Ice Cubes
Summary: Jack is good at doing many things and the guardians figure out why. The perfection in Jack's every talent and action speaks of three centuries worth of loneliness. There's only so much a spirit who is unseen, unheard, and unloved could do.
Jesters of the Moon (the first reviewer of the tenth chapter): Jack has been alone for quite some time. In that span of time, he must have tried to keep his mind off of loneliness somehow, right? So maybe in his 300 years alone, he has developed a skill due to being able to practice all the time. Maybe he could be an excellent singer or sculptor, etc. and the guardians can catch him in the act; lots of angst to ensue with them realizing the reason why he's so good at it.
Frosted Perfection 2
Healing
Past…
He was clumsy in the first few years of his life. Flying around, the wind dropping him now and again- Jack could only be thankful that somehow he seemed to be immortal because no one would probably be able to survive a thirty feet fall like him- he's got scratches and burns when he wandered too close to a tropical country, a fever-or the opposite of a fever- when he accidentally ate berries that were poisonous, an injury now and then when he faced dangerous beings that wanted to harm children-
Basically Jack was a mess on his first hundred years of living. He didn't know how others went through a day uninjured. Maybe if he was less clumsy or if he could fight better he wouldn't be covered in injuries every other day or something, or maybe if he had someone with him, someone that could help him if he got stuck in another thorny bush he-
But he had no one had he? No one to look after him and tell him what he was doing was right or wrong, no one to reach out a hand when he fell…
So Jack had better get used to just being injured so much because Jack had no one.
"You fell again?" Came an exasperated voice from the house whose roof Jack was currently lying on. The Frost sprite tilted an eyebrow and casually slid to the side of the house before carefully twisting his body like so and hanging against the gutters with his feet to look into the windows upside down.
"I-I'm sorry." The little boy sniffled as he rubbed at his eyes, Jack looked to the side and saw the imposing figure of the mother who 'tsked' softly in disapproval but went to the boy's side patting his head.
"It's fine, but you should come to me sooner okay?" The mother scolded softly and Jack watched her with interest as she went to the cabinets and took out a strange box with a weird marking. She took out some bandages and began to tend the injury with a gentle smile on her face.
The guardian of fun expression morphed from curiosity to one of sad longing as the window in front of him began to frost. As carefully as he could, he let himself drop from the side of the house before flipping expertly to land on the balls of his feet.
So that was how people treated their injuries. Having someone else patch it up for them.
Looking at his pale arms filled with scratches and bruises, Jack decided that the treatment the mother was applying to her son was something he really needed to learn for himself.
Just so he wouldn't get hurt anymore.
Present…
Bunny and North had been strange lately, this, Sandy- as the guardian of dreams and the expert on silence and actions- had noticed.
The two seemed to be thinking too deeply about something and what that was, he was not sure. There was one thing he was sure of however and that was, it had, one way or another, something to do with the current guardian of Fun, Jack Frost.
He had seen and noticed, when Bunny and Jack met, the winter sprite would flinch and force a guilty smile on his face as though he had done another prank onto the other and deeply regretted it. It had been Easter recently after all, so maybe Sandy hadn't been too far off the mark on that one.
Meanwhile, Bunny instead of berating the kid and looking all angry and huffy- which was his usual expression when Jack did something wrong- seemed equally abashed and even ashamed whenever he met Jack. He always looked like there was something he wanted to say, words playing on the tip of his tongue he was unable to voice for reasons unknown.
He seemed at awe, regretful, and, if the long rabbit ears were any indication, ashamed.
That was puzzling, indeed.
"Jack, my boy, would you like another round of eggnog?" North called out from the kitchen. Jack turned, a puzzled look on his face and shrugged.
"I'm fine." He called back, but blue eyes were confused.
Well, Sandy didn't blame him.
North had been more peculiar than Bunny. Ever since three days ago, he would constantly ask for the winter sprite, even when Jack was only pranking about as usual.
He never scolded Jack, not that he did before, but instead of laughing when the guardian of Fun pulled a hilarious one of Phil, North would smile a soft and fond smile that made Jack shrink a little in shame.
