The first thing he'd noticed about her was the smile on her face. Though the air was hot and sweltering, he'd still wanted to see it once more before he left.

He'd been doing his usual treks around the world now that winter was over when he came across this place, which had a strange Mount Rushmore monument overhead that was looking over the place.

Still, Jack hadn't let the heat get to him, he could at least stand it until he needed to leave; but when he heard the sounds of children laughing, he couldn't help but go see what they were doing. He landed in a tree to keep cool under the shade as he watched several children playing in front of a building with a ball, but even if he couldn't understand the language they were shouting at each other, he still understood that they were having fun.

"Are you guys having fun?"

Jack blinked at the sound of someone new having shown up and looked down to see the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen come walking out of the building the kids were playing in front of. She smiled at them, and the bright, intense cheeriness behind it was what really left him stunned. She just looked so happy, and the smile seemed to be infectious as the children all beamed back at her.

"Hai, Kushina-san!" They chimed and one of them offered the ball up and the redhead took it graciously.

"Catch!" The woman shouted and tossed the ball into the air, and when it came back down, one of the children caught it and started tossing the ball at one of the others, though from the way when the ball connected, Jack could guess they were playing a game of ball tag.

Although tempted to join in and add his own touch, Jack stayed in the shade and watched them play, though his eyes kept wandering to the smile on the redhead's face.

Even though he'd only meant to be passing through, he still stuck around, sticking to the shade to stay out of the sun to at least help with temperature control. But he was condensing, and soon he'd probably be nothing more than a puddle-well, may not a puddle, but he still be pretty uncomfortable-so before he left, he wanted to see her again.

Jack didn't know her name, as he didn't understand the language, so he decided to just call her the Redhead since he found no one else in the whole village with such vividly red hair that stood out or was as long. Serious, it was knee-length. He might have been young, but he wasn't stupid; so despite the killer smile, he left the Redhead alone because he didn't want to considered a stalker, even in his own head.

But since he was leaving, he reasoned that seeing that smile one more time wouldn't be hurting anybody. He rode the wind threw the village trying to look for her, but it was surprisingly hard to find one redhead in a place where there weren't any others. Oh, he'd seen some pretty strange hair colors and styles alright, but just not the one he was looking for.

But when he eventually did find her; she was sitting in a shop with a dark-haired woman with a child sitting beside her. He frustratingly still couldn't understand them, but once he saw that smile come out after the dark-haired woman spoke, it melted his frustration away.

If it wasn't undeniably creepy, he thought he could watch her for hours. But it was, and he was so not a creeper.

Just as he was about to leave, Jack peered back once more to let the memory be imprinted in his mind, because even if he forgot the face, he hoped that smile remained. It was probably the happiest one he'd ever seen on an adult-looking person. He knew they were probably happy, but they were never happy when he was around, not like the kids.

"So Kushina-chan, do you and Minato know what you want to name the baby?" The dark-haired woman questioned.

The Redhead laughed. "It's still too early to tell, Mikoto!"

Yes, even if he never saw her again, he hoped he could remember that smile.

50 years later

Jack laughed as he flew through the air, feeling like he was on top of the world while he spread the snow through the northern states of America. He felt power coursing through him as the children's belief powered him as the Guardian of Fun. It felt great to be finally acknowledged and believed in, though his real joy was always going to be bringing fun to the kids with his snow days.

He paused as he landed on a tree branch and thought over the idea in his head and grinned; yeah, it did sound like there could always be more snow days. He jumped off the branch, but a sudden flash of red on the Mount Rushmore structure caught his attention. He floated up to the mountain and landed, cautiously walking over to the figure sitting on one of the heads and looking over the forest.

He felt something stirring in his mind as he stared at the face staring blankly out at the forest, but there was something out of place as he stared at her too pale face. "Hello?" he asked but thought maybe she was a human and couldn't hear him, but to his surprise, she glanced at him from the corner of her eye, but didn't do more than that.

As he stared into the sole blue-violet eye he could see, it clicked in Jack's mind from where he recognized this woman from. 'That village.' He thought and he imagined the same face with the bright, intense smile, and that was what he found was out of place.

There was no cheerful smile anymore; the face was set in a frown.

Well, she did hear him, so maybe she could understand him? "Uh, what's your name?"

The Redhead stared at him; her brow furrowing and Jack deflated before he smiled at her and held out her hand encouragingly. There seemed to be some recognition and he assumed that she must have seen someone shaking hands or she did this herself. She was tentative with grasping his hand, and Jack suddenly felt colder than he was when it caught up with him that she could see and touch him now.

This woman was like him; he thought and felt the pulse in her wrist.

But in the Redhead's eyes there was a change, a wonder and astonishment as she grasped his hand and pulled it forward to feel the pulse as she placed her hand to his chest and the pulse underneath.

"I can feel you!" she said and though he still couldn't understand her, Jack saw the memory he had of her overlapping with the one in his mind.

She was smiling at him, and it was beautiful.