Title- On Level

Summary- The one where Sandy notices how Jack interacts with everyone and there is a fight.

Character-Sandman, Bunnymund, Jack Frost, North, Tooth

He first noticed it when Jack was walking around the workshop the first time he was allowed inside. The boys movements were fluid, graceful, and light, most importantly light, as if a breeze would lift him off his feet and carry him away which, Sandy realized, was entirely accurate. The easy way he froze the elf made the oldest of Guardians chuckle but that was not what caught his attention. It was when Jack asked why he was there and Sandy tried to explain. The moment Sandy began forming sand images above his head, Jack crouched down to look him in the eye.

His short stature had never bothered the golden man before and it wasn't until Jack got on his level that Sandy realized how much he wanted that-someone to look him in the eye. With the other Guardians, that looked down on him or he floated up to be closer to their height but Jack didn't, he knelt down, almost as if her were….

Sandy noticed it again when he was talking to the children after the battle with Pitch. Jack was down on their level, talking and laughing with them, and they responded to that the way Sandy had, with appreciation and attention. They wanted someone to understand. It made Sandy wonder how Jack had learned to do that when he hadn't interacted with people who could see him in 300 years.

"Hey Sandman!" called Jack, flying up to join Sandy on his golden cloud as he distributed dreams to the children of the world. "How's it going?"

Sandy made a smile above his head in response as Jack perched on top of his staff, completely at ease in the air. He twirled a long pale finger through the dream sand laughing as it turned to dolphins that circled him, doing tricks.

"Are you ready for the meeting tonight?" asked Jack, hopping off his staff to sit beside Sandy, legs dangling off the side of the cloud and swinging absently.

Sandy nodded, noting how Jack never seemed to stay still, part of him always moving. It wasn't the exhaustive movement of Tooth who flitted about in a ball of hyperactive restless energy, Jack moved like the wind, subtly or powerfully, but in a way that seemed entirely natural.

Sandy tugged on the sleeve of Jack's hoodie, making the boy smile over at him.

"What's up, little man?"

In answer Sandy formed his favorite dream sand airplane and made an extra seat for Jack to sit in, motioning for the boy to climb up.

"Actually, can I ride on the top?" asked Jack.

His face was so eager that Sandy just silently laughed and nodded, shaking his head as the winter spirit disappeared with a shout of glee. He felt the boy standing lightly on the tip of the wing and started the plane up, positioning it towards the Pole, Jacks laughter becoming the radio during the ride.

When they arrived, Jack jumped from the wing and dove through the open window of the globe room, the one North always kept open so Sandy and Jack could come and go as they pleased. Sandy followed, noting how Jack seemed to actively avoid doors.

"Hello," called Jack, swooping through the room at breakneck speed a merry trial of frost following him like a slug trail. "You are not going to believe what I saw today! I was flying over Kansas and there was this guy walking down the street with a really long mustache that he had curled! So he had two little curls hanging off his face."

Bunny came crashing into the room, skidding on the trail of ice left by Jack and flying into the globe.

"Agh! You bloody show pony, keep your ice to yourself," shouted Bunny. "Anyway, Fall is here and he is pissed. What did you do this time, Frostbite?"

"Why do you always assume it was me, Kangaroo?" asked Jack, settling the top of the globe out of reach, staff carelessly over one shoulder.

At that moment, Fall came storming into the room. He looked to be in his mid forties, a thick red cape flowing behind him, his tunic a deep gold and pants emerald green. His skin looked like mineral rich farming soil freshly turned after a late rain. His face would have been handsome if it wasn't twisted in a glare, searching the room until it landed on North, talking to Phil the yeti in the corner.

"North," bellowed Fall, striding purposefully over to the large Guardian. "We need to talk."

Jack adjusted his position so he was on his belly on top of the globe, chin resting in his hands, staff on his back, feet crossed behind him, watching the exchange with a grin, knowing the new spirit didn't know he was in the room. Sandy cocked his head to the side in question but Jack motioned for him to keep the secret and see how it played out first.

"Ah, Fall, how are you, old friend?" boomed North, arms opening in a gesture of welcome. "Long time, no see. I thought you would be busy turning leaves this time of year."

"We need to talk about Jack Frost," stated Fall, planting his feet shoulder width apart and crossing his muscled arms.

