This is the story of redemption and the pain it might take to get it, because that's all he wanted. To be free.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Rise of the Guardians as the movie franchise belongs to Dreamworks and the books belong to William Joyce.
Suggestions: Look into some of the costuming and lifestyle of traditional Korea to give yourself more of a mental image. The best way to do this is looking into some Korean dramas or modern Korean music/culture. I suggest Sungkyunkwan Scandal because it's really popular among fans of Kdrama.
Genre: Historical AU/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure

Happy reading!

하나
People Like Me

Chapter One

It was a clear night. The moon was shining, casting its pale white light all over the village. The owls were hooting. The children were sleeping in their beds, and the dogs were barking at their shadows. It was beautiful; it'd be the perfect night to, I don't know, not be thrown in jail. Somewhere in the quiet night there was a fragile and innocent brunette boy being thrown into jail cell against his will.

There was a loud thud as my back hit the stone wall, and the first thing that came to my mind was

Again?

But I had to bite my tongue unless I wanted to lose it.

Jackson Lee, that's me.

Imprisoned again.

For what?

For freezing my watch official. If you ask me, he needed to cool down.

I mean, it was an accident, but no one was going to listen to me. I was just a monster to them. A monster with freak ice powers, but don't feel bad for me. I've learned to live with the judgmental looks, and I can't complain about the elbow room I get in public.

Another thud and any source of light in the jail cell went with the guard who threw me in as he slammed the door.

"Look at me, punk," he said so politely. I glanced up at him through my hair but refused to look at him directly, mostly because he was spraying not saying. I guess it was enough for him because he continued. "You're finally gonna get what's coming to you, kid. For seventeen years, you've been allowed to roam loose around here, making a mess of everything. You just wait until tomorrow. Then, we'll all be free of you."

With that, he turned to his fellow guard partner, and they left from the front of the door.

"Lee won't be so lucky this time," I heard the other one say. I pressed my ear to the door. "Third strike is tchkkkk."

The main guard said something in reply, but they were leaving earshot, so I peeled my ear off of the door and leaned back against the same wall I was thrown against and thought how I could possibly get out of this one.

You see, here in DaeBak[1], they don't play around with law. The first time you're convicted of something, you have to have an official follow you everywhere. He's usually a big guy with broad shoulders, a broadsword, and B.O. I was convicted the first time a long time ago for something I don't even remember. The second time, you are sentenced to a "grounding": no food and no water for a week, and you're locked inside a room in the main building of the village. I also was convicted a second time for something I don't remember. And it was in that building that I froze my official and got convicted a third time, and if you're in trouble three times…

Well, let's just say you'll be missing the no food, no water punishment, and that's where I was headed. Headed to be beheaded. I laughed through my nose at my own joke.

See? I have sense of humor.

I'm not an animal. I am a human being.

Now, I know what you're thinking: why don't I just freeze the door and break out since freezing things is what got me here in the first place?

I would if I could, but it was an accident, remember? So, the only thing I could do was put my head on my knees and count all the stripes on my hanbok[2]with the moonlight coming from my right.

So, this was it. I was going to die so young and so handso-

Wait, moonlight?

I snapped my head back to the source, and sure enough, very high on the wall, was a slot of open wall just big enough for a big dog or small human to fit through.

Do I dare?

I looked back to the door to make sure no one was coming. It was clear.

You bet every brown hair on my head I dare.

I stood up and went toward the wall. If I jumped high enough, I could catch the ledge and pull myself only thing was the only object in the room was me, and I wasn't very tall.

Just then something strange happened.

"Psst!" a voice whispered. "Hurry up!"

What the heck?

My first instinct was to look back to the door to see if the guards had come back, but there was no one. That meant it could only be coming from the window, but that was impossible since it was so high up. Was I hearing voices?

I wasn't sure, so I did the only rational thing when voices from the abyss are whispering to you.

"Me?"

I heard an exasperated sigh before,

"Yes, you! Come on! Are you leaving jail or what?"

Some incoherent mumbling followed afterwards, but no matter how much the voice urged, I still stood confused in my spot.

"You're talking to me?" I repeated.

"Ugh, that's it! Hit him, Sen[3]!"

Hit me?

"Woah, what—" but before I could finish protesting, something flew through the window and hit me on the head, and I was out.

-.'.-

"Jack," she called. Her voice soothing, her eyes bright and welcoming.

"I'm here," I heard myself say. "I'm right here."

At my response, she smiled, but I couldn't see her face. I could only see her eyes, her gorgeous pink eyes. They looked like they held everything to know, good and bad, and they were so inviting. For the first time in a long while, I was starting to feel at peace with everything like I was bathing in warmth.

