Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Jack couldn't help but feel satisfied as he lazily made it down from the upper corridors of Santoff Claussen, away from his quarters and towards the hustle and bustle of the workshop itself. Swinging his staff from his shoulder, he tapped the back of several elves that had clearly just escaped the kitchen seeing as they left a trail of cookies behind them. They were frozen in their tracks now, bringing a smile to Jack's face as he continued on his way.

North didn't know he was here yet. Or at least, Jack assumed he didn't as there were no calls of Jack resonating throughout the workshop just yet—though the trail of frozen elves and frost patches might tip him off soon enough. Besides, it wasn't as if Jack had actually entered through the front door even though he was fully allowed to at this point in time. Where was the fun in entering that way when Jack just as easily jumped through one of the neglected open windows and surprise everyone with his presence just as winter does to everyone?

Speaking of fun, it was too quiet in the workshop today. It was early on in the season of toy making so he could risk sparking a bit of fun for all the yetis and elves. Surely, Jack thought, North wouldn't mind. After all, North had been the one to extend the invitation of Jack treating Santoff Claussen as a home and any home of Jack's needed a bit of snow, ice, and most of all fun. And really, he'd been here for several hours now, even snuck in a small nap in the room he was allowed to call his. Winter liked to sneak up on people, but at some point, it had to make itself known.

So calling upon the wind that burst through the nearest window, he flew up towards the rafters before plummeting down towards the lower levels and into the workshop production line itself. Snow trails flurried in his wake and frost began to spread along railings and walls that he brushed against. An obnoxious outburst from the boy finally alerted every one of his arrival at the North Pole as the yetis looked up and groaned, knowing they would have a mess to clean up shortly.

Jack laughed as he flipped and twisted between yetis and toys. His staff trailed against surfaces leaving ice patches that the creatures would slip and fall on. The winter spirit grinned as his eyes zeroed in on a familiar form and went to teasingly rush by the yeti with a pleasant "Hey Phil!" The exchange would have worked quite nicely except for the part where he misjudged the distance needed to avoid Phil's reach, seeing as the yeti reached out and yanked the boy out of the wind's grasp by his hood.

The boy grinned and waved. "Oh, hey Phil. How've you been?"

Phil made a frustrated noise as he stared up at nothing—or he could have been staring at the still falling snow, Jack considered a moment later. "So…" Jack drawled as he looked around and tugged at the neckline of his hoodie. "Plan on letting me down anytime soon?"

The yeti looked contemplative. This was, after all, the boy who had always managed to slip in and play games while wreaking havoc on the workshop he was to protect. This was the boy who had given him a smug grin when he had bumped into him once he had finally made it into the actual workshop himself. The worst part was that Phil could only pound a fist threateningly into his hand as the spirit was actually allowed and escorted into the place by North himself. And when Phil had found out the boy was a new Guardian with permission to enter the building any time, let alone call it home astounded the yeti.

It wasn't that he hated Jack. Jack had humored him over the years. It was more or less that Phil prided himself on keeping the spirit out of his workshop though he had a deep suspicion that Jack hadn't even cared about entering the shop after a while. It was all a game, a game that Phil didn't want to end just yet.

With alarm Jack realized that the yeti wasn't planning on letting him go just yet. "Hey now, Phil! If this is about the ice and frost and all that—I'll—I'll clean it up!" Jack cried out, struggling inside his hoodie as the yeti began walking off with him. Walking off, that is, in the complete opposite direction of North's workshop, the meeting room, or even Jack's personal room.

"Phil!" Jack pleaded. He couldn't slip out of his hoodie and he had a suspicion they were heading towards the front door. He had only been kicked out of it a hundred or so times. "I'm allowed in here now! You know that! Guardian and all that fun stuff!"

Phil rumbled with laughter and Jack twisted around and crossed his arms like so many times before. He narrowed his eyes at the yeti. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you."

He thought he saw the yeti smile and he sighed in response before spinning around correctly. He lowered his staff and hit a pillar with it. It instantly froze. "I'm not cleaning that up, either." Jack said with a pout the yeti couldn't see.

Soon enough he recognized the front door and sighed.

"This isn't funny, Phil. I just wanted to visit North."

The yeti replied with a mixture of Yetish and laughter before opening the door with the other hand and dropping Jack on his feet. Patting the boy on the back he closed the door.

"I can just get right back in, Phil!" Jack yelled through the heavy door and went to open it but then head a heavy click and bolt sliding across. Well, he had advised the creature to invest in a lock. That one lock didn't really have to stop the boy. He could have slid in through his room's window which was nearly always open. He could have found any window really or knocked on one in the room that North currently occupied.

But he didn't.

Instead the winter spirit settled down for the wait to come until either Phil or North came to let him in. Because before Phil had closed the door, Jack had seen the good humored grin across the creature's face. These actions weren't against him. No, they were just the next play in their long played out game that would never end. It was a part of their odd friendship that had somehow formed over the years.

So Jack sat outside the door, playing his part of the game with his own good humored grin.

So here was a bonus chapter. When I wrote the original one-shot I was thinking about writing about after Jack was allowed in the workshop and when I received interest in that, I figured I'd include that as a bonus. I like to think that they would still continue the game because how boring would it be if Jack could get in there with no problem after all that trouble?

And so there's the end of this. Thank you for the response to this idea!