If anyone is interested, I did make a music video for this story. The link is on my profile if you want to check it out. There's also a link to a picture I made on a doll maker of both fem!Jack and Snegurochka.
And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
I'll love you for a thousand more
One step closer
Jack sat, curled up underneath a tree, long after the crew had bagged up Henrik's body and left. Toothless's body still lay in the cave, buried under rocks and topped by a carved dragon to form the closest thing to a memorial Jack could give the dragon. The winter sprite didn't have a care in the world for the icy trails forming on his cheeks. Hiccup was gone. Henrik was gone. Even Toothless, as frustrating as he had been, would be missed. It was just too much and too soon for him to take.
So when something began to nudge his cheek and shoulder, he felt completely justified in growling, "Get lost!"
When the nudging continued, Jack looked up, ready to make whoever it was (and oh how he hoped it would be Pitch, though if the shadow man knew what was good for him he wouldn't be showing his face for the next century or two) go away. He froze as he realized the "someone" wasn't a person or even an animal, but a floating orb of light.
"Is that a moonbeam?" He asked, watching the light float a bit into the forest. When the beam saw he wasn't following it floated back over and started nudging him again. Jack glared up at the newly risen moon and said, "Really? After three hundred years you choose now to try and talk to me?"
The beam glowed a little brighter and started floating away again. The sprite glared at it for a few seconds before sighing and following. It led him through the forest until he reached a small clearing housing a pair of figures standing over a large shadow. The moment he stepped into the clearing, the moonbeam shot away from him to circle around the two figures, gaining their attention, before heading back towards the moon.
The two figures turned to Jack and he was able to see that they were a man and woman. Both had soft pink eyes and platinum blonde hair, the woman's shoulder length and in ringlets and the man's short and wavy. The woman appeared to be in her mid twenties and was tall with strong arms and legs and full curves. She wore a red, asymmetrical cocktail dress and strappy heels. The man appeared slightly older and was all lean muscle and strong jawed. He wore a pair of black dress pants, dark red hunting boots, and a white dress shirt, a red tie hanging loose from his neck and a dark red quiver, with arrows and a bow, hooked to the belt around his waist.
The woman was smiling, but the man stared at Jack quizzically. "Is this him then?" the man asked.
The woman nodded and walked towards the sprite. "Hello Jack Frost, it is a pleasure to meet you."
"Who are you and what do you want? I'm not exactly in the mood for anything but a fight."
The woman chuckled and said, "My name is Aphrodite or Venus and this is my son Eros or Cupid."
"Cupid? Like the naked baby angel?"
"Watch it boy, I'm no cherub. You might be able to get away with that with the rabbit, but I carry more than love arrows in my quiver and I will use them," Eros said, stepping forward and patting his quiver.
"Hush, my child. We are not here for a fight."
"Then what do you want?" Jack growled, raising his staff. Damn it, all he wanted was to be alone in mourning right now.
"Calm, I want nothing more than to ease your pain."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, not just yours. I have been feeling the pain of a lost lover for over a millennia and that is not considering your constant heartbreak. You think now, when I was so close, that I will just sit back and let that foolish nightmare king get in my way. Oh no, not going to happen."
"Wait, what?"
"See for yourself."
Jack frowned, but lowered his staff. Cautiously, he stepped forward, walking closer to the shadow. He was three feet from the shape when he realized what it was.
Aphrodite wrapped her arms around his shocked form and rested her head on his. "Adorable, are they not? Not my type, but I have to say, you have got good taste."
"Hiccup."
"Hiccup, Henrik, a mix of both really. Did you know 'Henry' has had a crush on you since he was thirteen? Puppy love is so adorable, is it not Eros?"
"Hiccup."
"Not very quick, is he?"
"Oh hush, Eros."
"B-but, I thought..." His life as a human will end. "So he meant..." Jack stumbled to his knees and grabbed Hiccup's hand. Hiccup! He was alive... sort of. He was a spirit. His hair was a brighter red color and his cheeks, arms, and neck were spotted with brown scales. Next to him lay Toothless, whose prosthetic tail fin had been replaced by a real one, though it was the same bright red of his prosthetic.
