North was sat down, eggnog in hand. He didn't know what to do. He certainly didn't think it was something he'd be good at.
Jack had been discovered with frozen elves, which would have been better had he simply frozen the pesky creatures. However, he had been sticking them to the back of the yetis with superglue; cue a full scale panic in the workshop.
He'd yelled at Jack, telling him he was being a nuisance. The boy's eyes had gone all watery and then extremely upset and determined, stubbornly refusing to look at North. North had tried to look him in the eye but Jack had stormed upstairs to his room and locked the door.
It had occurred to North that Jack hated them caring for him so much when they had forgotten him for so long, and abandoned him to his own devices. He'd tried to work around that but all the realisation had done was to make the atmosphere more awkward than ever. Jack had then taken to pulling stunts like this one, and the blue eyes always held the same look when he was discovered.
Go on then. Drive me out of your home; ban me from your hearth.
And how could he do that? The youngest Guardian had become like a son to him even if he didn't think of North as a father. He knew that he should apologise to the young boy, but he also knew Jack wouldn't believe it was sincere.
Jack had been through so much that they didn't know about, that they were learning about and being affected by. He knew that Jack didn't think much of his experiences of starvation, death, and being ignored, but just the thought of it made North's heart crack a little. He wanted to help and Jack wouldn't let him.
He sighed, thinking that it was probably best if he gave the apology a shot. Come to think of it, what exactly did Jack have to do besides playing tricks? He probably expected North to laugh, to think it funny as he had done before. The Russian man stood up from his chair, making his way up the stairs to Jack's ice blue room. Music blared and North sat and listened, catching one of the lyrics.
You bleed just to know you're aliveā¦
He hesitated a few times. Jack was upset, obviously. He needed someone there, though; he didn't need to be alone anymore. He wanted someone to be there, but he just didn't know how to ask due to three hundred years of what might reasonably be called solitude.
He knocked on the door.
"Jack? Can we talk?" he said, waiting for a reply.
