So it was pointed out to me by an observant reader that technically speaking this is not a sequel by definition, but more of a companion or sister-fic. Chronologically yes, this fic overlaps Heart(h), although it has never been my intention to merely rehash the same scenes from a different point of view. In my headcanon, Aster has removed himself from his friends, thus limiting his perspective on the situation only to his encounters with Jack and his thoughts and reactions to them. Jack on the other hand, has friends for the first time since he was human. Friends that he loves to visit and are able to provide outside input on the situation as it evolves, which is what this fic is attempting to capture. You'll all have to let me know how well I'm accomplishing that!
As far as a legitimate sequel, well, the muses have something in the works for when this part wraps up. Stay tuned!
Truth be told, Jack hated the Tooth palace with a deep and abiding passion. Oh, the place was lovely, and the occupants were always fantastic company, which made visiting more than worthwhile, but by MiM, the heat. Contrary to popular opinion, popular being the Burgess kids spearheaded by Jamie, Jack wouldn't actually melt in this kind of ambient heat. Jack's innate magic kept him cool enough for survival in just about any place on Earth, save maybe the belly of an active volcano, but give him a break, only fire elementals could survive a place like that! No, Jack wasn't going to melt away in a big puddle, in fact it wasn't even enough to keep him away from his favorite believers during the summertime, he just had to keep his visits shorter, is all. No, Jack wasn't in danger from the heat so much as it just made him uncomfortable. See, most people just sweated a lot and turned red in high temperatures, but Jack? Jack didn't do any of that, he was incapable of it. Instead picture this; Jack gets pins and needles. Worst feeling on Earth right there, when your foot starts to 'wake up' after falling asleep. Jack had hated the natural phenomenon as a human, and now, in warm places, like say, oh Tooth's chosen home, there was no escaping the gradual creep of gooseflesh across his skin until, eventually, the tingling would start. After that it was all downhill until his skin felt like it was crawling with fire ants and he was forced to make a hasty exit back to cooler climates.
Jack's heat tolerance had gotten a lot better actually since he'd started collecting believers. They numbers in the thousands now, in fact, thankyouverymuch! Even with the added boost though, he still only had the staying power to hold out for about four hours before the discomfort became unbearable. Lucky for Jack, both Tooth and Sandy had long since understood that and neither held his limitations against him, a fact that both startled and humbled him in turns. Jack knew that he was somewhat raw around the edges, three hundred years of being nothing but unseen by humans and an annoyance at best to the majority of the spirits he'd stumbled across had left him jaded and wary, forever waiting for the other shoe to drop. Jack also knew that none of him companions seemed to realize this, save for Bunny who so sharp he never seemed to miss a thing, damn that oversized rodent. Well, Bunny and Jamie to an extent. Jack didn't think Jamie was old enough to have the context required for understanding, but there was just something about the way he handled Jack with kid gloves, no pun intended, that told Jack the adorable little half-pint had noticed that something was not quite on par with his frosty friend. From anyone else, the soft touch would have been unappreciated in the extreme, but from Jamie? Well, Jack had always been a sucker for kids, especially those that called him 'brother.'
Jack also knew that he was lucky that Tooth was enthusiastic enough to carry on a conversation with minimal input from the other participant, or else his lapse in attention would have long since been noticed. Not that he didn't care what Tooth had to say, it's just that Jack was still working on the focus thing. Although, at this point the winter spirit was starting to think that he was the poster child for an ADHD diagnosis. Come to think of it, that thought might have merit. Jack still had those textbooks stashed at North's, he should give the DSM-4 a quick browse for some further info, maybe he could figure out some sort of strategy to mitigate his symptoms...
Right, conversation with Tooth. Focus Jack, focus.
"And then I took a look at the premolar, and Jack you've never seen a cavity so horrible! What are they teaching kids today?" Jack couldn't help a chuckle at his friend's obvious distress. He sometimes felt that Tooth's priorities were slightly skewed, but hey, he'd once iced the roads to make a busload of nuns slide into a pole outside a strip club for no reason other than it seemed funny at the time. No one was hurt thankfully, but the look on the nuns faces when they realized where all the good Samaritans who'd run to give aid had just come from? Well, Jack didn't think he'd ever seen a group of women be so horrified at touching a man's hand in his life. Not that Jack could blame them, he knew what he'd have been doing with his hands if he'd been in that strip club and it wasn't playing patty cake with the bartender. Damn the 'joys' of an eternal puberty, anyways. Well, once he'd figured out that his heartbeat, like breathing, eating sleeping and all other bodily functions other people took for granted came with an on/off switch, that is. Hard to jack off (gigglesnort) without a functioning funpole.
Hell Jack, you're in the presence of a lady, focus!
"I think decent oral hygiene has sadly gone the way of the Dodo as far as parenting is concerned. You know, right on the heels of 'common sense,' 'work ethic,' and 'integrity and moral decency.'" Jack hated to speak ill of the children he'd sworn to watch over, but he couldn't help but feeling that sometimes there were fighting a losing battle, and they had all the less-than-fantastic parent's to thank for it. Tooth nods sagely across the table from him, teacup in hand.
