Bare in mind that I wrote this at twenty to three in the morning, and I haven't slept properly in five days. Another seven like this and I'll die.

I never said they'd all be good either...

enjoy?

Abstract, n.
- Refers to qualities or ideas rather than physical things.

The little doll cartwheeled across the floor, her icy hair glittering as she smiled and made a perfect landing on her feet, steady and flawless. She looked at him, smiled, blew a kiss then froze again.

He knew that the toys the Yeti made based off this figure wouldn't be as animated as that, but North always loved tinkering with things, adding a spark of magic to his models so he could have fun with them before he sent them out into the workshop to be reproduced and taken out in the hundreds to good boys and girls.

The Russian loved making models that could do the most wonderful things; dance, sing, cartwheel... it was a little sad actually when he saw the toys made from this design and they weren't capable of coming alive like his ice sculptures could. But none-the-less, when the lights on his globe twinkled that little brighter come Christmas day, he knew he'd managed to bring joy to children around the globe, and that was the main thing. To him anyway.

Joy.

Of course the other Guardians had their own tasks. Bunny brought hope, which was key – he had to admit. Toothiana kept their memories safe for them, and without them who knew what thoughts would end up running through their minds in dark times. And Sandy, perhaps the most significant of them all, gave them dreams. Their dreams inspired them and gave them hope, led to realities, led to happiness and joy and the ability to make more memories not only for themselves, but for their families too.

It was disheartening sometimes, when he glanced at the globe and saw a light blink then fade out. And as hard as he stared it didn't come back on, and there was one less person in the world who believed in them all. It was sad, but it seemed that the majority of the times it was part of life.

The lights went out as soon as people stopped being able to see the little things the Guardians brought to the world. When people looked at the first snowflake and didn't feel that leap of happiness in their chests and the excitement Winter brought, and they didn't ponder it as it stuck to the ground to be followed by a million more, they grew up. They weren't able to hold onto the magic, and that was key to belief.

North understood that belief in the Guardians relied on people being open to the ideas of magic. Things happening without an explanation, wondrous little things. As soon as they started writing it off as just another everyday occurrence then it became just that.

As soon as people decided they were going to stop believing, they tended to. And it hurt, because he could remember tucking children in on their couches when they'd snook down to try and see him but had fallen asleep, slipping a rag doll under their arms for them to find in the morning and squeal with delight, and now these children were grown with little ones of their own, thinking it was all just some elaborate plan to get their child to be good – 'otherwise Santa won't come'.

The qualities the Guardians had were what made the world a better place, a nicer place, and he enjoyed his work. Picking up the doll from the floor he set her on his desk and looked at her, considering everything. The qualities they had were easily overlooked. Joy and hope were ideas made to enforce a positive outlook on things. Memories were something thought to be stored in the brain. Some were, but the really important ones were the ones Tooth had. Dreams were what some bug-nutty psychologist said were just emotions stored in the deeper parts of the brain. The base, raw things that made you feel happy or sad. Freud, he thought it was, pulling a face to himself before sighing and leaning back in his chair. Id his ass, Sandy took care of those.

But people weren't able to grasp the fact that what they did was magic, and their qualities and specialities were forgotten about in place of some 'logical' explanation. Because people couldn't grasp the idea that something magical might be the key, they stopped believing. And although it might have been sad at first to see the lights flickering out, he decided to himself that adults weren't able to appreciate what they all did, and he would have to focus more on making sure the younger generations were more able to make note of that magic, take a hold of it, and never let go.