Family Issues

Had to get away from darks fics for a while, feeling way too much anxiety due to it, so here's something fun requested by RizReviewer and a few others. I still have a lot of Prompts to go through but this one made me giggle the more I started to think of it.

Someone should have given North a heads up about the difficulties of being a father…especially to a hormonal teenage boy. If he had been given more a warning or had friends with teenagers he could have talked to, he might have reconsidered many of the things he did with Jack. But alas he was on his own, taking advice from his friends who had never had children, and the only one who ever came close to being a father was hampering things more than helping.

Yes, E. Aster Bunnymund would have been the best source to turn to, if his mate and unborn kit had survived the genocide of their race. But they had not and, while Aster still considered himself a father, he would never get past the preparing for a newborn stage. Yeah, Jack Frost wasn't a new born or a kit, so baby proofing Santoff Claussen was not needed. Someone should have told the yetis.

"Seriously?" Jack asked when he went to open a food cupboard only to find it baby proofed. Even North had trouble opening it and eventually broke the lock so he could start on dinner. In fact he went about removing all the "safety locks" Phil and his team had thought were necessary.

So treating Jack like a baby was out, although it did get a good laugh from the other Guardians. Bunny and Sandy practically rolled around in laughter when they found out, only to be reprimanded by Tooth and nearly frozen to the floor by an extremely embarrassed Jack.

If North was Jack's father then Tooth was his mother. While the fairy queen had no children of her own per se, she did have an army of mini-fairies that were mini-versions of herself. And if that wasn't close enough to having children then nothing was. She was the one who decided Jack needed limits, a curfew, and a schedule. And, after much sweet talking, she convinced North of the same thing. Even Bunny nodded in agreement.

"Jack's just a kid, mate, he needs structure," Bunny had thrown in sagely, as if he were the master of all things kid related. He even gave a speech about how children like Jack needed a routine and duties and could not always be having snowballs and fun times. He was a Guardian now after all. He couldn't be running wild anymore.

Tooth agreed fully and, reluctantly, so did North. Even if he didn't sound right to him. Sandy rolled his eyes and shook his head, and shot off a series of images about how Jack was a free spirit and an elemental who could not be tied down. And if Sandy's warning wasn't enough the tantrum Jack had proved it.

"I'm not a child!" Jack yelled at the top of his lungs, smacking the butt of his staff to the ground and sending winter magic in all directions. "Why on Earth do I need a curfew and bedtime? I've been on my own 300 years and if this is how things are going to be just because I moved in then I might as well be on my own again!"

No one had heard Jack truly yell until that day and he was furious as all hell. He stomped around, waving his arms as he tried to make sense of their reasoning. He had been a Guardian for just over a year and had only recently accepted North's offer of a home and he was already regretting it. Some of the new rules made sense, brushing his teeth made sense but a curfew and bedtime and wearing appropriate clothing – what was wrong with his clothes? – just seemed purely stupid. He didn't mind taking on some chores, after all he was living there and was willing to work for his keep, but the rest?

North raised his hands to try and ease the situation before it got out of hand. "Young boys need structure and rules."

"Like hell!" Jack objected but after a while calmed down, fighting back his fight or flight urge to properly negotiate and hammer out the new details of his living arrangements and how he wasn't anyone's child.

That didn't go as planned to say the least. Jack had North wrapped around his pinky and more often than not used that to get out of punishments – he actually had punishments when he misbehaved! Tooth, who was also wrapped around his pinky, but was used to disciplining her mini-selves as needed, took over the punishments. No matter how sweet Jack tried to be, how cute and innocent looking, she was able to put her foot down and make the punishment stick, even if that meant lecturing North about not letting Jack get away with stuff just because he gave "puppy dog" eyes.

The others began joking around about them being an old married couple which usually led to Tooth lecturing Sandy and Bunny about how they let Jack get away with too much, too. Jack needed his sleep. He should be getting a proper eight hours every night and that Sandy should be seeing to that, while Bunny should be teaching Jack how to proper defend himself should Pitch or any other dark spirit attack him.

That led to more arguments and Jack even taking off for a few days. Bunny was the one to find him and coax him back home. Bunny, who North had been turning to for help. Bunny, who was secretly undermining North and Tooth, as was Sandy they would later discover.

