Jack wasn't sure what Katherine and Nightlight had thought of his reaction to his sudden revelation, silent as it was – thanks ever so Cupid for clearing it up that yeah, he was falling for the other Guardians, made it so much easier to figure out he was already falling into 'like-like' for Katherine and Nightlight both.
At least whatever they had thought of him suddenly freezing and frosting over, the blush shining through the frost, they were keeping it to themselves rather than teasing him over it.
Jack cleared his throat, fighting back the blush. If his hands had been free, he would have made a gesture of some kind, but that would require pulling away and he didn't feel like doing that yet.
"Age doesn't keep you from being insecure sometimes," Katherine said, either not noticing or kindly ignoring his momentary panic. "So...about that story about you and General Winter and the rest?"
Jack laughed lightly, grateful for the topic change. "And you were going to tell me about Mr. Qwerty. General Winter, huh. Oh, wow, well. That one...that goes way back," he said.
Katherine let go of his hand and Jack immediately missed the warmth of her hand...an odd sensation, and suddenly he was very glad of the patience the other Guardians had shown him, so he could miss it. He wasn't sure how much longer he would have enjoyed having both of them holding his hands, but he had a little time left.
Katherine was digging in the bag at her side. "Mr. Qwerty is a GlowWorm," she repeated as she dug, finally pulling out a book and pen. "He helped Ombric to keep the library in order. He loved to polish the books and keep everything perfect. When Pitch attacked Santoff Claussen, looking for some of Ombric's books, Mr. Qwerty ate them. All of them. I know," she said, when Jack looked at her in disbelief. "It was hard to believe then, too. And it was too much for him, he had to cocoon himself to recover. When he came out, he was a book. A book-butterfly, whose wings were the pages of a book. He used to let me write in him, and I could pass messages back to Santoff Claussen with him."
"What happened to him?" Jack asked, stomach dropping. He hadn't seen anything like a butterfly book when he and Bunny and North had been cleaning up Big Root for Katherine and Nightlight to come home, but he hadn't been around for the unloading of the ship...
"He went with us so we could write down all we saw," Katherine said, confirming one thing Jack had hoped. "He sort of...went dormant after the first century," she added sadly. "We really weren't doing anything to write down, and we didn't see a good reason to wake him unless something happened. He's in North's library right now, and Sandy keeps checking on him. Hopefully he'll wake up soon. I hope," she said, so softly Jack could barely hear her.
"Hey, Sandy knows everything about sleep. He's better at putting people to sleep than waking them up, but he'll figure it out," Jack said gently. He patted her shoulder, unsure if he could take much more touching just now but Katherine needed some sort of comfort.
Katherine took a deep breath and sat up from the huddle she had started to fall into. "You're right," she said, smiling at the two of them. "Sandy can figure it out. We just have to trust him."
She reached up and squeezed Jack's hand, letting go quickly, as if she could tell that he was nearing how much touch he could take at a time.
"So," she said after a moment. "General Winter...?"
"Okay, okay," he chuckled. "I first...well, I want to say met, but it was more like 'encountered' General Winter after I was about a hundred, I think. It wasn't easy to keep track of the years, you know? Seasons, yeah, but not so much years. Anyway. It...took me awhile to figure out everything I could do, and that I...you know, did the frost and brought Fall and Winter and all that. I spent most of my time playing. Still do, ask Bunny. Apparently that's how my magic works. If it's not, I'm not going to find out anytime soon. So I'm goofing off, right? Just doing my thing, trying to make a fun snow day for some kids. Let them have a little fun for once since the machines they had to work at were frozen solid. And it's working. When out of nowhere my snow gets shoved aside for this really bitter cold, like, the killing kind of cold, and the kids got scared 'cuz they knew, you know? They knew really well how fast it could kill."
"And then he showed up. The kids couldn't see either one of us, but they sure could feel him. I really don't remember what all he said – I was...it takes a lot to get me mad, usually, and I usually get over it pretty quick, but...the kids were having fun. They never got to have fun. And then he comes out of nowhere and suddenly they're in danger. So I was really mad. I know we fought, and I know I kicked his ass."
