Chapter 7: Advice Sought, Advice Gained

The thing was, even though Jack was the Guardian of Fun and he was great with kids, since he wasn't used to social interaction in general, the last thing he would be prepared for was a romantic relationship.

In fact, even calling a relationship of his potentially "romantic" seemed to send him on a one-way boat ride down Denial river. Whenever the thought started to creep in his mind, he ignored, ignored, ignored. That's what he was good at, after all. For a long time during his years of isolation, he would ignore the pangs of loneliness and pretend that it wasn't all that bad because at least he had the wind for company.

But it was getting a bit harder to ignore Tooth- which, incidentally, was ironic, because even though that inability pertained to the feelings he got around her, Tooth seemed to have taken to literally ignoring him.

It was incredibly frustrating because it seemed as if events without resolutions kept piling up on themselves. At the fireworks, they'd had a one-sided hug with only Tooth doing any of the hugging, and that had never been explained (Jack had certainly avoided explaining it to himself). Tooth had gotten interrupted when she'd said she wanted to "talk about something" at the North Pole, and then she had left him at the end of summer party after his lack of verbalized response to her jarring, flattering remark that he was "beautiful". To his dismay, he hadn't seen her during the rest of the night.

At any rate, September was now close to ending, autumn had fully taken over in Burgess with its budding reds and oranges over fading greens, the smell in the air turned less sweet and more crisp, and, similar to her absence after their trip to Southeast Asia, the last Jack had seen of Tooth was when she had flew away from him in the midst of fox-trotting partiers.

Her retreating wings would not stop clouding his mind, nor would the fact he had not called out to her then, as he had stood amongst dancers with his arm slightly outstretched in a gesture of desperation.

But what would he have said?


"Jack, you are here just in time to help me with the autumn rush!"

Jack ducked under a yeti carrying a train set as he followed North throughout the workshop. Judging by the busy nature of the place, he assumed the autumn rush meant the accelerated toy making in the few months before Christmas.

"Uh, I wasn't really here for that," Jack said as he sidestepped a bunch of running elves who appeared to be tangled in a string of lights.

North turned to him quizzically, still moving expertly among his workers. "This is busy time- you must have good reason." He said this in a way that indicated he would not be happy if there wasn't a good reason.

"Well, a good reason is… subjective, right?" Jack pointed out uneasily. He had come for a reason, but now that he was here, it was proving to be really hard to get to the point.

North stopped and Jack bumped into him, surprised.

Looking over him, North crossed his arms. "Jack, if you have come here to play around with the yetis and elves when there is work to be done, I will not have it!"

"That's not why I came!"

"Well, why did you come? Do not get me wrong, I love you to visit- but it is very busy time!"

Rubbing the back of his neck, Jack sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. "North, have you had any experience with, uh… with women?"

"What? Sorry, Jack, I cannot hear you!" North yelled. And indeed, the yetis next to them were currently undergoing construction of a dollhouse and the noise was deafening.

Frustrated, Jack raised his voice to the point where he was yelling, too, "I said, have you had any experience with women?"

And of course, just has he had asked the question the construction stopped, and his yelling seemed to echo off the toyshop walls, causing any other clamor to quiet; all the yetis and elves turned in his direction.

Jack definitely wanted to die, now. Damn Immortality.

North was staring at him with wide eyes and Jack pressed his hands to his temples and closed his eyes tight. He could feel a headache coming on. "You know what, you're right, it's not a good reason- I shouldn't have come," he said hastily, and began to walk away, but was stopped by a huge tattooed hand.

With a booming laugh, North answered as if Jack hadn't started to leave, "Of course I have had experience with women! Ah yes, I can remember tasting the greatest fruit in Russia- I was a young man once, you know, Jack. Of course, I did not just philander. You have to respect a woman, Jack!"

Jack shook his head, trying to clear it. "Wh- the greatest fruit- okay, I really should go, North," he repeated. "It was a stupid question."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." North stopped him again and put both of his hands on his shoulders, this time picking him up to look him straight in the eye. "If you are asking this, that means you must have girl in your life, yes?"

"No, no, no," Jack said a little too quickly, laughing nervously, trying to twist out of North's hold. "It was rhetorical! Completely rhetorical. I mean, you know, if maybe… one day I might, I was just wondering, uh. You know. How I should handle it."