Sandy knew what the other was thinking, North had been so kind as to give him a room and everything and he, Jack, gets in the way of the yeti's work. The lack of laughter and the smile from North confused the sprite, and he pranked less and less because of North's queer and worrying actions.
Although Sandy knew that North didn't mean to make the boy uncomfortable, he was just being the usual fatherly North.
"Here, I went and got some chocolate eggs for ya." Bunny said in a low voice as he hurriedly shoved a well made Easter egg into a stunned Jack's hands.
"Uhm, thanks Kangaroo?" Jack said uncertainly but with a bright smile, and Bunny just grumbled before he turned away, ears drooping even more to both Sandy and Jack's confusion.
Did those two come to learn something about Jack that made them like this?
Sandy tilted his head and a question mark floated on top of his head as Jack turned to meet his eyes. The boy in question shrugged his shoulders. A couple of elves then latched themselves to Jack's trousers and it wasn't long before Jack had to turn his attention away to entertain the little buggers.
Sandy turned his back and floated towards North. He could hear Tooth fluttering about in the room, chatting up different creatures at once with her bilingual tongue.
When the guardian of Dreams stopped in front of the old Santa, he wasted no time in signing his confusion. He showed a question mark made of golden sand before shifting it to a sandflake that represented Jack.
It took awhile, for North to decipher the message. Sand just patiently dropped himself to the ground and tapped his feet as he showed his question via sands again.
Geez, these people were slow on getting the message.
"No, no Sandy. Stop." North rubbed his nose as the older guardian redid his question several times, each time the sands were getting closer to the Cossack's face. "I know, I get your question. Get itchy things away from the face."
Sandy huffed and crossed his arms but did as he was told. He flashed one more question mark on North's field of vision, So?
"You are sharp." North said as he groomed his beard. "Although nothing is wrong, you have noticed my strange actions and Bunny's as well. I do not know why he is acting as he is, like a rabbit trying to please his master-" A rabbit ear twitched towards their direction and Sandy covered his mouth in a silent giggle, as the Pooka growled quietly, ten feet away from them. "But I have reasons to be as I am. I am merely worried for Jack, want him to feel welcomed-"
And North turned his sad blue eyes to the laughing teen who were swinging the elves, "-And not alone."
Bunny, although faraway, bent his head, ears pressed to his skull as though he was scolded. Golden eyes looked at North in inquiry and the old pirate thief just smiled at the old wishing star.
"'Tis nothing. Just one of those great, big revelations." North completed this statement with an exaggerated wave of his hands. "It's just I have realized…" Blue eyes looked at Jack once more, oblivious to the three pairs of eyes watching him.
"Three hundred years, it's a long time to be alone."
Silence.
Sandy nodded slowly, his sands unable to form the feeling he felt in his heart at the statement.
"AH!" A loud shriek alerted the four guardians to Jack and the elves again.
"JACK?" North and Bunny immediately shouted and rushed to the teen as Sandy followed them and behind him, he heard Tooth's frantic buzzing.
"Are you alright, mate?" Sandy heard Bunny's concerned voice as he tried to peek from behind North's burly stature.
"Ow, Bunny, I'm fine!" Jack complained and Sandy looked just in time to see Jack roll his eyes up at the Easter Kangaroo. "It's this little guy that's in trouble."
And sure enough, beside Jack was a crying elf, wrapped in the colorful Christmas lights of North's tree.
"I told him, the bulbs would explode if he kept that up." Jack sighed in exasperation, Sandy did not miss the strange bent of Jack's arm as he did this, nor the pursed lips as he lifted the elf and tangled him away from the lights. "I told you so, little guy."
The small elf cried, and Sandy noticed the blood trickling from the elf's head.
"Phil, quickly go get first aid kit-" North began to order but Jack interrupted him.
"Hey, no need!" Jack said as he placed his hand inside of the pocket of his hoodie and produced a small first aid kit. "I got this covered. I attended several boring medical seminars, so I'm qualified to give first aid." Jack said in a proud voice, but Sandy noticed a certain tone behind it, slightly wistful and hurt.
