For 300 years the idea of companionship had been nothing but an idle dream for Jack Frost. Now, as he saw the last ditches of snow melt in the sun of the first really warm day of the year he smiled quietly to himself. During the past year he had been surprised each and every time someone spoke to him out of their own volition, or even just looked at him in wonder just as big as his own.
He fondly remembered the many times he and the other Guardians had visited each other, but during the last few months these visits had been rather scare, what with Bunny and Tooth steering clear of the cold and North and himself being increasingly busy. Now however it was time to see what the others were up to. The thought of going back to their regular visits filled him with the burning hope he might actually make this last.
Far up north he slipped quietly through a window on the third floor that was left unlocked for him and hovered through the workshop, searching for it's owner. On the way he watched the bustling beneath him, as always awestruck by all the colors and movement of the organized chaos around him.
He poked his head through various doors until he found his target and grinned.
"Hey North"
"Jack!" Norths voice boomed in the small room and he set hammer and chisel to the side.
"It has been to long. How are you doing?"
"I'm great! Have been kind of busy though. Thought I'd step by, now spring is out in full force."
North laughed. "I have seen you being busy. It has been a while since I saw white Christmas quite so many places. Tell me, what else you been doing these months.
Jacks smile grew softer. He couldn't even pretend it didn't feel good to have somebody acknowledge his work.
He launched himself into the retelling of all the small adventures he had gotten into over the winter, and if sometimes a mountain or the number of participants seemed to grow as he spoke North didn't seem to care. He had taken up his tools again and resumed carving when it became apparent that Jack wasn't about to stop anytime soon. But each time he looked up, interjected with a question or a comment or even just hummed acknowledging, Jacks heart speed up for a moment. Having somebody who listened and reacted to his monologues still filled him with what he thought to be be an inappropriate amount of joy.
He was in the middle of a wild sledge ride in the Rocky Mountains mid-February when Phil stormed into the workshop and growled something unintelligible. North, who somehow understood the Yeti, seemed startled and looked to the big floor clock.
"Is time already? I am sorry Jack, but I have to go. We finish telling stories later, right?"
"Sure. It's not as if there is nothing to do here. I'll find a way to busy myself"
North raised an eyebrow at the sight of Jacks mischievous smirk.
"Just don't cause Yeti to much trouble."
The smirk turned into a grin "Trouble? Me? Whatever gave you that idea?"
He barely heard Norths chuckle, seeing as the older spirit was already leaving the room. Jack kept standing a while longer, looking over the many intricate carvings standing around. In the end an other smile crept slowly over his face.
He had just gotten a free pass to explore the workshop by himself, after all.
Two hours later found a profoundly angry North towering over his visitor. "Jack! What have you been doing."
Jack winced slightly and smiled sheepishly up at him. Around him lay smashed toys, shards of ice and glass and a fallen Christmas tree.
"Uhm, exploring?"
North sighed exasperated. "Why are you doing this? I have told you not to bother Yetis to much."
Jack stilled for a moment. Then a bright, mocking grin fixed itself to his face even as he clutched his staff tighter.
"And here I thought you knew me. I mean, you can't seriously give me permission to play here without expecting something like this. I mean, really? Who do you think I am?"
Norths face scrunched up in confusion, but before he could fully understand what Jack had said, he had called the wind to him and shot up and out of an open skylight.
The Warren was a haven of never-ending spring. Even when every other part of the world seemed to be committed to sniffing out live, be it with searing heat, freezing cold or raging storms, inside the Warren the temperatures stayed mild, pleasant to most. Under the artificial sun and the occasional light shower, live thrived constantly upon the rich soil.
Jack accepted it as the sanctuary it was and kept his interactions with Bunny to a light teasing. No matter how much fun it was to rile him up outside (and it was great, really), inside Jack was careful to avoid saying anything that would seriously offend him and he never played any tricks on him, no matter how tempting it was.
And his self control had paid off. In the beginning the Easter Bunny had barely left him out of his sight whenever he visited. Now, when he heard the wooden staff bumping into the walls every few steps, he hardly even looked up from his work. As soon as Jack came near enough he called "Just let me finish this first, would ya mate"
Jack was content to float a few steps away, positioned as if laying on his stomach and watching Bunny paint an egg. When he was finished, he blew softly on it, causing the paint to dry immediately. He handed it to Jack.
"Watch'a thinkin'"
Jack tenderly accepted the egg, careful not to freeze it. I was a work of art. On one side was a lifelike bunny, drawn in incredible detail. Jack was almost able to see the separate hairs of its fur. On the other side was an equally skillfully painted blue bird in the middle of takeoff.
"Looks good" he said before he started to grin. "Though I have to wonder, are you going for a different audience? This is kind of cheesy compared to what you usually draw."
