I practically skipped around Santa's workshop, grinning at all the Yeti's that were giving me weird looks and the elves that just stared at me with wide eyes. I slid my staff across a work table, leaving an intricate frost pattern in my wake. I grabbed a Yeti's shoulders, and the Yeti just glared at me.

"She kissed me!" I said enthusiastically.

The Yeti just gave me a blank look, while a couple elves behind him squealed in delight and jumped up and down. I released the Yeti and dove down on my stomach next to the jumping elves, resting my staff behind my head and swinging my feet around. "I think I'm falling in love, little guys."

The elves nodded enthusiastically, and held out their hands for high-fives. I chuckled and whacked my palm against their tiny ones so hard they both fell over. I jumped up and flew upstairs, about to go knock on North's doors and tell him the news. Wait, what was I doing? I stopped dead in my tracks. No way I could tell North I just kissed a sixteen year old girl. He probably saw it already, but still, that could get very awkward very fast-

"Frost?" North's thick accent cut through my thoughts.

I jumped back in surprise, scratching the back of my head and refusing to look the big guy in the eyes. I shifted uneasily on my feet, suddenly feeling bashful. Did he know? The look his was giving me...he knew, oh God, he knew. His right eyebrow cocked, and he grinned smugly. "Something you want to talk about?"

"Uh, no, sorry, big guy," I stuttered. North strode past me down the hall, barely suppressing his chuckle. I dug my foot into the carpet and stared at my shoes, embarrassment (something I'd been feeling a lot lately) finally creeping up on me. Brush it off, Jack. I wasn't used to this-I was the guardian of fun, for Sandy's sake. I was not normally so...what was it called, hormonal? Jeez, Soph was making my head spin. I sighed and leaned against a forest-green wood door.

Sophie's blond head bounced along the aisles below between the Yeti's workbenches and turned around like she was looking for someone. I smiled, and formed a snowball to throw at her, but paused mid swing and let it melt away in the warm air. I didn't want to hit her. Since when did I not want to start a snowball fight? Well, it was kind of unfair-I mean, she couldn't exactly form her own snowballs out of water vapor...

A little elf suddenly pointed up to me, and Sophie's head swiveled up to look for me. I jumped back from the railing, that weird shy thing coming back. I was the guardian of fun, how could she make me feel so...insecure? I didn't even know what to call it. My stomach was doing cart wheels and I was on the verge of puking up butterflies.

Still, my curiosity got the better of me and I peeked over the railing a little bit. Sophie saw me and narrowed her eyes. I gave her an uncertain smile and shrugged my shoulders a little bit. She sprinted up the stairs to me, and I could have sworn my heart was about to bust through my chest and get the hell out of there. My eyes locked on her and wouldn't falter, no matter what I did.

She gave me a funny look. "What?"

I managed to avert my eyes from her. "Nothing."

She did that cute scrunched up thinking face again and looked around the workshop. Her gaze suddenly fixed on the slightly ajar door of North's personal workshop. She flicked her chin towards the door, a devilish grin creeping over her face. I wondered if that was what I looked like ninety-eight percent of the time.

"Is that..." Sophie trailed off, standing on her tiptoes and craning her neck to try to get a better look inside.

"Santa's office? Yep," I smirked.

"Can we...would he get mad if..." Sophie took a couple steps closer, but glanced at me, fear suddenly striking her heart. "Oh, we're definitely going on the naughty list, aren't we?"

I chuckled, "I've been on the naughty list for a very long time, Soph."

Sophie crossed her arms across her chest. "Well, I haven't! I'm a good person!"

"C'mon, Soph. He likes you, I'm sure he won't mind," I said as I rolled my eyes at her. She uncrossed her arms and bit her lip anxiously. I groaned and grabbed both her hands, dragging her into the office.

"Jack!" She hissed at me, her eyebrows drawn up in worry.

"I'm impatient."

She was about to roll her eyes or make some sarcastic comment, but a soft gasp escaped from her parted lips. Her wide eyes searched the room hungrily, taking in the big, cozy fireplace in the corner and the tall bookshelves on the far wall. But mostly, she stared in awe at one of the ice sculpture North was working on. It looked like a tiny train set. The train was incredibly detailed, it's wheels had little lines on them to show their wooden texture. There was a track the train was meant to go on, and a couple tunnels it could pass through. I glanced back at Sophie, who's eyes were brimming with tears, but she quickly blinked them back.

"It's beautiful. Jamie and I...we had one just like it."

There he was again. Jamie. I gulped. I would never stop regretting not taking care of that kid. The guilt would just never go away; maybe it would eventually eat away at me so much I'd die. I sort of hoped for that day to come soon. I hesitantly wrapped an arm around Sophie's shaky shoulders. Somehow, that only managed to make it worse, because Sophie quickly swiped a fallen tear from her cheek and sucked in a desperate breath. She stared at the ceiling.

"He would want to you be happy, Soph," I said, squeezing her shoulders.

Sophie's chest heaved, but she nodded her head, letting her hair hid her face from me. She sat down and crossed her legs, applesauce style, beside the train set. She smiled up at me like a sad, broken angel. "You're right, Jack."

"Am I ever wrong?" I joked.

That earned me a laugh. Sophie sighed, "Oh, shush."

I sat down next to her, gazing at the trainset. "Maybe North'll show you how to work it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the train probably moves somehow..."

"It's ice, Jack. I don't think even Santa Claus can do that."

"Look who grew up into a big pessimist?"

