-Santoff Claussen, North Pole-

"Jack, I don't think this is a good idea!"Tooth muttered behind Jack as he reached for the handle of North's office. He turned to his fellow Guardians, all of whom stood there and watched him with varying levels of trepidation, and smiled.

"Trust me, okay? This is gonna make him better, I promise." He whispered back, and then swept forward, opening the door and entering in one motion. Inside the office, North had been working on sculpting something small out of ice, but paused when Jack walked in. Suprised, he slowly set down the piece and greeted Jack with a bit less enthusiasm than normal.

"Oh, Jack! Es nice to see you, has been-"

"A week, I know, but guess what?"Jack interrupted excitedly, almost jumping on the carpet floor beneath him, hands gripping the staff and smile wide, eyes lit up. North, who always loved seeing Jack so excited about things, gave the first smile in awhile and held open his arms, asking,

"Am not good at guessing games! Tell, tell!"

"I got Anastasia to agree to see you!"

North's arms dropped slowly, his smile fading to a look of shock. He couldn't comprehend what Jack was saying for the longest time, and in that time of silence Jack began to feel a knot of worry in his chest. He had done this to make North feel better, to make his friend happy again. But now, seeing the sudden reaction of shock and not of excitement and thankfulness...Jack was afraid that Tooth was right. That maybe this wasn't the best idea.

"You did?"He asked, astounded and quiet. Relentlessly, Jack kept smiling and nodded.

"Yeah! I mean, it definitly took awhile, and she's still a little shaky on the idea so she made me come back here and ask you. To make sure this is what you really want, you know?" North blinked, his mouth partially open and eyes wide and gazing at Jack in a different kind of wonder, a wonder of fear and trepidation and excitement all mixed up together. Jack kept going, not letting North get in a word, begging that he would say yes, too.

"I think she's scared. I mean, she's spent so much time on her own that she convinced herself you didn't want to see her. Which I told her wasn't true, but she isn't going to take my word for it. Which is why you should see her and set her straight, right? You guys haven't seen each other in forever, so she's obviously different, but I thought she was pretty cool and-"

"She said yes?" North cut off Jack, and Jack paused, swallowing.

"Yeah. She did, if you do." He explained quietly, internally begging. North released a breath, blinking again, looking astounded.

"It's been so long, I assumed..."He paused again, then resolved himself and looked back at Jack. And with an immense wave of relief, Jack saw a small smile of hope appear on North's face. "Then yes, of course I would like to see her again. We can all meet her! It will be like old friend reunion, no?"

"Yes! Definitly yes!"Jack exclaimed, back to hopping and already making his way back to the door, one hand blindly searching for the handle while he beamed at a still-nervous North. "It's gonna be awesome! I spent a week with her, she's so cool, you'll love her! Well, you already do, but you know what I mean! Okay, I'll go get her! Move Bunny!"

"Oi!"

And just like that, Jack swept out of the Workshop in a rush of cold air and excitement, leaving behind ruffled Guardians. Bunny huffed, smoothing himself down and sending a half-hearted glare at where Jack had gone. Tooth and Sandy went into the room, encouraging North that they were all excited to see her. But Bunny stood in the hall, and he looked at a window that showed a light snowfall. He wasn't excited like the others. He wasn't enthusiastic.

In fact, Bunny was hoping that Jack would fail. It wasn't anything against him, or North, but the girl in question. He imagined her coming back, terrible as he knew she had to be, and breaking North's heart again. Of all the people that Bunny would protect, it was North. North, who had been the first person Bunny had met after becoming a Guardian. The first person who explained to him what that meant, who let him know he wasn't the sole entity on this planet that would live forever. They formed a rivalry, playful as it was, that kept Bunny entertained, that kept him loving what he did.

He could remember when North told them that story and the pain in his eyes. He could remember a resolution that if he ever saw Anastasia, under any circumstances, he would tell her what she'd done to North, the awful things she had done to the kindest, most infuriating man Bunny had ever known. And he wouldn't let her within a hundred feet of his friend. And now Jack was ushering her in on some red carpet, letting her speak to North again?

