A/N: I'm in a rush again, it's short but I tried my best. I might not be able to update tomorrow because I have an exam on Wednesday, but we'll see. Thanks for all the feedback, I appreciate it immensely!

When Ruby went to bed last night, instead of getting a good night's dream, she had nightmares.

It was darkness, all of it. But that wasn't what had scared her; it was the voice that had come along with it.

"…You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you Ruby Sullivan?" the voice had asked her.

Ruby had struggled to open her eyes, they seemed glued shut. The voice was cold and unfriendly; it mocked her with its tone. It was Ruby's dream, but the voice was somehow controlling it.

"Who are you? What are you talking about?" she asked.

The voice laughed icily, "My darling that's quite personal, but why answer a question with another? I merely have come to tell you that you are being watched very carefully. It's not every day that a mortal steals the heart of a guardian you know. Jack Frost is an enemy of quite a few; we wouldn't want poor Ruby to get hurt, would we?"

"Just tell me bluntly what you want." Ruby's voice faltered, her heart was beating extremely fast, why she couldn't get away from the sick feeling that rose in her stomach, she didn't know.

"I don't want anything…" the voice said in a smoothly. "For now."

"Ruby!" Jack shouted. He was shaking her shoulders and trying to wake her up. Prior to arriving at her window to surprise her, he saw her tossing and turning frantically in bed. She didn't look well and seemed to be struggling. Jack knew what was happening instantly, a nightmare.

Finally her eyes flew open and took a gulp of air as if she had just been drowning. She sat up and held onto Jack's arms as if they were her lifeline; her blue eyes scanned the room like there was something lurking in the shadows. "Wh-why-"

"You were having a nightmare, Ruby." Jack said calmly. He tucked her head into his chest and held her there until her heart stopped racing. She was still, she didn't cry, but she didn't say anything.

She wrapped her arms around his body and snuggled into his chest, making his own heart race. "I don't know why I was so scared." She mumbled into his chest. "It wasn't that scary, someone was talking to me, I just had a bad feeling about it."

Jack froze, could it have been Pitch? "What did they say?"

"They said that I've 'met with a terrible fate' and then he said that you have lots of enemies and that I may get hurt. And then I asked what they wanted, and then they said that they wanted nothing, yet." She recited, "It's kind of ominous, don't you think?" she asked looking up at Jack.

He was still, his eyes were wide and he had a horrible feeling in his stomach. There had to be some meaning towards these words. "I think it's time we went to see the other guardians." He mumbled sourly, "I didn't want it to come to this." He sighed.

"What?"

"Get dressed, we're going to meet Santa." He said grimly.

Ruby didn't exactly know what he had meant when he said that, but she had definitely thought he was joking.

After she got dressed in the hallway bathroom, he pulled a snow globe out of his pocket and threw it onto the floor. Ruby was about to yell at him, but a circular opening came from the air. On the other side they could see what Ruby imagined was Santa's workshop. Jack entwined his fingers with hers and said, "Sorry about the ride, I don't like it much either." And slipped through the portal, pulling her with him.

Ruby did admit that it was the worst experience of her life, even though it was a short five second feeling, it felt as if something was imploring her body. Her stomach churned and her head pounded. They landed on the other end in a scramble; it took Ruby a while for her knees to adjust after the trip and Jack looked just as disoriented. They got up and for the first time, Ruby noticed the four magical beings in front of her.

She would say, the idea of a Santa Claus with tattoos was nothing she had ever imagined. Not to mention the fact that the elves reminded her more of geese in an elf's body. And yetis? Yetis did the gift-making? That came as a surprise too, but the biggest surprise to her was that the Tooth Fairy looked more like a peacock than a fairy, but Ruby didn't say anything of that nature. All she spluttered out was a small, "Hi."

They all stood in around her and Jack, as if they were deconstructing the two with their eyes. A small yellow man who Ruby soon understood was the Sandman, looked interested, but was closer to dozing off. His eyes were fixed on Ruby's fingers interlocked with Jack's.

She looked down and saw that his hand was still gripping her's, when she attempted to wriggle her hand free, he just held onto it tighter. "Jack-"Ruby looked up at him; he was glaring at the other four across from them. Which Ruby found strange, seeing that they all got along in the fairytales her mother would read to Charlie before bed.

"Why have you come here?" The tall rabbit asked. It had an Australian accent, which made Ruby want to giggle. There was no way she was going to take him seriously, that and the fact that he was a six foot bunny.

Jack looked at Ruby and sighed, "I'm sorry." He started, "I know I was supposed to stop but I-"

"You gave in." The Rabbit spat. "We warned you about this Jack-"

"Let him speak." Santa Claus said in a thick Russian accent, Ruby raised her eyebrows, one unexpected thing after the other…

"She's in trouble," Jack exhaled.

Ruby turned to look at him, "Excuse me? This is the first I'm hearing of this!"

He ignored her and went on, "I think it's Pitch. I think he's back. And I think he's got someone else with him."

The four beings sighed simultaneously, "And now you've gone and gotten a loose end to tie up." The rabbit motioned to Ruby, "The girl is in trouble because you can't swallow your own damn-"

"That is enough, Bunny." The Tooth Fairy flitted to his side and pushed him back a bit. "Jack, how do you know all this?"

"She had a dream- a nightmare," he corrected himself. "She says she heard a voice talking to her and it told her that she was in trouble, but something is coming later. I think Pitch is indirectly warning us- me mostly, that he's coming back."

