Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who favorited, followed and reviewed! In this chapter we get some Pitch worrying, Lillian and little fairy goodness and what Jack and Lillian get up to in the summer. I googled about superheroes as I don't know a lot about them and when they were created. I made sure that all the heroes mentioned were created before 1968. I also googled the official start of summer so the date should be accurate. I had to google seasons too. Whew! Thank goodness for the internet. Let me know what you think. Also, I edited the last chapter a tiny bit. Nobody caught the mistake where Jack said that Lillian was kidnapped that day, when really it was a few days ago. Whoops. And don't be too disappointed in Sandy. He was just doing his job. He really didn't like Jack and Lillian not getting enough sleep.

Chapter Ten: Little Fairies & North's Workshop

Pitch had decided to not go very far away from Lillian while she was supposed to be training with Jack, so he decided to stick around the United States while she was training. It was as he was wandering around on a farm in Wisconsin that he had that feeling. Again.

He was grumbling about silos and why did that one have to be right there, when he stopped dead in his tracks.

He looked around in the dark, but of course he couldn't see anything unusual. He had just finished giving some farm kid a good nightmare. He was particularly proud of the man-eating tractor chasing the kid around in a field. He could tell the kid didn't like how the tractor looked at night and figured this could help him out with that. Either that, or traumatize him more.

But now he had that feeling that something was wrong and he suddenly was wondering if Lillian was alright. He looked around in the dark again and suddenly realized something he had failed to realize.

It was dark.

Night time meant most children were asleep.

Sandman.

He would be out and about. What if he came across Jack and Lillian?! Pitch didn't particularly care for the Sandman. Not just because the Sandman was pretty much his opposite, but because he was also a Guardian.

Sandman was the more level-headed of the Guardians, sure, but he was still a Guardian. One of them had already tried kidnapping Lillian. He didn't doubt that Sandman might try to take her away if he discovered who she really was.

Deciding looking in on them would be perfectly normal and not hovering, he quickly disappeared into the shadow of the accursed silo and reappeared in Burgess.

He wasn't sure if Jack would take Lillian into town, but it couldn't hurt to look. He looked up into the sky and could see the remnants of good dreams making their way into children's rooms.

Damn, he had already been there!

This was not good. Not good at all.

He took off down a street, frantically looking for any sign of Winter or Spring. Unfortunately nothing appeared more spring like than normal. There were also no traces of Winter. Not surprising, since it wasn't a particularly cold night, but it still set Pitch on edge.

A few hours later, he was on the verge of panicking. He had looked all over town and couldn't find any trace of them.

He disappeared into the shadows and reappeared back in his lair. He searched all over, but Lillian wasn't in her room or anywhere else. He pinched the bridge of his nose, looking pained and feeling a headache coming on.

They had taken her.

She was lost forever, he just knew it.

There was no trace of Jack either.

They were both gone.

It was the Guardians he knew it.

He clenched his fists at his sides.

They would pay.

As thoughts of vengeance started to take hold, one last desperate hope came to him.

That lake that Fro- Jack always hung out at.

He realized he was grasping at straws, but he didn't care.

He disappeared into the shadows.

A moment later as he was stepping out of the shadow of a tree, he almost stumbled over Jack and Lillian as they were laying on the ground.

He sighed in relief as he saw them, Jack with his arms wrapped around Lillian. A golden Jack Frost and a golden Lillian were hovering over the both of their heads and they were having an epic snowball fight.

Pitch realized that they must have been dreaming about each other and the dreams merged, as they sometimes were prone to do.

For a moment he wished he had a camera, but then frowned as he looked down at Jack. He reached down and after some tugging, managed to scoop Lillian out of Jack's arms and into his own.

He nudged Jack with his foot, perhaps a little harder than he meant to and the golden dream fizzled out over Jack's head.

Golden Jack was still hovering over Lillian's head and now he was just making silly faces for no apparent reason.

