He left soldiers, and training and responsibility behind him. He left his grudges and thoughts alone for a while, for the Winter Spirit was free once more. And boy, was he loving it. Nothing could compare to the crisp pre-winter wind tugging on his white-curls, begging him to play.

Jack couldn't refuse. He frolicked and jumped and laughed with the wind. He created little snow flurries around the place, and he explored the world. The world was so much more dirge rent than he remembered. There were strange looking cars everywhere, huge towering buildings made of glass and steel, and people everywhere. There were so many people!

Jack flew around the busy city having a blast. There was a short a moment where a figure blurred in red and blue swung past him. Jack thought it was strange, considering how high up among the towers he was, but blamed it on the thriving nightlife of the spontaneous city. It was a mad-house! There were just so many things going on, so much activity!

But after a few hours of fun, Mack thought of somewhere he had to be. No, needed to be. A place he hadn't visited in over visited in almost 70 years, and the only place he ever dared to call home.

It was so different now. His frozen lake was only half-frozen (which honestly, Jack had expected) and there were houses not a short distance away.. He saw children running around, waving sticks made of light and shouting out playful insults at each other. Why were they up so late? There were papers loitering in the grass, and a substantial lack of wildlife. Half of the ancient pine trees have been felled, and in their place were sad looking stumps. Everything Jack remembered was tainted.

He could've conjuring up a storm to stop the loggers, picked up the papers before it got out of hand, and kept the place healthy, and alive. The wind told him that this place was dying. It was tainted and feral, and he should've been there to take care of the only place he ever called home. Jack sighed miserably. Everything he ever knew was gone.

The White-haired spirit floated took one last look at the semi-frozen pond, only to see a small kid sitting by its shore. At first, Jack was angry. Why the hell was this kid here? Was he one of the ones that poisoned his home?

Jack flew in to investigate, only to see that the kid was peacefully reading a book by torchlight. Why wasn't he playing with the other kids? Was he alone? Jack decided that he must find out. He came up close to the young boy, who was scanning the pages with huge eyes filled with a child-like innocence.

The book was about mythical creatures, yetis, dwarves, fairies, Bigfoot, you name it, it was in there. The kid held a light to the pages of the book, hastily turning them when he was done. Jack chuckled at his antics, and watched the boy until he decided to pack up and go home. The spirit watched as the child picked up a few of the papers as he went, depositing them in a nearby trash in. Jack smiled happily. He would visit again, that was certain, but Jack felt safe in the knowledge that there was someone protecting his home, even if it was just a kid.

Jack Frost took to the sky, shouting at the wind to take him to a special place. It was magical and full of wonder, and it was a place Jack had been dying to visit ever since he got chased away so long ago.

The wind dropped him off exactly where he wanted to be. Not too far away, but not close either. Jack wanted to get a good look at the outside North's workshop before he found a way to sneak inside. Trying to be stealthy, he flew silently up to one of the windows. It was locked, of course. North is known for his carefulness and precision.

There was movement to his right, on what looked to be a small man-hole. The lid of it lifted, and a belled hat poked through, and soon one of the dimwitted elves popped the rest of itself through the opening. Jack was confused as to what it was doing, until it began to lick the not-so-freshly-fallen snow. Jack grimaced at the sight. Sure, he knew these things were as dumb as a post, but that was just disgusting.

Soon, the little thing scuttled off, jumping into another manhole a few yards away. Jack sat by it for a second, weighing up his options. Right now, if he was caught, he could escape with ease, flying away on the wind. But if he decided to squeeze in to one of the elf tunnels, he would have nowhere to go if he got into trouble. But, Jack's curiosity of the fabled workshop got the better of him, and he decided to take the risk.

Getting into the small hole was hard, but Jack was lean enough to be able to pull it off. Once he got in, it was fairly easy. There was enough room to crouch low on his hands and knees, with the tops of his thighs touching his chest as he moved through the winding tunnels. He saw a few interesting things, like bits of week-old cookies, broken plastic toys, and rusted old bells. All of which hurt when one got under his knee as he crawled.

After 10 minutes of painful crawling, the narrow space opened up into a small cavern which Jack could almost stand up in. At the moment, Jack had no concept of what was up or down, so he was confused and a just little bit dizzy.

Jack stood up, hit his head. What was it with him and his head? He grunted and focused himself. Where was he? The spirit stared into the dimly lit cavern, and saw a bright light up ahead. Relieved, he walked towards it, his hands on top of his head to keep it from hitting the ceiling again.

After a minute of walking, he arrived at the light, which was just a bigger version of the man-hole outside. Jack approached cautiously, and gingerly pushed the lid up. He was lucky that it was so light otherwise anyone outside would definitely of have heard him when he dropped it on his fingers.

