Crimsonwings92: Oh my goodness, my first RoTG fanfiction! I'm kind of excited to be writing this because I so badly want to contribute to the movie and the fandom if only a little bit. This was literally a spur of the moment kind of idea, but I'm excited to see how it pans out. So I hope you guys enjoy it, hehe!

Disclaimer: Rise of the Guardians belongs to Dreamworks and whoever else wrote it…so yeah.

A Frosty Season

Chapter 1: The White Haired Boy

The room was quiet, peaceful, in the early hours of the morning as the sun just passed the horizon about an hour early and was slowly climbing into the sky. Its gentle rays could not penetrate the dark curtains of the room, leaving it encased in the shadows as everything remained still and silent and just oh so wonderful. She unconsciously snuggled deeper under her thick comforter, sleeping soundly while wrapped in the warmth of her blankets while she dreamed of blue skies and sunny weather.

There was just nothing like the quiet…until…

BAM!

"MAYA!"

The loudest screech in history jolted her awake like a heart attack victim being brought back to life by electric shocks. Within half a second, a head full of unruly black curls shot up in bed and a surprised gasp left her lips as she looked around in confusion. She had no more time to even focus her eyes before she was being attacked by the small body of her six year old cousin, his little arms wrapping around her neck as he hugged her tightly.

"Time to wake up, Maya!" he exclaimed happily, jumping up and down on his groggy older cousin, completely disregarding the fact that he had frightened her out of her dream state, "Breakfast! Then play time!"

Seventeen year old Maya groaned irritably, bringing up a hand and pushing her curls out of the way to reveal a rather pretty girl with dark-skin, hazel green eyes, and a beauty mark right underneath the corner of her left eye. She looked at her baby cousin, who was equally as dark as she was, but had dark brown eyes instead of hazel, and shoved his face away to the point that he was a giggly mess on his back.

"Malcolm, what time is it?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes of the sleep, "And I swear to God, if it's the break of dawn…"

"It's TIME to wake up, Maya," the little boy repeated, getting on his hands and knees before he started bouncing around, "You said you would take me to the park today!"

"Yes, I did. Later on in the day," she explained with a sigh of exasperation, still irritated that she was forced to wake up simply because Malcolm couldn't wait until later.

The bouncing stopped and the girl cracked open one of her eyes to see a most disheartening sight: her cousin staring at her with his big brown eyes filling with water as his bottom lip started to tremble. Her eye twitched at the look for she knew what he was trying to do. Reaching under her pillow, she retrieved her phone and turned on the home screen only to see that it was barely eight o'clock in the morning. Her eye twitched again and she sighed loudly before slamming her face into the pillow; it was way too early to even consider trying to resist her little cousin and his puppy dog face or argue with him any longer. It would just be easier for the both of them if she just obliged his wishes and got up like he wanted. Besides, she could smell the scent of pancakes being made, so maybe waking up right then wasn't so bad.

"Fine, fine, FINE!" she snapped at the child who had started climbing all over her, Malcolm simply giggling at her face, "I'm getting up, sheesh."

"Yay!" the little boy cheered as he jumped down from the bed just before Maya swung her legs over the edge.

He ran out of her room, still cheering in victory, and left the girl to roll her eyes at his obnoxiously chipper mood so early in the day. Of course, it was probably just the fact that she was not really a morning person that made her think her cousin was obnoxious because normally, he was the most adorable little thing to be in her life and Maya absolutely loved him. Sighing and shaking her head, she stood up and made her way out of her room, playfully growling at the boy when he came back to see if she was really getting up like she said she would. Once she was outside the door and walking down the hall, the child sprinted towards the kitchen where the clanking and scraping of a spatula against a frying pan could be heard and the smell of pancakes and eggs was prominent.

Running into the kitchen, where two ebony women were seen, he ran right up to the one standing at the stove and pulled on her pants to get her attention, "Auntie Ida! Auntie Ida! I got Maya up! We're going to the park today!"

Ida, a woman who looked to be in her early 40s with short wavy black hair and light brown eyes, smiled down at the excited child and laughed gently, "Oh, are you now? That sounds like fun, baby."

"Yeah, fun," Maya repeated sarcastically as she came into the kitchen and went up to Ida to give her a kiss on the cheek, "Morning, mom."

