Thanks for all the reviews. It was really great to see everyone liking the story so much, if not the cliffhanger I ended it on.

There will be no chapters after this, it wasn't even meant to be a two-shot and I hadn't even planned for a second chapter so I hope you enjoy it.

I don't own Rise of the Guardians. It's probably better that way lol.

Twenty-three years. He had waited twenty-three years for his Snowflake to be reborn and even now he couldn't bring himself to go see the tyke.

Everyone had been invited to see the little boy, Jamie's son looked a lot like him it seemed, and all the others had gone. He had been missed though, and it seemed that none of the other guardians had the heart to tell Jamie why neither Jack nor Aster had come to meet his son. That was a conversation none of them wanted to have.

As the years went on, Aster waited and watched from afar.

Jackson Bennett grew fast.

His father had fostered a belief in him like no other and he spent most of his time outdoors with his little sister Pippa, named after his father's friend who had died in a car crash years before, whom he called pipsqueak in the affectionately teasing tone used by brothers and sisters the world over.

Jack had been brought up on fairy stories like nothing before, his father having made a good amount of money publishing stories of his adventures with the guardians. These stories always seemed filled with action and danger, as well as more intensity than was probably healthy. Jack had been told of North, an old pirate turned gift giver who fought with two swords and had a thick Russian accent, Sandy, a smaller man who never said anything but had a heart of gold and an appearance to match, Tooth, a hyperactive woman who was part hummingbird and guarded the memories of every person on the planet, Jack, a young spirit who was filled with pranks and fun and could make the best snowballs ever, and Bunny, a 6-foot-something, boomerang and explosives wielding rabbit with an Australian accent, and had grown up with the adventures that the guardians had been through. And, of course, the guardians themselves had shown up on various occasions to cement the beliefs into his very soul.

Whenever he lost a tooth in one of his insane stunts he made sure to put it under his pillow so that Tooth could come to collect it, he was reminded to brush properly and floss so that she wouldn't get upset with him. He was also reminded that, even though he could do insane things, he had to be a relatively good boy so that Santa would give him presents on Christmas rather than coal. He occasionally stayed up to watch the golden threads of dream sand winding through the houses and in through open windows, though he was usually knocked out by the golden grains soon after.

There were two spirits that he never saw, no matter how hard he tried.

He started snowball fight after snowball fight in order to try and catch a glimpse of the mysteriously absent guardian of snowballs and fun times, only to have to try again when the frosty spirit never showed up, and he spent many an afternoon exploring the forests around Burgess to try and find a tunnel leading to the warren of the mysterious Easter Bunny.

By the time he was eighteen, Jack was fit and well-liked despite his tendency for pranking people and starting mass snowball wars. He was known as a good person, sure to help someone even though many said he was a hellion. He was fiercely protective of his sister, making a lot of the more lust-driven males back off of his younger sibling and making her one of the few girls not hounded by the majority of the boys in the town. It was almost enough to make Jack sick, seeing all but a few guys acting like lust-sick monkeys.

He was taking a walk through the forest, heading for the lake near the middle of what had become a gun-free zone, when he heard a commotion up ahead. And screaming.

The screaming spurred him into action, he had heard it enough times to know his sisters scream anywhere. Breaking through the ground-cover of ferns and shrubbery, Jack came to a halt when he saw the gun that had been pointed at his sister get pointed at him instead "Ah, Jackie-boy. Just the man I wanted to see" The grinning teen was someone from his school, one of the jocks that had moved to the town the year before if he remembered correctly ", Well don't just stand there like a pillock, come closer"

Aster growled to himself, settled in some nearby bushes as Jack walked out from the tree line. He watched as Jack moved between his sister and the gun-toting dill, the fur on the back of his neck raising as the gun was lifted to point at Jack's chest. He was getting antsy, he knew he couldn't handle losing the Snowy dill again but he didn't want to intrude and cause a problem for the teen so he was forced to simply sit and watch as Jack and the other man spoke.

It seemed to be about Jack's sister, the bloke with the gun wanted to date her and Jack was refusing. And rightly so, a sheila like that didn't deserve to date some gun-toting dickhead.

When the yelling began, Jack gave the signal for his sister to run.

The younger girl turned and fled, screaming when a single shot was heard. Thankfully she didn't turn back, she didn't need to see her brother collapsing into the snow or the victorious smirk on the other man's face as he left the brown-haired teen to bleed out into the snow. She did, however, hear the absolutely soul-crushing cry of pain and grief that echoed through the forests of Burgess and out into the streets of the town.

It was so cold.

It hurt so much.

He could feel the fluttering pulse of his heart as it tried to keep the blood flowing through his veins.

He could hear someone sobbing nearby but he didn't have the energy to see who it was.

He hoped his sister got away safely, that she would be safe without him.

He hoped his parents would be alright.

He had so many hopes that faded from his mind as his barely open eyes caught sight of the moon.

It was so big.

So beautiful.

He could almost hear it telling him to let it all go and sleep.

That sounded good.

Sleep sounded good; maybe Sandy would come to visit him.

He glowed softly under the moonlight, not that he knew of that. Or of anything at all, for that matter, as his heart had simply stopped. Manny seemed to glow brighter and brighter, illuminating the frost that was growing and spreading from the boy.

It began to snow sometime in the early hours, the pure flakes covering jack almost completely only to be disturbed when Aster made his way over to the covered form and scooped him up.

He cradled Jack close, holding him like he was the most precious thing in the world, and keened in grief. He began idly grooming his twice-dead mate, whose hair had gone back to it's previous white colour and his skin had become as white as fine porcelain.

He could feel himself breaking. He had finally lost it, his will to live and hope. There was nothing that could pull him out of the self-destructive spiral.

Nothing except that.

That tender touch and the sweet lilting song that played through his mind.

Asters eyes snapped open and he looked down at Jack, who was giving him a weak smile and softly carding his fingers through the fur of bunny's cheek. He let out a cry of surprise and curls around his Snowflake, trembling and cradling the frosty boy close, his warm tears soaking his fur and Jack's hair.

"I missed you too, Hop-A-Long" His voice was just like Aster remembered and he thought, he knew, that things would be okay now.