It had taken Jamie nearly six years for certain thoughts and knee-jerk reactions to start making sense. The first being his inexplicable attachment to Jack and the more alarming being the number of times a day he thought of him. It's not that he was obsessed, per se, but Jamie would often catch himself lingering in open doorways during winter or taking an abnormally long time deciding which milk would be best on his cereal at the supermarket.

As far as he knew, none of their gang had picked up on these sudden quirks, but then again, he hadn't picked up on the insinuations and gentle hints that Monty had been trying to make for the last six months. After the usual yearly absence, Jack had returned and Jamie had simultaneously made a discovery he would have been happy not to make. Jack had jumped down from a streetlight and landed directly in front of the group with a loud 'HA!' and had promptly been ignored by Monty and Caleb. At first, the others had laughed nervously, thinking that maybe the two of them had decided to prank Jack back, but when they had asked what the fuss was about and Caleb's hand accidentally stabbed through to protrude from Jack's back, all the smiles had promptly disappeared.

Claude had whipped his hand from Cupcake's grasp to grab at his twin's arm (maybe just in case the other boy was the one who had turned invisible) and Cupcake had stared disbelievingly at Monty until the boy shrank back and repeated the question. Jamie on the other hand, had no concern for anything other than the expression on Jack's face. He caught a glimpse of a mouth turned down at the corners and a fringe that seemed to droop accordingly with Jack's mood, before the spirit laughed and shrugged with painful transparency.

"So much for that friendly greeting," he joked, "here I was hoping to hear Monty squeal like last-"

Jack's voice caught in his throat and the situation was made so much worse when Caleb asked irritably, "What the hell are you all staring at guys? It's me! Caleb? Your brother, Claude!"

"You don't…" Cupcake looked between the two boys with a desperate expression, as though maybe they had just overlooked the guardian standing just behind them.

"Don't what? I don't what?" Caleb asked with growing frustration.

Monty seemed to continue shrinking, growing more and more confused when Claude turned his brother around by the shoulders and finally looked up at Jack.

The guardian was still standing stock still where he had landed, hand tightening around his staff with indecision and barely breathing. His eyes tightened around the corners and if that wasn't the worst sight in Jamie's life, maybe the next one was. Jack smiled widely and waved his hand up and down in front of Caleb's face like schoolboys did to their sleeping classmates. He laughed and despite the bitter edge, Claude and Cupcake seemed to relax – easing out of their tense posture. After all, nothing bad could happen when Jack laughed.

"That's weird," he commented and it was like Jamie could see the things he wanted to say being bitten back, "I guess all those science lessons got the better of them, huh?"

Monty pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and turned away from Cupcake's imploring stare to face the direction that the rest of them seemed to be looking towards. He squinted down the street that, other from Jack, was completely empty.

"Why are you guys so quiet? Did something happen?" Monty asked, readjusting his bag on his shoulder in nervousness over being the centre of attention.

"Monty…Caleb…you guys can't-"

"At least we still have even teams for snowball fights," Jack pointed out, raising his feet off the ground and hovering comfortably at eye level. Cupcake let out a breath and the tension ran from her rigid spine. Claude let his hands fall from his brother's shoulders and both Monty and Caleb looked at each other with equal amounts of confusion, "the element of surprise will work against them," he grinned wickedly.

There was a long moment of silence while the group tried to think of something to say in response to Jack's brazen attitude. Finally, it was broken.

"Jack…" Jamie started, not quite sure what he was going to say. In fact, he was almost glad when Monty's eyes widened and he interrupted him.

"Jack? As in Jack Frost? Seriously, Jamie – I thought that game finished up with the winter. What are you dragging it up for now, in the middle of Summer?"

"You…you think it's just…" Jamie choked off the end of his sentence, tearing his eyes away from Monty's baffled face and glancing up to where Jack looked like he'd eaten a sour lemon whole.

"He's right. The middle of summer is no place for-"

"Just what? A game? Well isn't it?"

Jack's mask cracked again, wearing down with every interruption, every reminder that his presence here was only three fifths of what it used to be.

"No, Monty," Cupcake shook her head, "It was never a game."

"Yeah, those snowballs don't form themselves, ki-"

"You actually believed we lived in a cubby house with Jack Frost? With Winter?" Caleb asked with a raised eyebrow, "Come on dude, I hadn't even heard of that guy until you brought it-"

"We did live there and he's real! He's standing right behind you and you can't even see him because you're so-"

"Jamie, calm down," Caleb soothed, "If you say he's real, th-"

"Don't patronise him – he's right. You're just too stupid to see that-"

"Claude, don't call your brother names, that's not gonna help anyt-" Jack attempted to interfere, but his sentence got run over, nonetheless.