"They both should awaken soon. Come Eros, let us give them some privacy," Aphrodite said, hooking her arm on Eros's and pulling him away.
"I- I don't know how to thank you."
Aphrodite just smiled and winked before the two disappeared in a flash.
A groan sent Jack's attention back to the ground. "Hey Toothless buddy."
Yellow-green eyes blinked up blearily at Jack before huffing smoke in his face and looking down at Hiccup.
"Yeah, great to see you too."
"Jack?"
"He- Hi- Hey, how you feeling?"
"Better than I felt after facing the red death," the red head groaned, sitting up. He frowned up at Jack. "Wait, Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"I - Jack I died. Twice! How did I die twice? And how am I here? I - My name was Hiccup, but..."
"Sh, calm down," Jack said, moving to embrace the boy. "It'll only hurt more if you try to force it, trust me. Just relax and let the memories come."
The boy looked up, allowing Jack to see that the green eyes were now freckled with yellow in the same fashion as the dragon's, before closing his eyes. He sighed and relaxed as his memories began to align, first the Hiccup ones then the Henrik ones. His eyes flickered open and he raised a hand to cup Jack's cheek. "I remember everything, from both of my lives."
"Well two of them," Jack chuckled. At the confused look sent his way, Jack continued, "You've been reincarnating yourself since 'Hiccup' died."
"Is that what happened now? Because I swear I remember dying, right after I found... Toothless!" Hiccup swung around to look at the dragon, who nuzzled the boy and made a purr-like sound.
"Yep, he's here to. Guess he wouldn't leave without you. But to answer your question, no not exactly. See, your not - I mean - Hic, you're not human anymore. You're a spirit, like me. Well, not exactly like me. She didn't exactly say what type of spirit you were, but with the scales it's probably a safe bet you're a dragon spirit."
"She?" Hiccup asked, turning back to Jack.
"Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She's the one that brought you back, something about us and our love lives pissing her off."
Hiccup snorted, then frowned. "Wait, if I died then my parents, my friends, they all think I'm..."
"Yeah, I'm sorry Hic."
"It's not your fault," Hiccup said, squeezing Jack's arm.
"Yes it is. If it wasn't for me, Pitch would never have gone after you."
"Pitch? He's the one that caused the cave in?" the dragon spirit asked, thinking back on the stories his cousin used to tell him growing up about the Guardians and their battles against the Boogeyman. At the sprite's nod, Hiccup shook his head and said, "Jack that's not your fault. You could just as easily blame me for just walking into a random cave without checking to be sure it's safe or Toothless since he's the reason I went into the cave in the first place."
Toothless huffed and gave the former viking a glare, as if insulted that Hiccup had thought to place blame on him.
"You're not helping, bud. Jack, what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't blame yourself. Things happen for a reason."
The sprite stared at the boy in his arms for a moment before sighing and dropping his head into cherry locks. "I've missed you Hiccup." He made a face and pulled away, saying, "Wait, should I call you Hiccup, or should you still be Henrik?"
"I... don't know. Hiccup I guess since it is my 'first' name," Hiccup said with a thoughtful look.
"Cool. Sophie, Jamie, and Pippa will probably still want to call you Henrik. The other Guardians will probably accept the name swap easily enough though."
"Wait, we're going to tell my family I'm still alive? Aren't there rules against that or something?"
"There's not a rule per-se. It is usually looked down upon for spirits to 'haunt' their living family, but Jamie, Sophie, and Pippa are all familiar with spirits, so they should be okay."
"Okay," Hiccup said slowly, as if he didn't completely trust the winter spirit's logic which prompted a frown from said spirit. "So I'm going to be meeting the other Guardians then?" he asked. Unlike his cousins and the rest of, what Jack called, the burgess seven, Hiccup had never met all the Guardians. He had only met Bunny, who always showed up with a basket of chocolates for Sophie's birthday, and the little brown, black, and white colored, bird-like fairy that Jack swore used to be one of the Tooth Fairy's helpers. And of course, like every other kid his age and younger that lived in burgess, he had grown up with Jack as the ultimate winter-time playmate. The closest he'd ever gotten to seeing the others was being able to see the Sandman's dreamsand trails flow through the night as he grew old enough to stay up late.