Santa Claus let out another frustrated sigh, "Why did you have to bring her into this, Jack?" he pointed to Ruby. "Now all you've done is given Pitch a way to break you, what have you benefitted from this?"

"I'm happy." Jack stated. Ruby felt her heart flutter. "Before I kept wondering how I was going to live forever as lonely as I was. Finally I've found something that made me truly feel like I could live a thousand lifetimes. Maybe you guys have other things that make you happy, but I don't think I've ever felt as happy as I've been these past two weeks with her." His face got red; he had probably just remembered that she was there.

Ruby kept her gaze fixated on the ground, her face was bright scarlet, and she could feel it. She was dizzy and the butterflies in her stomach were beginning to make her nauseous.

Everyone was silent for a moment, and then she heard the Tooth Fairy speak up in a soft voice, "I'm very happy for you Jack." She said optimistically, "But North is right, she's just in danger now. And if she gets hurt, you won't be able to forgive yourself."

"Um, I'd like to say something." Ruby's own voice filled her ears to her surprise. "I don't think it's fair to say that it'll be Jack's fault if I get hurt. That's my own fault for being around him, isn't it?"

She looked up and they were all staring at her speechlessly, even Jack. "But what about Jack?" the Easter Bunny asked. "He might not feel that way when you're dead."

Ruby gulped, "I'm gonna die?"

"Don't scare her!" The Tooth Fairy cried, "For the moon's sake! No, sweetheart, he just meant eventually, when you're a lot older."

She then came to the revelation that she would grow older and older and Jack would always be that young and good looking. Ruby would eventually be old enough that Jack wouldn't hang around her anymore. "Oh." She said simply. "I hadn't thought of that. But that's not his fault; it's a part of being human."

"At least she accepts it," Santa Claus chuckled. "But Jack might not, that's all we're afraid of. He'll probably beat himself up about it for a long time, and then he has a small chance of turning, its small, but still there."

"Turning?" Jack and Ruby asked simultaneously.

The four looked at each other worriedly; the Tooth Fairy shook her head and bit her lip, "It's nothing to get into now. Don't worry about it. We'll try and monitor Pitch's whereabouts, I thought we had driven him out but apparently not." She smiled warmly at Jack and Ruby, "You two should get going before her parents wonder where she is."

Jack squeezed her hand tighter, she had almost forgot he was holding it. Another portal opened- this one led to her room- and they stepped through it. A million unanswered questions swarmed around Ruby's mind.

"You said you only wanted to be friends," Ruby said as they settled onto her roof. "Why would you lie?"

Jack sighed and rubbed his eyes, "I-I don't know, I guess I was just afraid of what they had said before. Apparently I'm not supposed to be around you, so I just thought that maybe we could just be friends and that would be enough for me- but, it's not." He didn't look at her.

"That much I could gather on my own," she joked, trying to lift the mood. "But what will happen?"

"I know as much as you." He admitted.

She took a brief pause as if wondering what to ask next, "Do- were you always Jack Frost? Or have you been destined from the beginning?"

Jack sucked in a breath, "I don't remember much from my life as a human." He confessed, "I only know one story from my life as a human and it's the reason I became Jack Frost." He took a breath and recollected the memory he had pieced together over and over again, "I was going ice skating with my little sister when we were little, I guess the ice wasn't thick enough and it was started to crack under us. I managed to save my sister from falling through, but I hadn't done the same for myself. I… died? I guess I drowned, but I'll never be sure. I just remember it being so dark, and I was so, so cold, and then I opened my eyes and I saw the moon. And it told me my name was Jack Frost, and that was it."

Ruby looked melancholy, "You never saw your sister again?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"She was long gone before I even learned that I had had a sister." He shrugged, "I would be more upset, but I didn't even know her. I don't remember anything."

Ruby's face was nearing a pale shade of grey and the knuckles on her hand clutching the shingles of the roof had turned white. "Let's talk about something else."

"I'm sorry." Jack said, he really was, he hadn't intended to scare her. "Let's talk about books, do you want to keep reading me that one from yesterday? You only got two chapters into it,"

"No." she said blatantly, "You weren't even listening while I was reading. I want to know something else."

Jack felt his ears get hot with embarrassment, so she had noticed that he wasn't listening. "Go ahead."

"Were you lying when you said those things about yourself just now?" she said blushing as his eyes met hers. His stomach somersaulted.

The words were seemingly stuck in his throat, "No." was all he said, but he had really meant to say much more.

"Oh." She tucked her knees into her chest and hugged them. "Okay."

She was about to speak again, but Jack leaned in and kissed her.

Ruby stiffened in surprise, but slowly leaned into it. Her eyes closed and he could feel her heart jumping around in her chest, his felt the same, if not faster. When she did finally relax, parting her lips a little, he happily responded by deepening the kiss, running the tip of his tongue over her velvet bottom lip. The kiss that had begun gently now grew more urgent, as the hand that was on the back of her neck had moved down to her waist and drawn her closer to his body.

She dropped her arms from her knees and touched his cheek. Jack felt his heart escalating to a rate that couldn't have been natural, even for a magical being. She brushed her fingers through his hair with her other hand. Jack was about to pull her closer, but it wasn't possible.

She broke away from him, breathlessly. He wanted to pull her back to him and kiss her for eternities, and he could tell by the look of her eye she felt the same. "My parents are probably worried." She said, her chest rising and falling quickly, trying to catch her breath.

Ruby slid down from the roof and into her open window, Jack watched her until he was no longer in sight. He continued to sit there, his heart still pounding, pondering all the ways he could make sure he hadn't imagined her.

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