Work Text:
Jack sat in the rafters of the Pole, staring down at the activity below. It was far from Christmas, but the yetis worked nonetheless. He smiled a little. It was nice actually having a place to stay. He always spent his free time flying around. Come to think of it, he couldn’t even think of the last time he had to sleep. Maybe being immortal meant he didn’t have to sleep. He didn’t think Tooth or Sandy had to sleep.
Jack closed his eyes, taking in all his surroundings.
The sound of the yetis working, the music playing, the elves running around, jingling the bells on their hats.
The smell of cookies.
The warmth of the Pole and the crackling of the fire in the background. He rested his chin on his hand, sighing.
“Jack!”
He jumped, opening his eyes. He looked down, seeing North staring up at him. “Hey, North.”
“What are you doing up there? You don’t have to hide, you know? You are welcome in the Pole any time.”
“I know.” Jack stood, jumping down. He skidded his staff against the floor, leaving a small ice trail. “I just don’t socialize that much.”
North patted his back. “Well you have free reign of Pole. Feel free to explore. You are family here.”
Jack smiled a little. “Family?”
North didn’t seem to hear him, as he had been distracted by a yeti looking for approval in their toy. The yeti was given a thumbs down and he yelled in disappointment. Deciding that their conversation was over, Jack wandered off.
Admittedly, he had been trying to break into the Pole for years. It would be nice to be able to explore without being kicked out.
It was much larger than he expected it to be.
He wondered how long it took North to build it all.
Jack wandered into the stables, hoping to get a better look at the reindeer. He hadn’t gotten a chance to see them since Pitch attacked.
The reindeer snorted from their stables. Unfortunately, the stable doors were too tall for Jack to see over, so he decided to climb on top of them.
They were much larger than he imagined. One of them looked up at him, snorting in what he could only imagine was annoyance.
“Hey, buddy.” Jack carefully reached a hand out, petting its snout. “You’re not so scary.”
The reindeer snorted, shaking its head. “Easy, boy.”
There was a loud noise and a large animal knocked Jack off the door, pinning him to the ground. He couldn’t make out what it was, but it was heavy and hairY and loved to lick his face.
“Vixen! Off!”
The pile of fur moved off of him and a pair of arms helped him to his feet. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Northhhh….” Jack looked up, expecting to see North, only to find a slightly smaller-than-much-younger-than-North young man in a dark blue shirt looking down at him. He had a kind face sprinkled with freckles hidden underneath a pair of tortoise shell glasses and a face full of snow white scruff. “You….you’re not North. You...who are you?”
“Oh! I’m Sammy. It’s nice to meet you. You must be Jack. Dad talks about you a lot.”
“Dad? You’re his son?”
“Yeah.”
“He never mentioned a son. I didn’t even think he had a son. Or a family.”
Sammy snorted. “Well I see you met Vixen.”
Jack looked over, seeing a large animal sitting by Sammy, wagging its tail.
He looked back up at Sammy. “North has a pet bear?”
“This is Vixen. She’s our dog. She is Newfoundland. Technically she’s mine. I’ve had her since she was a puppy.”
Vixen panted and let out a gentle bark.
Jack smiled, patting her head. “She’s a pretty dog.” He looked around the stables. “Were you busy?”
“Feeding reindeer.” He held up a large sack. “They like corn.” Sammy patted the snout of a reindeer and smiled back at Jack. “It was nice officially meeting you. I should head back to my chores.”
Jack stayed by him as he worked, cheerfully chatting with him. Much to his surprise, Sammy was relatively easy to talk to. There was no tip-toeing around metaphors or trying to explain sarcasm. Sammy also had a pretty good sense of humor.
They had been talking about various books, Jack didn’t read much, he’d admitted, when there was a yell from another room.
“Glupyy yyetis! Who is dragging all this ice around Pole!?”
Jack winced, looking down at his feet, realizing that his footsteps had been trailing ice all around. “Whoops.” He looked up at Sammy with a nervous grin. Sammy pursed his lips, trying to hold back a laugh.
A tall, freckled woman with hair tucked into a bun stormed around the corner. “What is all this-” She looked down, noticing Jack. He waved up at her nervously. “Who are you?”
“Uh...I’m Jack. I’m sorry about the ice…”
She looked him up and down. “Pochemu ty bosikom? Where are your shoes? What happened to your pants?”
“Uh they’ve just always been like this.”
“Don’t you have any other pants at home?”
“Oh. I don’t have a home really. I kind of just...fly wherever.”
“Net doma? Does Nicholas know about this? Nikolas!” She turned on her heel, grabbing Jack, leading him to another part of the Pole. Jack looked back at Sammy for help. Sammy shrugged, following.
Jack was dragged into the main work area where North was examining toys.
“Nikolas!” She yelled again.
“What? What did I do?” North asked.
She pointed at Jack, saying something he couldn’t understand.
“Etot mal'chik prosto khodit, odetyy tak. Gde yego odezhda? Pochemu ty ne skazal mne ob etom? U nego net doma! Ty prosto pozvolil yemu zhit' nikuda?” She turned to Jack, resting a hand on his forehead. “Posmotri na nego, on bleden kak prizrak! YA dumayu, chto on bolen.”
North could only shrug and put his hands up defenselessly. “Elli, on v poryadke. On dolzhen byt' kholodnym. On kontroliruyet led. On ne bolen.”
She huffed and walked away, leaving Jack.
