100th chapter! I should celebrate. Not sure how yet.
Ice Kingdom arc (last part for now)
Jack smoothed his cloak around him for the seventh time in as many minutes. He had been sitting on a couch facing the entrance on the Tower of Relaxation since sending the four sprites on their mission. He knew it wouldn't take long for them to return, but every minutes felt like agony. He thought of all the possible scenarios, turning them around in his head, trying to prepare his answers for possible questions. But the most likely question was the one that truly worried him. He still didn't have an answer. The few sprites in the room were not playing games, for once. They shuffled around nervously, throwing him frequent looks, their big blue eyes worried. They had no reason to be worried, this was not their problem, yet they were.
He had to fight a wave of panic when Hail flew back into the room. The sprite gave him a nod. Jack straightened his back and plastered a smile on his face, hoping it looked at least somewhat confident. Bunny bounded into the room shortly after Hail and quickly scanned the it like he expected to find it in shamble. The Pooka turned his attention to Jack and the Guardian of Fun had to keep from shifting under that intense stare.
"What's going on here, Frostbite?"
"What do you mean? I just invited you for breakfast."
"That little sprite you sent to get me was shaking even more than you are. What's wrong? What are you doing here in summer? Did something happen happen in Burgess? Is it Pitch? Are you hurt?"
Jack chuckled, his smile turning a little more real in the face of how much the other Guardian had been worried for him. It gave him a little bit of hope that everything would turned out all right. That the others would forgive him.
"Calm down, Bunny. I'm just here for the week-end, I'm not hurt and Pitch isn't doing anything that I know of."
"The week-end? You work only weekdays now, Snowflake?"
The conversation was interrupted by a great deal of noise, followed by North's bellowing voice calling his name. Wuff entered, throwing nervous looks behind him. He didn't bother telling Jack that he had fetched the Guardian of Wonder. Everyone in the Ice Kingdom could tell. The large man stalked in with his swords drawn and looked around for some kind of danger. Jack sighed.
"Put those away, North. Whatever's happening, it doesn't look urgent," Bunny said.
"I was just hoping we could all have breakfast together, you know?"
North put the swords away, but he didn't look convinced.
"We had Christmas breakfast together three weeks ago and you were all strange and fidgety then, too."
That was true enough. He had meant to talk to the other Guardians that day about what happened on Halloween, about Jamie believing again, but he hadn't found the words. It had been almost two months already and he would have needed to explain why he waited so long before saying anything, He did not even know himself, only that he felt that this shouldn't have happened, that he had messed up and he was ashamed to admit it. But there would be no more hiding it, now.
"Why don't you two sit down until Tooth and Sandy join us?"
North and Bunny exchanged a long look, then turned back to stare at him, as if trying to figure out what he was hiding. The Guardian of Hope looked him up and down, taking notice of his choice of outfit and no doubt remembering the conversation they had a few years ago, in the same room Jamie had spent the night in. Jack pulled the cloak around himself without meaning to.
"Is today special day?"North asked, noticing the change of clothes but not knowing what it could mean.
"Kind of."
North looked at him a few moment longer, but then shrugged, crossed the room in a few long step, grabbed Jack by the shoulders and pulled him up into a crushing hug.
"Is good to see you, Jack."
"It's good to see you as too."
He managed to get the two Guardians to sit before Tooth and Sandy arrived together. They both looked worried, but seeing everyone sitting and making small talk calmed them down. They exchanged puzzled glances with North and Bunny, who both shrugged. Most of the sprites had retreated behind various pieces of furniture to watch from a safe location. Only Wynt was still in plain sight and he looked at Jack when the last two Guardians entered. Jack nodded to him and the sprite bowed to their guests and left the room. Jack took a shaky breath in.
"I'm glad you could all make it. I'm sorry to ask you to come here on such a short notice."
"It was a little... unexpected," Tooth answered.
"So, we're all here, now. Are you going to tell us what's happening?"
"We're not all there yet."
"What?"
"Who—"
Bunny cursed and jumped to his feet.
"It better not be who I think it is, Frostbite."
Jack's eyes widened in surprise at Bunny's reaction and he could only stare at the Pooka. Had he figured out what happened and he was mad at him? The others just looked confused. Sandy made a question mark in sand over his head.
"Bunny? Who do you think it is?" Tooth asked.
Bunny crossed the room in one bound to stand before Jack with his arms crossed, looming over the Spirit of Winter.
"I know you've been speaking with Pitch since last time we fought him," he said in a low voice so the others wouldn't hear. "Look, I said I wouldn't question you, but there's limits to—"
Jack laughed. He was so relieved that he couldn't help it. And he had to admit that the idea that he could have invited the Boogeyman to a friendly breakfast with the Guardians was simply ridiculous. The others stared at them in complete confusion. It made Jack laughed even harder.