Jack's eyes fluttered open as Pitch nudged him again.

"Wha..?" he sleepily muttered as he sat up.

Pitch's eyes flashed in anger.

"Having a nice nap, are we?"

Jack suddenly woke up at the dangerous edge in Pitch's voice. He quickly stood and looked at Pitch holding a sleeping Lillian with wide eyes.

"P-Pitch!" Jack said, his voice a little higher than normal.

"Care to explain?" he said, his voice sounding somewhat calmer, but Jack knew that Pitch was anything but calm.

Jack swallowed as he thought of how to explain this.

"U-um.." he said, finally deciding that the truth couldn't hurt. Hopefully. "After you left, Lillian and I had a race into town. She must've used her flower, since she got there long before I did. When I found her in town, the Sandman was there. He uh.. he knew Lillian was the spirit of spring and wanted to know where she lived."

Pitch tensed. He narrowed his eyes at Jack.

"And?"

"And we didn't tell him anything, of course." Jack said, sounding defensive. "I told him that after Bunny, Lillian didn't want anyone to know where she lived. He mentioned something about her being up too late, but I told him she had a long nap and we were going home after hanging around town. I guess he didn't like that, since the next thing I knew I was waking up here. He must've knocked us out."

Jack looked down at his feet at that, hugging his staff to himself.

"..I'm.. I'm sorry. I know I promised to look after her.."

Pitch sighed as he saw Jack, looking like the epitome of a child being scolded.

"Don't let it happen again," he finally said, his voice sounding less harsh.

He knew that up against dreamsand, there really wasn't too much of a defense, other than trying to dodge. But honestly, it hadn't even been two hours!

"I'm taking Lillian home," he said. "The dreamsand won't wear off for a long time, and you still seem to be feeling the effects of it as well."

He could see Jack's eyes were dropping and he was struggling to stay awake still.

Jack nodded, still looking very guilty.

Without saying anything else, Pitch let the shadows swallow him and Lillian up.

It was mid June when Lillian met another Guardian. Well, one of the helpers. Lillian and Jack had settled into a routine where they went out to practice her powers in the late afternoon and stopped when it was starting to get dark out. They usually made it back to the lair in time for Pitch to give Lillian a quick dinner and tuck her in before he left to spread nightmares.

Jack usually hung around until Lillian fell asleep before he too, left. It didn't leave them a lot of time to practice, but Lillian was still wary of going out earlier in case they ran into one of the Guardians. She was also apprehensive of staying out after dark in case they had another run in with the Sandman.

Sandman wasn't particularly frightening to her, but she was very unsettled when she woke up back in the lair that morning. She couldn't remember how she came to be there and when Pitch explained how he had found both her and Jack at Jack's lake, she had trembled. The gap in her memory was particularly unsettling.

So Lillian had limited her time outside to a few hours a day. She didn't really like it, as the seasonal spirit in her was craving more outdoor time, but her fear of the Guardians kept her mostly to Pitch's lair.

She was getting to be very good at traveling via the Giant Flower of Doom and was gaining more control over her other spring powers in general. She could now spread spring without having to run all over the place, and had discovered that not only could she make it rain, she could call on thunderstorms as well.

As she practiced her powers, Lillian and Jack had been exploring the town as well, and soon they discovered the wonderful world of comics and thusly super heroes.

She and Jack were in town, discussing who was better. Lillian had insisted that Spiderman was the best, since he could web any bad guy and was really smart.

Jack insisted that Superman was the best, since he could fly and was impervious to practically anything.

Lillian then pointed out Batman was pretty cool, but Jack had scoffed at this.

"He doesn't even have any powers!" Jack said. "And being a billionaire doesn't count."

Lillian looked scandalized at this.

"He has all sorts of gadgets! He doesn't need powers."

Jack was about to respond to this when Lillian suddenly grinned, not noticing that the sun had long since set and the moon had risen high into the sky.

"We could be super heroes!" she said excitedly.

