A/N. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Only wanna say one thing. I feel like it should be obvious, but please don't copy and pass off my work or ideas as your own. That also includes changing one key thing slightly and still copying my story. It's a really crappy thing to do and frankly kind of pathetic. I have had it done to me multiples times, and I'd really appreciate it if I didn't have to go through the struggle of dealing with plagiarizing again. Thank you. Enjoy the chapter! -Anna

Y/n- Your name

L/n- Last name

F/f- Favorite flower

F/c- Favorite color

~~~

Multiple people could be heard from outside the bag. The sack became untied so Jack lifted up the opening. Two small people- elves you quickly realized -were the first thing you saw before they backed away. Three figures were then in front of you and your own eyes widened.

A stout little man with his clothes made entirely out of gold sand, a large man with a long white beard, and a woman covered in iridescent feathers flying in the air- Sandman, North aka Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy.

"Quiet!" North looked at you and Jack with a big smile. "Hey, there they are! Jack Frost and Y/n L/n!"

"Wow," you said as you looked around. There was no doubt you were Santa Claus's workshop.

"You gotta be kidding me," Jack said, awe in his voice.

A yeti helped you and Jack out of the sack and onto your feet.

"I hope the yetis treated you well?" North wondered.

"Moderately," you grumbled and put your daggers into their holsters.

"Oh yeah," Jack said as he kicked his staff up into his hand. "I love being shoved in a sack and tossed through a magic portal."

"Oh. Good! That was my idea," North said cheerily. "You know Bunny, obviously."

The said man just mumbled a response as he examined his paw. He did glance up for a moment to give a respectful nod to you.

"Yep," you said and returned the nod, though you weren't sure if he saw it or not.

"Obviously," Jack said with an amused glance toward Bunny.

"And the Tooth Fairy," North continued.

"Hello, Jack!" The Fairy flew up close to the white haired boy. "I've heard so much about you and your teeth!"

"My-my what?" Jack questioned, appalled.

"Open up! Are they really as white as they say?" Tooth stuck her fingers inside Jack's mouth for a moment. "Yes! Oh, they really do sparkle like freshly fallen snow."

You tried to muffle your laughter behind your hand at Jack's confused look. 

The miniature versions of Tooth made high pitched squealing noises as they hovered near Jack's face.

"Girls, pull yourself together. Let's not disgrace the uniform." Tooth said with an authoritative tone before gliding over to you. "And Y/n! It's so good to finally meet you! Your teeth are so shiny as well, I'm sure. I love your hair! It's so pretty with the P/c in it! You have to show me how you make spring so beautiful and fresh each year!"

Tooth talked a mile a minute, not giving you a chance to respond. The little tooth fairies surrounded your head cooing at your hair.

"Um, thanks," you said taking a big step back. "It's good to meet you too."

Tooth gave a big smile before she flew off to the side with her fairies. Her work was never done it seemed.

You could feel Jack's eyes on you, and you turned you head to see him chuckling at you.

"Oh, shush, Mr. Sparkle Teeth," you said and Jack stopped laughing and gave you a deadpan look. You just grinned back at him.

"And Sandman," North said catching your attention. "Sandy? Sandy?" He gently nudged the floating, sleeping man with his hand before yelling, "Wake up!"

Sandman's eyes opened and he landed gently on the floor with a dazed look.

"Hey, yo! Anyone wanna tell us why we're here?" Jack asked as he gestured to you and himself.

Sandman raised a hand. A bunch of symbols appeared as fast as they disappeared above his head. The only ones you were able to spot were a crescent moon, a snowflake, and a F/f before they became too fast to identify.

"I-I don't know what you're trying to say," you said with a sheepish look.

"Uh, eh-that-that's not really helping, but thanks, little man," Jack said and started to walk around. "We- well, I guess more me -must have done something really bad to get you four together." He lightly hit an elf coming in with a plate of cookies and he became frozen solid and fell over. "Wha- am I on the naughty list?" Jack faced North with an eager look.

"Ha! On naughty list?" North said incredulously then pointed at Jack. "You hold the record." He then gave you a stern look. "You are close to being on there yourself, my dear."

You held you hands up. "I'll watch myself. Promise."

"But, no matter. We overlook. Now we are wiping clean the slate," North said as he showed swiping his hand over his right forearm tattooed with the word 'Naughty'.

"What?" you quickly said in surprise.

"How come?" Jack asked and you raised your eyebrows in surprise.

"Ha. Good question," Bunny said.

"How come? I tell you how come!" North said. "Because now you both are Guardians!"

Two yetis appeared on either side of North and each raised a flaming torch. Music echoed through the workshop as elves marched around and blew trumpets. Banners unfurled down from balconies. Tooth fairies tried to put a necklace of blue, white, and red paper snowflakes on Jack and green, pink, and yellow flowers on you, but both of you quickly backed away from them.

"This is the best part!" North laughed.