From what he picked up about her, from what Jack had said, she was exactly the kind of person Bunny assumed she was. And he couldn't do anything to stop this, looking into the room and seeing the hope on North's face that made Bunny want to bar that girl from ever coming here. Because Bunny knew it wouldn't end well. He knew his friend was going to get hurt. Not just North either, he thought, but if Jack thought this girl was his friend, she'd hurt him, too.

He had to fight to keep himself calm, to keep his fur down and look supportive. But, as they waited, one of his hands kept straying to a boomerang, waiting and watching.

-Somewhere in Canada-

Anna stood and looked at Jack, both on the top of a mountain and standing ankle-deep in snow. Shivering, Anna was almost positive that, had she not been made immortal centuries ago, she would have died from hypothermia up here. Her hands were crammed into her pockets and her eyes focused on a seemingly comftorble Jack Frost, as if this were room-temperature for him.

"You promised, remember?" He reminded her, and Anna had the sensation of this mountain laying on her chest, fear chilling her spine and a sick kind of feeling in her gut. He had said yes. That was a good sign, right? It had to be...or it could be terrible. He could have agreed to tell her off, to shame her, to tell her everything she had done wrong, to let out a centuries-old anger. Her nails dug into the inside of her pockets, pressing against her thighs.

"Yeah, Jack, I know..."She let out a puff of nervous breath, "...He really wants to see me? He isn't just doing this to...you know, be angry?" Jack stepped forward and put a hand on her upper arm, grinning the kind of smile that she hadn't seen in awhile, the kind of smile that made you feel happier.

"He isn't angry, trust me. He may seem a bit frazzled, but he wants to see you really, really bad. And I know you want to see him, too."

"What makes you think that?"Anna asked defensively, Jack cocking an eyebrow.

"Really? I found you in Canada, how much closer to the North Pole can you get?"

"..."

"..."

"Maybe I like Canadian bacon?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Let's go!" Jack reached out and grabbed her arm, Anna protesting as he laughed and, without a second thought, swept them up into the air. His hand tightened on her arm, Anna letting out a scream as the ground left her feet and she hung in mid-air, eyes wide as she watched the icy white tundra pass rapidly below her. Jack shifted his grip to her hand, her heart pounding in her ears as she expected to fall any second.

"Hey, c'mon, this is the best part!"He exclaimed, and had she been able to form words at this dizzying height, forgetting that she was immortal and therefore in no real danger, she would have told him to stick it somewhere. But there was a bright side to it all, being that with the fear of falling pounding in her brain, all other fears dulled to quiet ticks in the back of her mind. It was there, flowing through her heart and veins, but for the time being, for the few hours she hung suspended in the air with a chortling Guardian of Fun, it seemed diluted.

In fact, she didn't really feel it come back full-force until Jack landed them in front of a building like that of a child's dream. Panting, shaken, Anna craned her head up to take it all in. The building was massive, all reds and golds, intricate symbols and designs painted on almost every available surface. Spires arched and windows towered, the smell of pepermint and sawdust filtering out into the icy air. The building itself was as immaculate as the mountain it was built into, and the cavernous mountain rang that surrounded it. Isolated beauty, and she had never seen anything like it.

No one but North would think up a location or construction such as this. And it was beautiful and terrifying all at once. Beautiful because of the magnificence of it. Terrifying because it was North. She could see it, almost hear him making the suggestion of the mountains and what shades of red to color what. She could see him hand-making the windows, shouting excitedly when it was all done. The entire place seemed to have him in it, one massive construction looking down on her with every inch of it embeded with North. It was intimidating, and all at once she felt like she couldn't do this.

Her heartbeat was painful, her hands were shaking, and she couldn't seem to swallow or breathe in correctly. She was stunned in terror.

"Hey,"Jack's voice came through the fog, his hand gently on her arm now, "c'mon, it's gonna be fine, trust me."