"I don't care! He's an idiot because all this time he's been thinking we've just been mucking around and talking to thin air, but-"

"Well you're doing it right now," Caleb chimed in with a frown.

"No, I'm not, you just-"

"That's right, I just 'can't see him'. Is that it?" Caleb turned around until he was staring down the street light and then bowed politely, "I'm sorry, Mr. Frost, but it seems I mistook you for a pole. It's not a habit that I normally indulge in, but since my brother and his friends have enlightened me, I hope you accept my-"

"Shut up, Caleb you're just making everything worse!" Cupcake shushed with a scathing glare.

Caleb rolled his eyes and pouted at the pole, repeating, "So sorry for all the confusion Mr. Frost, but you're looking awfully transparent toda-"

Claude grabbed his brother in a headlock before he could finish the damning sentence and Monty jumped back to avoid the scuffle. Caleb laughed at his brother's overreaction and half-heartedly attempted to weasel out of the hold, but Claude didn't let go. He slapped a hand over Caleb's mouth and belatedly turned to see Jack staring at the streetlight with a vacant expression. His knuckles were white against the brown of his staff and from his position next to Cupcake, Jamie could almost see the moment when Jack decided retreat was in order.

"Jack wait-" He called, but the spirit was already in the air, barrelling towards the low cloud cover and sending an icy breeze to cover his passing.

The wind whipped Jamie's hair across his eyes and Claude dumped Caleb onto the curb to grab onto the baseball cat threatening to fly away, after Jack. For a moment, Jamie's world was obscured by brown and grey and the prickling of frustrated tears. When the sudden gale passed, Monty gazed around at the expressions on Jamie, Cupcake and Claude's faces, realising that something important had just happened. Caleb was the same but he ignored the plummeting feeling in his stomach in order to rub the scrape on his elbow and glare resentfully up at his twin.

"What jus-"

"You're idiots – acting just like Pippa did," Cupcake hissed again before stalking off in the direction of her house with Claude following after a few hesitant moments. Caleb just laughed as he watched them go, waving mockingly when Claude looked back over his shoulder, halfway down the street. Monty shifted nervously on his feet, wringing his hands around the strap of his school bag.

"Jamie, I-"

"It doesn't matter, Monty. I'll uh…see you guys at school tomorrow, right?"

Caleb gave him a thumbs up as he struggled to his feet, dusting the back of his pants off. Monty looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut and nodded, turning to trek back down the road to his street without another word.

"See ya, Jams," Caleb nodded, heading off, after his brother, undoubtedly in order to wring some 'sense' into him. Jamie just waved in farewell and then shoved his hands deep, deep into his pockets - wishing that the sight of Jack's crestfallen smile hadn't burnt itself into the forefront of his mind.

Jamie felt terrible. He didn't know why, since he hadn't been the one ruining Jack's day. Maybe it was because he'd just lost the common link between himself and two of his closest friends. Monty had always believed in the guardians! Sure there was the little exception during Pitch's stab at world domination, but that hardly counted. The gang had been affected by the Night Mares. If they had been thinking clearly, they might've given a different response to Bunny's disappearance.

The cool air conditioning that surrounded Jamie as he passed through the sliding glass doors into the super market was a welcome change to the sweltering heat outside. He fidgeted with the list his mother had given to him before leaving for her shift and checked to make sure the money she'd left him was still secure in his pocket. It wasn't the first time she'd trusted him to buy the ingredients for dinner, but Jamie was just as vigilant as he had been after receiving a fifty dollar bill for the first time. His mother had told him that he could buy himself a treat with any change that was left over, which had made him bite his tongue against the automatic response of 'I'm not a kid, mom, I'm sixteen'. One thing Jack had taught him was, surprisingly, the importance of good manners.

Jamie didn't know why, but the spirit was oddly strict about his 'please's' and 'thank you's'.

Wearily, Jamie collected a trolley from the front of the store and made his way towards the first isle. Tomato Paste was the item scrawled in the top corner. Fortunately, he knew his way around well enough to have ordered the list at home, by their place in the store. It helped to make these trips as painless as possible and he was therefore able to express his inner perfectionist.

While he made the long journey down the aisles picking up each ingredient as he went, Jamie reflected on the eventful morning. It hadn't been more than a handful of hours since Jack had gotten the shock of his life, but Jamie felt like something was undoubtedly wrong. He felt as though Jack should've said something or returned by now. He was beginning to worry, since the Winter Spirit wasn't known for his level headed-ness or a pragmatic method of thinking. He rushed into things, sometimes making everything worse, panicked, and nine time out of ten, created a much bigger mess than was necessary. Sure, Jack almost always saw his 'incidents' through to the end, eventually finding a way to fix whatever had gone wrong, but Jamie had noticed, during their friendship, that Jack wasn't one to react calmly to situations gone wrong.