But the good feelings started to fade as her eyes suddenly shifted to worry.

"Don't leave," she implored.

"No, don't worry." I said, but I wasn't even convincing myself. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here."

But other voices that weren't hers started slicing through the darkness, saying things like,

"How hard did you hit him?" and "Wait, he's coming to."

And she was gone.

At the sound of the voices, I opened my eyes to the two unflinching pairs of eyes of my kidnapper's staring back at me.

Yep, there go the good feelings.

I felt my eyebrows come together as I looked around. I was in a room on the floor, wrapped in a blanket, meaning I was sleeping. There was a ceiling and walls with pretty nice wallpaper, if I may add, and a paper door that let in the sunlight, so it cast a bright streak of light across the room. It was nice-looking and—

But, wait, can we get back to the two people staring at me?

"Hello?" I peeped.

The taller male with neat black hair and tribal triangles decorating his hanbok nudged the shorter blond kid with spiky hair next to him, and I noticed his cross necklace gleam in the sunlight. It looked like he had…a rabbit tattoo on his wrist.

"Maybe keep it to a minimum next time, eh, Sen?" he teased. "The poor fellow can't even talk straight."

The kid shrugged sheepishly.

Okay, future reference, Lee, if, no, when you do get out of here, get the blond kid first.

I tried to sit up but faltered.

"No, lie down," the tall guy insisted. "I'm Ace[4], and that's Sen."

I opened my mouth.

"Yes, he's the one who hit you on the head."

I closed my mouth.

"But we're not here for introductions," Ace—what kind of name is Ace—gestured to the doorway. "Someone outside needs to see you."

Yeah, I'm going to go with no.

I looked at my kidnappers like they were crazy…which they were and removed the blanket off of me in case I had to do any sudden movement.

"How about I don't go, and you guys let me go before I have to do something irrational?" I tried to sound threatening, but it came out like a squeal.

That Ace guy just laughed and looked at Stan or whatever his name was. They had some kind of eye conversation before they both looked back to me.

"I'm serious," I outstretched my hands. "You don't know what I'm capable of."

But the two didn't listen to me. Instead, they lifted up by my elbows and carried me out of the room.

"Hey!" I protested but to no avail.

They were supposed to be afraid of me! Haven't they heard about my background? How I single-handedly killed a girl and three men with just my freaky ice powers? Don't they hear about what's said about me or how people look at me?

I struggled to release myself, but that short blond Sam kid had superhuman strength. I looked at incredulously, but he just winked at me.

"Aw, quit squirming," Ace said to my left. "We're not scared of you."

They brought me into another room that was bigger but still had plenty of sunlight. In the middle were a table and four seat pillows…and a guy with really shaggy eyebrows[5] drinking tea?

The two guys plopped me down on a seat pillow opposite eyebrow guy before joining me on my flanks. I shot them dagger looks while I rubbed my elbows.

The man smiled widely when we walked in. Okay, when Bunny Wrist and Blondie walked in and when I was carried in against my will sounds more like it. He looked like a decent man even though he had me kidnapped, but then I noticed his hand.

He was using fire from his own hand to light the candle next to him. I looked back at Sen and Ace, but Sen didn't see me because he was too busy straightening his clothes with air he made. From his hands.

Something was off in this room, and it wasn't the lavender air spray.

Eyebrow Guy took my distraction as a chance to lead me into stipulating conversation.

"We leave tomorrow," he stated simply.

"T-tomorrow?" I asked. "Leave?"

We?

"Yes," he said before he sipped his tea that he warmed himself. "My belly tells me we have been summoned. By Chia.[6]"

The name triggered a flashback to a crying little girl and a scream, but it was gone in a flash. I did hear that name before, and it was never used in a good way.

"The witch?"

Eyebrows nodded.

"If you want to live."

This just keeps getting better.

[1] This literally means 'Awesome!' in Korean. So, they live in a Korean town called 'Awesome!'. Yeah.

[2] Really pretty traditional Korean clothing. Go look it up!

[3] This is Sandy, but Koreans can't say 'ah' like apple, so they say 'eh'.

[4] Guess who? *whispers* It's Bunny ;]. Ace came from E. Aster Bunnymund.

[5] Ol' North

[6] 'Chia' is the Romanization for '치아', which means 'tooth'.

But, hey, thanks for reading! Hopefully, it wasn't too, too terrible, right? It picks up. Promise. I will update this story every Tuesday and Thursday, so be on the lookout! I also have another story called 'Promise' I'm working on-also JackxTooth, but it's set during the Roman Empire.

Reviews are always welcome!