"Uh.. what?" Jack said, looking confused.

"You have power over Winter, right? You could be.. um.. the Winter Wonder! And I'll be the Lightning Lass, since I can call up thunderstorms. We'll be unbeatable! You can freeze all the bad guys and I'll zap 'em with lightning."

Jack wasn't sure this would be the best idea and was just about to say so, when he saw Lillian looking up at the sky.

"What's that?" she pointed at what appeared to be a humming bird flying through an open window of a house.

Jack looked just in time to see the humming bird fly through the window.

"Oh, that's just one of the Tooth Fairy's helpers," he said. "They collect the teeth of children and leave gifts. I've never seen the Tooth Fairy myself, so I guess she's either busy in other parts of the world or she just sends her helpers out to collect the teeth."

"Oh," Lillian said as she watched the window.

Sure enough, the little humming bird flew out of the window. It paused as it felt eyes watching it, and then it spotted Jack and Lillian.

The humming bird flew down to them, tweeting that they were up pretty late.

Not speaking bird, they just looked at the helper in confusion.

"Hey, mister bird?" Lillian asked. "Is the Tooth Fairy nearby?"

The bird ruffled its feathers at being called 'mister'. Obviously all the Tooth Fairy's helpers were female!

The bird however, just shook its head.

Lillian looked very relieved and the bird looked confused. Didn't most children want to meet the Tooth Fairy? They often had to go back to Tooth and inform her of any children waiting up for the Tooth Fairy. Tooth then had to contact Sandman to make sure the kids were knocked out before her helpers could collect the teeth.

The bird gave Lillian and Jack a quizzical look before it suddenly remembered a few months ago that Tooth had asked them to keep an eye out for a child hanging around one Jack Frost. The bird eyed Jack, realizing that Jack fit the description of Jack Frost. And if this was Jack Frost, then that child must be..

The spring spirit!

The bird's eyes widened as it gazed at Lillian, making her squirm uncomfortably. It gave an excited chirp and flew in a circle around Lillian happily.

Lillian couldn't help but giggle at the bird, as she thought it was being silly. She and Jack watched the bird fly off into the sky.

Jack looked down at Lillian.

"Lillian.. there's something I've been meaning to tell you," Jack said with a guilty tone in his voice.

Lillian blinked and looked up at her best friend.

"What is it?"

Jack looked uncomfortable.

"Uh.. you know that I'm a Winter Spirit, right?"

Lillian nodded.

"Well.. it's June now, and it'll be the start of summer in a few days. Usually when it gets warmer out like this, I go somewhere cold to stay."

Lillian noticed that Jack did look a little flushed now that she looked at him more closely, and was he actually sweating?

"Oh.." Lillian said, her voice small. "You can't play with me anymore?"

Jack looked at Lillian, whose lip was quivering. He could see she was very upset at the prospect of not seeing him for months.

"Well.. if you dressed very warm, I think we could find some things to do. You don't want to practice your powers around here anyway, once summer begins. The summer spirit will be mad at you."

Lillian brightened at this.

"We could go to where it's spring in other places too, while it's summer here."

Jack was suddenly reminded of how little schooling Lillian had, if she thought that was the case. He made a mental note to tell Pitch later, since as a seasonal spirit, Lillian had to learn all about the seasons.

"No, it doesn't work like that. It won't be spring anywhere else until it's fall here," Jack gently corrected her. "But that's okay! We can have a lot of fun anyway."

"Yeah~!" Lillian brightened up. "The Winter Wonder and Lightning Lass can have lots of adventures! ZAP! POW! We'll get pretend bad guys and save the day!"

Jack laughed and ruffled Lillian's hair affectionately.

When it was June twenty-first, the official start of summer, Lillian was waiting out at Jack's lake. She was wearing wearing her favorite black dress, now with sparkly silvery leggings to match the bow around her waist and ribbon in her hair, and she had a matching black cloak as well. She had snuck a pair of gloves in the pockets of her dress and had hidden a scarf under her cloak as she held it.

