I know this is short, but I'm up to throwing these out again :) I'm working quite quickly considering my usual.

Ersatz, adj
- serving as a substitute; synthetic; artificial

For months after Jack became a Guardian, he didn't feel like he fit completely into the role. It felt as if he were just there to prove a point or something, like the man in the moon were saying that it didn't matter what you were like, you would still fit in somewhere.

But he didn't fit in.

Whilst North was running around making toys and Tooth was collecting teeth every night, he was sat silently in some town wondering what he could do. When Sandy was thinking up new dreams for children and Bunny was taking Spring to the Southern hemisphere of the globe, he was walking about idly with nothing to do.

He felt like an artificial Guardian, a placeholder. He owned the title but did nothing to live up to it. He was just a Guardian shaped space where someone significant should be.

Those weren't the only times when he felt like he wasn't doing what he should be to prove himself. He could be sat in any of the others' homes and wonder why he had nowhere special. Burgess was him home, but he left so frequently that it didn't really seem like his. He was just... there.

And every degree of disappointment he felt for himself – whether justified or not – would make him feel smaller and smaller until he saw no hope of ever stepping up to the title he'd had bestowed upon him. So maybe he'd helped out in one situation, but there were countless others where the first four had taken the helm and had come out successful. He had a lot of catching up to do.

So it was only when November rolled in did he start seeing what he'd been chosen for. As usual he went out to bring in the Winter and to start making things cold, frosty and snowy. It was only when he hung around and watched children taking their first few hesitant steps out onto the ice, or watching the happiness dance in their faces when they saw the first snowflake of the year, or when they made their first snowball did he see that he really was there for a reason. The fun the children were having now was reserved for this time of year, and that made it all the more special to him.

And amazingly enough, some children actually saw him. Some would glance up as he walked around and though some turned away again, thinking it was a trick of the light that something light blue and white had flashed past them, others would stare on intently, as if every piece of the puzzle were falling into place in their minds.

Only when he realised what an effect he had on the world, did Jack start to believe that maybe, maybe he really was meant to be here after all.