Tooth had put a limit on what sweets Jack could have, how much, the amount of sugar and so forth. And it wasn't just Jack she did this too either, North was forced to cut back as well. If she was there she would slap their hands or order them to brush and floss, telling North he was being a bad example to Jack and as his father should be teaching him portion control and eating healthier – he wasn't a bachelor anymore but a father. Jack would giggle uncontrollably until his fingers were slapped and he was nearly dragged by the ear to the bathroom to clean his teeth.

The issue of Jack's clothing also became more problematic. He was gaining Believers and more and more children saw him, even a few adults and anyone who first saw him thought he was a hobo or bum. His ancient tattered leather pants which his human mother had made were starting to wear more at the knees and North could no longer mend them. His beloved hoodie was starting to tear at the seams and his undershirt was a dingy yellow from age.

All that held his clothing together was magic and a prayer. Tooth, who didn't wear clothing, was beginning to worry and even Sandy raised a brow when the child refused to change his clothing. Bunny started making jokes that Jack could run around naked. That made North worry even more, there were darker spirits than Pitch Black – who had finally called a truce with the Guardians – and some would not think twice about abusing such a young and naïve spirit as Jack.

Of course, Jack was not about to give in. He loved his pants and undershirt, they were all he had left of his human life and family and he hated the Guardians' sense of style and was not about to go emo like Pitch. Nope, not happening. No amount of nagging from his adoptive parents would get him to change.

It was Pitch – who surprisingly had been a father, had a teenager, even if he didn't get to see that part of her life very much and his child was a girl – that finally came up with a way to get Jack to dress more respectably, or at least change his clothes. And since Pitch actually interacted with children more than the Guardians had a better insight into what might catch Jack's interest. North was doubtful, but Tooth was willing to give it a try.

So the Guardians held a fashion show. Jack was aghast at the whole concept and even tried to flee, but North had caught him, pointed to the pile of clothing everyone had thrown on a table in a small curtained off area, and told him to start trying things on and to come show them so that they could vote on what best suited the teen. There was much laughter to be had. Jack was nervous at first; looking embarrassed as he stepped out in clothing he obviously didn't like to be critiqued by his family.

What started off as something rather serious broke down into a series of giggles and whistles and boos. Jack blushed beautifully but soon took it in stride and begun strutting his stuff as Bunny jokingly gave commentary about what Jack was wearing and who made it – when he wasn't participating in the booing or whistling. Even Pitch was enjoying himself.

Sometimes Jack would come out wearing something that was clearly not something he would ever wear in public. One time he came out in a blue version of one of North's outfits. He put on a Russian accent as he pushed an oversized fur hat back up on his head.

"Nyte!" he chirped with a giggle. He took the furred lapels and puffed out his chest. "Dis simply too much North!"

Everyone laughed except North who pouted like a father who just learned his son was not about to take up the family business. The next outfit had him bellowing in laughter. Jack looked like a very pale version of Pitch, with the exception that he put on a t-shirt under the long robe.

"Okay, no offense, but I can probably get a role on the next vampire flick in this get up," Jack joked with a twirl.

Pitch folded his arms across his chest and grumbled. Sandy giggled silently as Bunny and Tooth booed the outfit and shooed the boy back behind the curtain. The next few outfits were a mix and match of clothing until he finally found something he liked and was able to recreate similar outfits using what everyone gave him. There was a large variety of blues and greys and browns mixed with blacks and whites and, while they were not as dashing or distinguished as the older Guardians would prefer, they made Jack happy and the others cheered when he paraded out in them. He was an immortal teen after all and they had to give into his taste as well. Of course getting him to wear shoes was a whole other battle.

Jack ran a hand through his hair as he handed is old clothes to North, full excepting them to be destroyed. But by now the Guardian of Wonder knew and understood his love for the clothes of his past life. Jack bounced in happiness when he found the material dismantled and made into a patch work quilt like his human mother used to make. That quilt went with him whenever he spent the night at one of the other Guardian's homes.

Eventually Jack did take up a routine and did follow a curfew and did go to bed on time. He ate at proper times – when he wasn't off spreading snow and fun to the world. And North and Tooth felt more like parents. Of course that didn't mean there weren't epic battles of will with the frost child, he was a teen after all. But they weren't nearly as fierce…well not until Jack began dating but that was a whole other story and far more complicated than clothing. Especially when it turned out his love interest was one of their own.