Author's Note: Thanks for that interesting little poem about Death there, and thanks to everyone who viewed, favorited, followed and reviewed this fic. I was so excited for the Christmas chapter, I just had to post it right away. I can't believe winter and Christmas took up an entire chapter, but there you go. Enjoy!

Chapter Twelve: All I Want for Christmas

Lillian was very disappointed that it didn't actually snow until it was practically December, and even then Jack said that the early snowfall was unusual. It wasn't even officially Winter yet, but the wind had whispered to Jack about needing snow in Burgess now and Jack hadn't complained.

Jasper was done hanging around and being a nuisance (meaning Jack had to hide a lot and Jasper gave annoyed looks at Lillian whenever he saw her running around, as it meant spring flowers in the fall) and now it was the season of fun!

Jack had already nailed Lillian in an epic snowball fight and they generally had a lot of fun running around the woods. Pitch had made Lillian an extra warm dress and made sure that she wore her heavy black cloak, scarf and gloves at all times.

Lillian impatiently put up with Pitch's mothering and talked incessantly about how Santa was going to come this year, not noticing the grimace on Pitch's face every time 'Santa' was mentioned. Jack also looked a little worried when Lillian excitedly mentioned Santa coming for them and had tried to warn her that she was most likely on the Naughty List and that meant no toys from Santa.

Whenever Jack brought it up, Lillian would pat Jack on the arm and tell him that she had it covered. And so it was early December when North received Lillian's letter. Or more accurately, when Phil (who had temporarily been diverted to letter duty, as North got so much that year) found Lillian's letter.

It messily had 'Santa North Pol' written on the envelope and when Phil opened the letter, his shoulders drooped. He had heard North mention that the child spirit was on the Naughty List.

And so, Phil read the letter:

Deer Santa,

I am Lillian. I am a spirut of sprig. Jak is my frend. He is good. He wants yu to no that he is good. He is bad becuz nobudy pays atenshun to him. I am good to. I cant wat for yu to com. I wil be a good girl. Jak sez yu can lev the presunts at his lak for me. We wil wat for yu!

Lov,

Lillian

P.S. Tel Rudulf I say hi.

It was heartbreaking to read. Santa would never come for his favorite spirits and they would have a very sad Christmas. Unless..

A steely glint of determination entered Phil's eyes.

He had some toys to make.


Bunny had been feverishly painting eggs in his Warren and he noted with irritation that he'd been painting snowflakes on an egg without his noticing. He was not thinking about what to get Jack Frost for Christmas that year.

He recalled their November meeting when Sandy had put his foot down and insisted that the three of them (North didn't count, as Jack and Lillian were on the Naughty List) get both Lillian and Jack Frost Christmas presents.

What on Earth did you get a spirit anyway?!

He huffed in annoyance. They always exchanged gifts with themselves on Christmas morning after North had been up all night, but they didn't vary much. Sandy usually got them a small bag of dreamsand, Tooth handed out toothbrushes and floss religiously and Bunny normally painted them each a special Easter egg.

He realized that giving anything Eastery to Jack would be a huge slap in the face. He also realized that he was still ticked off about Easter that year and would sooner give Jack a rock than an Easter egg.

He set the wintery egg aside and painted an Easter egg that had a basket of eggs on it. He smiled fondly at it, remembering he had painted one just like it for Easter that year. He set it aside in a pile of eggs with various spring scenes on it. The little anklebiter would like them, he just knew it.

He wasn't certain when the new Spring Spirit had been made, but he knew that she must be fairly new yet if she was still getting the hang of her powers. Not knowing what else to get her, he decided to make her an Easter basket filled with eggs that had spring flowers and other things that reminded him of spring on them. Mixed in with the eggs were small trinkets that children liked. He had decided that the finishing touch would be a very nicely written letter once again apologizing for how they met and if she wanted (no pressure), he would be happy to have her over at the Warren sometime for a visit.

Feeling he was very clever with the note, he set about getting the basket ready. The fact that it was only December twelfth didn't matter to him. The eggs would keep in his Warren until the basket was ready to be delivered.


Mid-December, Lillian decided that she and Jack needed an adventure. The fact that she showed up at the lake at seven a.m. shouting that the 'Lightning Lass' was there, should've tipped Jack off, but Jack was sleeping in his favorite tree and didn't realize they were adventuring until he woke up with a shock and fell out of the tree.

