Of all things, I'm starting yet another fanfic! Sorry about that, guys. *chuckles awkwardly* In my defense, my writing this is an attempt to keep any sort of shipping out of "Imaginary Hellos", since that story is supposed to just be about a family relationship between Jack and the Bennetts, not a romantic one. Plus I just wanted to see where this would go if I let it out.

So yes, I'm actually writing a shipping fic, believe it or not. With a very weird ship. *scratches head* Just give it a chance. I'm pretty sure most of you will at least be amused.

Anyway, without further ado, onto the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own ROTG. And this is the fanfiction website, so I don't know why people even put these disclaimers up since it's obvious. But whatever, I'm not one to violate the sacred tradition of disclaimers. :P

Anyone who thought Cupid was just trying to make the world a better place didn't know who Cupid was. Anyone who thought that Cupid was just a mass of lovey dovey nothingness really didn't know who Cupid was. Unfortunately for Jack, he knew exactly the kind of person Cupid really was, because the guy reminded him entirely too much of himself.

He was just chilling at home in Burgess, well, to be more accurate, he was spying on Jamie's home in Burgess, when he just happened to notice the little winged troublemaker come into view. He normally tried to ignore what Cupid did as best he could, despite how difficult it could sometimes be. But this time set the hairs on the back of his neck on end.

The guy was hovering right in front of the Bennett house, which may or may not be a problem in itself, though Jack couldn't remember a time when Cupid hadn't been a problem. But then, to make things worse, Mrs. Bennett just happened to stumble outside at that minute to deposit a bag full of trash in the trash bin.

Jack gripped his staff hard enough that his knuckles turned white as he saw Cupid raise his arrow and draw the bow taught as he pointed the arrow at his next victim. No, it wasn't Mrs. Bennett that Cupid targeted, but the town drunk across the street, which wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't been staring right at Mrs. Bennett the whole time.

Jack's nerves went on overdrive as he wracked his mind for what to do. It was clear that Cupid was trying to set these two up just because he thought it was funny. Jack normally knew better than to try and interfere with Cupid's pranks, but this was Jamie's mom. Mrs. Bennett was lonely enough that with enough persuasion, she might even marry the guy. If Cupid had his way, Jamie could very well have to deal with this creep for the rest of his life. Jack couldn't allow that.

Cupid released his arrow, and Jack realized that he'd run out of time to think. So he did the first thing that came to mind, and darted between Cupid and his intended victim, spreading out his arms in a desperate attempt at keeping the arrow from reaching its target.

One thing that Jack forgot to calculate was that the arrow had to go somewhere, and no one, not even Cupid himself, was immune to the effects of Cupid's arrows. Quicker than a flash, the arrow plunged itself right into Jack's chest, and he doubled over in pain as he collapsed to the ground. His eyes were closed tight as he reached up to grasp the arrow and pull it out of his chest, but it was already dissolving even as he did so. The magic was already beginning to take effect. He was relieved that this meant that the Bennetts wouldn't have to deal with that other guy, but he was suddenly smacked with the weight of what all this meant for him, and he began to shake.

The magic wouldn't take hold until he opened his eyes and saw someone. He knew that much. How long could he go without opening his eyes? Knowing him, not long. Could he keep his eyes closed until someone he was okay with falling desperately in love with strolled into view? He couldn't actually think of any such person in existence, which would mean he would have to wait a very long time, and he knew he would open his eyes before then.

Still, he was going to hold out as long as he could, especially considering how it had been Cupid himself who had been just in front of him when he'd gotten shot, and the last thing he wanted was to fall in love with the little troublemaker. It was bad enough that Jack caused all the trouble he did without turning the two of them into a dangerous duo.

A thumping sound made Jack's eyes suddenly snap open as his mind decided it had to discover the source of the noise just in case it had intended to kill him. Traitorous mind. Thankfully, Cupid had had the foresight to move out of Jack's line of vision, probably not wanting to deal with a lovesick Jack any more than Jack wanted to deal with it.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief at this, but he breathed too soon, for he soon noticed the retreating form of Mrs. Bennett heading back to her house, having completed trash duty. His breath hitched and his heart stopped as he was sucked into the moment. Cupid, seeing this, developed a mad case of the giggles, and Jack instantly whirled on him.

"What do you think you were doing? You could have caused someone to get hurt by that stunt!"

The obnoxious man casually rubbed his fingers together as he looked on with a devious smirk. "And yet," he said, "no one got hurt, did they?"

Jack stamped his foot and let out a slight growl before launching himself into the air to meet Cupid eye to eye. He crossed his arms and glared at the guy, daring him to even try and breathe in his presence. "Things almost got dire!" said Jack. "This family is very dear to me, and I won't have you ruining their lives for sport."

