Here we go once again!
It wasn't that Jack liked to sulk. Far from it, in fact. Moping around by himself was almost worse than being yelled at. He couldn't help his emotions, though, so he was sulking in his room by his lonesome.
He was staring up at the ceiling, painted with winter constellations and clouds. North had outdone himself. The walls were painted a comfortable blue, and the wall across from his bed had a birch-tree pattern. There was a desk there too, but apart from a few snowflake drawings and snowflake cutouts, it was empty.
He sighed, deep and long. Enough was enough.
Jack got up, grabbed his staff, and opened his door, peeking around the frame. The workshop was bustling, as usual. He didn't see anyone who might strike up an interaction, which was good because he only wanted to talk to North right now.
Jack crept out of his bedroom and carefully closed the door behind him. He surveyed the hall again; since the room was on a higher floor, not many yetis were walking around here. He didn't see any elves yet, but they were surely lurking around. Jack took a couple steps down the hallway. It wasn't far to North's office. He hoped that the flying toys and balloons were enough camouflage to hide him from too much attention.
That was such a strange thing about him, Jack had realized. He liked attention most of the time, usually loved it. It was what he desired from everyone. But...he didn't like being treated with too much affection all at once, especially from people bigger than him. He could handle a bunch of kids running over and begging to play. He just didn't like being treated like a child himself, hugged and coddled until he felt better.
His mind flashed to Toothiana, who did that to him sometimes. Okay, maybe he liked it a little bit.
Jack knocked twice on North's office door. There was no answer. He knocked a third time. Nothing. Puzzled, he stepped back and looked over the balcony. Maybe he was getting a snack? Time for another epic jump, then.
He launched himself over the railing and made a clean landing, startling a group of elves while some yetis looked up from their work to grumble something at him. He still didn't know much of the language, but intonations were understandable regardless. Right now, there was a mixture of scolding him and asking about yesterday's exploits.
There was no time for yeti gossip! Jack needed to find North. He breezed past them and made a beeline for the kitchen. Sure enough, North was leaning against the counter with a cookie halfway to his mouth. Sitting on the other side, with a blanket over their shoulders and a mug in their hands, was-
"Julius, what are you doing here?" Jack stuffed his free hand into his hoodie pocket.
"I came to see how you were." Julius straightened up to look at Jack properly.
"After all the crap you give me about coming to your place in the middle of summer?!" Jack shouted at his friend, though he bore a grin. He walked over to the counter and took a cookie from the plate between North and Julius. "You look like you've been rescued from a mountain or something.
"Might as well have been," Julius said. "I don't have any fancy portal magic. I tried riding the wind here; it tapped out 'soon as we got to the arctic circle, and the North Wind caught me and brought me the rest of the way."
"Did it drop you in the snow?"
"Sure did! Just lettin' me freeze my butt off until a patrol yeti found me struggling to get to the door." Julius sipped his drink, which Jack could now see was hot cocoa with marshmallows.
"Figures. It knows who its best friend is." Jack laughed, grabbing another cookie.
"And you couldn't tell it who your best friend is?"
"What's Clover got to do with this?"
"Pfft, you say that now, but you wait 'til you come to the islands and get plopped in the hot sand."
"Really now!" North interrupted. "Julius said he had another message for you, Jack."
"Oh yeah? Is it about when he's gonna play me in sand-snowball again?"
"No, not that." season-keeper paid mind to North's questioning look. "Clover messaged me with something she wanted to pass on to you."
"What's up?" Jack reached for another cookie.
"She said she's sorry for what happened. She laid into Tenshi a little heavy, apparently."
"...I mean, that wasn't her fault." Jack glanced down at the floor. A few elves were stacking themselves on each other's shoulders, eyeing the cookies. Jack dangled one above them.
"Yeah, but she felt bad for just not saying anything." Julius drained his mug and set it to the side.
"It's not like it's a super big deal."
"Yeah. Tenshi was being a jerkhole about it."
"No, I mean...I'm over it."
"Are you?"
"I mean, what am I supposed to say?" Jack let the cookie fall to its doom at the hands of elves. "Yeah, it didn't go how I thought it was. I just wish he wouldn't treat me like I'm stupid."
"See, I think he knows that, or just doesn't care. Clover knows that too, and I think she knows that he knows…"
North was lost amid their conversation, so he busied himself with getting a glass of milk. By the time he got back to the younger spirits, they were talking about a more relatable subject.
"You think Cupid would wanna have a sit-down with the Guardians?"
"She'd have a tea party with anyone who gave her the time of day, honestly." Julius said. "But hey, go for it."
"She doesn't have a phone, too, does she…?" Jack looked almost nervous asking that question. Julius laughed, finally taking the blanket off.
"We need to get you to the night market, man. But no, I don't think she does."
Someone get this dude to the night market lol
Thank you all so much for reading!