"A party?" Bunny repeated blankly.
North beamed at everyone sitting around the table. Katherine glanced between him and Jack, nodding meaningfully when she caught Jack's eye.
"This was your surprise?" Jack said cautiously.
North looked a bit hurt now that his idea wasn't getting the reaction he seemed to have expected. "What? Want other spirits to meet Jack as Guardian. Want to meet Jack's friends. Combine two stones and one bird, yes?"
"Uh, you're forgetting that a lot of spirits don't like me," Jack said. "I'm Jack Frost, remember? I make a mess wherever I go? Lots of spirits don't like Winter spirits on principle, add in the whole trickster thing and they don't want anything to do with me."
"Jack..." Tooth began to say, cut off when Jack waved his arms.
"No, no, it's cool, I get it, most Winter spirits are assholes, I get it," Jack said with a self-deprecating chuckle. "Pretty sure even you guys had some reservations about having me join. I know Bunny did. So, like, why bring them all in one place, North?"
"Because will be with you," North said firmly. "Will be there to show all that you are Guardian now. Do not mess with Jack Frost. He is Guardian, and other Guardians stand with and care for him. And is party. Is fun. Should celebrate Jack joining us."
Jack paused, and the others looked away to give him a moment to compose himself as the tears welled up.
"Also, will give chance to meet other spirits, reconnect after many years of being, how did Jack say it? 'Cooped up in hideout bribing kids'?"
"Jack, did you really?" Katherine hissed, barely holding back laughter.
Jack, finally having recovered, grinned back sheepishly and shrugged. "I'd just gotten tossed in a sack and had a group that never noticed I existed before insist I wanted to join them. I was kinda mad."
"Is fair. But now can meet Jack's friends and re-establish own friendships!" North announced. "Will take time to put party together, but wanted input."
"There's a first," Bunny mumbled to Tooth and Sandy, who covered giggles. "When were ya gonna have this thing?"
North shrugged. "Was thinking around Midsummer? Katherine has been double checking, but it seems few spirits have duties around that time, unless they are year round duties. Can send out invites after all is ready. Jack, will you help make sure do not leave out spirits?"
"Well, I can try, but I'd like you to refer to my previous statement about other spirits and me," Jack said, leaning back to kick his feet up on the table.
"You do know the Snegurochka," Tooth said, reading Sandy's sand images. "Spirits like that, who get forgotten."
"Oh, that I can do," Jack said, cheering up. "The girls can't stay indoors for long, though."
North nodded, Phil already jotting that down. "Is good to know. Otherwise would not have thought of it." He grinned, beaming like a child eager to share their new toy.
"Eh, can't be worse than the last time we threw a party, right?" Bunny said. "I'm in."
"Bunny, was..." North began to say, playfully scolding, before needing to pause. "Mussorgsky, has been since just after Nightlight and Katherine left! Is about time we had other party."
"What...?" Jack whispered to Tooth. Sandy gave a huge grin while Tooth blushed.
"If you can imagine it, it probably happened," she whispered back. "The way spirits would behave was...underestimated. Hopefully the yeti remember as well as I do."
Jack muffled a chuckle, leaning back in his chair again. "You might want to remind them," he said. "Not everyone's the Guardian of Memories."
The yeti in question were passing out the food for the meeting now, too heavy to be a snack yet too light for a full meal, appropriate food for each of them, which apparently was one of the little things that had improved since Jack had joined them.
Jack eyed the plate set in front of Katherine and tapped the bottom of the table top. Instantly frost spread from his fingers, shooting across the table and freezing the food on Katherine's plate solid.
Katherine wasn't paying attention to her food and didn't notice – until she picked up her spoon and attempted to scoop up a bite. The 'clink' of the spoon hitting the frozen food and the jarring of the utensil in her hand caught the attention of the table as she stared down at her food in surprise.
Jack burst out laughing as Katherine stared at her food, dumbfounded.
The other Guardians looked between the two, heads whipping back and forth rapidly. Jack hadn't pranked any of them since that rash of mean spirited pranking, meant to drive them away from him. So why now, with Katherine?