"Low on details," Katherine teased lightly, still writing in her book. "Did you find out later why he did that?"
"Probably the same reason he came after me again later," Jack said easily, "and the same reason he tormented the Snegurochka and and other Winter spirit he could find. He wants...wanted," and that was said with a wince, with a hunch, with a deep breath before Jack could continue, "to be the most powerful Winter Spirit. To control Winter. I think he did, once. Mostly because people knew his name."
Nightlight squeezed his hand as Katherine mused, "That does seem to make sense..."
"Yeah, I mean, the Guardians are extra powerful because people know who they are, and nobody knows Jack Frost," Jack said, his free hand moving as he spoke. "And General Winter was powerful. He wanted everyone to know how powerful he was. He really didn't appreciate how little respect I had for him. And I was always pretty snarky with him. He really didn't like that," Jack laughed. "Bunny thinks he's heard the worst snark I have to give, but he barely heard any compared to what General Winter got."
"Did the two of you go at it a lot?" Katherine asked, pausing to look up at Jack.
Jack shrugged. "I didn't go out of my way to avoid him," he said. "But I didn't want to see him either. So...we really only met when he tried to find me or he was in the middle of doing something that I had to get involved in."
"Bunny mentioned something about an Easter...?" Katherine prompted, though she remembered exactly what Bunny had said and what year it had been.
"Is he still going on about that?" Jack laughed. "I mean, I told him it was General Winter."
"He said, but he also mentioned it took a lot to get that out of you and that you never said exactly what the General was doing," Katherine countered.
"Well I don't think I told him," Jack said easily. "Mostly because I don't know either. We'd faced off a few times before that and that time he went running off as soon as I showed up. Maybe that was the whole plan, just to make the storm and run off, but he was cursing enough as he flew away I didn't think it was," he added, looking up at the ceiling as he thought it through. "It...it was a killer storm, and it was on Easter, way too late in the season for a storm that big, and I was trying to take control of it to calm it down but...I was already on edge from a dozen other things...It was sort of that whole death by a thousand cuts, you know? And then here's this storm that I have to try and calm down but I'm too wound up and..." he released Nightlight's hand to mime an explosion, complete with sound effects. "Easter of '68. Me and Bunny had a bit of an...what's the word. He blamed me, I didn't think anyone would listen if I tried to explain, you know."
That was more words at once than either Katherine or Nightlight had heard from Jack at once before, and they took a moment to sink in.
"You're not alone anymore," Katherine said softly.
Jack refused to meet her eyes. "Yeah, well, sorry if it takes awhile to sink in," he said. "I mean, three hundred years verses two. Lot of baggage there."
Jack sighed and flopped back onto the bed, just barely missing his staff and Nightlight's crystal tipped spear. "Then again, you two are what, twice as old as I am? You probably get it."
Katherine closed her book and cautiously leaned on her elbow, lounging on the bed, deceptively casual, as Nightlight leaned over them both. "Honestly, of all the Guardians, we probably do the best. We had to leave for almost five hundred years to get over some of the things that happened when we fought Pitch while he was at full power. So we get it, sort of."
"Did...the others tell you what happened to General Winter?" Jack asked hesitantly.
Nightlight and Katherine both nodded solemnly, and Jack threw an arm over his eyes. "Well. Guess I don't have to tell you, then. I...I just..."
"Bunny mentioned it was your first kill," Katherine said gently. "I've never...so I'm not sure if I'm the one who can really help, but..." she raised a hand, waiting a moment before reaching to brush it through Jack's bangs comfortingly. "Tooth thinks you're not dealing with it as well as you're pretending to. But they told us so we wouldn't ask. You can still talk to us."
"I figured you'd be the one to dislike me most for it," Jack said, soft and muffled by his hoodie's sleeve. "You keep finding ways to avoid that."
"Or maybe I just haven't been in a position where I didn't have time to find the third option," Katherine countered. "Jack, they were very clear about what happened with us. General Winter wanted you dead. He wanted anyone around you dead. Even I can hardly blame you for reacting to keep the people you care about safe."
