It took them a few months to notice the effect having his remains put to rest had on Jack.
Actually, it wasn't even the guardians who had noticed. It was Jamie who first noticed the changes.
Jamie frowned as he pulled away from the hug he had initiated and was quick to poke Jack's stomach. Taking note of the way his finger sunk in a little bit more than usual before it was stopped by the teen's stomach muscles.
Jack yelped and pulled away with a slight blush on his face, before his mouth quirked up in a smile," What was that for Jamie?"
Instead of answering him, Jamie continued to poke him, and to Jack's amusement, he let the little pre-teen continue whatever he was doing, laughing each time Jamie poked him in a ticklish spot.
He only pulled away when Jamie jerked up the hem of his hoodie, revealing his stomach and thoroughly embarrassing him," Hey!" Now he was slapping Jamie's hands away, not comfortable with the way his friend was trying to pull it off. Over 300 years of life had not gotten rid of his colonial sense of modesty," What are you doing!?"
Jamie pulled away with a frown, his face was scrunched up as he thought whatever he was thinking about," You gained weight." Jamie had been hugging Jack for a few months already, and although Jack always gave amazing hugs, he had always been a little bit bony. But now, Jack was much softer to hug, the bones of his ribs and hips no longer digging into him if he held on too tight.
Jack frowned at the statement, and looked down at himself," I did?" he twisted his arms and legs to get a good look at them, but he didn't see much of a difference.
"Not that its bad," Jamie quickly added on, the last thing he wanted to do was to offend his friend because of a mindless comment." There's more of you to hug now." And just like he hadn't just been trying to strip his friend, he wrapped his hands around Jack and sighed," Yep," There was a grin on his face, and he squeezed Jack as much as he wanted, there was not a single bone digging into him, " much better." There was nothing like a nice and soft hug.
He had no idea what Jamie was going on about, but he wrapped his arms around the child.
Hugs were always nice.
It was time for another guardian meeting, and they had been waiting for Jack to return from his seasonal duties. They had learned already to expect Jack to be late when it was the northern winter, and they were quietly talking amongst each other, waiting for the teenager to arrive.
Only for there to be a loud, frame rattling bang that made them jump that was quickly followed up by a string of curses.
Jack fell onto the floor on the balls of his feet, holding his head as he let out a string of curses that had their eyebrows raising at the fluidity and vulgarity of the words that were just flowing out," mphmm-Fuck!" Jack hissed as he rubbed at his head," I just smacked the shit out of my head!" his voice was even at a higher pitch
"Jack!" Tooth was the only one that reprimanded him for his language, but she was at the forefront of the group as they approached him.
She kneeled in front of him and pulled away his hands to take a look at the damage on his head.
As soon as she pulled away his hands, they let out their own hisses and winces of sympathy as the injury made itself known. There was even the outline of the frame on his forehead and they could already see a bruise forming. All in all, Jack truly did smack the shit out of his head.
"Well yer gonna have a bump on yer noggin for a while Jack," But at least it was just a giant bump on his head, there was no open injury. He was going to have one hell of a headache though," How did ya even hit yer head?"
Jack groaned," I don't know. I must have read the trajectory wrong or something. Ow." Bunny chuckled as Jack created a snowball and held it against the bump, the bump that was already swelling up.
Yeesh, they could already see the purple and green bruise forming amongst the red of the swollen skin.
"Yeah its gonna hurt for a while, want to go to the infirmary?"
"No," He grounded out, and he accepted Bunnys hand that pulled him up to his feet and accepted his staff from Sandy," I only have time for the meeting before I have to go deliver a few major blizzards to Moscow and Chicago areas."
"Sweet tooth," Jack could tell that Tooth, along with the others, wanted him to go to the infirmary first thing," what if something is wrong with you?" He appreciated the concern, he really did. But at the same time, he had a job to do, and as a seasonal, nature was not happy when he ignored or pushed off said job.
He walked around them and sat down at his chair, the snowball pressed to his forehead," I already died once. I'll be fine," his mood was already souring. Not only was his head starting to hurt from the impact, but he could also feel his headache worsening because of the need to go and make said blizzards," Can we just get this started? I don't have a lot of time before I have to go."