"I worry Jack sometimes Jack about the world we'll see a hundred, two hundred years from now." Jack can't help but agree, lips pressed in a thin line. Silence falls over the two friends, each taking a minute to sip at their tea and compose their thoughts. Jack relaxes first, huffing a sigh as he leans back in his chair, stretching bare feet out in front of him, where a small flock of half a dozen mini-fairies shift to follow, cooing to each other over the perfection of his narrow toes, or something. A bunch of crazed foot fetishists, that bunch were right there.
"So, speaking of worrying, I dropped in on Bunny a couple days back." Jack had expected the topic would cause some surprise, but he wasn't expecting Tooth's distressed little squeak or her suddenly painfully wide eyes.
"Oh no Jack, tell me you didn't!" Jack blinks, confused as anything at her vehemence.
"Um, yeah? I don't see what's the big whoop, I mean I washed some dishes and had dinner with the guy. Who looked better at the end of it, I swear. I didn't even poke fun or frost his doorstep or anything. You'd have been proud of me Tooth; I was the very pinnacle of maturity and restraint." Now it' Tooth's turn to blink at him, long and slow.
"You washed dishes? Had dinner? Jack, you just walked into his home? Pooka's don't, well; they don't really do that stuff. I don't know all the details, Bunny's never told me but it's some cultural thing, you don't just do that." Jack was forced to shrug, giving Tooth an easy grin in the hopes of calming her fears.
"I know, I was worried he'd be mad too, but he didn't seem anything more than surprised. Also, he totally needed his dishes done, mean you shoulda seen the pile; it was taller than I am! And no jokes about everything being taller than I am, I'm not that short!" Despite her reservations Tooth giggles into her hand and favours Jack with a fond smile.
"Well if you say so. Are you going to go back?" Jack nods in confirmation.
"Yeah someone's gotta keep an eye on him, and he was dumb enough to give me an open invite, so he'd better just try to keep me out!" At this Tooth looks perplexed again and Jack can't help but wonder how many times he was going to manage to cause that expression today.
"An open invite? That's... highly unusual. Bunny values his privacy, I don't think even Sandy has that privilege." Now Jack was surprised, of all the Guardians he'd expected Sandy to also have free access. It was a well-known fact that the two of them were some of the oldest immortals currently occupying the planet and as such were pretty chummy. Jack honestly didn't know what to think of a world where Bunny had chosen his unlimited company over the freaking Sandman, who was a long-time friend and just plain awesome to boot. Some of his consternation must have shown because Tooth took pity on him, reaching one slight hand across the table to rest on his forearm.
"I wouldn't worry Jack, if Bunny didn't want you there he'd let you know. He's certainly not quiet about his displeasures!" Jack couldn't help but laugh in agreement with Tooth's observation.
"Yeah, I'll stick my head in again tomorrow, and if you get my body back in individually packaged pieces, you'll know how it went. Just don't forget to stitch it back together properly so everything heals right, I don't want to be stumbling about on backwards legs or something." As usual Tooth looked trapped between a giggle and a horrified expression at Jack's casual reference to his status as a member of the walking dead, which was progress over the straight up horror all his friends had sported when he'd first told them about his memories all those months ago. Apparently death and resurrection weren't actually standard fare for this particular gang, go figure. If Jack succeeded in one thing during his tenure as a Guardian it would be bombarding his friends with bad Zombie jokes until they finally stopped fretting about it so damn much. Well, everyone save Bunny, the Pooka had just blinked a couple times then shrugged it off, even going as far as making a couple of jokes at Jack's expense when the opportunity arose.
"Just... Be careful Jack. Bunny's skin isn't always as thick as it seems." Tooth's words are solemn, and Jack takes them at full face value, he knows that he still has a bit of a reputation among his friends as somewhat reckless and impulsive. It's a reputation he's earned in spades over the years and he can't fault her for her concern, considering she's never met Jackson Overland, the big brother, the doting son, the boy who became Man of the House far too young and, despite his love of tricks and games always knew when it was time to put childish things aside and be the man his family needed.
"I will Tooth, cross my heart." Jack's reassuring smile is met with a glowing one from the feathered lady across from him, and he feels the tension slip from his slim frame with her approval.
It was about at this point in the conversation that the crawling sensation had begun to escalate, and so Jack found himself bidding his hostess goodbye, promising her like he did every visit that he'd someday settle down and construct himself a home for her to be a guest in. A promise Jack had every intention of keeping. Someday. Maybe.
Yeah, whatever. He was Jack Frost; he had his staff, the wind at his back, and the world as his literal playground. He had believers and friends who were steadily inching towards 'family.'
He also had a man-sized, stubborn, overbearing control-freak of a Bunny to babysit.
Oh well, no rest for the naughty, right? Besides, it kinda sounded like fun.