Welcome to another Christmas Rise of the Guardians one shot! Sorry it's a little late. My holiday season was hectic with my family out of town.
This year's one shot is a little more special because it gives you guys a better look at the newest Frost kid before his official debut in a planned sequel to Snow's story "The Guardian of Imagination".
This one shot would never have been complete without MistyLilyValley, who looked over what I had written, improved it and even wrote what she saw happening, which is what half this story is.
Now read and Frost on!
"Jay!" A voice shouted through the halls of an ice building. "Jay! Mom and Dad are waiting for us!" 10-year old Snowdella Mist (aka Snow) placed her hands on her hips, frowning as she turned her heterochromatic eyes left and right. It was time for Nicholas St. North's (aka Santa Claus) Christmas Day party and Snow was in charge of finding her younger brother, 4-year old Jaiden Frost (aka Jay) in time for her and her parents to leave for the party.
Snow jumped slightly when she felt a cool hand on her head and looked up to see both of her parents, Jack Frost and Casey Aqua, standing behind her, both with staffs in hand. "Did you find Jay yet, Snowflake?" Jack asked, a frown on his own face, his ice blue eyes filled with worry. Casey's own sapphire blue eyes were also worry-filled, her pale face paler if possible.
Snow shook her head. "Sorry, Dad, no." She answered sadly.
Jack sighed, taking his hand off his daughter's head, and ran his pale fingers through his snow white hair. "Well, we better find him soon." Jack said.
"Poor Jay is probably scared." Casey said. "Not only is this his first time to North's place, but this is the first time he's been outside home since he was born."
Chuckling to herself inwardly, Snow just thought, 'Oh yeah? What about the night he was born up at the North Pole?'
Jack nodded. "Let's just find our son and make sure he's okay."
10 minutes later found Snow in a far away hall of Aqua-Frost Castle (a castle Jack and Casey had made in a mountain area after Jay's birth, filled with both snow and waterfalls, perfectly suited to the family of four) when she stopped. Listening, Snow sighed at the sound of soft sobbing and immediately recognized it as Jay. Flying fast, the sobbing got louder until Snow found her brother on the balcony of the castle.
Jay was sitting against the icy glass that capped off the balcony, his knees pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped around them, and his head laying on top of his arms. Snow watched as the 4-year old's shoulders shook with sobs, and she sighed, walking slowly over to sit next to her brother.
Jay was very different from his sister and his parents. He had been conceived during the time Jack, Casey, and the rest of the Guardians had been weakening. Jack and Casey were among the four Guardians that were slowly reverting back to their human appearances. As a result, Jay had been born with dual colored hair and eyes like Snow, but while Snow's hair and eyes resembled the colors of their parents in spirit form, Jay's resembled their parents in their human forms (dark brown highlighted light brown hair and heterochromatic green and brown eyes).
Jay also didn't walk around barefoot like his parents and sister, instead choosing to wear a pair of black boots similar to what Casey had worn when alive. He also didn't follow his family's love of wearing hoodies, instead choosing to wear a red long sleeve with a black vest over it. All in all, he looked like a boy version of a very young Casey when she was human. Also, because Jay had been conceived during Jack and Casey's weakened states, he had been born blind, which made things a little more difficult for him.
Despite him being conceived when his parents were reverting back to human, Jay still shared his father and sister's immunity to cold and his mother's ability to breathe underwater, though, like how Snow mostly took after their father, Jay took more after their mother. While Snow had chosen to refine her powers over winter, rarely using her water abilities, Jay had begun tuning into his water abilities from the moment he could walk. They had also quickly discovered that Jay possessed a power they neither had themselves or could figure out how he himself had it: control and generation of electrical fields.
Snow slid down the icy pane onto the floor next to the toddler and wrapped a black-sleeved arm around his shoulders. Jay jumped slightly at the sudden touch, having not noticed his sister was even there. He lifted his head from his arms, turning it so his sightless eyes were facing in Snow's general direction. Snow smiled and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.
"What's wrong, Jay-Jay?" She asked. "Why are you hiding from us? Don't you wanna go see North and meet the other Guardians at last?"
Jay shook his head. "No. They're scary."
Snow raised an eyebrow, fighting back a chuckle. "Now how would you know that? You've never met them. I know for a fact that none of them are scary around kids. Just around bad guys like the Boogeyman and Angel Moon."
"But what if they don't like me?" Jay whimpered, leaning into Snow's side and wrapping his arms around her stomach tightly. "What if they think I'm weird cause I can't see?"