Elves banged on drums. The two yetis holding the torches spun them around wildly as they approached you and Jack and went behind you two. They gently pushed both of you forward as you continued to move back. Confetti fell from ceiling. Three elves appeared in front of you and Jack, two of them holding up two pairs of pointy shoes on a gold platter, one blue and one F/c. You gently shook your head at them and Jack gave them a disturbed look. A yeti handed North a large book and he opened it up. Sandman raised a cup to you and Jack as Bunny rolled his eyes.

Jack gave you a look and you eagerly reciprocated it. He slammed his staff down at the same time you thrusted you hand forward. Frost spread across the floor and a strong wind blew everyone around you both away. The wind also extinguished the torches and blew the open book into North's face. The frost gently slid the elves away from the two of you. All noise ceased.

"What makes you think we wanna be Guardians?" Jack asked incredulously.

"When was this even decided?" you asked.

A second of silence, and then North bursted out laughing. "Of course you do. Music!"

The elves barely got a couple notes out before Jack declared, "No music!"

The music stopped. One of the elves threw down his trumpet and shoved another elf as he walked off.

"This is all very flattering-" Jack said.

"And overwhelming," you added.

"-but, uh, you don't want us," Jack said.

"Well, we actually only really wanted Y/n," Bunny mumbled, but Tooth was quick to gently shush him.

You weren't sure if you should have felt appreciative or not.

Jack moved and swung around his staff as he spoke. "You're all hard work and deadlines, and I'm snowballs and deadlines. I can see how you would want Y/n though."

"Okay, just for the record, I don't want to be a Guardian either. I'm not like you guys," you said. "That kind of responsibility...We're not Guardians."

"Ha! That's exactly what I said." Bunny looked pointedly at North.

Tooth flew up to you and Jack. "Jack, Y/n, I don't think you guys understand what it is we do." She directed both of your attentions to the massive globe in the center of the room with small lights on certain areas. "Each of those lights is a child."

"A child who believes," North spoke up, looking seriously at the globe. "And good or bad, naughty or nice, we protect them."

Jack interrupted the moment crying out, "Ah. Ah!"

"Tooth, fingers out of mouth," North ordered.

"Oh, sorry!" The winged woman put an apologetic hand on Jack's shoulder. "They're beautiful."

"Okay, no more wishy washy. Pitch is out there doing who knows what!" North declared.

Your stomached dropped at the name. "You-you mean the Boogeyman?"

Jack glanced at you when you said that, but you didn't notice.

"Yes! When Pitch threatens us, he threatens them as well!" North said as he gestured his hand at the globe.

"All the more reason to pick others more qualified!" Jack quickly countered.

"Pick? You think we pick?" North questioned. "No! You two were chosen! Like we were all chosen. By Man in Moon." He raised his hand up to the fading moon showing itself through an open space in the ceiling.

"What?" you and Jack said simultaneously.

"Last night, Jack, Y/n. He chose both of you," Tooth said.

"Maybe," Bunny put in.

"Man in the Moon...He talks to you?" Jack asked the four.

Your first time after waking up under the willow tree was the only time the Man in the Moon had ever spoken to you. You tried not to hold any resentment toward him, but it was hard not to when he was the one to reintroduce yourself to you. Something in you told you that you had some purpose as the spirit of spring that wasn't just that. Maybe this was it.

You stared longingly up at the moon. In your mind, you tried to reach out to him, but nothing.

"You see, you cannot say no. It is destiny," North spoke up.

"That's our destiny?" you questioned mostly to yourself. "I...I don't know."

A yellow daffodil appeared in your hair.

"Why-why wouldn't he tell us that himself?" Jack groaned and ran a hand over his face. "After three hundred years, this is his answer? To spend eternity like you guys cooped up in some-some hideout, thinking of-of new ways to bribe kids?" He glared at the moon. "No, no. That's not for me! No offence." He directed the last sentence to the four.

"How-how-how is that not offensive?" Bunny asked. "You know what I think? I-I think we just dodged a bullet. We will gladly take Y/n over Jack if we can. I mean, what's this clown know about bringing joy to children anyway?"

You rolled you eyes. "Oh, here we go again."

"Uh, you ever hear of a snow day?" Jack said as he slowly turned to face the rabbit. "I know it's no hardboiled egg, but kids like what I do."

"But none of 'em believe in you. Do they?" Bunny asked with narrowed eyes. "Y'see, you're invisible, mate. It's like you don't even exist."

Jack put on a hard smile at his words.

Tooth gasped. "Bunny! Enough."

"Jack-" you tried.

"No, the kangaroo's right," Jack quickly said.

"The-the what? What'd you call me?" Bunny stepped up close to the winter spirit. "I'm not a kangaroo, mate."

"Oh, and this whole time I though you were," Jack said nonchalantly. "If you're not a kangaroo, what are you?"

Bunny leaned in close to Jack's face. "I'm a bunny. The Easter Bunny. People believe in me."

Silence.

Realization dawned onto Bunny and he turned his head to look at you. "I'm sorry you had to hear that, sheila."

You shifted in place and looked away. "It's okay..."

You knew all of Bunny's words were directed at Jack, but you couldn't help but apply them to you as well. Bunny and you were more acquaintance than he and Jack was. You still would mess with him time to time, but Bunny and you still had respect for each other and your jobs.

Sandman puffed out his cheeks and patted North's leg for him to do something.

North took a step forward. "Jack, Y/n, walk with me."

