a wonderful spot, where the pool was shallower, and thus less crowded. It didn't suit the four of them, secretly sans Monty who eyed the water in wariness. But Jamie's mother warned them not to go any further than the supposed 'kitty' pool.
''Any new adventures?'' Claude asked, and elbowed his younger brother with a cheeky smile.
Jack chuckled, then looked to Jamie. ''I don't know. I was hoping you tell me.''
Jamie cocked an eyebrow, confused, but still smiling. Though before he could question his immortal friend, Jack added, ''I'll see you guys later. Call me when you're done with the pool so I can show you what real fun looks like.''
With a playful wink and to the sound of children's laugh, Jack caught a wind current and rode it all the way to his lake. There, when he landed and stood still, he contemplated the golden gauntlet.
He could swear, long before he met the Guardians, long before he came into any sort of contact with any other spirit - he saw the Boogeyman.
And the Boogeyman was wearing this gauntlet.