Especially when it came to believers.

Jamie was mulling that thought over as he reached into the fridge to grab a milk carton, but froze as soon as he felt a tug on his jacket sleeve. He looked over and, upon seeing nothing but the glass of the display fridge, ignored it. It wasn't until he tried to pull away from the shelves and out of the fridge, that he realised what had happened. Although the logistics had him stumped. Somehow, his sleeve had managed to attach itself to the glass, even though the milk was probably stored at a temperature no lower than four degrees, and that was nowhere near cold enough to solidify a piece of material in such a short time.

He looked around with growing panic, wondering what the hell was going on, and when Jamie turned his head back to the shelves roughly eye level with him, he caught a glimpse of something out of his peripheral vision.

Jack's face was pressed up against the glass only inches away from him, with his mouth blown wide open against the door and his eyes crossed. Jamie stared for a full two seconds, torn between irritated frustration and relief, before the childish impulse to giggle and point overtook him. Jamie dissolved into a fit of laughter which drew strange looks from the surrounding shoppers, and Jack took that as gratification.

Jamie pinched the edge of his sweater that was frozen to the door or the fridge and pulled enough to make it snap cleanly off without ripping the material. He remembered to grab the milk carton that had been his original goal, but that was about as far as Jamie's mental coherency stretched – wasn't Jack still shaken up from this morning? Jamie was just opening his mouth to ask when Jack somehow managed to be across the store standing in front of the confectionary isle, gesturing for Jamie to follow, and quickly by the look of his impatience.

"Alright, alight," Jamie mumbled under his breath but he couldn't suppress the small smile creeping over his lips. It had only seemed like minutes since he'd witness a crack form in Jack's normally impenetrable front of mischief and fun.

When Jamie and his trolley arrived at the isle Jack had just disappeared into, Jamie was somehow not surprised to find the shelves lined with all kinds of candy and chocolate imaginable. Jack was crouched, mid-air, in front of the Hershey's Kisses with his staff balanced across his knees.

"Hey Jams," he greeted, not looking away from the bags of chocolate.

"Hi," Jamie returned lamely. He stood uncertainly, not quite knowing what he wanted to say. There was a fair bit to cover, like Jack's reaction to his core believer's sudden lack of faith. Even though they had collaborated to make one hell of a birthday party for Sophie just less than two years ago Jamie felt like he had seen Jack just yesterday. Something had definitely changed within Jack, though. Jamie knew it just by looking at him. He seemed sharper. More defined against the racks of colourful wrappings and the angles of his bones had never been clearer. It was an inexplicable change, but not one that Jamie could ignore once he noticed.

"Can I borrow two dollars, fifty?" Jack asked, drawing Jamie away from his thoughts.

When Jack looked away from the lines of packages and touched down softly onto the ground, he smiled wryly at Jamie and leaned on his staff in the familiar manner that finally reminded Jamie who he was talking to in the middle of the supermarket. Taking a second to think furiously, Jamie glanced around at the emptiness of their isle and then back at Jack. He patted his pockets, hoping desperately that he had remembered his mobile phone that morning, but when his search came up empty he heaved a sigh.

"I don't have my phone so I can't pretend to talk on that. If I suddenly stop replying, I'm not ignoring you, okay?" Jamie told him.

Jack nodded silently before nodding towards the shelved of chocolate, "so how about that two dollars fifty?" He asked again.

"I'll buy you the Hershey's, if that's what you mean," Jamie replied with a quirky smile of his own, since Jack's humour seemed different than he remembered.

Jamie snatched up the packet of Kisses and Jack moved to perch neatly on the front of Jamie's trolley facing the front. He balanced his staff behind him, making a show of it so that he could display his impeccable sense of balance, Jamie assumed. Of course, that proved to be difficult when Jamie turned the corner and Jack was still trying to read a label on the nearest candy packet. His arms pin wheeled and his legs lashed out in all directions to try and get back any semblance on balance. Jack was squealing in a way that reminded Jamie a frightening amount of Sophie. He turned around with a wicked grin to challenge Jamie silently.

Without reacting to Jack's smirk, Jamie calmly began down the next aisle looking for 'spaghetti pasta – the high-fibre stuff, please'. He found it without any trouble but when he turned to the trolley, there were about ten packets of sweets and chocolate there that Jamie did not remember grabbing, and no sign of Jack. Jamie turned in a full circle looking for him, but the spirit was gone. Shaking his head, Jamie unloaded the extra items and shoved them back into a random shelf. He ticked off the pasta from his list and when he looked up, Jack was back sitting on the end of the trolley that now held a new mop, five bags of dog food, an avocado and three bags of frozen wedges. Understanding the game, Jamie tensed his legs and took a deep breath and resigned himself to the fact that he would very likely be thrown out before Jack got bored.