"Ahh, you cannot hide this from ME, Jack. I see all! Everyone!" North spread his arms wide, dropping Jack as a result, who landed swiftly on his bare feet. "Let us all celebrate, for our own Jack Frost has someone special that he hopes he may woo!"

The yetis and elves all cheered, and Phil even came up to shake Jack's hand. Meanwhile, Jack just stood there, dumbfounded and mortified. "I'm not wooing anyone!" Jack protested, his face flaming. Gripping his staff, he turned on his heel and stalked toward the exit. Yes, this had been a very, very bad idea.

"Jack, where are you going?" North sounded dismayed. "I was all ready to put toy making aside for a minute to help!"

"There- there is nothing to be helped with!" Jack called back, flustered. Which, of course, was a lie. But as much as he loved and appreciated him, Jack couldn't really take North's volume or the cheers of his workers at the moment.


It didn't take much deliberating for Jack to decide he certainly wasn't going to seek guidance from Bunnymund. Of course, he and the pooka had become friends- their banter was based less on aggravation now and more on friendliness. But that didn't mean he wanted to ask him relationship advice- he'd be teased mercilessly. (And, okay, North hadn't been the best option either, but at least his intentions were good).

As he headed back to Burgess on the Northern wind, Jack suddenly thought of asking Jamie. He hadn't seen him in a while, and… well, the kid was young, but he'd also probably had friends his whole life, and he knew more about normal social conventions than Jack did. Maybe.

Touching down to Jamie's partially open window, Jack tapped on the glass lightly with his staff, creating some ice patterns in the process.

"Jack!"

Jamie shot up from his bed immediately, his face bright. Jack smiled at the warm reception and climbed into Jamie's bedroom, nearly falling over in surprise when Jamie bolted straight into him, squeezing him tight.

"Hey," Jack laughed, ruffling Jamie's hair affectionately, always happy to see the first boy who believed in him. "It's been a while!"

"It's been too long of a while." Jamie's voice was muffled against Jack's sweatshirt.

"Come on, it's only been a month," Jack said, grinning, pushing Jamie away gently by the shoulders to look at his face.

"Well, you should come back more often." Jamie swung around to sit on his bed and crossed his arms as if to make a point.

"Okay," Jack relented, his heart swelling a little. He was so used to being on his own that even seeing someone once a month was more than he could ask for. It was different when you had… friends. Family. And something other than friends or family, too; Jack was reminded instantly of bright green and blue feathers and floral scents why he had come to see Jamie in the first place.

Cautiously and then with purpose, Jack copied Jamie and sat on his bed, his hands twisting his staff around and around.

"So I came to ask something, actually," Jack started.

"You want to ask me something?"

"Yeah, is that so weird?"

"Well, you're Jack Frost, you've probably been around for a long time- shouldn't you know… I dunno, everything?"

Jack laughed at the thought, bringing one of his legs up on the bed and hooking his arm around it comfortably. "I've been around for a while, yeah, but I definitely don't know everything." Jamie nodded slowly at this, mulling it over. "And this," Jack continued, "is kind of a… people problem."

They sat in silence for a moment.

Finally Jamie urged, "Well?"

"Okay." Jack shifted on the bed, not as relaxed as he was before. How was he going to propose this to a kid? "You know how when you get older, you're probably gonna look at girls differently?"

Shuddering, Jamie said, "Yeah, I've seen the sappy stuff my mom watches. I try not to think about it."

"Well, let's pretend that time has come and you suddenly start feeling… uh, sappy toward someone you've been friends with-"

"You've got to be kidding me."

"-and you're not sure whether to tell her, mostly because you're not even sure what you feel. Not to mention you have no idea how she feels. What do you do?"

"Um." Jamie crossed his arms, his brow furrowed in contemplation. "Well, I'd just tell her. Even though thinking about it now really grosses me out- but hey, I'm eight."

"But- you don't know- how do you know what she'll say? What if your friendship is ruined?" Jack protested indignantly.

"I don't, but it's better than keeping it inside, right?" Jamie gave Jack a lopsided smile and shrugged. "Besides, if we're good friends, then it might not even matter."

Jack twirled his staff around, his mind so preoccupied with thoughts of Tooth that he didn't notice when he accidentally started to make it snow in Jamie's room.

