This will be a collection of prompts, one-shots, and maybe some multi-chapter arcs. I started this project of sorts a while back, and I think I'm finally going through with it. This is one of absolute favorite movies, so why not?


Jack wasn't scared. Nope. Not even a little bit. It just wasn't something to be afraid of. If the Boogeyman was around, he wouldn't be able to sense Jack at all. That was how not-afraid he was.

Anxious? Well, that was a whole different snowball game. And he should know. Because being anxious about this kind of thing was normal. He hardly even knew the Guardians, except for Sandy, but he wasn't asking Sandy. No, he was asking North. And even though the big, jolly man was usually in a good mood, he was always afrai— anxious that he would make him angry somehow. It was almost funny because he never had before (yet), though he could make Bunny angry without even trying to.

Now, there were other options. He may have been all about fun and throwing small, perfectly packed snowballs at anything unfortunate enough to move, but he was also prepared for a lot of things. Maybe it was because he was alone for all those years, or maybe because it was a necessity, but Jack always planned for the Spring and Summer months. The latest he could stay was usually late May, but he would be tired and sluggish by the time he finally moved his butt to colder regions. Usually it was Antarctica, or the South Pole (the North had usually been a sore spot for him, so he avoided it altogether the past three centuries). Sometimes he went to Canada, and every once in a while, he went to Greenland for a change in scenery.

But not this year. This year was different. This year, he was a Guardian.

At first, he wasn't going to even think about asking. He was just going to do what he always did. After all, he hadn't been to Canada in a while, so he figured it would be a good place to go. But then he realized that if he did that, he would have to tell them. And then they might offer, but only because they felt guilty, and he didn't want them feeling guilty. So the next best thing was to just suck it up and ask North if he could stay at the Pole.

So here he was, taking deep breaths to keep himself calm, although judging by how white his knuckles were on the hand that held his staff, it wasn't really working. He was standing in front of North's office (was it an office? Jack didn't really know), arm repeatedly going up to knock and then falling back down like he was cheering someone on.

"Come on," he mumbled to himself. "It's not that hard. Just a few, short words. 'Can I stay with you?' Totally easy." He shook his head to clear it, stepped closer to the door, and then back to his original position. Ok, maybe not so easy.

He might have stood there until North himself actually exited the room, but then, as his arm was currently in the 'up' position, he heard a large crash from somewhere in the workshop. Somehow, his mind translated the reaction to 'crashing into the door', and before he knew it, one of them was open and a large Guardian was standing just inside the room.

"Ah, Jack!" North bellowed, throwing out his arms in Jack's only warning before the Winter spirit was promptly crushed in a bear hug. "Iz good to see you!"

Jack laughed breathlessly. "Good to see you too, North."

The old man finally put Jack down, clapping him on the back as if he didn't already have enough trouble catching his breath. "What brings you to Pole?" Not that the old Russian wasn't happy to see Jack. On the contrary, he had a fondness for the boy that went beyond his usual protectiveness of children.

Lungs forgotten, Jack rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand nervously. "Yeah… that's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually."

North's expression immediately turned serious, picking up on the Winter spirit's discomfort. He stepped aside, motioning for the boy to enter. "Come."

Jack entered the room, moving to sit in a huge, overstuffed chair near a window. He smiled when North came over and opened the window for him, knowing full well that it would make him feel like he wasn't trapped, before sitting in the chair opposite the boy.

"Now," North said, placing both hands on his knees. "What troubles you?"

Jack shrugged. "It isn't trouble, really. I just wanted to ask you something."

"You're welcome to ask anything of me. You know that," North said.

"I know that, which I appreciate, by the way." The Winter spirit fiddled with his staff, glancing out the window and wishing he was outside causing a storm right about then. "Y'see, I kind of… have to stay away from Burgess during the Summer months. Obviously, I can't really be in the heat all too much, or else I start to, ah, melt, for lack of a better word."

North nodded. He knew what it was like to be out of his element, but he knew he could never relate to how fatal it could be for a Winter spirit to be underneath a hot sun for too long. It was a thing he didn't like to think too deeply about, especially when it came to the spirit sitting in front of him.

Jack rubbed the back of his neck again, waiting for the older man's words. When none came, he continued. "So, I need to stay somewhere that's cold. Normally, I just go to, I don't know, wherever it isn't Summer. This year, I would probably go to Canada. But then I realized that I would miss our monthly meetings." As soon as he said it he realized that was a lame excuse, but he couldn't take it back now. "And you guys wouldn't like that, so I figured… maybe I… can I… stay here? Just until the Fall?"

Silence.

He'd been looking down and now didn't look up, didn't want to look up. He was afraid he'd be rejected, or brushed off with excuses about Christmas preparations and his mischief influencing the elves. Really, it wasn't like North didn't like him, but who would want a hyperactive teenager in their home 24/7, for several months, all throughout Spring and Summer? And he was used to it. He'd only been a Guardian for, like, two weeks. It was all so new to him, and he was just getting over Sandy's almost-death. And then there was that whole almost-freezing-half-the-workshop incident the other day…

"Jack."

