I shot up off the ground, spinning around like a corkscrew as I soared through the air. Sophie let out a surprised scream, and then an excited laugh. I stopped swirling once we got higher than the clouds, then straightened out. Sophie's legs wrapped around my chest as she sat up. "How do you ever get used to this?"

I turned my head to grin crookedly up at her. Her eyes searched my smile, and she beamed like the sun that was making a halo around her blond head. She had that big, hopeful, dreamy look back in her wide eyes. I prayed it would never leave again.

"I don't," I replied simply.

There was a quiet pause as Sophie mulled that over. She did this cute thing where she bit her lip a little bit and flicked her eyebrows up, as if to say, "not bad, for a snowman." I continued to stare ahead, watching out for low flying planes. Sophie leaned her chin down on the top of my head at let out a deep sigh.

"Bored?" I asked, even though I knew she couldn't possibly be.

"Yeah, really, Frost, you should get a radio back here or something," Sophie said sarcastically as she ruffled the hair on the back of my head like she was twirling a dial. She paused, then said in awe, "Wow, your hair is crazy soft, dude."

I furrowed my eyebrows and shook my head like a dog. "Gee, thanks?"

Sophie flicked my right shoulder. "Oh, shush. It's a compliment!"

"Uh huh," I said as I rolled my eyes.

Sophie groaned and buried her face in my shoulder. I smiled, enjoying her awkward cuteness. I could feel her cheeks burning through my hoodie. A big grin spread across my face as I suddenly thought of a brilliant idea to make this trip a little more fun.

"You said you were bored, right?"

"Jack-"

"Well, I know a way to make this a little more interesting," I teased as I gripped my staff tight.

"Oh, really-" Sophie stopped mid sentence as I suddenly dropped from the sky and she let out a terrified scream. "Jack!"

I dove towards the ground like an olympic swimmer getting ready to glide smoothly into a pool. Sophie clung to my shoulders and squinted her eyes shut. At the last second, I swooped back up into the sky. Sophie was still clutching me like a lifeline, so I assumed she hadn't realized we were okay.

"See, wasn't that fun, Soph?"

Sophie released me, finally noticing we hadn't plummeted to certain death. Her breath came out in deep, raspy bits of warm air on the back of my neck. "Do...not...ever...do...that...again."

"What? Don't try to tell me that wasn't the most fun you've had in years!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry, dropping at 500 miles per hour towards the very solid ground isn't my idea of fun, you ridiculous snowman," Sophie panted.

"What did you just call me?" I chuckled.

"Ridiculous snowman!"

"That's a first," I muttered.

"Just promise you won't do that again!"

"Sorry, no can do." I liked getting her mad. She was so cute when she was frustrated. "I am the guardian of fun, Soph."

"Ugh! How does anybody stand you?"

"No idea, blondie," I glanced up at her to see her reaction to the new nickname.

"Oh, God-don't-don't even go there. I will call you a snowman in front of all your friends," Sophie threatened. "Or...snowflake. Or...uh, icicle? Polar bear? Penguin? Popsicle? Frosty the Snowman...the possibilities are endless, dude."

I scrunched my face up, "I think I like Frosty. Skip the snowman part, though. That's too long."

"I like Penguin."

I jerked around a cloud and argued, "That one doesn't even make sense!"

"I like penguins. They waddle around and huddle and it's so cute!" Sophie drawled.

"They're really very smelly," I pointed out.

Sophie giggled. "Perfect name for you, then!"

I chuckled. "That stings."

Sophie frowned. "I do like Frosty, though."

"Frosty's got my vote."

"Fine, Frosty," Sophie sighed, defeated as she flicked the back of my head.

"Ow!" I shouted in protest as I scratched my head where she'd flicked it. She giggled and murmured an apology. "Nah, I kinda deserved that one."

"So, what exactly do you do, when you're not saving the world from bad guys and flying me around?" Sophie asked curiously.

"I'm Jack Frost! I do...icy things. Like, frost. And snow days. And snow, I do that too," I explained, a little taken aback by her question. Of course she knew what I did-how could she not? It was sort of obvious.

"Well, yeah, I know that. But don't you..get, like, lonely?" Sophie quickly added, "I mean, most kids don't even see you..."

I swallowed, "Yeah, I do get lonely. But I protect the kids. That's my job."

I looked up at her to make sure my reasoning made sense. Apparently, it didn't, because Sophie scrunched up her mouth like she was thinking hard. She looked pretty adorable when she was concentrating on something. Jack, snap out of it. She's sixteen years old, for Sandy's sake. You're over 300 years old. But...I sure as hell didn't feel like it. What would Jamie think? It was his baby sister I was flirting with. He'd probably prefer I go flirt with some other innocent girl.

"I'm sorry you have to live like that...forever."

Sophie's voice drew me back to planet Earth. Her eyes were brimming with hot, salty tears, and her eyebrows drew up in a pained expression. She seemed just as upset about my predicament as I was. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but looked away before she could see how fake it was.

"It's fine, really, I should be grateful," I said, more to convince myself than the girl sitting on my back. "I mean, I'm the guardian of fun, what could be better than that?"