"Good morning, Maya." The woman greeted back, smiling as her daughter turned and went over to the table where the second woman was sitting and looking through the newspaper.

"Morning, grandma," Maya bent down and kissed the elderly lady whose skin was starting to wrinkle, but still felt baby soft and whose hair was a silver gray and whose eyes were a sweet chocolate brown.

"Good morning, baby," the aging female, whose name was Annie, smiled at her granddaughter before laughing heartily when her grandson threw himself at her while trying to scramble into her lap, "Oh! Good morning, Malcolm! My, aren't you filled with so much excitement today."

"That's because Maya and me are going to the park today, grandma!"

"It's 'Maya and I are going to the park today' sweetheart," Ida corrected the child affectionately, sweeping over with a stack of pancakes and eggs on a platter.

The little boy beamed up at his aunt as he took his seat at the table, with a little help from his step stool and booster seat, "Right! Maya and I are going to the park and since it snowed again last night, there's going to be fresh snow for us to make a snowman and have a snowball fight and maybe even go ice skating!"

"Eh…one thing at a time, Malcolm," Maya reined him in, eyeing the snow-covered world outside their house in Traverse City, Michigan warily, "I know it snowed, but I don't think the lake is frozen over enough yet to safely go ice-skating. It's dangerous to skate on thin ice."

Malcolm began pouting and now that the teen was more awake and less aggravated, she just smiled and reached out to pinch his cheeks, "I promise we'll go skating another day when it's safer."

"Promise?"

"Promise, promise."

"Pinky promise!"

She laughed as she hooked her pinky around his tiny one before releasing it to start serving around the breakfast her mother made. She made sure that everyone was well served before taking whatever was left for herself, after which she sat down and enjoyed the morning meal with her family. The six year old was busily stuffing his face full of syrupy pancakes, using his hands even though he was holding his safety fork. Maya just shook her head before turning her hazel eyes to her mother.

"Dad is going to be here for Christmas, right?" she inquired, cutting a piece of her pancake and popping it into her mouth, "I mean his employees at the construction company aren't that hopeless without him, are they?"

Ida chuckled gently as she shook her head, "I hope not, but even if they are, they'll have to get it together because you're father will be here for Christmas whether they want him to leave or not."

Maya grinned and looked at her grandmother, "Well, good! Until then, we'll enjoy girl time, right grandma?"

"Of course, child! Are you still going to help me make cookies today? I got chocolate chip."

"Hell yeah! I mean, oh my God, I'm so sorry mom, grandma," the teen smiled nervously at the two women, shrinking a little in her seat when they each gave her stern looks for cursing.

"Mmhm, I'll let that one slide…for now," Ida replied lightly, giving her daughter the eye to accompany the warning.

Maya bit her lip anxiously, but sighed in relief when her mother and grandmother turned their gazes away from her and continued on with the conversation. She looked at Malcolm, the little boy looking around at all of them before he smiled secretly at her and pointed his finger in her direction.

"You got in trouble," he whispered with a giggle, laughing a little louder when his cousin tickled his tummy.

Breakfast was eaten with good conversation, but pretty soon it came to an end and the three women and small child cleaned up the dishes and cleared the table before getting ready for their day. Mother and Grandmother would be going to the stores in town to do a little shopping while Maya and Malcolm walked to the park which was no more than fifteen minutes from the house. The child still wanted to go ice skating, but the girl was able to persuade him to wait for another day and got him dressed in warmer clothes. She then hurriedly dressed herself nice and warm before they both ran for the door, bidding good bye to their mother and grandmother before they went. As soon as that door was open, the cold air hit them almost like a slap to the face, despite the sun shining up above, and Maya could almost swear that she actually felt her cheeks starting to turn red instantly. She and Malcolm began their walk to the park, the child giggling excitedly as he looked around at all the snow that covered the parts of the streets, the houses, the lawns and the bare trees. The teen girl seemed mildly interested; she never enjoyed winter all that munch in Michigan for the reason that it was always just too cold, which is why she sometimes never wanted to visit her grandmother for the holidays, but since they were going to be there for a while, she might as well get used to it.

