Chapter 11: Fun

The memory faded in with a mischievous chuckle. Frost was flying over Germany, when he spotted a businessman who was far too serious. He stopped and decided to play around for a bit. There was a snowball fight just a little ways away, and the man's son was partaking in it. "You, sir, look like you could use a bit of fun." Frost decided.

"Hmm... but how to get you over there...?" He suddenly smirked, and created ice underneath the man's foot. He slipped, but instead of simply falling, Frost made a trail of ice, just like he would eventually do for Jamie and his sled.

"Aaargh!" The man cried out as he was shepherded by the invisible winter spirit right to the middle of the admittedly lively snowball war.

"Dad?!" One of the kids called out in shock. He stared. "W-what're you doing here?! I thought you had a meeting today!"

"Isn't your vati super strict and stuff?" One kid whispered to the other.

"Y-yeah. So I don't understand why he'd be here. He's the exact opposite of fun." He pouted.

"Opposite of fun?! Well, we can't have that, now can we?" Frost laughed. "But how to get someone like you to—" He shuddered as the man suddenly got up, dusted himself, and walked through him.

But this time, instead of simply walking through him and making Frost feel cold and desolate, something entirely new happened.

The memory shook, and several images passed by.

The man, now a boy, tried playing with his own father. He grew up alone, and impoverished. Nobody would play with him, and his mother had died young. His father was always working hard to put food on the table, and had no time for 'useless games' as he called them.

Through hard work, he managed to get a job when he became a teenager. As he grew, he forgot the Guardians of Childhood. His own childhood had been drawn in grays and monotone colors, rather than bright vivid colors as they should have been. Something important was missing.

A moment later, they were back in the original memory.

"What the hell was that?!" Bunny looked around, expecting something else to suddenly crop up.

"It's part of my center." Jack explained. "When I'm walked through by individuals who've forgotten how to have fun, I get glimpses of their childhoods, or pasts so I know how to revive that spark of fun." He grinned. "Just watch and learn, Kangaroo."

"And the stupid nickname is back." Bunny pouted. "I'M A BUNNY!"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say. I was more inclined to believe that when you were tiny." Jack chuckled.

"OI!"

Frost shook his head, coming back to the present. "That was... sad." He looked at the man with sympathy, before his expression morphed into one of determination. "Well, time to teach you how to have fun, then." He grinned. "Adult or kid. It doesn't matter." He created a snowball. "Everyone can have fun." He instinctively blew on his snowball, a light icy-blue mist coated it, making it shine. He startled a bit, looking at it before shrugging.

His aim was true, and it smacked the irate adult right in the face. All the kids froze, afraid of the consequences of speaking out.

For a moment, it looked like nothing was going to happen. Then, a spark lit up in the man's eyes. As he discreetly scooped up snow and packed it into a ball. He then threw it right at his son, catching him in the face, shocking the boy.

"D-dad?!"

"So, who's team am I on? Come on, I'll show you guys how to properly build a fort!" The kids stared in shock for a moment, before they let out a massive cheer.

"You just saved their relationship." Tooth stared. "That's incredible. Our powers aren't supposed to work on adults."

"Well have you ever tried?" Jack shot back, a smirk on his face. "I mean, nobody ever taught me anything, so I figured it all out by myself. They say someone who isn't taught limitations doesn't have any." He laughed. "I guess it's true."

"HA!" North grinned as he went to make a snowball as well, but the snow stubbornly would not be scooped up. "What?! Nyet!"

"It's a memory, North." Bunny pointed out. "There's no actual snow, here."

Jack smirked, creating a snowball. Nobody noticed until it smacked Bunny upside the head. He turned, blinking owlishly at the winter spirit, who cackled gleefully.

"Ya bloody showpony!" He growled, attempting to scoop up some snow, himself, for retaliation, only to find his paw pass through air.

"Is a memory, Bunny. No snow." North pointed out with no small amount of amusement.

"I KNOW THAT!" The rabbit bristled.

The memory shifted again. "You know... Kaze, I can still have fun, even if people can't see me... I can be the invisible snowball thrower." Frost chuckled, adding a twirl to his stride. "Maybe I should pick up some other hobbies?" He speculated.

"Oh?" North raised an interested eyebrow.

"Hmm..." Frost listened as Kaze said something. "Yeah! That's a great idea! I should learn other languages, too, while I'm at it!" He grinned. "I'll learn something from each country!"

With that thought, he flew off. "First stop, Asia!"

There was a sequence of memories, showing him learning several things from different nations. He learned how to play the Koto in Japan, as well as the fan dance. He learned medicine from China and several other countries. He learned the Hopak dance from Russia, and art from Italy. He learned some culinary skills from France, and mechanics from Germany. Frost picked up several practical traveling skills from Romania. He revisited several countries to learn dances, instruments, and artistic pursuits to help fill his seemingly endless lonely days.

His new artistic talents showed in his frost designs, and the Guardians were blown away by just how much he'd learned in such a short span of time—for learning all this took him less than a century.

"So that's where ya learned to paint." Bunny noted, as he saw Frost studying several noteworthy painters from Italy.

"Yeah! It was fun, learning how to draw and paint and stuff!" He grinned. "And nobody ever noticed paints and brushes go missing, so I could just take whatever I needed."

"Jack!" Tooth admonished. "That's stealing!"

"Nooo, I thought it was a gift." Jack rolled his eyes. "Sorry... sarcasm is my default when stressed." He shrugged. "At any rate, this is just how things were. I never really learned how to use money or anything, and had to learn right from wrong by myself. Remember, I had no memories from my human life. So I had no concept of these things. And since nobody would take the time to talk to me, I had to figure out everything by myself."

Tooth blinked as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Jack?"

"Mmm?" He looked over at the hovering fairy lazily, enjoying the lighter atmosphere.

"Does that mean... umm... Have you ever had... The Talk?" The other Guardians froze, looking horrified.

"I am not giving Jack Frost The Talk!" Bunny refused at once.

"TOOTH!" Jack cried out, flushing a bright blue. "I do know what sex is!" He looked incredibly embarrassed. "So there's no need for that! I've listened in on several talks before, so there's really no need!" He denied fervently.

North let out a large sigh of relief. "Not wanting to give that to anyone. Ever."

Sandy nodded in agreement, feeling like he'd just dodged a bullet. The three Guardians shot Tooth a mild glare for bringing up such a possibility.

"What?" She looked at them, confused. Baby Tooth facepalmed and shook her head, snuggling into Jack's hoodie. Sometimes, her mother was so clueless.

"So when was this, anyhow? Are we nearly through your memories?" Tooth asked, curious.

"I'd say this is the late 1800's to early 1900's. So we'll be hitting the World Wars soon..." Jack winced when he remembered what happened. It's coming up so fast... But there's still a couple hurdles first. Like 1912... He sighed.

"Let's just get this over with." He decided, as the happy memory faded away, leaving trepidation in its wake.

A/N: Holy crap! Another update! I'm on fire! Yeah!! Hope you are all enjoying this. This may not be one of my more popular stories (like my Hetalia ones get about 100 comments within the first hour of posting, this one gets maybe 20 in the first day if I'm lucky), but it's still fun to write. As long as I know people are enjoying it, I'll keep writing it. ^^ We're reaching the 20th century, now. So next we've got the Titanic, World War 1, that mysterious event, World War 2, and then maybe a few more modern-esque mishaps before finally reaching the movie in 2012. Please look forward to the next update~!

Words: 1,376

Pages: 3

Posted: 04/11/2019