They exchanged looks, it was evident that none of them wanted to let him go. That they wanted to get him into the infirmary just to make sure that he was ok.
But the last time they tried to force Jack to stay, they ended up facing his fury as he snapped at them and scolded them for trying to keep him from doing his job. So they reluctantly let the meeting start.
They all quickly delivered their reports, just so there could be enough time to drag Jack off to the infirmary.
And they did just that. That had to be the fastest guardian meeting up to date.
Jack groaned in slight annoyance when Bunny just picked him up straight from his chair. He had been too distracted by his pounding head and holding the snowball against his bump to notice Sandy snatching his staff and Bunny standing behind him. Before he knew it, his arms were stuck to his sides with two furry logs of arms pinning him down and picking him up.
He scowled, he needed to go, not urgently, but he probably had about ten minutes before nature started getting mad at him and forced him to leave.
"Bunny," He groaned out, not in the mood at all. He started to squirm to try and escape," I have to go."
"It'll take five minutes frostbite," Jack sighed in defeat and grew limp in Bunnys arms. Bunny grunted at the dead weight," You finally gained some weight snowflake?" Jack was noticeably heavier in his arms, and he couldn't remember if Jack had always been his current size," About time."
"Jamie told me the same thing. Was I really that thin?" Jack was the only one who missed the way the others exchanged looks.
Bunny hummed as he sat the teenager onto the cot," I felt hungry every time I looked at ya mate."
Jack hummed before letting Phil pull his hand away from his head, and he knew that he must have had a decent bump on his head when the yeti winced at the sight of it," That bad?"
The look that Phil gave him said everything.
He sighed," Fine. I guess. But I only have five minutes before I have to go. Five minutes Phil ." Phil grumbled at the way Jack put emphasis on his words, stressing the fact that he did not have a lot of time. But grumbled out an agreement to have the teenager ready to go within the time limit.
North came up from behind, with his arms crossed as he leaned over Phil's shoulder to ask, "He will be fine, yes?" Phil nodded his head as he wrapped up the teen's head and grumbled something that only Jack and North could understand.
Jack jerked away in surprise, "I what?!" he hissed in pain when Phil forced his head back to its original place to continue wrapping his head.
"Jack!" North's smile threatened to split his face in half, his joy catching the attention of the others," You have grown."
Jack looked to be on multiple levels of confused, and the others looked confused as well. Gaining weight could be due to the fact that Jack (finally) had a reliable source of food, but how did he, after 300 years of living as a seasonal, get taller?
"What?! How did-!" He cut himself off with a hiss, the throbbing headache of nature telling him to get his ass moving now made itself known," Ow. Ok now I really have to go," Phill grumbled but finished with the bandage," Nature is already getting mad at me, but I'll be back to talk about this!"
Before anyone could protest his departure, he leapt out the window, feeling relief at the way the headache started to ebb away, and the way the wind was cooling his bump.
He had no idea how to feel about the fact that his body was growing again.
In the end, after finishing the night with a blizzard in the outskirts of Chicago, he ran into someone that would answer all of his questions.
Literally.
Because before he knew it, he was rammed full force into another body that had both of them tumbling out of the sky, and into an alleyway.
"Ow…" Jack hissed as he sat up in the pile of snow, thankful that he had managed to prevent himself from hitting his head again.
Life just hated him today.
"I know I said would hang out with you next chance I got," the voice was low, and muffled from the snow," but what the fuck Jack?"
The winter spirit was already sitting up in the snow, rubbing his arm at the impact as Danny took his head out of the snow, coughing up a few bits of snow. His friend shook his head, taking out all of the snow that was in his already gray hair. But the moment Danny looked at him, he grinned and happily said," Hey, you're already growing again!"
That certainly caught his attention," Wait," Jack said as he started to dust the nasty alleyway snow off him," You knew that I was going to grow?"
"Yep!" Danny nodded as he stood up and brushed snow off of him," Believe it or not, you were using over half of your energy to keep an eye on your remains, especially since you go all over the world delivering winter."
That…
That kinda made sense.
He always had the state of his remains in the back of his mind, there had been a few times where he could sense something rubbing against his remains. But after a few panicked flights back to his lake, he had learned to differentiate the feeling of an aquatic animal brushing against them, and the feeling of them being moved.