Meanwhile, Katherine was still tapping her frozen food lightly, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
"Sending the first volley, I see," she said, the smile winning. "That's two I owe you."
"Bring it on," Jack tossed back. "I've got one in, I'll give you the first since we hadn't declared war then." He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head. "I'm a prank master."
"Well I'd say it's time you got a taste of your own medicine," Katherine said. "And you know what they say about making that go down."
With that cue, Nightlight darted in a dumped a spoonful of sugar into Jack's bowl.
Katherine giggled as Jack blinked at the bowl, dumbfounded. "I found North's movie collection. I don't think he's watched any of it, but I did."
Jack snatched up the bowl. "I'll still eat it," he declared, shoveling a huge spoonful into his mouth.
"Jack no!" Tooth wailed, echoed by her fairies, as Jack took the first bite.
" 's a toofbrush in m' room," Jack mumbled through the mouthful. "I'll brsh, I'll brsh. Ugh, too sweet. Still eatin' it."
Katherine turned to look at the other Guardians as the snickering yeti replaced her plate and took Jack's after a brief tug-of-war, handing it down to the elves that swarmed the bowl. "By the way, we've declared a prank war. Original rules still apply, starting now."
"Wait, rules?" Jack said, picking up the new bowl the grumbling yeti set in front of him. The yeti shook a mildly scolding finger at Nightlight, the fur hiding most of their grin as they strode off.
"Nothing that interferes with Guardian duties or holidays," Katherine began, counting them off on her fingers, "Nothing that can't be undone within twenty four hours, and if the prankee doesn't end up laughing it's not a good prank. Reasonable?"
"Huh. Okay then. Fair enough. Agreed," Jack said, and the Guardians breathed a sigh of relief. This wasn't like last time, not at all. "This is gonna be fun."
He paused, and pointed at the rest of the Guardians. "You're not immune. Brace yourselves, this time it's a real prank war."
Sandy sent up a few quick images, and Jack was nodding before they were done. "Yeah, last time wasn't the real thing, it was...yeah," he said, drooping.
Sandy smirked back, tapping his fingers together evilly, and Jack laughed, mood instantly lifted.
"Yeah, like that," he agreed.
"Wait," said Bunny. "Nightlight...and Jack...and Katherine...are gonna have...a prank war?"
Sandy sent up symbols of hands pointing to himself, bouncing in place and grinning with glee. Then he smirked again and the hands pointed to everyone else in the room, one at a time.
"We might not make it until the party," Bunny said flatly.
North opened the door to his office absently, holding the list of potential spirits to invite to his party (at this point, every spirit the yeti and Katherine could find out about) and studying it intently. It would have to be cut down, of course, but just who to invite and who not...
He was so deep into it that it took almost a full minute to register that something was wrong.
Finally sensing something was off, he lowered the page and blinked a few times came face to face with a row of plastic Santa decorations, each standing a good five feet tall, yet they remained, no hallucination but reality.
Then, as one, they moved. Swinging arms and hips, still in eerie unison, they sang in a voice that was almost but not quite human, "You better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out," over and over again.
North stared at them blankly until a giggle drew his eyes to the window, and a pair of upside down heads crowned in pure white hair visible only from the eyes up looked back at him before ducking up out of sight.
North continued to blink at the window as the Santa decorations continued their ominous song until he let out a snort, followed a second later by bellowing laughter.
On the roof, able to hear him clearly, Nightlight and Jack exchanged high-fives.
Just because it was a prank war didn't mean they couldn't be temporary allies.
The fact that their alliance was temporary was proven when Jack sprang out at Nightlight a day later at Big Root, singing "I've Got No Strings" at the top of his lungs and blasting Nightlight with silly string.
Nightlight fell over with a squeal, giggling and ineffectively flailing as the string coated him, tumbling about on the ground as Jack refused to let up until the can was empty, and Jack got a second laugh after they cleaned Nightlight off and found out the string had temporarily dyed his pale, glowing skin and hair with lines of bright, neon green.
