Title: I'll Always Believe

Series: Rise of the Guardians (Movie)

Pairing: Jack Frost & Jamie Bennett

Rating: K+

Genre: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort

Warning: Slight Shounen-Ai (BoyxBoy; if you squint so hard)

Disclaimer: Rise of the Guardians and its characters belong to their respective owners. This a work of fiction by a fan for fans, I own nothing but the plot.

Summary: Jack sees Jamie asleep with no sand over his head and thinks that Jamie no longer believes in them only to see Jamie being bullied for believing in him.

Jack Frost swept past the streets leaving a trail of ice and chills in his wake. He hadn't planned on snowing Burgess just yet but Jamie, his best friend and the first child to see him, to believe in him, had told him that he couldn't play out tonight. Of course, Jack was a bit put off but he knew the kid had a life (he forced himself to understand) and left Jamie alone. With nothing else to do, his night was completely free, he decided may be then Jamie would hang out with him during a snow day.

Above him, by the clouds, he noticed the all too familiar golden glow of his fellow guardian, the Sandman. The ribbons of sand entered into the houses and bedrooms of children and Jack watched with a smile, knowing that the children would have a peaceful night's rest with Sandy's guidance.

The smile soon disappeared when he doesn't see the ribbon of sand on a house just near the Bennett's. Jack knew that one of Jamie's friends lived there and fearing that something may have happened to the poor kid, the winter sprite went to the bedroom window to check. He expected to see the child wide awake under the covers, secretly playing toys or reading books but what Jack saw made his lips fall to a frown. There, the child slept soundly but with no sand above his head with Sandy's beautiful dreams.

The child had stopped believing.

Jack knew that there always would come a time when a human would stop believing, it was what the guardians called the end of childhood. It was an inevitable occurrence that the rest of guardians had become accustomed to and no longer made a big deal out of it. But for Jack who had just been recently believed in, he felt pain and fear. The past four years had been wonderful for him. Children could see him, he could touch them and they would cheer him on or ask for a snow day from him. He felt alive again.

Jack shook his head and flew away from the frosted window as he remembered how lonely it felt the past three-hundred years where all he could do was watch humans, play tricks on them and they brushed his name off as an expression. It was a sad, horrible feeling he didn't want to experience again. If it wasn't for Jamie, he would have still been invisible and not believed in. It was all thanks to Jamie who spoke his name that one night, it was all because of Jamie that people believed in Jack. Jamie became his playmate, his best friend, his believer—he owed everything to the kid.

The winter sprite let out a sigh of breath as he assured himself that Jamie would never stop believing in him, he wouldn't forget him. Jamie was different, he wouldn't be like everyone else who forgot and stopped believing. Jamie would always, always believe.

Jack resumed his patrol with a lighter heart as he decided to check up on Jamie again. The boy had said he was busy, Jack assumed it would be homework because that was the only thing that kept Jamie from having fun—sometimes. As Jack neared Jamie's bedroom window, he realized there were no streaks of sand going into the room, only to Sophie's room. But he gave not much thought into it, knowing that Jamie might still be up cramming on his homework. With a chuckle, Jack sped up towards the window with the intention to surprise his best friend and drag him out for a short game of tag in the snow.

But when he arrived by Jamie's window, Jack saw the young teenager's head resting on the table and his eyes closed from boredom and exhaustion over a simple math homework. As innocent and adorable the scene was, it was horrifying to Jack. Jamie, dear precious Jamie, was asleep with none of Sandy's sand dancing above his head. To Jack, to all the guardians, it only meant one thing: Jamie, the last boy to have believed in them in that battle against Pitch, had forgotten about them.

"No. No. No!" Jack choked, suddenly feeling weak and desperate, as if he couldn't breathe. His mind took him back to that day three centuries ago, when he was engulfed in cold needles that pricked at him everywhere and took away his mortal life. "Jamie…"

He quickly got himself out of there. His mind telling him that it wasn't true, he got the wrong house, it was the wrong kid, it was a joke—a bad one that he'd later have snowmen chase after Jamie so the boy would know just how bad it was.

He landed on a patch of snow just near the lake where Jamie had promised him four years ago that he would always believe. A choked sob came from him and crystal tears crawled down his pale cheek as reality sunk into him. He lost his playmate, he lost his best friend, Jamie no longer believed in them, in him.