"Putting them to rest also does something else and it helps you to subconsciously move on. I'm not too sure. The human soul is a complicated work of art. Also, you good?" Danny finished his statement with a motion towards his head, no doubt pointing out the bandage that was on his head.
If Danny, who seemed to be the authority on human souls as the king of the dead, said that human souls were complicated, Jack was just going to go ahead and believe him.
He nodded," Just hit my head earlier, how could you tell that I was growing again?"
Danny pulled him up to his feet and plainly said," You don't look like a squeaker anymore," Jack scrunched up his nose at the way Danny said that he looked like a pre-pubescent child. Come on, he looked like he was 14, not an 11-year-old," And you got taller," Danny held up his hand to around collarbone height," You used to be down here when I first met you. And now," Danny rose his hand and rested it on top of Jack's head.
Jack barely realized that he was now tall enough to be at eye level with Danny's chin," Now you're up here. "
"Oh," Jack said lamely," I didn't notice."
Danny snorted," Like we all notice when we get taller. Anyways, don't worry about it. At least you won't look like a 10 year old anymore."
"I resent that."
The ghost snorted," Anyway," Danny motioned to the sky," have anymore questions?"
He shook his head. His questions about his sudden growing stage have been answered, now he just had to return to the guardians and explain the situation with him.
"Good, now turn around." When Jack frowned at the command, Danny repeated it with a slightly sterner tone, making the teen turn around as Danny had said.
He yelped when he felt the back of his hoodie being pulled away from his body," Hey!" What was up with people and his clothes lately!?" What are you doing?!"
Danny hummed, and he was barely able to hear a mumble of," Sally's Hoodies. Small," Danny let go of his collar, and pushed him forward," Ok. Thanks. See you later."
And just like that, Danny was gone.
Jack grumbled as he readjusted his hoodie," Man why is everyone just manhandling me today?"
"Jack!" He turned at the sound of his name being called, his eyebrow-raising when he saw Danny flying towards him, taking no note of the blizzard that was going on around them.
Now that he thinks about it, how was Danny flying straight? It was as if he wasn't being affected by Wind at all. They were in the middle of the blizzard, the wind was howling around them, and even Jack was having a little bit of trouble staying upright.
He waved at the approaching boy, but couldn't stop the confused look that he had. Danny just grinned as he got closer, and as soon as he was close enough, he waved his hand around, creating a green sphere that encompassed them.
Jack yelped as he fell to the bottom of the sphere, no longer being able to stay up after the sphere cut off his contact with Wind.
Danny winced," Oh sorry. I forgot you seasonals use the wind to fly," Jack let out another yelp when he felt something forming under him and pushing him back to eye level with Danny. He looked down at his feet and was even more confused when he saw a green, platform construct under him," Here," He looked back up at Danny, who was holding a duffel bag out to him," Now that you're growing again, you're probably going to outgrow your current clothes. I got you a bunch of hoodies that are the same brand as yours."
Oh.
Wow, that was very thoughtful of him.
Now that he had found out that he was growing again, he had noticed that his hoodie was starting to get a little bit snug, and so were his leggings.
Jack smiled and took the duffel bag," Thanks," The bag was a little bit heavier than he expected, but he still slung it over his shoulder," You know you didn't have to do this right?" and he was right, although he didn't have any money of his own, he was sure that North would have let him borrow a station in the clothing department to make himself some clothes.
Danny shrugged his shoulders with a smile," You're the only other person in this world I know who has ice powers. Lets just say I feel a sense of comradery with you."
Jack couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face even if he wanted to.
It turns out that Danny had excellent timing. Because a few days later, he accidentally got caught up in a giant air current somewhere over the States tornado alley and got smashed into a few trees that thoroughly destroyed his hoodie and his shirt.
It would have taken weaving the threads of his hoodie and shirt back into a single piece of cloth, before somehow sewing it into a hoodie to restore it.
The point was that Danny's clothes came in handy, even though Jack hadn't gotten the time to look through the bag before he had to go again.
After reassuring North that he had not been attacked and that he was just fine, he finally got to his room and started to dig through the bag.
He smiled when he saw that Danny had gotten him new hoodies, all different variations of blue, in different sizes.
He smiled, happy that he had yet another friend.
Danny was a good person.