When he sat up, Lillian came bounding over and thrust an outfit at him. Jack groaned when he got a good look at it.

It was blue one-piece that had a depiction of Frosty the Snowman on the chest with white cuffs at the ends of the sleeves and pants and a white cape. Lillian was wearing a similar outfit, except hers was a stormy gray color with black cape that had a yellow underside and there was a storm cloud on the front with a large bolt of lightning coming from it.

Lillian had pouted about having to wear her cloak over it, and her gloves AND her scarf (what superhero wears a scarf?), but that was the only way Pitch would let her leave the lair.

She felt a little bad for getting up so early today, since Pitch had been half-awake when he helped her into her gear and was waiting for the kettle to boil when he shooed the hyperactive child out of the lair for the day, so she could go bother Jack Frost.

That feeling didn't last long however, when she got out into the crisp winter air and ran in her boots to Jack's lake. She really wanted to flower there (what she called it when the Giant Flower of Doom ate her and spit her out places), but she had promised Jack ages ago that she wouldn't ever travel that way to his lake after she almost drowned one time.

Lillian grinned happily at Jack as he looked at the outfit with a mixture of shock and horror.

"Ever since you told me about Frosty, I thought it would be good to add to your costume," she said. "I heard kids talking about Frosty the Snowman, but I never knew you made him."

It had been a matter of deepest shame for Jack, since Jack had been trying to get people's attention with his powers. Instead he had accidentally made the legend of Frosty the Snowman. Even a snowman was more popular than he was!

"You promised you weren't going to tell anyone about that!" Jack complained as he blushed a little.

"I only told Pitch," Lillian said with a shrug.

"..What did he say?" Jack asked hesitantly.

"He said he wondered why kids were having nightmares about talking snowmen that year," Lillian said absently as she gestured at Jack to put the costume on. "Come ooon! We gotta go superheroing!"

"Superheroing?" Jack said, raising an eyebrow unintentionally in a mimicry of Pitch. "Is that what we're doing?"

"Yup," Lillian nodded. "We gotta stop crime! I can use my storms and you can use your winter powers. It'll be fun! I'll even let you use your staff."

Jack shook his head with a smile.

"How are you going to make a thunderstorm in the winter time?"

Lillian paused.

"Um.. I dunno," Lillian finally admitted, looking down.

Jack ruffled her hair, getting her curls to fall out of their bow a little.

"Even if you could make a storm, at most it would just snow. And since snow is my thing.."

Lillian drew away from him and fixed her hair with a mock glare at Jack. She listened to his explanation with all the patience a seven year old could muster (her birthday had passed without her knowledge) and then while he was saying that winter was HIS thing, she bent down and made a snowball.

When Jack was about to explain that spring storms were impossible in the winter anyway, he suddenly found himself with a snowball to the face.

With that, the Epic Snowball Fight of December had begun. Early rising citizens of Burgess that day had to wonder where all the snowballs were coming from.

The fight had started at Jack's lake, then continued on through the forest and finally had transformed from a snowball fight between spirits, to Jack and Lillian throwing snowballs at passersby.

They were not amused.

At nearly eleven, Lillian was taking aim at an unfortunate man in a toupee when she finally noticed all the Christmas decorations that were up. The house the man was at had pretty lights hanging from the roof and she could see a tree was also lit up inside the house.

"Jack, how come there's lights on all over?" Lillian asked.

Jack looked over at Lillian after having just hit a lady trying to walk her dog. The lady had squawked like a parrot and was looking all over, demanding that the hooligan who threw that snowball at her show themselves.

"Those are decorations for Christmas," he explained. "People put them up around Christmastime."

"Oh," Lillian said with a thoughtful look. "How come Pitch didn't put any up? Doesn't he have any?"

Jack tried to think of how to answer that one. Then a grin started to form on his face. Maybe he wouldn't have to do the explaining this time.

"You know, that's a good question. I bet he doesn't have any. We should help him out with that." he said with a devious expression on his face. Pitch would kill him, but it would be SO worth it. "Let's get up extra early tomorrow and surprise him. He'll be so surprised!"