Jack was thrown back into the trolley by the force of Jaime taking off running, and even before Jack could twist far enough around to grin at Jaime, they were approaching the end of the aisle - Jamie needed to focus so that they didn't hit the old lady that was just rounding the corner…

"Damn, you're crazy Jams," Jack whooped the second they were outside, swinging his two grocery bags excitedly. Even though no one would have been able to hear him inside, the spirit often forgot and got caught up in Jamie's silence around other people.

"Yeah, I can't believe they didn't kick us out," Jamie agreed with a small smile, "Even after you put a dent in that fridge door."

"I will admit fault to that, and that only," Jack nodded, "Because that can tower thing was your fault – there was no way I pushed you that hard."

"Are you kidding? I nearly died-"

"You did not nearly die. You were only hit by the top layer-"

"I'll push a tower of tuna on you next time and see how-"

"-only like, ten tins, maximum! Stop being dramatic-"

"- at least I can steer a trolley around a corner and not hit everyone in-"

"- plus I wasn't the one falling over all the apples-"

"- but noooo – hang on! You flew over the apples! That is so not a fair comparison," Jamie objected.

"But you still fell all over them, didn't you?" Jack grinned, walking along the six foot fence next to the younger boy.

"That's not the point," Jamie insisted, "you cheated."

"No rules in love and war, Jams," Jack laughed, leaping off the fence and coming to a graceful hover above the pavement.

"Well that's awfully convenient for the magical being who possesses superhuman abilities," Jamie grumbled.

"Need I remind you, no one likes a sore loser?"

"Or a cheater," Jamie retorted. Jack chuckled and absentmindedly swung around the bags he was carrying. Jamie watched the way he twisted his wrist at the top so that nothing came flying out when it turned upside down. He just knew that if he tried that, groceries would go everywhere.

Jack looked so content – so normal again – that Jamie was incredibly unsure of what to think. Did Caleb and Monty's discontinued belief really not bother him? That was obviously not true since Jack had left in such a rush with such a pitiful look on his face – even Cupcake could tell there was something bothering him. The comfortable silence had stretched for a few minutes before Jamie finally breached the subject he had been thinking about since he last saw Jack.

"Hey Jack, about earlier-"

"It's okay Jams – I'll pay you back the two, fifty," Jack replied, mouth full of Hershey's.

Jamie rolled his eyes, knowing full well that Jack had both no money, and no interest in gaining any money. Jack dodging the question was not going to deter him though.

"No, Jack, I was going to ask if you are okay. You looked kinda upset when you left and Claude called me asking if you were ever going to visit again because he panicked that Caleb-"

"Whoa whoa, man it's okay. Yeah, I'm fine – hey it's happened before! I was just a bit surprised about it, okay?"

Jamie was not convinced but Jack's face was so relaxed and his words were so reassuring that even though he didn't believe him, Jamie decided to ignore the twisting feeling in his gut. Instead, he voiced his own concerns about his friends. Maybe Jack really was okay with losing two fifths of their 'gang' but Jaime was not.

"Maybe you don't mind, but Monty's been my friend for about ten years now. Since grade one! And the way he just, I don't know, stopped believing without even mentioning it. It's just…a bit of a shock to me."

Jack nodded sympathetically, offering the packet of Hershey's to Jamie in a show of support, "It'll be okay, buddy. That's how kids are."

"But we're not children any more!"

"That's what I mean, Jams. Kids grow up. They stop looking for the wonder and fun in life. They start looking for jobs and girlfriends and money. They stop fighting with snowballs in winter."

"I'm never going to stop snowball fighting! Are you crazy!"

"I don't think so, but you might be – imagine trying to make a snow ball when you're a hundred years old! I don't think so, Jams."

"But you could, I don't know, just make them for me or something. I'm not going to stop looking for fun or wonder or anything like that – I don't care how old I get!"

Jack smiled, and once again, Jamie saw a glimpse of weariness lurking behind Jack's expression. Like he had held this same conversation many times before now. Jamie suddenly felt very out of place standing next to Jack. It felt like he should be running and yelling out, throwing snowballs and hiding behind trees. He should be in their cubby, holding an invisible sword to the winter spirit's neck and delivering his evil speech – not having a heavy conversation in the middle of summer with sweat dripping down his back from simply walking up the road. His friends should surround him and they should be laughing and joking with each other about homework and the fun sleepover they all had the other day. They were comrades in their cubby.

"Knights don't live forever Jams."