Jack winced, swallowing down a string of curses as he pushed again, making a slit wide enough for him to see out of. As far as Jack could see, the coast was clear. There were no elves running about, no yetis yabbering on, and the big man himself was nowhere to be seen.

Jack pushed the lid of the hole aside and heaved himself through. He surveyed his surroundings, looking at all the things on the many shelves that lined the wall. There was a huge oak desk in front of a massive window that looked over a cliff into the snowy land, at the back of the room. The was a model train set to the left of a door.

Jack surveyed the door, and decided to ice it shut. He wanted to buy himself some time if anyone tried to get in. Content, the boy flew up to the highest shelf, and surveyed all the cool things that were there. There were old fossils, small trinkets and statues, and tiny boxes containing anonymous things that confused him.

He was midway through the third shelf, when Jack noticed something. There was a small dent in the wall, cleverly located behind a stack of uninteresting looking boxes. Jack picked them up, and placed them on top of the other boxes, keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn't topple over.

Cautiously, he pressed his finger into the dent in the wall. Nothing happened, but a click above. Jack looked up, there was another dent, but this one was shining an eerie blue. Jack wasn't sure a out pressing this one. It looked... sinister. Jack flipped his staff around, and pushed the lower end of it into the dent.

There was a ticking noise, that sounded like cogs moving together within the wall, and a square drawer about the length of his hand appeared out of the wall. Jack had no idea what to expect from the thing, but a secret drawer didn't surprise him. Of course the big man had some secrets. If Jack was around as long as he was he'd have things stashed all over the place.

The drawer opened to reveal a wooden box, about the length of his middle finger. It was covered in frosted patterns, not unlike his own. But there was also a golden plaque that said in curved writing: Jokul Frosti. Underneath that was a thinner plaque, that was longer than the first but had smaller writing, and it read: 'andi annask svell eða vindr'.

More curious than ever, Jack opened the box, and found a gorgeous sparkling blue statue of a man, only a little smaller than the box itself. He gently lifted it out of its velvet lined box and noticed that it depicted the figure with its two arms out in front of him, resting on the hilt of a sword, that was pointed into the ground. It was so intricate, in fact, that Jack could make out the swirling runes funning down the swords length.

The figure was also wearing a fluttering cape, that was billowing out behind him. It was covered in swirling ice patterns. His hair looked like it was being whipped around by the wind, but Jack could still that it was just past shoulder length. It's ears were ever so slightly pointed, as well. The face, though, was featureless, and was also pointed down. It was made out of the same sparkling blue stone that Jack had seen in the windows of jewellery stores.

It was beautiful and intricate. The spirit turned the figurine over in his hands, marvelling at the detail. He felt a strange connection to the thing, and the name definitely rung a bell. BANG! A sudden banging at the doors made Jack drop the delicate statue. He dove down and caught it just in time, though. The banging increased when whatever was on the other side realised that the doors wouldn't open. Jack was relieved he had put the ice there, otherwise he would've been caught, red handed.

Jack Frost put the figurine back in the box, fumbling with the golden latch. But the door in the wall had closed, and Jack didn't have the time to open it again. He crammed everything he just saw into his mental folder and pushed it away, labelling it: 'To think about later'. The ice was cracking, and his time was waning. Jack thought fast, and stuffed the box into a random pocket of his SHIELD suit, that looked to made for a gun. Jack put an extra layer of ice around it to make sure it didn't slip out. He didn't want to steal, but surely the big man wouldn't know it was missing? The boxes surrounding it were covered in a thick layer of dust, after all.

Jack flew towards the uncovered manhole, hastily pulling it over his head and freezing the sides to it would stay shut.

"Warbla rarda ra!"

The garbling of a yeti made Jack move much faster. More voices joined the cacophony as they entered the room. Jack needed to move faster, he wasn't going to accomplish anything at this speed! He started to fly through the tunnels, nimbly turning all the corners, but scratching up his shoulders as he did so. It was only a few minutes before he busted through the outside manhole.

Jack could hear the chaos now. The whole workshop was alive with noise. It was mostly the garbling of yetis but Jack did hear a few bells ringing as well. He was getting a fair distance away, now the workshop only looked like a few specs in the distance.

Jack didn't stop flying until he reached his lake. He was out of breath and frankly, very scared. His breath game in ragged gasps, that couldn't keep up with his pulse. The box bumped against his stomach as he flew, making him feel indescribably guilty. He had never stolen before. At least not where it mattered. He had stolen from Santa Claus, the chief guardian of earth's children. Who was he to steal from the man.