“What just happened?” Jack asked.
“Ellie. She thinks you’re sick.” North explained.
“Do I look sick?”
“I don’t think so.”
Ellie came back, pushing Jack onto the couch by the fire. She handed him a plate of food. “Eat.”
“I’m not hungry-” A cold glare from her made Jack shove a bite of food in his mouth. “Holy cow this is delicious.” He said with a mouth full of food.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full. You could choke.”
He nodded, chewing the food. She gently grabbed his face, looking at him. “Hm...when was last time you brushed hair?”
“There wasn’t.”
She stepped back, looking him over with her chin in her hand. Jack carefully took another bite, staring at her. Ellie made a noise as if she had realized something and walked away.
That had been the last he saw of her for the rest of the day. And the week.
He sat on the couch, forming a patch of ice for the elves to slip on. He laughed, watching two bump into each other and slide around on their backs.
Bunny rolled his eyes and went back to sketching in his notebook.
Jack craned his neck, trying to catch a glimpse, but Bunny was quick on the draw, pulling the drawing close to him. “You don’t get to see it.”
“Can you at least tell me what it is? Is it an egg? A tree? Is it a self-portrait? A picture of me?”
“Why would I draw you?”
“Because I’m adorable.”
“None of those guesses were correct.”
“What is it?”
“Flowers. I like drawing flowers, okay?”
Jack jumped up on the back of the chair Bunny was sitting on and looked, tilting his head. “Huh. You’re actually pretty good. I always figured you just painted shapes. It must be hard holding a pencil with your hands. Or...paws. Are they paws?” Jack squinted, looking at his own hand.
“Can I get back to drawing please?”
“How come you don’t wear pants?”
Bunny scoffed, turning his attention back to his drawing.
Jack was grabbed off the back of the seat by his hood and stood on the floor. He turned, looking up at Ellie.
“Oh. Hi. Is the sitting on the seat on the chairs a no-no?”
“Have you ever gotten a present?”
“Uh...what?”
“Birthday, Christmas, Hanukkah. Presents?”
“I got a little wooden doll from North.”
“Come with me.”
Before he could object, he was dragged away.
She led him to a small work room with a brick oven and a desk covered in papers and fabric.
“What is this place?”
“My work area. Check Naughty and Nice list, bake, paperwork.”
“There’s paperwork?”
“Ordering supplies, deer feed, yeti stuff.”
“What’s yeti stuff?”
She handed him a neatly wrapped package in blue wrapping paper with snowflakes printed all over it. He set the staff against the wall. “You got me something? What is it?”
“Open it and you’ll see.”
He carefully opened it, trying not to rip the wrapping paper. Ellie waited patiently, staring at him. He’d never opened a gift. Well, no gifts meant for him anyways. He had opened plenty of gifts meant for other people. It was different when the gift was for him.
The unwrapped gift was revealed to be a box. Upon opening the box, he found a pair of shoes sitting on top of some folded up clothes. He looked up at Ellie.
She had her arms crossed, saying nothing.
No one had ever gotten him clothes before.
He took the shoes out and picked up the clothes underneath. On top was a blue sweater decorated with snowflakes.
“Do you have a shirt?” She asked.
“I have this jacket.”
She pulled out a plain white long sleeve shirt and handed it to him. “Put it on.”
“Did you make this entire outfit?”
“ Outfits . There’s also some clean pants, some shirts, a new jacket, and nizhneye bel'ye in there. Go change. There’s a room down the hall.”
He put the stuff in the box and walked down the hall where Ellie pointed. He looked in the box and saw a pair of boxer briefs. “Of course.”
Once changed, he walked back to Ellie’s room wearing a pair of capri-style joggers, the sweater, and the shoes - no socks, of course.
She looked at him and smiled.
Weird.
He didn’t think she smiled.
“You look very handsome. Come. I’ll show you to your room.”
“My room?”
“Yes. No child of mine is going to go without warm place to sleep.”
“Ch...child of yours?” He blinked, struggling to process this.
She walked down the hall and he followed closely behind, carrying the box tucked under his arm. They stopped at a door. Ellie opened it, stepping aside so Jack could walk in.
The room was enormous. There was a fireplace in the corner, a fire already crackling, and a large bed covered with pillows and blankets against the wall. He smiled a little. “Wow…is this...is this all for me?”
“Yes. There is full wardrobe over there. Lots of room to fly around. Windows to fly in and out of.”
He turned to look at her. “Why are you doing all of this?”
“Well why not? You deserve place to live, don’t you?”
“I mean, I’m fine with just flying around-”
“Jack. How old are you?”
“I don’t know. Like 300.”
“I mean how old are you really ?”
Jack sighed, looking at the ground. “I don’t know. I’m young.”
She set a hand on his shoulder. “You are just a boy. You shouldn’t have to face eternity alone.”
He sighed, hugging her, closing his eyes tight. “Thank you.”
She hugged him back, kissing the top of his head. “Don’t cry, moy malen'kiy snezhnyy angel.”
“I’m not crying.” Jack quickly pulled away, wiping his eyes. He cleared his throat. “Thank you...for doing this. I...appreciate it.”
She handed him his staff. “Make yourself comfortable. Dinner will be ready soon.” She walked out and he sat on the bed, looking at the room.
It was far larger than he needed. But it did provide some good flying room. Maybe he would test out how big it actually was after a nap.
He curled up under the blankets and closed his eyes.
Maybe immortals did need sleep.