Her excuse was that the nights were cooler and with Jack being a winter spirit, he was making it colder around his lake, so he could hang around Burgess longer.

Pitch was suspicious, but as Lillian had never actually lied to him before, he had no reason to doubt this. He merely told her to make sure to stay around Jack's lake and be cautious if they ran into any of the Guardians.

So now Lillian was standing at Jack's lake after having donned her cloak, scarf and gloves. It was a little warm, since the night wasn't that cool and she was getting impatient waiting for Jack to arrive from whatever cold place he had been staying at.

Soon enough however, she felt the cold winter wind that meant Jack had just arrived. She gave a gasp of surprise as instead of landing by her like she expected, Jack had asked the wind to pick Lillian up.

She gave a shiver as the cold wind wrapped around her and soon she was flying up in the air next to Jack. As she looked down at the forest below her, she gave a grin, forgetting all about the cold.

"This is amazing! " she said excitedly to Jack.

Jack smirked at her, glad his friend was enjoying this.

"How'd you like to visit Santa's workshop?"

Lillian's eyes widened at this. THE Santa's workshop?!

"Really?! We can see where he makes all his toys!" she said, imagining the most amazing place ever.

"Well.. I haven't gotten that far yet," Jack admitted. "The yetis always catch me. But it's a lot of fun to try!"

"..Yetis?"

It took a few good hours of flying at breakneck speed for Jack and Lillian to reach the North Pole. Jack had explained that the North Pole was very cold, so he liked to try to break in when it was warmer around his lake. It gave him something to do and Phil wasn't that bad, really.

He made Lillian promise to tell him when she got too cold. Jack didn't ever feel cold, so it was likely he wouldn't actually notice how cold it really was and he didn't want to take the chance of Lillian freezing.

She had promised she'd tell him, and soon enough they had both landed a distance away from the workshop.

Lillian simply stared at it with her mouth open. It was even more amazing than she imagined.

After she managed to stop staring, she looked up at Jack.

"How are we going to break in?"

Jack shrugged.

"I've tried everything, but the yetis always catch me. Do you have any ideas?"

Lillian looked. The workshop looked like it would be hard to break into. She remembered however, that Jack could fly. She bet Santa never thought of that.

"What if you flew us up and we climbed in through a window? There's lots of windows and I bet we could find an open one."

Jack nodded. He had gone this route before.

"Yeah, but the yetis always catch me soon afterwards."

Lillian put her finger on her chin, tapping her foot in the snow as she thought. She wished she had thought of bringing her boots, since her feet were a little cold, but boots definitely would've given away her plans to Pitch.

"I know!" she finally said. "What if I used my powers to distract them? I can make flowers grow all over and the yetis won't know where we are. I can make it look like we're in one place and then you can fly us high in the air so we can quick check out Santa's workshop without getting caught."

Jack admitted it was as good a plan as any, but..

"Won't you using your powers give you away? They'll know it was the spirit of spring that broke in then. Santa might come looking for you, or you could be put on the Naughty List."

"Naughty List?" Lillian asked. She vaguely remembered Pitch mentioning something about it, but it seemed so long ago now.

"It's the list that the bad kids go on. I'm pretty sure I've been on it for a long time," Jack grinned. "But you don't want to get on it, do you? Santa won't bring you presents for Christmas otherwise."

Lillian looked down at this, scuffing her shoe in the snow. She never had a Christmas before. She didn't really know what it meant, other than that Santa would bring good kids presents.

But.. Pitch always said the Guardians looked after human children.

"Santa wouldn't come to Pitch's to give me presents, would he?" she asked Jack skeptically.

"Maybe not Pitch's, but he must know that you hang around Burgess a lot with me. He might leave them at my lake for me to give to you." Jack said.

"But Santa doesn't give spirits presents, does he?" she questioned Jack further.