Fifteen minutes and lots of laughs later, the cousins found themselves at the city park. It wasn't very big, but it was big enough to hold two swing sets, a seesaw, a variety of other playground equipment, and a lake not too far into the woods that was slowly, but surely, freezing over; there was actually a thick top layer of ice on the surface. Parents milled around while watching their children go crazy on the playground and Malcolm was more than ready to join them. He took off into the throngs and quickly found himself enjoying his playtime with his new 'friends' and by 'friends', I mean children he was going to play with for that day and most likely forget about by the time they got home. Maya watched with warm eyes as her cousin ran around laughing without a care in the world…just like he should. For a second, her eyes grew a little darker as the memories of what brought them out to Michigan in the first place came to the forefront of her mind. However, that was not of very high importance and she shouldn't be thinking of it right then and there, not when Malcolm was safe in her presence and having a good time.

"Maya! Maya!"

Looking up, the frown on her face instantly vanished when she saw the child's excited expression as he called her over to the slides. She grinned happily and ran over to him, jumping and skipping over children until she was right behind him, about to go down the slide. He sat in her lap and screeched happily as they went down the spirally slide only to fall out at the bottom into the snow. Maya took a moment to laugh and shake the cold substance from her head while her cousin was off and running once again. Giggling, she stood up and wiped the snow from her jeans and began to follow after the child.

"Heads up!"

Whipping around in the direction that she heard the yell, she had just enough time to duck before a stray snowball pelted her in the face. Turning in the direction it came from, she saw a group of kids ranging from her age and younger running around and having a snowball fight. One kid, a little brunette with a big, goofy grin on his face, gave her an apologetic smile and shouted a 'sorry' at her before he was hit in the back of the head with a snowball. She chuckled lightly and shook her head, having just turned back around to find her baby cousin when she heard a laugh. It was deep and warm and stopped her right in her tracks, as if freezing her to the spot. She looked back at the kids having the snowball fight, her eyes searching the crowd for the owner of that laugh when she heard it again.

There…right there…she saw him.

It was a boy her age with snow white hair and these bright, crystal blue eyes that stood out against his white skin. He was wearing a black snow jacket over a blue hoodie with dark jeans and boots; he seemed to be having the most fun during the snowball fight, rolling snow into ammo quicker than she's seen anyone do and then hurling them at all the kids while trying to dodge the ones thrown at him. He laughed loudly as he launched a snowball at another kid, the white haired boy stopping to watch everyone have fun…before his eyes suddenly turned to her. She jumped when their eyes locked, feeling her heart skip a beat when he grinned crookedly at her and lifted his hand in a wave. She nodded in return and offered a small wave back; he seemed satisfied enough; he had to be because in the next second, he was hit with a snowball and his attention was back with the other kids. Maya exhaled the breath she didn't even know she was holding, feeling as if she had just been released by some magic spell cast on her by his blue eyes.

He was a handsome one…yes, very handsome.

The girl sighed deeply and held a hand to her heart, trying to prevent it from beating right out of her chest. 'Well…that was weird,' she thought dismissively to herself, twisting her head left and right, backwards and forwards in search of her baby cousin.

When she didn't see him right away, she frowned and felt her brows furrow a little. She walked around the playground, her eyes darting over all the little kids bundled up, but she couldn't find Malcolm.

"Malcolm? Malcolm?!" she shouted, feeling panic starting to rise up in her chest, "Malcolm, where are you?!"

She dashed around the playground, swiveling in circles while calling the child's name, but getting no response. Maya was just about to call the police when she looked over towards the lake that wasn't that far away, but down a slope to the point where it was almost lost from sight, and saw a small child standing there wearing the same jacket that her cousin was wearing.

"Malcolm!" she shouted loudly, sighing in relief when the child turned around and waved at her when he was called.

She ran over to him as quickly as she could given that she had to run through snow and threw her arms around his little body as soon as she made it to him; "Oh, you scared me! Don't just run off like that! What if someone had snatched you up, huh?" she ranted, holding him by his shoulders while looking into his eyes, "Don't do that again!"

"I'm sorry," the child mumbled.

"What are you doing down here, anyway?" she asked, her answer coming in the form of the little boy pointing out towards the frozen lake.

