Chapter Text
Jack Frost was proud to say he was one of the few spirits around who could beat the Guardians at hide-and-seek. Most spirits were grown-ups, so it wasn’t like it was hard to be better at games than them, but with the fuss everyone kicked up over the Guardians, it was kinda surprising nobody had tried harder. Jack had seen most of them, though! He’d caught the Easter Bunny in a blizzard once- on accident, honest!- and given Santa’s sleigh nice snowy rooftops to land on and even managed to get inside of the Sandman’s dreamsand cloud to say hi.
Still, the Guardians were good at hiding, so when Jack touched down in an alley in Burgess and saw Bunny just standing there, he knew something was up. He was little, not stupid. He wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid the sack that came down over his head though, and when he hit the floor he groaned loudly, curling up in a ball. He felt icky, like he had to puke, which was never fun. Thankfully the pukey feeling passed quickly, and he used his staff to open up the mouth of the bag to look out.
Yetis, everywhere. He squeaked and yanked his staff back towards himself, curling up tight again. Sure, he was always on the Naughty List- he couldn’t help it, pranks were so much fun!- but he didn’t think he’d done anything that bad. Well, not recently, at least. Not that Santa would care about.
“Back up!” a girl’s voice scolded, and the yetis grumbled. “He’s not gonna come out with you big stinky lugs waiting to hit him!”
“If yeti wanted to hit, bag is not much protection.” another voice added, and Jack squeaked.
“Oh fer tha love of-” a third voice groaned. One Jack recognized, even. That was Bunny! “We’re not gonna hurt you, ya drongo.”
“Promise?” he asked, and got three variations of Yes. A minute later he was out of the bag, staff held close to his chest with both hands, eyes huge as he looked around. He was inside Santa’s Workshop! The yetis were as huge as ever, but they’d backed up, and didn’t actually look angry. There were also tons of elves all around, and they weren’t even being stupid! Most importantly though, there were four other spirits standing a little ways away. Or, well, two were standing and two floating.
Bunny he’d figured out from the voices, and the boy with the fluffy red coat and warm-looking hat must be what Santa looked like under the illusion that protected the sleigh. Sandy he knew on sight, he’d have to be blind and stupid to not recognize the only spirit who’d really been his friend for the whole of forever. Which left only the girl, covered in colourful shiny feathers with fluttering pink wings and a whole crowd of little tooth fairies flitting around her. She looked about as old as him and Sandy, maybe a bit older, but not as much as Santa, and definitely not as much as Bunny.
“Hi, Sandy!” he chirped, but his attempt to launch himself over to hug his friend was thwarted by an elf grabbing him around the legs. Actually, lots of them were crowding up around him, and it took a lot of thwacks with his staff to get free enough to take off, flying over to Sandy on Wind’s back. Sandy gave him a hug without Jack even having to ask, because he was the best friend.
“Jack.” Santa said, trying to sound all grown-up and serious. “We need your help.”
“With what?” Jack asked, turning towards Santa with a frown.
“With Pitch.” the Tooth Fairy said, flitting closer, her eyes huge and fixed way too hard on his face. Jack ducked a little more behind Sandy, and she backed off a little.
“Pitch?” he frowned, thinking. He’d met lots and lots of spirits who might like to annoy the Guardians, but none of them were strong and fast and clever enough to really do anything. If they were, they would’ve already! He was pretty sure he’d met at least one or two Pitch spirits though...
“The boogeyman.” Bunny supplied, and Jack nodded his understanding before doing the mature, big-kid thing in this situation. He blew a raspberry.
“He’s just a big mean jerkface.” he stated, to giggles from the Tooth Fairy and a groan from Bunny. “Why do you four need my help?”
Sandy waved his arms, bobbing up and down excitedly, and once he was sure Jack was looking he started throwing up sand signs way too fast to follow. Jack caught some snowflakes, but not much else. The Tooth Fairy must’ve seen his confusion, because she flitted close again, her wings humming softly.
“North says Pitch got in here. Sorta.” she looked over at Santa, who apparently wasn’t named Santa, and he nodded.