"You're making it snow in my room again!" Jamie sounded delighted.

Gripping his staff, Jack started and laughed a bit. "Oh- uh, I didn't actually mean to that time."

Jamie, who had already seemed to forgotten the hypothetical situation he had considered and given rather wise advice for (certainly wise for an eight-year-old but children were often the most telling of people because they were so blunt), turned to face Jack with a grin and asked, "Want to go prank my parents?"


Night was fully closing in now as Jack rose up with the wind over Burgess. He had teamed up with Jamie to "accidentally" make it snow in Jamie's parents' room, too- they'd woken very confused with flakes melting on their face and Jamie's laughter ringing down the hallway.

It's better than keeping it inside, right?

Jack frowned. Jamie was probably right, but every time he pictured himself telling Tooth how he felt, he saw her face being nothing but shocked and pitiful because it was so hard for him to imagine her feeling the same way. He didn't think he could take pity. Not from Tooth. He spent too many years feeling pathetic already, and he wanted to be past that now. Gritting his teeth, Jack skidded his staff among the roof tiles, freezing them as he went.

Dreamsand began to thread through the air and Jack looked up from his perch on a roof; Sandy was right on time, as always.

The sandman drifted in his golden cloud, bringing dreams to sleeping children. He stopped when he saw Jack and gave him a wave. Jack returned the greeting, probably more half-heartedly than he normally would, and was very much surprised when Sandy stopped his work and floated down to see him.

A question mark appeared over Sandy's head.

"Nothing's wrong," Jack lied quickly, his brow furrowed.

Sandy just looked at him with a deadpan expression.

"Well, okay. Something's kind of wrong. How could you tell from all the way up there?"

Sandy shrugged, smiling.

Jack sighed and floated up to the chimney; Sandy followed him, dreamsand trailing as he went. "Okay, say, hypothetically, I knew someone who kind of liked a girl but didn't really want to tell her how he felt because-"

Jack stopped when Sandy created a tooth over his head.

"Wh- no- I said this was a hypothetical question about someone else!" Jack protested, his eyes wide and his face heating up furiously (well, as much as his face could).

A man and a question mark appeared over Sandy. Who would you be asking this for if not yourself?

"Okay, so it's for me, not for someone else. But it's for the future, in case, I don't know, I ever run into something like this. I mean, there are a lot of girl spirits and- uh, and people that I met at North's party-" (which wasn't a lie) "- and I could potentially feel something for them one day, who's to say I don't already do-" (which was a lie and now he was just rambling) "- so you see, there's no way it could be- be Tooth because we're... uh... we're both guardians, practically coworkers!"

Sandy was just staring at him with raised eyebrows, as if to say you seriously think you're going to fool me?

Jack groaned, raising his hood up, hoping he could disappear into it. "Am I that obvious?"

Eyebrows still up, Sandy smirked. Then he gestured with his hand, as if to urge Jack to keep speaking, and to ask what he was going to do about all of it.

"That's the thing- I know I should tell her. Jamie thinks I should talk to her (is it pathetic I went to an 8-year-old about this?) but the whole thing… just freaks me out."

Jack felt a hand resting gently on his sleeve; he looked up from under his hood and saw Sandy smiling assuredly at him. A little bit of weight seemed to be lifted off of Jack's shoulders, then, and he smiled back. He would talk to Tooth about everything… eventually. Soon, really, he would. For now, he was going to let things run their course.

At least he wasn't in complete denial anymore, right?


A/N: I hope you guys still enjoyed the chapter despite the lack of Tooth/Jack interaction- I'm actually worried since it's a first, but this had to be done! Don't kill me? I'll make it up to you in the next one. ;D Hopefully it was still a fun read. This was the lack of touch chapter, and Jack is really going to be craving it now. (Sorry about the lack of Bunnymund, too- I should give him and Jack a scene later on).

Btw, I never acknowledged it an A/N which I totally should have but someone drew lovely fanart for TiaFT a few chapters ago. It made me so happy. I've also drawn some myself shamelessly so I'll put those in my profile, too.

Incidentally, "Denial river" was inspired by this great comment in a review: "I think Tooth may have been dumped out of the river known as Denial and plunked straight onto Realization Road. Then got run over by the Truth Bus."

You guys have been so great with your reviews! :D I really appreciate all of it so much. Please tell me what you think as always!