"Yeah!" Lillian jumped up and down, tossing her snowball aside. Then she stopped, looking at Jack with a puzzled look. "Where are we going to get them?"

Jack had then explained that he could help make some with his powers, and they had a whole forest of trees just waiting to be turned into Christmas trees.

Lillian had been happy with that, and she said that she and Jack should look around town for more decorations. People wouldn't mind if they borrowed some, right?


The next day Pitch was very thankful that Lillian had decided to either sleep in or be very quiet. It seemed like every day that winter she kept waking up earlier and earlier, romping around noisily, proclaiming that Santa would soon be here.

If she wasn't doing that, then she was singing Christmas carols she had learned off-key and pestering Pitch with questions such as if Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was real, had he ever seen Frosty the Snowman and could she try to eat just ONE icicle?

Pitch had shuddered at that last one, knowing icicles were just frozen runoff from who knows what and had expressly forbidden Lillian from eating any.

He had blearily walked from his room to the kitchen, missing the new look his globe room was sporting. He fixed himself a strong cup of tea and as his eyes were finally starting to open, he paused when he heard laughter.

The laughter of a young man and a small child.

Oh dear lord.

What were they up to now?

Carrying his mug of tea with him, he made his way to where the laughter was coming from, in the globe room.

He stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he entered.

Not only was there an entire tree in there, there was snow everywhere! It was even snowing in the blasted room! And now that he looked, there were icicles dangling all around, and there was even a snowman in the corner.

He looked at the obvious dead tree, with its empty branches and lack of leaves. It wasn't even the right sort of tree to be a Christmas tree, he saw with a grimace. Apparently Jack had tried to rectify this by dousing the tree in a good dose of snow and icicles.

"What are you doing?!" he finally shouted as the entirety of the scene hit him. His globe room was ruined.

Silence suddenly reined as both Lillian and Jack stared at an enraged Pitch. Jack had realized Pitch would be mad, but he didn't realize that Pitch would be THIS mad.

Lillian for her part, looked stunned. Pitch had never yelled at her before.

Pitch stomped over to the pair and glared at Jack.

"Fix this, now," he demanded.

"Uh.." Jack said, rubbing the back of his head.

Lillian suddenly burst into tears.

"Y-you're gonna wreck it!" she sobbed. "I th-thought you'd like it..!"

With that, she ran from the room and off to her cave-room.

Jack looked sheepishly at Pitch.

"She wanted to surprise you by decorating for Christmas. We didn't have a lot of decorations, so.." he gave a helpless shrug at all the snow.

Pitch pinched the bridge of his his nose. Christmas decorations. Of course.

"Just.. get rid of the snow and the tree," he said tersely.

Jack's shoulders slumped. Lillian would be so disappointed.

"We'll find something more suitable," Pitch continued, feeling a headache coming on.

He could not WAIT until spring.


Lillian finally emerged from her room in the late afternoon, sniffling a little. She had taken out her frustrations by drawing a picture of Pitch with a big frowny face and the word 'meanie' on it. Not really knowing how to spell however, she had written 'meni'.

Pitch knew all about her lack of education and decided that both she and Jack would attend human school, as invisible students, after that new year. Lillian wasn't really looking forward to it and Jack was insulted that Pitch wanted him to go to kindergarten, but he soon realized that Pitch didn't want Lillian to attend all by herself. The tricky part was going to be doing all this with no help from the teacher and trying not to get walked through.

Pitch had said that Lillian should continue to attend school until she reached a grade she felt uncomfortable at, and then they would figure out a way for her to study at home. At least this way she wouldn't be so ignorant and it would keep her busy during the daytime so he could actually get some sleep.

He had also decided that she would be visiting the library in the near future.

Lillian wandered dejectedly around the lair, looking for Pitch. She started off at the dining room, then wandered off to the kitchen and then the spring at the back where they bathed at and then even dared to peek into Pitch's dark bedroom.

Not finding him at either of these places, she dragged her feet off to the globe room. She stopped and stared as soon as she entered the room and Jack yelled "Surprise!"

The entire room was properly decorated for Christmas, and a grumpy Pitch was lurking in the background.