Sophie bit her lip and didn't say anything. She could see right through my attempt to hide my pain, my longing for something normal in my life. I missed my sister, mostly. She lived her life thinking I was dead, that I fell through drowned beneath the ice. I'll never be able to tell her I was okay and that everything really was going to be fine. I gulped back tears and refused to look back at Sophie. God, just being around a kid my age made me wish I'd never fallen through that ice, but actually talking to one...that was like torture.

We flew in silence for a while, just listening to the steady rush of wind in our ears. Sometimes, Sophie's long blond locks would tickle the back of my neck, and I couldn't help but giggle a little. I was extremely ticklish, but I sure as hell didn't want Sophie knowing that. Or anyone else, for that matter. So, I did my best to muffle my giggles, and Sophie didn't notice, so I guessed she'd fallen asleep.

She was so sweet. I didn't understand why she put up with me, why she didn't want to get back to her real life. I was convinced she had masses of friends and millions of guys gushing over her. How could she not? She was smart, funny, beautiful, flirty...Ugh, quit it, hormones. You'd think after being a seventeen year old for three centuries, you'd have a little bit of control over your hormones. Unfortunately, I rarely had the need to suppress my feelings, so I wasn't exactly used to the hormone imbalance thing. I hung out with little kids all the time. I didn't exactly fall in love with them. Not that I was falling in love with Sophie. I just...cared about her. There wasn't anything weird about that. I always cared about her.

I gently shook my shoulders to try to wake Sophie up since I could see North's fort rapidly approaching. Okay, so I wanted to impress her some more, but who could blame me? A sky view of "Santa's village" was sort of a once in a lifetime thing for most people. I was just making sure she was awake for it. She did sleep a whole lot...

Sophie yawned and brushed her hair from her eyes, "J-jack? Mmm?"

"You're gonna wanna see this, Soph."

I heard Sophie's breath catch in her throat as she saw the rolling hills of tiny little elf houses mixed with larger Yeti huts, all surrounding North's fortress in the mountain. It was all bright red and green, very festive. I was used to it, but I could tell Sophie was pretty impressed from the way her whole body tensed and how she craned her neck around to get a good look at everything. I landed steadily on the platform by the big front doors, and Sophie hopped off my back. She took a couple unsteady steps, and I caught her under her arms before she could fall over. "Woah, Soph. You okay?"

Sophie stood up and faced me, her eyebrows a little furrowed. "Yeah, I just...feel a little, uh, shaky? It's probably just flying for so long...I'm not exactly used to it, y'know."

I nodded. "Just, uh, take it slow."

"Okay," Sophie agreed as the big, deep red doors slowly opened to reveal North's workshop. "Oh, wow," Sophie murmured in awe. I glanced around the toy cluttered, Yeti and elf stuffed workshop like it was nothing, but I was always a little taken aback when I came in here. There was just...so much. After all, there were a whole lot of kids who believed in Santa around the world. It literally did take 364 days to make presents for them all.

A couple elves stopped what they were doing and stared at us blankly. Sophie scooted a little bit closer to me, which made my heart beat a little faster. She felt protected around me. I suppressed a smile and continued to look at the elves, who raced off in the other direction.

Sophie stole a glance at me, and I met her wary gaze with a reassuring smile. "I'm sure Mund told North-"

"FROST?" A deep voice bellowed. I cringed at the sound of North shouting my name, and Sophie flinched like someone just poked her with a hot, pointy stick. North stormed down the stairs wearing his long sleeve red sweater rolled up to reveal his "Naughty" and "Nice" tattoos on his arms. Honestly, he didn't look anything like what people expected out of Santa Claus, besides the beard.

Sophie gulped and edged closer to me again. A faint smile played on my lips, but I looked the other way so she wouldn't see. North saw her standing beside me, and he nearly fell down the rest of the stairs. "Frost, what are you thinking? She's...Sophie, she's human!"

I opened my mouth to explain just as a hole opened up in the floor and Mund popped out. Everyone turned to him. Mund quickly analyzed North's shocked expression, Sophie's slightly terrified one, and my sheepish grin. Mund said in his Australian accent, "Uh, how is everyone?"

Sophie bit her lip and started backing toward the door, "Um, I think I should go home..."

"No, Sophie, it's fine, Jack must have brought you here for a good reason," North's hard eyes softened on her, and Sophie stood uncomfortably halfway between me and the door, still poised to run. I almost wished she'd grabbed my hand or something.

"North, I sort of suggested they come here...they were in Alaska...and I was pretty convinced Sophie was half way to hypothermia..." Mund explained, guilt all over his furry face.

I cleared my throat. "I'm not exactly the best at keeping people warm."

North shot me a weird look as he addressed Sophie. "Well, you've got to be cold, Sophie. The elves made hot cocoa in the kitchen this morning-that should warm you up."

Sophie glanced around at all of us, her eyes wavering over me. I looked over at her, and she gave me a nervous smile, then followed the waddling elves off to the kitchen. She tugged some snow out of her hair and disappeared around the corner.