*~* Chapter 4

Jack's eyes opened suddenly, not quite knowing why. Abruptly leaving the calm expanse of deep sleep, he could feel his brain wake up and desperately wind it's wheels to keep up with the times. Rubbing his eyes, he groaned and yawned, stretching his feet with his toes spread out. He slept fairly well, his only dream being that North invited a girl into his place. She was tall, like him, and thin, like him. Her skin was white as a ghost and her hair a blonde with auburn streaks. And her eyes were a stunning grey. She was nice to him, he remembered. Putting his hands behind his head, he sighed softly, savoring the memory of the dream.

"Thanks, Sandy," he breathed. It had been the only peaceful, pleasant thing he had experienced in how many days now? "I needed that, big time."

He felt the cloud began to envelope his mind again, but this time he didn't try to fight it. Instead, he surrendered to it, allowing his heart to throb as it willed. He deserved as much pain as was given to him. After all, the poor girl he killed must have her pain avenged. Swinging his feet to the floor, he inhaled deeply, rubbing his arm in thought of what he would start out the day with. Glancing about North's living space, he marveled again at the decor that screamed 'wonder' at a person. It was all so cheery and joyful, the opposite of what Jack was feeling. His eyes traveled along with a plane that had escaped the workshop, twisting and making loops about the room. It went over to the huge fireplace, hovering above North's chair before dropping behind it. Jack yelped, slamming into the back of the couch when he jumped back. The blankets on North's chair had stirred, falling to reveal the shoulder of the girl he dreamed about.

Jack swallowed to slow his breathing. Whoa, that was unexpected. Either he was still dreaming or he didn't dream at all. Whichever it was, curiosity got the best of him. Checking his staff's presence leaning on the side of the couch, he rose and slowly crossed the floor to the sleeping figure.

She was certainly the same girl, and this certainly wasn't a dream. Apparently, he had drifted off to sleep last night, not remembering when, right in front of her. Slightly embarrassed, he looked her over, curious as a kid at Christmas.

"Where did you come from?" he whispered, tilting his head. Perhaps he just had never heard of her. North seemed to know who she was last night, and she mentioned Bunnymund. With as many guardians and angels in the world, it was likely impossible to find them all out at once. He reached a hand down to pick up the blanket that fell, but stopped. He withdrew it, his eyes closed. "You probably wouldn't appreciate it all that much if I touched you," he whispered, taking a step back. But her bare shoulder made his fingers ache to.

Curling his hand into a fist, he turned and walked a few steps. He only wanted to cover her back up, was that so wrong? But what was he thinking? The last time he touched someone, death resulted. No, it probably wouldn't happen under the warm roof of North's place, but he knew his ice cold fingers still wouldn't be a pleasant thing to feel while asleep. He recalled the first time he touched Jamie..

"Jamie, wake up! Hurry! You should see the scenery tonight!" He had touched the little boy's bare arm only once to have him wake with a scream.

"Jack! That hurt! Stop!"

"Oh," Jack's face fell. "I'm sorry..."

He watched Jamie realize that all he did was touch him. The little kid's face turned apologetic. "Oh, I'm sorry, Jack! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. It's just.. You're fingers are cold."

Jack huffed, stuffing his hands into his sweatshirt front pocket. "Sorry, Jamie," he apologized, regardless of it being several years later. He looked back at the girl again.

She was kinda pretty... His hand twitched...

"Nope," he audibly told himself, walking to the window.

A gentle snow was falling, reflecting the thinking mode Jack was in. Wherever this girl came from, she must be quite a ways from it. He had explored every cave and veranda around the Pole, but never found anything civilized. A few empty buildings had their windows peeking from snowy graves, but no people and no legendary figure hideouts. He thought of the Warren and Tooth Palace, the same story being the case. Pitch's lair crossed his mind, but he quickly tossed it aside. Pitch was growing, he could feel it. And he didn't want any part of building that power with unnecessary fear. Besides, no one as delicate as her could withstand anything like Pitch's house of doom. His stole another glance at her, biting his lip.

Her shoulder still remained bare.

Jack let his hand slide off the sill as he walked over to Venia with renewed purpose. Squatting down, he took one edge of the blanket in one hand and the other corner in the other. And raising them up and clearly away from her skin, he gently pulled the slack in the blanket forward, and let it drop. It floated down, covering only half of her shoulder.

"Oh gosh, geeez!" Jack huffed quietly, leaning as close as he dared to concentrate on delicately picking up the blanket's edge with his cold fingers. Letting a held breath go when he had the blanket, he began slowly moving it up her back.

Her eyes shot open and she screamed, landing a solid fist into Jack's nose.