“Is big deal. Man in Moon agrees with me.” He crossed his arms. “And, Man in Moon says you, Jack Frost, should be Guardian.”
“Me?” Jack blinked, pointing at himself.
“Yeah! Isn’t it great?” the Tooth Fairy asked, hugging him so tight he thought his ribs were gonna squish like a cartoon. “Once you’re a Guardian, we can hang out whenever you’re not busy! My girls say you’ve got the bestest teeth ever.” her eyes fairly glowed as she released him to spin in a tight circle in the air. “Can I see them? Can I can I can I?” she reached for his mouth, and Jack yelped as he dove to put Sandy between them again.
“Tooth!” North’s voice drew her up short. “Hands in mouth is no way for making friends.”
“Right, right. Sorry.” she smiled, awkward and apologetic.
“You don’t have a lot of friends, do you?” Jack asked, which made her wince.
“Oi, lay off her.” Bunny snapped. “See? This is why I didn’t want him. He’s a rude little bugger with no sense of responsibility.”
“I’m seven.” Jack huffed, crossing his arms and moving to stand shoulder to shoulder with Sandy. “And it was just a question!” he looked over at the Tooth Fairy, who had set down on the floor with her shimmery pink wings drooping behind her. “I was gonna say... if I get to be a Guardian, then maybe I could be your friend too?”
“Really?” the Tooth Fairy gasped, zipping back into the air.
“Really really.” Jack nodded, serious as he knew how. The Tooth Fairy squealed in delight and dove at him, squeezing him in another too-tight hug.
“Thank you thank you thank you!” she sang, lifting him right off the ground and spinning around with him. “Bunny and North and Sandy are always so busy, and I’m always so busy I never get to go out and play since-”
“Tooth.” North said, turning the word- her name?- into a warning. Tooth squeaked and dropped Jack, darting back towards North and Bunny and looking away from him.
“Since what?” Jack asked, looking from Tooth, to the older boys, then to Sandy. Sandy who formed a fancy G over his hand in shimmering gold sand, looking almost sad to do so. Jack stumbled back a step, bringing his staff up between himself and the Guardians. “I don’t wanna be too busy to play!”
“Being Guardian is different for each spirit.” North said, and Jack fired off a wild spray of snow at him.
“You’re all busy, all the time!”
“We chose this, Frostbite.” Bunny snapped, and Jack jumped back with Wind’s help, keeping well clear of grabbing or hitting range.
“Well I’m choosing not this!” he smacked his staff against the floor, and ice crackled over the stone, Wind screaming out over it to shove the elves away and even make some of the yetis stumble. “I’m gonna go have fun my way, when I wanna, and I’m never gonna join your stupid boring club!”
“Jack, wait-” North cried out, but the thing that actually stopped Jack from flying out the window and having Wind throw him somewhere else was the fact that there was a tiny fairy darting in the window just as he tried to leave.
“Whoa!” he yelped, dodging to the side and clinging to the wall, watching as the tiny fairy zipped straight to Tooth and began chittering so fast Jack couldn’t actually tell if it was making bird noises or just speaking a language he didn’t know.
“He’s where?!” Tooth screamed, and a moment later Jack was tumbling down dizzily to land in Sandy’s arms. When he looked around, Tooth was nowhere in sight, nor were any of her little fairies.
“Trouble at Tooth Palace.” North said, his face so stern he almost looked like a very short grown-up. “We will handle matter of your joining later, Jack Frost.”
“I said-”
“For now, we follow Tooth!” North bowled right over him. “To the sleigh!”
“Strewth, not the sleigh.” Bunny groaned, but he followed when North led them through the Workshop. Jack could’ve just left, this wasn’t his job, he was just a random friendly winter spirit, not a Guardian. But... Tooth had looked so excited, at the idea of getting to be his friend. Maybe if he went with the Guardians now, she’d let him come back to visit even if he didn’t join their club?
Plus, he’d always kinda wanted to ride in Santa’s sleigh.