So, this was requested by a guest user. Honestly I was already working on it before it was requested so like when I saw it I was like…'well aren't you in for a treat'.
Just the ending wasn't working out as well as I thought, but the issues in this will be loosely tied to ones in future one-shot/arches. Speaking of arches I am currently working on one, but I don't wanna post it until I get the whole thing done. In the meantime, how about we just focus on these little one shots.
Also, big shout out to my first reviewer: sparklehannah. You're super sweet! I will make sure to do my bes to keep up with your expectation.
Also regarding seasonal spirits and stuff. I'm not really big on OCs so I'll try to keep them to a minimal. Although I do have them, they are minor. And also on the note of seasons, regarding the weather patterns, well that is explained as I go along. I know the weather in the Northern and Southern hemisphere are opposite, and realized I didn't explain Jack's method of working very well in the past story, so there is a small explanation here. You see, I don't feel like making a whole separate one shot for the explanation of them, there will be small bits of explanations as I go. These are all in the same timeline, I will mention things from previous chapters, because they are all loosely connected.
But for those of you who like seasonal stuff, I do have one that is more heavily based on the theme. Except it is different, but it's turning out to have more explination for the stuff then I expected.
Hope you enjoy ;)
Immortal Needs
Eating and sleeping were not foreign things to Jack, so much as they were unneeded. He acknowledged they existed, but he never needed it before. Only when he was hurt, which wasn't that often. He travelled the world and it was mostly at night when he started his work of frosting windows his beautiful frost patterns and icing lakes solid so kids wouldn't fall through and making the entire landscape a winter white wonderland. Sometimes he'd be privileged enough to play with the kids (that couldn't see him) in snowball fights or sled rides, if it was day.
It's what he'd been doing for 300 years. He didn't know how big of an impact it had on him, until he became a guardian.
Hunger (noun)-a feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat.
It wasn't like he needed it anyway. He was immortal, it wouldn't do much if he ate- even if most spirits do it anyway. He didn't follow the same human requirements to survive. Although he did wonder sometimes what the immortal requirements to survive were. The gnawing for hunger or the lull of sleep didn't ever come to him, so he never thought about it. And with his job taking up the majority of his time, he really found no room to revel in the luxury of sleep or indulge in the privilege to eat. Besides, he wouldn't even know how to acquire said privilege. If he did happen to come across a scrap of food he'd either ignore it or give it to a starving child on the side of the street - foster home systems were seriously screwed up sometimes. He was fully against stealing, his hoodie wasn't even an acception, it was thrown out in the middle of the woods by some campers and they didn't come back for it.
There were two reasons he took the hoodie in the first place. One was the fact that his brown cloak was unravelling at the seems literally. He could've gone on in his worn off white t-shirt, but he was aware of how alarmingly skinny he was, not that he'd ever care, but he just felt exposed. The cloak had given him some coverage of his actual body size, but without it he knew he looked frail. Even if no one could see him, he didn't like the fact he looked as such. So when he put on the hoodie and it made him look, not frail and was a bit bulky so it did make it appear he was a healthy size and weight for a person his age - or his physical age, his technical age wasn't relevant. Plus, it was blue - that probably was the real reason he took it.
He didn't need food, but he didn't know it had an affect on his body. He never got hungry, but he didn't notice the slight thinning. He was skinny to begin with so he wouldn't notice his loss of weight. Not unless he was someone else, and no one ever saw him.
When he was alone those first 300 years, he just threw himself into work after 50 years of realizing he was invisible. He would go wherever the wind took him and he'd make a snow day wherever it'd stop. Then it was back to the sky. He never thought about needing to rest or eat, and the habit just stuck with him even as he transitioned into making friends with all the guardians. So when he was in North's workshop, just flying around on an air current and pulling a few pranks here or there, never really doing much just passing the time until the wind told him it was time to go. It was summer though, so the wind had died down more than it would in the colder half of the year.
He'd go to North's workshop to escape the summer heat, but North and his yetis were still warm-blooded creatures and the North pole was very cold - Bunny over exaggerated the temperature sometimes though, in Jack's opinion. To keep the warm blooded creatures warm, North would put raging fires in his fireplaces and they were huge and hot - Jack over exaggerated their temperature though, in Bunny's opinion.
Jack had gotten a bit hot, so he decided to take off his hoodie and just roam around in his t-shirt. Phil, who had already seen the winter teen without the hoodie on multiple occasions, rolled his eyes as he grumbled something for the winter spirit to come down.