Jack was sent sprawled on his back, allowed one gasp out of shock before he saw her coming down on top of him, a dagger in her hand. With her legs and free hand, she pinned him to the floor. "Hey! Hey heyheyheyhey! I was just tryin' to make you more comfortable!"

Shaking her head, she blinked her eyes upward. "Oh man, I am so, SO sorry, Jack! I didn't know it was you! I thought you were-"

"Somebody ferocious, I know," Jack coughed, sitting his half torso up on his elbows. Venia sheepishly backed off, climbing off of Jack's lower half. "Boy, no body mess with this chick. Sheesh."

Venia put her dagger in its sheath and lowered her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I thought-... Nevermind... Did I hurt you?"

Pinching his nose, he turned his chin up. "Nah.. This happens all the time."

She gave a cry of remorse. "Oh no, I DID hurt you! Your nose is broken!"

"Now hang on just a cotton pickin' second," Jack waved his other hand at the wrist. "I'm not sure if it's broken yet or not."

He saw her cradle her hand out of the corner of his eye. "Well, I think I might have cracked a knuckle or something."

He lowered his head back to normal position again, looking closely at her hand. "Lemme see."

Venia went to her knees on the floor beside him and showed him her hand. The white knuckles were now a bluish-purple color, her veins making their prominent location through the almost translucent skin. But she held it in a straight position with no evident pain when moving her fingers. Jack gave her a smile. "You'll be just fine. Just looks like a bruise."

She sighed. "Oh good. I kind of need that hand."

Jack chuckled, timidly letting go of his nose. "Don't we all?" Not even a nose bleed. Yay, no major damage.

But she still looked sad. "I'm sorry.. I honestly didn't know it was you."

Jack slowly blinked. "Venia, it's okay. Really. Trust me, it could have been a LOT worse."

She seemed only halfway convinced. "Well, okay.. If you say so."

"Don't dwell on it," he assured her, cautiously moving his nose around to feel if there were any broken parts.

She tilted her head up sideways. "How-how can you tell? That it wasn't broken?"

Jack chuckled. "Trust me, I've seen many a break in my time."

"Break your bones a lot?" she cocked a smile.

"Well, not really so much now. When I was in my previous life, my mother had to set many bones after I clowned around." He snickered in memory.

Venia blinked. "Your 'previous life'?"

Jack's eyes lowered to the ground in thought. "Yeah, I wasn't always a winter of spirit. I was once a boy of a pioneer family."

She seemed highly interested, crossing her arms while listening. "What happened?"

He slowly blinked a moment then closed. "I died." It sounded so weird to say that. Too bland and casual for his taste, but no matter. Not like he had a glorious death anyway. Sure, he saved his sister, but there was nothing glorious or fun about drowning.

She must have sensed his sudden melancholy change of mood. "Oh."

Getting up on both legs, he stretched. "So! Whatcha got planned for today?" He really didn't feel like talking about anything in the past right now. And he also really didn't feel like running about as usual today, but he had a few snowstorms to brew. And playing a few tricks along the way surely wouldn't hurt. She'd probably have some fun too.

She gave a thoughtful hm. "Well, I kinda need to find out what to do next. You see, I kinda got lost I guess, and I ran into Bunnymund. And then he referred me to North, and here I am."

Jack smiled and shook his head. "See, you went wrong, right there."

Venia blinked. "Where?"

Jack's arms raised and then fell. "At the part about you planning something already."

"But," she squinted an eye, "I thought that you asked me about that. I was merely answering."

"Pft!" Jack spit, moving about the room with arms outstretched in huge gestures. "There's a BUNCH of things you can do. North's kitchen is huge, Tooth could rot your teeth with her sweetness, Sandy's cool to hang around, Bunnymund is fun to torture-"

"Wait wait," she held up her hand. "Slow down there, I'm new to these names. 'Sandy'? 'Tooth'?"

Jack picked up his staff, leaning onto it. "The Sandman and the Tooth Fairy. Then there's Santa Claus, as North. And the Easter Bunny, as Bunnymund."

Her eyes suddenly lit up brighter than North's Christmas decorations. She reminded him of Jamie when he gave him his first birthday present from Jack Frost. All that wonder, hope, life.. It was all there. As is usual when the Guardians are around. "Oh, could we go meet them?!"

Jack laughed, heading towards the window. "I dunno. Depends on how you like flying."

"In the wind?" she said, apparently now a bit skeptical.

"Well, yeah. You certainly can't just fly on your own with nothing to keep you up. Even the Guardians need something to keep them up and going."

"The Guardians?"

A corner of Jack's smile drooped slightly. "Yeah, it's what we kinda call ourselves. The Guardians of children and their hopes and dreams." Jack flung open the window with ease and stuck a foot out.

"Wait, we're not going now, are we?" Her eyes now looked very worried.

