In which Jack learns a valuable lesson, and sometimes Pitch is the voice of reason.
(Jack may be a good influence on Pitch, but Pitch aint the best influence on Jack.
And note: this is NOT JAMIE. This takes place around Revolutionary War time. In the EB timeline, this means Jack and Pitch are an item now but are still kinda new to it.)
Belief was still a new sensation for Jack. It had been several decades since the first child saw him, but Jack still could cry every time he sees the recognition in their small faces.
And when one boy believes so, so much that Jack feels dizzy with it, when he looks at Jack and instantly smiles like his whole world lit up; Jack can't help but get attached.
James is the first (and only) child that Jack makes special time for, that he visits as often as he can every winter.
The child was so bright and time slows down while Jack shows the small boy how to make snowmen, how to skate (how to tell if the ice is too thin), how to pack the perfect snowball. He spends as much time as he can get away with playing with James (and Pitch had warned him, hadn't he? Had creased his forehead with worry while he told Jack not to get attached, not to put so much faith in them. Jack had thought he had meant because the boy wouldn't live long, had thought he was prepared.)
He becomes James' best friend, and he starts to notice small details.
There's the way James will look like his world his shattering when the night comes, when it's time to go home. The way the other children avoid him and the adults in the village whispered when his back was turned.
Jack didn't really remember what a "bastard" was, but he knows what a lonely kid looked like.
And he loves his time with James, but the boy needs other kids! He needs other people! So it's on a whim that Jack chucks a snowball at one of the other children, he's not sure why he did it. But he spends the whole rest of the day watching and laughing while all the kids break into a snowball fight that spans the whole village and the air is filled with shrieks of laughter.
He knew it wouldn't last, thought he was prepared (Pitch had warned him he had told him to be careful Jack had thought he understood.)
It hurts, when he shows up one year and James is a tall, thin and growing young man who walks through him. He feels it deep down when the young man laughs at the idea of his old imaginary friend.
Jack Frost is a dumb story for children after all.
And it hurts, it yanks deep in his chest, but he was prepared. So he's ok.
He wasn't prepared for his first taste of human war.
He had come back hoping to find James' children, but there's screaming and wailing in the air and blood on the snow.
Jack finds James, in a crowd of other young men (Jack can name most of them still) and laughing. Laughing and shouting as they yank a man and his wife to the center of the town and Jack doesn't understand he yells and tries to get them to stop and doesn't understand.
There are kids screaming and Jack realizes that they're the man's kids and they're sobbing and choking while the man screams as the hot tar is poured on him.
Jack can hear skin and tar sizzling and there's nothing but screaming.
"Stop..." He can barely speak, can't get the word past the lump in his throat he can't stop shaking. "Stop! James stop!"
James laughs and grabs the bag of feathers, laughs while the man screams while the children scream and there's blood and black tar on the snow and James laughs (Jack can hear the echoes of the child's laugh in it, he can recognize it.)
The man's screams start giving way to pained sobs and the children are barely whimpering. Jack covers his ears but still hears James yell something at a man who goes and grabs the little girl by her hair and Jack screams with her.
The wind howls and the snow whirls but they don't stop and Jack leaves, leaves and can't do anything while James laughs.
Later Jack finds James again with a group of men all wearing the same clothes and yelling together. He see's a burning village in the distance and the storm doesn't end. The snow comes down hard and mixes with ice and he follows them for days. He screams his rage into the wind and sends it howling until every one of them falls.
He can't stop screaming can't stop the tears and he has to leave has to get away from the blood and the smoke and the human yells. He goes far, far to the south, finds a frozen waste where he surrounds himself with the wind and snow.
Jack doesn't know how long he's there, doesn't know how he's still screaming though his voice is nearly broken. He doesn't know how Pitch finds him and has no idea how Pitch managed to get through the relentless and raging wind.
He hadn't even realized that Pitch was there until there are long arms around him and he's yanked in against a warm and solid chest and there are hands wiping the tears from his face.
"Jack, Jack sshh it's alright Jack it's alright." Jack's voice finally cracks, breaks the scream and he falls into soft sobs that he buries against Pitch's warmth. The arms around him tighten and the hands on his back and in his hair are shaking (and he doesn't understand that still, that Pitch is shaking and terrified.)
Pitch doesn't say anything, just holds him until Jack can pull in air without it catching on a sob. He breathes deep, breathes in the warm and dusty smell of Pitch until he can speak.
"I found James, Pitch he-he was with other men and-" His breath is stuttering again, "and they were hurting a man and I don't know why! But they were all screaming and James was laughing and there were kids!" He clings to Pitch's robe, tries to tuck himself in tighter while Pitch's hands cling onto him. "Something went wrong! It went wrong when he got bigger! I don't know what happened Pitch he went bad!"
"Oh Jack..." He's never heard Pitch's voice filled with so much pity, like he expected this, like he knew (he had warned Jack, he had told him.) There are warm lips against his temple as Pitch strokes his back. "Jack...he's human. That's what they do."