"You shouldn't creep, Jack. It doesn't suit you."

He stepped out from behind a volcanic column protruding out of the uneven floor, his eyes wide in shock.

"How did you know?" he asked, surprised.

"You're too predictable, Jack Frost."

"You know me too well," he laughed, leaning on his wooden staff. "It's been too long."

"It has been a long time indeed." Drysin turned and faced him, seeing Jack for the first time in a hundred years. He was still the Jack she knew: tall, thin, pale, and casually handsome. She hadn't forgotten his snow white hair, dark lips, and his mischievous twinkling blue eyes. "Which begs the question," she said, taking slow, deliberate steps towards him, "Why are you here? Why now, and not a hundred more years from now?"

Jack smiled widely, his face lighting up with pride.

"I'm a guardian now. It's official! I saved the day- a boy even saw me!"

"How touching," she replied, grinning mockingly. She circled him, inspecting him with an unimpressed expression. She was tall-almost as tall as Jack- with fiery red hair, bright green almond shaped eyes, full lips, and a devilish smile dancing across her face. "I already knew that. But what has happened to you? I thought you were 'snowballs and funtimes.' Has that Jack died? Are you the new and improved boring Jack? Why have you really come?"

"Oh, I was under the impression you were happy to see me," he said, twirling around his staff. He looked up at her and grinned, his blue eyes chilling the air.

"Ha! That's wishful thinking!" she laughed. "You're a long way from home, Frosty." He shrugged and slipped a hand into his sweatshirt pocket.

"This feels like home. I love them, but the other guardians are really boring sometimes. But this, this is like old times." He traced a snowflake on the floor with his toe, but as soon as the ice touched the ground it evaporated in a mist.

"A little too hot for you, Frosty?" she asked.

"It's a little warm for my taste, but I'm sure it fits you just fine, Firebreath." Drysin cracked a smile. She tiltled back her head and belched out a beam of flames. The air sizzled and wavered from the heat.

"I haven't been called that in a hundred years," she laughed after wiping her mouth on her sleeve. She wore a loose red tunic sinched at the waist with a golden belt over tight black breeches.

"Well then you're sorely overdue!" He lept into the air and landed lightly behind her. Jack blew a gust of frosted wind towards her through a smile.

"Now wait a minute Jack," she interupted, fixing her green eyes on his blue. "I know you didn't come here to reminisce. There's something on your mind, and I will know what it is."

"There's the Drysin I know," he replied. Suddenly, he sighed and flopped to the ground, crossing his legs over each other. "Being a guardian is great, but we don't spend time together. We all have things to do. Ever since Pitch happened, I think I..." Jack let out a gust of frustrated air. "I don't know what I think. I've been feeling so strange lately. I can't get Tooth out of my head. She's in my dreams, she's there when I wake up and she's always the last thing I think of when I fall asleep. She's just... Everywhere. I don't know what's going on with me." He glanced at Drysin, whose lips twisted as she considered the situation.

"The Tooth Fairy?" she smirked. "Of all the girls in the world, and you go for the Tooth Fairy? Jack, have you finally gone soft?" She walked over to a rock column and leaned against it, rubbing the tips of her fingers together in thought as she stared at him. Her red hair hung to her waist like a dripping flame.

"What?" he cried. "I'm not 'going for her,' whatever that means! I don't know what this is, but it's not what you think it is." Drysin rolledd her eyes. "I mean, whatever it is, you gotta help me figure it out so I can get her out of my head! I can't go to the guardians about this, they're too busy. And besides, they would laugh at me. You're my only friend left, there's no one else who can help me."

Her relation with Frost could hardly be called a friendship. She once tried to kill him a hundred years ago and he almost succeeded in smothering her flame in retaliation. She wasn't sure what to make of his appearance, much less his plea to help him clear his thoughts about the Tooth Fairy. Drysin was not loved among the Guardians. They thought her evil when she allowed fires to spread or burn people. She and the Tooth Fairy were uneasy aquaintances at best- Drysin didn't know her well. Deep down, she resented the Guardians for their pretentious attitudes. They were Fairytales and every child knew of them-but she? No one knew of the Queen of Fire. No one cared that she brought warmth, light, and shelter to those who needed it.

"Why should I, Jack?" she asked.

"I need some direction, this is messing with me." He fiddled with his staff, running his hands down the uneven shaft. He seemed genuine but she had been fooled before. Her face betrayed her skepticism and he laughed softly.

"What?"

"Why the Tooth Fairy?" He hung his head and smiled to himself. Drysin had seen that look before. He was irresistable with that grin.

"She's fun, nice, caring. She's everything a guy could want. She's beautiful."

"And I'm sure it doesn't hurt that she's the only girl who can see you," Drysin remarked. Jack looked up at her, his clear blue eyes meeting hers. His lips parted slightly.

"You see me," Jack said quietly, gazing at her. For a split second, the air was frozen.

"I don't count, Frosty," she said, brushing it off. Jack shrugged and engrossed himself with his staff. Her lair was too hot for his liking, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it. He came to her, so he had to adjust. "Don't you have better things to do, Jack? Save children, make snow fall, and be the generally annoying person that you are?" The corner of his mouth rose to that familiar half smile she knew all too well.

"I can't save children if there's nothing to save them from," he said matter of factly. "And snow falls whether I'm there to make it happen or not. You of all people should know that, Drysin. As for the annoying person I am, well, I'm sure I'll think of something to adequately annoy you before the day is done. Don't worry, I've got that covered."

"Yes you do, don't you," she replied, crossing her arms.

For a moment there was silence. She regarded him as he stared at her from the floor. He looked no different from the day they first met. A hundred years ago in a rage, she had tracked him down and planned to kill him. He was laying innocently on a snow covered log taking a nap when she found him. The heat from her flame shocked him awake, and before she could engulf him in fire he lept into the air and buried her in ice. She made more attempts to murder him after that, but eventually, after being on the brink of death, she realized that there must be balance in the world, however much it pained her to let him live.

A pulse of anger flashed inside her. Why should she help him? She could kill him right now and end the battle of the elements. Fire over ice, flame over snow. He sensed her thought and stood, locking eyes.

"Drysin, the past is behind us. I don't hate you, in fact, I need you. An unbalanced world is a world primed for destruction. I'm sorry I bothered you. I'll leave." He turned and walked away, leaving her standing amidst her chared rock and fine gray ash. Jack caught her with his frosty blue eyes at the mouth of her cave and was gone.