~~~***~~~

North directed you and Jack to a large wooden elevator shaped like an ornament that took the three of you to a lower part of the workshop. Elves and yetis were running around everywhere. The entire place was decorated to the nines in Christmas embellishment.

"Nothing personal, North, what you all do," Jack said as the three of you exited the elevator. "It's just not my thing."

"I just don't know, North," you said. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to help and protect the kids."

"Man in Moon says it's your thing, and you are both very powerful," North said looking at both of you before quickly signing something a yeti brought to him and walking off into the workshop.

"Slow down, would you? I've been trying to bust in here for years. I want a good look," Jack said as he and you jogged to catch up to North.

"What do you mean, bust in?" North asked suspiciously.

"Don't worry. He never got past the yetis," you said with a laugh.

"Oh, hey, Phil," Jack said to a yeti who punched his fist into his palm in a threatening manner toward Jack.

"Keep up, you two. Keep up!" North called.

You and Jack marveled at the workshop. Yetis carrying around all different kinds of toys. Dollhouses, robots, discs, castles, robots, firetrucks, and so much more. It looked like to you though that the yetis were making all of the toys and the elves were...Well you weren't exactly sure what they were doing.

"I always thought the elves made the toys," you said to North.

"We just let them believe that," North whispered back.

You and Jack watched as one of the elves wrapped in Christmas lights was shocked when another elf plugged in said lights. The two of you gave each other an understanding look at why North would do that.

"Very nice," North interjected as he looked at the elves, very obviously pandering to their childish nature. "Keep up good work."

North gently directed you and Jack away from them.

As the three of you passed a yeti who was very carefully painting a robot blue, North shouted, "I don't like it, paint it red!" 