He paused, bringing his foot back into the house. "Why not?"

She stuttered. "Well, I just thought... You know perhaps... I guess maybe..."

"Aw come on!" Jack laughed, reaching out a hand to grab hers, not thinking.

"No, I'm afraid of heights!" She blurted, clutching her arm to her side before he could grab it.

Jack's eyes went wide. "Afraid of heights?! Oh no, not another one.." Come on, wasn't Bunnymund enough of a party pooper? "Dude, you did not just tell me you're afraid of heights?"

Venia chewed on her lip. "Look, I'm sorry, Jack. It's not like a huge phobia, it's just a little quirk I have." Jack crossed his arms, raising a brow. "I guess I'm up for a try. After all, spirits can't die, right?"

Jack thought about that for a moment. "No, we all have our certain dangers. I'm not sure if falling to the ground would kill you." He remembered Sandy beating the crap out of Pitch when he slammed him against the ground, but he didn't die. Though he was sure it hurt like heck. "However, other complicated factors could disable and disintegrate us."

"Huh. Okay.." She looked around the room, as if savoring the feeling of being on solid ground. Her eyes squeezed shut and she said, hurriedly walking over, "Okay, come on, lets go."

Jack's smile grew tenfold. "Great! Just hold onto my chest."

She wrapped her arms around his thin, hooded ribcage. "Around your cheeeeeEEEEEEST! Aaaaaaah!"

Jack smirked, picking up speed as the wind continually picked them up and into the sky as North's window grew smaller and smaller. He could feel her body try to crawl it's way up his sweatshirt, her legs wrapping around his panted leg. He huffed, his direction faltering to the side slightly at her fidgeting. "Chill out, Venia! Don't fight it, just relax and hold on. I'm not gonna let you fall."

She whimpered. "How would I know?! I've never met you before!"

He chuckled nonchalantly, abruptly halting his ascent and having in mid-air. "I thought you said that you believed in me. In your previous life."

She huffed, gripping tighter. "Previous life. Previous life. How do you even know about that?! About mine rather?!"

Carefully, he placed a supporting hand on her back, on the material of her shirt. "Every spirit has had a previous life. And last night you told me about how you believed in me when you were little, and that the Moon picked your name."

"Okay okay!" she almost cried, her grip ever increasing. "I get it! Please, just don't drop me."

Jack smiled softly. "I won't. Don't worry, I've had some practice with this. Jamie loves to ride the wind. Just as long as I don't touch you, we'll be fine."

"Wh-what happens if I touch you?!" She panicked.

Jack shrugged slightly. "I'm freezing cold. I touched Jamie once while flying to try to get a better grip on him, and the freezing temperature made him react, pushing himself off and falling. I caught him by the scruff of course."

Venia half moaned, half cried.

"Aw come on, dude. I'm not gonna do any tricks or anything. I swear!"

"Well this is all new to me. So be nice!" She smashed her face into his chest, making him laugh.

"How are you going to make this all worth it if you don't open your eyes to see the beautiful view from up here?"

With that, her whimpering quieted, and slowly, ever so slowly, she relaxed enough to turn her head outward. She saw the winter sun, brightly shining behind them. And the perfect blue color of the sky. She saw the clouds, floating low below their feet. She saw her feet wrapped around Jack's leg in terror, and his own feet dangling in the air with nothing under them. Bad idea.

She yelped, trying to further move herself up Jack's body. He grunted and huffed, trying to hold his balance and yet not come in contact with her skin. "Lady! Venia! Stop! It's okay!"

"No! We're gonna fall and die!" she was in hysterics.

Jack desperately tried to keep himself aright, becoming slightly annoyed with her sudden panic attack. Couldn't she see that her attempts at climbing to the top of his head were actually making both of them less and less safe?

"Venia, if you don't stop, we WILL fall!" he commented firmly.

But she didn't hear him. He felt her hand lose it's grip as the other grappled the air for his shirt again. Without having a choice, Jack grabbed her forearm and pulled her torso back in to him. Another bad idea.

His hand burned, a bright light suddenly beaming from the contact. He gritted his teeth against the pain, desperately trying to keep a hold on her. Why was this painful for HIM? She apparently felt the pain too, for her knee jammed into his gut, and a sonic boom sounded, forcing the two apart as the light suddenly exploded. Venia fell back, her body limp in unconsciousness. Jack grabbed his hand, hissing at the throb that now shot up his arm from it. Gasping, he shot down after her at lightning speed.

This would NOT happen again.

*~*~*~*~*G*~*~*~*~*~

Haha! Sorry to leave ya'll hanging! Including Jack. :P

And a BIG shout out to those who have reviewed so far! LOVE YOU GUYS for doing so!

Well there's another chapter for ya. Let me know how ya liked it!