"You're just upset that I got you with ice water again." Jack grinned down at him. And Phil grumbled something about being too afraid to come down and face consequences.
"You know ice water wouldn't work on me." said as he sat casually on a banister, one leg dangling and his staff in his lap. "I'm not affected by cold." He snorted, and Phil grumbled something about fire and heat.
"Awww, Phil you don't mean that." Jack said mocking hurt knowing the yeti wouldn't do anything to harm him, but he would play along. Phil grumbled some more about being serious, but that was when North walked in.
He looked happy, before he looked up.
It wasn't the fact that his head yeti was soaked in ice cold water, nor was it the fact the person who did the soaking was perfectly okay and hanging on the banister. This was normal. Phil scolding Jack for pranks he pulled through out the workshop - though it amused North cause Jack would pull it as far as he could go without disrupting production. No, it was the fact that a certain prankster wasn't wearing his hoodie.
He was all for Jack opening up and trusting them, and taking off a hoodie wasn't a big deal in the least. It normally wouldn't be. North never thought about it much, what Jack looked like under the hoodie, but he never thought he'd be so skinny, and frail.
"Hey, North." Jack said with a mischievous grin and let the air current take him to hover near North without touching the ground. "What's up?" he asked casually when he noticed North lost his cheer he swung his staff casually across his thin shoulders.
"Jack...where is your hood?" he pointed to the boy's torso with a raised eyebrow and Jack looked down.
"It was hot." he shrugged. "I took it off."
"You could have opened window, no?" North said.
"Yeah, well the wind doesn't have work for me today and that means there's not enough wind to make it cold." the winter teen explained casually. Honestly it was less than 0 degrees outside, what exactly did Jack frost consider cold. North had a sinking feeling he didn't want to know.
"Well, you very skinny. Why not eat cookie?" North boomed and was asking a yeti to bring a tray of them.
"No, North you really dont-" He was cut off when North started to shout orders and snuck glimpses at his skinny form.
"Bah, nonsense! You eat good, da?" he said loudly and ordered more cookies. The elves brought them but Jack pushed them away.
"I'm not hungry." He said flatly. But North brushed him off and picked up a cookie.
"Bah, you eat no?" he said again as he pushed the treat closer to the winter spirit. Jack leaned away.
North continued to eye Jack's slim form, and that was making Jack uncomfortable. So Jack did what he always did when he was uncomfortable. High tail it out of there.
"Well North, nice seeing you." he said casually, making sure not to show his discomfort as he flew up to the banister and grab his hoodie and put it on. He then proceeded to fly out the window and not wait for North to reply.
That's the last time I take off my hoodie in front of North.
Tired (Adjective) - in need of sleep or rest; weary.
He never was tired much. Only when he got seriously hurt or sick he'd lay in a snowbank and rest. Other then that he never felt the urge to sleep; he'd have a dreamless sleep anyway - unless Sandy or Pitch knocked him out. But other than healing he found no point.
Just like eating, it wouldn't have a big affect on his immortal self. But it did have an impact. He'd developed bags under his eyes from centuries of minimal sleep. But they were easily not noticeable in the direct sunlight, and it didn't matter anyway - no one could see him.
It was night time in Vietnam. He honestly wasn't supposed to be here, but he could - after all the country was a little colder tonight then other nights. He'd do a light frosting to pass the time. Also, it took his mind off the situation with North.
He'd taken the hoodie to avoid situations like the one he'd found himself in with North. He knew he looked like a skeleton, but he didn't want people to judge him for it. He never found the point in himself eating if he wasn't gonna gain anything by it, not even a few pounds.
He was so frustrated, and he didn't even know why. Maybe it was the bottled up emotions from the past 300 years. Tonight though he was not gonna have any of it. He wasn't in the mood to get emotional.
Another thing about being colder than ice, it tended to freeze over your emotions as well. Which worked out for Jack; he didn't like showing weakness anyway.
So Jack dealt with this the same way he dealt with all his negative feelings: finding a distaction. Usually that meant blizzards, but Vietnam was not cold enough for that. No place really was right now, except for the year round tundras like antarctica. Luckily he didn't have to make a distraction, because they came to him. In the specific form of sand strings. He wondered if Sandy wanted a little chat.
"Hey Sandy." he said as he flew up to the dream cloud. The little man looked happy to see him and waved enthusiastically. Then a question mark was above his head as if asking what he was doing here.
"Nothing much, just bored." Jack said and Sandy urged him to sit next to him while he did his rounds, which is what Jack was slightly hoping for. He sat down on the dream sand and crossed his legs with his staff laying across them.