Laughing, Jack nodded and jumped to his feet, pulling the red-head up with him. "Yeah, in fact they're probably all still at North's since I just up and ditched them right in the middle of a meeting. Oh yeah, and there's someone else you've gotta meet there too! She's been waiting a long time to meet you. Oh man is she gonna be happy, though she'll probably try to run off to kill Pitch when she finds out what happened. She nearly did after she found out about our battle with him that one time."
"Who is she?" Hiccup said, slipping onto Toothless's back and making a mental note to figure out a way to make the dragon a new saddle. Maybe North would let him use some supplies from the workshop?
"Nuh-uh, it's a surprise!" Jack said, lifting into the air.
Dragon and rider followed after, but both were shocked when they realized just how fast they launched upwards. Hiccup thought to ask Jack, but shrugged it off. The were spirits now and spirits did get bonus power and strength, right? Either way, the trio quickly found themselves passing the arctic circle in less time than Hiccup remembered it taking to get to dragon island.
-.-
"Why are we even still here? It's been hours!"
"Come on, Bunny, it's not like you have anything to do. It's your off season. My girl's are doing fine and Sandy's perfectly capable of commanding his dreamsand from here. There's no reason any of us have to leave until Jack returns."
"Who says Frostbite's even coming back? He's probably off playing somewhere."
Baby Tooth shot over from her spot on Snegruchka's lap and got in Bunny's face. She had been resting in Jack's room at the workshop, only to come looking when the meeting had been running longer than usual. Of course, the moment her mother had told her the moon man's message, she had known exactly what was going on and she was sure that as soon as her Jack found his Hiccup he would be coming straight to his family, the Guardians, to tell them the news. So the Kangaroo just needed to be quiet and patient, and that's exactly what she told him.
"Oi, I'm not a Kangaroo!"
"Bunny -"
Tooth was cut off as a blast of wind came through the still open window, bringing with it a large black shape. Immediately all the Guardians were up in battle positions, not taking any relief when they realized the shape wasn't a fearling or nightmare, but a dragon.
"Woah, calm down guys. Haven't you ever seen a Night Fury before?" Jack said, calmly drifting through the window and landing next to the head of the dragon.
"Jack, there you are! Why have you brought dragon into workshop?" North asked as the elder spirits relaxed slightly.
"Oh sorry, I didn't realize. I don't think Toothless would have stayed outside though. He gets clingy after being separated for too long, and we've been separated for a long time," said a voice. For a moment, the Guardians thought it was the dragon that spoke, but then the dragon's wings lowered, revealing a small teen wearing a green t-shirt, brown cargo pants, and dark brown hiking boots perched on the dragon's back.
"Henrik? What on earth are you doing here? And why were you riding a dragon?" Bunny asked as he watched the teen dismount. "And what happened to your face?" he added when he caught sight of the scales.
"Okay, so long story short: Henrik's actually the reincarnation of this viking kid I met when Father Time sent me back in time as punishment for a prank. Aphrodite brought him back to life about an hour ago after Pitch killed him and now he's a dragon spirit, I think." Jack smiled at the dumbfounded group.
"Sent you back - well I guess that does explain the talk about paradoxes. Honestly, it figures you'd try to pull a prank on Father Time," Hiccup muttered and Toothless softly growled an agreement.
"Henrik's a - and Aphrodite did - Mate, I think we need a little bit more of an explanation than that."
"Well -"
"PITCH DID WHAT?"
Jack flinched at the Snow Maiden's shout and quickly tied to change the subject by saying, "Introductions! We need introductions! Hiccup, you know Bunny of course. This is Toothiana the Tooth Fairy, but we just call her Tooth. That's Sanderson Mansnoozie the Sandman, or just Sandy. And Nicholas St. North otherwise known as Santa. Everyone, this is Hiccup and he's - Valka Emilia Overland Frost-Haddock don't you even think about leaving this workshop!"
Everyone in the room jumped as Jack suddenly yelled and shot a glare at the snow spirit who had been attempting to sneak out a door.