"They would never EVER think that." Snow answered, frowning slightly and putting a hand on his head, threading her fingers through his dual brown hair comfortingly. "They know all about you and how you can't see." She leaned close to Jay's ear and whispered, "Aunt Tooth said that just makes you more adorable. She can't wait to see if you inherited Dad's pearly whites."
Jay giggled softly. "Really?" He asked looking up at Snow, his sightless eyes shining bright with mirth.
"Aunt Tooth LOVES teeth. Dad said the first time she saw him, she immediately stuck her fingers in his mouth to see them up close." At this, Jay burst out laughing, soon joined by Snow. "And Uncle Bunny may seem tough, but he absolutely adores children like us, or 'anklebituhs' as he calls us, especially his own daughter, Aurora."
"What about Uncle North?" Jay asked. "Is he jolly like the stories say?"
"Oh big time. Always eating cookies he is so blissfully unaware his elves lick." Jay giggled again. For the next several minutes, Snow continued to describe the rest of the Guardians (Song, Narain, Aurora, Dusty, Blaze, Taylor, Saige, Solar and Cloud) and watched as her brother's face lit up with a smile that grew wider with each member she described.
"They sound nice." Jay mumbled.
Snow grinned. "Told you." She stood up, dusting the back of her pants off and stretching. "You gonna come now?" Snow could see Jay still looked terrified and she smiled, sighing slightly. "How about this: you get up off your butt and come with me to meet up with mom and dad and I promise I won't leave your side at North's until you tell me otherwise?"
Jay looked up at towards her, sightless heterochromatic brown and green eyes large with fear. "Promise?"
Snow grinned and reached down, picking the 4-year old up in her arms and hugging him tightly. "I swear on my life as the Guardian of Imagination." Long ago, Snow had taught Jay that when she swore on her Guardian status, that meant she was dead serious.
Jay wrapped his small arms around his sister's neck, burying his face in her shoulder. "Okay." He said finally. "I'll go."
"Awesome." Snow replied, picking up her staff. She shifted Jay around to where he was sitting on her back and began gliding down the hall, searching for Jack and Casey.
Later at the Pole, Snow kept her word, staying close to Jay, the latter choosing to hide behind the former's back. She sighed as she led him to Aurora, Dusty and Blaze.
"Hey guys." She said.
"Hey, Snow." Aurora replied. The 13-year old looked around Snow's back when she saw Jay move, grinning. "No way. Is that little Jaiden?"
Snow giggled and nodded. "He prefers Jay but yeah it's him."
"Wow." Dusty said, putting her hands on her knees and bending down to Jay's level. Jay, not sure where to look, kept his eyes straight forward. "The last time we saw him, Casey had just given birth to him." She frowned, looking closer. "Why isn't he looking at me?"
"Poor kid's been blind since the day he was born." Snow answered, putting a hand on Jay's head. "Jay, these two girls are my friends, Aurora Borealis and Dusty Starlight."
Blaze squatted in front of him. "Hey kiddo." He said softly holding a hand slowly out. "I'm Blaze Summer, your cousin."
"He's mom's nephew from when she was human."
Jay didn't say anything and Snow sighed. "Sorry Blaze. He's really shy."
Blaze shrugged. "No big deal."
"Hey, guys," we all heard a certain red-headed princess call out as she walked towards us with poor Nightlight in tow, who had his arms full of presents and his teeth clenched around his staff just to hold it.
"Who's that?" I heard Jay ask, peeking out under my left arm where my hand lowered to stroke his hair.
"That's Luna, squirt, you remember me telling you about her, too, right?" I replied, smiling up at her as she locked my eyes and beamed.
With a small shrug, Jay stepped out from behind my leg but still stayed close to me as Luna came over to hug me.
"Aw, Snow, he's precious," Luna's tingly voice cooed as I watched as Jay lifted his head to follow the sound of her voice as she lowered herself to her knees in front of him. "Hi."
"Are you really a Princess?" Jay asked her as Luna started laughing with a slight shake of her head.
Seeing Jay's confused expression, I explained, "Yes, she is, but she doesn't act like one!"
I laughed as Luna explained, "I heard that, Snow!" I ducked as she tossed a snowball over my head.
Charging after her, I raised my staff over my head and shouted, "Alright, now you've really started a war!"
However, a cry skirted me to a sudden stop as I turned to see Jay had collapsed to his knees in the snow in his fright, his sides heaving as I rushed back over to drop my staff and wrap my arms around him.
"I'm here, Jay," I assured him. "I'm here."
"Hey, is everything alright out here?" I turned to see Castor, with his short wavy brown hair blowing slightly out behind him as I saw him removing his guard mask from his same heterochromatic eyes (one, too, brown and the other one the brightest blue, just like North's). With his boot crunching out across the snow, Jaiden looked up to adhere who was coming as Castor just stopped a few feet from him.