"Jack, I don't even know you."She managed out.

"You're here though, aren't you?"He reasoned right back, and Anna blinked at him. He looked so confident, and she was trying her hardest to find a shred of treachery in him, to tell herself he was lying and tricking her. But she could not find any reason to not trust Jack. And so, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, reminding herself why she had agreed to this in the first place. This was part of her new start. Good or bad outcome, she did have to do this.

And when she opened her eyes, she nodded.

"Alright, Snowflake, let's do this."

When the two door were shoved open, the outside of the Workshop was quickly washed from Anna's mind. She wasn't even aware of stepping inside, of the doors shutting solidly shut behind her, because now she stood amist a chaos of spectacular levels. Everything was warm, smelling like cinnamon and peppermint, and nothing seemed to be still but the walls.

All before her, a flurry of activity swept over the toy-strewn floor. Yetis, large and furry and in various colors, moved around quickly or stood solitary, all making or painting various trinkets. Their large hands moved deftly, eyes narrowed and shouting gibberish to the others. Anna stared wide-eyed at the toys, at everything that propelled itself through the air or rolled across the floors, that lay in beautiful matte colors or shimmered like a Christmas tree.

Beautiful things were moving and floating and glowing and tinkering, sounds of gears winding and fires roaring and hammers smashing and yetis yelling, everything pushed together into one beautiful cacophany of noise. She even notices elves skittering about around the yetis' feet, making the larger beasts grunt and shout in irritation. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she stood in complete wonder at everything she was seeing.

Everything North had ever wanted, it was here. Everything he'd ever spoken about glamorously, all his grand plans and ideas for bringing joy to children. The stories he would tell of his grand schemes, of the yetis that she hadn't even believed existed, everything was here. It was physically here, moving and glowing before her in a brilliant display of beauty, of a captured childhood. She almost couldn't believe for a moment that she'd missed all of this.

"Pretty cool, huh?"Jack asked quietly, smiling all the way. Anna sucked in a breath and nodded, not taking her eyes off everything, feeling like she'd never be able to see everything that was going on before her.

"Yeah...I can't believe North did all of this."She whispered mainly to herself, but Jack chuckled anyway and gently tapped her shoulder, nodding to a staircase on the other end of the room that led up the curved wall and to an overlook. But what really stopped her ten steps in was that, once she managed to get through the first wave of chaos, something equally enormous presented itself.

"What the hell is that?"She muttered, tilting her head and craning her neck all the way up. Because, right in the center of the mad house, sat an enormous replica of the Globe. On it were tiny symbols that she vaguely remembered in books North would bring her, a language that only existed before she'd become what she was today. And where there were continents, on all landmasses, sat thousands of millions of little flickering lights. It looked like a massive family of fireflies had made their home in areas of the Globe.

"Huh? Oh! That's the Globe, cool right? But I'll let North explain it to you, c'mon!" Jack was insistent, pulling her and speaking fast. She barely had time to glimps around the Workshop, to try anything to distract herself from what was about to happen. Up a dozen-or-so stairs, and suddenly they seemed to be in a separate world.

Below them were the sounds and the smells wafting up to meet them, but where they stood it seemed almost peaceful. The tiled floor was gorgeous, with a mosaic 'G' in the center near the front railing. Behind her was an ornate fireplace, and to the sides more hallways that led to more doors. It was here that she stood and balled her hands into fists in her pockets, her chest begining to tighten again.

"Jack."She said quickly, as if reaching out to him would get her out of this. Honestly, she didn't want out of it. Somewhere inside of her, she had been waiting for this to happen for a very long time. But the was a smaller but louder part of her that was begging for her to run. She was looking at the Globe, at all the little lights.

"Hey, it's gonna be fine, remember? I promised. I'm gonna go get him now, okay? Just wait here, no leaving!" He assured her, holding his hand out in a 'stay' gesture as he made his way into the hall to her right. Alone now in the massive building, Anna felt herself break out into a cold sweat. She turned to the other hallway, saw doors and lifts, saw all the craftsmanship that North was known for.