Sophie grabbed the back of my hood and yanked it over my head.

"Hey!" I protested, laughing. Sophie turned away from me as I peeked out from under my hood, suppressing her grin.

"I'm not pessimist, Frosty!"

"Ahem," A thick, Russian accent suddenly said from the doorway. Sophie and I jumped. I spun around, pushing back my hood. Sophie stood stiffly, brushing off her jeans and playing with the ends of her hair.

"It's really beautiful," She said sincerely to North. His tough, this-is-my-office-Frost, look melted away when he saw her. Did she have that effect on everybody?

North's cheeks grew rosy. "Thank you, Sophie."

Sophie grinned at him, then they both turned to me like I should say something. I stumbled over my words, "Um, yeah, North, actually, it's cool."

Sophie laughed, and I quickly added, "No pun intended."

North chuckled, "Alright, Frost, now get out of here before I call the Yeti's on you."

"You got it, big guy," I smirked and headed towards the door.

I glanced behind me, to see Sophie giving North a big hug and murmuring a soft "thank you," with her eyes squeezed shut. I immediately felt like I saw something I wasn't meant to-like I was invading her privacy somehow. It felt like I had read a couple pages in her diary about something I did to her. My stomach flip flopped uneasily. I quickly looked away and slipped outside the door, my head spinning.

The train set reminded her of Jamie. What if North did that on purpose? What if he was trying to make her hate me? No, that didn't make any sense, anyway. North liked me. He liked Sophie. He wouldn't try to hurt us, ever.

No, it must have been just Sophie thinking about Jamie. What was wrong with me? It was like someone had injected me with some paranoid juice. I furrowed my eyebrows and tried to clear my head. I rubbed my temples and found that I was pacing up and down in front of North's office. Sophie leaned against the doorframe, watching me with an amused expression on her face. "Are you back from Planet Jack Frost?"

"Huh? How long have you been there?" I asked, halting my pacing immediately.

"Oh, five or so minutes. I said your name like fifteen times, Jack. What were you thinking about?" Sophie stood up from the wall and walked toward me. I started smelling the hot apple cider off of her again, and my brain felt even more fuzzy.

I grinned. "You."

Sophie blushed fiercely, "Jack!"

"Hey, I think about you alot," I said honestly, but with a crooked smile so she wouldn't know I was dead serious.

Sophie searched my eyes, grinning as she said, "That's a little creepy."

I stuck my tongue out at her. She pushed her hair from her face and rolled her eyes at me. She started walking up the stairs, and I ran to catch up with her.

"Soph, North'll kill you! We already went in his office-"

"Calm down, Frosty. North just gave me an all-access pass to Christmas."

My eyebrows relaxed as I let out a relieved laugh, "Oh, okay."

I stayed at the bottom of the stairs, unsure if I should follow her upstairs. She glanced down at me and threw her head back and stared at the ceiling like it was to blame. "Stop being so cute and get your ass up here, Frosty."

I immediately floated up the stairs to her. "Cute?"

Sophie flicked her eyebrows up at me and dashed up the stairs. I tore up after her, and let out a giggle. A floating top blimp grazed the top of my head, and Sophie artfully dodged a plastic toy plane. A yeti cackled as he hit me with the toy plane instead.

"Phil!" I shouted in anger, and Phil only laughed harder at me. I groaned and continued to chase Sophie up at least ten flights of stairs. We winded up at the very top of the workshop (which was very tall, by the way). Sophie was puffing a little bit, but I didn't feel tired. In place of a ceiling, there was a bright, stained glass dome roof. It showed all the guardians in a big circle, with a big, glowing earth in the center. I thanked the Man on the Moon that we weren't all holding hands. The sunlight poured through the richly colored glass, casting colorful shadows on the wood floor. To my surprise, North had his arm around my shoulder in the glass window. I smiled down at the workshop in the glass roof, looking a little smug, of course.

Sophie ran over to the side where the picture of me was. She jumped up and down excitedly, grinning and pointing up to me. "It's you!"

I chuckled and leaned my head on my staff, staring up at the smug-glass-me. "Yep."

Sophie narrowed her eyes at me, "Did you know this was up here? Did you just want to show off your glassy, sunshiney self?"

"Actually, I didn't, Soph."

Sophie smiled and murmured, "Well, it's beautiful. Really."

I shrugged. "Seems sorta cheesy to me."

"Jack! He made a..glass..mural..painting..roof..thing! All about you guys. That's sort of the sweetest thing ever!" Sophie exclaimed.

I chuckled, "Yeah, I know. Just kidding."

Sophie hung her head to hide a grin. "You better thank him when we get down there. I'll purposely bring it up if you don't. Even if it's totally off-topic and I look like a total weirdo. You are thanking that man."

"Okay, okay! I'll say thanks!" I exclaimed as I held my hands up in surrender.

"Good, Frosty." She smirked as she stood on her tiptoes to ruffle my hair like I was a obedient puppy.

A grin spread across my face. "Arf?"

"Sure," She laughed.

I leaned back on the railing next to her, watching the sunlight glinting off the glittery blue glass of glass-Jack-Frost's sweatshirt. Sophie squeezed in next to me, slipping her hand in mine. How did she manage to know exactly when to do that? Her palm felt warm on my own cold one. A funny, giddy, warm feeling spread from my hand to the rest of my body slowly, making me feel like I could fly for miles and miles, but I stayed put, my head leaning on Sophie's shoulder.

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