There's about 10-15 minutes each day I go to work where I sit in my car and convince myself that, yes, I do actually have to go in. I used to use this time reading. I've now decided on a much better use for it: writing. So now every time I have to go to work, I get about 10-15 minutes worth of writing done for this series. Good news! Faster updates!

That being said, I'm not entirely happy with this one. Oh well.

Requested by ScandinavianTrash and DaisySullivan. Enjoy!

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Language Barrier

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"North!"

North glanced up from the book he'd been perusing. Opposite him, Jack held his own book wide for him to see, an excited grin on his face.

"I want to try this one!" he continued unprompted, pointing to the lower half of the left-hand page.

North reached across the table and Jack eagerly acquiesced the book. Upon closer inspection, the spell in question was very similar to the one he'd used many years ago. It had been, and still was, of great benefit to him in his role as a Guardian. For Jack, it didn't hold such import, but North could think of more than a few very good reasons as to why it had piqued his interest. Maybe if it went well, he'd teach Jack the more permanent version.

"Ah, yes, very good!" North beamed at him. Jack's smile widened impossibly further in his excitement. "Is only temporary, though," he warned. "It will only last about half a day."

"That's enough."

North gave him a very knowing look. "Then come; we must gather ingredients."

As far as potions went, it wasn't the most disgusting concoction North had ever had a hand in making, but as he passed the small cup of thick black 'liquid' to Jack and watched him scrunch up his nose at it, he couldn't help but feel grateful that he wasn't the one who had to drink it.

"…Bottoms up," Jack grimaced, and downed it in one go. From the way he gagged, it was clear it tasted as bad as it looked. He was silent for a long moment, brow furrowed as he no doubt tried to detect some kind of change. Finally, he looked up and asked, "Did it work?"

"Perhaps you should go find out."

Jack didn't need any further convincing. In the space between one breath and the next he was gone, leaving nothing but a cold gust of wind and a shouted "Thanks, North!" in his wake. He hadn't even given North a chance to offer him a snow globe.

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There were too many places he wanted to go, too many opportunities. If this worked, Jack realised, half a day would definitely not be long enough.

It felt like it took forever to reach Antarctica, but he'd never been so excited to see the huddled black and white bodies of his penguins. They spotted him nearly as quickly, and it only took an exclamation from one to set off a chorus.

A chorus he could understand.

"He's back!"

"It's him!"

"It's a little early, isn't it?"

"I don't think time applies to him."

"Who cares? He's back!"

Jack landed amongst them, stooping to ruffle the feathers of the one closest to him. "Yes, I'm back!" he laughed.

"Where do you go?" one of the younger ones demanded. "Why don't you stay?!"

Jack sat down on the ice. Immediately, penguins started clambering on top of him. "I'm a winter spirit," he explained, shoving away a beak that got a little too close to his face for comfort. "I don't know how aware you guys are of seasons, but on the other continents the shift is pretty obvious. It's my job to help bring winter."

There were a couple of seconds of hushed silence.

"Did he just…?"

"No way. That's impossible."

"He can only understand tone, not words – it's a coincidence."

They chattered on and on in disbelief and denial. Jack listened with rapt attention, enjoying their voices and the way the spoke in surprisingly complex sentences – or maybe that was just the effects of the potion, tricking his brain into hearing English. He immediately dismissed the other ideas he'd had; this was exactly where he was going to stay until the potion wore off. He could always make it again another time, after all. He'd been waiting far too long for this opportunity to only give it a couple of hours.

There was a sudden great parting of penguins. Jack watched as George pushed his way through to stand directly in front of Jack, eyes narrowed in a way that could only convey the utmost suspicion. Jack raised a brow, amused, and waited. The other penguins fell silent, interest outweighing their discussion.

"Stand up," George finally said.

Jack stared at him, uncomprehending. He hadn't been sure what to expect, but George's first intelligible words to him being a strange order were really not it. Nonetheless, he slowly extricated himself from the other penguins and got to his feet. The silence stretched on.

George's suspicion increased. "Stand on one leg."

"Is there a point to this?" he asked, even as he obeyed.

The colony broke back down into excitable whispering, which steadily built into a cacophony.

"He can talk? He can talk?"

"It has to be a coincidence. He's never been able to talk!"

"But-But- Tones?!"

"What tone conveys 'stand up' and 'stand on one leg', idiot?"

"He can talk!"

"How?" George pressed, apparently having come to his own conclusion. It was no secret to anyone that before this moment, the most he'd managed were bad impressions of the noises they made, and reading body language and, yes, tones. The confusion was understandable, and Jack tried to enjoy the blatant surprise and chaos he'd caused a little less. He didn't succeed.

"It's only temporary," he shrugged. "About half a day, apparently. I wanted to spend it with you guys."

"But how?"

"North – you remember him, right? – he's been teaching me magic. I found a potion that would let me understand you guys, and he helped me make it." It had been one of the foulest things he'd ever tasted but damn it was worth it. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to be able to talk to you guys."

"The feeling is mutual. We have a lot of questions."

Jack gestured aimlessly, letting his arms flap out at his sides. "I'm all ears!"

He spent the next few hours answering them. It seemed there was no end to their curiosity, and he ended up explaining everything from what he was and how he'd become it, to regaling them with the story of how he'd first 'met' the colony to begin with, now so many years ago. They often talked over each other, all eager to be heard, but Jack did his best to answer all of them, regardless of the question. Even the hard ones. Even ones he hadn't answered for anyone else. They deserved that much, after everything they'd done for him.

As for him, he only had one real question – why they had accepted him as one of their own so spontaneously that day, now a distant memory. But there was no one left who could answer it; these penguins around him were the children of the children of those birds, and the reasoning hadn't been passed down through the generations, unlike their love for him. Love that, he had no doubt, would continue to thrive so long as this particular colony existed. Even hundreds of years in the future, when there would well and truly be no one left but him who knew how this had all begun, they would love him. And he would love them.

Guest Review Responses:

Hanabi: (Ch.84:) Thank you so much aaaaa~! (and omg thank you for naming yourself hahaha I haven't been giving guest reviewers names in a long time since they didn't actually work for their intended purpose but it's nice to see a name :D) (Ch.91:) He means well, but unfortunately doesn't know much about actual proper rabbits haha (Ch.94:) He's a sh*t but I love him (Ch.100:) Excuse you he is the best at distractions ;) Firecrackers for brains? I think you're letting him off easy. I'd say straw. (Ch.101:) Hey everyone's gotta have fun sometimes, right? XD (Ch.102:) well even Sandy and Jack don't know everyone, they just have the combined knowledge/skills to figure it out :) Thank you so much for your reviews!

Hawkfeather: I'm sorry, requests are closed now cause I've run out of chapter slots for them (150 is the max I'll be doing for this series). Thank you, though! It's amazing how things can turn around so quickly - Jack somehow went from having basically nothing to having so much. It's been so fun building this AU (or UA I guess)

Painapple: What? You know I love you but boy you make no sense sometimes. Unfortunately, Lleu YES

tolazytosignin: Thank you! I filtered it back and forth in GT between English and French until I was fairly confident it was good enough ^^;

A fan: If the details you're referring to are about Lleu's side, that's in chapter 7 (I'm pretty sure? Off the top of my head? It's called Blizzard of '68 whatever it is) Thank you!

Crazy Fan: Él es muy apasionado, por lo que a veces se enoja. Sin embargo, puede llevar mucho tiempo llevarlo tan lejos. Muchas gracias por sus amables palabras y por dejar comentarios continuamente :)

Hmmmm: You've come to the right place ;)