Guardians || ROTG Jack Frost x OC

❅ FOUR - Center ❅

A wooden elevator lowered Jack, Daisy and North down to the lower floor, and Daisy's eyes widened as she took in the fairytale sight of elves rushing around, yetis decorating and painting and packing various, colourful toys in the workshop.

"It's nothing personal, North," Jack Frost started, looking around too, "but what you all do, it's just not my thing."

"Man in Moon says it is your thing!" North contradicted determinedly, signing something a yeti offered and tossing the pen away. "We will see."

"Slow down, would you?" Jack laughed and smiled at Daisy before taking her and in his again, walking a little faster to catch up with North. "I've been trying to bust in here for years - I want a good look!"

North glanced at Jack with a raised brow, and Daisy smiled to herself with a roll of her eyes. "What do you mean, 'bust in'?"

"Oh, don't worry. I never got past the yetis," he said, and Daisy rolled her eyes with a smile, looking to a yeti behind him who seemed to relate with his comment.

"Keep up, Jack and Daisy, keep up!"

"This place is amazing," Daisy breathed, "but how comes the elves aren't-"

"Making the toys," Jack finished, nodding. "That's what I thought too."

"We just let them believe that," North whispered to them, and Daisy laughed as he continued walking on. "Very nice!" North said to his elves, one of them fashioning themself into a miniature Christmas tree, "Keep up good work."

"I don't like it - paint it red!" North commanded another yeti, and Daisy hid a smile as she saw a stack of already finished blue ones, the yeti exclaiming in disbelief and slamming his head on the workbench. "Step it up, everybody!"

North then opened another door, revealing a smaller room with thick ice covering the walls and ceiling, and ice statues of animals and relics placed on the floor and the long wooden table, candles lit from a high-up beam. A brick fireplace was in the corner, ornaments hanging like mobiles from the beam. One of the elves handed North a cake and he offered it to them. They both shook their head with a smile, and North chucked it away carelessly.

"Now we get down to tacks of brass," he continued, cracking his knuckles.

"Tacks of..."

The door slammed shut behind them and locked by itself, and Daisy jumped slightly as North strode purposefully towards them, starting with Jack.

"Who are you, Jack Frost?! What is your center?"

"My center?"

"If Man in Moon chose you to be a Guardian, you must have something very special inside." North retreated by a couple of steps in thought, then took Daisy's hand, who looked up with a start.

"And you, young lady. You are human! You are no spirit - but you too were chosen. And you are first believer of Jack Frost's, at the age of...?"

"Sixteen-"

"Sixteen!- seemingly a normal teenage girl, innocent and curious, hmm?"

Jack raised a brow in bemusement, and she rolled her eyes at him with a light smile, shrugging. "I don't know..."

North stroked his beard in thought, then grabbed a small stacking doll, an angry face similar to North's on it.

"Here. This is how you see me, no? Very big, intimidating. But if you get to know me a little..." he passed the toy to Daisy, who took it uncertainly and glanced at it, then back up at North.

"Well, go on," North encouraged, and Jack watched close behind her, resting an arm on her shoulder. She smiled a little as she felt his snowy-white locks brush her skin, forcing herself to focus and she took off the first layer.

"You are downright jolly?" Jack guessed, and North nodded.

"But not just jolly! I am also mysterious," he continued, raising a brow at Daisy as she suppressed a laugh and kept going, "and fearless, and caring! And at my center..." Daisy took the last shell off, revealing a mini version of North with big blue eyes. She dropped it into North's palm, glancing at Jack.

"There's a tiny wooden baby," he deducted, running his fingers through his hair.

"Look closer. What do you see? What do you see Daisy, hmm?"

"Uh- well..." she inspected the doll and shook her head with a shrug, "you've got big eyes-"

"Yes!" North yelled in excitement, "Big eyes. Very big!" Daisy grinned as he grabbed both of their shoulders, his eyes flicking between the two of them as he spoke.

"Because they are full of wonder. 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! And what I protect in children," he continued, guiding them out of the room and looking up to the globe, where toys floated about in the air. "It is what makes me a Guardian. It is my center. What is yours?"

Daisy bit her lip, unsure, and shook her head helplessly, a small smile on her face.

"I don't know," Jack said in thought, glancing down to the ground. North nodded understandingly, giving the small stacking doll to Jack.

A few Baby Tooths flew near the window outside, diverting their attention - and as if on cue, the Bunny and Sandman came hurrying over to them.

"We have a problem, mate. Trouble at the Tooth Palace," Bunnymund informed them.

North didn't hesitate as he grabbed a thick, red and brown fur coat and hat, marching outside.

"I told you I'm not going with you guys!" Jack persisted, and Daisy nodded.

"I think I need to go back home, just in case my mum starts panicking."

"Exactly - and there is no way I'm climbing into some rickety old... sleigh?"

A glorious large sleigh pulled up as large double doors were opened by yetis, revealing several bucking reindeers pulling it in behind them. Daisy gasped as she looked at it in awe at the sight of it.

She looked up to Jack with wide eyes, and he softened slightly at her expression, smiling lightly.

"Okay. One ride, but that's it."