"Eh. Ah'm allowed ta be cheesy when Ah'm practicin'. Got ta use a few brushes Ah usually don't get tha opportunity ta."
"Practice, heh. Think you could spare this one for me then?"
"Not ta cheesy for you"
Jack laughed. "You're talking to the king of winter wonderland. There is no 'to cheesy' for me."
The corners of Bunnys mouth twitched in a barely noticeable smile. "Yer not ta busy ta be hangin' 'round here?"
"Nah, winter hasn't really started jet in the south and besides there are hardly as many children there who can expect snow. I can spare a few hours."
"In that case Ah need ta do something real quick in ma gardens. Ah'll com back ta ya in a minute.
Jack beamed and took of to store his egg in the room Bunny had told him to use when he was here.
E. Aster Bunnymound quivered for anger. He should have known that half a year of consistent visits was not enough to leave him in his home without supervision, even if Jack had behaved himself until now. He should have known that he would eventually revert to his trickster nature.
He turned abruptly and marched back to the main "room" of the Warren where the frost spirit was lazily tracing the carvings of an egg sentinel, his staff carefully balanced on his bare feet.
"Jack!"
He raised his head with a bright smile that vanished quickly when he saw Bunnys expression. Gripping his staff he hurried to the ground.
"Is something wrong?"
"Ya know bloody well what's wrong, ya galah. How many times have Ah told ya ta stay away from my googies."
For a short moment Jacks forehead ceased in confusion. Then something clicked and a goading smirk appeared on his face.
"Worried about deadlines already? You need to loosen up! Easter is still more than half a year from now. No need to get your panties in a twist over one or two eggs now."
Bunny looked as if he was just about ready to scream in rage, but Jack was faster, flying past him on his way out and flicking one of his ears for good measure.
The tooth palace was located in a region many humans visited for vacation, to get away from their day-to-day lives. Toothiana and her helpers however could only very rarely afford to take time of their work. After all, children didn't loose teeth when it was convenient and it was always night somewhere on earth.
There where, however, calmer times, when the majority of earths own shadow moved over the oceans, granting them a bit of a respite. It was during one of these times that Jack dropped in.
He saw that Tooth herself didn't allow herself to take a break even in the relatively tranquil afternoon, so he turned his attention to the smaller fairies instead. Many of them were off duty and over the next few hours he played with them, covering one of the towers in glittering white. They were building snow men and snow forts and Jack got pelted in roughly a trillion tiny snowballs.
Towards the end of their pause, one of the small fairies started to sneeze and wouldn't stop. Soon more of them started to in as well, and many of them were sniveling and cuddling together in small clusters. Jack stood helpless in the middle of it all. He didn't know what to do, couldn't offer them the warmth they needed. Around him the snow melted to gray slush.
That was how Toothiana found him when she came down to remind them it was time to fly out again soon.
"Oh my" she said and cradled one of the weak fairies carefully in her hands. The fairy chirped up at her feebly.
"I... They got sick." Jack said, watching his wiggling toes.
"I guess we should have expected something like this. They are tropical, after all, and you were playing quite a long time. Don't worry, they will be fine, once they get a few hours rest."
"But isn't night around here always one of the most hectic times of the day? You sure you guys are going to be ok?"
"We will figure something out, don't worry" Tooth ruffled his hair tenderly.
"Figure something out?" Jack didn't seem really content with that answer.
"How about I help you out. You know, like when Pitch took them?"
"You would do that? Are you sure?"
"O course. It's the least I can do." He still seemed to study his toes.
"Thank you Jack. That's very thoughtful of you."
Jack stayed to collect the teeth even after the healed fairies joined them in Moscow. He only left when the teeth tickled out over the British Islands and the west coast of Africa, slinking away without a word.
Jack didn't think of where to go, simply let the wind carry him wherever it would go. His thoughts blurred just as the land under him.
In the early afternoon of the next day he found himself in Burgess. No surprise, he thought, smiling slightly self-depreciating. In the end he always seemed to come back here. Back in this town where he had lived as a human and spend most of his time as a spirit. Where he had found his first believer, defeated Pitch and became a Guardian.
Where he had died.
Jack looked up to the moonless sky.
Why had he been brought back? Had it just been to defeat Pitch? Surly that could not have been all, could it? Sure, that last fight had been a pretty close call, but then again it had been his fault they had ended up in that situation, hadn't it? If he had not tipped that alarm clock, had not chased that Nightmare while everybody but him and Sandy had been down... Surly, if Sandy had been able to fight with the others, they would have been able to fend Pitch of even without him, right?
Or had that really been it? He didn't want to believe that. Didn't want to believe he had already served his purpose. Had he really waited 300 years for those three days?
The Guardians hat been exceedingly kind to him over the last year, and he had thought, maybe, just maybe this really was what he was meant to be doing. And then he had gone and messed it all up.
