That's the longest one so far. A bit a fluff this time.


Jack stretched contently as he woke up, lying on the soft bed a bit longer than necessary before getting up. It had been so long since he had a bed of his own. The wind ruffled his hair playfully. The large window had been left wide open. Jack smiled and silently thanked North for giving him a place to stay.

He had been about to leave yesterday after what was supposed to be a quick visit to the workshop had ended up with him staying late for cookies, fruitcake and milk. Jack had yawned and excused himself before standing to go find himself a nice spot in the snow where he could lay down for the night before leaving the North Pole in the morning. North would have none of it.

"Come, come! I have something to show you," the big man said loudly, placing a large arm around his shoulders and herding him down the hallway to a series of guest rooms.

He had thrown open the door to one of them with a grandiose wave of his arm, revealing a room decorated in white and blue with snowflakes patterns of the bedcovers, walls and curtains. Real snowflakes drifted from the open window. The air was much colder here than elsewhere in the complex, making Jack feel at home.

"You always have a home here, whenever you want to stay."

The large man brought him against his chest in a hug, ruffling his snow white hair. Jack felt his chest tightened as he nodded in reply. He hadn't had a home in the past three hundred years and he had only recently remembered what that was like. He felt tears sting his eyes and freeze in his eyelashes without falling. He hoped North did not notice.

Jack finally rose from the soft bed. He had been lazing around long enough and the wind blew inside the room more strongly, as if insisting he got up. As he placed a bare foot on the cold floor, he felt it brush against something lying there next to his bed. He heard a faint tinting noise. He looked down curiously and spotted the blue shoes the elves had wanted him to wear when the Guardians had kidnapped him and tried to make him one of them. He chuckled at the memory as he gently kicked the shoes aside.

He stretched some more upon standing, enjoying how his body did not feel sore from lying on hard ground. He then half jumped and half flew to the open window, landing lightly on the windowsill and taking a deep breath of fresh air. Snow fell outside as it often did here even when he was not around.

He should likely be on his way somewhere, but the loud sounds of the elves and yetis coming from deeper into the workshop urged him to stay here some more. Talking to people and being acknowledged was still something rare for him and he did not want to give it up so soon. North told him he could stay as long as he wanted and he intended to remain at least one more day. He jumped down and was about to head out of his room when he spotted the shoes again from the corner of his eyes.

"Where do they come from anyway?"

Surely the elves had not made them. He did not think them bright enough to craft something as complex as shoes. Did North make them for a child and then changed his mind? Maybe the shoes had been lying around the workshop for years waiting for a potential owner. Curious, he bent down and picked one up.

They were blue cloth shoes with the symbol of the Guardians carefully embroidered on them in silver threads and little bells on the pointed toes. Surprise filled him as he realized the shoes had most likely been made especially for him. They looked his size, too. He never owned a pair of new shoes. Or shoes his own size. When he was still human, he had worn old shoes from older cousins who had outgrown them. He went around barefoot more often then not to avoid wearing them out more than necessary.

Hesitantly, he sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the shoe on. It fitted perfectly. He wondered how North had known the exact size of his feet. Likely this was part of being Santa Claus. You just had to know these things, to make proper gifts for each children. He picked up the other one, pulling it on his other foot. The feeling of the cloth around his feet was peculiar. He raised both feet to look at them.

"I look like a pixie."

He stood up and shuffled a few steps forward. The bells jingled as he moved his feet. He did not have the same grip with the soft soled shoes as he did when he was bare-footed. He would not be able to curl his toes around an object to stand on a small surface as easily, though the soles were quite flexible. He would need to rely more on the wind to hold him.

"But North made those for me."

It was a little baffling, really. To think that North had made him a pair of shoes, before Jack had even officially joined the Guardians. He felt his chest constrict once more.

"Does it bother him to see me going around without shoes?"

He likely thought he just made him a nice gift. Jack looked down at his feet again. He would have been overjoyed to have a pair of new, perfectly fitting shoes as a human boy. But he was no longer a human boy and the shoes would be impractical. He took a few unsteady steps. He felt like the first time he walked on the icy lake. It had been a long time since he had not been perfectly steady on his feet.

"I could wear them here, at least."

It would be no different than those kids wearing big bunny slippers around the house. They looked like they could not possibly have run or even walked at any speed with the silly looking things on, but they did not need to. They were safe at home, with no need to be able to run. He was safe here. He would not need to defend himself. It did not matter if he could not quite balance himself on a narrow surface as easily as usual. His life should not depend on it.

Looking down at his feet one last time, he flew out of the room, preferring to not actually try walking with his new footwear. The bells remained mostly silent. He felt a little silly looking, but he decided it was all worth it when North spotted the shoes and threw his arms around him in a crushing hug, obviously pleased.


I think I've wanted to write something about those shoes ever since I first watched the movie.