Brightly colored garland was strung around near the ceiling and the snowman was gone. In its place was an evergreen tree. It didn't have colored lights on it, but instead was decorated carefully with lit candles. A bucket of water was nearby in case things got out of hand.

Jack had artfully put a little dusting of snow on it and a few icicles. Pitch had found a red blanket tucked away somewhere and that was now at the base of the tree for a tree skirt.

The three-legged plastic reindeer that Lillian had 'rescued' earlier was gone and while there weren't any Santas around and the decorations were simple, Lillian loved them all the same.

She ran over to Pitch and gave him a huge hug, smiling up at him happily.

Pitch took one look at her tearstained cheeks and softened.

"I didn't mean to yell," he said softly to her.

"I'm sorry we made it snow inside," she replied, looking guilty. "We should've asked."

Pitch returned her hug, and realized that as time passed, returning her affections was less awkward then it had been.

He saw Jack smirking at them and hooked an arm around the winter spirit.

Jack squawked out a "Hey!" as he was unwittingly brought into a group hug.


Phil was dashing around the workshop. He had long since finished repainting the racecars, then dolls again and lastly finished off painting something special.

He had gone from the workshop to the wrapping room, and had a small pile of gifts on a table. Some were decorated in spring green while others had a pattern of snowflakes on them. In addition to these gifts were an Easter basket, two presents wrapped in blue and green and two wrapped in gold. Next to the Easter basket was a small blue bag tied off with a green bow.

The Guardians, more busy than ever, had dropped by earlier that day to ask Phil if he would deliver their gifts to Jack and Lillian. Phil, who had his own plans, was pleased with the arrangement and indicated that it would be no problem.

So that Christmas Eve, while North prepared his sleigh, Phil borrowed one of North's globes. He gibbered in yetish at it and threw it at the ground. It burst into a nighttime scene of Jack's lake.

Feeling immensely satisfied, Phil stepped through the portal with his arms laden with gifts.


Before Phil was delivering gifts, that Christmas Eve found Jack and Lillian on Lillian's bed, listening to Pitch read them 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.' Lillian, who had never heard the story, was fascinated.

She sat up in bed, propped up by her pillow all tucked in with the covers over her. Pitch sat on the edge with Jack sitting at the foot of her bed, sitting cross legged with his elbows resting on his knees, his head propped up by his hands.

His eyes gleamed merrily as Pitch finished reading the story. They both looked over to see Lillian sound asleep, a smile on her face.

Jack smiled until he remembered that the next day would be Christmas.

"You think North's going to come?" Jack asked.

Pitch looked annoyed as he stood up.

"No," he said flatly. "I don't expect any of the Guardians to remember her. Ever since your little run in with the Sandman, you haven't heard anything from them, have you?"

True, they hadn't seen the Guardians since that night. Jack decided not to point out that Lillian had been avoiding them anyway.

"At least she has us," Jack pointed out. "I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

Pitch nodded in confirmation and went to put the book away. He thought about offering Jack a spare room, but before he could decide on it, he felt the winter wind whooshing through his lair as Jack flew away.


That night, before Jack had gone to sleep, he left a note pinned to his sleeping tree. Phil found it as he stepped out of the portal.

Thankfully he hadn't awoken Jack Frost. He arranged all the gifts around Jack's tree and then took the note.

Phil grumbled in yetish as he read it:

Dear Santa,

I know I haven't been the best this year, but please don't take it out on Lillian, the Spirit of Spring. This is her first Christmas and I don't think she understands fully about the Naughty List. She seemed to be under the impression that the Guardians don't help out spirit children anyway. She's been looking forward to you coming all winter and will be very disappointed if you don't come. If you give her one present, I promise I won't prank anyone or cause any trouble for the next five years.

Jack Frost

Phil shook his head at the bargaining (the kids on the Naughty List always tried it), but made sure the presents were arranged all neatly around the tree anyway. He built a tiny little snowman to complete the scene and then used another globe to return back to the North pole.


The next morning at dawn, an overly excited Jack Frost flew into Pitch's lair and nearly bowled the Christmas tree over. Thankfully the candles hadn't been lit yet, so no harm was done.

He dumped all the presents under the tree and was surprised to see that there already were some under there.

How Pitch managed to find black Christmas wrapping paper, he never knew.