Jamie Bennett could not focus on his math homework, it was confusing and you would never need it in the real world. Jack had come by earlier to drag him off for fun in the snow but the poor teenager had no choice but to decline, tests were coming in and he needed to pass them so his Mom wouldn't ground him for the Christmas break. She already knew about his nightly sneaking out to play in the snow or by the lake and she was understanding enough to let him be under the condition that he showed good results in school. But even in knowing that, Jamie couldn't help but think of anything but his homework.

He glanced out his window and saw the golden streaks of sand that came from the skies. Jamie loved watching the Sandman in action, it both relaxed and excited him—which was quite a strange combination. But he had to tear away his gaze from the beautiful spectacle outside because it made him remember of sleep and he couldn't sleep just yet, he had one more page of math to go.

"Why must you be so confusing?" Jamie groaned and repeatedly slammed his head on the desk as if it would help him gain some knowledge on the mysteries of mathematics. It was then that he felt the sudden, but not dramatic, drop of temperature. His heart hammered on his chest in excitement, it was Jack bringing snow to Burgess. Jamie smiled, thinking that he was the reason why Jack brought snow earlier, because he told Jack to go on rounds because he was busy. The young teen liked to believe that Jack would go out of his way to make a snow day just so they could spend more time together but Jamie sighed and muttered to himself as he rested his head on the desk, his eyes half-closed, "As if that'd ever happen."

Slowly, his eyes closed as he felt the comforting cold around him. He wasn't wearing thick clothes that night and he was sure he would start shivering soon if he didn't, but he stubbornly wanted to feel the cold and imagined the both of them skating on the frozen pond under the glow of Manny the Moon.

He let himself get lost in his conscious fantasies but not enough that he would fall asleep. Yet he was very close to falling into slumber when he heard a familiar voice whisper his name.

"Jamie…"

His brown eyes snapped open and he immediately looked around his room and outside the window but there was nothing, there was no Jack Frost flying over the roofs or walking on the electrical wires, it was just good old Sandy bringing dreams to other children.

"Ho-kay, James Bennett, you really need to finish your homework now." He told himself in mock self-motivation and went back to his desk to continue where he had left off. He had gotten too distracted with Sandy's tempting offer of sleep and dreams that he was hearing things, he shook his head. "Well, it ain't working, Sandman. I will finish this dumb thing even if it's the last thing I do!"

When Jamie woke up the next morning, he expected a lot of snow and his mother coming up to tell him that classes were cancelled but his mother entered his room and told him to get ready for school.

"What? No snow day?" Jamie asked before he could stop himself.

"Sorry, Jamie, not today." His mother laughed, "Jack Frost behaved himself this year."

Jamie's face fell at that statement and silently screamed that Jack didn't have behave in his vocabulary. He let out a frustrated growl before going on with his usual morning routine of getting prepared for school. By the time he got down for breakfast, his school back over one shoulder, Sophie was already half-way through her breakfast of eggs and bacon. When he sat down on his usual seat, his mother laid his breakfast plate before him—it was a couple of sunny side-up eggs and bacon strips that formed a smiley face.

Jamie sighed at the irony before eating his breakfast at a slow pace. He didn't even have time to finish it when a snowball had landed on their front door followed by calls and cheers from his friends.

"Gotta go." Jamie said with bacon strips between his teeth as he grabbed his bag and ran out the door to join his friends.

"Man, I thought it was gonna be a snow day." He heard one of his friends say with a frown, "But look at us now, marching towards our death—first period math!"

Jamie laughed in agreement as did some of his friends, "Tell me about it! Oh yeah, I almost forgot, did you guys do your math homework?"

"We had homework?!" One of the guys gasped and kicked the snow, "Oh, crap this! Why couldn't it be a snow day?! I knew I heard him last night!"

"Him who?"

"Frost, man… I heard him laughing! That usually results in a snow day!"

"Frost?"

"Yeah, Jack Frost."

"Dude, what are you? A kid? Get real, he's just a fairy tale. There's no way he exists!"

"But we played with him last winter!"

"Yeah, right… That was just some guy trying to humor us kids. He ain't real, get a clue, guys."

"He is real!" Jamie snapped as he turned to glare at the other teen. The emotion poured out of him before he could stop himself and he realized a bit late that he was built smaller than the other, should a fight ensue, Jamie already knew he—

"Ow!"

"Hey, cool it, man!"

"Pick on someone your own size—"

"Cupcake! Don't!"