Bunny entered his warren cautiously, inch by inch. First twitching nose, scenting the air, then eyes scanning the land around him, followed by ears twitching anxiously to catch any sound.
It was quiet, no scents reaching his nose that didn't belong, and he inched his way into the Warren before standing and stretching.
He took two bounds into the Warren proper, hit something across the path, some invisible barrier that gave way after his full weight hit it, and fell to the ground, sprawling across the path.
Whatever it had been fluttered in the wind, stretched between two of his Sentinel Eggs and now ripped down the middle, and Jack, from atop one Egg, looked down at him in worry.
"You okay there?" he called down.
Bunny got up, shaking his head before planting paws on hips and half heartedly glaring up at Jack.
" 'm fine. Wha' was tha'?"
"Oh. Good," Jack said before laughing. Bunny rolled his eyes and ignored the cackling winter spirit to examine the strange clear stuff.
"Oh by the way I'm borrowing some water from the color river thanks see ya later!" Jack announced, all of it in a rush before setting off.
Bunny paused, briefly debated going after Jack and stopping him, before shrugging and examining the plastic again.
Nightlight, Jack, and Sandy hovered above the forest outside Burgess, looking down between the trees, prank war temporarily suspended in the face of an emergency.
Jack had known about the opening in the forest to Pitch's lair, but it had been closed right after the battle. He'd been shocked and surprised to see it and the rusty bedstand again in the forest, and rushed off to find another Guardian.
A year ago Jack might have gone down by himself, even half a year ago he would have gone down and only remembered that he could call for help when he was in over his head.
But now...now Jack went and got backup, got Sandy and Nightlight, both of whom created their own light and wouldn't be affected by Pitch's darkness, who could watch his back as he watched theirs, to go and investigate.
Katherine had just gotten back from healing, and wasn't ready to confront even a softer, different Pitch. North was waist deep in planning and loud and, love him though Jack had begun to, didn't seem to be the one Jack wanted for this particular information gathering mission. Bunny and Tooth might have been holding a grudge (Bunny a little more than Tooth – she felt her punch had helped to even the scales for her girls) but Sandy, for some reason, wasn't much. Wanting to scold Pitch, yes, but not so much get even. So even though Jack wanted to keep Sandy away from Pitch awhile longer...most of the others were out.
And Nightlight was intrigued by the idea that Pitch had softened over the years, settled into his role as The Boogeyman, and insisted on coming as strongly as Sandy had.
So now the three of them hovered over the trees, looking down at the entrance below and hesitating.
"Do you think he's recovered yet?" Jack said finally. "I mean, he did get dragged down there by Nightmares, but..."
Sandy's images were a jumble, incomprehensible for anyone outside the Guardians, but Jack had been working on it since he'd joined to understand.
"I'm not sure, but it's open. He's gotten somewhat better at least."
"I vote we go look!" Nightlight said through flashes of light, already spinning towards the ground.
Jack whooped and followed. Sandy reached out a hand, as if to call them to wait, before rolling his eyes and following after.
Nightlight and Jack had stopped flanking the hole, so similar in this moment they looked like statues carved of marble standing guard over the entrance.
Sandy joined them, and Jack looked to him. "You and Nightlight faced him more than me. Think we should do this?"
"Probably not. Let's do it."
Jack looked down the hole again, looking up at Nightlight when he laid a gentle hand on his arm.
"I'm okay. Just...stick close down there. Let's do this thing." And with that, Jack leapt into the hole, followed closely by Nightlight and Sandy.
A/N: Last chapter, I hinted at a possible Pitch redemption going into this story. I haven't made it clear yet – to be perfectly honest, I haven't 100% decided yet – how much of the book canon I'm including in this. I'm...honestly pretty much roasting it at 350 degrees and carving out the juicy bits that work for the story. There'll probably be some fanon!Pitch tossed in there as well.
(Because some of Book!Pitch's backstory is...not really something that could be used in a fluffy, happy story like this.)