The yeti cried out in indignation as he gestured to multiple rows of blue robots. He groaned and slammed his head on the workbench. Feeling a little bad for him, you plucked the daffodil from your hair and put it on the table before continuing on your way.

The three of you continued to stroll through the workshop. You and Jack took in every little thing you put your eyes on. The entire place looked like it had levels upon levels, and you wondered how deep it went. It was amazing how North was able to give every child in the world  gifts every single year. You wondered if your work during spring gave children the same amount of joy as North's.

North pushed a door open into what looked like an office. In the back was a table that had numerous ice sculptures of every shape and size. A window took over the back wall which permitted sunlight to shine inside. There was some chunks of ice at the side of the room and candles lightly added to the illumination. Brown stone fires kept the office warm. Shelves of nick knacks and other trinkets lined some of the walls.

North grabbed a passing elf's plate that had a brown cake on it and pointed it toward you and Jack. "Fruitcake?"

"Uh, no thanks," Jack answered.

"I'm okay," you replied.

North tossed the plate to the side and cracked both his knuckles. "Now we get down to tacks of brass."

"Tacks of-"

"What does that-?"

You and Jack were stopped short when the door was suddenly slammed shut and locked.

"Who are you Jack Frost and Y/n L/n," North questioned as he backed the two of you up to the door. His frame completely towered over the both of you. "What are your centers?"

"Our center?" you asked with narrowed eyes.

"If Man in Moon chose you two to be guardians, you both must have something very special inside." North moved back and scratched his beard. His eyes glanced to the side, and he grabbed a Russian nesting doll from a shelf which was clearly painted to look like North with a tough face and his dual swords. "Here, this is how you see me, no? Very big, intimidating. But if you get to know me a little..." He passed the doll to Jack. "Well, go on."

Jack leaned his staff to the side and stepped close to you so you could see. You tried to ignore how close the two of you were, and how his hoodie- cold but soft -brushed against you. He smelled like mint and pine leaves.

Jack opened the first layer to reveal a smaller, smiling North doll underneath. "You are downright jolly?" he tried.

"But not just jolly!" North declared. "I am also mysterious."

Jack opened the smaller, wooden North. The next doll had half of his face covered by a red cloak like a vampire.

"And fearless."

Another layer revealed an even smaller doll with narrowed eyes and a wide mouth.

"And caring."

The doll then had North with a single tear leaving his eye but smiling holding a fawn in his arms and a bunny at his feet.

"And at my center..."

Jack opened the doll once more and poured the last one into North's large hand. It was the smallest one which looked like a baby North, swaddled in a red cloth with big blue eyes.

"There's a tiny wooden baby," Jack tried.

"Look closer. What do you see?" North asked and handed the baby to you.

"I...um." You turned the baby all the way around in you hand until you were able to examine the face again. "You have big eyes."

"Yes! Big eyes, very big, because they are full of wonder." North exclaimed, gently putting his hands on your shoulder and Jack's before walking further into the office. "That is my center. It is what I was born with: eyes that have always seen the wonder in everything! Eyes that see lights in the trees, and magic in the air- this wonder is what I put into the world!"

The three of you ventured back into the workshop, admiring all of the toys and figures and flying objects that he had created. Everything seemed to come to life. You smiled, somehow in complete peace with the constant action of the place.

"And what I protect in children," North continued. "It is what makes me a Guardian. It is my center. What are yours?"

North looked at you and Jack earnestly. His gaze reminded you of a wise grandfather.

Jack let out a muted sigh and looked down. "I don't know."

"I wish I could tell you...but I don't know either," you said with a frown.

North smiled at both of you gently and used his hand to close your fingers around the baby North figurine.

Suddenly, the sound of fluttering wings passed by North's office window, and you were barely able to spot Tooth and her fairies fly by. A second later, Bunny and Sandman came bounding up to the three of you.

"We have a problem, mate," Bunny said. "Trouble at the Tooth Palace."

A/N. Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Hope you all had a good Christmas and/or other winter holiday! Comment and vote! -Anna