Part of her warmed when she saw the little figurine of a matryoshka doll carved almost imperceptibly into a wooden beam. It was the smallest of the set, looking like an infant with large eyes. She could recall that set he had, remember the day he'd made them and how she'd laughed at his descriptions of himself. Just that little image cast a shadow of a memory over her, for once a good memory. And for that one moment, she thought she might be able to do this. She was smiling and she felt strong, her breath coming in hard but steady, her hands clammy but loosening. She was confident in that one moment, the sounds of the Workshop drifting up around her.

"...Anastasia?"

And all at once, that confidence was gone.

A chill ran down her spine and her heart gave a jolt, almost not daring to turn around. Because that voice...that voice was so much older, and a bit rougher, but it was without a shadow of a doubt North. The fear pounded in her head, a tingling on the back of her neck, knowing he was there. Behind her. So close after so long... And with a last-minute resolve, Anna turned around to look at him.

He was just as she remembered him that night. Larger, bear now entirely white and going down to his chest, wrinkles on his face. And it was him.

They stood there in silence, wide-eyed, neither knowing exactly what to say to the other. If they had any doubts that the other was a stranger before, at least outwardly, there were none now. Anna was nothing of the picture of innocence she had once been. North could almost feel his mouth fall partially open, eyebrows rising, taking in the girl before him. Still so young, still so small.

Her hair was shaved underneath, the rest in a tiny ponytail. Her face was a bit more mature, but not by much. Her clothing was no longer comprised of a heavy overcoat, but jeans, a tanktop, and a plaid and grey hoodie. She was looking at him with just the same shock that he felt he had...but he felt no anxiety at her having changed. Because yes, at first he saw her physical appearence having drastically altered, but her eyes were the same.

Two bluebird-egg eyes, and they were still so scared. That was one thing he remembered. It had been countless centuries, and she was so much older now than she had been before...but she was still scared. Which meant to him that not all of her could have been lost. And with a wave of relief, he realized that meant that inside of her, somewhere, his Anastasia was still there.

But Anna was having a far less wonderful time. Because North did still look like North, and that horrified her. He was still pure and there was even a twinkle of his old mischief in those light blue eyes, even in his stunned face. He was still the wonderful person she'd hurt. She couldn't feel her chest, and so it was North who spoke first, again.

"Anastasia, it is really you?" He asked in that thick Russian accent. She managed to swallow past a lump in her throat and nod, still in awe that he was here.

"...Yeah,"She managed out on a breath, "it's me...kind of."

She was waiting for it. Waiting for his face to turn to one of anger and spite and hatred. She was waiting for the accousting words and the venomous tongue and to be told of everything she did. She waited for the brunt of a centuries-old mistake to finally catch up to her. She waited for it, bracing herself.

Bracing herself for something that never came.

North's face broke into a 100-watt smile, his eyes crinkling and shimmering, his arms flying open wide, and for a moment she thought he would cry.

"Anastasia." He breathed reverently, and she was stunned now for another reason, her eyes wide and feet glued to her spot though he walked towards her. "Has been so long...I thought..." He paused when he saw the fear in her eyes, not taking another step forward and slowly lowering his arms, but the sweet and wonderous smile never leaving his face. "I thought I would never see you again."

She had to think of something to say, but it was so difficult when all that she'd prepared was a defense, and a weak one at that. She expected an offensive. Not...not this. This was affection. This was North. This was love and relief and acceptance and joy. The old Anna felt and gave all of those on a daily basis. But who she was now, this Anna hadn't ever experianced any of those. And so she barely knew how to react, though her mind screamed at her not to mess this up. That maybe this was a second chance.

And so, with her mind screaming at her to do something, that he wasn't angry, suddenly recognizing this face, Anna did the only thing that she knew how to do in situations like these. She took a quick breath, and said in an unsteady voice,

"...I still hate 'Anastasia'."

And like that, just like that, the dam broke.