"What's so funny?" Jamie's voice came to them just before the man himself entered, cutting off Jack's laughter. He hadn't noticed Wynt coming back and trying to attract his attention. The siblings froze when they entered the room, not having expected to find the Guardians all there. The silence that followed was deafening. Bunny slowly turned around, like he could hardly believed who he would see in the tower's entrance.
"Surprise!" Jack said with fake enthusiasm.
Jamie shuffled in place awkwardly, not comfortable with the sudden attention from the shocked Guardians, but at least they could count on Sophie to break the tension.
"Bunny!" she screamed. She ran across the room to where Bunny still stood in front of Jack and pulled him in a hug. The stunned Pooka hugged her back.
"Well, that is surprise," North said, scratching his head. He gave Jack a look that told him he expected explanations before standing up and wrapping a large arm around Jamie. "How have you been, boy? I heard you have daughter now, yes?"
"Y-yes. Jade. She's six."
"And she never forget to floss!"
Tooth still looked stunned, but Jack could see her eyes were misting over a little as she fluttered around the room, going between Sophie and Jamie then back again, too excited to decide who she wanted to hug first. Sandy looked worried and it made Jack's hearth clench. Everything had been going so well yesterday that he had almost forgotten that Jamie and Sophie believing in the Guardians was not supposed to be a good thing. Of course, he knew Sophie had never stopped believing, but he had convinced himself that her pretending that she had would do the trick. It was a different matter for adults to be interacting with a being that simple logic would tell them shouldn't exist. He couldn't keep them here forever, away from reality and its expectations. Jack lowered his eyes, unable to meet Sandy's.
"Jack, you have moment before breakfast?" North asked, putting his big hand on Jack's shoulder. The Spirit of Winter briefly considered saying no, putting away this conversation a little longer, but it would make breakfast more awkward than it needed to be. He sighed and nodded.
The others had moved in a cluster in the center of the room and were all talking together, trying to catch up, but they all looked when Jack stood and left with North. He gave Jamie and Sophie a shaky smile before walking out. North was silent as Jack led him to one of the new, unused towers. The Guardian of Fun pulled the hood of his cloak up and stared at his feet, not looking up even when they stood alone in an empty room.
"What happened?" North asked softly.
"It was on Halloween," Jack said in a rush. "Jamie saw me—kids who don't believe often see me on Halloween, you know? I wasn't expecting him to, but he did and he could still see me even after—"
"Halloween? That long?" There it was, the question he had been dreading.
"I-I'm sorry. I know I should have told you guys. I didn't know how to say it. It shouldn't have happened. I'm sorry—"
"Jack. Jack, look at me." He hesitantly raised his eyes from the ice floor to meet North's. The other Guardian didn't appear angry at him. He pushed Jack's hood away, placed both hand on his shoulders and stooped to more easily look him in the eyes. "This isn't your fault. You've been worrying about this, about what will happen to them. We could have helped you. We're always there to help you."
Jack felt the sting of tears in his eyes. "What's going to happen, now? Are they going to be all right? What can we do?"
"We do what Guardians do. We protect them. We make them smile. This is not normal situation. Jamie kept believing when no one else did and Sophie... we've been around all her life. Tell me the truth, Jack. She never stopped believing, did she?"
"...No. She kept pretending that she did until Jamie gave her an excuse not to, but she never stopped."
"Maybe... maybe this is what they need."
"Is everything going to be all right?"
"I don't know, Jack. But we will do our best. Now, what about this breakfast? Bunny must be starting to grumble about coming here."
"There's carrot cakes."
"Good! That will keep the Pooka happy. And after breakfast, I am taking all of you on sleigh ride."
"He won't be happy about that."
"Pack some extra cakes, then."
Jack laughed as North steered him back to outside. He could hear cheerful conversation coming from the Tower of Relaxation and he saw through the many arches that the sprites had left their hiding places. Maybe everything would work out. He would do his best to make sure it did.
This is the last chapter of this arc for now. I might write a bonus one with the sleigh ride later, but for now I want to do other things.
About the new arc I talked about before, I still haven't taken a decision. I know most of you say I should write it as a separate story, but I don't know how well it would stand alone, since it was originally meant for here. If I can find a way to do everything I want as a separate story, I will. Otherwise it'll stay here. I'll just have to write longer chapter so it doesn't end up being fifteen chapters long or something. The only reason I said it would be easier to write on it's own is that I wouldn't have to deal with Ashley, but she wouldn't necessarily make the story worst (unless you guys really hate her. Do tell me if you do).