The eternal teen fished out a sterilized wet cloth in a ziplock bag and a bandage. He carefully pulled the elf's jingling attire aside to look at the gash on the other's forehead.
The elf winced as Jack placed the cloth on his injury and cleaned it before taking out the band aid.
"Now stay still, I have to cover it up so it won't get infected." Jack said as he tossed the sterilized and now bloody cloth to Phil, who proceeded to throw it away.
"There." Jack said with a huge smile as he finished and he lifted the elf. "Now was that so bad?"
The elf shook its head, and behind Jack, North sighed and Bunny huffed, while Tooth squealed at the cute scene.
"Where'd you learn to do first aid?" Bunny asked with crossed arms.
Jack's smile turned wistful. "Around." He replied. "Sometimes you just have a lot of free time in hand and hey, what better things to do than to learn a new set of skills right?"
Silence.
"Now, let's eskimo kiss that pain away." Jack said as he leaned forward and rubbed his nose softly on the elf's recovering head. The elf giggled and Jack stood up, suddenly wincing.
"Jack!" North reacted automatically. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt while catching Kringle?"
The pained expression smoothly shifted to a smiling one. "A bit. But it's fine. Nothing like an expert healer, like me, can't fix." Jack waved it off as he walked away with the elf in his arms.
North and Bunny exchanged looks before they nodded and called out to Jack, following him, leaving Tooth and Sandy alone.
There was silence between them as Sandy thought over what just happened.
"It makes you wonder doesn't it? Why he learned to be a healer?" Tooth said in a quiet voice. "I wonder who healed Jack's wounds for the last three hundred years."
Sandy was silent as his golden eyes followed the young boy who was way older than he looked. His sands formed around him gently as his thought composed themselves in the forms of the sand.
No one.
No one healed his wounds but himself.
He has learned to heal, so he can heal and help others. And maybe-
Sandy's eyes closed.
So that he, himself, would no longer be hurt, too.
Lullabies
Past…
He remembered this song.
It strikes a chord in him, a painful one, when he hears it. He remembers it somehow, mouth forming words long forgotten, but his voice is stuck in his throat and his eyes burn. He is sitting on top of a tree, watching a man play his harp as children around him listen, yawning as the sun goes down on another quiet day.
Holl amrantau'r sêr ddywedant
Ar hyd y nos
"Dyma'r ffordd i fro gogoniant,"
Ar hyd y nos.
It is Welsh, he knows this. A, lately, very popular lullaby sung by mothers to their children, and Jack wants to learn it. He wants to sing songs that made little kids go to sleep with smiles on their faces.
Golau arall yw tywyllwch
I arddangos gwir brydferthwch
Teulu'r nefoedd mewn tawelwch
Ar hyd y nos.
He doesn't know what it means, not yet anyway, but he is eager to understand the meaning behind the words. He could go to the library and translate it word by word, it might be difficult but he had nothing better to do.
O mor siriol, gwena seren
Ar hyd y nos
I oleuo'i chwaer ddaearen
Ar hyd y nos.
And maybe, after he learns what each word means, he can start learning how to sing it too. So that when he sneaks into the houses of kids while they sleep and have nightmares, he can sing to them this familiar lullaby that made his heartache. He could comfort them when their parents were sleeping, and then maybe after he sung to them, he'd get to see them smile too.
Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd
Ond i harddu dyn a'i hwyrddydd
Rhown ein golau gwan i'n gilydd
Ar hyd y nos.
Jack applauded with the kids when the singer finished, a smile on his face as the children ran back to their parents and the man stood up to dust his pants. Jack stood up on the tree and stretches and turned his back on the man, about to leave and eager to start on this new project, when the man below suddenly began to speak.
"Mae hyn ar gyfer y bachgen sydd heb unrhyw un i ddal ef drwy'r nos." He said in a grave tone. Jack turned, eyebrows furrowed. The guy was talking to no one, his back turned on Jack before he started to walk away, leaving a confused winter sprite staring after him.