"Oh, this ought to be good, we should keep listening," said Jack softly to Sandy who had joined him on the globe.

"Jack Frost, yes," nodded North. "Is good boy, no? He should be here soon if you want to talk to him yourself."

"No, I want to discuss his Guardianship with you," said Fall. "I've always considered you an intelligent man, North, and I respect your opinion, but do you really think it wise to let such a volatile force of nature be a Guardian of children?"

"What do you mean?" asked North eyes narrowing.

"I just mean look at his track record," said Fall, throwing his arms in the air. "He causes mischief and trouble wherever he goes, he makes blizzards and never takes anything seriously. He is irresponsible and impulsive and really, how do you expect him to guard children when he can't even guard himself?"

"What do you mean, he can't guard himself?"

"That's quite enough of that, Fall," said Jack, springing down from the globe in a flash that Sandy didn't quite catch. "How about you and I go discuss this elsewhere, like say Antarctica?"

"Oh, you haven't told them?" said Fall, lips pursing in an unpleasant grin. "So they think you are so capable of protecting the world just because you managed to defeat that half rate idiot Pitch Black? Oh, well let me enlighten you now, Guardians, Jack Frost, for the past 300 years, has been beaten in every fight he has ever gotten himself into. Every year as when the seasons change he gets in a fight with my fellow seasonal spirits and every year he loses. And you really want him protecting the children?"

"Jack?" said Bunny, looking at the youngest Guardian. "What's your side of the story."

"I don't lose," said Jack simply. "Fall and Spring don't really like me so every year Fall here hunts me down when I start spreading snow and tries to stop me and Spring tries to take over early no matter what the Ground Hog says. I don't go looking for trouble, trouble usually finds me. And yes, every year I do let them beat me up, but if it fir my fancy, I could easily beat them. I just don't because I don't see the point."

"You think you could beat me? Then I challenge you to a duel right now!"

"Fine, but let's take it outside of the workshop," shrugged Jack. "I don't think North wants us messing up everything so close to Christmas."

They agreed on taking the fight to the Warren, a neutral zone. There, Sandy made stands for the Guardians to sit on and other spirits soon showed up, word traveling quickly through the spirit world.

"You know, it's almost not fair," said Patrick in his green suit sitting next to Tooth. "Poor Frost has to endure this every year, why make him deal with it twice in a row from Fall?"

"This seriously happens every year?" said Tooth, her voice raising in pitch in distress. "How did you not stop it?"

"Better question is how did you not know? Jack is nothing but trouble, why should I stop it?"

The stands buzzed with much of the same conversation but Sandy, who sat near Spring and Summer, grew furious upon hearing Spring brag about how much damage he'd caused the winter spirit that year when he'd found him. It confirmed in Sandy's mind that Jack never started any of the fights.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road!" yelled Fall in the center of the fighting area. "Are you all ready?"

"Yeah!" came the general cheer of approval.

"Then let's do this."

And the fight began.

Fall approached Jack, who was leaning casually against his staff, in a fighters stance. Jack, for his part, watched in disinterest, waiting until the spirit lunged before calmly jumping over him and landing lightly on his feet. The crowd stopped making noise at that move, then began roaring in earnest for Fall to get the little brat.

"Fall, we can call this off," said Jack softly. "I really don't want to embarrass you in front of your friends and I don't want to hurt you, so please, just call the whole thing off and we can both move on with our lives."

"Never!"

"Have it your way then," shrugged Jack.

With a small flick of his wrist, Jack froze Fall mid jump and walked away, a look of shock plastered on the larger spirits face, the stand completely silent. Jack continued walking away from the fight which had never become a fight until Sandy flew down in front of him, a sand question mark above his head.

"Why didn't I do that before?" said Jack as Sandy nodded. "I don't like to fight, that doesn't mean I can't do it."

"No, mate," said Bunny as he and the other Guardians joined them, the rest of the spirits either helping Fall or trying to slip away unnoticed. "We've all seen you fight and you could easily beat Fall or Spring any day of the week, as you just proved. So why were all of the spirits shocked? Why did you let them hurt you each year? And why didn't you tell us?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to, Bunny," said Jack, trying to walk away.

"Jack, please," said Tooth softly, placing a light hand on his shoulder. "We want to understand."

