[I wrote this in school, during boring classes like Geography and Science. Well, our classes are boring.]
It was exactly three months since they had defeated the Boogeyman. Three months, two days and five hours since Jack had been tossed into a sack, through a magic portal and been offered the position of Guardian by a bunch of strangers who had mostly ignored him for three hundred years. Compared to the time he had spent alone, three months plus wasn't too long.
All five Guardians were gathered in the Globe room, each holding a mug of eggnog ranging at different temperatures, e.g. one frozen into little ice cubes, one cold, one steaming hot, one warm, and one mug completely empty.
Tooth, for once, did not have a little tooth fairy by her side. She was flitting around, chirping excitedly about things that no one else could understand, and squealing about teeth.
Bunny had his ears frozen and one furry paw was covered in frozen eggnog (yes, Jack had dumped Bunny's eggnog on his foot and froze it before he could so much as blink). He was trying to crack it off without pulled out his fur, which a certain winter spirit thought was hysterical.
Sandy was fighting off an elf who was dead-set on getting Sandy's eggnog, until the poor Sandy eventually put the determined elf to sleep. But as soon as he did that, another elf would leap on him, tiny arms reaching out towards Sandy's mug.
Jack was balanced on his staff, a feat the other Guardians found extremely cool – even Bunny, who refused to admit it, saying that it was just a silly magic trick. That's when the eggnog was knocked over and ears frozen – and was eating the miniature cubes of eggnog, since he insisted that he couldn't possibly drink hot eggnog, and that it was a lot better frozen.
North set down his empty mug of eggnog with a loud clang, drawing everyone's attention. With a flourish, he pulled out a pair of shoes – blue ones, with little bells on the pointy edges and snowflakes embroidered on the blue fabric of the shoe.
"'member ze shoes?" North shook them in front of Jack's face, making the little bells jingle. Jack leaned backwards from the tinkling bells, still balancing on his staff. "You wear, Jack?"
"Uh, no." Jack flipped off his staff and caught the piece of wood the second it teetered backwards. "I didn't wear them the first time, and I am not wearing them now."
"Ah, but we on different terms now, da? I do not want your feet to get hurt!"
"Yeah, Snowflake," Bunny glared at Jack, holding on pointedly to a frozen ear. "We don't ya ta get hurt, right, Tooth? Sandy?"
Sandy nodded enthusiastically, causing an elf to fall into his eggnog.
"Come on, Jack!" Tooth fluttered overhead, hands picking at her multicolored feathers. "You put those shoes on and wear them for…a week, and Bunny will wear shoes too!"
Bunny visibly paled. "Now, Sheila. You let Jack go on ahead. My feet'll be okay."
"Now, now," Jack teased. "Why don't you put on – hey!" The immortal(ly annoying) teen was lifted into the air with one hand by the large, Russian Santa. "North! Put me down!" His eyes widened as he spotted Sandy, holding the shoes up to Jack's feet with a mischievous grin. "No! Sandy! You've gone over to the dark side!"
North roared with laughter at the struggling teen and even Bunny snorted at Jack's antics. Tooth giggled from behind her hand, and Sandy – well, he just grinned.
How very touching, a voice wreathed with darkness hissed from a shadow closest to the Guardians. Then his voice came from another spot, making all the Guardians spin in the direction of the voice. Really, it's so sweet. The useless loner found friends.
Jack was back on the ground in an instant, staff in hand. "Show yourself," he snarled.
Oh, but you see me every night. We have so much fun then, don't we? A shadow suddenly leaped from its' place in the corner, lunging at Tooth. Z was a crackling SNAP! sound, and it was frozen mid-leap, before it tumbled from the half of it's leap and fell towards the ground, shattering upon impact on the ground. As the Guardians watched, the broken, frozen pieces of shadow slinked away to its' corner, reforming as it went.
Smart, stupid boy. The voice praised, each word making Jack tremble with anger.
"I don't need you." He snapped. "You are not welcome here."
I'll never leave. The voice promised. Until I get what I came here for. Then it was gone, a lingering chill the only evidence that it had once been there. The Guardians exchanged looks, finally turned to the tense boy, still brandishing his staff.
"Oi, mate," Bunnymung started. "What was that – " He was cut off as the reformed shadow pounced again, this time plowing into Jack, whose staff was knocked into the Globe, bouncing off in the Globe and smacking into the wall, out of reach for Jack. Jack was slammed into a wall, ears buzzing. He tried to kick the shadow away so that he could get up, but his leg just went through the thing.
The shadow reared up and slammed its' hooves down on his bruised ribcage (the animal it was shaped as was a horse). Jack gasped as the wind was knocked out of him yet again, and tried to get his bearings. The stupid shadow horse kicked him again, and this time Jack felt something inside his body shift – where it shouldn't have. [Perverts, I said INSIDE.] Just as the horse reared up again, it let out a neigh and melted into a slimy black glob on his legs.
"Frostbite, you okay?" A furry paw rested itself on his shoulder, and Jack groaned.
"Of course I am not okay, Kangaroo!"
Bunny muttered something about ungrateful brats and extended a paw to him. "All right, get up now, Snowflake, so that Tooth can fuss over you."
As if on cue, Tooth was right in his face, squawking and screeching in an incomprehensible voice. "Oh my goodness, Jack, thank goodness Sandy found a way to destroy them – temporarily, but still! Oh, goodness, what was that voice?"
"Tooth!" North strode over, a struggling shadow in a huge grasp. "Let the boy rest and heal. Tomorrow we ask question."
"Oh, yes, yes, come on Jack, let's find you a room…" Tooth fussed over a cut on Jack's cheek.
As the two rounded a corner and disappeared, North turned to the remaining Guardians. "Everyone is okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Bunny said. "Few nicks and bruises, but nothing unfixable." Sandy nodded in confirmation.
North looked up at the Globe, the clusters of believers' lights twinkling like stars, as if they were trying to tell him something: Don't give up, we believe in you; You're my hero. He pondered on the facts he had gleaned, eyes reflecting the glow of the lights. What he knew was this: the voice was here for Jack. It commanded the shadows, which they could only fight with light. Maybe it commanded some nightmares, too. It appeared to visit jack at night, where he tortured the poor child – mentally, North supposed. Jack had probably fought the shadows before, judging by his reaction to the first shadow that had attacked him.
North was sure the shadows would come back, and when they did…they had to be prepared to defend their youngest Guardians, Jack Frost.