"Jamie, are you ok?!"

Jamie groaned as he tried to get back on his feet, the feeling was somewhat similar to that time when he was hit by that sofa years ago when he lost one of his front teeth but the only differences were that he couldn't afford to lose any permanent teeth or else Toothiana would be rightly pissed and that he was sporting a black eye instead of being toothless.

"I'm okay." Jamie managed to groan out as was helped to steady on his feet, a hand over his stinging eye. What he would do for a good handful of ice right now to put on his eye…or a snowball to throw at the bully— he didn't really know, he wasn't much of a fighter. In fact, he never got into fights of any sort except the verbal kind…and snowball fights but that was for fun.

"Still believe in Frosty?" The bully mocked, unaffected by Cupcake's fists.

The pain was suddenly washed away and replaced with that burning sort of anger he felt only moments earlier. His eye was tearing in pain and was probably starting to swell but Jamie didn't care nor did he even notice the pain when he shot another glare at the bully.

"It's Jack Frost and I believe in him!"

Jack had left Burgess in a hurry early that day before Manny even retired for the day to go shed his moonlight on another part of the world. The winter spirit wanted to stay away from Burgess, it would hurt too much to watch Jamie when he no longer believed in the guardians.

He tried to recall the fun times he had spent with Jamie as he passed by a group of older teenagers gossiping and sipping their slurpies. A sigh escaped his lips as the teenagers walked passed him, causing their slurpies to freeze solid but Jack couldn't even find it funny. Someday, he was going to bump into Jamie and the human would just walk past him as if the bond they shared was all a dream.

"Don't judge me! Frosty the Snowman is real, you asses!"

Jack's frown even worsened when he heard the bespectacled teenager vehemently insist to her friends that Frosty was real.

"It's Jack Frost!" He snapped, releasing his frustrations at the teen who couldn't even hear nor see him. "And I made Frosty the Snowman!"

Of course it was useless, the teenagers had just shifted to a new topic—vampires and werewolves. Jack rolled his icy blue eyes when a devilish idea came to him. A half-felt smirk made its way to his lips as he tapped the tip of his staff on the cemented sidewalk. Too soon later the group of teenagers gasped in chorus as they slid over the ice, dropping their frozen drinks on the ice and on each other.

"Can Frosty do that?" He grunted, crossing his arms over his chest, forcing himself to feel satisfied over what he did but it was difficult. He knew making those teens slide over ice or freezing their drinks wouldn't make them suddenly believe in—

Jack's entire body froze, almost literally because ice formed around his feet pinning him to the ground. He could faintly hear it, hear Jamie's sweetly awkward pubescent voice saying that he was real. A sudden warmth filled his chest and may be it was just his imagination, but he felt his heart pump in excitement (he wasn't entirely sure if he had a heart or if it still functioned). It felt as if a surge of power danced in his skin, it reminded him of the cold needles that pricked on his skin but only this was warm, it was needles of hope, care and trust.

A wide grin broke on his face as he clutched his staff tightly and threw his head back to shout out to the skies with laughter laced with his deep voice, "Wind, take me home!"

His laugh echoed in the cold wind as he was sent propelling to the skies where he felt the sun's rays caress his cheeks and hair. It was warm but nothing compared to Jamie's warmth, Jack thought happily before he was falling back down to the earth, towards home—to Burgess and Jamie.

"Jamie, you bad, bad, bad prankster." Jack laughed, feeling the chilly air lick at him as he came nearer to the ground. With excited eyes, he could faintly see Jamie chatting with his friends. He was too excited to see the kid again that he failed to see the slight swelling of his eye or even notice that the air around the group of kids were high.

"Still believe in Frosty?"

Jack had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, why was his snowman getting more recognition than he was?! All the other snowmen were getting jealous, too! All the children called them "Frosty" and the other snowmen didn't like being mistaken for their fellow snowman. But Jack didn't quite understood the concept of it, they was just a moving snowman, heck they melted when the sun came up. If it weren't for him, the snowmen would all melt to puddles!

"It's Jack Frost and I believe in him!"

Before Jack could even respond to that statement, Jamie fell on his backside a couple of feet away from behind pushed roughly. The new hat his mother had gotten him that year had fallen on the small patch of snow just beside him. The other kid, the bully, laughed at Jamie's pathetic state, mocking him.

"You're such a baby!"