North threw back his head and bellowed out a laugh that almost shook the building, hands supporting his rotund stomach and his face wrinkling, defining the features that crinkled when he laughed. She was cautious when she let out a breath, when she felt her muscles relax. This was happening, she told herself. This was happening, and nothing back was coming. This was going good. He doesn't hate you. Everything, for right now, is okay.

She repeated that mantra in her head until she could force herself to believe it, even if just a little, even if all it did was push the negative voice into the back of her head.

"Ah, I miss you so, Anna."North mused as he calmed down, eyes smiling.

"It's been a long time."She stated, and North gave a smile that let her know that he knew what she meant. That she meant 'I miss you too' and 'It was way too long' and 'I'm sorry'. Five words and he knew all the thousands of sentences she wanted to say, knowing she'd come to speak them in time. And it astounded her that, after all this time, he still knew her so well.

He gestured to the chaos going on separate from them, beaming with pride as he walked to the railing. She followed slowly, hands still in her pockets, still braced for something, anything.

"You like, yes? Took many years, but it es home now. All the toys given under trees that brighten children's hearts, all I make here! Well, yetis make." He laughed, "But I make ideas!"

"Yeah,"Anna couldn't help but smile at everything pulsing and glowing and building down below, "but, you know, I always thought the elves made toys. At least, that's what kids think."

"Ha! Yes, I have no idea how rumor was started. Elves, they are...unique."North explained, just as two elves electrocuted themselves by holding one end of a wire and throwing water on themselves. Anna shook her head and breathed out, too caugth up again with everything to know what she was saying until she said it.

"I can't believe you actually did it. I wish I'd been there." She cut herself off quickly, but not before North heard her. Not daring to look his way, she cleared her throat and looked down at her boots, seeing more working yetis down below. It wasn't quiet for long, and when he spoke North sounded...understanding.

"Es much we have to talk about, yes? But not now, not until you are ready. Now is a time for celebration, no? A reunion?"He reasoned, and a light feeling filled up in her chest. North was still a better person than she'd ever be. And he wasn't making her explain herself, even though he had every right to. Sometimes his pure heart was disarming.

Needing something, anything, to keep that fleetingly good moment alive, Anna looked up and nodded forward, to the Globe that had caught her eye earlier.

"What's that for?"She asked, and suddenly North perked up. He pointed to it and drew one finger across its image, saying excitedly,

"Es Globe! You see all the little lights?"

"Yeah."

"Each light is child who still believes. In us, in our work, in the hope and wonder we spread. Even when one goes out, look! There is always child who is discovering their belief. Beautiful, no?"

"Yes."She agreed, blinking in amazement at the little flickering lights. Each one was a child who believed, a way to keep track of how well they took care of children.

And then a thought struck her.

Ice slid down her gut and she tried to hide it on her face, but now she was realizing why the Globe itself was so stunning to her. Because she'd seen it before. Not this one, but an almost identical one. One without color or markings. A hollow Globe. A centerless Earth.

"You still wear." North's observation pulled her from her mind, and she looked up at him curiously. He was motioning to his own neck, and when she reached up to hers she realized exactly what he meant. Her fingers felt over the old, thin, white cloth tied around her neck, her only safetly blanket from back then, and let out a breath. The fabric was smooth under her fingers, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I guess...after what happened, you know, it was the only thing I kept. It meant a lot. It still does." North smiled warmly, relieving her, and nodded.

"Ah, yes. You even lost accent! Sound so sophisticated now, ha!" He teased, and for the moment everything was wonderful. She smiled and almost laughed, her hand wrapped around the first gift he had given her, a trickle of hope seeping through the cracks in her head.

And then, because the moment had to end, Jack came bounding in with the other Guardians behind him, everyone looking both panicked and curious. Their eyes were wide at North, and sideways they flickered to her, full of suspicion and curiosity. But it was Jack who spoke first, his breath thin and voice urgent, panting so hard he could only get out a few, chilling words.

Nightmares. Playground. Kids.