Five Hugs for Jack Frost
A/N: Yeah. I suck.
Sorry to keep you guys waiting so long for this. I was working on my other story.
In order to understand this story you have to read A Frozen Heart Can Shatter Too. It won't be as good if you don't.
Please enjoy and feel free to leave me a review, comments are appreciated and if I make any mistakes in here please point them out to me so I can correct them.
1&2 Take place before A Frozen Heart and the last 3 are set afterwards.
1.
The first time Jack Frost ever felt a 'hug' was a few decades after his creation. Jack had only heard the word used a few times in the short spans he spent amongst humans, he found that the longer he stayed in their ranks so surrounded, the more Alone he felt. Alone had a capital letter because it wasn't the same as the human word. When a human says that they are alone they mean that there aren't any other humans really close by. Sometimes they just mean that they don't think there is someone who feels like they do about something. The human word alone was a very temporary thing, something that the human could fix at any time.
Jack's word Alone was what he used to describe his life, because he truly was Alone. There was no one else who could do what he did, no one who looked like he did and no one that knew he existed. Worst of all there was no way for him to fix it. Not to say he hadn't tried, he had tried very hard to fix it. He had stood for hour screaming anything and everything at the humans, he had begged, cried and reasoned but they would have none of it. They would just keep passing through him as if he wasn't there. Some days he wondered if he was really there at all.
Now Jack had heard the word 'Hug' used in the human language and from what he could understand it was a word used for when two humans tangled their arms together. The whole thing was very strange to him but the humans seemed to enjoy it a lot. As far as he could tell there were any rules on who could hug who, children could hug children or adults and adults could hug adults. Boys could hug boys and girls, girls could hug boys or girls. The only thing that never changed was that you needed two people to hug, and there stood Jack's problem, he didn't have anyone else he could hug. He only had himself.
But as Jack lay there in the artic, the cold and snow blistering around him like a blanket of white, the blood seeping from the wound he had obtained by crushing into a tower, he felt a need for the hug. Like he needed the ice and snow he burned for it.
Jack carefully pulled himself up slowly so that he was leaning against the icy wall behind him. Moving as slowly as he could Jack wrapped his right arm around his middle. Even more slowly he moved his second arm around himself and ignored he pain as he gripped himself tighter, losing himself in the feeling of it. Jack squeezed his eyes shut and for a few moments he pretended, he pretended that he was a child being welcomed home by their mother, he pretended that he was at school like most other boys his age and he was being greeted by a friend, he pretended that he was a husband being greeted by his wife after a hard day's work and most importantly he pretended that he wasn't alone. So for those few seconds of his life until the pain in his side stabbed through again, Jack Frost, the lonely spirit, was happy.
2.
The second hug Jack got was from somebody else, or rather something else. The sad part is he never knew how hard Wind tried to hug him. Wind was a well believed in sprit by humans, to them he was a fact, something that was always there. Yet he felt just as alone as Jack did because he could never truly touch another, he could speak but very few could hear and understand him.
So Wind could understand how Jack felt, what being Alone felt like, Wind made it his job to watch out for the boy and care for him. If Jack went somewhere Wind would be right ad his side to carry and protect him from harm. Wind knew how Alone Jack felt, but no matter how hard Wind yelled, no matter how strong he billowed Jack could not hear him.
But Wind still tried, he always tried, and when Jack lay curled into himself, blood staining the once pure white snow from when Autumn had hurt him, Wind curled up around Jack as well. As Jack drifted off into a restless and nightmare filled sleep he felt the lightest touch, so faint he thought he had dreamed it up, but he could just barely feel arms of air wrapping around him.
3.
Tooth was almost shaking. Not her usual vibrations, not her hyper activity. Rather Tooth was shaking in rage and shame, this time though it wasn't directed at anyone else, it was directed at herself. How could she have been so blind? How could all of them have been so blind? Now that Tooth looked back into her memories of all the times she had seen Jack and scoffed or those times she had told her fairies to avoid the 'troublemaker' she could feel nothing but writhing consuming shame at her actions. Not once had Jack done any harm to her or her fairies, if anything the snow always seemed to slow or stop just before the fairies arrived yet she had rejected him all the same. She had believed those lies the other seasonal spirits spread without thinking to question them.
The worst part was that Jack didn't hold it against her. Tooth wanted him to be angry with her and yell at her, be angry with all the spirits who had abandoned him. Even when they could hear him begging for someone to just admit he existed. That memory hurt the worst by far.
She had been out filling in for a few of her fairies who were out sick, a quick in and out when she had heard a sobbing. At first there had been nothing but concern and worry in her heart for whatever poor child was in such a state. Tooth had raced through the air towards the source of the noise only to freeze mid-flight and have her heart turn from that of a kind being who was ready to help into a block of ice. It was a bit funny actually, no matter what claims were made out of all the guardians, Jack Frost had the warmest heart. Yet for the longest time the sight of him could change the kindest guardian into some hateful creature. Still crisp and burned into her mind Tooth would never forget that day with Jack, he had been crying in the middle of a road, a busy one mind you, and asking, begging for someone to see him. There weren't that many people out at the time mind you, almost everyone was at home. See most people tend to stay indoors on Christmas Eve.