Jack spotted his lake, and secretly hoped that the boy was there, so he could wave his arms around and try to be seen, just so he could distract himself. But the kid wasn't there, so Jack had to face his problems alone. He sighed, and flew down to the centre of the semi-frozen lake, creating a thick patch of ice for him to sit on.

The spirit almost cried as he sat down. His back, shoulders and chest were scratched to high hell, and his uniform was utterly destroyed. There were pieces of crusted black leather peeling from the damaged regions. Fury was going to kill him, probably putting him through a thorough questioning first.

With shaking hands, Jack removed the figurine from its box and studied it. He was tempted to throw it into the lake, but Jack knew he couldn't. He had a connection with this thing. Why? Why was it there? Why did its name sound so familiar? It was so strange. For hundreds of years Jack had been trying to find anything that would reveal even a smudged word of his past, but had come up empty. But here was this thing, which Jack felt an undeniable connection to, and it only made him feel angry and confused.

This thing had an almost sinister look to it. The name sounded so familiar, but it's memory was just out of reach. It was right there in his mind, but it was almost as if there was some kind of shadow forbidding Jack from seeing it. It was unlike any of his other forgotten memories, which were always so distant and lost. This one was right in front of him, and Jack was determined to find out what the hell it was. But the only person he could really ask about it was the big guy in the workshop, and Jack had a feeling he would be none-too-pleased to find the a thief demanding questions from his about something the thief never should've stolen in the first place.

So what were his other options? Could he give it to Fury and ask his little team of his to run some tests on it? It was worth a try, but there just be some other way, some other person he could talk to. Jack doubted Steve would know anything. The soldier was nice, and skilled in his knowledge of military stuff, but this statue felt...alien.

It was ethereal in a sense. Jack sighed, and had to blink his eyes a couple of times at the offending sunlight that had pierced his vision.

Oh, crap.

It was daylight already?! Jack panicked and took off leaving the lake behind, he said goodbye to his home, and hoped that that little boy would take care of it for him. Jack was really worried. It would take a little over an hour of flying to get back the the Helicarrier.

Jack flew fast, clutching his staff, and ignoring the playful tugs of the wind. He wanted to play, he really did, but he needed to get back. He had promised Fury he'd get back on time, and he was damn well going to try.

By the time Jack spotted a familiar ship, he was tired. He probably only had a couple more days left without sleep the way he was going. Then again, he was never trying to outrun yeti's before. Jack was worried. All this activity couldn't be good for him! He had always been such a relaxed person, even though on the inside he was more desperate than anything.

A jet sailed past, him, and Jack startled, almost dropping his staff. He grumbled to himself, and closed in of the deck, landing with a rushed stumble. Jack ran towards the entrance where he and Fury had exited earlier, ignoring the stares of a few other agents.

He was knocked of breath when an unseen forced slammed into his left side. His entire body recoiled at the unwelcomed contact. Ouch, he would definitely be feeling that later today. Jack groaned, trying to push himself up off the ground.

But two hands shoved him back onto the unforgiving cement. Jack's vision cleared, and saw a stony faced red-head crouched over him, wearing a black leather SHIELD suit. She had guns strapped to her sides, and Jack was sure he could see a glint of metal near her boot. She leaned in close, and Jack felt his body go rigid. Who the hell was this woman?

"Jack Frost." The woman hissed. "You're lucky you arrived when you did, we were just about to send a team to retrieve you."

"Get the hell off me!" Jack sputtered.

The woman smirked, and complied, pulling Jack roughly to his feet. His shoulder screamed in agony, and Jack's features twisted in pain. The woman's face softened for a moment, before returning back to its original blank mask. "You're hurt. We'll deal with that after you've been debriefed on what happened, and why you were so late. This isn't a game, Jack Frost, and you better have a damn good explanation ready, because Fury is expecting you."

A/N -

andi annask svell eða vindr - Spirit of Ice and Wind (extremely rough Norse translation)

Hey guys first off I want to thank everyone for the amazing suggestions and reviews for my story, as well as everyone who favourited and followed! I'm so sorry this is late,. I honestly have no reason, just I Have been a bit slack lately. I know this is also a lot shorter than I usually write but I thought you might've wanted it sooner rather than later! I look forward to writing some of the suggestions I received! If you have any funny things (funny character interaction, pranks, fails, etc) just tell me in the reviews or send me a message! Don't be shy! I'd love to hear from you! Seriously, it makes my day!

By the way, if anyone of you readers out there happens to be an artist, or just good a drawing, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY! I'm in desperate need of a cover image for this story!

That's all for now, until next time!