Following his finger, she gasped when she saw another child, this about looking to be about twelve years old, standing out on the ice with her skates on. She seemed frozen still, but there was apparent fear in her eyes as her legs trembled and she tried to remain as still as possible.

"What…" Maya mumbled, getting to her feet, "Hey! Are you okay?"

"No!" the little girl answered, her voice sounding scared.

"What's wrong? What are you doing standing there in the middle of the-" the teen stopped when she took a step on the lake and heard a small crack.

Looking down, she realized what had the child so frightened; thin ice. Since the girl was only twelve, she was obviously a lot lighter than Maya was so of course she was able to get on the ice without it breaking right away. However, thin ice could only hold so much of any weight for so long before it began to give and that little girl was caught out in the middle of the lake with the ice cracking underneath her.

"Oh my God," Maya breathed in horror before she began unwinding her scarf from her neck, "D-Don't move, okay?! Just stay right where you are! I'm coming to get you!"

"Maya," Malcolm whimpered, sensing the panic in his cousin's voice which, in turn, caused him to get a little frightened.

The older girl simply knelt down to his level quickly and wrapped her scarf around him while smiling to keep him calm before saying, "It's okay, little buddy, don't worry. Just hold this for me, okay? I'm going to go and help that little girl, but I'll be looking for this when I come back. Don't lose it and stay right here."

With that, she got back up and looked around to make her next move. Right above the little girl was a rather sturdy looking tree branch and right beside her was a boulder that could reach up to it. All Maya had to do was get onto that boulder, swing up on the branch, shimmy her way to where she was just over the little girl, grab her, and then get them both to safety. It seemed like a long shot, but it was the best chance she had, so she went for it. Moving quickly, the teen ran over to the rock and climbed to the top of it, discarding her gloves so she could get a better grip on the branch when the time came for it. She cautiously skipped over to the edge of the rock and grabbed hold of the branch, swinging her legs around it to start shimmying to just above the child. Hooking her legs around the wood, she hung upside down and found that she could grab the girl easily and this realization made her smile as she reached down to grab her hand as the little girl reached up.

Creak…creak…creak.

A serious of creaks and snaps caught Maya's attention and the teen looked at the branch again to see, to her dismay, that it wasn't as sturdy as she originally thought. It was beginning to give under her weight and it was here that she realized that one of them was going to be falling through that thin ice and into the freezing temperatures of the lake.

It was not going to be that little girl; Maya was not going to let that happen.

In a last ditch effort, she snatched the girl's arm in her hand, tugged her up and then threw her as hard as she could towards the shore just as the branch snapped with the sharp action. The child slid to safety while Maya fell from the tree and went crashing through the ice while a scream cut through the air. It was like she had just been bashed in the head as the cold water surrounded her, disorienting her and making her body start to go numb. She fought to find her way to the surface, a splitting headache keeping her from staying focused. Somehow and by someone's grace, Maya resurfaced and gulped in as much air as she could and scrambled to try and find something solid and rooted to grab hold of. All she could do was claw at the edge of the ice she had fallen through, her eyes locking on to the little girl and Malcolm; her little cousin was crying almost hysterically and the girl was staring at her in horror.

"Malcolm…no…don't cry," she muttered through her chattering teeth, her vision fading in and out as the cold gripped her bones, "No…don't…cry…"

She didn't know how much longer she would be able to last like this before she lost herself under the ice, the teenage girl completely unaware of the person that was sprinting down towards them. His ice blue eyes spotted her immediately as she was falling back into the water and he turned to the little girl.

"Go get help," he commanded of her, searching the ground for something he could use while she just continued to stare at him, "…Now! Hurry!"

With his sharp orders, the little girl ripped off her skates and took off back towards the park, screaming for her mother in panic. The boy with the white hair took hold of Malcolm and calmed him down enough to keep him from hurting himself before he ran towards the rock that Maya had used just minutes before. He spotted a long stick with a hooked end and took it in his hands to use. He climbed the rock and skidded towards the edge, taking a chance with the iced over footholds on the sides to get closer to her.

"Hey! Hey! Up here!" he shouted at her, holding the stick out, "Come on, grab hold of the stick!"