Jack didn't even think when he pushed himself to fly down faster. He swooped down, bringing cold wind with him and conjured a large portion of snow to fall on the bully just as Jamie got back on his feet with the help of his other friends.

When Jamie and the others felt the sudden drop of temperature and saw the blur of blue, white and brown they couldn't help but let out a scream of excitement. A couple of them even going so far as to jump as they cheered on for Jack Frost.

"What the—" The bully gasped as he wiped the snow off his face and shook his body to get rid of the ice but before he could fully recover a snowball had hit square on the face. "Ow! Who did that?!"

Jamie couldn't help the giggle that escaped his lips as he answered knowingly, "Jack Frost."

"Why, you little…" The bully threatened, grabbing a fist full of snow and quickly forming it into a ball.

Realizing what was going to happen, the other teens scrambled. Jamie ducked just as the offending ball of snow passed over his head. A grin formed on his lips, he wasn't the type of boy to win in fist fights or to intimidate others by his presence alone but he was the type of boy to win snowball fights, after all he usually went up against the spirit who created snowball fights on a nightly basis.

As he was about to grab a handful of snow to chuck at the larger teen, a bunch of perfectly formed snowballs already appeared on the ground before him. He laughed as he grabbed one for each hand and tossed them at the bully with precise aim before grabbing the next round of balls to throw but the bully had already gotten to his feet, running towards cover but Jack was faster. To Jamie, the bully ran at a snail's pace compared to Jack's speed, it was all too easy to aim and hit the larger teen even though he was running.

Jamie got to his feet, a couple of balls in his hands, as he chased after the bully. His other friends had joined in the fray, showering the bully with snowballs as he ran for cover behind a large tree.

"All right, you're really gonna it get this time, weirdos!" The bully threatened as he bent down to grab snow but there weren't any—how was it that there weren't any?! Before he could run towards where the snow was abundant, he was once again assaulted by snowballs and a couple particularly big ones that he had no doubt came from Cupcake.

Jamie and his friends laughed as they began to turn on each other, making the one-sided snowball fight into a full-on fight with no comrades and no enemies. Jamie reached down to grab another snowball but just before he could chuck it at someone, a snowball had hit him on the backside of his head forcing him to let go of the snowball he just got.

He heard the familiar rumble of deep laughter behind him and immediately perked up as he turned to look at Jack grinning at him. Jamie quickly grabbed a snowball and chucked it at Jack, who merely broke the ball with his staff before it could even hit him. The winter sprite cocked his dark brow at the mortal child, challenging him. Another ball was flung his way but he evaded it. Jack had a ball on his hand and flung it at Jamie, hitting the boy on the shoulder before Jack sped away and Jamie chased after him, throwing as much balls of snow he could.

Jamie laughed, calling after Jack as he chased the trickster and before he knew it, they were on the outskirts of town almost near the lake which Jamie dubbed as "Lake Jack". This was Jack's territory, Jamie knew he would most likely lose a serious game of snowball fight here but he didn't mind. If Jack lost to him, what would the other guardians say?

"Jack? Jaa—whoa!" Jamie gasped in surprise as Jack's face appeared in his line of vision, taking all of it, he was upside down and Jamie could see the mischief in those blue eyes.

Jack wanted to spook the kid, make him realize how much he went through because Jamie pulled a prank on him but he saw the faint swelling on Jamie's eye and the beginning of discoloration on the young boy's skin. The mischief that danced in his eyes were suddenly replaced with a mix of worry and anger as he flipped himself upright to take Jamie's face in his hands.

"Good God, Jamie, did that brat do this to you?" Jack asked almost frantically as he inspected the boy's face.

"Um, yeah… he kinda did." Jamie admitted almost a bit embarrassed but then he perked up as he said, "But thanks to you, I got back at him!"

"Kiddo, that wasn't getting back at him enough!" Jack frowned at the light tone Jamie used. He thought of many nasty things to do to the bully, after all the kid was fourteen or fifteen, Jack didn't need to be nice to him but the winter spirit filed the unfriendly thoughts to the back of his mind as he tended to Jamie first. "This needs ice."

Before Jamie could make a joke or a pun, Jack pressed a ball of snow over his bad eye and told him in an almost nagging tone, "Don't take it off, kid. If it's too cold, suck it in."

Jamie's good eye blinked at Jack before he giggled, "I'm used to the cold, Jack."