His head jerked up involuntarily, his bangs flying. "What?"

North didn't look mad, or annoyed. In fact, he looked rather thoughtful, as if trying to decide something. And not something bad, either. "I waz not going to tell you about 'zis until later, but…" he stood up, motioning for Jack to follow him.

"Tell me what?" Jack asked nervously, standing to follow North as he exited the room, imagining all sorts of things.

"Iz surprise," was all the answer North gave. He figured if he had to spoil it so soon, he wanted it to last as long as possible.

Jack was led down halls and corridors that he'd never been down before (something he planned on fixing in the future), doors of different shapes, sizes, colors and wood adorning the walls. Jack marveled at all of them, wondering just how big Santoff Claussen really was, brief excitement bubbling inside him at the prospect of having even more rooms to explore before he was reminded that he might not come back for a long while. After a few minutes, the doors became less frequent, and the rug changed from a festive cherry color with Christmas-y details to a simple dark red, until North finally stopped at a set of double doors across from a large window, in an otherwise empty hallway.

North stepped aside, motioning to the door, hardly able to restrain his glee. "Go ahead, Jack."

The Winter spirit's eyebrows furrowed. "What is it?"

"Just look, and you'll see," the older man replied cryptically.

Jack stepped forward, gripping his staff tightly and placing his empty hand on the smooth doorknob, its silver surface reflecting the light from the window. It turned without a sound, and the door opened inward smoothly. With a small nudge from North, Jack stepped inside, and promptly got the wind knocked out of him.

The room wasn't too big or too small, but just the right size for living in. And it looked as if it was living. The ceiling gently curved skyward into a dome, and across its bright blue surface, clouds actually moved as Wind happily blew around the room. There was even a small sun, hovering in the corner and shining unobtrusively.

The dome sloped into the wooden walls where trees had been carved in sharp relief, and with every gust and sigh of Wind, the etched branches would tremble and sway. Their trunks bent and moved with the clouds above, and a mist of falling winter snow covered some of them. Jack could actually hear the branches creaking and smell the pine needles through the snow. He had the urge to reach out and touch them, as if they would feel rough and uneven like the kind he always sat in.

But the floor… the floor was the best part, and Jack's mouth opened in awe when he looked down. There was a short stretch of flat rock beneath him circling the door, but every other inch of the floor was made of the smoothest ice (or was it glass?) he had ever seen, not a scratch or a nick visible anywhere. Dark water flowed beneath it, causing the light from the sun to cast shimmering patterns on the walls.

The only break in the illusion was the open window directly ahead of him, looking out into the snowy land of the Pole from which Wind blew inside, but it didn't hinder the room at all. There was a bed in one corner, a dresser, nightstand, and even a table and chair. They were also lovingly carved, although the scenes depicted in their wood were stationary.

The sound of a throat clearing behind him startled him out of his revelry, and he turned around to see North looking at him. The large Russian, usually so intimidating, looked at him eagerly, almost nervously.

"Well, Jack? What do you think?"

The Winter spirit blinked a few times. "What do I think?" he echoed.

"Yes," the elder Guardian nodded. "It iz your room, no? I made it very special, just for you."

For the second time, Jack felt the wind get knocked out of him. "This is… mine?"

North nodded again, his eyes shining.

"You made it, for me?"

North chuckled. "Yes, Jack. We established thiz. It was supposed to be Christmas present, but I did not even think about Summer months. Now I just have to make new present," he added, eyes already twinkling with ideas. "But now, you have permanent home here, to come and go as you please."

But Jack wasn't smiling. Although it wasn't because he was unhappy. He turned back to look at the beautiful room. How long had this taken North? He must have spent so much time building it, just for Jack. No one had ever built him a present, let alone given him one. Some random room in the Santoff Claussen would have worked just fine, but North had actually taken the time to make one that was personal. It felt… Jack didn't know how it felt, because it'd been a long time since he was alive, which was when he had.

"Jack?" North said quietly. He was now afraid he'd scared the boy somehow. "If you do not like it, I can always-"

Whatever he was going to say next was pushed out of him with an oof when suddenly the man found his arms full of Winter spirit, the boy hugging him so tightly he was almost knocked down. Absently, North wondered how strong Jack was because, although it didn't hurt, it certainly wasn't light.

"It's… I love it," came the words, muffled by the Guardian's red coat. "Don't change a thing."

North smiled, fully returning the embrace, so used to the cold that he ignored the waves coming off of Jack. He knew that the young spirit did not usually enjoy physical contact, so he felt pleasantly surprised by the reaction.

Jack didn't think that the elder Guardian liked him well enough to actually offer him a place to stay and to call his own. If he'd had to guess, he would've thought that Tooth would have been the best option, as motherly as she was. Or even Sandy, whom Jack had the longest relationship with out of all the Guardians. This was a huge surprise to him. Because the only home he knew as a Winter spirit was his pond, and while he loved it, he had only Wind for company. But not here.

Here, he had friends.