Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Rise of the Guardians or Frozen characters. Rise of the Guardians belongs to DreamWorks and Frozen belongs to Disney.

BETTER AS A MEMORY

The Workshop, North Pole: Present day.

Jack Frost sat off to the side, only semi-paying attention to what the other Guardians were discussing. It was a month before Christmas so North and the yetis were busy – the elves liked to think they were busy too – but since they defeated Pitch, the Guardians had been getting together more regularly and updating each other. Each Guardian was on his – or in Tooth's case her – own quest to get rid of any more of the Nightmares. Most had gone down with Pitch, but a few strays still popped their heads up when a child had a bad dream. Mostly Sandy took care of them, but occasionally another Guardian encountered one and had to take them out.

The entire day, Jack had seemed off in his own world, so-to-speak. Earlier he had needed North's help because he'd gotten so distracted that a Nightmare managed to get the better of him. Thankfully he didn't think North had told anyone. He didn't need them asking what was wrong, or risking Bunny teasing him about not being able to handle one Nightmare.

He looked up to the group, his hood up on his head and pulled down so it casted a shadow over his eyes. His staff rested against his side. Tooth was chattering away with her fairies. Sandy had fallen asleep with Bunny talking to him about some fight with a Nightmare he had been in that he found impressive. He looked to North, whose eyes drifted to catch his gaze. North's arms were folded across his chest, showing off his naughty and nice tattoos with his sleeves rolled up. There was the usual gentle expression on his face, but today concern was etched into it. He nodded his head to the side and Jack knew what that meant.

With a sigh, the winter sprite stood up, clutching onto his staff. He pushed his hood off of his head and followed North into his office. Sitting on the desk was railroad ice sculpture with the flying train. Apparently one of the yetis had caused the first one to break and North had spent hours recreating it and even improving the design. On any other day, Jack would have put it at the top of the track and watched it roll down and take off into the air. On any other day, he would have been highly impressed and in awe.

But not today.

North closed the door behind him and placed a gentle hand on Jack's shoulder, carefully turning him so they faced each other.

"Jack, what's wrong?" he asked, getting right to the point, his voice thick with his accent.

Jack rested his staff in the crook of his arm and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt. His gaze settled onto the floor. "It's just not a good day."

North removed his hand from the sprite's shoulder and walked to the window, gesturing for Jack to follow him. Jack came up next to him and stared out the window at the snow covered world outside.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not–" he began, but cut himself off. He had never talked about it. He had never allowed himself to think about it except for this one day every year. It hurt too much. He sighed and tapped the glass of the window, ice spreading out from his finger. "…I haven't always been invisible. A long time ago, there were four people who could see me… Well–" he shrugged "–three were technically people."

He looked to see North smiling softly at him, but he shook his head. "There are good, great memories, but today… many years ago, today is the day when I loss someone very important to me. She was wonderful and–" his voice cracked and he took in a deep breath before slowly letting it out.

"Tell me about her," North said gently. He wasn't prying or pushing. He could tell that Jack needed to talk about this woman, but also that a part of him wanted to. He could see a sparkle in the sprite's eyes at the mere mention of her. "What was her name?"

Jack looked to North and smiled, though there a trace of sadness in his smile. "Elsa."

A/N: So... Is this going to be happy or sad? Whelp probably bits of both, I'd say. There will be chapters in first person, as it'll be Jack telling North the story, and any chapters that take place present day will be in third person.

Now I've never written for these characters before except for attempting to have a Jack Frost tumblr rp. I ship Jelsa, though, and I got this idea. I have no specific dates for updates, they'll be uploaded whenever I get time to finish them. Some chapters may be short while others may be long. I hope to get better with the canons as I write them.

This is an unedited chapter. Typos and errors will be fixed as I reread them and catch them. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you enjoy the story! I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can!

Sincerely,

Anna