Cupid only began to crack up all the more at this, leaving Jack to raise an eyebrow as he wondered about the sanity of the being before him. Then again, no one other than Cupid's mother and his wife were likely to ever make the mistake of thinking the guy was sane. "Well then," said Cupid, "it seems your little family is about to get even more dear to you than ever before."

Jack blanched as he realized the implications of that. People fell in love on their own all the time, but whenever Cupid intervened, people usually lost their minds. This would not help the Bennetts at all to have a crazy, love-sick Guardian on the loose around their house. "Okay, look," he said, "Just tell me how to reverse this and we can forget all about it."

This only caused Cupid to laugh all the harder at Jack's predicament, and Jack got a sinking feeling that the solution would be much harder than he thought. He thoughts were only confirmed when Cupid said, "Oh, you silly, silly Jack Frost. You actually think there's a cure?"

Jack slowly hung his head. "Then what do I do?"

Cupid just shrugged and then flew off as he continued laughing. Before he was out of earshot, he called back, "Enjoy your sweetheart, loverboy!"

Jack glared at the retreating man and wanted to fly after him and give him a piece of his mind, or perhaps instead fly to the north pole and see if North had any magical remedies for getting struck by one of Cupid's arrows, but there was a weight on his heart that he'd never experienced before. It made it almost impossible to think of leaving.

He sighed and whispered to no one in particular. "I guess that you win this round, Cupid, but I'm not going down without a fight."

Jack then set down on the ground and turned to head back toward his lake, which would have been the wiser choice, but found himself hopping up into the tree in the Bennetts' front yard instead. "What am I doing?" he said. "Jack, you're letting the arrow get to you. Stop it!"

Of course, no amount of logic had ever talked one of Cupid's arrows out of taking hold of its victim, and Jack found himself scooting further and further into the tree's branches to conceal himself lest Jamie or Sophie come home and figure out what he was up to, which would have been mortifying. All of this in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Mrs. Bennett one more time.

"Jack, you're being an idiot, stop it!" He slapped his forehead a couple times as though that would somehow drive the unwanted magic out of him, but the only effect was a slight headache. "She can't even see you. And she's your first believer's mother. This could really ruin your relationship with Jamie. Stop it!" Still, the magic persisted, and there was nothing he could do about it.

By and by, Jamie and Sophie came strolling into the front yard, apparently done with school for the day. Jack smiled at the sight of them, but at the same time, his heart rate quickened at the thought of them catching him hiding up here in their tree without having an adequate explanation as to why, aside from his attempting to spy on their mother. That excuse even creeped him out if he was honest with himself. Sophie was probably still too young to understand the complications this could cause, but if possible, Jack was going to do everything in his power to hide his predicament from Jamie.

After a couple moments which dragged themselves out to feel like a couple millennia to Jack, the kids finally made their way inside the house, and Jack breathed a huge sigh of relief at having not been caught. Time to get out of this tree before anyone other than that stupid Cupid had the chance to find him in it.

Only a moment or two after his feet had once again touched the ground did the Bennetts' front door open and a couple little Bennett monsters came running out, squealing with newfound freedom. Jamie looked up, his face taking on a look of delight as he shouted, "Jack!" and the two ran up to meet him.

Jack sighed in defeat and smiled at the kids, though he wasn't entirely sure whether the smile reached his eyes. Was he disappointed that it was the kids who had come out and not their mother? What was wrong with him? Surely people who had been attacked by Cupid could control themselves more than this... couldn't they? He'd always made fun of Cupid's victims in the past for acting like deranged animals after being shot, but now he was starting to feel a bit guilty for having done so. Keeping one's composure was harder than it looked. He really needed to get to the north pole and get help.

"Hey, Jack," said Jamie, "Can we have a snowball fight?"

"Yeah!" said Sophie, jumping up and down in her excitement. "Snow! Snow! Snow!"

He groaned as he felt his mind slowly losing the battle against his heart. There would be no reaching the north pole this day. He just hoped that the magic wouldn't have a chance to set in too much by the time he finally made it to North.

"Alright," he finally said. "But I'm in a weird mood, so you guys had better run, because I'm not showing any mercy this time!"

The children uttered surprised squeals of fear and delight as they scampered off to find whatever sort of shelter was available before Jack had a chance to go on his homicidal snowballing rampage. He gave them a thirty second head start before he blew into his hands and created his first weapon of snow.

"Better run," he said, "because here I come, ready or not!" And off he flew.

Poor, poor Jack. He knows he's gonna lose his mind if he's not careful, yet he can't even ask for help. *chuckles evilly* This should be fun.

Anyway, what do you guys think thus far? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Got anything you'd like to see happen? I listen very carefully to what my reviewers think and try to use their advice in my story, so feel free to speak up! Even if you don't like it, that's fine too. Just let me know why. :)

I'll try to post the next chapter soon, and hopefully it'll be longer since I rarely ever post 2,000 word chapters. This is just where it felt like ending this time. In any case, see you all next time!