If Tooth could go back in time and punch herself for one thing it would have to be what she did that day. She didn't speak up, she didn't walk over and pull Jack away from the roadway, she didn't embrace him and tell him that she could see him and he did exist and he was important. No she didn't do any of those things. The Tooth Fairy, one of the guardians of children turned her back on him and walked away. Why she did it she could no longer understand. But she could try to fix it. To right the wrongs he had done to him.
So when Baby Tooth came flitting into the room with word that those goblins were messing with the fairies again she used it as the perfect excuse to wrap her arms around Jack. The hug wasn't very long, it wasn't rather special to her, she had given out thousands before, but the look on Jack's face of a happy shock made it one of the most important things in her life.
As Tooth darted out the door she had a thought stuck firmly in the forefront of her mind 'I'll have to make sure to do that again.'
4.
Out of all the guardians, North prided himself of being the most in tune with children. Even if he didn't have very much time to spend with them, he read all the letter they sent him. Sometimes the letters were happy and brought him joy, sometimes they were very sad. North always did his best to take care of the children, to protect them and bring them joy.
Often North would glance back into his life and wonder how he could have ignored Jack, even as a spirit Jack was still a child and far from not needing help or joy. It wasn't that he had ever harmed Jack, he had rarely ever met the boy besides those few times he had tried to break into his workshop. But North was still very guilty of the state of Jack Frost, the image of the boys break down was forever burned in his mind.
Crossing the room North pulled open a drawer from the drawer he plucked a letter. The letter was very old but not very worn. The paper that it was made from was a style of paper no longer used. It really was old. A sigh escaped from North as he walked back to his chair and reread the letter. He had gotten it before he had ever met Jack Frost. And he had ignored it, he could have stop the issue there, he could have saved Jack but he didn't. North had let his chance go and now he was paying for it with the guilt that was eating him away inside out.
As he settled down he reread the letter as he had all those years ago.
Dear Santa Claus, I don't really know who you are, but I've heard a lot about you from people. They talk about you and your magic power no matter where I go and according to them you grant wishes to children on the 25th of December. I hate to bother you because I know you must be very busy and that there are many people out there who deserve things more than I do. But I was wondering if you could maybe write me a letter back. It's just that every time I try to talk to someone or interact with them they can't see or hear me and I'm getting really lonely. I would love to have someone admit I exist and talk to me. If you can't do it I understand but I thought it would be worth asking.
Thank you for your time,
Jack Frost
The handwriting on the letter was messy in places and hard to make out, quite fitting for a spirit who was only 20 years old. At the time North had thought it was a joke of some sorts. So he had made the mistake of ignoring the letter.
'I wish I could tak'-
North's thoughts and regrets were cut off as the subject of them burst into the room. Jack had a bright smile on his face and looked as if he had something to tell North but before he could North wrapped him up in a hug. Forget the past, North was going to make the future right.
5.
Bunny had never been one for social or emotion stuff. He was hot-headed and liked to jump to conclusions and he would admit that about himself, it was sort of hard to miss and he had plenty of time to reflect on his actions later while he was painting his eggs. Before the ordeal with Pitch, Bunny had seen Jack as a bad spirit. When he had first met Jack he thought he was the sort who loved the cold and all the trouble and harm it caused, he had thought Jack liked the deaths snow-storms caused and the blizzards that left everyone trapped indoors.
Never had he paused to wonder if maybe Jack didn't like causing snowstorms, but rather if he lost control of his emotions for a split second they would start. If maybe '68 hadn't been on purpose, rather it had happened because Autumn had hurt the boy so badly that it had sent him into a coma and caused his powers to go wild and out of control. Never had he consider that Jack would be unable to sleep, without having nightmares from past attacks, and the damage he had caused by mistake.
No, Bunny had never thought about those things. Because he had never thought of those things now whenever Jack was in the room he couldn't help but writhe in guilt, even his name brought memories to the surface of his mind.
But through all of these things nothing was worse than whenever Jack's hoodie rode up an inch or two reveling the tip of a scar, a scar Bunny had given to him. It had been the greatest mistake of Bunny's life, at the time he had been so angry at Jack for ruining Easter for the second year in a row that he had attacked him, and left a slash across his chest.
It was impossible for Bunny to forget the look that Jack had in his eyes that day. They had been so thick with betrayal and hurt that Bunny still couldn't understand how his past self had managed to walk away, rather than scooping the boy up into his eyes and giving him a thousand apologies. The one time Bunny had tried to being up the subject, Jack had waved him off with a grin and told him it wasn't a big deal, and that they had both done things they regretted in the past. No use crying over spilled milk, right?
In a way Jack was right, Bunny couldn't change the past, but you could be pretty damn sure he was going to fix the future. He had started by inviting Jack to the warren more often, offering him a safe place to rest and to come when he became lonely. Over time the two got closer, the eggs seemed to like Jack a lot, and upon Jack's request Bunny taught him how to paint them. It was nice having someone else around he could talk to and Jack always seemed to know when Bunny needed someone to just sit there with him in silence. Something Jack was surprisingly good at.
And sometimes Jack would come to Bunny without saying a word and Bunny would just wrap the frost child up in his arms and hold him tightly, shielding him from the cruel world outside and vowing in his head to punish whoever had dared to hurt his friend.