"Nobody knows, the trouble I've seen!"
"Oh boy, not again." North winced as the boy began singing again from the guest bedroom down the hall. That boy had been bothering him all day since he got back from Jamie's. He didn't know why he had made Jack stay the week anyway, he was getting a full day off and it didn't seem to give the guardians much time to find the dragon since they were all watching over the youngest to make sure he didn't get himself into any more trouble.
"Nobody knows my sorrow!"
The large men couldn't help but smile at the boy's antics. "What am I to do with that boy?" He asked himself, chuckling at the mere thought of trying to control Jack.
He reached across the desk for the porcelain head of the doll he had finally started creating. Although it was only two days until Christmas, the shop was not as busy as usual, the Yetis worked all year to make toys for the children of the world, and since Pitches escapade last year, the man took no chances in losing any time, he doubled production, following Bunny's example in creating an extra set for incase anything happened.
The body of the doll was already clothed in a dainty brown and red floral skirt that reached her knees and furled out under the red coat that hung over her shoulders. The hands were covered in black mittens, matching the leggings that the doll wore. Brown boots filled with soft fur covered the porcelain feet and laced up the sides.
The head was in place but didn't have a painted face yet. North reached into his desk for the paintbrush, dipping it in the water. The water instantly turned a pale beige color. Due to the high demand in paint colors to North's expenses, the guardian had created a paintbrush that ran on pure imagination, no more mixing of colors and wasting precious time and paint to create the perfect tone, it took him a few years, but the last four-hundred or so have been much easier to create the colors as toy demands on brighter colors rose through the ages.
He lifted the brush to the plain white doll face and touched it to the porcelain, the color spread like Jack's frost designs that now ran through his narrow hallways since the boy was living with him. Soon, the snaky paint had covered the head so that the tone now matched with the rest of the pale complexion covering the rest of the body.
The red curls were already twisting down the sides of the doll's face, tickling North's hands as he tried to paint the details on the face. The lips were curved into a small smile, one side curling up higher than the other. It had been a mistake, but North decided that he liked the little imperfection, all of his toys were so perfect there was nothing to tell them apart, this one had a true personality, and North liked that. He finished the lips with a soft red shade, slightly lighter than the one he had first used on the drawing, red was the shade he used on all of his dolls, but this one was going to be different, so her lips took on a tone of a normal girl's lips with a slightly red tone, although any shade would stick out amongst the pale face.
That reminded him. He dipped the brush back into the water, turning a pink color now. North touched it lightly to the doll's cheeks and the color spread, creating rosy cheeks and somehow curling up to where he eyes would be, making the smile look even more unique and somehow larger.
North excitedly dipped the brush back into the water, it turned white for north to paint the large eyes on. They were lined with dark black eyelashes, making them even larger, yet not scary. He dipped again. The eyes were always his favorite things to paint on the dolls. The eyes held the personality, the wonder and the happiness. North believed entirely in the saying 'the eyes are the window to the soul.' It was true.
On his small wooden baby, his center was expressed by his large, round eyes that saw the wonder and magic in the world. On Jack's wooded figure he had given the boy after defeating Pitch last year, his icy blue eyes were big and rounded, curled up at the bottom because the large smirk he wore pinched them into a happy squint, reflecting his center of fun.
But the eyes were important. Luckily, North had a good feeling about the shade of green in his wondrous mind, he could feel it… in his belly.
The brush barely touched the doll's small eyes and the irises grew. The deep green made North smile as he looked down at his work. He gave the doll her pupils, and the light that shined naturally in the light sparkled.
Finally, he was finished. He placed the doll on the shelf next to his stack of multiple-personality dolls, and left the room to check on the Christmas progress, with only two days left, the man had been so preoccupied with Jack that he barely even remembered.
…
Jack leapt off of the bed and left the room. He had run out of songs to sing to annoy North and frankly, his throat hurt from shouting down the hall for so long. So he decided that now was a perfect time to find a present for his new friend.
A first present, it had to be special. Of course for someone who had never gotten a present on Christmas from North would probably be ecstatic over a half-eaten cookie that he had snatched from one of the elves, but he wanted Eden to relive her actual childhood by embracing the actual child in her. She needed toys.