Sandy looked content and continued on his way around the world, since he was done with this village anyway. It wasn't until halfway to the third village that he noticed.
Jack had been quieter then normal, saying a few things here and there, but never really speaking much. Sandy turned to ask him what was wrong and that is when he noticed.
His sand had a warm glow to it. Bright but not blindingly so. It was easier to look at then the sun and highlighted one's face differently then it too. So it was alarmingly easy to notice the dark bags under the winter teens eyes.
Sandy quickly got the winter spirit's attention, not wanting to hold back any longer. It looked like Jack hadn't slept in ages. Sandy was just like Tooth was to flossing, in regards to sleep. He wanted to make sure everyone had their 8 hours worth, even during Christmas or Easter bustle, he'd drop by and knock out his fellow Guardians every time he felt they weren't sleeping well. But he couldn't do it to Jack now, not so suddenly. He wanted to see what was wrong first. He made z's with his sand and Jack looked up at him, slightly exasperated and a half eye roll that really did make him look like a teenager instead of a 300 year old spirit.
"You too? I'm fine, I don't need sleep." Sandy for one looked like he'd been hit, but in a much more exaggerated manner that made Jack smile a bit mischievous. Sandy gave a small smile. That's one of the things he liked about Sandy, he didn't make a big deal of everything. But then the golden man's expression turned serious. And he made a sign that was like saying 'but seriously when was the last time you slept.' Jack furrowed his brow.
"At least you're more cool about it than North." Jack mumbled and sandy raised an eyebrow and Jack gave another smile then said to him " Oh come on. It's not that big a deal...right?" Sandy made a candy cane appear above his head, like he was demanding to know what North did or said. Jack sighed.
"He was just a bit worried about my … eating habits. It's not a big deal." he shrugged. Figured. North was probably just as worried as he was about Jack's health, he just was - as Jack put it - 'more cool'. He wanted to smile, but he knew he shouldn't right now. He made more z's and pointed to his sand cloud. He expected Jack to roll his eyes and decline, but the winter spirit only got up and said he needed to go.
Jack was smart. He'd give him that. And the sand ball in his hands disintegrated.
Bunny knew someone had arrived. And he knew exactly who, by the chill in the air and the smell of peppermint and fresh pine - which wasn't a bad scent, Bunny rather enjoyed it, it's what came with it.
"What are ya doin' 'ere, Frostbite?" he said before the winter child landed in front of him. He looked exasperated, and irritable.
Jack for one, didn't know why he was there himself. He guessed he didn't want to be alone, nor did he want the constant nagging or questioning.
"I'm bored." he said simply and Bunny seemed amused. That wasn't a line he heard often from the frost teen.
"Then draw or somethin'." Jack looked away for a second, as if saying wrong answer in a timid voice. Bunny waited a minute, looking at how the frost teen played with the hem of his hoodie and he looked like he was about to fly away.
"Aren't ya 'posed ta be at the pole?" Bunny asked in an annoyed voice. Jack grimaced.
"North's being annoying." he replied like that was the answer to everything "And Sandy is nagging." he said after a moment. Bunny's ears went up. Usually the winter spirit has no trouble with the other two male guardians. They loved him and he respected them. It was Bunny that Jack usually didn't listen to.
"What for?" Bunny asked with a raised eyebrow, seeing what the dream spirit and father christmas could have done to make the winter spirit so irritable.
"North's dogging me about my weight and Sandy my sleep. Honestly I don't need that, I haven't for 300 years." Jack said quickly and looked away. Bunny suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. It was now that Jack reminded him of a rebelling teen than anything else he might be.
"Well, of course ya gumby. They're worried!" He said and Jack looked like he'd been struck and averted his eyes in guilt as he silently played the word on his tongue like he didn't believe him. "Fer someone so old, ya act like a tyke." Bunny said and Jack stuck out his tongue and laughed when the Pooka jumped and started to chase after him, conversation seemingly forgotten.
But if Jack nibbled on a cookie at North's shop, or dozed on sandy's cloud for a few hours - no one noticed. Maybe the two elder guardians would smile. Jack was still learning, it was best to take small steps.
Poor Bunny! Sorry I really love the brotherly bond between Jack and Bunny. You will see I lean more toward that in all of my stories. I tried not to in this one, but I couldn't resist. Sorry.
But look at the Guardians trying to understand Jack and deal with his teenage angst tendencies from time to time. I love him but he can be emo boi….still love him though. Jack also trying to get a grasp on the fact he now has a family.
Anyway, see you next time!