Maya, her teeth chattering and her body almost completely void of any sensations, looked up at the voice and found herself staring into ice blue eyes of that boy she had seen not too long ago. Her vision was fading in and out from the shock of the ice, the girl trying to see through the fog, and found herself face to face with the hooked end of the stick the boy held. Seeing this as her only way out, she pushed herself to leap up and clutch the stick. Once he felt the extra weight, the boy with the white hair began hauling her up the rock while, at the same time, he tried to find solid footing. With a lot of effort on both sides, the two of them found themselves on the solid surface of the boulder with Maya collapsing in exhaustion while the boy hovered above her, fretting for her well-being.

"Hey, it's okay. You're okay now," he told her gently with a warm voice, bring her shivering body close to his to try and keep her warm, "It's alright now."

"M-Malcolm…M-M-Malcolm," she chanted through her chattering teeth, hugging herself in an attempt to regain some of her body heat.

The boy with the white hair blinked curiously before looking over at the little boy, "Malcolm? You mean that kid down there? He's fine for now, but you have to stay with me if you don't want him to panic again."

Maya just nodded and hugged herself tighter while rocking back and forth, unable to do much of anything else considering how it felt like her system was starting to shut down from the deep chill that was wracking her body. The boy watched her for a moment and realized that her lips were turning blue and ice was starting to form all over her body: on her skin, her clothes, her hair, and even her eyelashes. It really was cold and she wasn't going to last much longer like this. The girl heard rustling and lifted her gaze to see the boy unwinding his scarf from his neck while unzipping his winter jacket.

"W-What are you d-doing?" she asked him as he wrapped his scarf around her neck securely before tearing her jacket off of her along with her sweater.

"Body heat," he answered, lifting his hoody up a little before bringing her in close and wrapping his arms around her, "It's the best way to keep a person warm and the best way to do that is to make sure that as little of the wet clothes are in the way as possible."

Maya was stunned by his actions for no more than a second before her body began to violently shake due to the heat trying to fight away the cold. She clutched him tightly, her hands diving under his hoody to search for more sources of warmth. His winter jacket draped around the both of them and the girl buried her face in his neck.

"Y-You…are s-so warm…" she mused absently, nothing less of grateful for this kind stranger.

He grinned and chuckled in her ear, "Which is a bit ironic."

"W-Why?" Another shiver shook her body and he tightened his hold on her.

"Because my last name is Frost."

It took Maya a moment to think about it before she was laughing weakly. That was ironic that someone so warm could have a last name like that. The boy was glad to see that she was still able to laugh at a time like this and even more grateful that he was able to help her. Off in the distance, he heard the sound of the ambulance drawing close to the lake followed by the noise of concerned adults all crowding around, the little girl Maya had saved in the crowd as well with her mother. Help had finally arrived and it couldn't have been at a better time; Maya was starting to lose her fight against sleep and the boy could tell. He pulled back from her just as the paramedics rushed over to them, one of the three stopping to check Malcolm while the other two made the teenage girl their priority. The boy helped Maya down and into the arms of one of the men, quickly jumped down from the rock as well to follow them. The had her on a gurney in no time with thick blankets covering her body; the blue eyed kid was a little disheartened when he heard the word 'hypothermia' leave one of the medic's lips and he wondered if he had really helped her at all. He ran over to the gurney and grabbed her hand reassuringly while walking alongside her.

"It's going to be okay, Green Eyes," he said again, his voice warm and kind as he smiled at her, "You're going to be just fine."

She tried to focus her hazy gaze on the boy as she said softly, "Thank you."

He nodded and released her hand as they put her in the back of the ambulance, a medic holding Malcolm following suit. From inside the ambulance, Maya could see the boy even as they closed the doors and began to pull away. She stared at him as he grew smaller and smaller, seeing him lift his hand in a wave at her just as he had done earlier that afternoon. She only stopped staring when she could no longer keep her eyes open and the darkness claimed her consciousness at last.

She didn't even get his name.

End Chapter

Crimsonwings92: So? What did you guys think? Reviews would be greatly appreciated! I absolutely love Jack and even though I didn't formally introduce him in this chapter, he will have a full name in the next one. That is, if you guys like this story enough to want a second chapter. Hehehe, well, review please and I'll see you guys, maybe, in the next chapter. Ciao!