The girl rounded on him and said, "But we can't just let Pitch get away."
"We won't. Trust me, I'll make sure he gets what's coming to him, but I've told you before you are to go nowhere near him."
"But -"
"No, Val, I'm putting my foot down and you know I hate doing that."
The two shared a glare off before Snegurochka turned away, arms crossed.
"Rimsky-Korsakov, what just happened?"
"Did Frostbite just call her -"
"Haddock?" Hiccup squeaked, glancing between the girl and Jack.
"Jack, why did you call Snegurochka that?" Tooth asked, also glancing between the two winter spirits.
"Because that's her name?" Jack said, the statement coming out as a question as he nervously scratched his neck. This wasn't going how he thought it would.
"But you called her Frost."
"Yeah," Jack said slowly. "She is my daughter. Why wouldn't she have my last name?"
"Daughter!" Tooth and Hiccup screamed while North said something that Jack was pretty sure was a curse in Russian.
"Yeah, I thought you guys knew that. The stories all say she's the daughter of winter," Jack said, looking over to the still sulking Snow Maiden, only to get a shrug.
"Crikey Frostbite, we thought she was Father Frost's daughter. Why on Earth would we have assumed she was yours?"
Jack gave the rabbit a deadpanned look and said, "I am Father Frost, Bunny. That's the name General Winter gave the Russians for me, like how that idiot Loki told the Vikings I was Jokul Frosti."
"How did you not know this North?" Tooth whispered to the Wonder Guardian.
"Never came up. Girl was always just Valka or Snegurochka until rumor's started going around that girl was granddaughter. We just went with it," North said. Looking back though, hadn't the village he'd discovered the girl near during a pre-christmas flight been Burgess, Jack's home? He hadn't put much thought into it at the time, too caught up in the beautiful details of the music box the girl had been carving. He had just invited the girl to the workshop and when she had said she needed permission from her father he, like the others, had assumed she meant the mysterious Father Frost of Russian lore as her own story had been started in Russia, also by General Winter.
"Wait, so you mean to tell me that Frostbite here got some sheila knocked up? I don't buy it."
"Not exactly," Jack muttered, his face bright red as Valka began laughing.
"Yeah, considering that dad was the one that got 'knocked up'," she giggled.
Blush growing, Jack glared at the girl and said, "That's it, you're grounded."
Hiccup's emotions were going crazy. First had been jealousy at the fact that Jack, his Jack, had slept with and had a child with someone else, then confusion at the fact that said child would bare not only his name, but one that Jack had known to be Hiccup's mother's. He wasn't sure how to feel about the fact Jack had supposedly given birth to the girl. Sure, he was completely aware of the myths, confirmed true by Jack, that Loki had given birth to multiple kids, but Jack had always said the shapeshifter had been female when giving birth and Jack wasn't a shapeshifter. Although, hadn't Jack been transformed into a girl before he had left and they had... "Oh gods!"
Jack turned to Hiccup and, after taking in his face, gave the dragon spirit a small smile, mouthing the word "surprise."
I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
~ A Thousand Years Pt. 2 by Christina Perri ft. Steve Kazee
Jack, that's probably one of the worst ways to tell a guy he's got a kid.
Since people always seem to make Aphrodite into this twiggy, "prom queen" figure, I figured I'd go for a more BA version of her. Someone who'd kick your butt if you got in her way. Because she's passionate in everything she puts her heart and mind too. Besides, who says "beauty" means she has to look like some toothpick.
I don't know why, but all my time masters end up coming out as riddle-making trolls. I do the same thing with Clockwork from Danny Phantom.
I'm in agreement with the headcanon going around that Jack naming Baby separated her from the others so it kind of slipped in here. She's now patterned similar to female snow buntings with her insect like wings being a white-silver color with frost designs. Her eyes, however, remained the same. She's bigger now too, about the size of a small dog. She's also been spending too much time round Jack. Don't blame her for the Kangaroo comment, Bunny. Jack's just a bad influence.
I figure Jack probably went to Winter and the Snow Queen for help with Valka, making them her kinda-sorta godparents, which is why the General is mentioned here, spreading rumors about Valka.