He had visited the workshop a few times and North had shown him around, sure. But until his last visit he had resisted the temptation to explore the place on his own. And for good reason, as it tuned out.
He had really only wanted to help out a bit by taking the tray of half-done wooden trains down to be painted. He had thought, since he could fly he could bring them down directly so the Yetis wouldn't have to go the long way around. It should not have been as big a surprise as it was when the wind that was carrying him had caught in the branches of a nearby tree and knocked it off balance. In his shock and rush to catch it, he had iced over halve the room and dropped the tray.
Really the only bright side to that had been that nobody got hurt, and that should never even have been a question.
(Jack Frost; making a mess wherever he goes, indeed)
The thing with Bunny, now, had been pure stupidity. He knew the Kangaroo used some of his magic to paint his eggs, after all. Magic that was rooted in spring, that was made to oppose his cold. Bunny calling his frost patterns pretty didn't change that.
(Of course they wouldn't mix to let him see those patterns on Bunnys eggs. Why should they)
Even snowballs and fun-times seemed to cause more trouble than anything else sometimes. He knew better than anyone else how dangerous the cold could be and had been honestly afraid he had caused lasting damage when the fairies started getting sick. If he had really been as thoughtful as Tooth believed him to be, he would have remembered to keep them warm in the firs place.
(They had looked so miserable, even smaller than usual and so frail)
With a sigh, he touched down on the roof of Jamies house and watched him and his friends playing in the backyard. A strangely heavy feeling overcame him. Even through he knew that they would welcome him if he just went down to play with them, he couldn't bring himself to do so. Instead he stayed on the roof half hoping, half fearing one of them would look up and see him.
They didn't of course, they had no reason to expect him hear this time of the year after all. When they went inside for dinner, Jack told himself he had no right to feel disappointed. Now that it was to late, he fiercely regretted not going down.
Frost spread around him in waves and melted in the warm evening just as quick.
Suddenly, a small, yellow figure dropped in his field of vision and Jack jerked back in surprise.
"Sandy! What are you doing here? Isn't it a bit early for you to be here?"
Sandy pointed at him.
"You were searching for me? Why? And what about the children?"
Sandy smiled and pointed up. As Jack leaned back and followed Sandys direction with his eyes, he saw a big, swirling cloud of dreamsand hovering above them, a few strands flowing to the east.
"You... can work from here?"
Sandy smiled proudly and nodded. Then he furrowed his brow, pointed at Jack and flashed three images over his head: A snowflake, a crying mask and a question mark.
Jack turned away.
"I'm fine."
It was amazing how well Sandy could say "yeah, right" without actually saying anything. You could practically hear his "hmpf".
For a moment he stayed like that, hovered in front of Jack, his arms crossed. Then he grabbed Jack by the elbow and dragged him up to his cloud.
"Whoa, hey, alright, alright, I'm coming."
Once they reached the cloud, Sandy placed him in the middle and started shaping dreams out of the sand.
Jack watched him, more amused than annoyed and definitely happy about the distraction from his own, gloomy thoughts.
At first, most of the dreams seemed very generic, but as the night drew closer they became more and more varied and detailed. A giant tree-house, dancing mice, a palace, a starfish...
When Sandy began working on a winter scene with a snowball fight, Jack leaned forward to blow his magic on a snowball without thinking. Of course, since the scene was so small, almost all of it stated to glitter in a pale silver.
As soon as he realized what he had done, he recoiled.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think..."
But Sandy softly put a finger to Jacks lips and shook his head with a smile.
He formed a neutral mask out of his sand and let it touch the winter scene. A small amount of Jacks magic flowed in the mask and it began to smile.
Jack starred for a moment, unsure whether he really understood what Sandy wanted to tell him, or if it was just wishful thinking.
"It... makes them better?"
Sandy nodded and caressed his cheek softly.
Slowly a smile grew on Jacks face until he sported his usual, radiant grin. He looked around at the dreams that started to spread over Burgess, and, with a last glance to Sandy, shot up into the air. Laughing he weaved between the strands of sand, spreading his own magic of snow and fun, racing with animals out of frost and sand and creating fireworks of gold and silver in the night sky.
The children of Burgess had never slept as well as that night.
I was so nevous about posting the story, I completly forgott about this part, I'm sorry.
Anyway, the events of the story are taken or adapted from 188 hugs by Icka M Chif, while the overall atmosphere is influenced by the guardian of screwing up series by Kate_Anders, Kaylin and Kira (Saphie). Both storys can be found on AO3
I liked the Idea that Jack has absolutly no Idea how to act in social encounters that are not going his way, because that isolation has to have left some traces. They will start really talking about it/ working on it in about 20-30 years, when Jack fells much more at easy around the other guardians.
Hope you all enjoy the story
gnömchen