It takes Jack ten years to finally memorize the song and translate it, along with what the man said after he sung the lullaby.
When he finally understood the song and the phrase, the winter sprite cried for reasons he couldn't understand as he held a book in his hands.
Present…
Jack had come to her with a request one day. One she could not deny, for, like her fellow guardians, Toothiana was also willing to help Jack in any way that she could.
"Your memory box?" Tooth repeated amidst the buzz of another busy day collecting teeth.
Jack scratched his cheek and nodded. "I mean, if it's not too much trouble Tooth. I'd understand if you were busy though, I just had to check on something important."
The guardian of Memories tilted her head as she flew around Jack. Hesitation was evident on his face and there was also the stiff set of his shoulders that spoke of fear at being rejected. The tooth fairy smiled an encouraging smile, her heart twisting at Jack's obvious discomfort.
It's like he expected to be rejected every time he asked for something. As though she would turn him away harshly and in annoyance, calling him a nuisance.
"Jack, I won't mind giving you your memory box. Baby Tooth can handle the nest while I go get it." Tooth said gently, and automatically, the fairy dubbed 'Baby Tooth' chirped in response as she overtook the duty of her mother. The fairy queen placed a gentle hand on Jack's shoulder, the boy looked stunned at Tooth's easy acceptance.
"This way, Jack."
Jack flew beside Tooth as she guides him through the complicated and grand halls of her palace before finally stopping at double-oaked doors.
"This is where we keep the teeth of children who has passed away in the 1700s." Tooth said quietly and Jack snapped his head towards her in surprise.
"Tooth, y-you knew?" Jack said, his voice breathless with surprise. The tooth fairy pursed her lips. It looked like she had a lot of things she wanted to say to Jack, her eyes were getting watery but she just shook her head and pushed open the door.
Jack followed her as she flew towards a high section of the room, her hands pressing on the delicate gold as it shone and released a familiar looking memory box. She cradled the container of the precious teeth in her hands carefully, the warmth of the past Jack's life comforting her as she turned to the current Jack.
"Here." She said quietly. Jack took it and Tooth reached out a finger and pressed the middle jewel, opening it to reveal Jack's human teeth. "Just place your hands over one teeth in particular and you'll see the memory it holds."
Jack nodded numbly as he placed on pale finger over the teeth in the middle. And just like that, blue eyes went blank as Jack looked over his memories.
Tooth knew that the time that passed by in the memory was different from the time in the memory. What could take a day in the memory would only be a few seconds in reality.
And sure enough-
Tooth's eyes widened and she placed her hands on her mouth, as she gasped.
Iced tears dropped down onto the memory box as Jack looked on blankly, tears cascading down his cheeks as his human teeth shone in an eerie white light.
"Jack!" Tooth yelled as she grabbed the box. Once the object was wrenched out of his grasp, Jack let out a huge breath as he fell back in surprise. "Jack!" She yelled in worry, flying towards the fallen guardian but Jack only held up a hand, the other hand covering his eyes.
"I see…" He said in a soft murmur. "That was him." He laughed as the tears slid across his pale cheeks before he rubbed them away. "Thanks for showing me the box Tooth. I have somewhere to be now, so I'll see you." He said with a smile that seemed more pained than happy.
And just like that, Jack Frost flew out of the room, going somewhere Tooth suspected she could never reach him.
When Jack came back, Tooth is unaware of him.
Everything is a blur of feathers and teeth and cooing and- oh look it's her first teeth.
Everyday was like this and the rush usually made Tooth one very happy fairy because the business of her job signified the number of belief for her. But currently, her mind kept coming back to one certain sprite, and her heart and mind were uneasy from yesterday's worry.
"I'm going to take a break." She finally said to one fairy who nodded at her mother in worry. Baby Tooth was nowhere to be seen but then again, she was probably out with Jack. She had a habit of flying off to Jack when she sensed he was sad or lonely.
Tooth sighed as she flew through the halls. Her exasperation echoed around her as she headed towards her room-
Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping
Tooth paused as she heard the voice echoing, she turned sharply, her ears picking up the soft lullaby being sung.