"Fine, but don't get made when I tell you," said Jack, running a hand through his hair, making it more messy than before. "I never stopped them because at least they could see me, at least they weren't ignoring me. And every year when they sought me out, it was the only physical contact I got. I know it's stupid, but it reminded me that I really was alive."

The Guardians stared at him, disgust written across each face, which Jack took one look at and flew away. What he didn't realize was that the disgust was directed inwardly as each Guardian realized how much of a child Jack was, how fully they had failed him, and how desperate he must have been to allow himself to be mistreated just for attention.

"We have to fix this," said North.

"Yeah, but how?" asked Tooth, fluttering in an agitated manner, distress written across her face.

-Break-

For his part, Jack knew he was wrong and it even crossed his mind to fly back and take it like a man, but he did what he always did best, he flew away, landing in New Zealand in a small cove where some of the penguins slept. The waves weren't big enough for him to freeze for fun so he settled on pacing the waterline, staff discarded farther up beach.

"You know, I'm starting to wish you'd continued to leave me alone," said Jack aloud, to the moon before flopping into the sand.

"I knew it was sick," said Jack, staring at the dark sky. "And honestly, I didn't really enjoy getting beaten. I only let them do it because…I don't know, because I'm insane? Because I'm a sick person. Because I was so desperate for any sort of interaction that I would take pain over nothing because I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all. It reminded me that I was still alive, that I could still feel. You know, that was the first thing I learned, was that if I went numb, if I shut out all my emotions, then winter was worse, the storms were bigger, and I had less control.

"I get why they hate me, I take Fall's place, I ruin all his work with my snow, and I make it difficult for Spring to bring life back to the world. I even get why no one bothered to stop them; I sure as hell never stopped them. What I don't get is why on earth I told the Guardians that I allowed them to hurt me. You know what, I told them because I wanted to stay a Guardian, I wanted to stay visible, I wanted to stay part of the group, but it did the exact opposite. No one wants a masochist as a friend. But I'm not a masochist! I just wanted to feel! I just wanted to remember what touch was like! I just didn't want to be alone all the time."

That last bit was met with a sob as all the emotions he kept firmly in check broke loose in a heart wrenching sound that betrayed the pain behind the smile.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but suddenly he found himself huddled in the embrace of his furry rival, clutching at the grey warmth, sobbing out years of loneliness before his sense of pride caught up with him, reminding him that he had to be strong, that he was Jack Frost, the Guardian of Fun, keeper of snowballs and fun times. When that sense of reality came crashing back, he reeled out of the grasp, surprising both parties.

"Ease up, you show pony," said Bunny gruffly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"How long…"

"I knew where you went as soon as you left," shrugged Bunny. " I let the others split up to search because I figured you'd want to be alone. About 50 years back I spotted you hanging here, figured this is where I'd run if I were you. I heard your rant."

Jack looked away, sitting a few feet from Bunny on the damp sand, staring out into the rolling ocean.

"After my race was destroyed, I shut myself in the Warren, only it wasn't how it is now," said Bunny. "I spent days not sleeping or eating, wanting nothing more than to join my family and friends. I was tired of it all and it hurt too much, so I shut off each emotion, one by one. I stayed like that for decades until the Man in the Moon found me and gave me hope. The other Guardians know that much of the story, but what they don't know is something you already figured out-it's not that simple. I was given hope, I protect hope, but I still wake up every morning and have to force myself to remain open to everything else, to feel. You too have to actively choose to feel and that's not easy because being numb is more pleasant than dealing with all the pain of being alone."

"Why are you telling me this?" asked Jack, voice flat.

"Because you're not alone anymore. You don't have to rely on biannual beatings to remind you what it's like to be seen or touched"

"You don't think I'm insane for that?"

"For allowing yourself to get beat up just to be touched? Yeah, I think you're mental for that, but that's only because no one ever showed you any other way. So I'll make you a deal, if you quit letting the other spirits pick on you, I'll tell Tooth and North not to smother you when you show up at the next Guardian meeting."

"Deal," said Jack.

From far above, Sandy smiled down on the two unlikely brothers, noticing how Bunny stayed on Jack's level the entire time they talked. Adjusting his goggles, he flew off in the direction of North and Tooth to reassure them that Jack was safe and then have a long game of charades trying to ask them to get down to his level when talking so he wouldn't have to hurt his neck or float to see them.

*Hope you enjoyed it! Requests are welcome.

Always-Ari