Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or realities (unless otherwise stated). I do not make money off of this.
The prompt for this come from profilore on rotg-kink dreamwidth and this first chapter is only slightly changed by me but mostly profilore's work (the person implicitly stated that a writer could use their first chapter). This chapter and any possible other ones are mine, thank you very much.
This is not betaed. If you see any mistakes, I would love for you to kindly point them out.
As soon as everybody could stand on their own feet, they decided to go after Jack, perhaps understand more, make it better for him. It was mostly a big excuse to go after him and wrap him up in their arms and never let him go, stop all the loneliness. Make sure Jack never had to feel so lonely EVER again.
They quickly agreed to split up to search quicker, nobody in the mood to argue with one another. North and Sandy agreed to take the colder areas, since they were okay with the colder regions and Bunny and Tooth took for the slightly warmer areas, both at least somewhat sensitive to harsh wind and bitter cold. Bunny tried to search for Jack's scent, but since he had taken flight, and he had the wind on his side, it was just wishful thinking that he could find the winter spirit.
Tooth gathered a small crowd of her mini teeth, those that could afford to be away from their job for a while. Baby Tooth would not take 'no' for an answer and even when Tooth commanded her to go for a tooth somewhere, she passed off the work to someone else and sped alongside them, sharp eyes seeking out a scrap of blue among white and other colors. Tooth just sighed and shook her head, happy that Jack had another faithful friend, but sad that Baby Tooth had to search with them in the first place.
North flew on his sled, looking out below, even recruiting some of his elves and Yeti to watch as well. The elves because they loved Jack so much and Yeti because he couldn't always keep track of the elves. Phil was one of the Yeti that came along, and it seemed like he didn't blink when watching the ground.
It was only when they hit a ginormous blizzard somewhere in the Arctic that Yeti shouted out. North quickly looked down and saw nothing.
"What is it?"
But Phil was looking at the elves. They were all eerily looking at one spot in the sky, as it swooped, swirled and screamed around the sleigh, rattling the passengers and the reindeer. It brought with it blasts of cold, and even though it was the Wind, Jack was nowhere around.
"But where is Jack?!"
Phil's answering shout was blocked out by the wind screeching out again, suddenly causing hoarfrost to appear near the Yeti, creeping slowly to him. The Wind and Cold was feral, unwelcoming, unfeeling. Phil whimpered as the hoarfrost grew closer. North's eyes grew wider in realization.
Just as Phil ran to another part of the sled to escape the growing hoarfrost, North breathed out a name: "Jack."
All of a sudden the blizzard dropped, the wind stopped, the cold retreated and hoarfrost on the sled stopped its creeping. In place of the wind was a ghost of Jack, see through and looking to be covered in snow, translucent and reflective all in the same time. His projection was in shock, still and unmoving, only his eyes darting around and his breath pulling in more and more at a time. One of the elves activated the sled's capability of calling the guardians, and soon Sandy, Bunny and Tooth were appearing on the ground where North was trying to land. Jack just stood on the sled as if the Wind and momentum passed through him. It probably did.
As soon as the sled's runners hit the snowy ground, Jack's gaze snapped from the now retreating hoarfrost to Phil the Yeti. Everybody could see the plain look of shock and horror on his face at almost freezing one of his sort of friends to death. Baby Tooth squeaked and flew to Jack, trying to give him a hug. All that happened was her flying through his head, providing a wince to her, but barely any movement from him. Only the staff wasn't see through, even if it too was impossible to touch.
Phil, having not seen what happened to Baby Tooth, also attempted to wrap up the three hundred year old. His arms went through Jack's body and Jack's projection backed up again, one hand reaching to his chest, where his heart would have been.
"L-leave me alone. I need to finish bringing winter." He whispered, his voice soft and disconnected from his lip movements, as if he had to make his catatonic body say it then carry the voice on the wind to them.
"Let us help you mate, you don't have to be like this every winter, it's probably not good for you."
"I don't care if it's good for me, only that I don't hurt in the short run. It would hurt too much to think long term." Once again, his lips moved first and then his soft voice wafted in on the breeze continuously around him. It made North hurt just thinking that Jack separated himself from his own body.
North had done it once, just wanting to see how it was possible and after he joined with his body again all he knew was that it hurt like hell and his toys lacked much of the wonder that he loved to see. He never did it again.
But to be able to connect and disconnect one's own body from oneself enough that there was no outward sign of hurt would have taken hundreds… of… years.
Oh.
And Jack had only just met the Guardians.
Why didn't they search for him before?