Soon Pitch was up as well as two very excited child spirits were bouncing on his bed declaring that it was Christmas and Santa had come!

Pitch had sat up grumpily at this, but then froze.

What?

A few minutes later, he stared at the Christmas tree, dumbfounded at all the presents under it. Judging by the wrapping paper colors, the Guardians had found it fitting to give Lillian.. (and Jack?) Christmas presents.

He shook his head as Lillian made a beeline for the tree.

"Freeze!" Pitch said sternly to her.

Lillian froze and looked at him with wide eyes.

"I'll hand out the gifts," Pitch told her.

Soon Lillian and Jack each had a respectable pile of presents, while Pitch had two. He tried to look indifferent to this, but the fact was he hadn't received anything in such a long time and he was touched.

He let Jack and Lillian open theirs first, and they naturally started with the presents from the Guardians.

Sandy had thoughtfully gotten Jack a dreamcatcher, and it had a loop at the top for him to hang from a tree branch over his head. For Lillian, he had gotten her a white stuffed bear that had a red bow around its neck. It wasn't what he would usually hand out, but he realized that he would have to deviate from the norm for a young child.

Tooth had gotten both Lillian and Jack new tooth brushes, floss and tooth brush holders. Jack's was blue while Lillian's was green. Tooth had also gotten Lillian some coloring books that looked like they had come from a dentist's office and a box of crayons.

Bunny had gotten Lillian the Easter basket he had arranged, and a paint-by-number set, featuring the Easter Bunny.

Jack had poked the small blue bag and was stunned to see that the tag read "To: Jack Frost From: E. Aster Bunnymund."

He was even more startled when he opened it to reveal several small, smooth flat stones. They were in various earth tones and each one of them had a painstakingly small winter scene painted on them.

Jack would never know that Sandy had badgered Bunny until he had caved and gotten Jack something.

Jack cradled one of the stones to his chest and told Lillian that he got some dust in his eyes when she asked him what was wrong.

Two lumpy packages each revealed hand-knitted sweaters from Phil and that left the wintery blue and black wrapped gifts.

Jack insisted that they open Pitch's gifts first and Lillian reluctantly agreed.

Lillian had gotten several books from Pitch, as well as a few stuffed animals, some new dresses and a lot of school supplies. Lillian had ran over to Pitch at that and enveloped him in a hug.

Jack had gotten another hand-knitted hoodie, this one black with white snowflakes on it. He grinned at Pitch who scoffed but seemed secretly pleased that his gift was well received.

Pitch in turn, had gotten a drawing of himself, Lillian and Jack near the Christmas tree with big smiles on their faces. It was drawn in pencil since Lillian didn't have any crayons at the time.

Jack had also gotten a drawing of himself sitting up in a tree with what looked remarkably like Frosty the Snowman at the bottom of it.

He flushed at that and hid the drawing away at Lillian's giggles.

While Lillian was giggling away, Pitch opened his present from Jack. He was surprised that the boy had gotten him anything, but then conceded that they had gotten closer that year.

He stared down at the small ice figurine in his hand. It was intricately detailed and had Pitch holding Lillian in his arms, her wearing her flower crown upon her head.

Pitch didn't say anything, but Jack understood.

Lillian had been looking at Pitch curiously, so Jack decided they should open their gifts from Santa next.

These blue wrapped gifts were curiously unlabelled, but Lillian and Jack had assumed that Santa sent them anyway, which was all a part of Phil's plan. It was his way of sending them gifts from 'Santa' without having North actually send them anything.

He was hoping that the big guy would be too busy to notice.

Jack and Lillian had both gotten several carved wooden toys that were hand painted, several children's books for Lillian and big book of Myths and Fairy Tales that had one about Jack Frost in it.

Jack had hugged the book to his chest and with both their eyes sparkling Lillian and Jack declared this the best Christmas ever.

When North and the Guardians were finishing up their little Christmas party, an excited Bunny had gestured at the globe.

There sitting side by side were two blue lights near Burgess, shining the brightest they ever had.


Author's Note: So what do you think? I bet you were surprised that there was practically no angst in it, eh? Thank goodness for Phil. The next chapter probably won't be up until sometime this weekend or Monday. Let me know if you have any ideas for the story and I'll see about including them.