Jack walked into the workshop where countless Yetis and elves were making and testing this Christmas' toys (and in the elves case electrocuting themselves.) His staff was slung over one shoulder as he floated down into the large mass of fur and exploding light bulbs.
He saw a Yeti with one of North's special paintbrushes, carefully and skillfully painting a yellow robot which he knew was on Jamie's Christmas list. He thought momentarily on teasing the Yeti by telling him North didn't like the color and to paint them blue, but he knew that this close to Christmas, that would only end up getting into more trouble than he was already in… that and the fact that the Yeti probably wouldn't believe him if he told him North trusted him enough to pass the message on. The Yeti's knew Jack well enough but he couldn't tell the difference between any of them, how did North do it? Besides Phil of course. Three-hundred years of being chased out of the workshop after trying to break in made him a bit more familiar with the specific furry giant. But everyone else looked the same to him, it was like Baby Tooth amongst all other fairies.
He passed a line of stuffed bears. Surely North could spare one of these right? Jack picked one up as if to inspect it only to have the thing snatched from his grasp by one of the furry giants and put back down on the table.
"Kabba nucamana!" It blubbered angrily, shaking a finger at Jack as if to scold him.
With nothing to respond with, Jack merely stuck out his tongue playfully and floated over to the next line of toys. The Yeti rolled his eyes, even they were beginning to grow tired of the boy.
Jack passed a line of rubber ducks, plastic guitars that lit up when you strummed it, cars, rag dolls, and ballerina slippers which a few elves were testing over their already shoe covered feet only to fall clumsily to the ground because they were too large for them.
Jack chuckled before turning around and looking back at the workshop. Had he really found nothing to give Eden?
Nothing had caught his attention for the girl. And here he thought it would be easy. Sure, he could pick out a present for both Jamie and Sophie in a heartbeat, but he still barely knew Eden, how was he supposed to get her to gain trust in the guardians if he couldn't even get her something to begin with?
He found himself trudging back down the corridors and back to his room of which he now called his prison cell. "Jack!" He looked up to see North stopping down the hall, a large giddy smile spread across his face. "Glad to see you have come out of room. I am going to get cookies, want to come?" The large man invited, gesturing with one arm towards the kitchen.
Jack shook his head. "No thanks North, I'm good." He said, suddenly getting an idea. North simply shrugged before tromping back down the narrow hallway.
As soon as the man was out of sight and hearing range, Jack quickly floated up to the door to North's office. It wasn't locked. The winter spirit looked around cautiously to see if anyone was watching before leaning with all of his weight, and part of the wind's force, to open the heavy door, quickly and quietly shutting it behind him.
He turned around and smiled happily at the large room. It mainly held prototypes of broken toys or the ice sculptures of the wondrous possibilities the wonder guardian thought up. At first, Jack had thought that maybe he could take one of the unmeltable ice sculptures to give to his friend, she did want to touch ice right? Or at least, he thought she did.
But he wasn't sure how the ice would affect her, fire and ice don't mix well. Would it hurt her? He put the ice train he had been caressing in his hand back down on the desk before looking around at the rest of the room. Again, nothing caught his eye, that is, until they landed on a certain red haired doll in the corner of the room.
Jack gasped audibly, it looked just like her, exactly like her. It was perfect, beautiful. The eyes the smile. Jack held the doll up daintily, he didn't want to break it. The porcelain faces of the glass dolls usually scared Jack half out of his wits, the corners of their mouths never reaching a true smile while the eyes stared creepily into the distance. They were absolutely terrifying.
But this one held Jack's gaze. The delicate lips curling into her half smile that somehow still reached her eyes fully, making the green eyes glow brighter and warmer than ever. North had even got the pale complexion right, the dark clothes accenting the rosy cheeks and the red curls that spun down the back of her neck.
Caressing the doll in one hand, Jack opened the door with all his might, slowly with the other, poking his head out to see if anyone was watching. When he saw no one coming down the hall from either way, he made a beeline to the cell. Slamming the door closed behind him, Jack set the doll in a safe corner under his bed so that no one would find it until he finished wrapping it.
Now to find wrapping paper… this was going to be, in North's words, epic.
HORAAAAY!
So I have a question for all of you, should one of the guardians find out about Eden and Jack's friendship? If so, please tell me who you want it t be.
PLEASE REVIEW!