Castor towered over us all, but I never told Jay that. I never told him anything about him, how he had helped us find the way to defeat Angel Moon. The answer to how, well it was weird, but now he was here, and here he stayed.
"Jaiden, is it?" he asked him as Jay stood to his feet.
Saying nothing, my little brother just nodded in response as Castor looked him at me.
"A little shy, huh?" he asked, donning an acute smile as he called out to everyone. "Hey, is everyone going to stay here in the snow or do you all want to come in for some of my Dad's famous hot chocolate?"
A lot of chatter arouse around as everyone, including the twins, who had joined us outside looked in interest as they hurried inside. However, walking over, Cloud joined us as she wrapped an arm around Castor's as she nodded towards him.
"Castor has something he wants to give Jaiden, if that's ok, Snow," she stated as Castor watched my wary eyes.
"Depends what it is," I stated, evenly, to which Castor just sighed.
"Well, you have to come in to find out," he said, seeing a glimmer in Jay's eye as Jay looked up from where he still had ahold of my hand.
"Who's that?" Jay asked me.
Saying nothing at first, I watched them go back inside as they left the door open ajar for us in that arctic wind. Looking down to see that Jay was as calm as could be, I watched him drop his gaze to listen as he then looked up to feel the unsure tension in my hand he was clenching. He was still waiting for my answer.
"That was North's son," I answered finally as I herded my little brother inside. "Come on, let's go get that hot chocolate."
We had barely made it inside before we got called over to the center of the workshop where Castor stood waiting by a craft table, where a couple of North's yetis were taking turns painting Christmas tree ornaments.
"Hey, guys, enough with the red, make some of them green," Castor called out, to which some of the yetis exclaimed up at the piles after piles of red ornaments. "Trust me, it'll look great."
While one or two of them grumbled, I couldn't help but laugh. "At least you didn't tell them that you didn't like it," I said, donning a small smile.
"Well, Dad has his signature mark on this place, and that includes a lot of red," Castor chuckled, pulling out a plastic scabbard pack from the stack on the table. Inside was a durable bamboo sword, to which when Castor allowed Jay to feel it made something in my little brother's eyes smile.
"What is that thing?" I exclaimed as Jay picked it up. "Be careful, Jay."
"Don't worry, it won't hurt him," Castor assured me, despite Jay already taking it out and thunking it against one of the tables in a trepid rhythm, one that made one of the yetis heavy furred mustaches twitch along. "It's a shinah, a bamboo sword, if you prefer, used in training. I carved it myself, so it should be pretty strong when he starts wielding it in practice."
"Wait, what?!" I shouted, completely dumbfounded by his words. "You gave him a weapon?"
"Cool!" Jay called, running down the hallway with it, following the smell of hot chocolate all the way, and disappearing just as fast as he did at home.
"He's only four! He could get hurt," I shouted at Castor as he joined me in tracking down my brother. "What were you thinking?"
"Snow, you're overreacting," he said gently as I boiled.
"I am not!" I called, my scream echoing along the tall ceilings of the corridors.
"Listen, my Dad told me how your parents reacted the first night your brother was born, when they first noticed," he explained in a soft voice, watching as my eyes teared with the memory. "Tell me, what did you feel that night when you found out?"
"I knew something was off …" I started to say, tearing up. "I wanted to protect him."
"You'll always be there to protect him," he assured me, "but, what if one day he has to protect himself?"
"He can learn," I replied, suddenly realizing the real purpose behind Castor's gift. Guiding me into the room where everyone stood around the tree, I saw to my left where Jay was sitting with Dusty, Solar, and even Blaze as they sat around, sharing stories and experiences around a crackling fire.
"You and your brother aren't so different, you each harness things that will make you stronger. Never forget that," he said, finally leaving me alone standing amidst everyone else who looked up to see walk over to join my brother as I got passed my own cup of hot chocolate.
"Snow, look what Blaze gave me!" Jay said, turning around to show me a seemingly blazing sunburst gem with an icy sheen covering it. "Isn't it cool?"
Cupping in my cooled hands, I felt something in it spark as I looked up to see a surge of energy spark up in Jay as he started laughing along with my friends. Smiling, I watched him pass into my hands as I noticed his staff next my side. Taking it up in my hands, I tested it as I noticed a recent chipped socket that the jeweled garnet slipped into.
Jay, who didn't even noticed what I did, took up his staff and sword-played with Blaze as they chased each other around the bench as I just beamed.
I wasn't sure if he would use the staff one day or not, but like Castor said, it would help give him something to fight for. Staff or no staff, he was Jaiden Frost, my strong little brother.