Jack shrugged.

"I don't know.. He never came for me," Jack admitted. "When I found out about Christmas from hanging around Burgess so much, I was really excited for Santa to come bring me presents. But he never came. I thought maybe he didn't know about me, so when I got the hang of my powers better, I started trying to break into his workshop. Even if it was for being bad, I thought it would make him notice me. After I tried breaking into Santa's workshop so much that year, the next year I was as good as I could be, but he never came. I kinda gave up after that.. But he could come for you! So I understand if you don't want to break in and ruin your chances with him."

Lillian looked at Jack sadly at this. Santa never gave Jack presents, even if he was a good kid. Humph! Pitch was right. The Guardians only cared about humans. But maybe..

Lillian's eyes lit up as she got an idea.

"I'll help you break in this time, and when it gets closer to Christmas, I'll write Santa a letter for the both of us. I'll tell him that I didn't mean any harm in it and that you only wanted him to notice you. I'll tell him that you're really good otherwise and that I've been really good too, and then he'll come and give us both presents!" she finished triumphantly.

Jack looked a little skeptical at this. He'd pretty much been ignored by all the Guardians for a couple hundred years, barring the occasional talk with Sandy, and when Bunny would sneer at him, or in most cases - yell at him.

"It'll work!" Lillian insisted.

Ten minutes later, both Jack and Lillian found themselves being held up by their hoods by Phil.

At first Lillian's plan seemed to be working, as she threw the workshop into chaos with flowers sprouting everywhere.

The yetis were all in a panic and as planned, Jack flew him and Lillian high above the chaos. They probably could've made it, but Lillian's constantly glowing bracelet gave them away.

As Jack flew them lower to get to North's workshop so they could get a better look at where the toys were made, a hand had reached out and grabbed the pair of them by their hoods.

Jack was impressed though. He had almost gotten close enough to get a look at the workshop. It was the closest that he had ever gotten to seeing it.

Phil had carried them to the big front doors and dumped them unceremoniously in the snow just outside the front doors.

Jack was about to say something when he was hit in the face with a blue scarf. He looked at it in surprise and then a wooden toy was tossed at Lillian's feet.

Before either of them could say anything, the front door slammed closed in their faces.

Jack smiled happily and hugged the scarf close to his chest. He could see it was handmade and had a pattern of white snowflakes at the ends, by the fringe.

Lillian held up the toy, which turned out to be a wooden toy horse.

"Why'd he give us this?" she asked, confused.

"Phil has a soft spot for me, and now you, I guess." Jack said. "He gave me my blue hoodie one year. He knows that not a lot of spirits pay me any attention and it's his way of making up for it, I think."

Lillian looked from the toy horse back to the front doors and then over at Jack. Jack had sounded offhand when he said it, but she could see a sadness in his eyes that she never noticed before. It was then that everything Jack said had suddenly hit her. He had been alone for hundreds of years and nobody paid attention to him. He even broke into the workshop just so Santa would notice him, even if it was for doing something bad.

Lillian hadn't realized it, but in that moment she grew up just a little. It was a realization that most children wouldn't reach. But by being constantly surrounded by older spirits, mentally she was growing. Physically she would always be six-ish years old, but mentally she would rise above children her age.

Not knowing what to do with this newfound knowledge, she did the only thing she could think of to do. She reached over and gave Jack a big hug.

Author's Note: This seemed like a good place to end the chapter. What do you think about Lillian growing up just a little bit? She'll always have childish tendencies, but I figured it's about time she started realizing some things. I also have a plan to cover her obvious gap in knowledge. Next chapter will feature Halloween and Christmas. I have my own ideas, but do you guys have any ideas on how the two holidays should go down? I like hearing what you think, since it makes me think of things I might not have thought of myself. After Christmas, I think that's where the more substantial time skipping will take place. Also yes, the idea of Pitch stumbling around on a farm and accidentally walking into a silo is highly amusing to me. :)