Jack didn't know if he should've been glad that Jamie was feeling better or be mad that Jamie was taking this too lightly. He was hurt and for what—wait, why was he hurt in the first place? Jack was silent, his brows coming together as he recalled the earlier events.

"Jack?" Jamie asked cautiously, Jack was being unnaturally silent and he'd rarely seen Jack make that sort of face. He was used to seeing a bright, mischievous grin on the spirit's pale features.

Jack ignored or didn't hear Jamie call him as he recalled what had happened, the memories slowly piecing itself together and finally, Jack understood. He felt even more frustration now that he did. He was the one at fault, wasn't he? Jamie only stood up for him because Jamie believed in him. It tore at his heart, he wanted Jamie to keep believing him but if the boy did, Jack realized he would be ridiculed by his peers.

"Oh, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie…" Jack whispered, suddenly taking Jamie in his arms and embracing him tightly, forgetting that he was cold as ice, probably more. "You could've just let it go, kid."

"What?" Jamie asked, his voice sort of muffled by Jack's hoodie.

"Kid, I'd get it if you tell others you don't believe in me." Jack told him softly, remembering how lost and alone he felt when he thought Jamie no longer believed in him. He realized at that moment that it felt better than to watch Jamie believe in him and get hurt. "I won't mind, it's part of growing up and—"

"I can't do that!" Jamie exclaimed as he looked up at Jack. "Nothing will stop me from believing! How can I? You're amazing and fun and-and…real! You're always there for me—like today! You saved me from that guy and last time, when I tripped over, you helped me, too! I don't care what others would think! Jack, you're my best friend…you're more than that! I just can't…"

Jack realized too late that he shouldn't have mentioned it, he made Jamie upset and that was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He pulled away and broke the embrace but Jamie still held on to him. Jack could feel the boy's body shiver and forced the small arms to let go of him but that only made Jamie's tears flow faster. Somewhat panicked, Jack bent slightly down and held Jamie's face softly with his hands, trying to control his temperature. He tilted the crying boy's face slightly and with his thumbs, wiped away the hot tears that cascaded down pink-tinted cheeks.

"Jamie, shhh… calm down. I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to upset you." Jack whispered almost desperately as if he couldn't bear to look at the boy's face etched with sadness.

"J-Jack…don't leave me." Jamie sobbed helplessly, there was nothing more upsetting than not having Jack Frost there. They had only known each other for four years but to Jamie, it felt like a lifetime. He was too used to his cold, his laughter, his jokes. He was too used to his presence, just having Jack there. It was cold but it wasn't lonesome. If Jack was gone, it would've been warm but it wouldn't be worthwhile.

"Of course not, kiddo." Jack assured him honestly, smiling crookedly as he attempted to joke. "I mean, look at all this snow—made it just for you."

Jamie sniffled and smiled, "B-But you didn't."

"The weather forecast's just a little late." Jack winked at him, "Come on, kiddo, you're going to melt all this snow crying."

"You'll just make more of them."

"Sure, I will. I'll make a lot and make it so cold your tears freeze before they come out."

Jamie laughed at that statement, his tears had ceased and were but a memory now. His big brown eyes looked at Jack's face, studying the pale boyish features, Jamie couldn't help but stare as his cheeks flushed darker—from what, he didn't know, probably the cold from being in physical contact with a living ice cube for this long.

"You'll always be there, right?"

"Yeah, I will, Jamie. Even if you won't want me there anymore."

"And I'll believe in you. Even if you won't want me to anymore."

Both boys laughed, agreeing to their verbal contract as snow fell upon them softly.

Winters always came early in Burgess and even at times, it came when it wasn't in season. More often than not, there were times when summer was actually chilly and snow days were a frequent occurrence during the winter. But it was Jamie's bedroom window that was usually frosted all year round.

The End

Author's Note: That was kinda lame, I think. This was supposed to be more on the angsty, psychotic!Jack and several levels of ratings above buuut I suppose this works, too. (I had a sudden change of heart while writing this so…Lol!) This is my first Rise of the Guardians fanfiction and I may have annoyed my housemate/landlady/best friend for fangirling hard over JackxJamie the past couple of days. xD

These two are my new OTP and man, the feels for this ship. Beautiful. (Sorry, just had to let that out) Anyway, you can take this as romantic JackxJamie or platonic JackxJamie, whichever. I like this ship in all forms. OuO