I my loved ones' watch am keeping,
All through the night
Angels watching, e'er around thee,
All through the night
She flew quietly towards a certain room, her feathers ruffling in anticipation as she peeks through a door left ajar. It was the room of her mini fairies, the place where they took breaks when they changed shifts.
A certain boy was by the window, singing to several sleeping mini fairies. Baby Tooth was on his palms, she was looking up at him with wide eyes as he continued to sing the sad lullaby.
Midnight slumber close surround thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping
I my loved ones' watch am keeping,
All through the night
Often it is said, that what made a voice beautiful was the quality of it, the way it hit the notes the right way, the way it sounded pleasing to the ears.
While the moon her watch is keeping
All through the night
While the weary world is sleeping
All through the night
But music was more than that.
What made a song beautiful was not only the song itself, or the quality of the voice used, but it is the emotions that play behind it that made it beautiful.
O'er thy spirit gently stealing
Visions of delight revealing
Breathes a pure and holy feeling
All through the night
The soft tone, the quiet huffs of breath and the sharp inhales Jack took now and then, the way his voice trembled, and the times he choked at certain words like they caused him certain pain…
Though I roam a minstrel lonely
All through the night
My true harp shall praise sing only
All through the night
It was the pure and raw longing behind the tone and the words- these were what made the tears fall from amethyst eyes as Jack continued to sing, unkowing of one extra audience he had.
Home through the night
Earthly dust from off thee shaken
Soul immortal shalt thou awaken
With thy last dim journey taken
Home through the night
The mini fairies applauded quietly in the room as Tooth tried to suppress her hiccups while she wiped at her eyes.
"There, I sang for you, now can you go to sleep?" Jack said in exasperation. Tooth her the fairies chirping.
Oh please sing some more!
We love your voice!
Will there be no more nightmares?
"If you have nightmares, don't be afraid. I'll sing to you until their gone. How does that sound?" Jack asked and Tooth could almost imagine him grinning. She took another peek, seeing the immortal tucking the baby fairies in, as they cheered in approval at Jack's proposition.
"Okay, okay. Go to sleep now. I'll stay with you until you fall asleep. Even if I have to stay all through the night." He said with a soft smile as he sat by their bed side. The small fairies excited chattering died down into soft breathing and Tooth watched fondly as they fell asleep one by one.
Jack looked down at the mini girls and sighed as he turned to the window, to look up at the moon. He remembered a phrased, so long ago, told to him by the one who sang to him when he was reborn as Jack Frost.
"Mae hyn ar gyfer y bachgen sydd heb unrhyw un i ddal ef drwy'r nos." Jack said softly as he leaned against the window, closing his eyes, a memory playing in his mind.
Meanwhile, Tooth quietly closed the door to the room. She was multilingual fairy and the phrase Jack uttered did not escape her as she turned away. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes once more.
This is for the boy who has no one to hold him through the night. Was what Jack had said.
Important Notes: The man who sang the lullaby in Welsh, was Jack's father.
The headcanon here is that, Jack remembered his father trying to compose a lullaby which was why the song sounded familiar to him. His father was part Welsh and to honor tradition, he tried to make a lullaby in the Welsh language. He completed it after Jack died, and he went to his home country to spread it to the children, since he remembered Jack loved children.
He dedicated the song to his son, who had died recently and had no one caring for him while he was in heaven since his family was still alive and praying for his soul.
So I guess, this is the last chapter of Frosted Perfection arc? I don't know. XD
Author's notes: It's been three weeks and I apologize. Three weeks ago, school has started and so far I have spent every weekened going to meetings and report discussions. Here's the new chapter and hopefully I update soon.
Book fan girl's birthday was recently and I'm ashamed to admit that the fic I'm writing for her has yet to finish, so I'm sorry. AND BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I'll get to it as soon as I can.
So I have classes, but I forgot something important and I went home and started finishing this up seeing as I have four hours of vacant time. I finished this in an hour or so and I hope you all enjoy.
So time for me to go back to school! CIAO!