"Yeah, I reacted," Jack said, still muffled by his sleeve but more bitter now, clear even if muffled, and Nightlight and Katherine exchanged worried looks as Jack continued. "Without thinking. Just reacting. I haven't acted like that since I was under a century. Not until Pitch killed Sandy and then General Winter tried to kill them all..."
He sighed, letting out a puff of frost but, Katherine noticed, not yet frosting the bed or dropping the temperature in the den, remembering that Katherine might not be able to take it.
Nightlight was a star, and could handle temperatures only winter spirits were comfortable at and below. Not always happily, but he could. Katherine, for all her status as a spirit, was still a human one and didn't take extremes so well.
"What if it happens again?" Jack was saying as the pair noticed the frost, were looking to each other in concern. "What if one of us...what if a Guardian is in the way next time and gets hurt?"
"Jack..." Katherine began.
Jack started, as if just realizing he had said that out loud, and shot upright, plastering a smile across his face.
Katherine may not have had much time yet to know Jack, but even she could tell that smile was fake, as was the joking he immediately launched into.
Fake enough that he crumbled under the light touch of Nightlight's hand on his shoulder.
Jack scrubbed a hand over his face and hair, dislodging the frost that had begun to form there. "Okay, we're getting way too deep here. Who's up for visiting the Last Light and his friends? I need a break."
"We're not going to forget this," Katherine warned him gently.
"Fine, but at least we can put it off awhile." Jack mumbled, gently extricating himself from between the other two, standing and grabbing his staff. "Come on, the kids might not be able to see you yet but I bet we can get them believing."
It was still late enough in winter that a chill breeze wasn't out of place in Burgess. What was out of place was the snowball that smacked into the back of Jamie's head. Jamie spun, eyes darting around until he caught the flash of blue and chased after it.
Laughing, he dashed into the forest and threw himself into Jack's arms. At thirteen, Jamie was edging the line where children stopped believing, but he and his friends did as wholeheartedly as ever.
Granted, Jack's frequent visits were likely a major cause of that.
And his age also meant that he was already starting to gain inches on Jack, inches and weight combined, so that Jack was nearly taken off his feet by the enthusiastic greeting.
"Hey, kiddo!" Jack greeted happily, already flitting back a little as Jamie released him. "Got a surprise for you!"
"Isn't it a little late in the season for some of your surprises?" Jamie asked, bouncing a little in excitement but just responsible enough to ask.
"Not this one," Jack said, grinning. "But...there is a little bit of a catch."
Jamie crossed his arms, still grinning but waiting. Jack's games could get a little scary sometimes, but he wouldn't put any of them in danger, and every one of them trusted Jack, so he waited for the rules of this new game.
Still grinning, though now with an edge of nerves to it that set Jamie's alarms shrieking, Jack hopped up onto his staff. "Okay, so...remember how I said no one could see me before you and your friends?"
"Because no one believed, yeah," Jamie said, shifting his weight. "I thought you didn't like bringing that up."
"Well, I don't, but...there used to be more Guardians, a long, long time ago," Jack said, serious now, and Jamie stared up at him, wide eyed, absorbing the story as Jack began to weave the tale he'd been told of Nightlight and Katherine. "So they headed off, then, to the stars, so they could heal," Jack said, wrapping up the story.
Jamie was enthralled, now, bouncing on his toes as Jack paused. "And?" he prompted.
"And they've come home," Jack said, smiling down at Jamie. "But they've been gone so long, no one remembers them."
Jamie frowned, tilting his head as he thought. "Yeah, I see what you mean," he said after a second. "I mean, Sophie still has mom's old Mother Goose book, but..."
"But the story needs an update," Jack confirmed. "Good thing they're not in a rush. I just hoped that maybe..."
Jamie gasped, softly, eyes looking behind Jack. "Is that them?"
Jack twisted on his staff to look and saw Nightlight peeking out of the trees, Katherine at his side, and knew he'd been heard.
The smile he turned back to Jamie was blinding. "That was fast!"
Jamie was beaming, too. "Maybe you're just a good storyteller," he said. He grabbed Jack's hand and tugged him off the staff, making a beeline for the two new spirits. "Come on, introduce me! I wanna tell everyone else about them!"